by Ben Hammott
After a few more steps, Theo turned to his right to investigate a rising buzzing sound. A large alien wasp flew straight at him with an obvious purpose that indicated it wasn't going to ignore them like the dragonfly. “Incoming wasp. Run!”
The wasp homing in on them curled its tail to point its lethal stinger at them. A second one swooped down to join in the chase.
The three men ran.
Now the light in the cavern had increased to its maximum, the community of insects that dwelt in the forest increased in number. Their cacophony of buzzes, hums, and shrill calls filled the air and many seemed intent on investigating the strange arrivals trespassing in their domain. The three men constantly batted them away before they could bite, sting or claw at them.
Creatures the size of a cat that had a vague resemblance to a squirrel, but one designed by someone with a vivid and cruel imagination, emerged from holes in trees and bared fangs and claws at them. One leapt at the fleeing men.
Theo saw it coming and lashed out with his flashlight. The creature shot into the bushes.
Three more attacked from different directions.
Max struck one with an ice axe, impaling it on its blade. He quickly shook the carcass free.
The trajectory of another squirrel creature brought it in the path of a wasp. The wasp attacked. It landed swiftly on its back and stabbed its stinger into its body. The stinger throbbed when it pumped something into its victim and then leapt off to hover and observe. The alien squirrel screeched and writhed in midair. Its body swelled grotesquely and erupted in a spray of black blood and tiny insects. The group of larva with small wings and bulbous eyes hovered in the air briefly. The mother wasp circled them to round them up before flying off to its nest. The gruesome larva followed their parent.
The third attacking alien squirrel headed for Henry, who dodged aside to avoid it. It lashed out a claw when it shot past his face, leaving behind three small scratches on the tip of Henry's nose. It fell to the ground and turned for a second attack. The ground around it moved. The creature squealed and leapt for the nearest bush. Thin, bright red, worm-like tentacles erupted from the ground and slithered through the air in pursuit of the fleeing alien squirrel. They wrapped around it, snatched it from the air and pulled it to the ground. The creature writhed in agony when the worms entered its body and began sucking out its internal organs. The ground around it became a dark, blood-muddy mess as it was dragged below the earth.
Henry shivered. He looked down at his feet. The earth around them moved. He jumped aside when the tip of a red tentacle appeared. “Keep moving,” he shouted urgently. “There're monsters beneath our feet.”
With two alien wasps still after them, murderous alien squirrels looking for an opportunity to attack while they leapt from branch to branch and tree to tree to follow them, and killer tentacles writhing under the ground beneath their feet, the three men sprinted through Hell's Garden for their lives. All wanted to be free of the vicious, terrifying place.
“There's the wall,” shouted out Max, when he spied the tall metal structure rising from the undergrowth. A few rushed steps, dodges and jumps, and umpteen more insects avoided later, they reached it. A frantic search for the much desired exit immediately ensued. A wasp latched onto Theo's rucksack and repeatedly stabbed it with its long stinger like a horny dog latched onto someone's leg, but it failed to find any flesh to inject its eggs. Max snatched up a branch from the ground and swung it at the attacking insect. Its bright-coloured body splattered into a mess of yellow gore and red and black body parts that stained the bag. The force of the blow sent Theo staggering forward. Henry caught him. While Max fought off the wasps, the alien squirrels and any other thing that arrived to try their luck, batting them into the distance like a baseball pro, Henry and Max continued their search for an exit. They almost missed it because it was hidden behind a mass of creamy vines. Henry searched amongst them for the control button, found it and opened the door. After they squeezed through, the vines sprung back into place to act as a barrier for the inquisitive insects. Henry closed the door.
The three men stared at the door as they caught their breath.
Theo let out a relieved sigh. “That's one experience I never want to repeat.”
Max glanced at the gore dripping from the bug-splattered improvised bat and dropped it to the ground. “Amen to that.”
Heads jerked and stared along the corridor.
Footsteps approached.
