by J. C. Diem
Returning to the craft, I popped back into the cockpit. “Take the wheel,” I told Igor and the crowd shifted to allow him to comply. Following the instructions that I’d picked up from the commander, I pushed a few buttons, pulled a lever then pushed a final button that was hidden beneath the console. The boat rumbled to life and surged towards the gates. Igor smoothly piloted us out into the dark water. If I’d been behind the wheel, I’d probably have scraped the boat against the gates on the way out. The gap was fairly narrow and I had limited experience in piloting boats. The one and only time that I’d ever used one had resulted in a messy and painful shipwreck.
Sorting through the information that I’d skimmed from the captain, I flicked another switch and a radar screen came to life on the console. It had a wide range and picked up on several nearby vessels, as well as the octosquid.
Our target was still moving slowly but inexorably towards land but I knew it was capable of moving much faster when it was hunting for food. Sometime in the next couple of hours, we would have our first encounter with an alien behemoth.
·~·
Chapter Seventeen
Thanks to the knowledge that I’d picked out of the captain’s head, I knew we’d have more than enough fuel to reach our quarry. Shadow had been built for both stealth and speed. Being all black, it vaguely reminded me of the Viltaran seeker ship that had carried us back to our home planet.
There wasn’t enough room for everyone in the cockpit. We were crammed in so tightly that were was no room to move. There was room to store cargo down below. The boat had been designed for a crew of thirty, not two hundred. Some of the men will have to move below. Gregor had the same thought as me and directed two thirds of the soldiers to file down the short flight of stairs to give us some more room.
Extra weapons had been brought along and were handed over to my four new recruits. Higgins quickly gave them a tutorial on how to use them. I’d noticed some of the men carrying rectangular silver containers but I didn’t ask what was inside. Igor had overseen the distribution of their gear, so they were no doubt weapons of some kind.
It was a tense voyage with little small talk being exchanged. It was storming and lightning occasionally gave bursts of blinding white light that seared my eyes. The sky was low and heavy rain made it difficult to distinguish between the clouds and the ocean.
Everyone was tense and unsure of exactly what we’d be facing. We seven survivors of Viltar were the only ones who’d ever seen an octosquid. Even when they’d been roughly man-sized, they’d been terrifying to behold. I’d seen two of them after they’d been converted into imps and they’d become much uglier with their transformations. The ten that we’d be battling would be much larger in size than the octosquid imps.
From what I’d garnered from the mind of the behemoth that we were approaching, they wouldn’t consider us to be a threat. We were simply too small and too few in number to be of any concern to them, or so they’d think.
Their planet had been discovered by the Viltarans after the war mongers had all but destroyed their own home. Mostly made up of water and with little land, it was useless to the invaders. They’d opted to steal some young and then to blast the entire planet apart rather than attempt to conquer a species that was so immense in size.
Ten of the captives had escaped and had grown to maturity in the caves of the poisoned planet of Viltar. Adult in mind only, their size had been limited by the small pools of water that had been available. They had only been able to grow to their true potential after making their way to Earth. Now that they finally had access to food and water, they’d rapidly increased in size. With their larger size, their appetites had become prodigious and they required vast quantities of food. They’d doomed not just us but also themselves by choosing our planet to be their new home. They were aware of this but they were reluctant to attack their few allies. It would only take another few weeks to completely deplete the water of food and then they would have to change their minds about sharing the planet. They knew food could be found on land, but none had ventured forth into the coastal towns or cities yet.
Passing a vaguely familiar lighthouse that sat on the tip of a promontory, a chill of recognition raced down my spine when Kokoro pointed at a vessel in the water to our left. Light swept across the submarine from my dream. Their radar would shortly pick up on the creature that was gliding towards us both. The octosquid rapidly grew larger on the screen in front of me and the blip that belonged to the submarine quickly fell behind us as we motored past them.
I didn’t need to send out my senses to track the beast, the radar did the job for me. Our quarry felt no alarm when we came within whatever passed for its senses. The alien lacked eyes, but seemed to rely on its own version of radar. It knew that, within the shell of this boat, a bunch of tasty treats awaited. What it didn’t know was that the tasty treats were armed and were ready to blast it apart, or to die trying. It also had no way of knowing that we weren’t edible at all and that most of us would disintegrate upon death, leaving it unsatisfied and as ravenous as ever.
Kokoro was the first to spot the distant colossus. She made an incredulous sound that drew my friends forward. Curiosity had me peering through the rain lashed window. The storm made it difficult to see anything. Then lightning flared, helpfully illuminating our prey.
Geordie’s mouth dropped open in dismay as he squinted up at the creature. “It’s…” Lost for words, he trailed off.
“Gargantuan,” Ishida said on behalf of his friend.
I’m not sure our current weapons will be enough to destroy a creature that large, Gregor thought and my spirits plummet. Gregor was adept at estimating our odds of success. If he didn’t think we’d be able to take the monster down then we were most likely doomed.
Have some faith, my inner voice said with a large dose of scorn. Fate believes you can win, so don’t give up before you’ve even tried! Once again, my alter ego was correct. I had a job to do and I had to trust that fate knew what it was doing by putting us in this situation. We weren’t alone this time and we had a small army to back us up. “It might be big, but it’s still made of flesh and blood,” I reminded everyone.
