Mandible

by Ian Woodhead

  “Oh no,” he gasped. "Wait here."

  Jason ran inside. Ellis tried to follow only for Lorraine to grab her arm and pull her back.

  "Honey. You heard what he said."

  She was about to say something that Ellis might regret later on when Marty gave her that look and shook his head.

  "Best you stay," he said. "Oh heavens. I can already smell the slaughter!"

  Ellis took advantage of Lorraine's momentary distracted lapse and shook herself free then ran for the open door before the other woman could catch her. The way she saw it, Jason had the gun. Even if her boyfriend had just walked into a shit load of trouble, he'd still do everything he could to protect her. She ought to be ashamed of having such a selfish attitude. After all, looking out for number one is exactly what Ellis accused her imaginary rendition of Lorraine of doing.

  She ran back to Lorraine and grabbed the woman, then dragged her towards the door "You're right, Lorraine. We ought to stick together." She glared at Marty. "All of us."

  As soon as Ellis crossed the threshold, she immediately wished she had stayed on the other side of that door. "Good God!" Ellis slammed a hand over her mouth, honesty believing she was about to throw up.

  “We need to get her out of here!”

  Lorraine tried to pull Ellis back outside, helped by Marty, but she shook her head and stood her ground. “It's alright,” she replied, looking at her friend to avoid staring at the slaughter all around the room. “Remember what I said about sticking together? This place obviously isn't as safe as Jason first believed.” Ellis gave Lorraine's hand a comforting squeeze then let go and slowly, watching her steps, made her way towards Jason.

  Bits of human flesh, pieces of splintered bone as well as shredded blood-stained fabric carpeted the once white-tiled floor. Ellis felt sick. She also needed to cry for the loss of all the people which must have felt more terror than any human should experience during the last moments of their lives. Ellis could only hope that their deaths were mercifully quick.

  She stopped in the centre of the room and forced herself to take her eyes off the floor and look around. The tears which she'd done so well to hold back suddenly burst when Ellis noticed the signs on the walls. Oh Christ. How was this place any different from the damn factory? There they were, just the same as in her workplace, no doubt duplicated thousands of times in other work areas around the country. The no smoking signs, employee of the month awards, directions to the senior management offices and to the staff restaurant. She looked a bit closer to her position and spotted a couple of work terminals, personalised with small fluffy toys, postcards and photographs.

  Those soldiers must have been quite insistent on getting everyone out of here for the people to leave all their gear behind. Unless the employees thought they were coming back. Ellis saw where the soldiers' bullets had torn into the walls now and wondered if her reaction to this slaughter would have been any different if all this torn up meat had belonged to the workers instead of the men sent in to replace them. At least the soldiers were armed, not that it did them any good.

  Strange how she hadn’t seen any bits of giant insect in amongst all this devastation. No piece of shell casing, no shot off leg. Nothing at all to show exactly what these guys had been fighting. Surely, at least one of the soldiers had made a kill? Unless, unless they hadn't been fighting the giant insects? Ellis went very cold.

  Jason was by another terminal further inside the room. This one had no personalised gimmicks stuck around it so Ellis guessed that piece of equipment had arrived with the military. He was frantically tapping keys while staring at the monitor, looking both scared and furious. Jason finally slammed his fist into the keyboard before storming towards Ellis.

  He embraced her. “I'm sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For bringing you here, for exposing you to this terrible danger. Mainly, I guess, for not telling you what I really did. Even if I wasn't supposed to.”

  “No time like the present,” she replied.

  He nodded, released her then looked over her shoulder. “Okay, I guess explanations are way overdue. Wait here a second while I grab the others.”

  Jason ran over to the door, slammed it shut then came back, tapping Marty and Lorraine on the shoulder as he passed them. They had not been idle. The pair had found an assortment of weapons in a pile on the floor. Ellis frowned and wondered if she was the only one in here who thought that if something had broken in here and started killing them, wouldn't the guns be scattered around the floor, covered in blood and gore? They wouldn't be left in a pile unless... She moaned quietly. Unless whatever had done all this had somehow managed to suppress most of them before any soldier had figured what was happening?