Henry shook his head in dismay. “No rest for the wicked.”
They fled along the corridor away from the approaching menace.
Food
A THIRD DESPERATE PRESS of the button produced the same result as the previous two; the door remained closed. Richard turned and retraced his steps along the corridor he'd explored and halted when a door around the corner swished open. Fearing a monster was on the prowl he switched off his headlamp and listened. Voices he recognized drifted along the corridor. He moved around the corner. Theo, Henry and Max ran in the opposite direction. Though Richard could have called out, his fear of imagined monsters lurking nearby kept him silent. This fear also bade him to move cautiously and not run blindly through the ship where monsters lurked in the darkness. He switched on the headlamp, and at a slow and steady pace, he followed them. The three men leading the way would distract or give warning of any monsters that lay ahead.
The corridor Henry, Max and Theo rushed along ended in a doorway they couldn't open. They retraced their steps the short distance to another door set in the right-hand wall, one they'd previously ignored. Though reluctant to leave the corridor, the approaching threat from the footsteps they'd heard, made it unwise to backtrack and seek out an alternative route.
A green glow seeped out when the door rasped open. The three men cautiously stepped through, closed the door and gazed around their new surroundings, far different from anything previously encountered. Transparent tubes lined the walls of the huge space. Though some were empty, most were occupied by giant monsters suspended in green liquid.
Though the sight of the large alien creatures was a surprise, it wasn't as great a shock as it would've been if they hadn't already experienced many other extraordinary sights since setting foot on board the alien vessel. It was evidence how people quickly adapted to their surroundings, and at least the giants weren't attacking them.
The smooth metal floor that led between the towering walls of pods that stretched the full width of the room, was stained with dark patches, as if a liquid had been spilt and over time had dried out. Tubes, ducts, pipes and cables covered almost every surface of the shiny black metal walls not taken up by the large cylinders.
They stared at the nearest alien giant. Tubes connected to various parts of its body rose to the top of the cylinder.
Theo shook his head in astonishment as he took in the size of the impossibly large creature. “They must be ten yards tall.”
Henry's eyes roamed the room. “Could these things be the crew?”
“Unlikely,” said Max. “They're too big to fit through the corridors or doors we've passed through.”
“If they're not crew, they must be cargo,” said Theo.
“An invasion force,” said Max ominously.
Henry glanced around at the empty pods. “What concerns me, is if all of the pods contained one of these giant creatures when the spaceship set out on its journey, where are they now?”
Bubbles rose ominously from the bottom of an alien-giant-occupied tank.
“I wonder if they're alive; in suspended animation or something.” Theo asked.
“Let's not speculate, alive or dead, whatever their purpose it's unlikely it'll ever be fulfilled as before long they and this ship will be submerged in the ice cold sea.”
“Let's hope we're off this ship long before that event occurs,” said Theo, leading the others along the rows of pods.
When they'd almost reached the halfway point, Henry moved over to a patch of congealed liquid on the
floor and knelt to examine it more closely. He dipped a finger in the thick substance. It came away stained dark purple. “It has the consistency of blood.”
Theo looked at one of the nearby empty pods. “Maybe it's not an invasion force, but food, and this room is a huge larder.”
Max glanced around nervously. “Food for what?”
“That's one question I'd like to remain unanswered,” said Henry. “Because it's probable, if these giants are being eaten by something, it's even bigger than its meal.”
Their eyes followed the blood trail to a large trapdoor in the floor. A recessed lever beside it seemed to be the control to open and close it.
“I wonder where it leads,” said Max.
Henry grimaced. “Nowhere pleasant I expect.”
They moved on and stopped at a gap in the pod wall on their left. A crane contraption with long, jointed, metal arms and large mechanical hands, hung from a rail that ran the length of the ceiling with junctions leading down each row of pods.
The wide, high corridor that intersected the two sections of pod walls, led to a door of the normal size they had previously encountered. At the far side of the ship was a much larger door. A circular section in its center fed out rays of chunky metal pistons that connected to the thick, metal frame, seemed to be part of the locking mechanism.