Taking heart from my calm encouragement, the mood changed from despair to cautious optimism. I was their leader and they looked to me for inspiration. For a moment, I had to resist the urge to cackle wildly. I’d once been a clothing store manager and now I was Queen of the Undead. The only thing I’d ever been able to inspire people to do before was to buy an extra shirt along with their new jeans.
Picking up on my mood, Geordie grinned uncertainly. He blinked in surprise when I pulled him in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “What was that for?”
“Just because I wanted to.”
Instantly sentimental, he hugged me hard. “I am so glad that you turned out to be Mortis, Natalie.”
Again, I felt the urge to shriek with laughter. “Why?”
“Could you imagine what our lives would have been like if the Comtesse had been Mortis?” he said darkly.
I wasn’t the only one to cringe at the thought. “Mucia would have made the entire planet an utter misery to live on,” Luc said.
I smiled at his audacity to use the name that the praying mantis had hated so much. To do so in her presence would have been a death sentence. I’d made very sure that no human or vampire would ever endure her cruel leadership ever again. As long as I was in charge, none of my kin would suffer beneath a tyrant. Of course, I wasn’t sure how many of us would survive once we clashed with the colossus before us. I hadn’t forgotten that it was only the first of ten new and dangerous adversaries.
It was difficult to predict how the octosquid would react when we came within its reach. There was a distinct possibility that it would snatch up our boat and rip it in half, just as it had done to the submarine in my dream.
My fears proved to be groundless as the monster moved down lower in the water. Several men swore beneath their non-existent bre
ath when a split appeared in the mass of black flesh. Darkness enveloped us as we glided inside its maw. Once we were inside, I shut off the engine and we coasted to a stop.
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then the creature swallowed and our boat tilted sharply downwards before sliding down a long throat that was so wide we couldn’t see the sides of it. Shadow was buffeted from side to side then we all braced ourselves as best as we could when a vast pool of liquid appeared below. Instead of bursting apart when we hit the surface, our boat speared into the depths. Ishida was thrown onto the window and grimaced as his skull cracked. Thankfully, the window was made of a durable material and didn’t shatter. The boat was watertight, so we remained safe and dry but shouts of alarm rang out from the men below as they were tossed about.
Gregor helped the former emperor to his feet as Shadow righted itself and bobbed to the surface. Geordie screwed up his face at the quiet sound of Ishida’s skull crackling back into place.
“Are you alright?” Kokoro asked the teen.
“I am fine,” Ishida replied. A smear of black blood on the window was proof that he’d been injured.
“If you were human, you’d probably be dead,” Higgins said in wonder.
“Then it is a very good thing that I am not human,” Ishida replied. He’d left humanity behind so long ago now that I doubted he even remembered what it felt like to be an ordinary mortal.
“Can we all heal that quickly?” Charlie asked.
Gregor fielded that one. “We seven heal far more quickly than is normal for our kind, but you will all have the capacity to heal almost any wound fairly rapidly.”
“Unless something is chopped off,” Geordie piped up. “Then you can kiss that part of your anatomy goodbye forever.”
Higgins’ eyebrow went up at the teen’s cheerful explanation. “That’s good to know.”
Silence descended as I fired up the engine again and we motored through utter darkness. A shape appeared in the distance and Igor steered us towards it.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Geordie asked in a shocked whisper when we drew close enough to make out the numerous objects.
All around us, boats, ships and other vessels floated in various states of rust and ruin. I was pretty sure the boat from one of my dreams was to our left. Peering through the window, I could just make out decaying skeletons lying on the deck. In my dream, I’d stood amongst the pitiful corpses. I was glad to be distant from them this time.
“It’s a ship graveyard,” Higgins observed. His stare was pitying as he spied the bodies on the boat to our left. “We need to take these creatures down as fast as possible.”
I agreed with my first servant, but our goal was somewhere above us and we had no easy way of reaching it. I could have tried to teleport us all directly into the mammoth’s brain but, for all I knew, it might be highly toxic and could strip our flesh from our bones upon contact. We needed to find a way to climb up to it and examine it carefully instead of rushing in blindly to the attack.
Igor was way ahead of me and rummaged around in a large metal container he’d had two of the men bring along. He held a pair of grappling hooks and extra-long ropes in both hands. “I thought these might come in handy.” As always, his practical nature came to the fore.
“Smart thinking,” I told him gratefully. He handed them both to me and I pushed open a hatch and stepped outside onto the small deck at the back of the boat. The smell of stomach juices, rotting meat and salt water hit me and I blocked the odour as well as I could. Geordie made a small sound of disgust and clapped a hand over his mouth and nose. We no longer needed to breathe, but our sense of smell had actually become heightened with our unholy deaths.
Even with my strength, I’d never be able to throw the hooks high enough to lodge them in the upper lining of the octosquid’s stomach. Instead, I broke myself down into particles, keeping only my head and hands whole. Kokoro picked up my empty clothing and folded them neatly for me as I drifted upwards. Already, I could feel the airborne acid eating away at my skin. All of our clothing would begin to fall apart if we remained inside the beast’s gut for too long. I didn’t want to contemplate the thought of being submersed in the stomach juices.
