V: The Florida Project

by Tim Sullivan

  Jack held his shoulder, feeling the warm blood run between his fingers, as he backed away from the fallen behemoth.

  He dimly became aware of the screeching crowd. Looking up, he saw a glum Dr. Morrow glaring back down at him.

  "You'll have to do better than that," Jack shouted up at him, "if you want to defeat the human race."

  Dr. Morrow scowled and gestured for his guard to help his brainchild to its unsteady feet. Four of them jumped into the arena and ran to its aid. As they attempted to help it up, the monster flung its limbs out furiously, and the four guards were sent tumbling into the dust.

  Again the crowd roared its delight at the spectacle.

  The monster flipped itself over and stood, its saurian head thrown back to emit another roar. This time it circled warily, as it saw Jack doing. It would not be taken by surprise a second time. The strangely human cast of its reptilian features seemed to size up its opponent.

  If only he had a gun, Jack thought, but then he remembered with a chill what had happened to T.J. His only chance was to wear it down, outsmart it, but he didn't know how long he could manage that.

  The monster suddenly ran straight toward him, each of its heavy footfalls kicking up miniature dust storms, its tail coiling like a cobra about to strike.

  With a sinking feeling, Jack saw that it was moving in on him very close to the ground. It wouldn't be tripped this time.

  It was almost upon him. Jack took three quick steps and jumped as high as he could, coming down hard right on the monster's back, just above the spot where the spine joined the tail.

  The monster howled in pain and frustration. Jack kicked off and landed, squatting two yards behind it.

  The crowd could hardly believe its eyes. The spectators screeched and hooted and hissed. The melee seemed to confuse the monster even more.

  Jack was beginning to gain more confidence. He reasoned that the prototype, though it had great physical potential was still inexperienced. It was, after all, only a few days old. Its first opponent had fallen to its gnashing jaws, and it had expected no trouble from Jack. If he could keep it guessing, he could win.

  Suddenly the tail lashed out quick as a bullwhip. Before Jack could get out of its way, it coiled around his neck. Like a roped steer, he was pulled toward the monster.

  Jerked forward by the monster's tremendous strength, Jack could not resist. He was dragged closer and closer to the slavering jaws.

  A scaly, taloned green hand—quite human in the articulation of its joints—reached out for him. He felt the razor-sharp claws sink into the soft flesh of his throat as he was lifted completely off the ground.

  The screaming of the crowd was replaced by a ringing as the circulation to his head was cut off. Beyond the arena's lights, he glimpsed the stars, but these were obscured by bright, twinkling motes as he began to lose consciousness.

  But before he passed out, he saw the enormous, yawning laws of the monster opening, engulfing his entire head. It was going to decapitate him with a single bite.

  Jack tried to fight, but he couldn't lift his arms. His efforts at kicking resulted in nothing more than spasmodic jerks of his legs. The creature's fetid breath invaded his nostrils.

  He was going to die. But what would happen to Sabrina now if he died?

  Jack heard a terrible rattling noise and knew it was coming from inside his throat. His windpipe was about to be crushed, while his brain was being deprived of precious oxygen.

  The monster's jaws opened even wider, hesitating just for a moment in satisfaction as Jack twisted in the air, dying.

  Blue light brilliantly illuminated the monster's hideous, half-human face, blinding it and burning a hole in its armor-plated breast.

  Coughing and sputtering, Jack was dropped into the dust as the monster wailed in agony. Jack somehow managed to gain his feet, stumbling to Sabrina as blue laser fire crisscrossed the darkness and hundreds of darkly clad figures streamed over the walls.

  Chapter 39

  As he came over the top of the wall on the makeshift ladder, John Tiger saw what had so preoccupied the sentries that Ham and Chris had been able to pick them off so easily.

  A woman was tied to a thick column in the middle of an open area, a man was staggering to help her, and some thing was howling in pain just below the curving rows of seats.

