Entity

by Donald Morrison

  The bay was massive, nearly two hundred feet long and over fifty feet across with a ceiling almost as tall. Towering shelves made from corrugated metal ran horizontally along the walls, countless pieces of mining equipment lying still atop. Drills and hammers, and pieces of electronic equipment used for seismic scanning lay covered in a thin layer of dust and the smell of metal shavings and oil hung heavy in the air. As they made their way in a thin vibrating sound worked its way into their ears, almost unnoticeable at first, but persisting as they stepped further in.

  “You hear that?” Fascio whispered as he scanned the room in front of them with his light.

  “Ventilation,” Vuong said, stepping in behind him.

  Above them an invisible shape shifted silently, blackness rippling in a darkened corner, a stalking haze that had followed them unseen from the outer hatch to the ceiling of the bay they now stood in. Slowly it watched, eyeless and patient, observing the creatures below with a blank fascination. With delicate control it allowed its hunger to build again. Eons had passed since it was locked away, transported across countless galaxies and imprisoned in the retched space, confined by ancient markings; spells cast by beings sentient and long passed. The hunger it felt could never be quelled, and though its supply was waning thin, it was still weak. It had to be careful. It had to be patient. Those feelings pulsed through it again and again.

  The pair started forward, shadows creeping all around them as their light bounced off the metallic surfaces. Every twenty feet, thick yellow and black lines crisscrossed the floor, marking designated holding stations. They could see where three large sections stood empty, the word Rover painted in block lettering inside the rectangular markers. The smell of steel and oil pressed into their nostrils even deeper and a thick layer of orange dust filled in the lines gouged into the steel deck beneath their feet.

  Vuong glanced to a massive doorway on the opposite side of the room. Piled in front of the airlock were two of the rovers, a staggering jumble of steel beams and drilling rods jammed at sharp angles throughout, blocking off any escape through the doorway. He flashed his light through the twisted heap and saw that someone had taken the extra measure to weld a thick piece of titanium over the door hatch. The metal beneath showed black scarring where whoever had done it, had destroyed the panel before covering it in extra measure. The mining bay had served as a last stand in a paranoid effort to keep the monsters at bay. A thin haze hung in the air, dust and sediment particles dancing lazily in front of his light. For the briefest of moments he found himself thinking that if his situation was any different, he may have almost found a beauty in it, a serenity. He enjoyed the smell of mechanics; oil and scrap, the tinge of welding smoke. But at that moment, it was an unnoticed thought as he wondered what the colonists must have seen to make them go to those measures of blocking the exit.

  They continued forward, passing the blocked off passage and into a section lined with shelves on thin rails. The shelves were designed to close together against the walls in order to move the rovers in and out, but someone had jammed steel rods into the slots they moved along, locking them in place so none of the rovers could have made it through. Just beyond the shelves they came across four men lying next to each other, each ripped into with the industrial drill that lay cast aside nearby, the assailant long gone, a corpse undoubtedly rotting in a different section of the facility.

  Baker stepped past, the darkness pulling heavily at him from all sides. He could see the sunken faces of the dead, hollowed eyes staring back at him from the floor. He could hear the almost unending whisper, an uninvited tenant taking residence in his mind. “They are going to try and keep you here. They don’t want us to leave.” He paused, his gaze locked to the corpses as his wife’s words filtered unheard by others to his ears. They would never let them leave. They wouldn’t understand. They’d think he was crazy.

  Vuong glanced behind him at Fascio and Talmadge, and saw Sarge standing next to the dead men, his gaze staring down, eyebrows furled in what was a perfect blend of concern and bland confusion.

  “Sarge?” he whispered, the sound of his voice echoing across the endless metal surfaces startling himself in the process. “Sarge!”

  Baker turned his head. The three men were staring at him. He hadn’t realized he’d zoned out.

  “You all right Sarge?” Vuong asked, a cracking sound snapping his gaze to the darkness to his side.

  “Yeah,” Baker replied, a soft anger slowly building inside him that the others thought something was wrong with him, that he was tainted. He knew were conspiring to keep him from getting back to earth. He had once trusted these men, known them. Talmadge was a piece of shit, and to be honest, he wished he could leave him there in the first place, but Vuong, Fascio. He had served with these men, fought on the battlefield with them, shared a barracks with them, his life. He felt a deep stabbing pain as their judgmental gazes held his. He felt resentment, and anger.

  The creature above shifted, a translucent ripple against the black ceiling.

  Vuong glanced to Fascio quickly as the sergeant glanced back to the dead men once more. “Ok Sarge,” he replied, trying his best not to look suspicious. “We’re almost to that ship, then we can get the hell out of here and enjoy some of those mai tai’s we talked about.”

  Baker stared at the corpses for another moment and then turned back to the men. “How much farther?”

  Vuong stared at him for a moment before replying. “Not far. Down the corridor past hydroponics. Hundred and fifty meters, tops.” Something dug into him. The sergeant was vacant, disassociated and distant. Something about his demeanor felt… off. The Sarge he knew was not the one he was speaking with, and that scared him.

