Wormwood Dawn (Episode VIII) (10 page)

“G—George,” Toby said, his heart racing and his skin crawling.

Suddenly, George bared his teeth and charged at him. Toby jumped to his feet, screaming in terror as the wild-eyed creature descended upon him. He fell backward, tripping over a log that had fallen from the rack. George bared down on him, growling and gnashing his teeth, his gnarled fingers clawing the air.

Toby thrust his feet upward, catching George in the gut, and pushing with all his might. George was heavy, but Toby kept him at bay, crying out and pleading for help. He let his legs fall to the left, and George went crashing to the floor. Toby flipped over and scrambled to his feet just as George swiped his left hand at him, missing him and clawing at the wooden floor.

Toby dashed past the hearth, grabbing a narrow log to use as a weapon. The door into the hallway was open, and he went out, slamming the door behind him. He could hear George growling and gurgling as he impacted the cheap interior door. Toby’s heart was racing, and he was breathless with terror.

Why did George attack him?

He clenched his eyes shut, sobbing and pleading in his heart to be rescued. His only hope was to get Maynard’s attention.

“
Maynard!”
he screamed.

There was an electronic click, and then a moment of static.

“Toby?” Maynard said. “What’s wrong?”

“
George is trying to eat me!”

“Oh my,” Maynard replied.

There was a gurgled scream from the other side of the door, and a wet pop, as if a water balloon had exploded. Then, a heavy thump shook the floor. Toby glanced downward, seeing a pool of slimy green and brown fluid run underneath. He gasped, leaping away from the door and leaning against the opposite wall, his breath ragged and his heart on fire.

“Are you alright?” Maynard asked.

Breathless, Toby dropped the log and collapsed onto the floor. In his heart, he cried out for his mother, for Dan, anyone who would protect him. But no one would come. There was only Maynard.

“Toby?”

“I’m okay,” he answered. “What happened?”

“I’m afraid George had to be terminated,” Maynard said. “I knew it would happen someday, just not so soon. Go to your room and wait. I will clean up the mess.”

Toby stood slowly, staring at the pool of goo. He wanted to open the door and see what had happened to George. Should he? It was probably gross, but Toby had seen gross things before. He wondered if Maynard would mind. Would he even know?

Carefully, Toby grabbed the door handle and turned it. He pulled open the door just a crack, peeking through the gap. He could see George’s legs sprawled out, and some gunk on the hearth of the fireplace. There was also a flashing red light somewhere, as he could it against the stone and the floor.

He pulled the door open some more, his heart pounding harder and harder with each tiny inch. There was George, lying prone in his own disgusting fluids, headless. The small electronic device he had seen on Sarah’s head was there in the center, its LED blinking on and off. George’s head had exploded, and this tiny thing must have done it.

“Holy shit,” Toby whispered. “Stellar.”

Chapter Ten

Drew, Jake and Cliff had built a fire just outside the gate. Though it was difficult to light in the heavy winds, they finally got it going with a little bit of old motor oil. They used the RV as a wind block, pulling it up right against the fence between the office building and the container door.

“So,” Cliff said, throwing the dead coyote on the large bonfire. “Have you seen many of these coyote things?”

Drew kicked the head of another corpse back into the fire, making sure it caught. “Quite a few actually,” he said. “The first night at Dan’s house we fought a shit ton of ‘em. Nothing we couldn’t handle.”

“Not near as bad as that horse,” Jake added. “That thing was extra spooky.”

Cliff chuckled, going back to grab another carcass. Drew stared into the flames, only slightly bothered by the smell of burning mutant flesh. He thought back to that night, and how he and Dan had triumphed over the invasion with little more than a few guns and a shit load of alcohol.

He kind of missed those days.

Cliff returned, tossing another body onto the flaming pile. “You’d think they’d be tougher, especially the leader.”

“Mutant or not,” Jake said, “They’re still just coyotes.”

“True.”

Drew went to grab another body, kneeling down to grasp the forelimbs. The thing’s lips trembled for a moment, and Drew cocked his head to see if it happened again. When there was a twitch, he unsheathed his knife, jabbing it into the thing’s skull.

“Still alive?” Jake asked.

“Not anymore.”

Drew dragged the corpse over to the fire and hefted it on top. Jake added the last one, and they stood there to watch the pile burn.

“What do we do with big daddy?” Cliff asked, folding his arms across his chest and joining them.

“We’ll have to chop that fucker up, prolly,” Jake said.

“Well,” Cliff said, drawing his machete. “Let’s get it done.”

Drew took out his axe and circled the body to find something good to chop off. Jake did the same, holding his machete in that summer camp killer way. Cliff grabbed the head by one of the ears, staring into its face with a curious look. He glanced up at Drew with a crooked smile.

