The Black: Arrival

by Paul E. Cooley

  Bill blew a sigh between his teeth. “Who cares? It’s going to eat us!”

  Neil opened his mouth and then closed it. “Oh, man.”

  “What?” Jay asked.

  “If you’re right and it needs protein to reach its final state,” he gulped, “then it’s going to want all it can get.”

  Hoyt turned white as a sheet. “We’re the prey?”

  Neil nodded. “We’re its preferred food source.”

  *****

  The building was a devastated hulk. It had consumed all the ancillary materials it wanted. But it still didn’t have enough of what it needed.

  The creature made circuits through the hallways as it searched for food. It occasionally smashed a tentacle through the remaining sheetrock in frustration. There had to be more food.

  It didn’t want to slide down the elevator shaft again. Doing so would require it to change shape, and it was happy with its current configuration. Besides, it had already tried to get out that way and there was no way for it to leave.

  It found the skybridge and squeezed its bulk through the entrance. Plastic and rubber melted, but the glass stayed intact. It halted halfway through. One of its eyestalks gazed out the window on the darkened world. It already felt the stirrings of its enemy. The light was coming. It knew this. And there was nothing to be done. It had to become whole before that happened.

  *****

  She shifted. Maeve’s elbow had dug into her breast far too long. God, the girl was getting heavy. With her eyes closed, Kate grinned. Not too many years ago, Maeve had been little more than a crying thing in diapers. Now? She was growing up and entering high school next year. If she makes it there, a voice said in her mind. Kate’s smile disappeared into a thin line. Fuck off, she said to it. She’ll make it. We will make it.

  Mike was more fidgety than she’d ever seen him. He kept checking his watch, his phone, and then peering through the window into the NOC. He was searching for a way out and no doubt hoping Chuckles would text him back. She knew how he felt. Every time she managed to avoid the swirling desperation in her brain for a minute, it returned with a vengeance. And there was little more to do than wait.

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  Maeve’s body went rigid. Kate peered around her daughter’s hair. Mike stood straight, eyes focused in the direction of the control room’s inner door.

  Maeve sniffed. “It’s— It’s not coming in here, right Uncle Mike?”

  He didn’t turn around. “Y’all be still and quiet. I’ll be right back.” He opened the door and stared into the small hallway.

  Bang. Bang.

  Everyone in the room jumped. Maeve stood, her left arm hanging at an odd angle. Kate followed suit.

  “Mike?” she called. “Was that the outer door?”

  He held his hand up in the air.

  Bang. Scratch. Bang.

  Her pulse, relatively calm to begin with, was off to the races. She put a hand on Maeve’s right shoulder and squeezed. Her daughter leaned back into her.

  It was there. In the main hallway. Waiting. Trying to find a way in.

  Kate’s mind filled with the image of tentacles that ended in sharp talons and maws of incredible black. She shook away the image.

  The creature was nothing like the movies. Instead of yowling, growling, and snorting as it chased its prey, it was completely silent except for the click of its claws on concrete or the sizzle of its body dissolving matter. Her skin prickled with gooseflesh. She wanted to tell Mike to shut the goddamned inner door. Just shut it. Play dead. Make it come for them. Don’t give it a way in. Don’t give it a way in. Don’t give—

  BANG! BANG! SQUEAL!

  Kate felt as though she couldn’t get enough air in her lungs. They could die in here. It could find a way in, and they’d have no way out.

  Mike stepped into the inner hallway. He closed the door behind him.

  The room held its breath. The seconds crawled. Kate stared at the metal door, afraid it would move. Or when it opened that an eyestalk would peer straight at her with those beyond dead obsidian eyes. The handle jiggled. She sucked in a long gulp of air preparing to shatter the world with her scream.

  The door swung open. A very pale Mike entered the room and gently closed the door behind him. He put a finger to his lips and continued walking until he was just a few feet away from the group.

  His voice was barely more than a jittery whisper. “It’s out there. It can’t get through the door.”

  “What about beneath it?” Maeve asked.

