Strangelets

by Michelle Gagnon

  The streets were quiet and still. With dusk, a chill had set in. Anat repressed a shiver. She caught herself thinking that in spite of everything, this was a lovely, quaint little town. The majority of storefronts were set on the ground floor of historic homes, old brick buildings with wide verandas. Their window displays were crammed with old furniture, antiques, pastel-toned clothing, even an old-fashioned candy store. There was nothing like it in Tel Aviv. She’d seen this sort of setting in movies but always figured it was made up, just another part of the American propaganda machine.

  Anat’s eyes panned continuously, drawn by any stray flicker of movement. She’d felt like this on her first training mission: ramped up, edgy. The difference was that then, she more or less knew what to expect from the enemy.

  They reached an intersection crowded with abandoned cars, where a streetlight dangled crookedly. “Straight,” Yosh said softly.

  Anat nodded and kept moving forward, thinking, Yosh can’t be trusted. There’s something wrong with her. Something unnatural.

  “One more block,” Yosh said. “There it is.”

  Anat followed her gaze. A hundred yards away, an old neon sign leaned sideways on a chunk of broken pavement. The dimmed letters read, STOP N’ SHOP. Beyond it, another parking lot, mostly empty. As promised, the front of the store was protected by a metal gate, the kind that shopkeepers slid down nightly.

  “It’s unlocked,” Yosh said, “And there’s still food inside.”

  “How could you possibly know that?” Anat demanded. She was clutching the gun too hard, her knuckles had gone white. She forced herself to relax—the last thing she needed was a hand cramp at a crucial moment.

  Yosh didn’t answer. Anat slid from car to car, utilizing what little cover was available as they approached the doors. The gate was down, but not all the way; the bottom stopped a few centimeters shy of the ground.

  Reaching the storefront, Anat bent low to examine the gate, then cupped her hands and peered inside. It looked empty, and there was still lots of food left on the shelves. But was it safe? She bit her lip, considering. They hadn’t passed any other buildings that looked defensible. And she was loath to remain outside, knowing that those things could come back at any minute. She had a gun now, too, if Yosh tried anything funny.

  She bent low to lift the gate. Straining and grunting, she managed to ease it up a few inches. It groaned in protest, as if the hinges hadn’t been oiled in awhile. Anat winced at the noise. “I need help,” she was finally forced to acknowledge.

  Yosh bent over and made a great show of trying to help. The gate ground up another three inches, then jolted to a stop.

  “Kus emek,” Anat muttered. She threw her whole back into it. The gate lurched up a few precious inches at a time. Finally, they’d managed to lift it high enough for Anat to reach in and push open the door. “You first,” she said, motioning with the Glock.

  Yosh stood silent for a moment, staring at her with those enormous dark eyes. She smiled faintly, then ducked and scurried through the door. Anat bent low to follow, then dragged the gate back down behind them. She’d try to find something inside to latch it with, so they couldn’t be followed.

  It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the dim interior. Rows of plain white shelves, most still stocked with dusty boxes and cans of food. A long counter to the left was lined with cash registers.

  Her nose wrinkled. The store reeked of putrid food, though the air wasn’t as foul as the inside of the cafeteria’s cooler. Better not open the freezers, she thought, spotting them against the far wall.

  Yosh had vanished into the depths of the store.

  “Yosh?” Anat called out as her eyes flitted over the nearest shelves, taking a mental inventory. Hairspray in aerosol cans—that could come in handy, with a lighter she’d easily be able to turn them into flame throwers. There were probably real flashlights somewhere, too, and bottled water. Yosh suddenly reappeared and said, “Did you make a mark on the door?”

  “What? Oh.” Anat had completely forgotten about letting the others know where they were. She looked skeptically across the parking lot. She should have marked the sign by the street. Too risky to go back now—she’d do it on their way out in the morning.

  She was about to say as much when she caught movement out of her peripheral vision. Slowly, her gaze slid up.

  One of the creatures was perched on top of the metal shelving directly behind Yosh.