“That huge door could be an airlock,” Theo suggested.
Max calculated the size of the door. “Whether they entered voluntary or under duress, it's certainly big enough for the pod giants to fit through.”
A rasp of metal filled the space. Their eyes darted to the door at the end of the corridor as it slid open. The silhouette of an alien they hadn't yet encountered gradually appeared, framed in the light shining through the door.
Theo reacted first and pushed the others to the side. “We need to hide,” he whispered. His gaze searched for a suitable place to conceal themselves. He pointed at one of the empty pods. “In there.”
They climbed up the thick tubes and cables and entered the pod. There was plenty of space for them all to fit inside. They backed into its darkest recesses and waited.
The new arrival's unhurried footsteps on the cold metal floor grew nearer. When it stepped out of the side corridor, it was bathed in the pods ghostly green light.
The three men stared at its graceful, deadly form.
It was slim, about nine feet tall and covered in shiny brown skin covered in a faint hexagon design that looked almost metallic. Eight long, brown tendrils curved out from the back of its head to hang down its back, almost like dreadlocks. Its face was vaguely human― two bright blue eyes, small nose, mouth with lips and ears on the side of its roundish head. Though there was no sign of any sexual organs, its feminine features and its two pert breasts identified the creature as female. The two slender elbowed arms attached to small shoulders ended in hands with five long fingers, one of which seemed to be similar to a human thumb. Surprisingly, for creatures they'd thus far encountered on the ship, she was clawless. Her long legs had a knee joint and five toed feet attached to an ankle. She moved gracefully and though she emitted no obvious threatening behaviour, the alien carried an aura of menace. She walked out of the corridor and over to a control console protruding from the wall, which lit up with a touch of one of her slender fingers. Another press activated the crane.
The three men dragged their eyes away from the alien to watch the crane. It moved through the room and paused before one of the occupied pods. The green liquid cocooning the giant creature bubbled and gurgled as it drained into the pod's base. When it was empty, the door slid open. The crane's long arms reached out and gripped the creature around its waist. Tubes connected to various parts of the giant hissed when they detached. The giant was lifted out and carried over to the alien creature. When the claws released its grip, the giant crashed to the floor with a loud thud. Its job completed, the crane returned to its previous parked position.
The alien deactivated the console and walked over to the still creature that dwarfed her slender figure and halted a short distance away. It stared at the giant.
When the alien hadn't moved for a few minutes, Theo whispered to his companions. “What's it waiting for?”
Henry shushed him to silence. It was a stupid question that none of them could possibly answer.
A few moments later the giant moved. It gagged, vomited green liquid and convoluted as its body functions returned. It opened its large eyes and gazed at its surroundings. From its confused expression it was obvious it failed to recognize its environment. The giant showed no fear on sighting the alien creature, but it did show caution. It clumsily climbed to its feet and staggered until it regained its balance. It stared down at the alien creature whose head was level with its knees and lifted a leg to squash it.
The female alien smiled and leapt at the giant. In mid air she disintegrated into a mist of tiny creatures that swarmed over the giant like ants attacking a larger prey. Amidst the hoard, a larger, paler form stood out.
Eaten alive, the giant's agonized screams echoed through the cavernous space. Purple blood sprayed the floor to form puddles when arteries were severed and flesh and organs were devoured. Within the space of a minute the swarm vacated its meal and once more gathered together into the form of the female alien. All that was left of the giant was its skeleton and head. The bones clattered to the floor in a pool of its blood that seeped toward the grating in the middle of the room.
The alien grabbed hold of one of the giant's horns, dragged it over to the trapdoor and activated the lever. The door groaned open. The rank stench of rotten flesh, death and sewage wafted from the chute. The alien dropped the head into the hole and it joined whatever foulness existed below. The alien's form separated into four smaller similes of itself, and each chose pieces of the giant's remains from the macabre pile and threw them into the chute. The bones clattered noisily down its length.
