The girl looked at him oddly. Her entire form shimmered and the air around her wavered. For a moment, Hale saw a hideous creature with sharp teeth and long claws. He stared, blinked, and then Kaley was Kaley again. Human.
“Daddy,” she said again, flatly.
Hale was shaking, unsure of what the hell had just happened. His anxiety level was high, he knew, but high enough to see things that weren’t real? He was losing it.
“Daddy,” she said again, then tilted her head like a confused canine.
“Something’s not right with her, Chief,” Newton said.
Hale jumped before quickly getting a hold of himself. He’d forgotten all about Newton. He glanced at him and nearly choked. The man was pointing his gun at the girl. Hale shoved his sidearm into his holster with lightning speed, then placed a hand on Newton’s and lowered it. “Are you nuts?” he asked. Anger coursed through him. “She’s a kid.”
Newton’s eyes remained on the girl. “I saw your face, Chief. You saw what I saw.”
Hale’s fury vanished at hearing the man’s words. “What are you talking about?” There was no way Newton has seen the girl turn into that thing.
Newton’s face went slack, his jaw dropping. He looked frightened. “Look,” he said, stiffening. “She just changed again. That ain’t no girl, Chief.” He went to raise his weapon, but Hale put a hand on Newton’s sidearm and stepped in front of him. He couldn’t have his officer pointing a gun at the girl, risk her getting shot. No kid was dying on his watch. Not again.
“I want you to wait outside,” Hale said. “That’s an order.” He turned around, wanting to make sure the girl was all right, when the breath hitched in his chest. The girl was gone. The creature he’d glimpsed took her place. The thing’s body shimmered again and Kaley was back.
Hale had no idea what was going on, but it was clear his mind was crumbling. Newton’s, too. Maybe there was some kind of toxic chemical in the air and it was affecting their minds like a drug, like LSD. The girl’s face wrinkled into a snarl. She crouched as if readying to leap. Green ooze fell from her lips. The air around her wavered and she was the creature again.
Hale found it hard to remain upright. His legs wanted to give out. His entire body was shaking. His mind was foggy, too. Coherent thought was impossible at the moment. Nothing was making sense. Newton was pushing against him now, yelling.
“It’s not the girl. It’s not her.” The young officer finally shoved Hale aside and trained his weapon on the thing.
“Daddy,” it said.
Hale snapped out of his daze and swatted Newton’s gun arm. The weapon went off, the shot deafening. Furious and needing to put his officer down, Hale wrestled for Newton’s gun. But Newton was quick and elbowed Hale in the face before shoving him away. Hale lost his balance and crashed to the floor. His mind screamed at him to get up and stop Newton from doing something horrible.
“What the hell is that thing?” Newton asked, shouting. He was pointing his gun at the girl-thing.
Hale stared at it and rubbed his eyes, hoping he’d see the girl again, but the creature remained. Its green, leathery skin seemed to absorb the moonlight coming in through the broken window. It growled and bared its pointy teeth. Green ooze continued to fall from its mouth, like thick pea soup from an overflowing pot. Hale remembered the other crime scenes and the green ooze.
“Fuck,” Newton shouted, still aiming his weapon at the creature.
Hale got to one knee. “Don’t, she’s just a girl.” He wasn’t sure he believed his own words, but the alternative was too ridiculous.
The thing sprang at Newton. He fired his gun. Hale saw a chunk of the creature’s shoulder disappear where the bullet clipped it. Then it was on Newton, the claws on its feet buried in his chest. Its clawed hands latched on to his head as it lowered its huge mouth over his face, covering him from forehead to chin. Newton’s gun went off, the shot firing wildly into the headboard. The weapon then fell from his grasp as he attempted to pry off the creature. Hale barely heard the man’s screams. Blood gushed from where the monster’s teeth bit into flesh. The scene was like something out of an Alien movie, where the extraterrestrial life form attached and wouldn’t release.
