Wrath of the Carnelians (Europa)

by Jason Gehlert

  “This is my other ship, The Athena?” Adrian released his grip on Drake. Drake slid to the floor grabbing his throat coughing for air.

  “Yeah, how did you know?” Drake whispered.

  “I designed every one of them. And, I gave this crew the cooler uniforms,” Adrian said with a wicked grin.

  Logan butted in.

  “We are headed to New Earth. Care for a ride?”.

  “And you would be?” Adrian turned around and briskly approached Logan.

  “The doctor who saved your life.” Logan stood firm.

  “You have balls, I admire that.” Adrian reached out his hand.

  Logan returned the lukewarm handshake. It was pure vanilla, no emotion to the gracious measure.

  “So, how far are we from New Earth?” Adrian asked. “And, is that what they finally called it?”

  “Yeah,” Tommy replied.

  “Did I ask you?” Adrian’s answer was curt and shortened to deliver the emotional impact.

  “The committee settled on New Earth.” Logan interrupted the abrasive lecture.

  “I would’ve called it Abagail’s Haven,” Adrian spoke fondly of his premier ship.

  “Are you the only survivor?” Sammy inquired of their unique passenger.

  “Are you paying any attention?” Adrian’s tone was ridiculously demeaning to Sammy. “My Abagail left with other survivors, who left me out to die over a difference of opinion.”

  “A difference of opinion?” Drake finally caught his breath.

  “I know you,” Adrian said flirting one of his fingers in Drake’s direction, finally realizing the face underneath the beard. “Nolan Drake, premier volcano expert.”

  “Used to be.”

  “What happened? Oh, yeah I know, you fucked up Yellowstone’s doomsday clock.” Adrian laughed.

  “That’s a bit crude.” Tommy defended Drake.

  “It’s true. I should’ve notified the President sooner,” Drake added. “I did fuck up, and millions of people are dead because of it.”

  “A man who takes responsibility, I admire that.” Adrian stared over the group of derelict space travelers. “Man, are we a sad sack of losers,” he blasted the crew.

  “So, what happened to your team,” Logan prodded Adrian for a storyline.

  “Well, Doctor Intelligence,” Adrian started the story, pacing back and forth. He could feel it building inside him. It was hungry and wanted to feed on its prey. Adrian stop wasting time. Kill them. Adrian attempted to keep the urge in check, until after his story. “I was part of Abagail’s team sent to rescue my other doomed ship, The Amity. Her crew seemed to have encountered some sort of resistance on Europa. My friend President Forsythe had decided to launch Abagail with a specialized team of experts. At least what it said on their trumped up resumes.”

  “Weren’t they the best in the world?” Logan asked, definitely confused on the matter.

  “In their egotistical mind set.” Adrian felt the entity moving underneath his skin, snaking its way down his left arm. “Long story short, we encountered these tiny carnivorous aliens called Carnelians. It seems that they became stranded in Europa’s vast ice caves and frozen oceans. Within a few short months, our previous team through nuclear positioning had thawed out the species. It was like a bad science fiction novel from there on out.”

  “Did the whole team die?”

  “We found one survivor,” Adrian said grimacing. He knew the survivor well. “The Amity’s first Lieutenant, Matthew Shaw. Everyone else died from the alien attack.” Adrian could feel the entity swarming around inside his body, aching to control Adrian once more.

  “And your team?” Drake positioned for an answer.

  “We lost half of our team. Only Commander Kaspar, Lieutenant Shaw, and the sexy geologist, Gillian Shea managed to survive.”

  “Why were you shot and left for dead?” Logan wanted to know.

  “Must’ve been his award-winning personality,” Tommy cut in with the quirky remark.

  Adrian sniffed off the mild comeback and re-directed his focus on finishing the story, and then dinner. “The Lieutenant thought I became compromised by the alien species, so he decided to blow up the infested space station. I managed to escape and board the Abagail one final time before they threw me in the cargo bay , and filled me with bullets pinning me to the walls.”

  “Compromised?” Logan became curious. “How does that happen?”

