She stepped closer, and his eyes widened with recognition.
“Don’t worry, Isaac,” she said, trying to figure out what she would do next. “I’m going to get you out of this.”
There was a noise behind her, and she turned to see Cody coming down the wall, Rich following closely. Snowy remained on the ledge, barking and pacing as she tried to figure out how she too could join them. Sidney was glad that she was up there, not wanting to see her hurt in any way.
“What’s it doing to him?” Rich asked as he and Cody came to stand beside her, looking at poor Isaac.
“That,” she said pointing out the hanging sacks. “We have to get him free.”
She had no desire to come in contact with the vein but knew that there wasn’t any other way. Reaching to her belt, she removed the knife.
“What the hell are you doing?” Cody asked, eyes darting around.
“What does it look like?” She was ready to cut into the fleshy root.
“You can’t do that,” he hissed, grabbing her arm.
Sidney looked at him, and he must have seen the determination in her eyes.
“But what if it . . . ,” he started, turning to look at the alien organism as it pulsed and writhed within its nest of rock.
“We have no idea what it will do,” she said, freeing her arm from him.
“And is that a good thing?” Rich asked.
“Well we can’t leave him like this,” Sidney said, looking to Isaac, his body now almost completely cocooned within the viscous fluid secreted from the puckered end of the appendage.
Without further interruption, Sidney went to work, sinking the blade of the sharp kitchen knife into the rubbery flesh of the vein. Thick, black, foul-smelling fluid spurted up from the wound as she hacked and cut. It was disgusting, and she wanted so badly to vomit, but she decided that she could throw up later when Isaac was free.
“Sid,” she heard Cody say from behind her.
“I’m busy,” she said, grunting as she continued to cut through the thick muscle and fat. It was like cutting into an enormous earthworm.
“Sid, something’s wrong,” Cody said more forcefully, and she took a moment to see what he was talking about.
Something was most definitely wrong.
The organism was throbbing and pulsating even faster now, and the greenish light it emitted had changed to an angry red. The end that she’d cut suddenly recoiled, spewing gouts of fluid as it was drawn back beneath the undulating mass.
“I think it’s pissed,” Rich said, and Sidney had to agree.
The organism had started to expand and then quickly contract, all the while growing darker and darker in color. It now resembled an enormous clot of blood as it quaked.
Sidney returned her attention to Isaac, tearing away the solidifying flesh that covered his body.
“You all right?” she asked him as she peeled the rubbery skin away.
Isaac stared at her blankly, his mouth moving, though no sound came out. It was as if he was in shock.
“We’re going to get you out of here,” she reassured him. “Can you stand up?”
She tried to help him stand with Cody’s help, and then things went from bad to worse.
“Oh shit,” Rich said. “Guys.”
They all looked up and watched as the multiple fleshy sacks hanging from the walls and ceiling began to react, each of them splitting open, what was inside splashing to the cave floor.
From the viscous puddles on the cave floor, animals emerged, but they were animals the likes of which had never been seen before.
They were like the twisted thing that had attacked them in the tunnels—horrible mixes of pre-existing animal life that made up what was best described as monsters.
“The bad radio,” Isaac said, his voice slurring as if drunk. “The bad radio is angry.”
“No kidding,” Sidney said, pushing the stumbling youth as gently as she could toward the end of the cave where they would, hopefully, make their escape from the cavern floor.
Hopefully.
The monsters came at them silently, their silver right eyes reflecting red in the pulsing light of the alien organism.
Something undulated across the cave floor, and Sidney was certain it had once been partially a seal. Its mouth opened wider and wider as it came at them, lobsterlike appendages erupting from its fleshy gray sides helping to move its smooth body over the rocks.
Cody was the first to react. He charged toward the twisted thing with a yell, meeting it halfway and jamming his spear into its sausage-shaped body. The thing did not even scream as the carving fork pierced its monstrous flesh.
There were others converging now.
“We’re not going to make it out of here,” Rich said breathlessly, standing beside her. Sidney still held the knife, which was covered in the blood of the thing that she believed was somehow responsible for all that had happened to her friends, to her family.
To her home and island.
She had hurt the thing that pulsed and jiggled and shot sparks into the air; her hand was covered with its blood. And as the swarm of monsters came toward them, she swore she would hurt it again. She would make it so this thing remembered her.
She would kill it if she could.
What might have once been a muskrat, now with multiple pairs of dragonfly-type wings, flew at them from across the cave, and she tensed, ready to fight. Holding out her knife, she watched as it circled them from above and then dropped down. The thing was awkward in flight, heavy, as it landed on her shoulder, its multiple, vein-covered, cellophane-like wings fluttering noisily like crinkling paper as it attempted to maintain its purchase upon her. She grabbed the thing in her hand, its thickness disgusting to the touch, and brought it to the ground, pinning it and stabbing it repeatedly.
“We’re going to fight,” Sidney said loudly and strongly enough for her friends to hear and, hopefully, be inspired. “We’re going to fight for as long as we can, and then we’re getting out of here.”
“It’s good to have goals,” Rich said, hefting both his meat tenderizer and homemade knife-sword.