The three men were shocked by what they'd just witnessed. The alien's appearance, though surprising, was nothing compared to their astonishment when it burst apart to attack the large creature and then rejoined once they'd finished feasting. Fear of discovery and a similar fate kept their breaths shallow and their bodies still, but their eyes continued to watch in fearful fascination.
The grating of metal set Richard's alarm bells ringing. He spun to face the threat. A ceiling grill vent clanged to the ground with a loud metallic crash that echoed along the corridor. The howl from the monstrous cobweb-veiled head that appeared in the opening quickly followed, as did Richard's footsteps running from the Web monster's unwelcome arrival.
The Web creature dropped to the floor and with muscular legs propelling it forward, it gave chase.
Richard rushed along the corridor. He glanced back. The monster was hot on his heels. He slapped the button on the next door he came to, and hoping something less threatening lay on its other side, rushed through.
During his dash through the pod room, Richard gazed in fascination at the giants imprisoned in large transparent containers. He skidded to a halt when he spied the small alien creatures dragging large bones through puddles of purple blood.
Surprised by the sudden arrival of the strange creature, the female aliens stared at the creature. Though they knew of the recent arrivals presence aboard the ship, they hadn't yet laid eyes on any. Its lack of any obvious defensive body parts gave it a vulnerable appearance, and certainly not one that caused them any concern.
Henry, Theo and Max were as astonished as the freshly fed aliens by Richard's sudden appearance. Though they could call out to him, they remained silent. To alert the alien creatures to their presence would only have one outcome. Their gaze turned to the new horror that entered the room and rushed at Richard.
The pale creature with white skin tinged with pink was covered in a wispy layer of cobwebs. It was difficult to tell if they were part of it, or if it had walked through a large web and strands had clung to its body. Its white eyes, devoid of pupils and
set in red-tinted globes of flesh, were focused on the prey it chased into the room. Its bald head had a skeletal nose, a small mouth ringed with small sharp teeth and a small fat wrinkled chin that rested upon an elongated neck. Both head and neck were covered with a red veined pattern. Strands of web flowed over its face like a veil― or hair gone awry― and snaked over its body. Tendrils of the wispy web hung from two long arms attached to sharp, raised bony shoulders. Both arms ended in three hooked claws. Two legs jutted out from its torso to the rear and were jointed to form a lower leg supported by large, hooked claws. It was the same species of Web monster that had chased them into Hell's garden.
The scrape of claws across the metal floor spun Richard around. He screamed in fright when the Web monster leapt into the air with its sharp claws reaching out for him. He spied the open trapdoor a few steps away. Though extremely reluctant to do so, he jumped into the opening.
Unable to slow his descent into the unknown, Richard sped down the long, blood-slick chute before entering open space. The headlamp beam moved across rough, arched stone during his plummet. The fall seemed to go on forever. If his landing wasn't a soft one at the very least he'd suffer a broken bone or two. He made contact with something, and though not particularly soft, it was far from solid. Clattering of things unseen accompanied his bruise-battered slide to the ground. When he slid to a halt, he was surprised, that except for a few aches and pains, he was uninjured. He roamed the light around with a turn of his head. Tall textured walls that appeared to be made of stone blocks, but from past observations since aboard the ship Richard was certain were metal, rose to form an arched roof. Random patches of luminescent green growth adhered to the walls cast a ghostly green pallor on the surroundings. Large metal collars attached to chains formed with links four times the size of his hand, hung ominously from the ceiling. Mustard-coloured stains ran from yard-tall arched openings set high in the corridor wall and dribbled down to the stagnant water covering the passage floor. Tips of slime-covered rocks poked above the water either side of the passage. A suggestion of a larger room at the tunnel's end and another large, dark opening on the far side, hinted at the possible vastness of the subterranean world he'd fallen into. The whole effect was of a medieval dungeon or torture chamber, and equally uninviting.
