Soul Taker

by John Garforth

  • • •

  They’d been in the air for just over an hour, passing over a depressing, blackened and war-torn Germany. Beneath them now was Switzerland, the magnificent scenery catching the bright morning sunlight, whilst the dark ruined cities nestling in its valleys, were testament to the madness of mankind. Although everyone was wearing headsets, the ‘thump, thump’ of the rotors discouraged any conversation. Piper looked around the cabin, Jake was opposite, sat on a bench with the four Marines, all staring at their phones.

  Mary was jammed in at the side of her, the Brigadier General was in the cockpit with the Pilot, she couldn’t blame Brightside, the air in their cabin, reeked of aviation fuel and exhaust fumes. The man had not mentioned anything about the court-martial since the incident in the subway station, Piper had no intentions of reminding him.

  She turned to look out of the window at the side of her, the ruins of Monaco and Nice were beneath them. Her eye followed the coastline, beaches, that were once full of holiday makers, were now heaped with debris. A few hundred yards from the shore, the sea, still invitingly blue, rolled gently over a semi- submerged cruise liner. Piper felt the Helicopter bank to the left, changing course, flying in a direct line towards Corsica, then it would follow the Italian coast, past Rome, and on to Naples.

  As they approached the Italian coastline, everybody was feeling weary, Piper was dozing, her eyelids too heavy to keep open. Then, suddenly, they hit turbulence and everything changed in a second, she was wide awake, hanging on to anything that was fixed down, as they bounced and rolled through the air. She glanced across the cabin at the Marines, they were all talking at once, their faces set with anxiety as they looked out of the window. Jake caught her eye and signalled for her to look to the ground. She Swivelled around in her seat, twisting her head until her neck ached, she could just make out Rome, sprawled out in the sunshine beneath her.

  Then, out of the corner of her eye she noticed movement, something that turned her blood to water and riveted her to the seat with fear. A long, elastic projectile was shooting up from the ground towards them, she shook her head disbelievingly, it resembled it a continuous rope of flesh, or perhaps a huge pink tentacle. But one thing was for sure, whatever it was, it was coming straight for them. Piper looked more closely at the ground directly beneath them, the sun was reflecting off a small lake that was also as pink as a Flamingo, two more projectiles were lifting from its surface and heading their way.

  Colonel Linderman was on his feet, strapping on a safety harness and hooking the lead to the roof of the cabin. The other marines had wrestled loose a heavy-duty machinegun that had been bolted to the Bulkhead and were dragging it to a floor mount. Piper’s training had taken over, she grabbed the Helicopter’s side panel door and dragged it open to give a good line of fire for the gun.

  The wind was like a living thing, pulling at her and buffeting her body, making her use both hands to cling onto door handle. Grunting with pain when her shoulder slammed against the metal door, numbing the length of her arm, her hand began to slip, losing its grip on the door. Then, just as she thought that time had run out, she felt a harness being pushed roughly under her arm. Concerned about her precipitate exit from the aircraft and her imminent death, she’d failed to notice Jake as he came to her rescue.

  He slipped the straps over her head and secured them, whilst Piper devoted all her attention to holding on, she nodded in gratitude and smiled at him, their eyes lingered a little as he clipped her safety lead to the roof mountings. Finally, she felt safe enough to let go of the door handle and began to claw her way back to her seat. Squeezing past one of the Marines, who was on his knees behind the Machinegun, she managed to pull herself out of his way, just as Jake gave the order to begin firing at the incoming.

  The giant appendage that was hurtling towards them was sentient, Piper watched in sick fascination as three eyes appeared on the extreme edge of the feeler. The monstrosity changed its trajectory and began to weave in the air as it came towards them, flattening its rounded tip and turning away from the hail of bullets. The other cables of flesh were almost upon them, the pilot took immediate evasive action, banking the aircraft away from the threat, throwing everyone around the cabin. Piper fell backwards over one of the Marines, banging her head on the steel bulkhead. Slightly stunned, she watched Jake, through her half-closed eyes, as he crawled on his hands and knees, to reach her.

  The helicopter was bucking and turning beneath her, but she managed to drag herself into a sitting position and signal that she was ok. Then, wrapping her arm around the safety lead, she pulled herself to her feet, all the time watching with horror, as the thing twisted and waved through the air as it attacked them. She estimated that they were flying at about eight thousand feet, yet still it came after them, the power of the appendage frightened her. All the while, the machine gun was thundering away as the Pilot swung the Helicopter around yet again. He turned the throttle up to full, making the engine scream as he struggled to gain height and get above the grotesque things that were coming straight for them.

  He almost made it, until one of the ropes of oozing flesh managed to wrap its tip tightly around the rotor system, decapitating the machine and blowing the rotor hub and blades to pieces. Blood flesh and metal spun through the air, the cabin was peppered with chunks of foul smelling flesh that flew through the open door, blood trickled down the cabin walls. Without power, the Helicopter began to drop like a stone towards Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport. Piper, in an act of utter futility, grabbed hold of the safety lead with both hands, closed her eyes and braced herself for the landing. She guessed that they were falling at a rate of about 125 miles an hour, deep down, she was savvy enough to know that an impact at that speed, on either land or sea, would be fatal.

  • • •

  Fort Powell was bolted onto Naples Airport, hastily built by the Americans at the beginning of the emergency, when it began to be obvious that the ‘resurrection’ had turned into a worldwide disaster. The Base was a prime example of what could be achieved in a short space of time, using the wealth and power of the mightiest nation on earth.

  It was a great sprawling construction, full of military armour and well-equipped soldiers. Sleek fighter aircraft, lined the runways, giant service Hangers had been erected by well-trained teams of engineers and technicians. A small town of wooden huts had grown out of the perimeter scrubland. Churches, Cinema’s and shopping Malls were scattered amongst the Barracks, a magnet for the local Neapolitans.

  The latest, Nuclear powered Aircraft Carrier, USS Donald Trump, was anchored in Naples bay. President Clara Powell and her Staff, were in the process of transferring to the vessel, their intension was to use the Ship as a floating White House. The President, in a desperate bid to impress her disillusioned voters, had insisted on overseeing the ‘tactical withdrawal’ of American Forces and the dismantling of Fort Powell.

  It was in fact an embarrassing and humiliating retreat for everyone concerned, full of rancour and guilt, the Generals blamed the President for unprecedented folly, a disastrous and completely misjudged adventure in Italy. In turn, the President condemned the Generals for underestimating the difficulty of the mission and for not reacting quickly enough when the dangers became apparent.

  “They won’t buy it Frank,” Clara Powell, marched into her office, slamming the door, “re-settling in America or Canada is not an option, the Italian population will not up-sticks and leave their culture and everything that they know and love behind. The Government is adamant, so are the other heads of state, another solution must be found, that was the consensus.

  “Well ok Clara, so what have they come up with?” Her Chief of Staff got up from behind his desk, took off his glasses and began cleaning them with a tissue. “Or do they expect us to sort it out?

  “They want us to Nuke the cities, destroy everything, go back to square one. Everyone seemed to agree, they’d rather have a radioactive wasteland in the north than the abomination that
’s there now.”

  “Is it possible, can we do it?”

  “I put a video call in to the Secretary of the Air Force in Washington, he called the Chief of staff, who seemed to be on the ball, we discussed it all in the meeting.”

  “So, what did you come up with and will it get us off the hook here. Can we evacuate the base here and carry on as planned, or are there changes that I should know about?”

  “Like you say Frank, I don’t think that anyone can realistically see any future for us here Frank, once we’ve put everything back the way it was, it’ll be decades before they can even think about re-building. So, what’s the incentive for staying? There’s no point in bringing a business delegation over here, there’s no business to be had, in fact the country’s more of a charity case than anything else. There’s no oil or other natural resources and no strategic value, so yeah, lets pack up and go home Frank.”