Hale stood watching. He was frozen in place. His eyes went back to where the girl had been. He hoped to see her there, the thing on Newton’s face only something conjured up by his warped mind. But the space was void of her.
Newton stumbled back and fell to the floor. The creature remained attached, growling like a Pitbull latched on to prey. Wiry muscles bulged in the thing’s neck as it worked to remove Newton’s face. The young officer’s hair and sides of his head were a sheen of glistening red. He flailed his arms and beat at the creature, but the act seemed fruitless. The thing showed no sign it was bothered.
Something clicked inside Hale and he came out of his stupor. His officer needed help. It didn’t matter if this was real or impossible, it was happening. One thing he was certain of was that Kaley was not there. No girl could do what the creature was doing.
Hale drew his sidearm and aimed it at the thing on Newton. The flesh along the side of Newton’s face and jaw was ripping, shiny muscle and skull revealed. He’d waited too long. His officer was in serious trouble.
“Get off him or I’ll blow a hole right through your fucking brain,” Hale yelled. He aimed to do just as he promised, but was afraid he’d wind up hitting Newton either directly or from ricocheting off the monster after it bounced around the inside of its skull. He thought about trying to pull the thing off, then decided on shooting it in the side. If he missed, Newton still had a chance on living, where a head shot left much less of one.
Hale pulled the Glock’s trigger. The gun fired and a hole appeared in the creature’s muscular thigh. The thing sat up as he’d hoped, but it took Newton’s face with it. The flesh tore completely free in one ragged-edged piece. It howled and the face skin that was caught in its upper row of teeth came loose and dangled from its lower jaw.
Newton was pawing at his raw, fleshless face. Both of his eyes dangled off to the sides by optical nerves. In his frantic state, a few of his fingers caught the right eye and yanked it free. The eyeball shot across the room where it disappeared in the gloom.
Hale felt bile rise and his legs go weak. The creature turned and faced Hale. It tore the dangling flesh from its maw and tossed the meat to the side. It hissed, then ran at him. Strange sounds came from its mouth as if it was cursing him.
Hale fired his gun again.
And again.
And again.
Holes appeared in the creature’s stomach and chest, but didn’t stop it, and the thing crashed into Hale. Trained in street fighting tactics, which included Aikido, Hale used the creature’s momentum against itself and managed to throw the thing to the side. He then backed away a step and aimed his gun at it.
The hideous beast lay still. Green ooze leaked from the bullet holes.
Hale hurried to Newton and knelt next to him. The officer’s body was saturated in crimson, blood gushing from the puncture wounds in his chest where the creature’s foot claws had been. The man coughed up blood. He gurgled something and then his body went limp as his head lolled to the side. Hale gently shook him, Newton’s body like a rag doll. Hale pressed his fingers to the man’s throat and checked for a pulse. “Hang on, son.” He couldn’t find one. The young officer’s chest didn’t appear to be expanding and contracting. Hale pulled the radio from his belt. “I need a bus now. Officer down. Officer down.”
“What’s happening?” Levy asked.
“Get that bus here now.”
Hale didn’t think Newton was going to make it. And even if he did…the man had no face. He supposed if he found it, put it on ice, the surgeons could put it back on. Maybe even reattach his eye. He couldn’t believe he was thinking such things.
Lowering his head to start m
outh to mouth and chest compressions, Hale heard movement from behind.
Hale spun and had his gun out in one fluid motion and saw the creature disappear out the window. A pool of green fluid remained where the monster had been. Hale ran over to the window and peered out. The creature was pushing itself up off the ground.
“Someone just jumped from the second floor,” Levy said over the radio.
Hale didn’t know how to respond—what to call the thing—and simply said, “It’s the intruder. Don’t let it escape.”
The creature was up and heading away from the house, running and staggering as if drunk. Hale had shot it point blank a number of times. It had to be on its last legs.
