Infinity Squad

by Shuvom Ghose

  She nodded. “Sir.” Then started lowering herself in. She went feet first, then rifle, then torso, and as soon as I saw her fingers release their grip on this room, she yelled.

  “SHIT SHIT-“ and there was a splash.

  “Zazlu! Hold me!” I yelled, going headfirst through myself. Zaz grabbed my belt as I dove in and kept me from falling into same the waist-deep pond of cave muck Butcher was struggling in. I reached for her. “Butcher- take my hand!”

  She tried to walk and it was too thick, and she tried to swim and it was too thin, just like quicksand. Her struggles caused waves to ripple out through the muck, and then all of a sudden white slugs started raining down around her. I looked up and the entire ceiling was covered with hanging seaweed.

  “Butcher! Come on!” I yelled. “Hector- help her!”

  “Just a little further!” Hector laughed, letting the slugs fall on him without a care as he explored something deeper in the room.

  “Zaz! Let go! And Flamethrowers!”

  When he let go of my belt I slid into the muck face first and started slapping the slugs off of Ann-Marie. I didn’t know what they were then, but I didn’t care. Zazlu opened up with a jet of fire and toasted the seaweed hanging above us, stopping the white rain.

  “Did I get them all? Do you see any more?” I asked, brushing her hair, shoulders and chest frantically.

  She was doing the same to me. “I think so.”

  “Let’s get out of here!” I said, and my foot kicked up against something heavy that I instantly recognized. A Hell-Spider corpse, buried in the muck. I picked Butcher up by the waist and placed her standing on its back.

  Butcher could reach Zazlu’s hand from there and got pulled up and out. I did the same and Juan pulled me out. I turned back.

  “Hector! Come back! That’s an order!”

  “Fine, whatever,” he laughed, brushing slugs off him. Against my instincts, I pulled him back to the room we were in.

  “Everyone, turn around!” I ordered. “Butcher! Check your lower body for slugs!”

  “You too sir,” she said, and we both dropped our fatigues and made sure nothing was crawling up our legs or boots. “I’m clean,” she said a minute later, finishing wiping the muck off her.

  I shook out my pants and put them on again. “Me too. Alright, you guys can turn arou-“ I looked up to see half the Immortals grinning at the show Ann-Marie had just put on. “Hector! Control your men!”

  “Perks of the job, Forrest,” he laughed. “Now if you’re done playing doctor we’ve got to go back in there and figure out what killed all those spiders.”

  “We know what killed them,” Zazlu said, his face as red with anger as mine. “They fell into that shit and couldn’t get out again. Just like Lieutenant Butcher almost did because of you!”

  “We were fine. We can climb. We have hands,” he said, flashing his fingers at us. “Now come on, we’ve got to see-“

  “See nothing! We’re done here,” I snapped, then looked at Ann-Marie’s muck covered fatigues. The map on her thigh was ruined. Mine was barely legible. I started picturing the long climb out of the cave, uphill for most of it, with many wrong turns, the slick floor fighting us the whole way…and I just felt exhausted. With every breath, I felt like it would be better to just stay here. I fell to one knee.

  Zazlu tapped my shoulder with his elbow. “Come on, sir. We’ve got to move.”

  “I know, but just a minute…”

  “Now.”

  “Right.” I forced myself up and started pointing. “Butcher, lead us out. Zazlu, burn every seaweed we come across. Juan-“

  “Immortal Squad, with me!” Hector said. “We’re killing us some hiding spiders!”

  “Hector, step away from that hole! I’m bringing all of us back alive, even you Immortals.”

  “And I’m completing our mission,” he laughed. “We’re finding out the truth, even if we have to stay here all day! Now, Squad, follow-“

  Like a psychic Hell-Spider, I sensed Zazlu flick the safety of his flame thrower, heard the click in my head even though we were all shouting. As if reading my mind, Juan had been sliding up behind Hector, and Ann-Marie sliding sideways to flank the squad.

  I hit Hector in the chin with the butt of my rifle.