  “All right,” Baker replied, his building hatred of the situation rising inside of him through the haze. “Then we keep moving, and if we’re lucky, we’ll come across that son of a bitch on our way there. It’ll save us having to go looking for it…” He paused, his gaze moving back to the three men waiting ten feet away. “If we do, we show that thing what the EMF was created for.” He could feel the rage burning. He’d lost his entire team, the squad he had been charged with was dead, the men he had been in charge of had been murdered, killed by the monsters that still roamed the facility. He needed to get his family home, but that meant taking care of any threats in the way before he did.

  “Sarge,” Vuong said, confusion working through his words. “I thought we were gonna get to the ship and go?”

  “Do you have a problem with following my orders marine?”

  Fascio felt a ripple run across his skin. He felt it too, and as slowly as possible, shifted the shotgun strapped to his back a little closer to the front.

  “No sir, not at all,” Vuong replied. “I was just a little unclear on what our objective is.”

  The sergeant stared at him for a moment and then took a deep breath, exhaling sharply into the thick air. “Our objective, is to get the hell off this rock, and back to earth. If we happen to come across any threat in the process of doing so, we will eradicate said threat.” He paused, his gaze moving between Vuong and Fascio. “I thought I was pretty clear on that.”

  “Just wanted to double check Sarge,” Vuong replied, a thin layer of sweat building on his palms. “A lot’s going on, and this place is starting to crawl under my skin.”

  “That thing, whatever it is, killed the rest of your squad. Your brothers, my men, they’re all dead now. I want to kill it just as badly as you do, but if we make it out of here, and that thing hitches a ride back… We can’t let that happen, so again, if we come across it between here and the ship. Then we’re gonna kill the hell out of it.”

  Vuong nodded. “Roger that Sarge. Ooh rah.”

  “I think we should be going,” Talmadge said, shifting nervously behind Vuong.

  Baker stared at the men for a second longer before moving away from the corpses and continuing towards the end of the bay. He couldn’t shake the feeling that his men were too anxio
us to leave. He understood, their entire squad had been killed, and they were afraid of dying themselves, but how could they risk transporting an unknown entity back with them. Unless the others had been compromised and wanted to act as transport for the alien creature… That, he couldn’t allow that to happen. If it got back, then he, his family, and the rest of the world would share the same fate as the colony, and he would not, under any circumstances, allow that to happen. He had to make sure they weren’t compromised, but at the moment, he struggled against the feeling that they were both beginning to act a little strange, and that had him worried. He had hoped it would have been Talmadge. Everything was becoming so confusing.

  At the back section stood a large loader and a massive pile of rock and sediment filled crates atop a row of pallets. The loader stood silently, a bright blue suit of steel and titanium, covered in a thin layer of orange dust, surrounded by dozens of steel crates. For a split second, Vuong thought of a vintage movie he had seen years back with a woman strapped into one of the machines, fighting a giant alien; the same that had been the cause of Sarge getting his nickname. He quickly realized that that’d be pretty useless against a monster no one could see, that killed you with your mind, not snapping teeth and a whipping tail. He realized he had been holding his breath while fantasizing about the mech versus monster fight and exhaled silently, continuing towards the massive door a few meters away. For an instant he felt embarrassed that he had entertained such childish thoughts while surrounded by the reality they were in. He shrugged it off, pushing the emotion back and continued on. “The corridor behind this door is a straight shot to the cargo bay. If all goes well, there shouldn’t be anything standing in our way.” He looked at Talmadge and nodded. “I’ll seal this behind us. Don’t want anything following us out.”

  Talmadge nodded, watching as the soldier made his way to the door and engaged the switch that moved the foot thick piece of steel to the side.

  “Make it quick,” Baker said as they passed through, slightly irritated that the company rep was giving orders, and that his men were listening to them. He was their commander, or had they suddenly forgotten that?

  “That man is the monster. The others are with him. They’re helping it escape daddy.”

  Baker flinched, his daughter’s words softly warming his ear canal. He glanced to the men to see if any of them had heard her, but knew whatever creature it was that was with them, wouldn’t allow them to. It didn’t want them to know the truth. It needed them to help it escape. He swallowed hard. He was going home, and his family was coming with him. He chuckled silently. He was gonna have a hell of a time explaining to his men how it was that his wife and daughter had shown up on mars, a year after they had been reported dead. He knew it was going to be a difficult conversation, but one that he would have to have. Once he told his men, they wouldn’t have to hide any longer. He paused, glancing up at Talmadge who was staring at Vuong as he sealed the door. Nothing was going to stand in his way, nothing. He stared blankly, a voice in the back of his mind screaming at the top of its lungs that he was confused, that something wasn’t right, that he needed to get his thoughts straight. He knew the facility was getting stronger, somehow understood that whatever creature it was that was in there with them was getting stronger with every death. But the more he struggled, the more he drifted away, an animal caught in quicksand that sunk itself deeper with every attempt to escape. He knew he had to kill the creature; could sense that there was something driving him to stay, not to get on that ship, but the moment he tried to focus on what that was, he would see his daughter’s face, and feel the warmth of his wife’s breath on his neck. No. He had to get free. He had to get back home. He pushed the feeling back and clenched his fists, gritting his teeth together as he continued.

