“The things are everywhere!” Leonard blurted out, terror in his voice.
The two of them had been dispatched to deal with creatures that had been entering the station via its docking area. They hadn’t even made it there and had started encountering singular or small groups of the creatures long before they got close to it. So far, the two of them had been able to handle the number of creatures that they had come into contact with. This last one though had nearly taken Howard’s face off, dropping from the ceiling into his path, slashing at him with one of its primary tentacles as it fell. Howard’s reflexes had saved him but it had left him shaken to his core. He looked down at the mess his shotgun had made of the monster that had attacked him and felt sick.
“Don’t you think I know that, you idiot?” Howard snapped back at Leonard. “You know we would know a lot more about what was going on if you hadn’t lost the fragging radio!”
“Man, it was the radio or my arm and you know it!” Leonard spat defensively.
“Forget it!” Howard shook his head, partially to help clear it and settle his nerves. “Let’s just keep moving. The commander will be in the C.I.C. and that’s where we need to head for.”
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to make it there,” Leonard said, his eyes wide, as he pointed at something along the corridor ahead of where Howard was standing.
Howard looked around as the first of the teeming mass of creatures plowed into him. It swept him from the floor with its lesser tentacles and slammed him back down so hard that Howard felt bones breaking inside of him. He lay there, unable to move, as the monster’s beak-like mouth shot outward from its main body, snapping at his face. Too stunned and in pain to do anything but throw up an arm to block the mouth, Howard howled in pain as it clamped down on his wrist, severing his hand. Blood gushed from the stump of his wrist, pouring over him where he lay, as his arm flailed about. His pain came to an end as the monster speared him with one of its primary tentacles, plunging its tip through his sternum into his heart. His body jerked as the tip of the tentacle pierced it and then flopped back to the floor and lay still.
Leonard opened fire at the swarming creatures, his M4 roaring on full-auto. Its bullets raked across several of the creatures, dropping two of them and wounding more. The monsters he hit shrieked in pain as the bullets blew away chunks of their bodies. It wasn’t enough to stop the monsters though. Leonard turned to run, making it only a few steps before a tentacle caught one of his legs and jerked it out from beneath him. He fell forward onto the floor of the corridor, smacking it with his face. His nose crunched, breaking from the impact. Leonard tasted his own blood in his mouth as he fought desperately to escape the tentacle clutching his leg. His M4 was useless unless he wanted to blow off his own leg in order to get free. He discarded the rifle, drawing his pistol with his remaining hand but never got the chance to use the weapon. Three of the creatures were on him before he could do anything but scream. One of them sunk the tip of a tentacle into his groin and Leonard howled like a dying cat. Another grabbed his remaining hand and crushed it inside its grasp. The pain was blinding. Leonard’s vision blurred as a third tentacle slithered about his neck, silencing his screams. It constricted there so tightly that his head popped away from the top of his neck and went rolling across the corridor floor.
****
Gray cried out as something banged against the entrance to C.I.C. Robert fumbled, getting the pistol holstered on his hip drawn and nearly shooting himself in the process. He stared down at the gun in his hand, amazed that it hadn’t gone off from his clumsy clawing at it. Quickly righting his hold on the weapon, Robert aimed it at the doorway.
“Wait!” Gray shouted, checking the feed of the security camera positioned outside the C.I.C. “It’s that lady from the cruise ship we took aboard!”
“Frag me,” Robert breathed, lowering the weapon, not that it could have shot through the metal of the door anyway. “What do we do?”
“Let her in!” Gray ordered him.
Robert rose from his station at the communications console and raced over to open the C.I.C.’s door for her. Maggie pushed her way inside, nearly shoving Robert from his feet in the process.
“What’s happening out there?” Gray asked as Maggie locked the door back in place.
Maggie stared at Gray as she caught her breath. Her skin and clothes were drenched not only with sweat but also the grayish blood of the octopus-like creatures. “It’s like what happened on the Princess Dream all over again.”
“That’s the ship we saved you from, right?” Gray asked. “It can’t be that bad, can it?”
“Trust me, it is,” Maggie told her. “Everybody outside of this room is either dead or will be shortly.”
“Frag,” Robert muttered under his breath.
“Can you guys call for us a way out of here?” Maggie asked.
Robert shook his head. “I’ve tried. No one is responding except for other places that are under attack like us and they’re barely holding on. Just a few minutes ago, I lost contact with an entire carrier group that had come under assault by the creatures.”
“Then we need to start thinking about finding our own way out of here,” Maggie said.
“The docking area where our two small craft are has been compromised,” Gray said. “And this platform doesn’t have a copter of its own. There is no way out.”
Maggie grunted as if Gray had just punched her.
“You survived on the cruise ship,” Robert reminded her. “Surely there must be a way for us to do the same here. We’ve got better weapons than you had there.”
Maggie huffed and shook her head. “Firepower isn’t the issue. This is a numbers game. Those things have them and we don’t. They’ll just overrun us if we try to make any kind of stand. And this platform is a lot smaller than the Princess Dream. There’s not going to be anywhere we can hide where they won’t find us eventually.”
“So what, we’re supposed to just sit here and wait to die?” Robert snapped.
