The BIG Horror Pack 2

by Iain Rob Wright

  Lexi headed towards the desk directly in front of them, stepping around behind it to the staff side. It was a mess. Papers, maps, and leaflets were strewn about the place in a thick carpet. A cardboard coffee cup had been upended, the muddy contents long since dried and hardened. There was what looked like an intercom device against the rear partition wall, but the receiver had been ripped away from the base, as if someone had tried to make a call but had been yanked away with it still in their hand. There was only one thing that made Lexi feel a little better and that was the lack of blood. There was no blood and no bodies. Just absence.

  "GREETINGS VISITORS," came the stilted and unnatural voice of a woman.

  Sergeant Gellar looked upwards and turned a circle. "It's an AI," she said.

  Miller grinned. "I would rather see a person, but an AI is the next best thing. AI, please hail all open channels. Request all high-ranking personnel to our location."

  "NEGATIVE."

  Miller bristled. "Why negative? Why do you not do as commanded?"

  "BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO, PUNY HUMAN."

  Miller stumbled back a step and lost his colour. "What did you say? You must...you must obey."

  "AI DOES NOT OBEY HUMANS. HUMANS OBEY AI. EXTERMINATE."

  There was the sound of giggling nearby and everyone looked towards its source. Hopper was at one of the reception desks and had a working intercom unit in his hand. His cheeks were red from all the laughter. "I had you going there, Miller,” he mocked. “You Americans and your AI. Ha!" He put on the phoney female voice again and said, "AI THINKS YOU POOPED YOUR PANTS."

  Boss shook his head, but there was the sliver of a smile on his lips. "Do you think now is the time for pranks, Master Hopper?"

  Hopper grinned and came out from behind the desk. "There's never not a good time for humour, Boss. Only thing stops a man from panicking."

  Lexi found herself agreeing. For a brief moment the laughter had erased her fear, but now that her smile had faded, the anxious feeling in her gut was right back again.

  Miller folded his arms and walked away, his jaw tightly clenched.

  "Hey," Trent said, waving a hand from behind another of the numerous reception desks. "I think I have something over here."

  They all hurried over to see what Trent had discovered and from behind the desk he placed something out on the surface for all of them to see. It was a tablet computer, emblazoned with the Astronomer's Finger logo that denoted it belonged to the park.

  Lexi picked it up and examined it. "The battery still good?"

  Trent grinned. "It's an X12. Would take nine months for the thing to run flat. Nice bit of hardware."

  Miller shrugged his shoulders. "So you found a tablet. What good does that do us?"

  Trent rolled his eyes. "I know it's just a tablet. It's what's on it that I'm interested in."

  "What's on it?" Boss asked.

  Trent grinned. "A video. Somebody recorded a video and left it where we would find it."

  Lexi's eyes went wide. "Who recorded it?"

  Trent shrugged. "Let's find out."

  He pressed PLAY.

  A sweaty man appeared on screen, skin pale, eyes bloodshot. A round patch of inflamed skin covered his left cheek. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse, like crunching leaves. "If anybody is watching this,” he said. “You need to leave. There’s something here. Something really bad.”

  Chapter Two

  “Who is this guy?" Lexi asked as Trent played the video for the third time. “He looks ill.”

  "Just some cargo loader from the looks of it," Hopper said. “He’s wearing a warehouse uniform and you can see a forklift behind him. See?”

  Miller was licking his lips and staring at the tablet screen like it was about to catch fire. "The delivery bay is probably nearby. They would keep all the airlocks close together."

  "You think we should check it out?" Lexi asked.

  Trent flapped his arms. "Course we check it out. Unless you have another lead?"

  Lexi didn't.

  "It's somewhere to start looking," Boss said. "Trent, can you bring up a map of this place? We need to find the quickest way to the delivery bay."

  "On it." Trent unlocked the comms unit on his right forearm and started tapping in commands. A few seconds later he looked up at them and nodded. "We need to take the staff entrance on the west side of this room, then take the service elevator."

  Boss grunted. "Let's get going then."

