Island of Fog and Death: A sci-fi horror adventure

by David Wallace

  "It didn't like the flash-bang," observed Peri. "I think it was the light that bothered it. So come on, boys, let's take stock. What resources have we got?"

  "Bullets," said Steve. "I've got three full rifle mags plus what's loaded, call it one hundred rounds."

  "Same." said Troy.

  "Nine mil rounds, call it sixty apiece and Peri has thirty," Steve said. "Gus, what about you?"

  "Twenty," said the Swede.

  "None of which seem to bother the beast," said Peri. "What about things that go bang?"

  "Between us, me and Troy have one frag and three flash-bang grenades."

  "And let's consider what we've learned," said Peri. "Bullets, at least in the quantities we've got, only irritate it."

  "Chop the end off a tentacle all you have is a chain snake plus an annoyed beastie," said Steve.

  "It doesn't like flash bangs."

  "We haven't tried a frag on it yet," said Troy. "Would it do enough damage to kill the main creature without just throwing out a load of snakes?"

  "And that's the big question," said Peri. "Do we have anything big enough to really hurt it?"

  There was an ominous sound of hissing and scraping at the door.

  "Well," started Gus, but he was interrupted by a resounding crash against the door.

  "Did that just move?" asked Amanda.

  "That just moved," confirmed Peri. "Come on, hold the door!"

  "Well," Gus said again. "I believe this type of creature can regenerate itself from large enough parts, as we saw with the tentacle tip. So a large explosion risks just scattering parts that will grow into several more creatures. All weaker, but all capable of killing and growing."

  "Fuck, Gus, how long have you known that?" asked Peri with anger in her voice. "It didn't occur to you to maybe let us know what you know about the fucker, like, hours ago?"

  "Peri, I have only seen it just now. It is only now that I recognise it. I am not holding back information, I assure you."

  "Okay, sorry, Gus, I'm just a bit - how I can put it best? - a bit shit-scared. I'm not at my best when I'm a bit shit-scared. Now that you have seen it, how do we kill it?"

  "It is similar to creatures that manifested in Japan, in Nagasaki, and the USA, at Mount Saint Helens."

  "How were they dealt with?" asked Steve.

  "Nukes," was Peri's terse reply.

  "Yes," said Gus. "I believe the only solution the authorities could come up with was vaporisation."

  "So, Steve," said Peri conversationally. "I don't suppose that's a nuke in your pocket?"

  Troy answered for him. "No. He's just that happy to see you."

  "Hilarious," Peri replied with a note of irritation. "So, Gus, let's think about this. What we need is something that delivers a really high temperature, such as burning very intensely and energetically. Am I right?"

  "I think so. But it needs to be intense enough to vaporise its tissues, not just scatter them."

  Steve was nodding his head. "Sounds like we need a fuel-air bomb, or a shed load of white phosphorus."

  But Peri was shaking her head at the same time. "They use atmospheric oxygen, and loads of it. I suspect we couldn't get the effect we need down here because there isn't enough oxygen. That was why the Yanks had to nuke Mount - no, forget I said that, or I'll have to kill you all. Guys, where my head is at, is that we have two options here. One is a complex mission to use bunker-busters to open up the cave system and let in air, quickly followed by intense incendiary action. The other is simpler: programme a Trident to just nuke the fucker. No doubt the top brass can think of other options besides. Steve, can you get up to ground level and update Captain Mike?"

  Steve nodded and made for the stairs.

  Peri continued, "The rest of us, we'll try to secure the door again. Then it's mission accomplished and over to the Ministry to arrange a big bang, and we can all Foxtrot Oscar out of here before the shit hits the monster. Grab the iron bar, people."

  ***

  Peri moved to the left end of the bar, Troy went to the right, and Gus and Amanda spaced themselves in the middle. They squatted to take hold of it. Troy counted down, and on 'go' they heaved it up to waist height and shuffled a few paces closer to the door before letting the bar drop.

  "God, that's heavy!" complained Peri. "How the hell did Bandra manage to chuck it on her own? Come on, let's get this done. Ready? Count us in, Troy."

