The Gordian Event: Book 1 (The Blue World Wars)

by Lee Deadkeys

  “Please, call me Rudy,” he said. “And thank you, Frank. Well, final stretch here.” He said leaning forward.

  “Yesterday I woke to a terrific commotion coming from the kitchen. Virgil was throwing himself against the back door, trying to get out. This was new behavior because he wasn’t trying to get at us.

  “Rhonda saw them before I did… people, out on the road. They were Virgil’s people, bloated up, naked. They moved as one, a pack of them, maybe twenty strong. Rhonda screamed before I could clamp a hand over her mouth and the pack turned as one and stared right at the house.

  “Virgil was really going at the door and the tar stuff is shooting out of him, pooling around his feet. He was caught up in the chain and Rhonda rushed by me to help him before I could grab her. Virgil’s people were at the door now, pushing against it, trying to get in. A busted wooden chair was caught up in the chain and crashed around the floor, two of the legs jutting up like hungry medieval pikes. I could see what was about to happen, but being able to anticipate a thing doesn’t make it any less shocking.

  “Everything happened so fast. I remember grabbing Rhonda and jerking her out of the room, then slamming the door. Virgil lurched forward, slipped in the blackish crap and smashed down onto the upturned chair legs.” Rudy roughed his palms down his face and took a deep breath. “He just burst open. There were things in him, eel-like monsters. One of them blew out of him and shot right through the glass. It landed next to me, twisting and writhing in the shattered glass like a hawser of nightmare sent to drag me down to… that other world… the blue one… I almost left her there—” Rudy’s voice dwindled to a whisper and stopped.

  They each looked at him and then at each other, waiting for him to continue. He seemed locked in a trance, stuck on a rutted path to the past. Jess leaned forward and reached to touch him when he continued in that same droning monotone.

  “God help me, I almost left my sister behind. Looking down at that thing, the thing that had been growing inside him and then, then the splintering yelp as the door gave way and Virgil’s people flooded into the house, and… I almost ran. Just ran for my life, left her to those things….” Rudy sucked in a breath, ready to crack.

  Jess placed her hand on his arm and squeezed. “We’ve all had those thoughts at some point during this madness, Mr. Prescott. Rudy. It’s instinct. But, you didn’t leave her. You saved her and that’s what matters.”

  Frank nodded and patted his daughter’s back. “She isn’t wrong.”

  Rudy smiled and let out a long breath.

  Ox coughed into his fist and cleared his throat. “She’s right, Mr. Prescott. You have no idea how many times I wanted to trip Jess when we were running, leave her to occupy those bastards while I made my getaway.”

  Jess punched Ox on the arm but laughed.

  “But seriously, Mr. Prescott,” Ox went on, his voice weighty. “We’ve all been there, done that. You can’t let those thoughts eat at you. The both of you are here, together. That’s the only thing that matters anymore.” They all nodded agreement.

  Rudy roughed his palms over his eyes. “I can’t tell you folks how glad I am that I ran into you all. Good damn people, each and every one of you.” He poured himself another cup of coffee, offering the carafe around to the others.

  “Well, that’s it, pretty much. That’s how we ended up here.” Rudy said. “I take it you’ve seen the things then? The things growing in people?”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes, brows crinkled in thought.

  “The National Guardsman we ran into said that the closest thing we have to this on Earth is something called a Gordian Worm,” Mason said.

  Every head swiveled toward him.

  “The what?” Jess said. “And, wait a minute, why didn’t you tell us any of this? You said that guy didn’t know anything.”

  Mason shrugged. “He didn’t know much, most of it was just speculation or things he’d overheard. If there had of been anything concrete, I would have told you all.”

  “You shouldn’t have kept it from us, Mason,” Jess said and looked away.

  “I wasn’t paltering… Look, you weren’t there, Jess,” Mason leaned forward but she refused to look at him. “The guy rolled up on us and started shooting people in the street—”

  Jess’s head snapped up. “He wasn’t gunning down innocents. They were infected, they weren’t people anymore.”

