V 09 - The New England Resistance

by Tim Sullivan (UC) (epub)

  “Only enough to kill them,” Sarah whispered.

  “That is often one of the first things we learn about an organism,” observed Dr. Brunk. “It’s a strange thing, that.”

  They fell silent, grappling internally with the mysteries of life and death as this living being hovered on the brink before their eyes. Dr. Brunk considered that it was truly a test of their commitment, to see the effects of the new viral toxin first in actual field conditions, rather than m (lie laboratory.

  Willie stirred, disturbing Brunk’s reverie. Hawklike, the scientist’s eyes watched the stricken Visitor intently. Willie’s head turned slowly toward them, his eyes in focus and clearing recognizing his surroundings.

  “Dr. Brunk,” he said weakly. “I thought I was going to die.”

  “Don’t talk now. Sarah, help me turn that sofa back upright. He needs to get some rest.”

  A moment later, they were stooping to help Willie onto the sofa. His lean muscles were soft and pliable now beneath his scaly skin, not stiff and unyielding as they had been in Willie’s sick frenzy.

  “Forgive my violence,” Willie said. “I was not my own master for a vile.”

  “A vile?” Sarah questioned.

  “I mean ‘a while.’ I was stationed in Saudi Arabia when I first came to Earth, and I have never learned the English hexacon very well.”

  “I think you mean ‘lexicon,’ but it doesn’t matter right now,” Sarah said. “Can I get you something, Willie?” “Water.”

  “I’ll get some for you.” She started toward the door. “Do you think you should go outside now?” Dr. Brunk said. “It might not be safe.”

  “I’ll be all right.” She unbolted the door and went out into the cool air. The sun was going down now, the shadows of the pines very long. Sarah walked to the pump behind the cabin and realized that she had forgotten to bring a container for the water.

  Starting back toward the cabin, she began to feel guilty about her feelings toward Willie when he appeared to be dying. She was starting to like him already, after only a few words of conversation.

  Almost to the door now, she heard something behind her. She hesitated and then turned. Coming out of the shadowy forest was a creature who looked like Willie, wearing a crimson uniform.

  She ran the rest of the way.

  Chapter 38

  Dr. Brunk and Willie looked up in surprise as Sarah slammed and bolted the cabin door.

  “They’re out there,” she said breathlessly.

  Dr. Brunk shook his head. “All we have left is this one vial of toxin,” he said. “If we pour it out, they get nothing but the satisfaction of killing us.”

  “They will try to convert you,” Willie said. “To fry the formula out of you.”

  “It won’t work.” Dr. Brunk smiled bitterly. “My heart would never hold up under conversion. I’ll take the formula to the grave with me.”

  “Don’t be so certain,” Willie advised. “They have ways that are more subtle than you might think.”

  “I suppose that’s true, but I may not be able to remember enough of the formula, and my notes have been destroyed, Willie.”

  “Please assist me to my feet,” Willie said. “I must be prepared to meet Ronald.”

  “Ronald ... is he their leader?”

  “Yes, he commands a squadron,” Willie said. “Working with a human in the village, he has managed to kill many of the young males. There is little left of the local resistance now, or at least Ronald boasts that this is so.” “Did he follow you here?”

  “Yes, he made me the quarry in an ancient ritual, the ninj-ki-ra, knowing that my trail must lead ultimately to you . . . and to the toxin.”

  “Well, it seems to have worked,” Sarah put in. “I wonder what they’re doing out there.”

  “Congratulating themselves, most likely,” said Dr. Brunk. “It looks as if they’ve won.”

  “They cannot win if you do not permit them to,” Willie said. “Ronald fears the truth, for there is strength in it that he will never know. You must remember that, for he will try to rob you of your strength and thus rob you of the truth.”

  “I don’t know what the truth is, Willie,” Dr. Brunk said softly, astonished at how deeply this alien moved him. “I’m fighting for the life of my people, my world.” “There is great truth in that,” Willie said, “perhaps more than we can know by ourselves, but comprehended by the universe itself, the greatest of all entities, of which we are all a part.”

  “How can such warlike people have such profound beliefs?” Sarah asked.