  In her mind’s eye, she pictured a couple of insects about the size of a large rat, scurrying between the rows of sleeping soldiers, stopping beside each one, biting into their bodies and injecting some kind of paralysing poison before moving onto their next victim.

  Bloody hell. Ellis believed she might never sleep again now. She, once again, cursed her over-active imagination. Jason had hurried back to the pair, pulled some kind of assault weapon out of their hands then furnished them each with a pistol. He picked one of the assault weapons, a couple of magazines then hurried back to Ellis.

  “Come on, guys. I think we need to get out of this place before we do anything.”

  “You know what happened in here,” said Marty. “Don't you dare deny it either. I saw you by the computer. Were you reviewing the camera footage?”

  Jason sighed. “Please, guys. Not in here. Come on, this way.” He ran over to the terminal, waited for them to catch up before entering a selection of numbers into the keyboard. Moments later, a hidden door located beside a filing cabinet opened. Ellis wondered how he would have done that if he'd broken the keyboard earlier. She also was curious to know why this room had a secret door in the first place. Somehow, Ellis doubted that the military had installed it.

  She and the others trooped out of the building and into a cleaner area, with cold air-conditioning getting rid of the stink which followed them inside. Even so, Ellis could still smell it on their clothes and in their hair. That wasn't the only reminder. The other three trailed bloody footprints and she suspected that her shoes were doing the same.

  “I don't think they got into here,” muttered Jason. “Thank God for that.”

  “Who are they?” shouted Marty. “Come on tell us what the fuck is happening!”

  Ellis didn't know what was more shocking. Listening to the normally mild-mannered chap lose his rag or him actually swear. She looked around the featureless grey walls, noting there were another two doors on the other side of the room. The only other furnishing in here was a polished wooden boardroom table and six chairs situated around it. Laptops faced the six chairs, all were closed. Apart from the computers, the only other item on the table was a large glass ball with the company logo etched into the top. Ellis also noted that she was indeed leaving bloody footprints on the white tiled floor.

  “I'm sorry, Marty. Okay, so our team was called in about two months ago when the company's drills broke through the rock face and discovered something that should not be there. Another cavern but this wasn't natural.”

  Three months. That's how long Jason had been seeing her.

  “They tried to cover it up at first. Not surprising really, not considering how much money was at stake. Thing is, one certain board member had the decency to ask for help. Granted, the first report we did receive from this unknown individual was vague in the extreme but the images which accompanied the file sure made up for it. Of course, the powers that be thought it was a joke, I mean, it had to be a joke, either that, or someone was playing a very elaborate prank on us.” Jason looked around the group, making eye contact with nobody until, that is, he reached Marty. “The company had unwittingly stumbled into the domain of another sentient race of beings. An insectoid creature who wanted nothing more than peace with our ki
nd.”

  “They have a real funny way of showing it!” snapped Marty.

  Jason opened one of the doors and stepped through. Ellis hurried after him. The change in scenery couldn’t be any more extreme. Gone were the grey featureless walls. It looked like her boyfriend had transported them all into the bowels of the planet. She turned around, utterly gobsmacked. How was this even possible? The cavern ceiling had to be at least a hundred stories above them. It looked like they had travelled deep underground yet, as far as she knew, they were still on the surface. An optical illusion maybe, or perhaps a projection of some kind? The rough rock wall beside her glowed red. It kinda reminded Ellis of the old fire her pretend parents had in their living room back when she was a kid. She reached out, then stopped.

  “It's okay,” said Jason. “It's not hot. This is what they use as their light source.”

  Marty and Lorraine had followed them in. Lorraine spoke first. “This is unbelievable.”

  “They call themselves the Deltin. They really are peaceful, wanting nothing more than to exist in harmony with the other beings who share their world. They offered to show us humans, who they called the Younglings, the methods to develop the technology which their race now took for granted. Tech which they developed long before our species even evolved. The stuff they showed us made the military technical officers we brought with us wet their pants.”