  Mason shrugged, “Shooting people is shooting people.”

  “It’s not the same thing,” Ox said, slowly, deliberately. “If you’re saying it is, Mason, then you’re saying that I killed my mother.”

  “And that I killed my best friend and Rhonda’s husband,” Rudy said quietly.

  “If it is the same, then we’re all murderers,” Jess said.

  “No, no.” Mason sighed and roughed his hands down his face. “I’m not saying it is the same. All I’m saying is that the situation was, hostile, at first. He wanted to disarm us, didn’t he, Frank?”

  They all looked to Frank, who nodded. “It’s true. It wasn’t a neighborhood welfare check. It was forced relocation. A marshaling and disarming of the non-infected populace. I’m still stunned that he let us go.”

  “Yes, exactly,” Mason said. “I didn’t know if the guy was half-cracked or what—”

  “And you let him take Angel…” Jess said. Her voice held an edge.

  “I give up, I can’t win!” Mason threw his hands up, exasperated.

  “This is stupid,” Sam said. “Like he said, you weren’t there. Mason and your father have had to make the tough calls. I won’t say I’ve agreed with everything but I don’t envy them the burden they’ve shouldered. They’ve shown integrity and strength where a lot of people would’ve—”

  Jess rolled her eyes, “I’m not questioning his character, Sam, not now, not ever. I just want to know why he’d turn Angel over to someone like that and not tell me.”

  Frank spoke calmly. “If you’re not questioning his character, then don’t.”

  “I’m not!” She looked from her father to Mason.

  Frank went on, “I’m just saying that Mason made a decision and we need to respect that. You don’t really believe he’d put Angel in danger, do you? She was in bad shape, honey, she had to get medical attention.”

  Jess lowered her head, “No… I don’t. I just hate this. I hate those things. I hate not knowing what’s going to happen next or what those things are… or what the hell they’re doing here!”

  “I know, honey, we all do.” Frank rubbed her on the back. “So, let’s shed some light on it. Mason, you were telling us what West said, something very disturbing about the closest thing on Earth is this Gordian Worm. Does that mean they don’t think these things are from Earth?”

  Mason nodded, “Yeah, I mean, I guess. It’s crazy that I didn’t give it more thought at the time. Maybe there was too much other crap going on, or maybe I just didn’t want to consider it. He also said there was some kind of force field coming from those boxes, something that disrupted the phones and internet. Said it was playing havoc with our ability to communicate.”

  “What the hell?” Ox said. “Force field? Maybe that’s why they couldn’t blow the boxes up.”

  “Christ! What is going on here—”

  “Quiet, and don’t freak out,” Mason whispered urgently as he slowly lifted his rifle. “Behind you. At the boulders.”

  Rudy shifted to the side, looking behind Jess and out at the yard.

  “It’s one of those bloated people,” he said as they all crept inside. Rudy went to his sister, who stared, terrified, out the window. He put his finger to his lip and gently but purposefully moved her to the far side of the room.

  Frank pulled a crate to the window, using it as a stool as he aimed his rifle through a slit cut in the screen.

  “Maybe it’ll just move on,” Sam said quietly from behind Frank. As if to undermine his statement, the thing slowed and stopped. It swayed for a moment, standing in th
e gap between two boulders. Its head twitched up suddenly and it began shambling toward the cabin as fast as its girth would allow.

  A small cry of alarm escaped from Rhonda as the thing closed the distance. “It smells us! It’ll get in!”

  Frank pulled the trigger, the report small due to the barrel being out the window. An instant later, a small hole opened in the infected’s yellowing cheek. It managed two more halting steps before crashing backward onto the hardpan.

  “I had to,” Frank said as the dust settled.

  “You did right, Frank. We can’t take any chances with those things right now. Can’t take chances at all,” Mason said. “Do you see any more?”

  Frank made a quick scan of the area, shook his head no, and shifted his attention back to the one he’d just felled.