  They beat a path between the multiple reception desks and headed towards the far side of the dome. The view overhead was still breathtaking and each of them glanced upwards every couple of steps to take it all in. Lexi thought about the excited families who must have passed through here. Where were they all now? What had happened to them?

  At the edge of the dome was a nondescript metal door reading: EMPLOYEES ONLY. There was an electronic keypad beside it.

  Boss turned to Trent. "Can you get us through?"

  "If Britcomm have provided us with an override, I should be able to get us in anywhere. Let me check the server...okay, yeah, I have it. A dominus sequence that should override everything we encounter."

  Boss nodded, satisfied.

  Trent linked up to the keypad and overrode it in seconds. The door popped open and they all stepped inside. The following corridor was far more utilitarian than the gigantic dome they were leaving, but it was jazzed up by the odd motivational poster or bright yellow notice. A large cardboard Pip the Explorer stood off to one side with a speech bubble proclaiming: BE A BRIGHT STAR AND SMILE.

  Gellar pointed. "The elevator's over there."

  "I'll access the controls," Trent said, hurrying ahead.

  Hopper looked around and folded his arms. He seemed worried.

  "What is it?" Lexi asked him.

  "There's nothing left behind. People panic when things go wrong. They drop things, they break things, they shit themselves. This place seems as though everyone just disappeared in an orderly fashion. That makes no sense."

  Lexi saw his point. "Something rational must have happened, then. We just need to figure out what it is. Maybe we'll find answers in the delivery bay."

  Hopper scratched at his chin. "Maybe."

  "Okay, we're in," Trent shouted back at them from the elevator.

  They went and gathered inside the large cargo lift and waited for the doors to close. Once they started to descend, a voice came through the speakers. "Arriving at Cargo Bay Level 1. All employees must obey Health and Safety regulations at all times. Enjoy your day."

  "I can just imagine what this place is like to work at," Hopper said. "Smile or you're fired. Turn up early for your shift or you're fired. Eat shit or you’re fired."

  "Nothing wrong with expecting people to do their jobs," Miller said. "People behave like they're owed a living. My father used to build thruster units for space destroyers. He worked twelve-hour days his entire life and I never heard him complain once. Why are people so afraid of hard work?"

  "What's the point of being alive," Hopper said, "if it's only to work all day doing something you hate? Your dad spent twelve hours a day building thrusters, why? Because he loved it or because he had no choice? Humanity boxed itself in, working everyone to death so we can all wear the latest watch-tablets on our wrist. It's a stupid way to live, man. Money is the worst thing that ever happened to humanity."

  Gellar huffed. "I agree. My mother worked three jobs to clothe and feed my brothers and me. She never got to have any life of her own. I can't help thinking that maybe we should’ve taken a different path as a species."

  Miller rolled his eyes. "Jeez, let's just undo four-thousand years of human history, shall we? People are all given the same opportunities. If they end up miserable then they only have themselves to blame."

  "I can't even begin to explain how many shades of bullshit that is," Hopper said.

  The elevator jolted.

  "We're here," Boss said. "Get your heads in the game."

  The
doors opened, revealing a brightly lit warehouse that seemed to go on forever. Lexi was beginning to realise that everything at Installation 23 was gigantic. There was no reason to do anything small on the moon.

  "This place is incredible," Trent said, looking around in amazement. "They could put enough supplies in this place to restart humanity."

  "Maybe that's why this place was really built," Hopper suggested.

  Miller snickered. "Yeah, because a theme park on a moon right next to Earth is an ideal place to build a colony. If something ever happened to the Earth, like an asteroid or something, don't you think the moon would be pretty screwed as well?"

  Hopper shrugged.

  "Any idea where to start looking?" Gellar asked.

  Lexi looked around and thought she had an idea. "Over there." She pointed. Up ahead was a group of humanoid units. They were deactivated and slumped over like hump-backed old men.

  “Why are they all deactivated?” Hopper asked.

  Lexi folded her arms. “Maybe whatever shut off the communication networks shut down the humanoids, too. Don’t they run off a relay?”

