Wormwood Dawn (Episode VIII) (3 page)

“This is Johnny,” Maynard said. “He was once like Sarah. Now he is uncontrollable. My previous methods of treatment were a failure, and I was unable to stop Johnny’s progression to this next stage of development.”

Toby was speechless, and completely confused. Were shufflers and shamblers the same? Is that what Maynard was saying?

“I named him Johnny because he looked like John Stamos when I found him. Do you know who John Stamos is, Toby?”

“No.”

Maynard chuckled briefly. “Well, that was before your time, I suppose.”

Toby continued staring at the creature as it thrashed and banged against the glass. Toby almost felt sorry for it, but not really. It was a horrible thing, and it was horrible to keep it in a cage. Not that Toby cared for its well-being, but it was dangerous to keep it. It could get out and hurt somebody.

“I see you don’t like Johnny much,” Maynard said.

Toby shook his head. “It’s a monster,” he said. “You should kill it.”

“I see.”

There was a brief silence. Toby wondered if Maynard was going to do something to kill it, or if he would simply let it remain alive and caged.

“Maybe I’ll kill it later,” Maynard said. “Once I’m done with it. In the meantime, go to the cage directly behind you.”

Toby turned around. The cage behind him was covered in curtains just like the first one. Toby went to it, standing in wait. Inside, there was a deep and rumbling growl.

“Open the curtains.”

Toby scowled, but stepped forward and pulled open the curtains. Inside was another creature, larger and more aggressive-looking than the rager. It immediately charged the glass, impacting it with such force, Toby feared the glass would break. The creature was covered with an even greater amount of fungus clumps; so much so that its face was unrecognizable. It was simply a lumpy, hard shell of fungus with a crack where the mouth would be. There were no eyes, and no nose, only the armored surface of the mold.

“This is what the ragers eventually become,” Maynard said. “When I first found him, Julian here was like Johnny; just a rager. They’re blind, you see, so they are easy to catch if you’re smart and careful. But Julian is now another kind of thing. This is the last stage before they go into another state, that is, if they haven’t succumbed to the spore sack.”

“Spore sack?” Toby asked.

“Yes,” Maynard said. “Sometimes the shufflers as you call them will grow a spore sack inside them. When that happens, they burst, and then they die. What comes out is a big floating sack of mold spores; spores of the mutated fungus that fell from the sky.”

“Mutated fungus?”

“Yes, Toby,” Maynard said. “Our friend, the comet, left a nice gift for us in the atmosphere. Some of it infected a kind of fungus that was floating in the sky, and that fungus fell to the ground, mutated, and became this strange and mind-controlling thing. The rest of the nice gift simply infected life on its own, either killing it completely, or causing the mutations you are about to see.”

“But there are dead people, too,” Toby said. “Dead people that came back to life before the big explosion.”

“Yes, yes,” Maynard said. “I have not had a chance to study them completely, but I can say for certain that they did not simply come back to life. Something
made
them come back to life. That something, I believe, you will see soon enough.”

“What will happen to Julian?” Toby asked, somewhat interested.

“Ah,” Maynard said with a satisfied voice. “I am so glad you are interested. This means your fear is subsiding. Is that correct? Are you still afraid, Toby?”

Toby wasn’t sure. He was definitely apprehensive, freaked out, and scared of what he might be shown. But there was something inside him that said Maynard would not hurt him; he merely wanted to share things with him.

“No,” Toby blurted out. “I’m not afraid of you… or Sarah.”

“Good,” Maynard said. “That makes me very happy. You have no reason to fear me, my little friend. Once I share with you all of these little secrets, I’m sure we will become very, very good friends. Brothers, you might say.”

Toby wasn’t sure what that meant. It confused him a lot, but still he wasn’t afraid. But they couldn’t be brothers… could they?

“We don’t have the same mom,” Toby said. “You’re older than my mom.”

“Ah yes,” