Sinister Shadows

by Simon Smith-Wilson

  ***

  ‘You don’t have to do this,’ said Trent.

  Lopez made a clicking sound with the inside of his mouth, ‘that is where you are wrong. I actually do have to do this, as I have plans to put in place.’ He pressed the gun against the boy’s head, forcing his neck painfully to the side. ‘Now, if you want to save your son I suggest you throw yourself off the edge of the cliff.’

  Trent looked confused.

  ‘What...?’

  ‘Jump off the cliff,’ said Lopez, with a smile.

  ‘Don’t do it,’ announced Matthews, his words coming from the boy's mouth. ‘He will kill me anyway.’

  ‘No, son, I won’t,’ Lopez replied, ‘but if your dad doesn’t jump you will have to die.’

  ‘WAIT!’ Trent threw up his hands in submission. ‘I will do it, but please don’t hurt my son.’

  ‘Don’t do it,’ Matthews repeated, as Trent inched towards the cliff edge.

  ‘Why are you doing this?’ asked Trent, confusion and fear swirling behind his eyes.

  ‘Because I can,’ said Lopez, raising the gun and shooting Trent through the chest. Shock appeared upon Trent’s face, as he tumbled effortlessly off the edge of the cliff and down into the angry waves crashing violently against the cliff face.

  ‘You fucker,’ growled Matthews, glaring up at Lopez. ‘I will kill you.’

  ‘And how will you do that when you are dead?’ Lopez painted the planet’s surface with the kid’s brains.

  ***

  Doug slipped his manhood back inside his pants, as he stepped over Emma’s lifeless body and rushed out of the kitchen. Not a single ounce of doubt or regret touched his soul. In fact, it was the complete opposite. Doug felt empowered. Doug felt inspired. Doug felt like a new man. Fuck Lopez. He didn’t need that bastard bossing him around. He didn’t need anyone bossing him around. He could do what he wanted. He could do it when he wanted. And he could fuck and murder anyone he wanted. Doug stepped out of the open kitchen doorway and into the glass dome lobby. He could see Maggie coming out of a corridor across the way.

  ‘Fuck her,’ whispered the unknown voice.

  It was a voice Doug was starting to like.

  ‘Maggie,’ he called out to her, in a friendly way.

  ‘Oh, hey,’ said Maggie, acting sheepish. A frown creased across her pretty little brow, as Doug quick marched across the large room towards her. ‘What happened to your face?’ He had blood dripping down from his scalp and nose; deep scratches had cut his face and neck, leaving painful looking red blotches. It was like he had been attacked by some kind of wild animal

  ‘You mean these?’ replied Doug, tilting his head to one side to show her the wounds. ‘I got these from raping Emma.’

  ‘W-what...?’

  Doug threw himself forward, catching Maggie completely by surprise and tackling her to the hard ground. The young woman grunted painfully, as all the air was knocked from her lungs. Doug scrambled on top of her, clutching at her breast with one hand, whilst striking her painfully in the face with the other.

  ***

  Melanie sprinted through the corridors, as fast as her feet could carry her. Hundreds of shadows were moving at rapid speed outside of the base, haunting howls of unknown beasts echoed through the air, freezing her heart to its very core. She turned the corner and came face to face with the two young doctors; Bradley and his wife were with them.

  ‘What is happening?’ asked the frightened female doctor.

  Before Melanie could reply, a pair of long silver claws cut through the metal wall as if it were made of some thin fabric. One wild eye of a large alien hound looked through the newly formed hole and shrieked. The entire group moved back down the corridor as one. Several sets of claws began cutting through the reinforced walls and ceiling all around them.

  ‘There is a safe room,’ explained Melanie, breaking into a run. ‘We have to get to the safe room.’