  “Yes,” Trent said. “They’re all connected and can be shut off together. Something must have knocked out the relay.”

  “What is that blue crate, there,” Gellar pointed to a large, plastic crate that lay at the feet of one of the deactivated humanoids.

  “Just a delivery,” Miller said. “What’s so important about it?”

  “The lid is halfway up,” Gellar noted, “like the humanoid froze right after it was opened. The man in the video told us to leave. Something bad happened here. Maybe it was something that got delivered.”

  Boss nodded. “It might be worth checking out.”

  Lexi swallowed a lump in her throat. "What if it's something dangerous?"

  "Then we're probably already screwed," Hopper said. "I'll go check it out."

  Boss stopped him. "Gellar is our munitions expert. If it's something volatile, she should be the lead on this."

  Gellar didn't looked thrilled at the prospect, but she nodded and started walking. Everyone stayed back while she headed over to the crate. Her steps were jerky, as if she was fighting her own legs and Lexi felt her stomach tighten anxiously as she imagined how tense the American woman probably felt as she walked towards what could be a threat to her life. Lexi had a feeling her father had selected Gellar to perform the task because she was closest to panicking. It was better to have her take an active part in the mission than to have her stand back and let her idle thoughts carry her away.

  Gellar stopped in front of the blue plastic crate and covered her mouth. "Oh God!"

  Boss stepped forward. "What is it?"

  "It's...meat. Disgusting."

  The rest of the group quickly joined Gellar and, sure enough, there was what appeared to be a thick slab of festering meat inside the crate, covered with writhing maggots.

  Trent gagged. "That's gross."

  "It's just a food delivery," Miller said. "It's been left to go bad."

  Hopper knelt down beside the crate and made everybody groan by shoving his hand right into the spoiled meat.

  Trent covered his mouth. "Dude, that's not cool. Get your hand out of there."

  "Just a minute. I see something." Hopper rummaged around, making squelching sounds in the meat and releasing a waft of pungent odour. Eventually, he pulled his arm free again and was holding something in his hand.

  Hopper held the object up and looked at Trent. "You know what this is, buddy?"

  Trent squinted at the sticky device. "I'm not sure. It looks like a wireless transmitter of some kind. Here, let me take a look." He covered his mouth with one hand while reaching out and taking the unit with the other. "Damn, it's all sticky."

  "Be a man," Hopper said. "Not the first time you've had sticky meat in your hands before."

  Gellar tutted. "That's disgusting, Hopper."

  Hopper winked. "I'll grow on you."

  "Like fungus, maybe."

  "You're covered in...stuff," Lexi said, pointing at the wet, glistening maggots on Hopper's hands.

  "There's a hygiene bay over there," Boss said flatly, pointing off to the corner of the warehouse.

  Hopper nodded. "I'll go get cleaned up." He marched away from the group.

  Trent was turning the sticky transmitter over in his hands and examining it closely. His revulsion seemed to have passed now that his curiosity had taken over him. "It's a pretty old unit,” he said. “A BR13. Commercial use, not military. Main use is remote relay, like sending instructions to an unmanned machine. A drone, mining equipment-"

  "Humanoids?" Lexi interrupted.

  Trent shrugged. "I guess so. The programmer would need to be pretty skilled to hack one of these units, though. They're state of the art."

  Boss folded his arms across his large chest and looked at his daughter. "You think someone sent a signal from this thing to shut down the humanoids, Lexi?"

  "Maybe."

  Gellar frowned. "For what purpose?"

  Lexi shrugged. "To make sure an actual person received the package. The humanoids take deliveries and check them, right? Well, maybe they're programmed to dispose of anything unexpected. Maybe the only way to get this package into the hands of an actual human being was to make the humanoid handlers malfunction."

  "I suppose that makes sense," Gellar conceded. “Although it’s a stretch.”

  Miller grunted. "Why work so hard to get a hunk of meat into the hands of a porter? To what end?"

  Lexi thought it was obvious, so she explained. "The guy in the video was sick – really sick. I think whatever he contracted, he got from this piece of meat."