  The noises coming out of the thing's jaws stopped John's heart. Horribly distorted though it might have been, it cried out in Billy's voice.

  That thing down there—could that have been what they did to his brother?

  Holding a .357 Magnum in his hand, John made his way down through the stands, ignoring the tumult around him. Panicking technicians opened a wide swath around him, and he saw a cadre of guards surround a Visitor sitting in a box and hustle him away from the arena through an exit behind his seat.

  John came to the lowest row of seats and jumped over the wall into the arena.

  The thing was turned away from him, focusing its attention on the woman, whom the injured man was now untying. But when it heard the sound of John dropping into the arena, it spun to face him.

  It was a monster, part reptile and part human. The reptile part was bad enough, but the human part bore a strange resemblance to Billy, just as John had feared when he caught his first glimpse of it.

  Now the monster stood appraising him, its black eyes somehow the eyes of his brother, its movements a grotesque parody of Billy's.

  "What have they done to you?" John said. "What in the name of God have they done to you?"

  The thing didn't speak. John realized that it probably couldn't, but he spoke to it again, regardless of the silence his words met.

  "Billy, do you know me?" he asked. "I'm your brother, John."

  The monster cocked its head uncertainly. Did it understand what he was saying to it?

  "Tiger!" a voice rose over the shouting and the gunshots. "Get away from it!"

  John was vaguely aware of the voice as Ham Tyler's, but he paid it no heed. He stepped closer to the nightmare thing that was so like his brother.

  "You're my brother, Billy," John said. "My brother."

  He was within two paces of the thing now. He stopped, hearing a low rumble. Was it some alien machine? No, it was an organic sound, and it came from the throat of the thing he faced.

  "It's not your brother!" a woman's voice cried. "They made it from some of his genetic material, but it's not him."

  The rumbling grew louder. What was the woman saying? That it wasn't Billy? John couldn't believe that, not while he looked into those eyes. This was his brother, whom John had brought up himself when their parents died. How could he not know the kid when he'd brought him up himself?

  The thing that looked like Billy snarled, its tail flexed behind it like a question mark and then straightened. It charged straight at John.

  At that moment John realized that this creature, if it had ever been Billy, was somthing else now. He knew he should raise his revolver and fire at it, but it even ran like his brother.

  "Shoot!" Jack Stern shouted. "Shoot for the eyes! It's the only chance you've got!"

  He couldn't do it. He just couldn't kill this thing, whatever it was. It was too much like Billy. He could only stand and wait for it to pound him into the ground like a tent peg.

  A flash of blinding blue light, and the Billy thing wailed in pain as it went down, its legs cut out from underneath it by a laser.

  It came toward John like a felled cypress, its scaly arms extended.

  One claw on either side of him, John looked into the angry, frightened face of the Billy thing. He was so close he could smell its fetid breath as it thudded into the dust on its chin. Another laser burst hit its misshapen skull.

  The thing's body quaked spasmodically for a few seconds, and then it groaned and was still.

  John stood staring at the Billy thing's corpse until a Visitor fell from the wall and landed dead a few feet away. He looked up and saw the bearded old swamp rat trying to load hi
s rifle, a Visitor pointing a laser at him, about to fire.

  John leveled his revolver at the alien and pumped all six rounds into his chest. As it gasped and writhed its last, the old man looked down at him and held up his thumb in salute.

  Jack had finally loosened the taut red cords binding Sabrina. With only one hand, it hadn't been easy, but he had managed. Thank God Ham had been there to lase the reptile-man. He pulled the last cord loose and hugged Sabrina to his chest.

  Ham and Chris were firing at a group of sentries on the far wall. The sentries were shooting back, the darkness accentuating their blue laser beams. People were falling all around the two CIA men.

  "Come on," Ham yelled at Jack and Sabrina.

  Sabrina was having trouble jack up He was very weak and unsteady. John Tiger went to their aid, and the two of them managed to get him to the nearest wall.

  "Johnny!"