  He opened his mouth and then closed it. The remaining color in his face melted away. “I—There’s a metal plate at the bottom. And I think some rubber gaskets. That’s what makes the room somewhat air-tight.” Despite the obvious fear on his face, he managed a slight smile. “Don’t worry, girl. We’re safe.”

  Something rattled under the floor. Kate dropped her head and stared at the tiles. The control room sat a half a meter or so above the actual floor. She raised her eyes to Mike’s. “I think it’s in.”

  *****

  No one had said a word for several minutes. Jay was too busy trying to formulate molecular structures in his mind to want to talk. Besides, they had a theory. He wasn’t sure it was a good theory, but it fit.

  For most of his life, he’d lived in a painstakingly black and white reality where science made sense. Chemistry wasn’t like biology. It wasn’t prone to mutations or other strange phenomenon. Atoms bonded. Atoms formed chains. They just, well, did. Sans environmental forces such as temperature, pressure, and interaction with other chemicals, chemistry was about as pure science as you could get. Until now.

  What the hell did this thing secrete that was capable of dissolving anything but metal, glass, concrete, and other densely packed structures? How did something like that fail to respond to electron beams? How? How?

  Jay gritted his teeth. Maybe “how” was the wrong question. Maybe “why” was the question they should be asking. He knew he was right about the thing creating its appendages like a snail creating a shell. The speed, though, was what was insane. How the hell was it doing that?

  And there was that word again. “How.” Jay shook his head. He wished he was at his desk, Loony Tunes in the background, while he attacked his whiteboard. He’d have the NMR results, the molecular models, everything. He’d have—

  Jay’s mind stopped racing. The NMR. Chuckles shunted the processes over to the NOC. Surely it had finished the run by now. I mean, how long had it been since the CDC entered the building?

  He stood with a groan and readjusted the hearing protection on his ears. Through the control room’s glass, he could see Mike staring at the inner door. Kate was too. Jay raised an eyebrow. Did they hear something?

  Mike slowly crept forward and opened the inner door. Jay lost sight of him, but could see the door closing behind him. Mike must be checking on something in the hallway. Jay’s heart started to beat faster.

  It could be Chuckles, he thought. But somehow that didn’t feel right. If Chuckles was smart, he’d hidden himself away where the M2 couldn’t get to him. But where the hell was that? The lab? No. It had broken out of the lab area. Easily too. By way of the—

  Jay looked up. The ceiling wasn’t even tiled. Wide, painted PVC pipes carried power and network cabling through the room. Jay tapped his foot on the floor and felt it give a little. They were on risers. There was a probably a goddamned rat’s nest of cabling beneath the floor as well. At least the room didn’t have a sprinkler system. There were no sprinkler heads in the ceiling, but there were plenty of vents.

  He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced toward the control room. Mike was back in the room. He and Kate were talking. A tremor rattled the floor risers. Jay stared down. The tile he stood on was shaking. He turned to the others. They were all staring at the tiles they sat on as well.

  “No.” He shook his head, eyes widening. “No!” Jay yelled. “Get up! It’s in the floor!”

  The three s
cientists stared at him. Jay rushed forward and grabbed Hoyt’s arm. He screamed at the others to get off their asses and pulled the CDC doctor to her feet.

  Beneath the sound of the fans and drives, he heard the creature’s crackle and sizzle. Bill and Neil scrambled to raise themselves. Jay wasn’t waiting. He dragged Hoyt to the inner door. He grabbed the handle and swung it open. Jay pushed Hoyt through and turned around for Neil and Bill.

  One of the server racks began to lean. “It’s coming through the floor!” Jay yelled.

  The leaning server rack fell over with a tremendous crash. The next one in line leaned as an eyestalk poked through the tiles. Neil stumbled as he ran, Bill right behind. A tentacle slashed through the tile floor. Particles of foam and plastic flew into the air. The tentacle wrapped around a server rack and pulled. They fell like dominos. Jay’s feet trembled from the crash. Electricity sparked and Jay’s nose filled with the smell of ozone and burning plastic.

  Bill and Neil tumbled through the inner doorway. A klaxon alarm wailed. Jay shut the door. The NOC control room was already empty and the outer door to the hallway was open.