  “Such as?”

  “You have already experienced it, Marty. Look around you, We're no longer in Kansas. We are now thirty miles below the Earth's surface. Instant matter relocation.” Jason tapped the cavern wall. “This is the place the company inadvertently stumbled into. Quite a find, don't you think?” He walked back to them and stopped in front of a stone archway. “This is it, at least it's one of their portal devices. Thing is, it really was dumb luck that the drills were able to hit the sweet spot. One of our techs actually calculated that the chances of this actually happening were something like one in three billion.”

  “Dumb luck?” replied Ellis. “Hundreds of people have died, Jason, and more will be dying unless we sort this mess out. As for your friendly insects giving us all this tech? I bet there is a catch. There always is.”

  Jason nodded. “Yeah, there's a catch alright. The Deltins are not the only insectoid sentient creature inhabiting these subterranean kingdoms. There's another species, a highly intelligent and hyper-aggressive race of creatures who they call the Mantil. Apparently, the two have been fighting each other for millennia.” Jason sighed. “So yeah, there was a catch alright. They told us that their sworn enemy would pose no problem to us as they were on the other side of the planet and the Mantil had no idea that the planet's surface was even occupied.”

  Ellis had trouble digesting any of what he had spouted. It all seemed just too ridiculous for words, like a story from one of those Saturday morning cartoon shows. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall, allowing his words to flow over her while doing her best to pretend that none of this was really happening. Wouldn't it be nice if that was true, that she and Jason were sat in the café in the market and eating samosas, smothered in chilli sauce? A portion of hot chips on the side for afters. Yeah, that sounded ideal. Aroon would be in the background, chatting up somebody else this time, while his dad looked on in disapproval. There'd be no tremors in this fantasy, no holes in the ground and definitely no fucking huge bugs. What would her hunky boyfriend be doing? Talking, of course, probably about toys. He'd be excitedly explaining to her his latest obsession, a rare toy line based on a cartoon where giant insects and their insectoid masters fought for dominance over a shattered planet long after the human race became extinct. Ellis snapped open her eyes. “For crying out loud,” she whispered. What was wrong with her brain? That was even worse than reality!

  It took Ellis a moment to realise that nobody was speaking any more. She pulled her head away from the wall, leaned forward and instinctively pushed a fist in her mouth to stop the scream from blasting out.

  “Hey, take it easy, Ellis,” said Jason. “Don't worry, it won't harm you. I promise.”

  Jason took her hand. Even that and his gentle squeezing failed to stop the terrible shakes and the frantic urge to get as far away as possible from this approaching monster, the slowly approaching monster.

  “Is that a caterpillar?”

  “Look at the size of the thing, Marty,” said Lorraine. “Can you imagine the size of the butterfly that it transforms into?”

  “Or a moth. Christ, I hate moths.”

  The shakes had subsided a little but the desire to flee had not left Ellis. Marty was right. It did look like a huge caterpillar. As long as three single decker buses and about as wide. Hundreds of irregular white patches covered its smooth, pale blue skin. Had it sensed them? If it had, the creature showed no indication. It continued along the same path at a consistent speed, about as fast as a walking person. Ellis looked up to Jason, whose gaze was still fixed on the approaching giant. “I'm waiting for you to tell us why you believe that this thing is harmless?”

  “The Deltin use these creatures to harvest the food they consume. They're mobile factories. As you can imagine, there's not exactly a lot of vegetation down here. It's not the sort of place where you're going to find a carrot field. It's mainly moss and lichen. Well, that's what these creatures have been built to collect. Oh, and fungi. They collect those too. Once collected, the creatures process the food into all manner of goodies to feed the Deltin population. It's an amazing process, really. No waste either.”

  “Sounds disgusting.”

  Jason shrugged. “Yeah, I suppose it does, but it is efficient. The Mantil on the other hand. Well, I think you can guess what those bastards eat.” He moved back against the wall and gently pulled Ellis away from the animal. “We'll wait for it to pass, then continue.”