  ***

  Kimberly hugged her son close to her, as they climbed the metal stairs and exited the generator room. Frightening howls and agonising screams competed with each other for airspace. The sound of gunfire could be heard coming from somewhere in the base, but it was silenced almost as quickly as it started. ‘This way,’ she whispered, gripping her son’s hand in hers. The two of them headed left and rushed along the corridor. Both were still in their spacesuits and just had to find an airlock. Kimberly didn’t have a plan in mind, but the narrow corridors made her feel trapped, would going out onto the planet’s surface be any better? She didn’t know, but that was her chosen destination. They turned the corner, continued to run, ducked through a hatch and skipped down some stairs. A young man was waiting for them at the far end of the next corridor.

  ‘This way,’ Charlie called out to them.

  Kimberly was happy to follow.

  The boy might have been young, but he was willing to help, and that was a welcomed sight.

  Mother and son reached the end of the corridor. Sand covered the floor, where the internal and external airlock door had been left open. A truck was sitting outside, the lights were on, and the engine was running. ‘We haven’t got time to stand and stare,’ yelled Charlie, ‘get in the fucking truck.’

  ***

  ‘Get off me!’ Maggie cried out, pushing her palm into Doug’s chin. The bloody lunatic growled like some kind of rabid dog and wrapped one hand around her throat, as the other fought to push her thighs apart. Maggie wasn’t going to make it easy for him. She wriggled and squirmed, kicked and scratched. Little fireflies began to dance across her vision, as she struggled to catch her breath. Doug wore a sickening smile, as he yanked down his trousers. She could feel his hardness pressing up against the inside of her thigh. Maggie wanted to scream out with everything that she had, but there was no breath in her lungs. Doug grunted heavily, released his grip and landed in a heap on the floor beside her. Maggie scrambled away from him, coughing like a forty a day smoker. Frightened eyes looked up at Jess. Lopez’s wife was holding a fire extinguisher in both hands. The base of the heavy extinguisher was covered in Doug’s blood. Jess’s eight-month-old baby was in its pram twenty feet away.

  ***

  Matthews blinked away the bright lights and looked up at Shiva. His head was ringing like a bell. He could see the beautiful God moving her lips, but the words were not reaching his ears. For one long moment, the room appeared to be spinning around and around. Matthews gasped sharply, like a drowning victim that had just received CPR on the edge of a swimming pool. He sucked air into his lungs and cradled the painful spike that stabbed into the centre of his forehead. A long list of profanities left his mouth, as he rolled across the floor, holding his head. It took several minutes for the agonising pain to subside, the swearing to stop and his body to come down from the awful experience.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ asked Shiva, squatting down in front of him.

  She kissed him gently on the forehead.

  ‘I feel like shit,’ he replied.

  ‘You look like shit,’ she agreed.

  ‘I failed,’ replied Matthews, dropping his head. ‘They killed Craig, they killed that boy’s father, and they even killed the damn boy. What fucking lunatic kills a child?’ Shiva said nothing for a long moment in time. She was leaving Matthews with his thoughts. The man did not need words from anyone else but himself at this moment in time. ‘How many people are left at that base?’

  ‘I sense there are four life signs remaining.’

  ‘What happened to the others?’

  ‘They are dead. Doug murdered the boy’s mother, but Lopez’s wife killed Doug.’

  ‘So, Craig’s girlfriend is still alive?’

  ‘Yes. The one you were intimate with still lives, but for how long I do not know. Lopez is already making his way back to the base.’ Matthews looked beyond Shiva to the only mirror illuminated in the room. He had to go back. He had to help the final three to get away. If he didn’t then all of this would have been for nothing, but wh
at could he do with that final mirror? It was a mirror connected to the baby. What other option did he have?

  ***

  Tracy power marched through the corridor like a woman on a mission. The screams of humans and the howls of monsters filled the air. She carried no weapons. They were pointless. The weapons would do nothing to these alien monsters and would only slow her down. ‘Wait,’ said Shiva, wearing a beautiful golden dress. She held up a hand and Tracy stopped. A beast galloped by the mouth of the corridor and disappeared off. ‘Come, quickly.’ Shiva marched ahead of Tracy, telling her to stop here, wait there, hide in here and not to move. ‘They are in here.’ Tracy pressed her hand on a door release to a small office. Eight people were huddled behind the desk holding any makeshift weapon they could get their hands on.