Hale turned back to the room, numb. He’d stumbled upon a nightmare. Fiction made real. He couldn’t hesitate. Couldn’t start pondering about any of this. He had a job to do.
Gunshots sounded from outside.
Hale flinched. His radio barked. “Officer down. Officer down. That fucking thing…It—it tore his throat out.”
Hale bolted from the room, radio in hand. “What the hell is going on out there?”
“The intru—that thing got away,” said Levy. “We shot at it, but it moved so fast. It came right at Dalton and attacked him like some rabid dog.”
“What the hell is going on, Chief?” Keller asked.
“Don’t let it get away,” Hale hollered, hoping Officer Dalton was all right. He flew down the stairs and made it out of the house within seconds. He spotted a group of his officers by the tree line and ran over to them. Dalton lay with his throat torn out to his spinal column, his head barely attached. A splattering of puke lay a few feet from the corpse. Officer Hank Fuller was still bent over.
“Which way did it go?” Hale asked.
The man pointed into the woods and puked again.
Hale grabbed his flashlight and hurried past the man and into the woods. He wasn’t sure which direction to go until the light caught a shiny substance on some leaves. It was the creature’s blood, the stuff like radiator fluid. He followed the blood trail and heard his officers’ voices ahead. Breaking branches and shouting. He hurried onward, ignoring each time a branch whacked or scraped his flesh.
Shots were fired. Muzzle flashes lit up the woods ahead.
Hale moved faster, took a poke to his right eye. The pain was skull piercing, but he ignored it and trudged on until he came upon the scene. Three officers stood around the creature, the thing lying on the ground. One of its eyes had been blown out and a number of holes riddled its body.
“It stopped and attacked us,” Levy said. “We had no choice.”
“‘No choice is right,” Keller said, still pointing his gun at the thing. “What the fuck is it?”
“I’ve got no idea,” Hale said, breathing heavy. “But we need to keep a lid on this until we get some answers. We have no idea what is going on and we don’t want a panic or a ton of weirdos or news vans showing up.”
Hale pictured his island overrun with media. News outlets from across the country. Hell, the globe. Everyone wanting to see the monster. UFO people would flock here, too, wanting to see the alien. His town would be turned upside down. The National Guard would have to be called in. State troopers, too. The real tragedy of the missing kids would be lost. No one would care about that. His resources would be used up and by the time things calmed down, the kids might never be found.
Hale couldn’t allow any of that to happen. Once the creature was identified—if it was identifiable—he’d gladly hand it off to the feds or whoever wanted it. Finding out what it was, might help lead them to the missing kids. Then the government scientists could cut and prod it to their hearts’ content.
Chapter Twelve
Hale sat at his desk and stared at the telephone. Twenty-four hours had passed since the creature’s body had been transferred to the coroner’s office. Everything had been put on hold so he could get answers as to what the hell he was dealing with. The worst part was not being able to acknowledge Newton’s and Dalton’s deaths. It wasn’t right not to inform their loved ones and to keep their corpses on ice down at the morgue. The whole situation was fucked.
Hale knew word would leak despite only a handful of people knowing about the deaths and the creature. People talked. It was only natural. Couples shared intimate secrets. He’d ordered his officers not to talk to anyone. That it was crucial in keeping their town safe. But people were only human, as the saying went. And that’s why he needed answers as soon as possible. He wanted the monster’s body out of his hands. He felt silly referring to it as such, but for all he knew, it had been a true monster, something from hell or some dark corner of the earth. Maybe even an alien from outer space.
The vibe in the department was a somber one. When he walked in today, everyone was quiet. He knew they were mourning, but they were also worried about what was going on. Concerned looks were exchanged along with questioning ones. They wanted answers as much as he did. A couple of his officers avoided eye contact and he knew they had talked. Probably shared the news with their partners. Those people in turn would tell others, then so on and so on. If it hadn’t already, word would soon spread around town. As of yet, the station received no calls pertaining to the matter.