  This time, though, before they managed to get it to waist height, there was another crash against the doors. They flew apart, striking the iron bar a double blow that pushed it back, bowling over Amanda and Troy. Peri and Gus both managed to hop backwards out of its way.

  "The doors!" yelled Peri, jumping over the bar and hurling herself against the left door to try to force it shut. Gus jumped for the right door. Glancing back, he saw that Amanda was shouting in pain, an ankle trapped under the bar, and Troy had taken a blow to his head that left him dazed. Gus eyed the dog sitting calmly behind them all.

  "Tash!" he shouted. "Come and help! Throw your weight onto this door!"

  "No." The dog's reply shocked him. That it was audible, rather than telepathic, also surprised him.

  "What are you thinking?" he yelled. "Come on, Tash!"

  "What's in it for me, Gustav?" asked the dog. "Come on, what's my incentive?"

  "Tash! Help us, please!"

  "Nah, don't think so."

  "What do you want, dog?" Peri all but screamed.

  "Opposable thumbs," said Tash. "That's all. It's not much, really, is it?"

  There were a series of ominous thuds against the doors, and Peri and Gus struggled to hold them closed.

  "No," said Gus, firmly.

  Troy was back on his feet. He tried to lift the bar off Amanda, but without success.

  Seeing him struggle, Peri spoke up. "Gus, I'll move to the middle and hold both doors, if you grab the bar and get Amanda out."

  "No," he replied. "You cannot hold it alone. Tash will help. You will, Tash!"

  "Opposable thumbs," said the dog again.

  Peri shuffled sideways, towards the centre of the doorway, her back against the door and her feet pushing, hard. "We've got to get her out, Gus. Now, go!"

  She moved sideways another foot, and now she was pushing against both doors. With a grunt of frustration, Gus pushed off from the door and joined Troy. The two men heaved the bar up at one end, and with a sob of relief Amanda rolled free.

  There was another crash against the door. Peri was jolted forward. The door opened. A black tentacle lashed out and wrapped round Peri's middle, its sharp spines digging in. She yelled with the pain. A second limb flashed out from behind the door and whipped around her leg. Blood sprayed the air as a barb hit an artery. Troy jumped forward and slammed against one leaf of the door, slamming it shut, but a third tentacle slapped across Peri's face. She screamed. The creature hissed and whistled in triumph from behind the door, tightening its grip and dragging Peri toward itself, the knife-like spines slicing into her flesh, and contracting muscles breaking bones with a sickening sound. Someone - it might have been Troy - grabbed her wrist to try to hold her back, but slippery blood was everywhere now. Peri felt rather than heard a roaring in her ears, the sound of screams, shouting - and then her world blacked out.

  Chapter 24

  Somewhere, at some time, impossible to define.

  Peri suddenly blinked awake. She instantly knew something was wrong, because the clamour, the shouting and the screaming had faded into silence. Strange.

  She sat up, and was surprised to find that her wounds no longer ached. She looked around herself, confused, but could see nothing but fog.

  She poked a finger into the gaping rent in her abdomen. It sank in and she felt warm, wet blood and slimy viscera, but no pain. When she pulled the finger back out, it was clean and dry. Strange, again. She wondered if she was dead.

  "I thought we should talk," said a soft voice.

  Startled, she looked up and saw a tall, slender, wh
ite woman who seemed to exude a bright white light. The woman was completely white from top to toe - alabaster skin, flowing white gown, long white hair, eyes so pale they seemed to consist of nothing more than pupil and sclera. She was astonishingly, breathtakingly beautiful, but with a delicacy of features that was ethereal. The proportions of her face hinted at an other-worldly nature. Come to think of it, her slender figure was quite androgynous, but Peri decided to think of it - her - as female.

  "Is this a good time? In the middle of…" She stopped abruptly. "That's not important. Tell me, am I dead? What is this place?"

  The woman smiled. "The answers are, 'Not yet,' and, 'We stand - well, to be accurate, I stand and you lie - on the floor of a cave in the rocks beneath Anifail Island.'"

  "Then where has the fight gone?"