  ‘If you want to live you must come with me now,’ she explained

  ‘It is too dangerous out there,’ said a large rotund man.

  ‘It is dangerous everywhere. I know a safe place, but you have to come with me now.’

  ‘Time is up,’ Shiva whispered in her ear.

  ‘This is your last chance,’ warned Tracy, ‘come with me now.’ She spun on her heels and rushed off down the corridor. Melanie thought about it for a moment in time. Instinct took over. Her mind was coming up with no good solution, but the thought of hiding and hoping felt wrong in her heart. Three of the others followed her out of the room, but the rest remained. It was a decision the remaining party would regret for the rest of their lives, which would end in the next three minutes.

  ***

  ‘I don’t know what came over him. He just attacked me,’ sobbed Maggie, still in a complete state of shock. ‘He was covered in wounds and looked like a mad dog. Is he dead?’

  ‘Yes,’ replied Jess, tossing the fire extinguisher to the side.

  Her hands were shaking.

  She still couldn’t believe that she had just killed Doug. She hadn’t meant to kill Doug. All she wanted to do was stop him from trying to rape Maggie. It all happened so quickly that she doesn’t even remember picking up the fire extinguisher in the first place. The next set of thoughts running through her mind was what do they do now? What if someone else sees’s the body? Would they take her away from her baby? What would Lopez do to her?

  ‘The others are all dead,’ said a very soft voice.

  Jess and Maggie looked back to see who had said it, but there was no one there.

  ‘You have to leave now.’

  Jess could feel her heart sink down into the pit of her stomach. She knew where the voice was coming from, but she didn’t want to believe it. She didn’t want to believe it for a single second. Slowly, ever so slowly, she approached the pram where her eight-month-old daughter had been sleeping. Big brown beautiful eyes looked up at her, but the babies face had changed. It was making an expression she had never seen before. Jess yelped and jumped back, as the baby spoke.

  ‘Lopez is coming to kill you both. You have to leave now.’

  ‘Oh Jesus, fuck,’ cursed Jess, wanting to go to her baby, but not wanting to approach what was inside her. ‘What are you?’

  ‘I am a friend. I am not hurting your baby. If you want to keep your baby alive, you must leave now. All the others are dead. You two are the only ones that are still alive. Lopez is coming for you. I have pre-programmed all of the trucks to take you to a place of safety, but you have to get to the garage. You have to get to the garage right now!’

  Jess stood still, shocked and confused.

  A million thoughts bounced off the inside of her mind.

  Would Lopez really hurt her and his baby?

  Maybe... he was different now.

  Jess grabbed the handles of the pram and headed for the garage. ‘Maggie, we have to go!’

  ***

  The engine roared as the truck lurched forward. Window wipers throbbed back and forth, fighting against the waves of fine dust that struck them from the side. Tracy glanced into the side mirror, seeing the large alien hounds turning to give chase. ‘Come on, you piece of shit,’ she growled through clenched teeth, as she worked her way up through the gears.

  ‘Tracy, they are coming,’ said Charlie.

  ‘I know, but there isn’t much I can do about that.’

  Panicked screams were coming from the back of the truck. Tracy glanced back at the mere handful of people they have managed to rescue. She had hoped in her heart that they would have been able to save more of them, but six survivors were better than no survivors. One of the men was armed with a pistol. He was firing indiscriminately at the six-legged hounds, but those bullets wouldn’t even bruise the animal’s thick skin. They had one chance and one chance only. They had to get back to the temple of mirrors. Shiva would protect them, but there was much ground to cover, and the truck was already going as fast as it possibly could.