“Here goes nothin’,” he said, raising his blade.

He chopped down at the creature’s neck, splitting the thick, white flesh like a banana skin. Black and green blood dribbled out, running down onto the gravel. He chopped again, this time hitting hard bone.

“Do it again, daddy,” Jake said.

Cliff groaned like a lumberjack, chopping as hard as he could. The neck split with a squish, and with a few more whacks, the head came free. Cliff held it up, making faces at it.

“That’s one ugly fucker,” he said.

“That head’s about as big as a beach ball,” Jake added.

Cliff chuckled, tossing the heavy thing onto the fire. Drew went back to work, grabbing a forelimb and pulling it out straight. He stepped back and whacked it with his axe, severing it with a single chop.

“That’s how ya do it, boys,” he said.

As he went back to work, he heard the other two chopping and slicing. The sound was somewhat sickening, but he still had Dan on his mind. He knew he had disappointed the guy by not going with them to look for Toby. He shouldn’t have been so dickish; there probably was a chance the kid was still alive. But Drew was tired. They had been looking for Toby for days, and it was way too cold to be out looking for someone who might be dead.

They couldn’t risk losing anyone over one kid.

He sighed as that thought crossed his mind. That was a shitty way to think. What if Toby was alive and Drew had talked Dan into stopping the search. How would he feel then? Shitty, that’s how.

“What the fuck?” Cliff said, backing away.

“Oh shit,” Jake said. “Isn’t this a fairy tale or something?”

Drew went around the other side to see what was going on. Cliff and Jake were both focused on the abdomen, their eyes wide enough to see from a mile away. When he turned to look, he backed away too.

A large, gloppy sac had spilled out when Cliff sliced open the gut. Inside, were the half-formed bodies of smaller and weirder creatures, writhing and squirming in their amniotic sac.

“Oh my god,” Drew said, backing away as the taste of bile formed in his mouth.

“Are those… coyote pups?” Cliff asked.

Jake bent down to look, evidently not as grossed out as Drew. “I don’t think so,” he said. “They look like… little lizard monkeys.”

Drew crouched near the writhing sack, trying to see through the translucent slime layer. Though the host creature was dead, these things were surely alive, and trying to get out.

“What the fuck do we do with them?” Drew asked.

“Unless you wanna keep a couple,” Jake said. “I say we chop them up and throw ‘em on the barbie.”

“Damn,” Cliff gasped. “That’s just wrong, man. I’ve never seen anything like that. Why the hell would they look like that?”

“Maybe this is a werewolf?” Jake suggested.

Cliff and Drew looked up at him, and he shrugged. “Just trying to help, man.”

Drew stood. “Cut it open,” he told Cliff.

“What?” Cliff said, cocking his eyebrow. “
You
cut it open.”

Drew shook his head, feeling the urge to puke again.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Jake said, crouching down and slicing open the sac.

Clear, snot-like fluid gushed out, glopping onto the gravel. One of the embryonic things wiggled out, landing on its back and squirming as it struggled to get air. Jake was right; it looked like a lizard monkey. It was anthropoid in shape, with a scaly surface, and a short tail that wiggled around. Drew couldn’t take his eyes off of it, no matter how hard he tried.

“Okay,” Cliff said, nodding. “It’s a lizard monkey. What the absolute fuck?”

“I wonder why it’s anthropomorphic,” Jake said.

Cliff gave him a questioning look.

“Primate shaped,” Jake explained. “Military dude. Big words. My bad.”

Cliff chuckled, shaking his head. “Well, whatever the fuck it is, we need to kill it and get it on that bonfire. If Travis sees it he’ll wanna dissect it. We don’t need another alien-skull-crab-monster thing runnin’ around.”

Without a word, Drew began hacking the creatures. He chopped again and again, splattering blood everywhere. Cliff and Jake backed away, and Drew could feel their eyes on him. When all the things were dead and in pieces he stood up, looking back at them with a deadpan look.

“What?” he asked.

Cliff and Jake shrugged.

“I can’t see anything,” Eric said, leaning close to the windshield.

Even though the brights were on, the road ahead blended in with the rest of the landscape. The only sign that anything but forest was there was the lack of trees. They could go off the road at any minute and they wouldn’t even know it. Fortunately, the Jeep was 4WD, and they could probably roll over just about anything.

Dan stood up through the sun roof, scanning the area ahead with his IR scope. Obviously there was nothing to see, but it made him feel better.

“Dan,” Eric called up to him. “Why don’t you get out and shovel the road for me?”

Dan grinned. Eric wasn’t usually one to crack jokes, but that was a good one. “That’s okay,” he said. “Next time we’re at the farm store, we’ll find a plow attachment.”