  “Stay still.” Anat whispered, tightening her grip on the Glock.

  “What?” Yosh looked puzzled.

  Anat waved a hand to silence her, while keeping her eyes locked on the creature. It was like nothing she’d ever seen: covered in greenish-brown fur, with a hint of iridescence at the tips, as if a giant praying mantis had mated with an alligator. A sleek, elongated head that ended in a snout. Glowing greenish-yellow eyes set on either side of a narrow ridge. Arms that ended in sharp talons. Long legs, disturbingly human looking, with clawed feet that curled over the lip of the shelf. Even hunched over, it appeared to be more than two meters tall. It stared back at her. She suddenly understood what the man in the journal had meant by “smart eyes.” It seemed to be sizing her up.

  While edging backward, she caught movement to her right. An even larger creature straddled the aisle between them.

  “Get down!” Anat cried out, raising the gun.

  Yosh had gone completely still, gazing up at the creature as it started to crawl down the shelving. Anat regained her senses and tightened her finger on the trigger, zeroing in on the spot between the creature’s eyes. But she was torn. Save Yosh first, or shoot the one closest to her? There might not be time to fire on both of them.

  The one above Yosh stopped moving; it clung to the shelves like a spider. Yosh was staring past her, a creepy faint smile plastered on her face. Slowly, Anat turned her head.

  Five other creatures towered above her.

  Anat bit her lip. She didn’t have enough rounds to take out all of them. Seeing them up close, she wasn’t even sure how effective the bullets would be, or what to target. For all she knew, their hearts might be in their tails.

  Defeated, she turned back to Yosh. “I’m sorry. There are too many of them.”

  “I know.” Yosh stepped forward and extended a hand. “Please give me the gun.”

  “What?” Anat said, startled. “Did they ask you to do that?”

  “This is not a fight you can win,” Yosh said softly.

  Did they have control of her somehow? Anat steadied the Glock, aiming for the closest creature. She’d been trained to fight to the end. If she stayed focused, maybe she could kill a few before they tore her apart. Yosh would have a chance to get away. Her finger started to depress the trigger …

  “Trust me, Anat. They won’t hurt you.” Yosh’s gaze hardened as she added, “Not unless I tell them to.”

  Sophie couldn’t stop screaming. That … thing … was crawling toward Declan. It looked like something out of a nightmare. As it approached, the creature made a strange clicking noise.

  Declan had frozen with his back pressed against her tree. The creature was less than twenty feet away from him.

  “Declan!” she cried out.

  He looked up at her. All the color had left his face, and his eyes were wild with terror. Sophie’s heart clenched. He’d gotten her up here and was now stuck down there fending for himself. “Jump!” she screamed.

  Completely ignoring the creature that was slowly rearing up on its hind legs behind him, Declan kept his gaze locked on her. “Feckin’ hell,” he said in a shaky voice. “First the bear, then this. I’ve no luck at all lately.”

  “Please,” Sophie pleaded. “Jump! I’ll try to catch you.”

  He shook his head. “I wish we’d had more time to talk.”

  “Me, too,” Sophie said hoarsely.

  “Take care, Sophie. Find the others and get to the mainland. And don’t let that gobshite Nico stop you.”

  Declan cast one
final, wistful grin at her. Then he turned to face it.

  The creature towered over him, nearly double his height. Its mouth yawed open, exposing two strange tentacles. They clamped together, like smacking lips. Declan drew himself up and said with strained bravado, “You might be the ugliest damned thing I ever saw, and that’s saying something.”

  Sophie couldn’t bear to watch. She turned away—and cringed as a shriek tore through the woods.

  “What are you talking about?” Anat demanded. “If you can make them do what you want, just tell them to go away.”

  Yosh shook her head. “Not this time.”

  She’d lost her accent, Anat realized, and suddenly looked like a different person: confident and secure, despite being surrounded by terrifying creatures. It must have all been an act. Slowly, she asked, “What is this?”

  “If you just do what I say, it will all be fine.”