Cody was still out in front of them, his spear flashing in the red light of the alien mass as the twisted bodies piled up in a ring around him.
They could hear the sounds of more life forms—monsters—being birthed from the leathery sacks, the tearing noise followed by the disgusting sound of new life landing upon the cave floor with a wet plop.
And the scarlet-hued organism continued to beat and writhe, bolts of crackling energy traveling up the ends of the thick black hairs to shoot off into space. Sidney knew that meant something, and if she was able to stop it—
“Sidney, watch out!” Rich screamed as a hairless dog with the face of a snapping turtle charged her like a bull. He threw himself in front of her and Isaac, his metal meat hammer coming down hard on the side of the turtlelike head with a horrible squishing sound. The creature’s head exploded as its muscular body thrashed upon the ground. Rich kicked it aside, ready for whatever was coming next.
They were making slow progress across the cave, keeping the jagged walls of the chamber to their backs. Sidney watched her dog from a distance, the white German shepherd still crazily pacing upon the rock ledge, desperate to come down to them, but each and every time the dog would look at her, Sidney was sure to show her the hand signal to stay.
Stay. Do not come down here. She did not want to see her baby, her best friend, hurt in any way.
Stay.
The number of animals attacking them continued to grow. For every one they bludgeoned, stabbed, or speared, three more twisted things seemed to emerge to take their place.
And they killed those as well.
Even Isaac had gotten into the game, using large rocks as his weapons, throwing the stones with incredible force or slamming them down upon soft, hairless bodies.
But how long can we keep this up? Sidney wondered, feeling her exhaustion beginning to take hold. She wasn’t
moving as fast now; the monsters were able to get closer before she could strike them down.
Sidney pushed the thought from her mind as they got close to an area where it looked as though they might be able to climb up onto the ledge. This was where they would make their stand, she decided, where they would either escape or meet their end. It sounded like an action movie cliché, but at that moment, as they watched the malformed life forms attacking them, she was amazed, and a little bit amused, at how true it was.
The animals were becoming faster, even more aggressive, if that was possible. It was almost as if the pulsating red thing in the center of the room sensed that they might actually escape and had no intention of letting them do so.
“We’ve got to start climbing,” Sidney said. She’d taken Rich’s short spear-sword and was slashing and jabbing to keep the latest wave of creatures back. Cody darted forward, stabbing with the longer spear, then returning to where they stood before darting forward again.
“You start,” he said.
“No way,” Sidney answered. “You and Rich help Isaac,” she said, pausing for a moment to plunge the end of Rich’s short, bladed weapon into the eye of something that had once been a dog, though now she had no idea what it was.
“Help Isaac, get up onto the ledge, and then you can help me.”
“I’m not doing that,” Cody said, that stubborn streak that she’d once found kind of sexy coming through.
Now she just found it aggravating.
“You’ll do it because we don’t have the time to argue,” she said, eyeing the buildup of beasts ahead. It was like a screwed-up assembly line, the twisted animals waiting to be stabbed, speared, or have their heads bashed in.
Cody still wasn’t budging, his spearing getting more forceful, angry.
“Please, Code,” Sidney pleaded. “Look at him—what does he weigh? One-fifty? I can’t help him.”
His eyes darted over to Isaac, who was having a hard time standing up, even with Rich’s help. “You did this to me back at Rich’s house, in the bathroom,” he said. “You almost didn’t make it out.”
“Yeah, but almost doesn’t count. I did make it out. Think of that when you’re doing what I told you.”
She grabbed hold of his spear and yanked it from his grasp, giving him her smaller, shorter weapon. “I’ll use this until you’re done.”
Cody dispatched a few more snapping, slithering beasts, then finally turned to Rich and Isaac. “C’mon, help me get Isaac up there,” Sidney heard him say.
Rich started to argue, but Cody ignored him.
“Isaac, we’re going to climb up, all right?” Cody said.
Sidney continued to stand her ground, her back to the wall, her eyes attempting to take in all the nightmarish stuff before her. Something with the head of a fox snapped its jaws around the end of her spear and twisted, wrenching the pole from her grasp. The spear clattered to the ground, where it was at once swarmed upon by all manner of new and writhing insects. She needed that spear or she was finished, and she plunged her hands into the squirming mass to retrieve it. The insects began to sting and bite, and she cried out in pain, but she found the spear, wrapping bloody and swelling hands around it, and hauled it up from beneath the ocean of squirming terror.
“Sidney!” she heard Cody’s voice calling to her from behind. She turned her face just enough to see that they were actually halfway to the ledge above.
“Keep going!” she ordered.
Her hands were on fire from the insect stings, and as she continued to fight—to spear and slash—she caught a glimpse of them. They were covered in blood and slime, so swollen that they didn’t even resemble her hands anymore. They looked like the hands of some fat old man.
If she wasn’t fighting for her life at the moment, she might have started to cry.
“Sidney, come on!”
It was Rich calling now, his voice high and almost hysterical.
She knew that she had to turn and begin her climb, but her eyes kept going to the crimson, gelatinous mass—the alien organism—as it throbbed with evil intent. She noticed that a barrier of the larger animals had taken up guard around it, protecting it. That just seemed to drive her forward, wanting to get closer, to threaten it with her presence, but she knew that this wasn’t smart.