  “These critters have the capability of entering your body if they don’t want to kill you, and then control you to do their bidding for total world dominance.”

  “What for?” Drake asked.

  “From my brief encounter with them, they were headed to take over Earth before their ship crashed on Europa, leaving them stranded for millions of years.” Adrian’s fingers rolled about. He was losing his grip on reality and succumbing to the urge to kill.

  “Where did they come from?” Logan inquired about the interesting story.

  “New Earth, or whatever you suckers are calling this new home world of yours. Buyers beware, it’s already inhabited by these nasty aliens.” Adrian’s eyes hazed over with a mustard color, forcing him to evacuate the chamber and search for his own demonic answers to his own questions.

  “Where are you going?” Logan demanded an answer from the elusive billionaire. “And how do you know this information? Have you talked with these aliens?”

  “He’s awfully cryptic,” Drake said bitterly.

  “Does anyone here think that Adrian’s stretching the ligaments of truth for his own personal gain?” Sammy posed his own unique observation.

  Adrian entered the dimly lit corridor swaying side to side attempting to regain control of his eroding mind. Adrian’s internal struggle continued until he felt a sudden sharp snap within, jolting him to a dead standstill. The Carnelian buried deep within Adrian’s body, worked its way inside his tortured psyche, urging its new host to implement a new sinister plan of action. Adrian had returned to his former nasty, evil self.

  Kennison remained distant from the group. His strong dislike for Tommy’s sexual preferences (and not to mention the fact that he had his ass thoroughly kicked twice by the martial arts master factored into his distant relationship) kept Kennison wandering the darkened halls of Athena’s spiraling structure.

  “Of all the places to be,” Kennison muttered. “I need to get off this forsaken ship in the worst possible way.”

  “What a coincidence. I too want to get off of this floating pile of scrap metal.” The crusty voice echoed from the other end of the corridor.

  “Excuse me?” Kennison’s voice rose sharply. How did this person hear him? He was at least one hundred feet away from the southern end of the corridor.

  “I said,” the voice returned again with a husky baritone. “I want to get off this ship as well.”

  “And you are?” Kennison couldn’t place the distracting voice. It had one of those manipulative, conniving, and sinister dialects about it.

  “Who I am is not very important right now,” the voice was nearing the mid-point of the corridor. There he was, standing about fifty feet away from the startled crew member.

  “What are you into? Fucking mind games?” Kennison backed away from the mysterious stranger. “Is there any other type?”

  “What?”

  “I relish the uniqueness of a good game of mental abuse,” he withdrew from the darkness and walked underneath the filtering light.

  “I know you,” Kennison came up with the stranger’s identity.

  “Well, don’t keep me in suspense kind Sir,” he said while slowly raising his head from the pit of darkness and into the fractured light.

  “You’re Adrian Blakely,” Kennison spat out the introduction.

  “In the flesh,” Adrian responded, his face beaded in sweat, his eyes rolling underneath a mustard yellow haze.

  “I’m Kennison.”

  “I don’t care who you really are,” Adrian’s tone was grim at best. His
mouth widened to show several jagged pieces of teeth ready to gnaw on their prey.

  “What are you?” Kennison felt his hands press against a wall behind him.

  “Something truly, truly magnificent,” Adrian boasted. He shortened the distance between them by another twenty feet.

  Kennison wasted precious time in attempting to find a way out of his situation.

  “You’re trapped.” Adrian enjoyed Kennison fumbling around in the darkened corner of the corridor.. “Backed yourself into a corner?” Adrian widened his hungry mouth.

  “How do you know?” Kennison’s fear became apparent. The gradual loss of his facilities resulted in a warm piss cascading down his trembling legs.

  “I designed the ship, I know every corner like the back of my hand.” Adrian leaned in closer, now only inches from Kennison’s fearful face.

  “I don’t like this one bit,” Kennison responded, while balling up his fists.

  Adrian simply smiled, utilizing his patented sly grimaces to their fullest potential.

  Kennison unloaded on Adrian, using a lethal combination of left and right hooks to startle his brazen assailant.