  Jay launched himself through and shut the door behind him. Even the heavy sound-proofing did little to mask the sounds of destruction within the NOC.

  “Goddammit!” Jay yelled. He pulled himself up. The hallway was filled with the survivors. “Where the hell do we go now?”

  Mike blinked at him. “We can go down, or we can go up.”

  Another loud crash filled their ears. The outer door shook as something smashed against it.

  “Move! We can’t fucking stay here!” Mike yelled.

  Jay didn’t need to be told twice. He reached out and grabbed Kate’s hand. She looked up at him with wild eyes. “Now!” he yelled.

  The fog cleared from her face and those wild eyes narrowed. She clutched her daughter’s undamaged shoulder and gently pushed her toward Jay. The three of them scrambled down the hallway.

  “No! Not that way!” Mike screamed behind them. Neither Jay nor Kate heard him.

  Maeve was crying. It didn’t sound like fear, but something more primal—pain. Jay slowed and turned. Kate nearly slammed into him. He gestured to Maeve.

  “Hold your other arm, girl.” She did as she was told. “Here we go.” He bent down and lifted her by the waist until he could get his hands beneath her. Once she was situated in his arms, he continued down the hallway. Kate ran past him.

  Jay couldn’t help but smile. Momma bear was scouting for her cub.

  The overhead lights weren’t on. In fact, they weren’t even hooked up. Kate pulled out her phone, hit the flashlight setting, and scanned ahead of her as she jogged.

  The carpet ended as they turned the corner.

  “Fuck!” Kate yelled.

  The hallway ended in a clutter of stacked wooden planks and a collection of tools. Heavy plastic created a makeshift wall behind the mess. The plastic rippled from the outside wind.

  “Nope nope nope,” Jay said in Beaky Buzzard’s voice. “Kate?” He gestured with his head toward the large opening in the wall.

  She turned and pointed her phone’s light toward it. The wan light barely broke the thick darkness. A naked, filthy concrete slab stared back at them.

  Jay puffed air from his mouth. His arms were starting to burn. He readjusted Maeve and she whimpered. “Sorry, girl.”

  “It’s okay, Uncle Jay,” she said, teeth gritted.

  A scream echoed in the halls followed by a crash. Jay jumped and nearly lost hold of Maeve.

  Kate’s flushed cheeks drained of color. She turned the phone’s light back to the entrance to the unfinished room. “No choice,” she murmured and crossed the threshold.

  Jay turned slightly and brought Maeve safely into the room. When he was sure her feet wouldn’t hit the walls, he pivoted until he faced forward again. His eyes were slow to adjust, but there was still enough illumination from the hallway to make Kate’s silhouette easy to follow.

  Gravel, remains from the concrete pour no doubt, crunched beneath his feet. The air grew colder as they headed further into the room. Kate’s light turned in a slow arc. The dim glow exposed sawhorses, stacks of sheetrock, and metal.

  Jay quickly realized where they were. This was the floor for the chemistry and biology departments and this room was to be their new workspace. He suddenly wished he’d paid more attention to the construction plans. At least Kate looked like she knew where she was going.

  The far end of the room was pitch black. There was no glass. Kate’s light illuminated large wooden sheets pasted against the outer wall. If he ever found the construction moron running the project, Jay would kick his ass.

  She panned the light against the opposite wall. They were nearing the middle of the building. Maeve’s breathing was barely audible, but every few steps, a small whimper escaped her lips. Jay didn’t know how much longer he could carry her. He wasn’t young anymore. If he could put her in a fireman’s carry, that would be one thing. But with her shoulder? Just wasn’t going to work. Twinges and pinches of pain rippled up his back. He gritted his teeth and kept moving. Just had to keep—

  Something rumbled in the ceiling. The acrid smell of burning plastic and fabric hit his nostrils.

  Kate slowly panned her light upwards. PVC and metal pipes snaked from one end of the room to the other before disappearing behind an inner wall. A wide rectangular metal duct stretched from the building interior to the middle of the room.

  A/C? Heat? He nodded to himself. Definitely the kind of ducts used for air flow. But that meant—

  “Kate,” Jay hissed.