The officers that hadn’t been there were the toughest to convince about what was found. All they really knew was a fairytale story and that their fellow officers had been killed. But the fact that he, Levy and Keller had seen it helped to get most of the other officers to accept it. As far as the public was concerned, he thought the more far-fetched the story became, the less likely it would be believed.
As far as the slain officers’ families, Hale had come up with a temporary cover story. A number of Manteo police were involved in an undercover sting and would be unreachable for at least a couple of days. The lie would only last so long. Things had to be sorted out quickly. Hale felt terrible for keeping the families in the dark, but he hoped they’d understand why he’d done it. If not immediately, then one day.
Of course, he knew the truth would most likely never be made official to the public or the slain officers’ families. A green monster that looked like something out of a Dungeon and Dragons novel? No one would believe it, and he was sure the government—once they got the body—wouldn’t want people knowing. Sure, magazines like the National Enquirer and such would jump on the story, and maybe even get it right, but it would only cause the majority of people to disregard it. The truth would be too hard to fathom.
What Hale did care about was assuring the public that the kidnapper was dead and that the residents were safe. He had no idea if there were more little green monsters roaming the island or in the sea, but he had to assume there weren’t. The one that was discovered was an anomaly. A freak of nature. Surely if there were others, they’d have been found out. And if it was from outer space—he couldn’t believe he was thinking such a thing—then there was nothing they could do about it anyway, and they’d have to wait for the invasion to begin.
Ten minutes before the noon hour, Hale on his fourth cup of coffee, the telephone on his desk rang. He jumped and glanced through the window of his office and saw Danielle, his secretary. When she nodded, he knew it was the coroner’s office.
Hale picked up the receiver and brought it to the side of his face. “What have you got for me, Moe?”
“Hale, this is the strangest shit I’ve ever seen.”
“Let me have it, Doc.”
“This thing was made up of amphibian, animal and human DNA, along with a substance I simply can’t identify,” Moe said, the man sounding more excited than Hale had ever heard. “Its physical properties are baffling. They follow no laws of nature as I know them. It’s…It’s… Look, all I can tell you is that it was some kind of mutant.”
“Like from nature or some human experiment?”
“Hell if I know,” Moe said, “but the subs
tance keeping all the DNA together isn’t from earth. It doesn’t react right. The properties are all wrong. It’s completely alien.”
Hale imagined alien ships hiding in plain sight using some kind of invisibility shield. They were abducting people and changing them as part of their invasion, using the planet’s inhabitants to wipe themselves out with a little help.
Hale shook his head, realizing he’d read too much science fiction.
“Can you tell me anything else, like where it might’ve come from?” Hale inquired, not knowing what else to ask.
“I’m not sure, exactly.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it gets stranger, I’m afraid.”
Hale exhaled and leaned back in his chair. He needed answers, not more mysteries. “Let me hear it.”
“The creature started to break down.”
“Decompose?”
“No, like dissolve into nothing. It’s gone. Not a trace of it left.”
“We’ve got nothing?”
“Not exactly,” Moe said. “Not knowing what else to do when it was basically disappearing, I tested another sample of its DNA against both missing kids.”
“And?”
“And while I didn’t get a match to the Brown boy, I did get one to the Whitmore girl. An exact match.”
“What are you saying, it’s a mutant sibling?”
“I’m saying that the creature had the exact same DNA as the girl. That thing wasn’t a sibling, it was her, or at least part of it was.”
Hale heard the clink of a bottle and then a gulp. The man was clearly unraveling by what he’d discovered.
“Hale, what the hell is going on over on that island?”
Hale had no answer. He was now more stumped than ever. He told Moe to sit on his findings until he got back to him. There was nothing left of the creature, not even samples, so there was no danger of anyone seeing it, save for the pictures he had taken on his cell phone and any the doc might’ve taken.
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