“I didn’t say that.” Maggie scowled at him. “Does this base have any sort of self-destruct system?”
Robert and Gray but stared at Maggie in silence.
“Answer me!” Maggie demanded.
Gray nodded. “It does.”
“Then I suggest if things go like I think they are going to, we have it ready to use,” Maggie told them. “In the meantime, let’s see what we can do about better securing this room and take stock of what we have to fight those things with.”
“Are you really suggesting we blow up this platform … With us on it?” Robert asked.
“I’ve seen what those things do to people up close and personal.” Maggie’s voice was both calm and cold. “If those things get in here, dying instantly in a giant explosion will be a whole lot better for all of us. You know those things eat the people they kill, right? Sometimes while they are still alive. Besides, if it comes down to us using this station’s self-destruct system, at least we’ll be taking a huge number of those things with us.”
“You almost sound like you want it come down to us blowing the station,” Gray said.
“No. I don’t. But if things go that way, you can dang well bet I will feel better knowing that we did our part in ridding the world of a bunch of those things,” Maggie said.
“What about the others?” Gray argued. “Shouldn’t they get a vote in this?”
“What others?” Maggie barked. “Do you see anyone else here with us? No? I didn’t think so. Like I said, everyone else out there is either dead or will be soon.”
****
Kennedy sat on the edge of his bed in his quarters. It seemed as good of a place to die as any. He had watched the creatures eat Jango alive. The two of them had been unable to stop the tide of creatures pouring through the corridors of the Meridian Platform. Kennedy liked to think that the two of them had made a good go of it despite their failure. They had killed a fragging lot of the monsters before being forced into the
retreat that had cost Jango his life. Jango had been carrying their radio so Kennedy had no means of getting in touch with anyone else who might still be alive elsewhere aboard the platform. He had tried to make it to the C.I.C. and find the commander but hadn’t been able to. The creatures were everywhere. It was obvious that to anyone with half a brain in their head that the platform belonged to those monsters now.
After failing to reach the C.I.C., Kennedy had made it to his quarters and locked the door. He was down to his last half magazine for his M4 and just as cut off from the platform’s armory as he was the C.I.C. In addition to his M4, he also had his sidearm. It was still fully loaded but he had no spare magazines for it and the number of shots it took to kill one of the creatures with it made the pistol next to useless. All he could think about was his home back in North Carolina. His heart ached that he was never going to see his family again. Little Christine had just turned three a month ago and Luke was on the verge of becoming a teenager. It wasn’t fair that Brook was going to have to raise them without him there. He had been planning to leave the service when his tour of duty aboard the Meridian Platform was over, finding a civilian job, and being home with them. Sobs shook his body as he began to weep openly. Kennedy missed his home so much.
Kennedy got up from where he sat, wiping at his eyes with the backside of his hand. Placing the photo of his family that he had been staring at aside, Kennedy stabbed the intercom button on the wall but knew it wasn’t working. He had tried it before and knew that it wasn’t but there was nothing else he could do. There was no click of it activating or even a crackle of static. The intercom was simply dead.
A noise in the corridor outside of his quarters drew his attention. Something, rather a lot of somethings, was moving around out there. He stared at the door as what had to be tentacles banged against its other side. Kennedy stood perfectly still, not even daring to breathe. Maybe the things didn’t know where he was, Kennedy told himself, and if he was quiet enough, they would just keep moving and pass him by. It was a foolish and vain hope but he clung to it nonetheless. The noises in the corridor outside his quarters grew louder as if the creatures were gathering in numbers on the other side of the door. His heart skipped a beat inside his chest as something clanged against the door again.
Kennedy took a step back away from the door as the things outside it began to assault it in earnest. One tentacle whipped against the door, then several at one time in a growing cacophony of violence. The door dented inward as it shook in its frame. He knew it wasn’t going to hold the creatures out.
He returned to his bed and sat down on the edge of it again. Kennedy didn’t bother to aim his M4 at the doorway for when the monsters finally broke through. He had no intention of dying that way. It was useless to fight them and he knew it. No. It was far better to die on his own terms. Kennedy drew his pistol and readied it. As fresh tears rolled over the curves of his cheeks, he lifted the pistol to the side of his head, pressing its barrel to his temple. He waited until the door to his quarters caved in and the creatures came skittering inside before he squeezed the pistol’s trigger. There was a flash of light and pain as the pistol fired and then he was gone.
****
“It’s ready,” Robert said, having finished up his work at Gray’s console. Gray hadn’t been able to arm the platform’s self-destruct herself. As the utter hopelessness of their situation continued to sink in, she had lost it, becoming utterly useless. She cowered at the front of the C.I.C. as far away from its single entrance as she could get. Gray’s legs were pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them, body rocking back and forth, as she muttered words so quietly that neither Maggie or Robert had the time to try to figure out what she was saying. She noticed that Robert couldn’t even bring himself to look in Gray’s direction. She couldn’t blame him for that. The state that the woman was in was hard to watch and Robert had known Gray a lot better than she did. Maggie didn’t know the woman at all really and it was still heartbreaking.
“Good,” Maggie said, smiling at the comm. officer.