  “So they’re not going to attack us?”

  “No.”

  But the creatures seemed poised to strike. Two were clicking their long talons together. Anat remembered something her commander always said: ninety percent of winning a standoff came down to attitude. Don’t back down or show any weakness. The instant you did, you were done for.

  Anat shifted the gun, aiming at Yosh’s center mass. “Make them step back.”

  Yosh looked bemused, as if the gun meant nothing. She closed her eyes. The creatures shifted uneasily. Anat felt that strange tingling again, an itch on the inside of her skull. She tried not to wince.

  The creatures drifted back, positioning themselves a few feet behind Yosh. “Better?” she asked.

  “Not much,” Anat muttered. Better would be seeing them disappear entirely, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen. “What do you want?”

  “The same thing you want,” Yosh replied. “To go home.”

  “But that is what we were doing,” Anat retorted. “Finding a boat to go to the military base—”

  “There’s no hope on the mainland,” Yosh interrupted. “Or anywhere else.”

  “You were already here,” Anat said, suddenly understanding. “You didn’t come with the rest of us.”

  Yosh regarded her with interest, then slowly nodded. “Yes.”

  Anat’s mind reeled as she sorted through the ramifications. “But … why lock yourself in the infirmary?”

  “We were curious about you.” Yosh said. “It was the best way to find out what you knew.”

  Anat cursed her own stupidity. She’d taken too much at face value, something her instructors had always warned against. “Zain never came back. What happened to him?”

  “He was smart,” Yosh said reflectively. “He figured it out long before the rest of you.”

  So Zain had realized that Yosh was a traitor. And before he could share that information … “Did you kill him?”

  Yosh shrugged. “You’d only just met him. Why do you care?”

  “Why not kill all of us, then?” Anat demanded. “Why let us out, if this was going to happen in the end?”

  “I’m not going to kill you, Anat. Not unless you make me.”

  Anat didn’t find that very comforting. Gesturing to the creatures with the Glock, she asked, “Where did they come from? I’ve never seen anything like them.”

  “No, you haven’t.” Yosh looked them over with apparent affection. “They didn’t exist in your world before.”

  “What? You’re talking crazy again.”

  Yosh sighed. “I have to say, this would all have been much easier if more intelligent people had come through.”

  “Come through what?”

  Yosh leaned back against the shelving and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re in for a bit of a shock.”

  Anat gritted her teeth; Yosh was clearly enjoying drawing this out. She had to repress an overwhelming desire to march across the room and pistol-whip her. “Tell me. How’d we end up in Long Island?”

  “Ah, but that’s not the best part.” Yosh bent forward slightly, a gleam in her eye. “The question isn’t where you are. It’s when you are.”

  Anat’s palms felt slick against the gun. “You’re talking nonsense.”

  “Am I?” Yosh smirked.

  Anat longed to wipe that look off her face. But humoring her might provide enough time to come up with an escape plan. “When are we, then?”

  “I really thought you’d have figured it out by now,” Yosh mused, “considering the state of the roads and the cars. Not to mention the buildings.”

  Anat just waited, refusing to rise to the bait.

  Yosh met her eyes squarely. “I’d say you’ve landed about twenty years in your future. Give or take.”

  Declan’s eyes were squeezed tightly shut. His whole body had gone rigid while he awaited the moment of impact: claws ripping open his belly, teeth closing around his throat. He’d survived the bear, only to be torn to shreds by something even worse. Ironic didn’t even begin to describe it.

  Nothing happened.

  Declan slowly opened his eyes. He was lying on his back in a pile of pine needles. Late afternoon sunlight sifted through the leaves, dappling patterns of light and dark on his bare arms. The forest around him was empty.

  He blinked to make sure.

  The monster was gone. He stood, brushing himself off. That … thing had been standing right over him. He’d been able to see strands of saliva dangling from its mouth—he cringed at the memory. Where’d it go?

  “Declan!” Sophie wailed.

  “Yeah, I’m here,” he called back.