  "It remains around us."

  "Can you just tell me plainly, what has happened!"

  The woman looked thoughtful, as if trying to find a good way to explain. "Think of it like this… Time is a river, ever flowing by, and you and I have stepped away to stand on the bank for a few moments."

  "What?"

  "Or perhaps… Yes, this will work: consider that we occupy the space between the tick and the tock of the universe's clock."

  "You're saying that you just stopped time."

  The woman smiled again. "Not precisely. We have moved aside from time's flow."

  "So you yanked me - somehow - out of conventional spacetime," Peri tried. "Time has flowed on, beyond us. What are the others experiencing? Have I just ... vanished in front of their eyes?"

  "You are acquainted with the concept of the universe's many dimensions," the woman said, with an approving tone. "That is good. When I reverse the process and restore you to the universal coordinates from which you were translated, the time coordinate will be restored. Your companions will not observe any discontinuity."

  "Okay," said Peri. Then a look of horror crossed her face. "No - wait - not okay! Wasn't that thing in the cave just killing me? You put me back, I die. That doesn't sound good! What's going on, lady? Who the fu - er, who the heck are you? And why am I here?"

  The strange woman waved a hand and a pair of white armchairs emerged from the white fog. "Please," she said. "We should be comfortable while we talk."

  "Ah, I'm not sure I can stand without my insides falling out," said Peri. The woman merely smiled again. Peri stood and sat without spilling anything. She noticed that her blood did not stain the furniture. "Hmm. You seem to have a thing about white, don't you. What's that about? Symbolic of something? I hope it's not purity and innocence, 'cos I don't have much of those any more."

  "Your sense of humour is returning," she replied. "That is good. No, what you are perceiving as white is an absence of colour. Without time there is no motion, and without motion, photons cannot arrive at the receptors in your eyes. You are experiencing artificial neural stimuli designed to lessen your anxiety. The effect operates monochromatically, because colours would draw too much energy and reduce our time together."

  "But I can see my own red blood," objected Peri, holding up a sticky hand.

  "I take no credit for that," the woman said. "You know it is blood, you know what colour blood should be, and so you add details of your own devising to the neural experience."

  "But if there's no time dimension, how does cause and effect work? How can we be talking?" asked Peri. Then abruptly she held up a hand. "You know what? I don't understand much of what's going on here, and I don't really think I care anyway. Let's get back to questions I do care about. Who are you?"

  The woman smiled. "In a sense," she said, "I am your true mother."

  Ah, definitely female, thought Peri.

  "And your true father."

  Okaaaaay, maybe not, Peri thought.

  "My function is that of your planet's Servator. You may use that title, if you wish."

  "Okay, three things, really quickly. One, that isn't your name; two, I clearly remember my mother and father, who didn't look anything like you; and three, what's a Servator?"

  "Servator is a Latin word that comes close to describing my role. I am, at once, the Watcher, the Observer, the Listener, the Deliverer and the Preserver. But I recognise that there is a cultural inhibition to addressing someone by their function rather than by their name. My true name ... that is difficult to render in a form comprehensible to you. Humans have used a variety of names to refer to me in the past. Perhaps one of those might satisfy your need? One of the oldest is Avalokiteshvara, but that is rather long to my mind. You were conceived among the Hmong people, so perhaps Kab Yeeb would be acceptable. You were born in Vietnam, where I was known as Quan Am among other names."

  Peri's eyes opened wide. "Guanyin," she breathed, remembering Shanghai.

  "That name was used by the Han people of China," she confirmed. "If you wish, I would be content to use that name."

  "You're not really a - a goddess, are you? I mean ..."

  "Sufficiently advanced technology," was all the Servator needed to say. Peri nodded her understanding.

  "I guess you should call me Peri. Though you already seem to know a lot about me. I mean, 'Conceived among the Hmong people'. How did you pick up that little detail? And you missed a question."

  "I was present in the temple in the forests of Laos," said Guanyin.

  Peri frowned. "I was told earlier today that I'm not quite a standard human. What do you know about that? Did you have something to do with it?"