He swept over to the left, eyeing the smoke column in the distance. They were still several miles away, and from the looks of the road, the mystery heat signature was inaccessible from this direction. They might have to continue on foot. That was bad news, especially considering how heavily the wind was picking up.

He dropped back into the Jeep, leaning up between Eric and Toni. Gena leaned up with him, and they both stared out the windshield.

“It looks like the snow is getting shallower,” Gena said.

Eric nodded. “It is,” he said. “But that doesn’t help much. I keep feeling the tires scraping against the edge of the road. It’s just gravel, but it’s frozen as hard as concrete.”

“Do you know the path this road takes?” Dan asked.

“Not very well. I don’t think it curves to the left. Whatever is out there is probably accessed from another road.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Dan said.

Dan sat back, checking all of his magazines to make sure they were full. He then ran his thumb against the edge of his machete. It was sharp—as sharp as a machete could be. Though he wasn’t expecting much trouble, other than maybe some coyotes—real or mutant—he wasn’t taking any chances.

“Detour ahead,” Eric said, slowing down.

Dan leaned up again, seeing the trunk of a large tree blocking the road. Though shattered, there were still large enough chunks to make things difficult.

“Can you get around them or do we have to get out and clear the road?” Dan asked.

“Let’s see,” Eric replied, cutting the wheel to the right.

He started forward again, slowly inching toward the outside of the nearest log. The right front tire sank down, and Eric stopped and put it in reverse. He backed up, back onto the road, his face scrunched up in frustration.

“Nope,” he said. “I don’t know what’s underneath that snow.”

“This is a four wheel drive, right?” Toni said.

“Yeah, but there could be anything underneath that layer. We have to try and clear the road, or just continue on foot from here.”

“Let’s clear the road,” Dan said. “Those logs don’t look so big. We need to get as close as we possibly can.”

“Hold on,” Eric said, backing up even farther. “Let’s try something.”

Eric pulled back about ten feet, then stopped and shifted into low gear. He went forward, engine growling, until the front tires gripped the fallen trunk. After a few seconds of struggling, the Jeep mounted it, wobbling heavily in all four directions as Eric slowly went over it. He cut the wheel to the right to avoid letting both front tires hit the other side at once. Then the Jeep began to level out as the left front tire clear the trunk.

Another small spinout, and the right front tire was over. Fortunately, the lift on the Jeep’s body was large enough to go over the trunk, and soon the left rear tire got a grip on it. Eric gunned it, spinning out the right tire, but the Jeep lurched forward. Both rear tires cleared the trunk, but the bumper slammed into it with a hard impact.

“Ouch,” Eric said. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”

“Nice job, mountain man,” Toni said, grinning.

Eric continued on down the twisting road. Dan could see the cell tower to the right, and their previous tracks along with it. From here on out, it was unexplored territory, and the Jeep would have to push through unbroken ice as they continued in their intended direction. There was obviously a road there, as the treeless strip went on, but there were also areas where there were just no trees at all.

“Are you sure you don’t remember where this road led?” Dan asked.

“I never went this way,” Eric said. “We always turned right to get back onto the highway. But don’t worry, we’ll make it.”

“This road’s a lot thinner,” Toni said. “It’s probably a service road. I bet there’s a transformer up there somewhere.”

Eric nodded, slowing down as he looked at the terrain ahead. Dan popped up through the sun roof again, waving Gena up. She stood, wrapping her coat around her tighter. Dan stared at the road, seeing that there was a definite raised area where the road should be. Gena saw it, too.

“Look harder, Eric,” Dan said. “I can see the road from up here.”

“Guide me through,” Eric replied. “I can’t see anything but white.”

“Alright. Hold on.”

He raised his rifle to check the area ahead for any signs of life. He could see nothing in the immediate area, but there was still that column of heat in the distance. They were still about a mile away, but their goal was getting closer.

“Keep going straight,” he said. “Then veer left when I tell you. There’s a sharp curve ahead.”

“This wind is insane,” Gena said. “I’ve never been this cold before.”

Dan snickered. “You must be from out of town.”

“Kentucky,” Gena said. “Not too far from here.”

“Well, don’t worry. The sun will come back out eventually.”

He tapped the roof when they approached the curve.

“Yeah I see it,” Eric said. “Kind of a suicide curve.”

As they rounded the bend, Dan raised his rifle again. The road was still dark around the corner, but there was a strange, faint glow coming from underneath the snow at least fifty yards ahead. He turned to Gena, handing her his rifle.

“Check out the ground ahead,” he said.

Gena looked, focusing the eyepiece. Then, she lowered the rifle, looked ahead, and raised it to her eye again.

“What is it?” she asked.

Dan shook his head. “I have no idea,” he said. “There’s no reason there should be any heat signatures. Especially in this freezing cold.”

“The snow and ice can act as an insulator.”