  It lay well within the rock perimeter, its body so bloated and discolored that it could have been mistaken for one of the smaller boulders or a large mound of compost. A surprisingly small amount of blood oozed from the bullet hole.

  “Jesus Christ, how is that thing able to move around? It looks fucking dead,” Jess said from beside him, abandoning the window for a better view from the door.

  “It’s fucking dead now,” Sam said and snorted.

  “If it’s dead, why does it look like it’s breathing?” Ox asked. Every head snapped to the corpse. The distended stomach spasmed briefly, a flutter of movement running under the skin, looking as if the great belly were caught in silent laughter.

  “Dear God,” Annie said and put a hand to her mouth.

  “Should we check it out, see if it’s really dead?” Ox asked.

  “You mean like go out and poke it with a stick?” Sam asked.

  “Here, I’ll find out.” Jess raised her carbine and fired. Frank was in the process of shouting for her to wait when the stomach of the corpse exploded, raining globs of flesh and ropes of thick black gore across the ground and small covered porch.

  The sound of the gunshot wasn’t as deafening as Mason had expected and it was only when he saw the others with their hands over their ears that he realized he’d covered his as well, probably as soon as Jess raised the rifle to shoot.

  “For the love of Pete, Jessica!” Frank yelled as he rose from the crate. He stuck his fingers in his ears and wiggled them, opening and closing his mouth as he did. “Tell somebody before you go blasting that thing in the house.”

  Jess shrugged, “I didn’t have mine covered, either.”

  “What in the name of God is that?” Annie said, pointing out the window. Something black and as thick as a fire hose hung over the edge of the roof. It twitched violently and slipped from the roof, landing with a heavy thud on the dirt. It snaked back and forth in the dust, leaving behind a sticky black smear. Strings of the same substance dripped from the roof.

  Jess opened the door and cautiously moved out onto the porch. “Holy shit, that was in him?”

  “Not just the one, look at what’s left of his gut,” Sam said. Mason looked and saw two of them writhing in the open cavity. These were smaller, measuring only about a foot in length.

  Rudy stepped up, “Just like Virgil….”

  Frank moved to the thing that had blown onto the roof. At his approach, the creature turned toward him and opened a circular mouth filled with rows of teeth. It lashed out quickly and latched on to the toe of Frank’s boot, working its mouth back and forth.

  Frank kicked out his leg, but the thing held fast. Jess yelled for him to be still and bashed it with the butt of her rifle, the slimy head finally popping after the third blow. Frank inspected his boot and whistled as he wriggled his socked toes against the circular hole.

  Mason glanced at Frank’s foot, but his attention kept being drawn back to the squelching sounds coming from the corpse’s blown-open stomach and the things twisting inside.

  “Give it a moment, let’s see what happens,” Rudy said as he toed the corpse without fear.

  Jessica moved beside him and looked into the gooey cavity. A long stick had materialized in her hand.

  “Hold this for me, Ox,” she said and handed off her AR-15. She prodded the cavity, causing the creatures to slide out onto the ground, where they writhed and thrashed, searching for a new host.

  Their mouths tore at the curious stick, shearing off chips until their movements slowed and finally stopped. Five minutes later, there was nothing left of the smaller creatures but a sticky sludge that resembled a melted inner tube.

  Rudy returned to the larger one near the porch, intact except for its caved-in head.

  Sam scratched at his stubbly cheek, “The smaller ones dissolved. I wonder why?”

  “I don’t care why, just as long as it’s not making that sickening sound anymore,” Mason said. “And speaking of noises, does anyone else hear music… and someone singing?”

  They all cocked their heads in the direction of the water.

  “For Christ’s sake, what now?” Sam asked.

  Jess held out her hand without taking her eyes off the lake. “Gun, please.”

  The Water

  Ox slapped Jess’s AR-15 into her hand as the others armed themselves quickly and quietly.

  “Frank, you want to glass the area with that scope?” Sam asked as he popped the mag from his rifle, checked it and reseated it.

  Frank nodded. “Might be a good idea for you all to grab some cover. If we haven’t been spotted yet, I’d rather they didn’t know our strength.”