  “Ok then, we’re good to go, how are you going to flatten the cities?”

  “Well, it all seems quite straight forward, have you ever heard of the Castle Bravo test that we did back in the 50s?”

  “Yes, I’ve heard of it, I think we did it at school, biggest Nuke we ever exploded, wasn’t it?”

  “That’s right, 15000 Kilotons of explosive, a huge thing, I’m told that when it was tested the air blast destroyed everything in a 90 square Kilometre radius, never mind all the damage from the fireball and radiation. Well, we have some of these stockpiled and the Air Force Chief of Staff reckons that one Castle Bravo on each target will be more than enough.”

  “How are we going to deliver it, you know what’s happening to anything that flies over the cities and I’m not sure a missile will be accurate enough.”

  “They’re talking about a squadron of Stealth Bombers, one aircraft for each city, delivering each payload almost simultaneously. They’re going for a EPW, that’s an Earth Penetration Weapon. They’re designed to explode 9 to 15 feet underground, apparently it amplifies the force of the explosion 25-fold. I’m told that the trigger mechanism has a ground impact activation loop,” she said, shrugging,” it should be total devastation, nothing left of any of the cities, just a crater, about 8 miles wide and half a mile deep. The weather’s been checked and the wind is blowing in a northerly direction tomorrow, so I’ve given the order Frank, didn’t seem much point in hanging about. I’ve just come back to change and to let you know what’s happening. There’s going to be a joint statement by the Heads of Government and photographs in half an hour, so I’ve got to get back.”

  “I’d better try and get the rest of your things moved out to the Aircraft Carrier today Madam President. Whatever, I would suggest you sleep there tonight. If the intension is to destroy Rome tomorrow, we are a bit too close for comfort.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Then suddenly, silently and without warning their rate of descent began to slow, Piper opened one eye. Everybody else was staring out of the open door, one of the giant octopus arms that had destroyed the Helicopter, was wrapped tightly around the fuselage and was lowering them gently to the ground. She looked across at Linderman, he winked and grinned, she smiled back, with obvious relief at their reprieve.

  A movement in the cabin caught her eye, the chunks of flesh, that littered the floor, were on the move. Linking together seamlessly, slithering like slugs, the blood on the walls gathered in small pools and trickled towards the flesh. Finally, complete, the pink coloured, foul smelling blancmange began to move towards the door, on its way to join the tentacle wrapped around their Helicopter.

  He had felt it coming to him from out over the ocean, then it was within reach and now it was close, it was different, standing out from all the others because it stank of Time travel, he salivated in his desire to taste it. He wanted her, with the right pressure, she would do his bidding and pacify the herd, there was an addendum in the plan, a footnote to the blueprint, nothing was new, throughout the thousands of millennia, other victims like her, had been used before.

  They touched down gently, into a sea of undulating flesh, near to the centre of a deserted Rome, the tentacle that carried them, un-wrapped itself and dissolved into the surrounding mucus. The Colosseum towered above them, filled to the brim with an ocean of bubbling, burping mucus, which cascaded through its windows and poured down the ancient monuments sides.

  The smell of raw sewage was almost overwhelming, the Brigadier General was vomiting uncontrollably out of the cockpit window, Piper and the others were gagging and retching, covering their mouths and noses with anything they could find. In one controlled movement, the pink mucus that surrounded them, pulled back from beneath the Helicopter, leaving a twelve feet circle of black tarmac.

  Linderman led the way out of the ruined aircraft, Piper followed with a handkerchief tied round her face and covering her nose. General Brightside stayed in the cockpit, talking on the phone to Naples, trying to arrange a pick up. There was an eruption on the rippling surface of the Lake that caught everyone’s attention, a column of pink slime was rising into the air over by the Colosseum wall. It began to move towards the group, erratically at first, twisting and turning, like a submarine periscope, scanning and identifying them.