  "That is one of the points I wished to discuss with you. Yes, I did have something to do with it. But let me explain my role.

  "The functions of a Servator are essentially passive. I am not permitted to intervene in human affairs. Nevertheless, humanity is at risk, and I am reluctant to see it ended. I therefore found what I believe you would call a 'grey area' in the directives that govern my actions. You, Peri, occupy that grey area. I judged that humanity would benefit from the existence of certain capabilities. I set up a laboratory beneath an abandoned and forgotten temple in the Xieng Khouang region and set about engineering someone who would, in time, develop useful capabilities."

  "Are you telling me that I'm the result of your tinkering with my mother's eggs?" Peri was horrified. "What am I going to turn into - some kind of monster like the thing on Anifail Island? Are you responsible for that, too? And just how is that not intervening in human affairs?"

  "Your mother's eggs - that is, your birth mother's eggs - were not involved in your conception, nor was your birth father's seed. I engineered what was needed and implanted it into a surrogate - your mother - to bear and nurture you. But please do not be anxious. You will not become something to be shunned or feared on sight. My goal is the preservation of humanity, so it is essential that you can work towards that goal from within humankind. I will not intervene in human affairs - but you can."

  Peri huffed impatiently. "Preservation? From what? Or who? What is this risk that you talk about?"

  Guanyin's smile faded into a frown. "I regret that I must exercise care in what I tell you today, because we must stay within our grey area. Too much information poses a risk to your continued existence. Suffice it to say, as you have discovered, humankind is not alone in the universe. Humanity is broadcasting the presence of intelligent life on this planet at an exponentially increasing rate. Such broadcasts are becoming detectable even in the higher dimensions. Not every intelligent species is altruistic." She fell silent.

  "That's all I get?" asked Peri, frowning right back at her.

  "For now," replied Guanyin.

  "Okay. That thing on Anifail, that's certainly not altruistic, is it, and frankly it's kicking our ar - our backsides. If you have so many human names, then you must have intervened in the past, like a lot. Can you intervene now? I could use some help."

  The ethereal smile returned. "In the past I was authorised to stop and reverse the activities of an ancient being who formed your planet around - well, let us just call it a machine. While waiting
for its plans to mature, it amused itself by playing the part of a malevolent and vengeful god. In fact, it played at being many gods, manipulating many of Earth's tribes. Once it was neutralised and imprisoned, my authority to act was ended.

  "This is your help, Peri. You have several enhanced capabilities at varying stages of development. I am going to make some changes to accelerate development and better equip you to deal with the Devourer and with ... whatever comes next. Remember, I cannot intervene against it, but I can speed your development so that you can."

  "The Devourer? That's what you call the creature? Quite an apt name, because when you yanked me out, it was busy devouring me. When you drop me back in, it'll finish the job."

  "Yes it will," said Guanyin with a look of deep regret. "And I am sorry that it will be exceedingly painful for you as it does so."

  "What? That's your idea of help?"

  "Bear with the pain, it will quickly be over. I will use the liberated matter, combined with more of what Gustavus calls 'exotic matter', to reconstruct you. The enhanced capabilities are fuelled by exotic matter, but your body secretes it quite slowly. Too slowly. I thought you would have ample time to grow into your powers, but I now see that you will not."

  "Oh," Peri said, surprised, though she realised she should not be. "You know Gus and Tash?"

  Guanyin looked equally surprised. "Of course I do. Gustavus is the latest in a succession of custodians of the imprisoned being I mentioned. The exotic matter I will need is the dog."

  Peri's eyes were wide in shock. "Whoa! You're telling me Tash was a malevolent god? And you're going to tear him apart to rebuild me?"

  "The being is imprisoned within an exotic matter construct projected from the collar around his neck. I cannot destroy the being. He will remain imprisoned within an exotic matter shell. Only now, he will be imprisoned within you, Peri."

  "Me?" Peri's voice was faint.

  Guanyin fixed her eyes on Peri's. "This is important, Peri. Your newly emerged and matured capabilities will suffice to avoid being killed by the Devourer. But you will not be able to kill it. It can be imprisoned."