by David Peters
Dylan nodded as he listened but never took his eyes off the new Corrupted on the ground, “We need to get this over to Doc’s office. Maybe he can tell us why they are here. He is going to go nuts over this damn thing!”
Caperson nodded, “Not sure I can share in that feeling. Every time we see another kind of Corrupted, shit goes south in a hurry for us.”
Jeff cleared his throat, “Boss, I think these things are up to something not far from that garage. They ran away but I got the feeling they were trying to draw me away. Maybe it’s just me being jumpy, but I ain’t ever seen a ‘Rupt run away from anything, ever.”
Dylan turned his head in confusion, “You got that right. Only time I have ever seen a ‘Rupt do anything but try to kill, it was to simply draw someone into a trap.”
“That thought was kind of going through my mind at the time. That was why I didn’t chase them into the alley.”
Dylan shook his head in concern, “New Corrupted, Corrupted that run away. Why in the hell would they ever run away? I wonder what other surprises these things have for us? I’m really getting tired of these damn things constantly changing the rules to the damn game!”
Caperson pushed the barrel of his rifle against the Corrupted’s chest, “Every time I think I can’t hate these bastards more, they prove me wrong.”
Chapter 2
Dylan shifted uncomfortably in the narrow folding metal chair. The root cellar underneath his primary office was the doctor’s home away from home. Most people around the town simply referred to it as the Doc’s Evil Lair or more commonly, The Hole. This had much more to do with the smell that rolled out through the heavy wooden doors than any evil plans Doc may have been working on. The room smelled of rot, chemicals and the ever present stench of the Corrupted.
“Thank you for coming by gentleman. My apologies for this taking so long but this is truly one of the most unique specimens I have had a chance to examine to date. As usual, I’m sorry for the smell. Believe it or not, you actually do kind of get used to it. I think the mixture of chemicals and death actually kill your ability to smell so maybe it isn’t that I’m used to it, I just can’t smell anything anymore. I should look into that at some point, maybe I could...”
Dylan cleared his throat as he interrupted the older man’s train of thought, “Doc?”
“Yes? Oh, sorry, I digress. Where was I?”
Caperson was sitting next to Dylan with his chair turned backward. His arms were crossed and resting on the backrest as he casually looked at his watch. His face looked like it had been nearly a week since he had shaven and the tiredness in his body shown clearly in his eyes, “Aside from the general stink in the room, why doesn’t that thing smell like a Hunter? I mean, the smell is rank in here don’t get me wrong, it may very well be the only thing keeping me awake, but why isn’t it the normal rotten cat food, dead possum smell I’m used to from them?”
“Actually, these species of Corrupted don’t give off any discernible negative smell at all. This one has been here long enough that it is beginning to decompose, so this is really just the, to use your words, ‘dead possum’ smell only. Before it started to rot, the thing smelled mostly of leather and dirt. I wish I had some way to store something of this size but there simply isn’t anything I can do. I have two more days at the most before what remains will be unusable to me. Pity, there is so much to learn here.”
“Have you found anything that could be of use to us? Is this a new phase in their war on us? Is this some sort of super-stealthing ‘Rupt?”
“I’m undecided at this point in respects to the usefulness of what I have found. But as far as education, it is a veritable treasure trove of new data. I believe that this isn’t a new kind of Corrupted. I think it is most likely one of the first species as far as their lineage goes. This breed is one of the starters.”
“How is that even possible we’ve never come across one of these things?”
“I don’t know if these would have an equivalent in the insect kingdom. This is what the Corrupted send out in order to start a new hive. In the earliest stages of hive creation, without any defense, they are at their most vulnerable. They simply haven’t grown the numbers of Hunters to defend the young hive and remain hidden. This species of Corrupted would help with that.”
“What exactly do you mean by help?”
“I don’t have the entire story yet, but I think that this is the species of Corrupted that uses its amazingly adaptive camouflage in order to infiltrate prospective nest sites. In following the similarities we see in other similar species within the insect kingdom, as the nest is being started these would lead prospective threats away from the young hive if it were discovered. I think that the reason we have seen these so openly is their perceived lack of any local threat.”
“How adaptive is this camouflage, Doc?” Dylan leaned his head toward Jeff on his right, “How was it that Jeff could see this and I couldn’t?”
Jeff cleared his throat nervously, “Just to be clear, sir, I couldn’t really see the thing, I could see the outline of the thing when it moved. It was almost like the outline wasn’t keeping up with the surroundings, if that makes any sense. It was the distortions I could see, the colors at the edges didn’t match up right.”
“I have a theory about that actually. I had to go a little outside of my training for this one though.” Doc pulled one of the drawers in his desk open and pulled out a manila envelope. After flipping through several pages he held up a large flashcard, “Jeff, can you tell me what number you see on this card?”
Jeff looked away as his face blushed red, “I don’t really want to take that test, Doc. Please don’t ask me.”
Doc persisted, “We aren’t here to judge you, Jeff. This is simply research in an attempt to verify my hypothesis. In no way will this reflect negatively on you. I’m not trying to make it look as if you did something wrong.”