Using the air currents that swirled inside the cavernous stomach, I floated upwards until I reached the eggplant coloured stomach lining. I doubted the octosquid even felt it when I drove first one then the second grappling hook deep inside its flesh. Several tugs anchored the hooks and I let the ropes drop. They fell far short of the boat, but I was hoping Igor would have more ropes to add to them. He did, and had them waiting for me. Taking them, I floated back up and tied them securely to the dangling ropes. They were now just long enough to reach the grasping hands below.
Returning for my clothing, I poured myself back into them as everyone lined up into two neat rows. The men below waited patiently for their turn to ascend the ropes. Fully dressed again, I settled my swords across my back then moved to the first rope. Luc moved to the one beside me and we began to climb in tandem.
It was a far slower process to climb rather than to float as particles, but we still made it to the top fairly quickly. Luc withdrew one of my swords from its sheath and I took the other. He made the first cut into the wall of flesh and dark purple blood sheeted from the wound. It smelled faintly like aniseed, but it wasn’t caustic so we worked together to chop out a passage that was large enough for us to climb into.
Carving our way upwards at an angle, we hacked out a small tunnel through what seemed to be a mixture of blubber and flesh. In pairs, our army followed behind us. It took far longer than I’d anticipated before we reached a thick membrane. The casing was semi-opaque and I could just make out a gigantic shape through it. My sword cut through the skin easily enough and I carved out a hole that was large enough for even the tallest of us to be able to step through.
I took a moment to peer upward through the opening. The octosquid’s brain towered high above us. As tall as a ten-story building, it stretched out as far as I could see to each side. A rather pretty lavender colour, it pulsed, as if moving in synch with a heartbeat. Natural tunnels ran haphazardly through the organ, reminding me of narrow alleyways in a dangerous city.
Geordie wormed his way through the crowd to stand beside me. I moved aside so he could also peer through the tear that I’d made. “Is that its brain?” His expression was awed. It looked nothing like our brains. Instead of being roughly oval in shape, it sat flat on the flesh beneath us. With irregular peaks and troughs, it reminded me of the ruined cities of Viltar. If I squinted hard enough, the quivering purple mass almost looked like crumbling buildings.
“Yep.” We examined the gigantic blob through the window-like membrane. “It’s even bigger than I’d expected,” I conceded after a few moments of stunned amazement from those who had joined us and had jostled in closer to take a look.
Gregor grimaced at the purple blood that had ruined his suit then turned his attention to the problem at hand. He was hopeful that we’d be able to take down the beast by targeting the brain but a few doubts still remained. He was careful to keep them to himself. “I suggest you carve a path directly to the centre of the creature’s brain and then we can begin to blast it apart with our weapons and explosives.”
It was the type of plan I liked best; simple and direct. Still holding the sword with a lion carved on the blade, Luc took the lead and stepped through the opening that I’d carved. He headed for the closest narrow pathway and I followed behind him. When it began curving away from the centre of the brain, Luc sliced into the tissue. While it looked tough on the outside, the organ was soft and squishy inside. It didn’t take us anywhere near as long as we’d anticipated to reach the rough centre of the target.
Motioning us to stay back, Igor fired his gun and sent several explosive rounds deep into the tissue. They blasted out a cavity that was large enough to fit half a dozen men inside. The Russian picked several soldiers to help him widen the blast zone. W
ithin minutes, they’d created a space that was large enough for all of us to fit inside.
Forming a circle, we chose a spot, faced outwards and fired almost in unison. The octosquid shuddered when a large portion of its brain ceased to exist. Hope and delight flashed across Gregor’s face and he began to grin when he realized we might be successful after all. We might be small in size and number, but we’d already caused enough damage for the behemoth to be bothered by it.
Each of my warriors carried a gun and a bag of explosives, for those who preferred to throw a bomb instead of shooting. Igor gave my soldiers the order they’d been waiting for. “Let’s blow this creature apart!”
Standing in a circle with our backs to each other, we followed his command.
·~·
Chapter Eighteen
Aiming high, we blasted great holes in the purple jelly-like tissue. Another shudder from the beast knocked some of us down and we paused for a moment before resuming shooting or throwing explosives. I winced as the octosquid let out a mental shriek that reverberated inside my skull. Shutting down my ability to read minds, I concentrated on working my way deeper into the hulking lilac coloured mass.
Sudden blows rained down on the monster, throwing us all to the ground. The octosquid knew that it had been invaded, even if it didn’t know by what. It was trying to tear its own flesh apart to get to us.
“It’s working!” I shouted to encourage the others.
We redoubled our efforts and continued to pummel away at it. Each bullet that we fired was actually a small, compact grenade that exploded after a short three second delay. Each one blasted a twenty foot wide swathe through the soft purple matter. Multiply that by a hundred rounds per person, spread out over two hundred people and we were meting out significant damage. I should have trusted fate. It knew we’d be able to kill these things. It might be harsh at times, but fate needed us and it wasn’t going to send us out on a fool’s errand.
