The Creeping Kelp

by William Meikle

  He was getting used to jumping when requested. He pulled away from the kerb, noticing in his rear view that he left tyre tracks through a black snow that was already half an inch deep –a snow in which people stumbled and fell as if they were choking on it.

  They left the bridge behind seconds later.

  Neither of them looked back.

  Clapham Junction railway station was in turmoil. The boards told of cancellations and delays all across the city. Much to Noble’s surprise, trains were still running out to the South and West and they were able to buy a ticket and get on a train heading for Exeter. Even as they pulled out of the station, they heard rumbling, like distant thunder, and as the train swung round a bend, they saw a tall pall of smoke rising over the city.

  “They’ll never get it all,” Suzie whispered. “There’s too much of it. And it’s too smart.”

  Noble leaned over and took her hand.

  “You meant all that stuff with the Minister... about it being telepathic?”

  She nodded and smiled weakly.

  “I wonder what he thinks now?”

  She squeezed Noble’s hand.

  “You look terrible,” she said.

  He realised just how tired he was. His wounded leg throbbed in time with his heartbeat and his vision seemed to be going in and out of focus.

  “Try to get some sleep,” Suzie said. “We’ll need to be rested—I’ll be hitting the lab as soon as we get back.”

  Always assuming that the lab is still there.

  He thought it, but didn’t say it. The day finally caught up with him and he fell gladly into sleep.

  He was woken sometime later by the sound of voices. Someone a few seats away had a radio and had turned it up for everyone to hear.

  “We repeat, people are advised to stay as far away from waterways as possible, especially where these are tidal in nature. The menace is spreading fast and has reached as far as The Wash to the north and the Jersey Islands to the South and reports are coming in of possible activity in the Severn Estuary. All seagoing traffic in these areas is suspended indefinitely and the armed forces are at full stretch trying to contain the situation.

  “The Cabinet is meeting in emergency session at an undisclosed location in outer London and no one knows when, if ever, the Houses of Parliament will be reopened. A team of scientists from the MOD is on the North Embankment right now assessing the damage to the buildings but it seems part of our cultural heritage and a symbol of democracy across the world may be damaged beyond repair.

  “Although the menace now seems to be receding downstream from the capital, there is no guarantee that it will not return. There is a massive military presence being readied in an attempt to stop the vegetation’s advance at the Thames Barrier on the next tide, but their success is far from assured. This vegetation, if that is what it is, has proven resilient against everything we have thrown at it and fire only seems to serve to spread it over an ever-widening area. It is feared that a nuclear option may be the only recourse, but how do you nuke something as big as this danger has become?

  “That is the question currently being asked in Cabinet. Meanwhile, we can only watch and wait with trepidation for the thing’s next move.”

  The man with the radio swore, loudly and often, until asked to quieten down by a woman with two clearly frightened children. He took the radio away with him and left the carriage in a sulk, still muttering under his breath.

  “What else did I miss?” Noble asked, looking over at Suzie. She tried a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

  “London is in uproar,” she said. “But at least everyone has woken up to the threat now, even if it did take the destruction of Westminster to do it. They say the kelp got nearly to the doors of Buckingham Palace before going back with the tide.”

  She had dark shadows under her eyes and the skin looked red and puffy from where she’d been crying. He leaned over and took her hand as she continued.

  “They say they might never know the final death toll,” she whispered. “But it’s in the tens of thousands.”

  She stared out the window, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “And they don’t know how to fight it—I don’t know how to fight it. Not yet.”

  She turned back to look Noble in the eye.

  “You will help me, won’t you? I know that if I can get back to the lab and that sample then I...”

  Noble stopped her with a squeeze of her hand.

  “I’ll be with you all the way,” he said. “But I’m not the only one who needs rest.”

  She nodded, then surprised him by coming round the table to snuggle up next to him, laying a head on his shoulder.

  Neither of them spoke.

  They stayed that way for a while.

  July 23rd - Weymouth

  * * *

  It was getting dark again by the time they arrived back in Weymouth after a long, detour-ridden trip in an extortionate taxi from Exeter. Suzie had been buzzing with nervous energy all the way, full of talk of the experiments she wanted to attempt on her sample. She only went quiet when the taxi came to a halt at the edge of town. Just ahead of them, military vehicles blocked the road.

  “Looks like it’s the end of the line, folks," the driver said.

  Noble paid him, vowing to claim every penny back in expenses. By the time he got to the makeshift barricade, Suzie was already arguing with a stressed out soldier who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else but there.

  “I told you, miss,” he said. “No civilians allowed in. The town has been evacuated for the public safety.”

  He said the words as if he’d learned them by rote and had been reciting them far too often.

  Noble could see Suzie’s ire rising.

  “We’re on official business here,” Noble said. “We’ve just returned from a meeting with the Minister and have information that the Colonel will need right away. Or would you rather tell him yourself that you kept us waiting at the gate like beggars?”

  Suddenly, the youth was all apologetic. He waved them through. Noble might have berated him for slackness if he’d had the energy, but the long trip from London had taken its toll on him, despite his nap on the train, and he felt like he needed to sleep for a week.