  “Now, was that necessary?” Adrian shook off the hard shots and caught one of Kennison’s fists in mid-air. “I just wanted to talk. But, you’ve gone and made me angry.” Adrian clenched his hand closed, instantly crushing Kennison’s right hand in splintered fragments of bone. Adrian then placed his free hand outward and mentally forced Kennison to crash at the wall behind him. “You don’t want to make me angry,” Adrian repeated his threat.

  “Let go of me!” Kennison shouted for Adrian to release him.

  “It’s too late for that.” Adrian opened his mouth.

  “What are you doing?” Kennison stared like a deer caught in the high beams, entranced by Adrian’s dark mouth, which provided a portal for something truly sinister. Kennison heard a faint screeching sound coming from within Adrian’s mouth.

  “I want to introduce to a few friends of mine.” Adrian after successive moments of gurgling, expelled the carnivorous aliens in Kennison’s face. The small, two inch Carnelians swarmed over Kennison’s face, entering his body through his nose, mouth, and ears, filling his head with their carnivorous bodies.

  Kennison felt the aliens feeding on him from the inside, tearing apart his organs with rancid delight. Adrian took his share and lurched his hand, armored with a new fresh set of lengthy claws, digging in Kennison’s chest, sucking the very life out him, just like he did with Randolph Kray, the unfortunate former {and dead} chef of the Abagail.

  After taking a deep breath in, Adrian looked down at Kennison’s squirming body. Within a few moments, Kennison’s body slowly disintegrated underneath the carnivorous army of Carnelians. Without a moment’s hesitation, their teeth sliced through Kennison’s skin, leaving a mangled, contorted corpse behind.

  “Oh yeah, I’m back.” Adrian soaked in the moment of his fresh kill. “All hail the return of Adrian Blakely.”

  PART II

  Hide and Seek

  “Am I the only one who is freaked out by Adrian?” Sammy talked up the group. “Doesn’t he make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on edge?”

  “I must admit, he does turn the copper on a penny green,” Tommy added.

  “That makes no sense,” Sammy whipped out the remark. “Do you try to make asinine remarks, or does it just come naturally?”

  “Anyway, boys and girls,” Logan broke up the play school banter. “We need to focus our attention on New Earth and how we are going to get there.”

  “I agree. We are going to have to focus on the remainder of the trip. Earth’s legacy is at stake here.” Drake clasped his left hand around the cue stick and began a slow meander for the exit.

  “Where are you going?” Logan questioned Drake’s decision to leave the group.

  “We definitely are not going to get anything accomplished in here. I am going to scout the area for more supplies, and see where exactly Adrian has scurried off to.”

  “We’re coming,” Logan replied. “All of us. We are going to stick together as a team.”

  “Speaking of sticks, where’s Kennison?” Sammy had taken notice of the arrogant bastard’s disturbing disappearance.

  “He’s gotta be lurking around here somewhere,” Logan said. He wondered what the fuck would happen next. In the short time since the crew had thawed, the Lieutenant was gunned down in cold blood, Adrian’s immobile body was found and recovered, then Adrian vanished, and Riley was still roaming about the confines of Athena, waiting, lurking, salivating for the chance to kill.

  “Stay close, and for God’s sake, be smart,” Drake issued the credence for survival. “I don’t trust Adrian any farther than I can throw him.” Drake placed his hand up and snapped his fingers. “Not a word,” he encouraged the crew to abide by his advice.

  “These halls are pretty dark,” Sammy investigated the grim atmosphere.

  “Do we need weapons?” Tommy asked the obvious two-dollar question.

  “For what?” Logan returned the snide answer. His demeanor eroded from his body’s brutal detoxification process. Logan needed his pain medication and promptly would be an understatement.

  “Fine, we’ll raid the armory,” Drake ushered the group along. His limp had become more noticeable.

  “Where is the armory, exactly?” Logan pointedly remarked.

  “It’s right around the corner, and down the hall, second door on the left,” Tommy paused for a moment. “Right. Second door on the right,” his jarring response seemed to throttle the crowd.