  The lights overhead began to flicker, a strobing pulse cascading around them as they made their way down the massive corridor. Metal creaked all around them, the station screaming in anger at their escape as they made their way quickly down the hall. Bullet holes etched the walls and spent casings skipped off their feet as they approached the section that led to hydroponics, and the cargo bay thirty yards away. Baker could feel his head pounding, the pulsing stabbing into his brain just behind his eyeballs. The migraines were getting worse, and the whispering had grown to a drowning thrum of jumbled conversations, a steady drone of voices, endless voices warped together, squirming inside his ears. Then as they approached the giant door marked Cargo Bay, he saw Talmadge lapse momentarily, and for the briefest of moments, the monster revealed itself.

  The men approached the door, Vuong moving quickly to the panel with Fascio and Talmadge right behind him.

  “The ship’s in a secure unit near the airlock on the right. The code to the door is 0426. All we need to do is fire it up, open the roof hatch and we’re as good as home. As soon as we get back I’ll file the report, and we can all go on about our lives.” Talmadge held his voice to a whisper, unease quieting his tone in the large hallway.

  “It looks like someone’s hacked into the door panel,” Vuong said, banging his fist against the wall next to the panel. “This might take a moment.”

  Baker stared at the three men huddled near the door. He could sense them conspiring, and fought desperately with his instincts that begged him to trust the remaining men in his squad. He knew they would not betray him, but the station would, the other, the monster that had slaughtered his men. He knew Corlin was strong, and never would have stooped as low as offing himself as well, and that still happened.

  Vuong was working quickly to override the security panel and Fascio was shifting next to him, his rifle tucked tightly under his arm. Next to them, the one who moments ago had been Talmadge, stepped closer. Baker could see the nails extending from the creature’s fingertips, tearing through the skin as they stretched towards his men. The matted hair atop his head that had until moments ago, been perfectly styled, was now falling out in patches, the strands wisping to the floor below. Slowly the creature edged towards Fascio who had his back to him. Its fangs flexed outwards. Thank god he had given them the code before he turned…

  “Fascio!” Sarge yelled, raising his rifle at the same time. “Move back!”

  Fascio and Vuong both spun to see Sarge standing ten feet away, his rifle leveled at Talmadge. There was a crazed look in his eyes and the muscles in his neck were twitching visibly above his collar line.

  “I got you, you son of a bitch!” he yelled, a thin smile warping across his face. Then he pulled the trigger and blasted the rep in the chest with a short burst from the assault rifle.

  “Whoa!” Fascio yelled, jumping backwards.

  Vuong watched as Talmadge slammed backwards against the door, his chest exploding in a series of crimson puffs. He slid backwards against the doorframe as Fascio stared at the sergeant.

  “Sarge! What the hell are you doing!?”

  Talmadge’s eyes fell to Vuong as his last breath expired and his pupils dilated.

  “Put your weapon down marine,” Baker replied, his voice a low growl in the hall. “That’s an order.” He brought the barrel of his rifle towards Fascio, who tensed. “That wasn’t Talmadge,” he continued, his rifle still aimed at the center of Fascio’s chest. “Can’t you—” Baker’s eyes moved to the man lying on a spreading pool of blood on the floor. It wasn’t the monster he had seen looking at him from the spreading liquid, it was the rep, wide eyed and very dead. “—see..?” Confusion swept through him, a swirling cloud that kept his thoughts in a jumbled storm. He had seen it. He’d seen every strand of hair on the floor, every wrinkle as the rep’s face had peeled back. The monster had been right there.

  The whispers grew louder.

  Vuong swallowed hard, desperately wanting to look to his friend, but afraid of taking his eyes of their commander. He realized in that instant how bad things had truly become. Whatever it was, was in Sergeant Thomas. “Lower the rifle,” he said after a moment, realizing that somehow, he needed to get through, t
o diffuse the situation. The headaches, speaking about his dead family in the present tense, Talmadge. They had to play their cards very carefully. The creature was going to try anything it could to get off the station. Fortunately for him, without his assistance, there was a possibility that the creature would never get into the hold that contained the shuttle. “It’s ok Fascio,” he continued, his gaze pulling away to meet his friends. “It’s just Sarge. There ain’t nothing in the universe strong enough to take his grumpy ass down.”

  Baker felt a stir of warmth rise. “I just want to get off here like you son. My—I just need to get home. That’s all.”

  Fascio felt his stomach tighten, the smell of blood rising up to his nostrils causing his mouth to water with an acidic bite. He looked at Vuong who told him everything he needed to know with one glance. “Ok Sarge. I’m just a little tense. Sorry. With everything that’s happened we can’t be too careful.” He glanced down at the rep, a stir of emotion flickering within. Then to add to the effect he scoffed, adding, “Didn’t like that son of a bitch anyways.”

  Sarge stared at him for a moment, and then turned his gaze to the dead rep and the pool of blood that was slowly spreading outwards.

  “This door’s not gonna budge,” Vuong said, realizing that the trip to the other entrance could buy them the time they would need to figure their situation out, and possibly create a quick resolution to it. “There’s another door past hydroponics. It’s not far.”