  “Continue? Where the hell are you taking us, Jason?” Lorraine reached out and glided her fingertips along the huge creature's undulating body. “Oh, that feels weird,” she muttered. The woman then turned and glared at Jason. “Fascinating as this may be, and at any other time, I'd be well up for a safari tour around previously unexplored cavern systems, meeting caterpillars the size of trucks which shit out veggie burgers for your insect pals but there are people up above which need our help. You do remember them, Mr. Action Man? You know, human people?”

  "Something isn't right with it." Jason pulled Ellis sideways, over to where Lorraine and Marty stood. "We need to move it, guys! Back the way we came." His eyes darted to the left. "Come on, hurry!"

  "Wait. You said this was harmless."

  "That this is harmless but look at how its middle bit is all jagged. I think something has taken up residence inside! Oh Christ. No wonder this place is deserted!"

  He managed to get them close to the archway when Ellis heard what sounded like Velcro being pulled apart. She turned around and saw them. Over a dozen cat-sized insects, covered in dark red shell. They poured out of the jagged hole in the now still caterpillar, scuttled along the width of its body and stopped at the edge. They had to be the scariest looking creature Ellis had encountered so far. Unlike the giants on the surface, these things actually looked intelligent, like they were communicating with each other. What totally freaked her out wasn’t just the multiple claws running down their legs or the spider-like over sized teeth. It was what looked like an organic projectile weapon attached to its back. Could these be Mantil warriors?

  "Sentinels," hissed Jason. "That must mean the Mantil have infiltrated this section as well. This is bad. Very bad." He crawled closer to the archway. "Follow me, keep quiet and stay down. Don't worry. Those bastard things can't travel through the archways."

  Jason pushed her towards the archway.

  "You first, Ellis. We'll meet you on the other side."

  "I think they know we're here," said Lorraine.

  "Right, Marty. Get ready to fire. Aim for their eyes. Lorraine follow Ellis. We'll cover."

  Ellis crawled as
fast as she could towards the archway. She jumped once and then again when the gunfire started. It was so loud! She felt something brush across her ankle and yelped.

  "It's okay, sweetheart," assured Lorraine. "It's only me."

  The older woman said something else but another burst of automatic gunfire drowned out her words. Ellis rushed forward and immediately shut her eyes the moment she passed the threshold. She then cried out in shock and pain when she hit solid wall. Ellis knelt back and slammed her palms against the immoveable surface.

  "What's wrong with it?"

  "How am I supposed to know that?" Ellis stood up. More of those monsters were pouring out of that hole in the caterpillar's body. There's no way Marty and Jason would be able to stop that lot! "Come on, Lorraine." She pulled the pistol out of her waistband and fired into that swarming crowd. She remembered Jason's advice about aiming for the eyes and laughed hysterically. Like that was even possible? All Ellis saw was a mass of teeth, claws, and body. Ellis fired again and again, moaning and weeping, fully aware that their efforts weren't even slowing them down, let alone stopping the tide.

  Jason turned around. He looked shocked to see Ellis and Lorraine standing behind them. He pulled Marty up, fired another burst into that fast approaching mass of death then ran over to the archway. Ellis and the older woman kept pace with the men.

  She did not want to die, certainly not like this! Ellis looked over her shoulder, expecting her boyfriend to have it figured out, hell, why not? Jason appeared to have an answer for everything at the moment! He looked as confused as Ellis did. She watched him lose his temper over the infernal machinery, hitting and booting the side while knowing that at any second, her life would be coming to an end.

  Marty ran over to the archway. Only he didn't join in with the abuse. He simply stopped in front of the device, turned to face Ellis and walked backwards. The man disappeared. Lorraine looked at Ellis. They grabbed each other then ran for the archway. Jason pulled the pistol out of Lorraine's hand. He dropped the assault rifle, spun Lorraine around and pushed her backwards.