  He looked up to see Marie sling a rifle over her shoulder and jump into the arena. She ran to join them.

  "You should have stayed up there," John castigated her. "Look at that."

  He pointed at the entrances in the stands, from which dozens of armed Visitor guards and sentries emerged. The laser fire was so thick now that it resembled a solid wall of blue light. Ham and the others were falling back, starting to climb over the wall to leave the compound, the tractor beam pushing at them.

  "We're cornered," John said. "But why aren't they shooting at us?"

  "They probably intend to capture us once the others have been driven back," Sabrina said. "There's no hurry about us— we're stuck here."

  "Maybe not," Jack said. He reached into his pocket and withdrew the crystal key. They helped him to the door behind them, and he inserted it in a slot in the wall next to it.

  The door slid open.

  The four of them rushed through it into the darkness beyond. They tried to help Jack, but he brushed off their hands.

  "I'm okay," he said. "Now, let's find our way out of this slaughterhouse."

  Guns at the ready, they ran down a long corridor. They came to its end and turned the corner to see twenty armed Visitors charging straight at them.

  Chapter 40

  "I'll dispatch a Mother Ship immediately," Medea said. "How long do you think you can hold them off?"

  "We could hold this rabble off forever," replied Dr. Morrow. "But they must have sent for reinforcements by now. Even with their primitive weapons, a show of sheer numbers will ultimately overpower us."

  "Do what you have to until the ship arrives," Medea said, her image winking out.

  Dr. Morrow silently cursed her as the transmission ended. She should have sent a ship the first time he asked her. Now they would have to fight for their lives, and perhaps all of his work would be lost.

  He stalked out of the room. Bursting through the door, he bellowed for technicians and workers to begin loading everything into the three skyfighters.

  Sentry number one was still holding the serrated blade. The guard who had been watching him had been called forth to fight the attacking humans, and he was making his way to Dr. Morrow's quarters with the intention of killing the one responsible for his friend's death.

  Knowing a shortcut from one main corridor to the next, he took it. He was less likely to be seen, and it would save time.

  At the end of the narrow passageway, he heard the clatter of a group of soldiers. He clung to the wall, waiting for them to pass.

  One of them shouted. Had they spotted him? No, they stopped not five paces in front of him and stared at something in front of them. Their captain ordered them to aim their weapons and fire.

  "Wait!" sentry number one cried.

  It was over. Jack was sure of it. There was nowhere to run to get out of the line of fire. The guards were aiming their lasers at them. He hugged Sabrina hard and closed his eyes.

  Suddenly a voice barked out something in the alien tongue.

  A Visitor emerged from the shadows, holding one claw behind his back as if hiding something. The captain, who was about to signal those behind him to fire, hesitated.

  The newcomer stepped forward, speaking softly. The captain leaned forward, straining to hear what he was saying. Suddenly the arm came out from behind the newcomer's back and struck down the captain with a blow of a serrated blade. Holding onto his neck and screaming in pain, the captain sank to the floor.

  Leaping over the captain's body, the assailant chopped away at those guards nearest him. For a few seconds, they were so shocked they didn't know what to do. Four of them joined their captain before they began to fire, and three others were wounded or dead before a beam struck the attacker.

  By that time, Jack and the others were on them, scooping up the lasers of fallen guards as they waded into the melee. The odds were only twelve to four now—five, counting the sentry, who was still hacking away while holding on to his wound.

  Jack crouched and squeezed the trigger. A burst of blue light shot out and pierced the chest of the nearest Visitor. Marie dispatched another. Down to ten, two to one odds.

  John Tiger charged headfirst at one who was leveling his weapon at Sabrina, knocking him to the floor and punching his face in. Two more came after him, and Sabrina fired at the nearest. The laser beam burned through him and struck the one behind him as well, bringing them both down.

  "There's only seven of 'em left," Jack shouted, landing a well-placed kick in a Visitor's teeth. "We've got 'em outnumbered."