  She turned to him, but her light was still pointed upward. “What?”

  “We have to go back. Now.” He may have been whispering, but his voice sounded way too goddamned loud. He didn’t know if M2 could actually hear, but he wasn’t willing to take the chance.

  “Why?”

  He started backing away toward the hall. “I think it’s in the ducts.”

  She paused for a moment. Even in the darkness, he could see the stress in her body language as she finally realized what he was saying.

  The light hit his eyes as she began to move. She wasn’t running, wasn’t jogging, but she sure as hell wasn’t just walking. Gravel crunched beneath her running shoes.

  Jay turned back to the hallway and hurried across the threshold. He heard her on his heels when the tinging, pinging of stressed metal hit his ears. A groan escaped the room as screws failed beneath the mass of what had crawled inside. He was already running down the hall. If it was still in the room, they might be able to make it back to the skybridge. Or hell, maybe the—

  They turned the corner. Jay’s mouth dropped open. The door to the NOC was bent in half. What little carpet had been laid down in the hall was gone. The sheetrock above the NOC had disappeared save for burned fragments and edges.

  A bent duct exchange above the wrecked NOC door drooped at an odd angle. Thick black smoke wavered from the far end near the skybridge.

  All the saliva disappeared from his mouth. “Kate?” Jay’s voice was little more than a croak.

  “I see it,” she said. “We have to get to the stairs.”

  “They’re blocked off, aren’t they?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “But we have to try. We can’t go down there.”

  The sound of sizzling, frying bacon hit their ears. Kate cast a glance behind them.

  “Move!” she yelled. Jay followed her to the fire door. He hoped like hell they wouldn’t be trapped.

  *****

  Mike couldn’t think. As Jay, Kate, and Maeve ran down the hall toward the construction area, two thoughts managed to break through the fog in his brain: Kate was leading Jay and Maeve to a dead end, and he had to get the others the hell away. The NOC door began to buckle from whatever was trapped in the NOC.

  “This way!” he yelled and ran toward the skybridge. He didn’t wait to see if the others followed. A pang of guilt rose in his conscious
mind. He was supposed to be the leader, the person in charge, and here he was running for his goddamned life without giving a shit about the people depending on him.

  He reached the skybridge entrance and turned. Neil and Bill were hot on his heels. Hoyt stumbled along as if she was barely conscious and in control.

  “Move it!” Mike screamed at her. Bill and Neil headed into the skybridge. The woman stumbled again and fell to the floor. Mike cursed and ran to lift her up. The door to the NOC buckled, one corner bending outward. A black tentacle shot out through the gap and curled around. It smashed into the wall just above Hoyt’s head. She screamed, but didn’t get up. Mike reached her, bent at the waist, and grabbed her feet. He dragged her as fast as he could toward the skybridge.

  Her suit rubbed against the exposed concrete. The fabric ripped and tore. She was screaming. He could barely think through the red fog that filled his mind. The tentacle reared back, shortened, and then punched into the buckling door. The impossibly strong hook tore through the metal as easily as a knife through a soda can.

  Can’t dissolve metal, a voice said in mind. But sure as shit can fuck it up. Mike threw the thoughts away and continued dragging the screaming woman.

  Another tentacle flicked out of the gap in the door. Its hook sheared upward through the hole the other had made. The middle of the door ripped. Flakes of metal exploded outward like shrapnel.

  Mike dropped her feet, grabbed her arms, and lifted Hoyt off the ground. “Run, goddammit!”

  Her left hand in his, he pulled her forward. Hoyt’s feet finally moved in cadence with his. Together, they stumbled into the skybridge. Something crashed behind them, but Mike didn’t dare turn. They had to get someplace safe. And right now, that was anywhere but here.

  Bill and Neil waited on the other side. The two scientists huffed and puffed as they tried to catch their breath. “Stairwell!” Mike yelled at them as he passed. Hoyt’s hand let go of his. She’d finally come to her senses and was moving on her own. In the harsh light of the overhead fluorescents, a rectangular piece of metal and the remains of a pair of glasses sat on the floor. Anger rushed through his mind. Now he knew what happened to Chuckles. And it was all for nothing.