  Zazlu fired a burst of flame over our heads, just enough to make the rest of the squad draw back from Hector, Juan and I. Who were punching each other. I got him in the face and the balls, Juan grabbed one arm and hit the back of his head, and then I was pulling the plastic restraints from my back pocket.

  I hated MPs, but I had to admit that those little plastic zip-ties they carried to string together the wrists of drunken soldiers were the lightest, most effective restraints ever. Which is why I had stolen ten of them from a lazy MP before I left base.

  Samson and the Immortals recovered a second later, but Ann-Marie was already pointing her rifle at their sides. “FREEZE! RIGHT NOW! DO IT!”

  By then Juan and I had Hector face down on the ground and were muscling his wrists behind his back. I forced his wrists through and pulled the restraints tight.

  “Let him go!” Samson screamed.

  “I ordered him up to the surface,” I panted. “And he wanted to lead us back into that death trap. With no green lights. You know that’s insane.”

  “FUCK You Forrest- I’ll kill you!” Hector screamed, writhing face down on the ground.

  “Juan, stand him up. Samson, you’re in charge of the Immortals. We’re going back to base, now. We’ll sort this out there.”

  Juan and I started dragging Hector up with us, and Samson came to his senses and followed. Using a combination of her map, mine, and her memory, Ann-Marie led us back to the surface with only two wrong turns. The ascent was even harder than I imagined, now having to drag a protesting Hector with us. Every time I felt like giving up, Zazlu prodded me forward and I found a little more strength.

  I was exhausted by the time we saw the sun again. I fell to one knee, enjoying the warmth and called Jinx to come get us.

  Lesko and the Immortals guarding the cave were looking at us strangely, from the bound Hector to Samson to me and back. Luckily Jinx was landing before we had to answer any questions. Hector refused to get on the helo and Zazlu just looked at me and said, “Sheep?”

  “Sheep,” I agreed and rifle-butted Hector in the back of the head. We threw his unconscious body forward into the helo, Juan and Butcher jumped in, and we took off immediately. The other helos were landing for the stunned Immortals as we climbed away.

  “What the hell just happened?” I asked, exhausted.

  “Don’t know,” Butcher said. “It’s like that room hypnotized him.”

  “It was before that,” Zazlu said. “He was scratching his neck for minutes before that.”

  “So what? A crazy-rash?”

  “We call them the brain slugs,” Blue Wave’s deep voice rang inside our heads.

  "You know I-" I sighed, then covered my mike. You know, I hate this rule that spiders can't tell us about things until we've see them. Relay that to Butcher, Wrestler and Natural Hunter.

  A second later I saw my team nod agreement, and then Blue Wave said, "You did not have the picture in your head before. The young one did not have it either. Also, I am closer now. I should not have left the village but I did, trying to reach you before you entered the caves. The Butcher asks what the brain slugs do."

  Please.

  "They are mental creatures, like us, but a hive mind. They burrow into their prey and reach the brain from inside, and then control it."

  So they compel the prey to go into their cave and die? I asked, remembering how Hector had acted.

  "Worse. They compel the prey to convince other members of its clan to enter the cave as well. Then they infect the others. The others bring others, until the entire clan is destroyed."

  Good thing we subdued Hector when we did. How do we cure him from the slugs?

  "He cannot be cured. You must kill him."


  Zazlu's eyes got wide and he shook his head. Ann-Marie looked like she was considering it.

  "The Wrestler says you cannot- too much suspicion will arise. But you must, Group of Trees, or else he will lead your entire clan, one by one, into the muck pit."

  I looked at Zaz. He shook his head more forcefully.

  "The Wrestler says the prisoner cannot die alone with four members of your clan. That it is better to somehow kill him after you return. But you must NOT allow that idea back into your village! It will destroy it!"

  I checked Hector's band, which read five lights again, then pantomimed just rolling the unconscious body out the side of the helicopter. The Iranian's eyes were intense.

  "No," he mouthed to me.

  I looked at Ann-Marie. She thought for a second, then nodded grimly.