  Sabrina and Marie shot two Visitors as they tried to get Jack in their sights. He was simply never in one place long enough for them to draw a bead on.

  The sentry cut another one down, the victim of his blade screaming until his death throes ended seconds later.

  The three remaining guards were firing wildly. A laser nicked John's ear, but the Visitor who fired it was dead in an instant.

  The last two remaining soldiers tried to run, but now they had nowhere to go to get out of the line of fire.

  Four laser beams fired almost at the same moment. It was impossible to tell who scored the last two shots of the skirmish.

  The Visitor who had saved them with his surpise attack threw down his blade and sagged against a bulkhead. It was only then that Jack recognized him as the survivor of this evening's gladiatorial combat.

  "Go now," the alien rasped. "I will die here."

  "No, we can't leave you," said Jack. "Not after you helped us."

  Through his pain, the alien stared at him quizzically. "You are a curious race," he said.

  "Why?" Jack asked. "Because we help those who help us?"

  "I did not do it for you, Terran. Dr. Morrow forced me to kill my friend, and I wish to avenge him. It was foolish of me to help you, but I thought you too would wish to kill Dr Morrow... ."

  The sentry quaked in Jack's arms, and then his body relaxed. Jack laid his body carefully on the floor. "You'll have your vengeance," he said softly.

  Chapter 41

  "Where are you, Donovan?" Ham Tyler said, looking up at the stars. His people were setting up makeshift barricades around him to protect themselves not only from laser fire, but also from tractor beams and a device that put people to sleep.

  "Don't worry," Chris said. "He'll be here soon."

  "Don't worry?" Ham glared at him in annoyance. "Stern and his girl friend are trapped in there, and so are Tiger and Marie."

  "Getting kind of attached to that girl, Ham?"

  "It doesn't matter how I feel. They're all crucial to this mission—if they're still alive."

  "They're alive," Chris said, "to be used as bargaining chips."

  "I hope you're right."

  "Course I'm right, boss, and Mike Donovan will be here soon. I know you two don't always get along, considering how he blew the whistle on us in Central America, but you've got to admit he's always come through for us."

  "Yeah." Ham looked up at the pristine white walls rising out of the mud. Occasionally a burst of laser fire would sear blue across the few hundred yards t
hat separated the two forces. "What the hell are they doing in there, though? You'd think they would attack rather than let us dig in."

  "They must have something up their sleeves besides scaly arms," Chris said.

  "That's what I'm afraid of."

  Their backs to the wall, the four fugitives crept through the alien compound. They came to a silent, deserted area that ended in a wall with a single door in its center.

  "Let's try going in here," Jack said. He inserted the key and the door opened.

  It was dark inside. Jack closed the door behind them and moved cautiously forward. Dim lights came on to guide his way, the others following close behind him.

  It was a vast chamber. Their footsteps echoed as they examined huge vats and machines that looked like enormous meat grinders.

  "What's this?" John asked.

  "A meat-processing plant," Sabrina said. "This is where their victims were taken after they removed tissue samples."

  "How do you know?" John didn't want to believe it.

  "One of the scientists working here, Dr. Thorkel, told me about this place. He only found out about it recently himself."

  "Billy ..." Marie whispered. It was too horrible to think of.

  John put his arm around her and led her away from the alien abattoir. Marie wept freely, but John found that the tears would not come, at least not until he had his revenge.

  "I'm sorry," Sabrina said. "I didn't know."

  Jack put a restraining hand on her arm. "Let them have a moment or two."

  She nodded. It occurred to her that they might never find their way out of this maze without help. Dr. Thorkel had enjoyed considerable freedom until the past couple of days. He might know how to get out. Besides, she couldn't very well leave him here after he had tried to help her.

  "Jack, I think I might know someone who can help us get out of here."

  "Dr. Thorkel?"

  "And they said you were just a big, dumb jock." She hugged him. "His quarters should be quite near this place."