  “We are complex, just like you.”

  “Willie,” Dr. Brunk said, “I must tell you that I didn’t really want you to live a few minutes ago, but I’m glad you did.”

  “You have glimpsed some small glimmer of the universal truth, then?”

  Dr. Brunk smiled. “Perhaps.”

  A searing blue bolt shot through the open window, burning a hole through the opposite wall. Sarah recoiled in terror, the beam missing her by inches.

  “Ronald,” Willie called out as he made his way painfully to the window, “You have won. I’m coming out.”

  There was no reply.

  “You have tracked me down,” Willie said. “There is no place left for me to run. My life is yours to end, according to the ninj-ki-ra."

  Silence.

  Willie turned to the Sarah and Dr. Brunk. “He waits for me to tell what else there is for him here.” “Don’t submit to him, Willie,” Dr. Brunk said. “You can’t save us.”

  “I must try.”

  Dr. Brunk held up his right hand. In it was the last of the vials, a gleaming thing that was one of the few hopes the human race had now.

  “Dr. Brunk,” said Sarah, “I’m going to build a fire.” “Why?” Willie asked.

  “He can pour the contents of that last bottle into the flames, and there’ll be no trace of the toxin or the antidote left. That’s the best thing we can do now.” She began to stuff old newspapers into the fireplace, tossing some split logs in and lighting a match to ignite it.

  “You cannot destroy it,” Willie said. “It is your only hope.”

  “We can’t let them have it, Willie.”

  “You don’t know what will happen,” Willie said. “And this young woman may need something to protect her.”

  Dr. Brunk had started toward the fire, but now he stopped and stared at Willie. “What are you saying?” “You have not heard of . . . atrocities?”

  Now Willie had Sarah’s attention too.

  “What would they want with me?” she asked. “There is much about my people you do not understand,” Willie said. “Ancient beliefs about mammalian creatures much like yourselves. Sick desires among some of us to humiliate, torment, destroy.”

  Sarah and Dr. Brunk looked terrified. They glanced at one another meaningfully.

  “Keep the last vial,” Dr. Brunk said. “Hide it on your person, Sarah, in case you need it.”

  Sarah nodded. “Okay.” She slipped the vial into the hip pocket of her jeans.

  At that moment, the cabin door was blasted off its hinges.

  Chapter 39

  A towering figure stood framed in the doorway, the dying daylight piercing the smoke curling around him.

  “Ronald,” Willie said. “You have come for me at last.”

  “I have come for more than you, my little philosopher,” Ronald grated. “But you have not told me what else is here for me, as you must according to the ninj-ki-ra."

  “There is nothing for you here, only my soul, which you will set free.”

  “You lie!” Ronald hissed. Dr. Brunk and Sarah shrank at the terrible sound, but Willie appeared unafraid. He stood his ground as Ronald entered the smoky room.

  “You know the truth, then?” Willie asked.

  “Ah, you moralistic disciples of Amon think you and you alone possess the virtue of truth. I am here to tell you that there are many truths, and there are no truths.”

  “This seems a
conundrum,” said Willie.

  “Too complex for your simple minded religiosity?” Ronald sneered. “No doubt you are trying to convince yourself that what I have said is mere doggerel, but somewhere inside you is the certainty that the universe is not merely two-dimensional, as your faith insists. We would all be much happier if it were true, no doubt, but we would not be as we are.”

  “You know some of the truth,” Willie said.

  “Then you have no argument before we begin the final act of this little drama?”

  “Only that you lie to yourself even as you speak the truth.”

  Ronald hissed and then beckoned to those outside to surround the cabin. Willie could see them through the open door and the window, fifteen or twenty soldiers, the red of their uniforms standing out starkly against the earthen colors of the forest. They surrounded the cabin in a matter of seconds. There was no way out.

  “The ninj-ki-ra demands a quick end,” Willie said.

  “There are complications that render the precepts of the ninj-ki-ra somewhat inadequate to this situation,” Ronald said. “Specifically, the presence of Dr. Brunk and his assistant.”

  “Let them go,” Willie said.

