by Ben Hammott
Richard reeled off a list of items, and the deputy took notes.
“Is that it?” asked Rickmeyer, writing down the last item and looking at Richard. “No weapons or anything?”
Richard shook his head. “Unless you have a flamethrower, not for me.” He looked at Kathryn. “Can you handle a shotgun?”
“Of course.”
“You want one added to the list?” asked Rickmeyer.
Richard nodded. “And extra shells.”
He turned to the throaty roar of an approaching vehicle and watched the red breakdown truck slow and pull alongside them. Written on the driver’s door in yellow was McKinley Garage and Breakdown Service. He took in the telescopic crane at the cab end of the flatbed, the wheel ramps, and the cable winch. It was old, rusty, rattled like it was drawing its last breath, and a rear wheel arch was missing; it was perfect. He leaned toward Kathryn when it pulled to a stop. “Is the mine road suitable for that to be able to drive along?”
Kathryn nodded. “No problem.”
“There’s one more thing, deputy,” Richard nodded at the pickup, “I’ll need that.”
McKinley wound the window down and looked at Rickmeyer. “Anything I can do to help?”
CHAPTER 12
The Copper Mine
While grabbing a quick burger and fries, Richard turned at the sound of footsteps; it was Kathryn.
“Your stuff is ready.”
Richard fed the bite of burger into his mouth and followed Kathrine to Kirby’s Hardware store, where they were gathering the items he had requested.
They entered the store together and crossed to the counter displaying the items.
Richard went through them, mentally ticking them off. Lighter. Torches fashioned from fuel and pitch-soaked rags wrapped around pickaxe handles. Two powerful LED flashlights. A shotgun and a box of shells. A bag of apples. He looked at the hardware store owner behind the counter. “Where’s the gunpowder?”
Josh Kirby nodded at the open door behind the counter. “It won’t be a minute. It’s not something we stock, so the wife’s just emptying some shells.”
Noticing a rack of power bars on the counter, Richard added a handful. “Add them to the deputy’s bill.”
Kathryn took the shotgun and loaded it. The remaining shells she distributed in her pockets. “I thought you just ate, and you have a bag of apples, yet you still want more. You got worms or something?”
Richard pictured the wormlike things that were in the cat and had erupted from Kelly’s body. “I hope not. The apples aren’t for me, and the power bars are for later. In my experience in such matters, things rarely go as planned and always take longer than anticipated.”
Kathryn raised her eyebrows. “You’ve had experience with creatures from another world before then?”
“Here’s the gunpowder.” Josh’s wife, Mabel, put a jar quarter-filled with black powder on the counter. “Is that going to be enough? If not, I can crack open some more.”
Saved from answering Kathryn’s inquiry to his slip of the tongue, Richard picked up the jar and slipped it in his pocket. “Thanks, that should be plenty.”
“Can we get going now?” asked Kathryn impatiently. She realized they needed to prepare a defense against the aliens in case they encountered them, but time was ticking if they were going to save her friends.
“Yeah, all set.” Richard placed the smaller items in his pockets and gathered up the rest. After thanking Josh and Mable, he followed Kathryn outside.
They walked to McKinley’s truck parked two car lengths away.
Keeping hold of the bag of apples, Richard placed the other items in the back of the truck and looked at Kathryn watching him. “I assume you can drive.”
“I can.” Kathryn walked around to the driver’s side, climbed in, and placed the shotgun on the wide dash.
Richard got in the passenger side as Kathryn started the engine. She glanced in the mirror to check the road was clear and pulled away from the curb. At the far end of town, the tarmac changed to hardpacked track when they entered the forest. They hadn’t gone a hundred feet when something thudded onto the roof, denting it. Kathryn screamed, her fright sending the truck into a swerve. The roof buckled when the thing on top moved to Richard’s side.
Richard looked at Kathryn as he wound down the window. “Don’t be alarmed.”
Kathryn was exactly that when something swung through the window, scrambled over Richard, and sat in the middle between them.
“Kathryn, meet Boris.”
Kathryn brought the skidding vehicle under control and glanced at the unexpected passenger. “It’s a monkey!”
“A chimp, actually,” corrected Richard. “We’re kind of friends.”
Boris chittered at Richard angrily.
“No, I wasn’t leaving you. I knew you’d turn up like the proverbial bad penny.” He reached to the floor and handed Boris the bag of apples. “See, I even got you something to eat.”
Boris looked in the bag and mumbling something Richard didn’t think was flattering to him, pulled out an apple and took a bite.
Recovering from her shock but still nervous at the chimp sitting so close, she glanced at Richard. “Whoever the hell you are, a travel writer you surely are not. What are you doing here, Richard Smith, if that’s even your real name?” She returned her eyes to the track and steered around a bend.
“I doubt you’d believe me.”
“Try me.”
“Name’s half right. It’s Richard Whorley.” A little disappointed Kathryn displayed no recognition of the name, he continued. “The quick version is that I am one of the scientists involved with that spaceship fiasco in Antarctica…”
“Wasn’t that all a hoax perpetrated by that scientist guy, what was his name…” She looked at Richard. “That was you!”