  Then, as it became more confident, it appeared to single out Piper and move straight towards her, stopping suddenly, when it came to within four feet of her. Then, without warning, it began to shape-shift, changing into something that loosely resembled a human figure. Culminating in a bizarre, sexless creature, whose ‘skin’ flowed and renewed continually from the crown of its head, like a pink chocolate fountain.

  “Miss Piper Reed, how do you do, it is an honour to meet you. Please call me Heinrich,” it spoke in perfect German, with a deep baritone voice.

  “Could we speak in English Heinrich?” Asked Piper, speaking in English, but slowly, an in case it wasn’t fluent “I want my companions here to understand what we’re saying.”

  “Of course, Miss Piper Reed,” it continued fluently and in English, “please call me Henry, if you so wish, I am obviously a proxy for my master, who lies behind us, bathed in amniotic fluid. I have been given the ability to speak directly into your mind if you would prefer that option, I did consider using this method of dialogue from the start, but I was conscious that it may alarm you and upset your colleagues.”

  She was the new Messiah, the Saviour, the chosen one, it was she who had brought the dead back to life, Piper would capture the imagination of the few souls that he had already ensnared and keep them safe, focus their minds onto Rapture. Then in time, he would send her out into the world, she would mingle with and bring hope to the masses, mislead the millions of souls that lived on this little world and lure them to an ignominious end.

  Before he devoured her, she would secure him the lions share, he’d be supreme, one step ahead of his brothers and sisters, they would die when he metamorphosed. He needed to use stealth, lies and deceit, they were badly miss-informed and ignorant of his origins, he would exploit that to his own benefit. He needed an Elite force and mobile units that he could rely on to serve his wishes, he looked to the blueprint, saw how it was done and replicated the formula.

  Piper was amazed and intrigued by this offer of telepathic conversation, but she chose to ignore it, there were more pressing issues. She looked around her, hoping that someone would talk to the construct, but there were no takers.

  “It wants to talk to us,” she said, “any volunteers?”

  “It seems to have picked you out Piper,” said Jake, “seems you’ve got the short straw, any problem just shout.”

  “What do I say?”

  “Ask it why it attacked us,” said Mary.

  Piper pulled the handkerchief from around her face, but held it to her nose as she spoke.

  “What was the purpose of you trying to kill us Henry and then change your mind at the last moment. Don’t get me wrong, we’re all grateful that you did, but what sort of sick bastard gets their kicks like that?”

  “I’
m afraid that it was a mistake, warfare is still new to me, but I am learning quickly. I knew that you were in the area, but when I first became aware of the Helicopter, I did not pick up on the fact that you were on board that machine.”

  Piper couldn’t help noticing how much this thing in front of her sounded like an English Butler. She smiled slightly, imagining it wearing a Bowler hat.

  “Hold on there, Henry,” she said, “how could you possibly know who was on board?”

  A Bowler hat began to grow on top of Henry’s head and was fixed in place within seconds. Piper was shocked at this ability to read her mind, she realised that she’d have to be careful.

  “I was able to read your life signs, obviously, they are well known to me. But in this case, I’d overlooked something, that’s why there was a problem. I hadn’t allowed for the human being’s desire and capacity for sleep, your mind was in resting mode, in fact, it had almost shut down, sleep is a concept that I am aware of, but it is something that I do not need or experience. So, your life force on the Aircraft was sadly overlooked and for that I beg your forgiveness.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Mary, jumping into the conversation, “are you saying that if Piper had not been on board you’d have killed the rest of us?”

  “Yes, of course I would, you and all the rest of humanity are our sworn enemies, your people have attacked and harmed us from the moment that we re-awoke. Due to your prejudice against us, we obviously can’t live together, therefore I now retaliate at every opportunity.”

  “Yeah, but you must admit that there are faults on both sides Henry,” said Piper, “the fact that you wanted to either eat or absorb us from the word go, hasn’t really led to you being loved. You can’t really blame humanity for feeling threatened and wanting to stop you