  Suzie wasn’t about to allow any of that. She force-marched him to Nothe Fort and down into the lab. On the way, they saw several soldiers, none of whom paid them the slightest attention, and they also saw much evidence of a kelp attack that had stretched far from the shoreline and reached deep into the town. Several houses had been either caved in or burned to the ground in an obvious attempt to contain the vegetation. Noble was glad to get inside the solidity of the castle and only started to feel safe as they descended to the lab in the bowels of the building.

  Suzie went straight to the bench. The jar containing the sample was still sitting exactly where they’d left it. Noble had a look in passing. The material inside the jar looked burned and charred, little more than ash.

  “Are you going to be able to do anything?”

  “I hope so. See if you can rustle us up something to eat and I’ll see what I can do.”

  Noble found a makeshift canteen open two levels up. He got four sandwiches, two coffees, and an update on the situation from a weary squaddie behind the counter.

  “Damn near got us, so it did,” the man said, his Scottish accent showing strong. “It took half the town before we got it pegged back and the bastard thing even crawled half way up the wall of the castle. I was shitting myself, I’ll tell you that, for nothing. And I’ll tell you something else—if it comes back, I don’t think we’ll be able to stop it.”

  The castle felt somehow more oppressive and less safe as he made his way back to the lab. He found Suzie bending over the blackened mass of tissue, prodding it with a scalpel. He had to ask her twice before she would break off and take time to eat. Even then, her gaze kept drifting back to the charred thing on the table.

  “Remember what the pries
t said in his journal?” she said between mouthfuls of bread and ham. “... after I have burned away more than nine-tenths of its matter, it has weakened. If I concentrate hard, I can catch glimpses of what the beast is thinking and feel its fear.”

  “Please don’t tell me you’re planning what I think you’re planning,” Noble said.

  She nodded.

  “I’m going to put it to the Inquisition.”

  For a time, Noble tried to pay attention to what Suzie was doing over at the table, but he slouched ever further into the chair, his head nodding to his chest. Again, he gave in and fell into a deep sleep.

  He dreamed.

  The winch starts to pull him back into the chopper, but he scarcely notices. The pain is throwing him into shock and he is no longer sure if what he sees is real or a dream induced by the searing heat of pain.

  Right at the far point of the chopper’s turn he catches a glimpse of something glinting in the sun. Far away, almost on the horizon and shimmering in the heat, stands what looks like a city of glass… or plastic? Massive towers and turrets rise high above the sea and gargantuan black shapes slump through cavernous streets.

  He hears Suzie’s voice.

  The Shoggoths were made. Made as builders.

  He came awake with a start. Something had him in a hold, something soft that pressed tight against him.

  It’s got me.

  He struggled, tearing away at his attacker... only to fully wake and realise he was trying to tear a sleeping bag. Suzie must have put it over him while he slept. He looked around, suddenly embarrassed, hoping that no one was watching.

  He wasn’t alone, but Suzie hadn’t seen him. She was slumped in another chair, head drooped and breathing softly. Behind her sat the tall glass jar. The sample inside no longer looked quite so burnt. In fact, it seemed to have grown.

  She’s been feeding it.

  As if in response, the material surged inside the jar. Noble wasn’t in any mood for play.

  Don’t you fucking dare.

  He thought it rather than saying it, for fear of waking Suzie. But the kelp reacted as if struck, cowering to the far side of the glass. He remembered Suzie’s words.

  “I’m going to put it to the Inquisition.”

  It seemed she had done so, and with some success, for if he was not mistaken, what he was seeing now was fear. He bent forward.

  “You don’t frighten me,” he whispered. “I’m wearing clean underwear.”

  Something gripped his mind. He went away for a while.

  He saw vast plains of snow and ice where black things slumped amid tumbled ruins of long dead cities.

  Massive towers and turrets rose high above the sea and gargantuan black shapes rolled through cavernous streets.

  And while his slumbering god dreamed, Noble danced in the twilight, danced to the rhythm.

  He was at peace.

  He might have been lost forever if Suzie had not slapped him, hard, across the cheek. Even then, he had to look away from the sample jar and blink vigorously before the miasma lifted from his mind.

  “Are you okay?” Suzie asked, concerned. “I was going to tell you when you woke to be careful.”

  He laughed softly.

  “Thanks for the warning. But some good has come of it, I think. I’ve remembered something I saw just after collecting the sample—something the pain must have driven off at the time.”

  He told her about the city of plastic and the slumping Shoggoths in the streets.

  “Builders,” she whispered.

  He nodded.

  “But building for what? You said before that you thought there might be a controlling intelligence at work? What if the city is its home? Sitting there and sending out an army to drag the plastics back, to build ever bigger?”

  Suzie was getting increasingly excited as he spoke.

  “If that’s the case—we know where its brain is. We can strike at it.”

  Noble laughed bitterly.

  “Yes. All we have to do now is convince the powers that be that we’ve got telepathic, intelligent, killer seaweed on our hands. One that’s building a city out of recycled plastic for its god or gods and that we know where this city is, because a bit of burnt weed told us so.”

  Suzie returned the laughter.