  "The Butcher is picturing... lemmings? Following each other into the muck pit. And being reborn to do it again."

  Shit. The clone tanks. There were ten to fifteen bodies for each of us soldiers, more being grown every day. And the farmers. And their kids. And if any infected went through the wormgate, back to Earth...

  I stood up and checked Hector's band one more time, checked behind us to make sure the other helicopters were too far away, and then rolled the sleeping soldier off the side of the helicopter to his death.

  I watched him hit the ground and explode, then yelled, "Holy SHIT- Stop him!"

  "He's gonna jump!" Ann-Marie added.

  "Fuck- damn-" I cursed, making noises of a struggle with Juan's help. "Damn it! He fell out!"

  "At least he was wearing his band," Ann-Marie sighed.

  And then I sat back down, looking at my men. None of us were smiling.

  Five seconds later, Samson yelled in our implants, "What the fuck just happened?"

  "It was fucking Hector," I replied. "He started coming to and then jumped out!"

  "You killed him Forrest! As revenge for Ridley! You took his band off and then killed him!"

  "I wish! We should have taken his band off. When he started waking and saw that he still had it on, he threw himself out! He wanted to get back to base before we did, probably to get his side of the story out first." I closed my eyes and tried to make my voice as persuasive as possible. "You saw how he was acting, Samson- you have to back me up on this when we get back."

  "You just better hope he resurrects."

  "He had five lights. He'll make it back in better shape than any of us."

  "He better. Out."

  We made the rest of the trip home in silence.

  Was it technically murder? Or did we do the right thing? Hector might have infected the entire base. Blue Wave told us there was no cure. Then again, Blue Wave had never heard about penicillin or brain surgery. Because he was a giant spider.

  We landed without incident, no one meeting us on the Flightline, and it was only after we had checked our rifles and body armor back into the armory that four BlackShirts showed up and tazered me into unconsciousness.

  ***

  Chapter Eleven

  I woke up in the brig, handcuffed on both wrists to my chair. I was still wearing the same muck-covered fatigues from the mission, now cold and clammy on my body. My head ached, my back was sore where the tazers had hit and I had a growing bruise where my face had met the floor after the tazers. And the bureaucrat was sitting across from me.

  He still looked perfect.

  My throat was dry, but I managed to croak, "Who are you?"

  "I am Inspector General Anthony Himenez. I have been sent to this planet to represent the interests of the people of Earth."

  I had to chuckle. "All of them?"

  Himenez smiled and leaned back in his chair, flipping through pages on his electronic notepad. "You are an interesting case, First Lieutenant Forrest. I can't decide whether you are the worst officer on this planet or the best."

  "Do I get a vote?"

  "Your mission to the cave system consumed 7.4 man-days of soldier availability, 503 gallons of jet fuel and one cloned body, from the death of another officer while he was in your captivity." Himenez looked up at me. "Lieutenant Hector resurrected without incident, by the way."

  "Thank the gods."

  The bureaucrat flipped another page. "And this mission, which cost the people of Earth nearly four hundred thousand dollars, resulted in exactly zero enemy kills. However, the report written by your Second Lieutenant while you were resting, recommends the entire sector around the cave be marked as clear of enemy activity." He pinned me with a precise, intense stare. "So, was this mission a victory or a loss for the war effort?"

  He gave a pretty good Look, I have to say. But not as good as mine. However, it wasn't time for that yet. I shrugged, pulling at my handcuffs.

  "I'd say the results are mixed."

  He smiled. "Indeed. Since the report that Lieutenant Hector wrote after his resurrection recommends sending two more patrols to the caves immediately, to investigate signs of massive spider activity."

  Oh shit. We had killed the body with the brain slug in it. How was this possible? What did that mean for-

  "And the informal report that his Second Lieutenant Samson filed with me agreed that there were signs of spider activity, but disagreed that any more patrols should be sent to that cave." He looked at me like an amused grandfather lecturing his young ones. "So what am I to make of all that?"

  I didn't care what he made of it. All I could think of was Hector, walking around infecting others, sending infected messages back to Earth, infecting my squad. I pulled at the cuffs, rattling the chair.

