Slither (32 page)

"Holy shit!" Trent yelled.

"Hold on to her!"

Annabelle's unconscious body was being lifted as if
on a towline. Trent lashed his arms around a thigh,
while Loren grabbed her feet, but then-

"Fuck!" Trent shouted.

They began to rise too; the worm was lifting all three
of them. Trent and Loren, out of futility, dropped back
to the ground. Trent drew his service weapon and fired
several stray shots higher into the branches. "It's like
trying to shoot a piece of rope!"

Annabelle's nude body disappeared upward.

Loren shook off his shock and still not really thinking
jumped up for some branches. His flip-flops scuffed
against bark as he tried to hoist himself up.

Trent grabbed his shoulder. "Forget it, man."

"We can't just leave her!"

"She's gone. There's nothing we can do to help her.
What? Climb the tree? You'd never get up there, and
even if you could, how are you going to shoot a worm
that moves faster than a sidewinder?"

Loren knew he was right, but he still couldn't break
his instincts. He tried to pull himself up again: useless.
He hung off a short branch like a kid trying to do a
pull-up.

"Forget it, man," Trent repeated.

The realities began sinking in all at once. Loren
didn't know what to think, but he did know that
Annabelle was gone.

He dropped back down, and the two men ran off as
fast as they could.

Nora, pondering some bizarre realities of her own,
stumbled back to the campsite just as Loren and Trent
sprinted into the clearing. The three of them nearly collided with one another.

"I found the dead body in the water," Nora announced.
"And it was full of worms. At least now we know.
These things do attack and infect humans."

Trent sat down at the picnic table, winded. "You can
say that again."

"Annabelle's ... gone," Loren said.

"What do you mean?"

"A worm got her," Trent said.

Nora tried to cogitate. "I saw four of them in the water, and they were all over ten feet long."

"This one was twenty, at least," Trent confirmed.

Loren was getting his breath back. "It could've been
longer than that. It was impossible to tell how far it
went up the tree."

Here goes, Nora thought. "I also found a submarine."

Loren and Trent stared at her.

She recited the experience in detail.

"I saw that trench," Trent said. "A submarine couldn't
fit in it."

"No, no," Nora explained. "Not like a nuclear submarine full of missiles. It was a lot smaller-"

"Like a submersible?" Loren said. "A research submersible? The military uses those all the time. They use
them to map transport routes for the navy."

"That's more like what I'm talking about," Nora said. "And I'm certain it wasn't a pipeline or anything
like that. It was a submarine. It even had some fins on
the side."

"Were there windows?" Trent asked.

"I didn't have time to look over every inch. There
were still plenty of worms down there. One of them almost got me ... till I cut off its head."

And, next, Loren and Trent explained their own encounter.

"A man in a decontamination suit and gas mask?"
Nora questioned. "Every new thing we discover looks
more and more like a military experiment of some
kind."

"And you can bet there are more of those guys on the
island somewhere," Trent offered.

"But where?" Loren questioned. "On the submersible?"

"Maybe, but I'd guess they've got their own field station set up out here somewhere," Trent said. "And another thing you can bet on. Whatever this experiment
is they're doing, it's definitely a top-secret project.
They're not giving a flying fuck about any civilians who
get killed. It's almost like they're hoping for that-"

"Right," Nora picked up. "That's what the experiment's all about. To see how vulnerable humans are to
the worms and ova."

"A potential antipersonnel weapon," Loren posed.
"The girl I got this gun from said she came here with
several friends, and one by one they'd all been infected
by the worms. She said these military guys seemed to
be surveying them, which makes sense because of all
those tiny cameras out here."

`As far as the military is concerned," Nora said,
"we're expendable."

'Yeah," Trent added, "and we're being jammed and
there's no way off the island."

Loren sat bolt upright. "Shit! I forgot! There is some
good news in all of this."

Nora and Trent looked at him.

"We can get off the island. Because I know where
there's a boat."

"You're pulling our legs?" Trent said. "We could
never be that lucky, not after all this shit."

"Well, we are that lucky. There's a Boston Whaler
anchored in one of the coves. No keys to start the engine, but we can push it out of the cove and drift back
to the mainland. It'll be tough if the tides aren't right."