  Rudy moved to the door of the cabin. “Frank, if it’s no imposition, I could really stand to be armed myself. And with something that has a bit more reach than my Single Action Army.”

  Without dropping his eye from the scope, Frank answered him. “Ask Annie to open up the armory for you, take whatever you’re comfortable with. There are at least three thousand rounds for each caliber, so don’t worry about ammo.”

  Rudy turned to head inside, a huge grin on his face, and then stopped abruptly. “Tell the women and kids to stay out of sight?”

  Frank nodded. “Just tell Annie that something is up and she’ll take care of them. Oh, you can arm your sister too, if you think she can handle it.”

  “I’ll hang in the cabin, out of sight,” Sam said. “Just give the word if you need me.”

  Tense minutes passed. Frank saw nothing over the water but a couple ducks and the occasional fish breaking the surface. His arms started to cramp and his open eye was watering badly. When he’d been in the outbuilding, he’d noticed a three-foot-tall deathtrap of a stepladder and wondered now if he should get it and attempt to lay prone on top of one of the bigger boulders surrounding the cabin.

  He was just about to lower his rifle and ask someone to run and get the ladder when he caught a flash of white and chrome rounding a bend in the body of the lake. He went quickly to a knee, motioning to the others that he saw something.

  “What is it?” It was Jess asking.

  “Boat,” Frank breathed. “Here’s another… and another.”

  He heard Rudy approach the doorway and slide around the corner of the cabin. The guy didn’t move like a rancher. Frank thought he’d have to ask the man if he’d ever served.

  “Boats?” Rudy asked, hushed. “How many… wait, I see ‘em. Looks like their headed for this side of the shoreline, up from us a few clicks. Think they could make any more noise?” Rudy snorted his disgust.

  Now Jess moved closer in, crouching beside him. “Is that music coming from a radio? I don’t hear that static.”

  “It must be a CD. I doubt they heard the gunshots, as loud as it’s cranked,” Rudy said.

  “Think they’ve spotted the cabin yet?” She asked at an almost conversational volume.

  “Don’t think so, but if they keep this heading they probably will soon,” Frank said. After the words left his mouth it became clear that they may have to defend themselves against these people. That these people may have bad intentions, that they may want to rape and take and kill. The man at the bow of the first boat h
ad a rifle slung against his chest in an almost casual way. Frank had the man’s head cleanly in his crosshairs. It would be easy.

  He mulled this realization over abstractly, the realization that it would be easy to make the first move, the first strike, to take control of the situation for once. It could all start right here and he would be the catalyst. No more hiding and hoping that people were good and just, no more waiting to be proven wrong and then set about burying the dead strangers, the dead daughter. To start the fight and then finish it before they even knew what hit them. These thoughts circled and curled around each other as his finger twitched from the trigger guard to rest longingly on the trigger.

  “Dad, what is it?” Jess asked, shaking him back. He moved his finger back along the trigger guard and realized he was smiling. He lowered the weapon to his knee, wiped at his face and then turned to Rudy.

  “What do you think?”

  “They could be folks fleeing from the infected, or whatever this thing is,” Rudy said with a shrug. “But, I’ve been wrong before. Brother have I.”

  “So have I,” Frank said and then angrily slapped the side of his leg. “See, this is what I hate. Are they just folks like us, folks on the run, looking for a safe place? Or are they like some of the others we’ve come across?”

  “It’s hard to say, Frank. Bad situations make people do bad things. Or maybe it’s that bad situations make it easier for bad people to do bad things. Regardless, I think the thing we should be asking ourselves is, which are they?”

  “You know, I’m quickly losing my ability to give a crap,” Frank said.

  “Dad, this might not be the best time, but I don’t think we should give them a chance to surprise us.”

  “What are you suggesting, Jess?”

  “Instead of crouching behind these rocks and hiding, we stand out in full view. That way they’ll know we’ve seen them and aren’t to be screwed with. They won’t know how many people we have waiting, behind cover, armed.”