  “If the formula is turned over to me, I may consider that option,” Ronald said, his wicked amber eyes turning to Dr. Brunk.

  “There is no formula,” Dr. Brunk told him. “It’s been destroyed.”

  “Then you will simply give me the toxin—and the antidote.”

  “All gone.” Dr. Brunk pointed at the rough, wooden floor, “There is the last of it, seeping into those boards.”

  Ronald clucked. “Then we will extract the formula from your brain, Dr. Brunk.”

  Sarah had moved close to Dr. Brunk in a protective way. He felt her shuddering against him now. This was what she had feared.

  “Do what you will, Ronald. There is no way you will learn how to cook that toxin. Your hunt has been in vain.”

  “Nonsense.” Ronald’s neck ballooned in annoyance. “You did not flee to this island because you had nothing to hide. Now turn the toxin over to me before I lose my patience.”

  Taking heart from Willie’s courageous example, the doctor faced Ronald squarely and shook his head. He knew that he had just signed his own death warrant, but he wasn’t as frightened as he had always thought he would be when his time came. Indeed, he took a certain satisfaction in knowing that he had done everything he could to fight the Visitors. Someone else would develop the toxin, even if he died. At least he would not give it to them of his own free will. “I won’t,” he said. “I can’t.”

  “Very well,” Ronald said. “You have chosen the role of hero in our little drama, Dr. Brunk. It becomes you, I suppose, the noble man of science defying the evil invader to the last. Tedious, but admirable.” He turned and beckoned at someone outside the door.

  Two soldiers entered and then a man whom Dr. Brunk didn’t recognize. Sarah knew him, though. She had known him all her life, and feared him.

  It was John Ellis.

  “Unlike some of my people,” Ronald said, “I have no interest in your species other than a problematical one— and, of course, a culinary one. No, sex is something I enjoy with members of my own species only. Most—but not all—humans seem to feel the same way. The striking thing about human sexuality, at least in my limited observation, is how selective the female can be, considering that males are outnumbered.

  “Young woman, what do you think of this specimen of manhood?” He indicated Ellis with a clawed hand.

  Sarah said nothing.

  “Ah, perhaps reticence means something, but what?” Ronald sighed. “I know so little about human custom. It strikes me, however, that the demure female is pleased that we have brought John Ellis here. Or am I mistaken?”

  “You’re very mistaken,” Sarah said angrily.

  “Oh, then you are among the choosy ones. Excellent, excellent.” Ronald’s neck swelled with pleasure. “Then it should make your mating all the more interesting.”

  Chapter 40

  John Ellis lumbered toward Sarah, a crooked, leering grin on his red face. It occurred to Willie that Ronald had learned much more about human sexuality than he admitted. How else could he have arranged such a perverse confrontation? He had not educated himself in the ways of humans for intellectual reasons, clearly. Every fact he acquired had but one rationale: to defeat and demoralize the enemy.

  The look of horror on Sarah’s face could not have been more intense if Ronald himself were about to assault her.

  “Stay away from her!” Dr. Brunk shouted. “Can’t you see she doesn’t want anything to do with you?”

  “Shut up, you old fool,” snarled Ellis.

  “Yes, do be quiet, Dr. Brunk,” Ronald said. “This is far too edifying a spectacle for you to spoil with your blathering.”

  Ellis’ beefy hand shot out with surprising speed and caught Sarah’s wrist. He pulled her roughly toward him.

  Instead of fear, Sarah’s face showed indignation and anger. As her body collided with her attacker’s, her knee came up and caught him squarely in the groin.

  Ellis grunted. Then he wheezed, sagging to the floor like a slashed tire.

  Released, Sarah backed away from the fallen Ellis. “You got off easy this time, sucker,” she said.

  Ellis slowly got back on his feet. “You bitch.”

  Ronald clucked appreciatively. Such an unexpected turn of events delighted him, appealing to the same cruel

  playfulness that had moved him to include Jake and Charlie in the equation. He enjoyed surprises, as long as he controlled the events that produced them.

  Sarah shook her pretty head to get the hair out of her eyes. At that moment, John Ellis charged her like a roaring bull.