  “I won’t make the same mistake I made with the Minister. I have a cunning plan.”

  July 24th - Weymouth

  * * *

  Noble was surprised to see thin sunlight through the windows as they made their way up through the fort.

  I’ve slept all night.

  Now that he considered it, he did in fact feel somewhat rested and his leg wound no longer pounded pain in time with his heartbeat. He stomped on a step. There was no answering jar of complaint, just a dull throb.

  It seems I’m better.

  Suzie was in a hurry and he had to up his pace to keep up, but his leg was up to the job and he wasn’t even breathing heavily when they arrived in the conference room.

  Suzie strode ahead, determination showing on her face, but stopped dead in the doorway. There was a meeting in progress and the lights were dimmed, a video being shown on the big screen. From their place in the doorway, they could just about hear the commentary, but the pictures told their own story.

  The first scene was an overhead tracking shot along the Thames. On either side, buildings lay in smoking ruin. Bodies, and parts of bodies, were piled high on the Embankment and military vehicles were the only traffic on roads strewn with abandoned cars, cabs and buses.

  The Colonel stood at the front addressing a seated crowd of about twenty, all of whom looked military. There was no sign of any of the local politicians they’d met the last time.

  “A mass evacuation of Central London is under way,” he said. “Last night our boys managed to hold this blasted weed back at the Thames Barrier, but it was a hard fight and we lost a lot of good men before the tide turned again and the threat receded. Plans are underway to nuke the Thames Estuary if it comes back. But it seems the kelp itself is not even the worst menace we face, for although it seems to stay near the water courses, the contagion it brings with it has been spreading far and wide.”

  The scene on the screen changed to a street in the City of London, outside the Bank of England. The place was usually full of people in business suits going about their business industriously, oiling the wheels of the country. Not today. Today the whole street was packed from side to side with shuffling, wailing victims of what looked like a plague. Black flesh sloughed away from bone and fell steaming to the ground. Others scratched and tore at wet lesions, drawing blood, but unable to remove the traces of blackness from their skin.

  Suzie whispered at his side and it took him a second or two to recognise the quote from the Inquisitor General.

  “No man is to touch any part of it, under pain of himself being subjected to ordeal by fire.”

  She’d been right about the fire. On screen, he saw that teams of people dressed in full HAZMAT suits were at the far end of the street, all armed with flame-throwers, all burning what looked like piles of bodies that had been hastily tossed on pyres. Smoke and small pieces of ash rose in the air and were dispersed by the wind.

  Suzie whispered again.

  “They’re just making it worse.”

  The Colonel echoed her words.

  “We discovered, too late, that these tactics were only making matters worse. It seems the best defence against this thing is concentrated Hydrochloric Acid. All stocks from all over the country are being shipped to the coast and a call has gone out world-wide for aid, but it will be some time in coming. In the meantime, we are at the whim of fate, with no way of telling where or when the next strike may come, nor indeed where it came from in the first place.”

  Suzie chose that moment to speak up.

  “I may be able to help with that.”

  The Colonel saw her and gave her a thin smile.

  “Our expert, Ms Jukes, is just lately returne
d from London where she was briefing the Minister. Maybe she can give us a report on her meeting.”

  And maybe she can’t. Noble thought, but kept his mouth shut as Suzie moved to the front beside the Colonel.

  What followed was as clever a piece of misdirection as Noble had ever seen. She didn’t lie to them. Not quite. Neither did she quite tell the truth. But by the end of half an hour she had them convinced that she had a possible answer at hand, and that, if she could be given a chopper and a backup team of marines, she might be able to find and halt the source of the menace. When she finished, the room was quiet, but Noble felt like giving her a round of applause.

  The Colonel looked like a man with a renewed mission.

  “It’ll take a couple of hours to get a crew prepped and supplied,” he said. “Will you be in the lab?”

  She nodded.

  “I have one last experiment I want to perform on the sample, then we’ll be ready to go.”

  One last experiment?

  Noble’s heart sank.

  That can’t be good news.

  When they returned to the lab and she told him what she intended to do, he was even more concerned.

  “But I have to,” she said. “I believe there’s some kind of psychic link between this sample and the main—brain, if that’s what we call it. If I can put it under enough stress, I may be able to piggyback on that link, to dream its dreams and trace the source back. Don’t you see? We can find out exactly where to hit it.”

  Noble nodded.

  “Yes. I see. What’s that?” he asked and pointed into the corner of the room. As she moved to look, he turned and focussed on the sample jar.

  “You idiot,” Suzie shouted, but her voice was pulled away, as if by a strong wind. The grip in his mind took hold again. A tide took him, a swell that lifted and transported him, faster than thought.

  Massive towers and turrets rose high above the sea and gargantuan black shapes rolled through cavernous streets.

  The grip on his mind tightened.

  He pushed back, hard, and strained to see inside the buildings. His gaze seemed to be drawn to a spot where the dark Shoggoths were at their most numerous, slithering and rolling over sheets of plastic, melting and forming it into new strange and wondrous shapes that towered high above the ocean. And there was something else, just visible beneath many layers of material, something long and red... the rusted keel of an old cargo ship.