  ***

  Footsteps echoed through the silence, as Lopez stepped out of the kitchen. He held the handgun in one hand and a knife in the other. He made a clicking sound with the inside of his mouth, as he looked across at Doug’s lifeless body crumpled up beneath the glass dome. Lopez had found Trent’s wife’s dead body in the kitchen with her panties around her knees and her dress hitched up over her thighs. Doug must have fucked her good before he killed her, but who had killed Doug? Lopez had already attempted to contact his wife via the communication network on the wall, but she wasn’t answering from the sleeping quarters. Was she hiding from him? Did she think she could hide her son from him? What about Craig’s girlfriend? Where was she? Lopez let out a loud laugh, as he headed for the corridor to the sleeping quarters. It was turning into a game of hide and seek, but it was no good if he was on his own. Rattling around inside this base would drive him mad. He needed the women alive so they would serve and obey him. It was just a shame that Trent’s wife was dead. She was the one he wanted the most, but the other two would do. All he had to do was find them first.

  ***

  Matthews watched the ceiling flash by, as he looked at the lovely features of the baby’s mother. Every now and then the confused woman would look down at her baby, clearly torn by the fact it was now talking like an adult. Maggie was beside them. Matthews would admit he fancied the woman. If she survived, he promised himself he would confess to having sex with her, whilst in control of Craig’s body. The women lifted the pram through a series of hatches, constantly looking back over their shoulder to make sure nobody was following them. After a few minutes, they reached the supply room outside of the garage. The women began stripping down and getting into the spacesuits. A special box, which looked similar to a car carrier you would take your pet to the vet in would be the home for the baby. It was the only way to keep the child safe from the poisonous chemicals in the planet’s atmosphere. ‘I have programmed the truck to take you to a wayfinding point several miles from our base. I will meet you there. The real me will meet you there...’ A blinding white light consumed his vision, as a powerful force pulled Matthews backwards through space and time. It felt like his insides were turning into outsides, as he twisted and turned through the all consuming light. He gasped for air, as he dropped to his knees.

  He was back in the temple of mirrors.

  Shiva was kneeling in front of him, cupping his jaw so that she could look straight into his eyes.

  Grave concern was printed upon her face.

  ‘What’s happened?’ he asked, sensing something was truly wrong.

  ‘I had to pull you back. The others need your help.’

  ***

  ‘Can we really trust him?’ asked Maggie, as the two women lifted the space cot into the cab of the truck. ‘Nothing about this feels normal.’ It took a bit of manoeuvring to shuffle the large rectangle container into the cab, but they managed it. The baby was crying up a storm. It was not enjoying its little box that was now its home.

  ‘I know,’ replied Jess, ‘but what other choice do we have?’

  Maggie tossed her backpack up into the truck and climbed abo
ard. Craig has told her to prepare to travel, which is why she rationed several day’s food for two people. It would be enough food to keep both women going for a little bit further. Jess climbed in behind her and took up position in the co-driver’s seat. Her complete and undivided attention was on her baby. The top of the box was see-through, which only seemed to upset the baby even more. Once they got going, she would be able to hold the baby, but that didn’t heal her hurting heart. Seeing her child in such a state was a traumatic experience. Jess fiddled with the computer console on the dashboard. It was a very simple menu based system. She clicked on the auto-pilot button to find only one pre-programmed route. She selected the destination programmed by Matthews. The engine roared into life, as the cab vibrated heavily. Jess pulled away from the controls, as the pedals moved independently, the gear stick clunked forward, and the steering wheel straightened up.

  The garage doors automatically began to open.

  The truck lurched forward like the start of a fairground ride.

  And that is when they saw him.

  Lopez was in the airlock, looking out through the glass towards them.

  Both women could see the madness in his eyes.

  And then, to their surprise, he turned around and walked away.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ asked Maggie.

  ‘I don’t know,’ replied Jess, she had never seen such a look from her husband before.

  The truck pulled out of the garage and into the wasteland. A part of the electric fence deactivated itself, as they sped off into the bumpy shadows. Both women looked back over their shoulder, half-expecting to see Lopez hot on their heels, but he was nowhere to be seen. Did that mean they were free?

  ***

  ‘I feel like this is the wrong decision,’ grumbled Lopez, as he headed back towards the dome room.