  “What? You’re okay?” she said incredulously.

  Declan turned. She was clinging perilously to a low branch, peering down at him. “Right as rain,” he said, raising both hands in the air and suppressing the urge to laugh.

  “But how …” her mouth gaped open.

  “Guess I was too ugly for it.”

  “What was that noise, then?”

  “Right, the noise,” he said, remembering the ear-splitting shriek that rended the air as the creature towered above him. “Wasn’t me.”

  “Wasn’t me, either,” Nico called sheepishly from his tree.

  Kept yourself safe and sound, didn’t you? Declan thought with a scowl.

  “Thank God you’re okay!” Sophie said, awkwardly scrambling down another branch.

  “Stay up there!” he insisted. “That thing might come back.”

  She hesitated, but obeyed.

  Declan turned in a slow circle. There was no sign of anything living in the forest surrounding him. He pivoted twice to make sure, but everything remained still, not so much as a twitching branch in sight. “Strange,” he said aloud. “Do either of you remember hearing that sound before?”

  A pause, then Sophie said, “At the house. Didn’t Yosh scream like that, when there was something at the door?”

  Right, Declan thought. At the time, he’d taken it for a cry of terror. But as soon as she screamed, whatever had been pushing against the door vanished. What if …

  A branch snapped behind him. Declan whirled, automatically raising his fists. His throat went dry, and he chastised himself for being an eejit. He should have been halfway up the tree by now, hiding out sensibly like the others. Instead, he was down here playing detective. And now his new playmate had returned to finish him off.

  A rustling noise, from the same spot.

  “Declan?” Sophie said hesitantly. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s still out here!” he replied in a hoarse whisper. It shifted closer, sticking to the trees; which was strange, since it hadn’t exactly been shy about hunting him down before. He glanced up: Sophie was staring down at him, her eyes wide with terror. “Get back!” he ordered. “I’m going to jump!”

  Obediently, she moved farther along the branch.

  “I’ll try to distract it,” Nico hissed.

  “Yeah? How?”

  Nico suddenly dropped down so that he was dangling from the lowest branch. He hollered, “H
ey! Over here!”

  “Declan! Hurry!” Sophie urged.

  Declan jumped. The first time, he missed the branch by inches. The second, by nearly a foot. He heard crashing in the brush behind him. Trying to ignore it, he bent his knees and gathered himself. Drawing in a giant breath he sprung, reaching up with his fingertips fully extended.

  His right hand latched onto rough bark, but barely. His arm muscles screamed at him, and he could feel his palms tearing open as he started to slip.

  Just as he was about to fall, a small hand closed over his wrist.

  “Gotcha!” Sophie said through gritted teeth. “Now give me your other hand. Hurry!”

  Declan threw his left hand up so that she could grab that wrist, too. She grunted, straining against his weight. He slowly inched upward.

  “It’s coming closer!” Nico warned from the next tree.

  Sophie’s branch was slightly more than eight feet off the ground—not high enough, he realized. The creature that had loomed over him was easily that height; it could just reach up and grab them. “There isn’t time,” Declan insisted. “Let me go and start climbing.”

  “No!” Sophie growled. “I won’t let it get you.”

  He opened his fingers, letting go of her wrists, but she held on. “Drop me!”

  She yanked harder. Declan suddenly felt himself rise up. His shoulder crossed the branch, then his chest. He scrambled the rest of the way, facing Sophie. She’d collapsed against the tree trunk, her face flushed and sweaty.

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” Sophie gasped. “Start climbing.”

  He waited for her to ascend a few branches before following. The whole time he kept checking for the creature. Through gaps in the greenery, he caught glimpses of Nico scaling his tree. They were fifteen feet above the ground, then twenty. That had to be high enough, right?

  “Can you see it?” Declan called out.

  “Can’t see anything,” Nico yelled back. “Too many leaves in the way.”

  Sophie stopped when they were about thirty feet off the ground. The branches had started to thin out; anything higher up would be too weak to bear their weight