"I'll drag the fucking boat out with my teeth if I have
to," Trent said. if we stay here much longer, we'll be
worm food."

"I guess we should leave now..." Nora's eyes
widened on the others. "But ... I don't feel right,
about-"

"Annabelle," Loren said.

"Should we try to find her?"

Loren and Trent both slowly shook their heads.
"There's no way she could've survived," Trent said. He
seemed reflective suddenly. "This is a stupid thing to
suggest but . . ." He stared off.

"What?" Nora asked.

"I'm really curious about something. I think we
should take a chance and stay for at least another hour.
The tide'll be higher then anyway, easier to get out." He
took out his gun, checked the slide. "I want to have another look at that guy Loren shot."

"What the hell do you want to do that for?" Loren
objected. "I thought we wanted to get out of here
ASAP."

"We do, but I really want to check that guy's dog
tags, see what branch of service he's in."

"That's actually a good idea," Nora offered, "if it's not too risky. I'd like to know who exactly is behind all
this."

Loren maintained his protests. "What difference
does it make? Army, navy-who cares? If there's a submersible out there, it's probably the navy. I don't give a
shit. Nora, one of those worms lifted Annabelle up into
the trees!"

"We'll be careful," Nora said, hoping she wasn't being too naive. "I'm curious about something too. While
the lieutenant's checking out that guy in the gas mask,
you and I can go check something else."

"What?" Loren asked.

"The other side of the island. Where the original
control station is for the old missile site."

Ruth grabbed Slydes's beefy arm, her eyes wide in trepidation. "We're not going in there! Fuck that shit! I'm
not going near that place!"

Slydes frowned as he sized up the old utility shed.
"Keep your voice down," he gruffed. "And what's your
damn problem now?"

"That's where I fell asleep the other night! Then the
zombie dragged me out and dropped me in the woods,
for the worms!"

The zombie again. What could Slydes do? It wasn't
a zombie, he knew, but it was almost as bad: an infected human. "The zombie ain't here, Ruth. And there
might be food in that shed. We ain't eaten anything in a
couple of days."

"I ain't fuckin' hungry! Let's go!" she pouted.

"Plus, I'm dyin' of thirst, and don't tell me you ain't
either." Slydes pointed through the trees. "There's a
cooler right there. Maybe there's something in it we
can drink."

"There's nothing in it!" she kept complaining. "And
even if there is, it's hot by now. That thing's been there
for days." She jerked around, pointing down. "Look,
there's a stream. We can drink that water. Then we
won't have to go into that fuckin' shed." Animated, she
rushed to the narrow brook, got to her knees. She was
about to cup some water into her hands, but-

"Fuck," she muttered.

Slydes smiled.

The stream was full of tiny pink worms.

"Yeah, you go ahead and drink that, Ruth. Go
ahead."

She rushed back over, grossed out. "Let's just get out
of here. You said all we had to do is find one of the
other boats."

We will. In a minute." He grabbed her hair and
shoved her toward the shed.

"Fucker!"

"Now come on," he ordered, "and quit being a pain in
the ass." Jesus, this is too much work, he thought. Right
now her pretty backside ain't nothing but a ball and
chain ... He followed her as she stumbled forward.

The heat was crushing them; Slydes felt like slowcooking meat in his jeans and boots, his shirt drenched.
Ruth's pink T-shirt looked like wet tissue paper pasted
to her bosom and belly. Pretty soon there won't be any
water left in me to sweat out ... He didn't know much
about medical stuff, but he could imagine that in this
heat, with no water, they wouldn't last much longer. In
spite of his physical strength, each step reminded him
how weak he was getting. Ruth looked like she'd keel
over any second.

"Fuck! Look!" she yelled next.

Crawling very slowly down the shed's front wall
were half -a dozen yellow ova.

Those fuckers! Slydes thought. He remembered them well. Some of 'em have baby worms in them, and some
of 'em ... What had Jonas told him? Stuff inside that
changes you when they bite. "Just steer clear of them,"
he told Ruth. He flipped open the cooler sitting out
front.

Aw, shit!