“I don’t see any number. I won’t see the right number on any of the other cards either so you can stop wasting your time. Hell, half of them I don’t see any number at all. It’s just a jumble of the wrong colors.”
Dylan looked at the card and clearly saw the number six in the multicolored circles. He looked at the Doc with confusion.
“I had guessed as much, am I correct in assuming you suffer from Deuteranopia?”
“I haven’t ever heard it called that before but then you are the one that went to school for that stuff. I was just a kid that last time I was tested and the doctor just told me my eyes were messed up.”
Doc leaned back on his desk, “What Mr. Owen is telling us is that he has a very rare form of color blindness, one of the rarest actually. And just to be clear, your eyes are missing one of the cones that are required to process green. It isn’t something that is your fault.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard all of that before. It doesn’t make me any less of a scout though.” Jeff added defensively. “My vision is still twenty-twenty and Hunters are pretty damn easy to see! And I don’t need to see any color to put a bullet between a ‘Rupt’s eyes!”
Doc held his hands up in an attempt to calm the man, “Please understand me, Jeff. No one is arguing what you just said. As a matter of fact, I agree with that wholeheartedly. Going off of the information I have gathered in the last few hours, this little difference you have makes you one of the best scouts we have. It is my belief that the way this, thing, adapts its skin to the surroundings using an electro chemical reaction, very similar to the workings of a squid or octopus but much more complex. The way our eye processes the light, the difference between the false background and the real background left a slightly different color hue at the edge. That is what you were seeing, that tiny edge of light that your brain couldn’t piece together correctly. Depending on where the thing was standing, it could be more visible. You had stated that you could see it when it would move or turn its head, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right. If the thing stood perfectly still or moved into the shadow
s they would just vanish, like trying to look at a floater in your eye or something. I guess it’s kind of hard to explain.”
Dylan was nodding, “Did you always see them on the side of that building? Remember the bright-green car hood? You could see the movement in front of that.”
Jeff nodded, “Makes sense. Like I said, the other two disappeared when they got in the alley.”
Doc began to add, “The Infiltrators...”
Dylan interrupted him, “Is that what we are calling these,” he paused as he struggled to find a word, “things?”
“Sure, why not? Better than anything else I could come up with and you folks with the guns seem to like the fancy names,” he added with a smile. “These are designed to find the nesting location, most likely in heavily populated areas so they could build up their forces quite quickly. Once a nest reached that stage they could begin to multiply on their own, well, we have all seen the results. These Corrupted don’t fight,” He uncurled the long fingers, exposing the heavy, flattened talons, “they dig. These talons are similar to a Hunter, but notice the broad, thickened edges. This animal digs and digs deep.”
“I hate asking this, but was this thing ever a person?”
“Absolutely not. This thing is one-hundred percent Corrupted and has been since it crawled out of wherever the hell these things crawl out. It is very similar in most respects to the purebred Hunters we see occasionally. Do you notice anything else about it?”
“You know Doc, I’m a little overwhelmed right now so how about we just assume I’m going to fail anymore tests and move right to the educational portion of the presentation.”
Doc laughed, “Fair enough. They don’t smell like a normal Corrupted. I believe they are about as odor neutral as any animal could be. It makes sense, can’t have something that is virtually invisible that can be smelled from several dozen yards away. Also notice their feet, they are nearly twice the width of a similarly sized Hunter, and the pads on their feet are extremely thick and quite soft. So visibly, they aren’t there, by smell, they aren’t there, and when they move, I would imagine they are totally silent. This Corrupted is built from the ground up to be near invisible. They are all stealth, no fight.”
Jeff was leaning over the body, “Does this thing have a kangaroo pouch? What in the hell would that be for?”
“That, my friend, was the most fascinating discovery of all. It has a grand total of seven pouches. The center one, here, you can see is the largest. There are six others on the chest here and lower abdomen.”
“Do you have any idea what is in them?” Dylan asked with concern.
“Nothing now, they are all empty. But I believe that as they dig the initial hive structure, several egg rooms and an initial Queen’s chamber, these pouches are used to protect the eggs that will be the start of the initial population. The six smaller eggs are mostly likely Workers, Hunters or possibly Sappers. The larger one is most likely the Queen egg. The pocket is actually lined with several plates. They are very rigid and seem to be as hard as bone. The way they are fit together it appears as if the entire pouch can be pulled into the abdomen. That egg is very well protected. Once it hatches, I’m guessing it would compete with the others for dominance and begin the hive in earnest.”
“Compete with what? Isn’t there only one Queen?”
“Jeff saw more than one of these and I can’t imagine them moving in anything less than a handful, half a dozen at most. Any more than that and it would get increasingly more difficult to stay hidden. We already know that they have an advanced method of communication, both local and long range. There have been several theories floated around since the first days but nothing concrete regarding the methods or complexity of that communication. I think these Infiltrators are here to verify the Sumter hive is dead and to recreate it. That probably is related to their communications system too. If the chain gets broken somewhere, whole sections of the country could go dark. They detected the broken chain and are attempting to fix the link.”