  Sarah was taken off guard, tackled like a football player carrying the ball. Ellis was on top of her on the floor, trying to tear her clothes open. She pummeled him with her balled fists, screaming at him to get off her, trying to use her knees to dislodge him. He had her at a disadvantage now, her efforts ineffectual against his far greater bulk. She raked at his face with her nails, and Ellis bellowed in pain as she drew blood. His head snapped back, and Sarah somehow wriggled out from under him.

  “She seems to be too much for him,” Ronald observed. “But he doesn’t give in easily.”

  Ellis rolled over and leaped to his feet. This time he didn’t tackle her. Instead, he lunged and punched her with a meaty fist.

  Sarah’s head snapped back, and she pirouetted and collided with a chair lying on its side. She fell backward, hitting her head on the hardwood floor.

  Ellis was on her in an instant. Dazed, Sarah could no longer struggle as he prepared to have his way with her. She moaned in half-conscious pain.

  “No!” Dr. Brunk cried. He broke free from the guard holding his arm and pulled Ellis off Sarah. “Let her go, you animal!”

  “Subdue him!” Ronald commanded.

  The two soldiers grabbed Dr. Brunk, one on each arm. He somehow found the strength to shake them off, lunging at Ronald.

  “You monster!” he screamed.

  Ronald stood completely still as Brunk attacked him.

  He didn’t move, even when the doctor collided with him headfirst. Butted in the diaphragm, Ronald looked down at the flailing man with a mocking stare.

  All stood in horrified anticipation for a moment, but Ronald did nothing for a few seconds. He waited as Dr. Brunk spent himself on a futile effort at hurting him. Soon the doctor could barely lift his hands to strike. It was then that Ronald acted.

  Reaching down, he clutched Dr. Brunk’s throat in a viselike grip. Sarah tried to go to him, but the guards stopped her.

  Willie watched, saddened but knowing that Randall Brunk had made his choice. This way, Ronald would never learn the formula for the new toxin.

  Ronald was thinking only of killing Dr. Brunk. His ostensible purpose for coming to the island was forgotten in his blood lust.

  Ronald lifted Dr. Brunk
off the floor by the throat. A hacking, gurgling sound escaped Brunk’s mouth, flecks of foam falling onto his beard. He dangled face to face with Ronald, and then he was lifted even higher, Ronald staring up at him as he gasped his last.

  A snapping sound announced Dr. Brunk’s death, the vertebrae in his neck breaking.

  Willie chanted silently to himself, honoring the dead man and praying for his soul. Dr. Brunk was at one with the cosmos now, a being who had died with dignity and courage, his essence sent out to enrich the stars.

  Ronald suddenly seemed aware of what he had done. He stared in rage at the corpse in his hand and flung Dr. Brunk’s body away from him as though the dead man had at last harmed him.

  Chapter 41

  Ronald’s neck ballooned and his scales turned a green so deep that he appeared almost black. He averted his eyes from the broken body of Dr. Brunk on the floor, turning to Willie.

  “There is the truth,” Willie said, “lying dead on the floor.”

  “He was a fool!” Ronald bellowed. “An utter fool!”

  “That fool has beaten you,” Willie told him softly

  “Beaten me? I killed him as easily as I would squash an insect.”

  “An insect who held a secret you desperately wanted,” Willie reminded him.

  Ronald’s neck bulged with anger, his eyes fiery. He knew that Willie was telling him the truth now. There could be no ambiguity here. He had allowed his rage to defeat him, tricked by a puny human into botching his mission. The traitor stood before him, excoriating him for what he had done, smug, satisfied. This Ronald would not tolerate.

  “You,” he said to John Ellis.

  Ellis, still stunned by Dr. Brunk’s valiant death, at first didn’t realize Ronald was addressing him.

  “Go,” Ronald commanded him.

  “Go?” Ellis pointed his finger at his own chest. “But I haven’t ...”

  “You have done enough. What follows is not for your eyes.”

  “But you promised me the girl!”

  “I promised you nothing. You have never understood power, John Ellis, though you are capable of wielding it in a limited fashion.”