“Indeed it was, but it was no hoax. The spaceship and the alien creatures I said were inside were all real. It was all covered up.”
Kathryn shook her head in astonishment. “But how does that get you here to Devil Falls?”
Russians were also on board the spaceship and took an alien away with them to a secret base in Russia. However, it somehow got free and started killing the scientists. Worried that it might escape from their lab and become a threat to human existence, the Americans sent in a SEAL team to kill it. I was in Siberia examining a meteorite, the same one you saw the aliens crawl from, when the SEALs, some of whom you may have seen bail out the airplane before it crashed, kidnapped me to help them destroy the Russian alien.”
Kathryn looked at Richard with her eyebrows raised.
“Yes, sounds far-fetched, I know, but I have unwillingly become a bit of an expert on alien lifeforms. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I destroyed the Russians’ alien by setting off a nuclear bomb, and we were returning home with the meteorite we picked up when something happened on board that caused the airplane to crash. I parachuted out, headed for Devil Falls, and here we are.”
Astonished by the story, Kathryn looked at Richard in a new light. “And Boris, where does he fit in?”
“He was in the Russians’ secret underground base. I rescued him.”
“You’ve surprised me, Richard. I didn’t believe you were a travel writer, but…” she looked at him, “…what exactly are you, a secret agent or something?”
Richard laughed. “Nothing so glamorous. I’m still a scientist, a meteoriticist, hence my interest in the meteorite, which incidentally might be from Mercury.”
“Then, the aliens that attacked me came from Mercury?”
“Anything is possible, but with Mercury’s extreme temperatures, it would have to be one tough son of a bitch. Although the meteorite has traits that make me think it came from Mercury, until we have conducted the proper tests, we won’t know. It could have come from another planet, many thousands of lightyears away.”
“Get ready, we’re almost there,” warned Kathryn, driving around a sharp curve. After about seventy feet, she pulle
d to a halt at the top of the sloping track leading to the abandoned copper mine.
Richard peered at the mine workings below; it looked quiet. “We should reverse down. If they attack and we need to make a quick exit, we might not have time to turn around. And reversing down will be a lot easier than reversing up.”
Wondering what his fair-weather friend was up to now, Boris took his third apple from the bag and bit it in half.
In agreement, Kathryn had seen how fast the creatures could move, she turned the truck and backed to the slope.
“Slow and steady and keep the revs as low as possible,” cautioned Richard.
“You read my mind.”
As soon as gravity took hold of the truck, Kathryn rolled down with her foot on the brake controlling the speed. Richard turned in his seat, looked through the rear window, and kept a lookout for the aliens. When the truck rolled onto level ground, Kathryn pressed the gas pedal just enough to keep it moving.
Richard peered at the abandoned buildings they passed. Full of gloom and shadow, they exuded an unwelcoming aura. Each could be full of the small aliens, and they wouldn’t know until it was too late. “Which building is the meteorite in?”
“Second from the end on the left.”
Richard stared at the building. The door was wide open, but he couldn’t see inside from this angle.
“How close do you want me to get?”
“Back up close to the door.”
Kathryn glanced at him. “You’re after the meteorite. That’s why you wanted this truck.”
“I thought that was a given. It’s mine.”
“And here I was thinking you were here to help me find my friends.”
“The plan is to do both.” He turned to her. “You do know the chances of them still being alive aren’t good? I’ve witnessed what happens once the alien spikes impregnate other beings; trust me, it’s nothing you want to see, or indeed something anyone is likely to recover from anytime soon.”
“I still need to know for certain. They were—are, my friends.” Kathryn stopped the truck with the tailgate a couple of feet from the doorway. “Shall I leave the engine running?”
“No. Best we don’t alert them to our presence if we can avoid it.”
Kathryn killed the engine.
“You ready to do this?”
Kathryn nodded.
“I’ll go first to check it’s clear but be prepared for a quick getaway. I’ll jump in the back if I have to.”
“Okay.”
Richard opened the door and climbed out. He peered in at Boris. “Come on; you’re with me.”
“What’s he going to do?” asked Kathryn, taking the bag of apples Boris dumped in her lap.
“He has good hearing and sight. He’ll warn me if any of those creatures turn up.”
Boris jumped out and climbed a tree.
“Won’t he run off?”
“I should be so lucky. He likes me for some strange reason.” Richard closed the door quietly and taking one of the torches from the back of the truck, lit it, and cautiously crossed to the doorway.
Branches rustled, and leaves skittered across the ground. The wood and metal buildings creaked. Richard’s heart pounded in his chest. Put into motion by the wind, somewhere nearby, a door or window banged against its frame intermittently.
Richard halted at the doorway and poked the flaming torch inside; there was no sign of the aliens or his precious meteorite. He entered and thrust the flames into every dark corner. Spiderwebs briefly burst into flame, sending their spinners scuttling from the heat. The corrugated roof sheet hanging from the roof hole the rock had smashed through the ceiling creaked with each gust filtering inside. The smashed timber floor and the depression in the earth revealed where the meteorite had landed. He moved to the doorway and waved for Kathryn to join him.