It was full of worms and ova. They seemed to be
percolating in there, incubating. They must like heat,
he considered.

He flipped the lid closed. "Nothing in there."

"Oh yeah!" Ruth seemed delighted. She bent over a
portable Coleman grill next to the cooler. Dried-up
burgers lay on the ground, but next to them lay a barbecue fork. Ruth wielded it like a sword. "Now we can
defend ourselves!"

Slydes winced. "All that bong resin's clogged your
brain. What are you gonna fight with a barbecue fork?"

"The worms! Next time one sneaks up on us, I'll jab
it with this."

"You do that." Slydes dismissed her banter. "Let's
just look inside."

Ruth stepped back from the door. "Slydes, I'm
fuckin' serious. I don't wanna go in there. The zombie
might be there."

"Ruth, if the zombie's in there, I'll shove his head up
his ass, okay? Then I'll stick him with your barbecue
fork, and that'll be that."

Her puffy lips pressed together. "You don't even believe thereis a .zombie, but -I don't give a shit."

"Fine. Now let's go in. I'll even go first." He opened
the creaky door, then-

Oh, what the hell?

-grabbed Ruth by the hair and shoved her in first.

"You're a fuck, Slides! You're a lyin' piece of fuck!"

"Yeah, yeah." He stepped in after her, looked around.
At least it was cooler in here, out of the sun; the little windows were open, letting in a bit of a cross breeze.

"See, pea brain? No zombies in here."

Ruth gusted out a relieving sign. 'And-shit!' Her
dirty bare feet thunked to the corner. "Food!"

Some plastic bags lay on the floor, full of potato
chips and cheese curls.

At least that's somethin, Slydes thought. It was the
closest he'd come to thanking the Fates. "Any sodas in
them bags, any bottled water?"

Ruth bumbled through the bags. "No. But at least
we've got something to eat." She ripped open the
cheese curls. A moment later, her cheeks looked
stuffed as -a chipmunk's.

If we don't get some water soon, we're gonna die,
Slydes thought point-blank. He didn't dare voice this to
Ruth, though. He opened a bag of chips and began
munching. But if I could get that little gas grill lit outside, I could boil some of the creek water. That would
kill any worms or ova. "You got a lighter on you?"

"Fuck no," she said, crunching more curls. Her fingers and puffy lips were orange.

"You gotta be shitting me. You smoke pot like
they're cigarettes and you don't have a lighter on you?"

Ruth glared. "Well, I had one, Slydes, but like I told
you, before the zombie tried to rape me he tore off my
shorts! And the lighter was in my shorts! Does it look
like I got any pockets to carry a lighter in?" She faced
him arrogantly in the drenched T-shirt, then flapped
the damp hem up. "See any lighter, Slydes? Huh?"

"All I see is your dirty camel toe." He pointed to the
other corner: some clothes and towels. "There's a pair
of shorts there. Put 'em on."

Ruth made a face, as though the suggestion were
outlandish. 'I'm not putting on some other girl's
shorts! She might have crotch rot."

"I guarantee you, Ruth, your own crotch rot'll kill anything on them shorts." And then he grabbed her
hair and shoved her forward. "Now put 'em on! Every
time you bend over, I gotta look at your ass hair."

"I don't have ass hair, you fuck!"

Slydes stared her down. "Your lips are gonna be a lot
fatter in about one second-"

Ruth smirked, and pulled on the shorts. She reached
into one pocket. "Hey! Money!" She held up a small
roll of cash. "And-" From the other pocket she extracted a cigarette lighter.

"All right." Slydes snatched the lighter away from
her and headed for the door.

"What are you gonna do?"

"Boil some of that brook water, Einstein. Kill the
worms."

"You're a genius!"

He went back outside. He'd hoped that eating something would make him feel better, but instead it made
him feel worse. Yeah, shit, we're probably dyin' of dehydration and don't even know it yet ... But maybe
some luck had come his way.

He set the grill back upright and opened the small
propane cannister to high, then snapped the lighter
over the element.

The lighter worked fine, but the grill didn't catch.

Don't tell me.-.-. He put his ear to the element.

There was no hiss.

God is really kicking our asses today. He chucked
the lighter into the woods, disgusted.