It was time to retreat, and she started to back up while still managing to fight her attackers off.
But still the organism taunted her.
How dare that horrible thing do what it did to her friends? To her island?
How dare it?
Her anger made her fight all the more fiercely as Cody and Rich screamed impatiently for her to climb. Even Snowy was barking. And she was coming, backing up ever so slowly, even though that thing—whatever the hell it was—sat there, nestled in the rock, dirt, and sand.
The disgusting, fleshy mass seemed to react to her feelings, blowing itself up and then deflating, as if to say, Did you see what I did to your town? That thought pissed her off all the more, and she actually fought back the urge to show it that she wasn’t afraid, and continued to back toward the wall, to escape.
To run away.
She knew that it wasn’t running away, that this was something far bigger than she and her friends.
But it still felt somehow wrong to leave the thing there, untouched—mocking her with its awfulness.
She imagined it laughing at her, amused by all it had taken. Flashes of her father filled her head, and an overwhelming sense of sadness turned to a burning anger, and she heard her father’s voice.
When she was a little girl, she and her dad used to watch DVDs of old cartoons that he’d loved as a little boy. One of his, and eventually her, favorites was Popeye the Sailor Man. She used to watch with wide-eyed amusement as the weirdly muscled cartoon sailor fought the villainous Bluto, a can of spinach helping him to save the day.
Right then and there, as she fought for her life against the swarm that had no right to exist, she heard her father’s voice, quoting the famous words of the cartoon character just before he ate his spinach and vanquished his foes.
“That’s all I can stands. I can’t stands no more!”
Sidney found herself grinning.
She couldn’t have agreed more. She stepped forward a foot or two, hearing her friends continuing to scream for her, but she didn’t have the time to explain. She had to concentrate on what she was going to do.
“This is for my father,” she said, hauling back the spear before letting it fly with all her might.
The makeshift javelin flew through the air and pierced the center of the organism. She grinned as she watched the writhing, fleshy mass react, its body convulsing wildly as spurts of internal fluid shot up from where it had been punctured, the ends of the thick hairs protruding from its mass throwing off even more crackling discharge.
“Take that, you ugly son of a bitch,” she said, then whipped around and raced for the wall, using the momentum of her run to jump and begin her climb.
“C’mon,” Cody screamed from the edge of the cliff above her, the ground beneath his feet beginning to give way.
“Get back!” she shouted at him, seeing that the ledge wasn’t going to hold.
The ledge crumbled where he was standing, and he jumped back just in the nick of time.
The exhaustion truly hit her then, those multiple adrenaline surges that she’d experienced since the horrors began no longer having any effect.
But all she needed was a little bit more.
She was careful as she grabbed, giving the handholds a little pull before hauling her aching body up. Glancing up to the ledge, she saw the anticipatory faces of Cody and Rich, each one ready to grab at her as soon as she was close enough.
And then she noticed Isaac.
He was standing behind them, a look on his face that filled her with dread. He was completely emotionless as he stared at her, his mouth hanging slack. His lips were attempting to move, to form words, as if he were trying to tell her
something, that strange internal struggle that the poor soul had been fighting since the nightmare began still going on.
The words at last came flying from his mouth in a terror-filled roar.
“Watch out! It’s coming!”
Sidney hadn’t a chance to question or even to prepare. She felt an incredible pressure around her ankle, yanking her savagely from the face of the wall.
And she had been so close.
CHAPTER SIXTY
Sidney caught a glimpse of what had grabbed her before she fell—a thick, veined tentacle that had emerged from beneath the fleshy skirt of the organism.
How dare you think you could hurt me, she imagined it saying in a horrible, wet-sounding voice as she fell to the ground. She landed on the soft corpses of the monsters they had killed, hitting her face against the wall.
The animals—the mockeries of life that filled the cave—moved away as she was dragged past them, as if somehow they knew that she was no longer for them.
Oh no, she had riled up the big boss now, and anything that was going to be done to her was going to be done by him. . . . Her? It?
Her friends were screaming, and she tried to pull the tentacle from around her leg, but it was wrapped so freaking tight. And then she remembered her knife, and she reached down to her belt loop hoping—praying—that it was still there. It was, and she’d barely pulled it free before reaching the body of the monstrosity.
It was even worse to look at up close.
She could see the intricate vein work crisscrossing through its fleshy body as it pumped its life fluids. Somehow she could feel the throbbing of its horrible life, feel the electrical discharge from its swelling mass. It actually made the hair on her body stand on end.
The knife was in her hand, and she began to stab at the tentacle entwined about her leg. The thing reacted by gripping her tighter, and she thought that her leg was going to snap.
Sidney was trying not to cry out, though it hurt so very badly, but it didn’t stop her from fighting. She was wild, seeing absolute red, pretty certain that she was now more savage than all the creatures in the cave combined. Her jeans and hands were soaked with the slimy blood of the organism, but she continued to hack and cut at the fleshy appendage until she was actually able to wriggle her leg free of its grip just before reaching the alien mass.
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