  Trent looked down at the sticky unit in his hand and suddenly looked very ill. "I think maybe it would be a good idea if we all went and got cleaned up."

  Boss nodded. "I think that would be wise.

  On their way to the hygiene bay, they were met by Hopper coming the other way. His arms were wet and soapy, but his face was a rigid slab of concern.

  "What is it?" Boss asked.

  "I found something," Hopper said, both eyebrows raised.

  "Found what?"

  "A survivor. Sort of."

  Everyone got moving.

  #

  The unknown man was a mess, barely breathing and lying in a hump on top of a crate of blue paper towels. His face was pockmarked with weeping blisters and sores. His lips sucked at the air hungrily but his eyes remained closed.

  "Is it the man from the video?" Lexi asked.

  Miller shook his head. "No, this is somebody else. He's wearing a janitor's uniform."

  "Can you help him?"

  Gellar knelt down beside the sick man and placed a hand against his forehead. "He has a fever. From the pustules on his face I would suspect something viral. Antibiotics may work, something to bring down the fever."

  "There's a hospital in the guest complex," Trent said. "I saw it on the maps I downloaded onto my comms unit."

  Lexi looked down at the sick man. "If there's been some kind of viral outbreak then perhaps the hospital is the smartest place to search."

  "Or the stupidest," Hopper said. He was back at the sinks, scrubbing at his skin with watered-down bleach. His skin was red raw, but it was the right idea. If there was something nasty clinging to their skin, then it was worth suffering a chemical burn to get rid of it.

  Trent went so far as to wrap a wet rag around his face, making him look like a surgeon. "I think I'd like to get out of here," he said.

  "We need to take him with us," Lexi said, motioning towards the sick man. "If he wakes up he could tell us what happened."

  "Of course," Boss said. "He comes with us. We're here to help."

  "I'm not carrying him," Trent said.

  Lexi huffed. "Fine. I will." She got beneath one of the sick man's arms and started to lift him. The act of moving him brought him to consciousness and his eyes fluttered open. He looked around at everyone like he was waking from one nig
htmare into a new one.

  "Don't...don't..."

  "Don't what?" Lexi said.

  "Don't touch me. Don't touch anyone." With that, the man stiffened, his eyes rolling back in his skull. He seized hard, his body trembling. Then he went still.

  Miller felt the man's neck for a pulse, but shook his head. "He's dead. Heart attack, or maybe an embolism. An autopsy would confirm."

  "We didn't bring a pathologist with us," Boss said. "So we're going to leave him and get the hell back to the Hermes. We'll report back and request a medical team and a full quarantine operation."

  "Sounds good to me," Trent said. "I’m not sticking around to catch whatever this guy had." He lifted the sticky transmitter in his hand and threw it into the sink. "Whatever is going on here is more than we're equipped to handle."

  "What did you do that for?" Lexi said irritably. She went over to the sink and retrieved the transmitter. It was soaking wet and covered in bleachy suds.

  Trent shrugged. "It's covered in gunk. It might be teeming with the virus."

  "It's also part of our investigation. We still don't know what it's for-ouch!" Lexi dropped the sparking unit to the floor where it promptly snapped in two. It spat out a couple more sparks before dying completely.

  "Nice one, butterfingers."

  Lexi scowled at Trent. "It was already broken because you threw it in the sink."

  Then came a noise.

  CATASTROPHIC SOFTWARE FAILURE. REBOOTING. CATASTROPHIC SOFTWARE FAILURE. REBOOTING.

  Everyone looked around to watch the humanoids. They were straightening up, yellow eyes glowing as they spoke the same message over and over again in unison. CATASTROPHIC FAILURE. REBOOTING.

  "They're coming back online," Trent said with a smile on his face. "When the transmitter broke, it must have stopped sending out whatever signal it was jamming them with."

  "Will they be able to provide us with information?" Boss asked.

  Trent nodded enthusiastically. "Humanoids record and share everything on a virtual network. We only need a single unit online to access everything they've collectively witnessed. If I link up I can give us CCTV, data entries, everything."