Dylan walked around the table and sighed, “So they’re back. The damn Corrupted are back. We blew that hive into nothing but vapor and they simply come back and start over? Something tells me we are going to run out of nukes long before they stop trying to rebuild the hive.”
Dylan rubbed his neck as he closed his eyes in frustration. He was starting to feel as if they were getting on top of life but once again the Corrupted pulled the rug out from underneath the town.
“But remember what I said. They are at their most vulnerable right now. We need to go in and destroy what they have started. Anything we can learn about how they begin a hive would be another order of magnitude in information beyond what we have now. We have to stop it before the Queen grows to maturity. Once she begins laying eggs, who knows how quickly they could build. We could be looking at the nightly attacks again in a matter of months, possibly less if they are able to secure a steady food supply and don’t get bothered by anyone.”
“Can they eat elk?” Jeff asked.
“Eating, sure. I don’t think they could alter them though but that may just be wishful thinking. I have no evidence to support it beyond not seeing it happen.”
“So if they lay into the herd on the far slope, they have a ton of food,” Caperson said as he shook his head.
Dylan sighed, “You know, Doc? Just once, just one damn time, I’d really like to get a chunk of good news from you. Cap-Cap and I will work on putting a plan together. Jeff, I’m sure Sara is more than aware of the importance of what you had seen, but I want any reports you have of movement, unusual activity, anything, brought directly to my cabin, okay?”
“You got it, Boss.”
“I’m serious. You and I meet every week moving forward. I want a rundown of all your patrols. You are the eyes of this town now. I’ll take it up with Sara personally if she has any issues with this.” He turned toward his friend, “Caperson, you and I need to figure out how we want to scrub this new hive off the face of the planet and not get killed in the process. The sooner we get moving, the better.”
Chapter 3
Niccole cracked her eyes open in the darkness. Something had pulled her out of the deep chasm of sleep. She looked around the darkened room but in her grogginess she couldn’t figure out what it was. She wavered on the edge of falling back to sleep but a crackling sound pulled her back yet again. Crackling static downstairs, a distant voice was calling through a curtain of white noise. The emergency radio crackled again as someone called out for help. They had one CB radio dedicated to emergency traffic only, always slaved to the same channel and left on twenty-four hours a day. It ran on solar during the day and constantly powered by batteries during the night. It had been turned off only once in the two years they implemented the system and that had been to fix the wiring harness.
The call was broken up as the caller’s words tried to work their way through the curtain of static, “...Falls...Folkes...are...there? Please...Falls...”
Niccole nearly flew down the stairs to reach the radio handset, “This is Paradise Falls on the emergency channel, I can hear you but you are very broken up! Can you boost at all?”
“We...mobile...battery low...” there was several moments of radio silence, “We...leaving...abandoning...Corrupted coming.”
“Are you saying the Corrupted are attacking Folkesburg? Are you leaving Folkesburg?”
“Affirm...many...some...behind to defen...”
“Where are you going Folkesburg? How many Corrupted are attacking?”
“Folkesburg...gone...too...Corrupted.”
“How many Corrupted are attacking?”
“Thousands...more...”
“Are you coming here, Folkesburg?” She could feel Dylan standing behind her chair as she frantically called out into the darkness. “Folkesburg, are you coming here?”
The radio was silent. The small power needle showed full strength as Niccole stared into the darkness. She hung her head low as she waited in silence.
After nearly five minutes she brought the microphone up again, “Folkesburg, are you still there? Click your mic twice if you are unable to respond verbally.”
The CB radio stared back at them in silence. Niccole finally put the microphone on the table, “I had talked to them just the other day. Nothing out of the ordinary but I’ll be damned if Jen didn’t call it. Folkesburg is gone and I have no idea where they are going.”
“Any idea how many got out of the town before the attack?”
“I couldn’t make sense of most of that call. Everything I heard was just broken up words and partial sentences. I don’t even know how they are traveling. If they are on foot, they are going to get slaughtered before they make it more than ten miles. They have a lot of kids in that town, Dylan. A lot of people that simply aren’t going to be able to protect themselves outside the walls.”
“They did have a lot of horses, a heck of a lot more than we have if I recall right and this is the only logical place for them to come.”
“We have to do something, Dylan!”
“What can we do, Niccole? We could send out every able-bodied person on horseback but which way do we send them? They could pass a hundred people in the woods and if they are more than a few hundred feet away they would never know it. Even if we sent radios out, how do I find them? When we do find them what do we do? We simply don’t know where they are going.”
“Who else is going to have the room? Everything to the north is running tight on food and they simply don’t have the room for more than the trickle that already shows up on their doorstep every month or two.”
“That’s assuming they had enough warning to get them out. If several thousand Corrupted showed up at the wall tonight, how many of us would get out of here?”
“I don’t like to think about it, that’s why we still have daily patrol cycles far beyond our wall.”
“Folkesburg wasn’t nearly as well armed as we are. They have almost entirely hunting rifles and a few pistols. I think I heard in passing they had a box of old dynamite lying around but that’s about it. They had patrols, not as far out as we did, but they had them.”