  "Am I under bureaucrat arrest or something? If I'm going to be court-martialed for what happened to Hector, let's bring the real military in here and get it over with! I'd like to see my lawyer immediately- it's Second Lieutenant Zazlu Mohammed."

  Himenez chuckled. "There will be an official inquiry on how an unconscious, restrained prisoner fell to his temporary death while under your control. But only after my inquiry is over."

  "So what, you're above the law?"

  He answered without hesitation. "I am."

  Then he leisurely looked down at his pad and flipped a few more pages. "I have arrested mayors, governors, presidents, and kings for corruption. I have run down the most fearsome war criminals in human space and seen them sentenced to multiple life sentences." He looked up at me casually. "That used to be just a saying, you know, before cloning technology. But now we can lock a criminal away until he slowly dies of old age behind bars, then resurrect him into a new, vibrant young body and let him watch his life waste away all over again. As many times as needed." He smiled at me.

  I started to understand why so many higher ups on base feared him. He looked right at me.

  "They do that to traitors now. Instead of the firing squad. Three lifetimes of hard labor. Pending the prosecutor's recommendation. So now, I have some questions for you, Lieutenant, if you don't mind."

  I could barely speak. "Go ahead."

  He flipped a page on his pad. "So let me understand this mission. You deploy to the caves. You find evidence that a large amount of spiders have entered the second cave system in the past, but you cannot find any enemy activity inside the first few rooms?"

  "Correct."

  "Lieutenant Hector urges that you continue, but you override him and take him under custody, make your way back to the entrance, and then this exchange happens." Himenez pushed a button on his pad and a recording played, scratchy radio transmissions.

  My voice: "Jinx, come pick us up! Hurry."

  Jinx: "Roger. Thirty seconds out."

  Thirty seconds of silence, then Hector's frantic voice over the sounds of the helicopter: "NO! We've got to go back! I won't go without-"

  Zazlu's voice: "Sheep?"

  Me: "Sheep."

  And then a thump, and Hector couldn't be heard.

  Himenez stopped the recording and raised an eyebrow at me. "Sheep is a code word for what, exactly?"

  I swallowed. "An
inside joke in our squad."

  "Ah." He hit play again. It was the conversation we had as we climbed, me asking what happened, Butcher saying the room hypnotized Hector, Zaz mentioning neck scratching, and then my voice: “So what? A crazy-rash?” A pause, then me saying "You know I-" And then, silence.

  Himenez stopped the recording after thirty seconds of static, then looked at me. "What made you stop talking, in the middle of your sentence?"

  No. NO. He could NOT find out about this. I was not going to spend three straight lifetimes breaking rocks. I shook my head. "Nerves. It was a heavy mission. We were all freaked out."

  "Indeed. Your squad members were so upset, that after that single heated exchange, they stayed absolutely silent for the next two minutes and fifteen seconds."

  "We were processing."

  "An amazing feat of radio discipline, considering the circumstances. In fact, the very next sounds are you reacting to Hector's suicide." Himenez played that, then turned off the recording again. "Interesting how it takes the average human fifteen minutes to recover from being knocked unconscious, as you did in this room after your tazering. Yet Lieutenant Hector, in the same cloned body, recovered enough in less than three minutes to overcome four captors while bound and throw himself out of a moving helicopter?"

  "I didn't hit him very hard."

  "And how does someone check the number of lights they have on their buffering band with their hands tied behind their back, exactly?"

  I started sweating. "He must have seen the reflection off some metal surface as he was lying on the floor."

  "I see." Himenez made a note on his pad and considered it for a moment as the sick feeling in my stomach grew. Then he smiled. "Well, luckily for you, Lieutenant Hector has no memory of the incidents inside the helicopter, and Lieutenant Samson corroborates your account of Hector acting strangely inside the caves. And since Lieutenant Hector has resurrected without issue, I'm going to recommend that General Oakley only conduct a cursory inquiry into this incident. You should be free in more than enough time to lead your squad on their next mission."