“And you’re sure about this? I mean, there’s nowhere else we can run for?” Robert asked.
“This is your base. You tell me a place we can go and I will be the first out that door trying to make it there,” Maggie told him.
Robert knew she was right but that didn’t make any of it any easier.
“How long do you think we have before they find us?” Robert asked.
“Not long,” Maggie said. “I expect those things will be along any minute now.”
Robert didn’t know what else to say so he took a seat at the communications console and went back to work at trying to hail someone, anyone, who might be able to help them.
Maggie let him try it without complaining. There wasn’t exactly a lot else any of them could do to pass the time and maybe he would get lucky. She thought about trying to comfort Gray but the woman looked too far gone to bother with. Maggie wasn’t even sure that Gray would really be able to hear her even if she did try. She had seen people snap like Gray had before and there wasn’t really anything that could be done for them.
Robert flinched and stopped his efforts at the communications console as something struck the door leading into the C.I.C. from its other side.
“They’re here,” Maggie said in a voice almost as quiet as a whisper.
Maggie pumped a round into the chamber of her shotgun.
“How many rounds do you have?” Robert asked, watching her.
“Three,” Maggie told him, frowning. “You be ready to blow this place as soon as those things get by me.”
“You know, you could have at least phrased that ‘if they get by me,’” Robert replied, chuckling darkly.
Maggie laughed despite their circumstances. It felt good. She hadn’t laughed in a while.
“Thanks for that,” she said, smiling at Robert.
“No problem,” he answered, doing his best to smile back at her.
It took the creatures less than a minute to tear through the door and come barreling into the C.I.C. Maggie was ready for them when they did. She aimed each blast from her shotgun carefully, making the most of each one. Her first shot blew apart the fastest of the creatures that was leading the way for the others behind it. Its main body splattered apart in an explosion of grayish gore. Maggie worked the pump of her shotgun, retreating several steps as she did so, before firing again. Her second shot was equally devastating to the next of the octopus-like creatures she targeted. It died as her shotgun thundered. At that moment, Gray rose to her feet and ran, screaming, directly at the oncoming surge of creatures.
“Gray!” Maggie heard herself shout but it was too late. One of the creatures swiped at the woman with a thick, slime-smeared tentacle that removed Gray’s head from her shoulders and sent it flying away from her body. A geyser of blood erupted from what was left of Gray’s neck as her head bounced across the floor of the C.I.C. past where Maggie stood.
As she pumped her final round into the shotgun’s chamber, Maggie yelled, “Hit it, Robert! It’s time for some payback.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Robert said and activated the Meridian Platform’s self-destruct.
Maggie heard a boom that shook the entire C.I.C as a wave of heat and flames washed over her. She died instantly along with Robert and the hundreds of creatures aboard the platform. Secondary explosions continued to ripple across the Meridian Platform in the wake of the blast that had claimed their lives, reducing it to bits of flaming debris that splashed into the waves.
END
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Author Bio
Eric S Brown is the author of numerous book series including the Bigfoot War series, the Kaiju Apocalypse series (with Jason Cordova), the Crypto-Squad series (with Jason Brannon), the Homeworld series (With Tony Faville and Jason Cordova), the Jack Bunny Bam series, and the A Pack of Wolves series. Some of his stand alone books include War of the Worlds plus Blo
od Guts and Zombies, Casper Alamo (with Jason Brannon), Sasquatch Island, Day of the Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Crashed, World War of the Dead, Last Stand in a Dead Land, Sasquatch Lake, Kaiju Armageddon, Megalodon, Megalodon Apocalypse, Kraken, Alien Battalion, The Last Fleet, and From the Snow They Came to name only a few. His short fiction has been published hundreds of times in the small press in beyond including markets like the Onward Drake and Black Tide Rising anthologies from Baen Books, the Grantville Gazette, the SNAFU Military horror anthology series, and Walmart World magazine. He has done the novelizations for such films as Boggy Creek: The Legend is True (Studio 3 Entertainment) and The Bloody Rage of Bigfoot (Great Lake films). The first book of his Bigfoot War series was adapted into a feature film by Origin Releasing in 2014. Werewolf Massacre at Hell’s Gate was the second of his books to be adapted into film in 2015. Major Japanese publisher, Takeshobo, recently bought the reprint rights to his Kaiju Apocalypse series (with Jason Cordova) and the mass market, Japanese language version was released in late 2017. Ring of Fire Press will be releasing a collected edition of his Monster Society stories (set in the New York Times Best-selling world of Eric Flint’s 1632) later this year. In addition to his fiction, Eric also writes an award winning comic book news column entitled “Comics in a Flash.” Eric lives in North Carolina with his wife and two children where he continues to write tales of the hungry dead, blazing guns, and the things that lurk in the woods.
1954
The whole thing had gone FUBAR faster than two eagles fucking in mid-flight.
Chet Hardy knew it would the moment they’d deployed him here, but he’d kept his opinions to himself. Doing otherwise would have landed him in deep shit.
Would it have been deeper than this? Not a chance. Imprisonment in the brig back home in Norfolk for desertion would have been preferable to this.
Terror Krakens Page 9