“No sign of your friends, but take a look inside and tell me what you don’t see.”
Kathryn entered. “The meteorite’s gone!” She moved back outside and gazed around for it. “But I don’t understand; it was there.”
“I know, the hole in the roof, broken floorboards and the depression in the ground prove that.” He pointed at the tracks leading away. “Someone or something moved it.”
“But how is that possible? It must weigh a quarter of a ton, at least.” Kathryn studied the tracks. The crushed grass and weeds bent in one direction was a good indication that someone rolled the space rock from the hut. She took a step forward and pointed at the ground. “Look, footsteps. My friends are alive!”
Richard looked at the three sets of footprints in the soft earth, evidence that Kathryn’s friends were most likely responsible for moving the rock. He recalled Kelly’s blissful-looking face as he tenderly stroked the tendrils that had just burst through his flesh; it was not the vision of someone in control of his emotions. “Alive, they might be, but I doubt they are the same people you previously knew.”
Wearing a puzzled frown tinged with worry, Kathryn looked at Richard for an explanation she was not sure she wanted to hear.
“I think that once someone is infected by whatever it is inside the alien spikes, it changes you somehow. You are no longer in control of your actions; the aliens are.”
“How can that be?”
Richard shrugged. “Because it’s alien. However, there are species of parasitic insects, worms, and fungi here on earth that zombify insects to carry out their needs. One particular fungus of the genus Ophiocordyceps, a so-called zombie ant fungus, has just one goal: self-propagation and dispersal. It lays its spores on the ground, and when an ant comes into contact with them, it infects it and takes over its body and mind. The zombie ant thus becomes part insect and part fungus. Incapable of resisting the parasite’s instructions, the ant climbs to the top of a tree and latches onto a high leaf, twig, or branch while the fungus that is now part of it feeds on it and germinates. When it is ready, a stalk erupts from the ant, blooms, and spreads its spores. They drift and float to the ground to repeat the cycle. The fungi need the height you see, to spread their seeds over as wide an area as possible.”
“Ugh! How horrible.”
“I know, but it’s not the only species that does that sort of thing. With time on my hands, I did a lot of research on weird stuff, including parasites and the like when I returned from Antarctica; it made for grim reading. Just one of nature’s many horror stories. What is interesting in a macabre sort of way, is that when scientists researched the effect the fungus had on the ants, they discovered it produced a different chemical combination for each ant species it infected, suggesting it knew the brains of its target hosts and reacted accordingly to ensure it had control.”
“And you are telling me this why?”
“Because I believe whatever these alien creatures are, they are doing a similar thing to every living thing they infect. It infected a cat first, but it died. Next were the two pilots; they went the same way as the cat, but the SEAL pilot, Kelly, survived for longer, and in some limited way, they were able to control some of his actions. I think the alien parasites have learned from their previous mistakes and almost succeeded with Kelly. Perhaps, with your friends, they have finally achieved the correct concoction of chemicals or whatever to control them, us, humans.”
“You are saying they have turned my friends into zombies?”
Richard shrugged. “I’m only surmising. If they have, it won’t be the mindless flesh-eating zombies often portrayed in books and movies. The aliens are controlling them to carry out their needs, which I imagine is the propagation of the species.”
“Ugh! Human growbags. It doesn’t bear thinking about.” She turned to Richard. “You are the alien expert; how do we save my friends?”
“I’m not sure that’s possible once infected as whatever is inside them might have spread to every part of their body, including their brain. The aliens are obviously in control of them, or why else would they have moved the meteorite?”
“No way am I giving
up on them so easily when something as simple as an antibiotic might cure them.” She headed along the trail her friends had made.
With a lot less confidence for the successful recovery of Kathryn’s infected friends, Richard followed her. The trail led to the mine. Somebody, or something, had ripped away some of the boards blocking the entrance forming a gap big enough to allow three people rolling his meteorite to fit through. Glossy black strands stretched around the opening, gave off an acrid, pungent smell.
“It wasn’t like that before,” whispered Kathryn, remembering glancing over at it when she was here previously. “But why would they have gone into the mine? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
Kathryn peered into the unwelcoming darkness filling the mine. “You’re going inside?”
“To retrieve my meteorite and to find out what happened to your friends, I’ll have to. You can wait here if you want?”
Kathryn glanced back at the mine workings, where she pictured the small aliens hiding, watching. “Let’s stick together. Strength in numbers and all that.”
Richard jammed the torch between two slats of wood still covering the entrance, pulled out an LED flashlight, and placing a hand over the lens to subdue the glow, nodded to the shotgun Kathryn held. “If you have to use it, make sure I’m not in the way.”
“I’ve been around guns since I was a little girl. The only way you’d get shot is if it were intentional.”
Richard grinned. “If you were aware of my track record for upsetting people, you would know that doesn’t inspire confidence in me that that very thing won’t happen.”