  “Are you sure?” Drake again demanded the answer.

  “Which one is it Captain Quirk,” Sammy prodded his old friend. “Do you even know your left from right?”

  “Yes. Yeah, I’m one-hundred and seventy trillion percent sure,” Tommy assured Drake’s shaky conscience.

  “Okay, that helps.” Drake stopped dead in his tracks. “But, one question,” he addressed the group. “What’s that Doc?” Logan’s distasteful attitude was starting to erode Drake’s last nerve.

  The ship’s overhead lights flickered about, randomly blanketing the corridor in occasional creepy darkness.

  “Is the armory before or after the dead body lying in a bloody mess straight ahead?” Drake squinted through the darkness to gain a better look art the dead body.

  “How do you know it’s a dead body?” Tommy always let loose a steady stream of sweat from being nervous. “I think the fact that his face is smeared all over the place serves as a good indicator.” Drake stepped in closer to the approaching carnage.

  “Careful guys.” Logan took a deep breath in and waved everyone to slow their tracks.

  “Drake’s right, there’s an awful lot of blood smeared across the walls and floor.”

  “What could’ve done this?” Donny echoed from the rear. He cautiously stepped across the sticky tiles.

  “Beats me. But, it certainly had a field day on the body.” Logan kneeled down besides the corpse, inspecting the fresh wounds. “This is insane.”

  “We found Kennison,” Drake confirmed the mangled face of their previously arrogant crew mate.

  Logan stared over Kennison’s misshapen face. His fingers traced over the slimy residue left behind on Kennison’s scratched cheeks. His eyes, dangling from sunken sockets, the torso ripped open, exposing Kennison’s vacant internal tomb. “Whatever did this ate him dry.” Logan’s stance became rigid, rising with discretion underneath the flickering lights. “I don’t like this. Not one bit.”

  “I’m still trying to figure out what the hell did this. It resembles nothing of human integrity.” Drake utilized a careful pace along the corridor, stepping over Kennison’s exposed entrails. Drake stutter stepped, his left foot slipping on Kennison’s shredded intestines. Drake’s hand extended, with awkward mobility against the wall, with desperation, unable to curb the scientist’s eventual fall.

  A faint whispering could be heard approaching the gro
up from the other end of the corridor.

  “Do you hear that?” Sammy asked Tommy.

  “Somewhat. Sounds like voices.” Tommy strained his ear for another listen for the weird noise.

  “No way. That sounds a helluva like claws dragging, or a dog running across a tiled floor. It’s a very distinctive clacking noise, fingernails for instance,” Donny informed his friends.

  “Wow, all that from those faint sounds?” Tommy seemed surprised at Donny’s hidden talents.

  “It gets awfully lonely at nights when I watch those security videos,” Donny replied with a looming stare of boredom. “My hearing’s amplified when every single small noise erupts throughout my meager shifts of excitement.”

  “I can see the armory,” Drake added. “It’s the next door down the hall.”

  “Let’s go and get some added insurance against Adrian,” Logan ordered.

  One by one the crew members entered the armory. Drake first, followed by Logan, and Sammy. Tommy and Donny sauntered behind, careful not to step in Kennison’s exploded carcass.

  “That’s just plain sick,” Donny noted. He was the last one to pass the body.

  “Do you hear that?” Tommy’s voice raised to a moderate whisper.

  “Yeah, and it’s close.” Donny continued along the pitch black corridor. “Drake, shine a light out here,” Donny called out.

  “Yeah, hold on a second.” Drake searched for a flashlight.

  Logan withdrew a small pocket-sized knife with a small LED light on the end. “Drake,” he whispered over to the scientist.

  “What?”

  “We have a small problem.” Logan scanned over the corridor in horror.

  “Small?”

  “Well, actually, a big problem, but small in size.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Drake turned around and caught sight of Logan’s decree of urgency. “Fuck me,” Drake blurted out.

  “Guys, it’s best if you made your way carefully to the door and don’t look up,” Logan instructed Tommy and Donny to cautiously make their way to the armory.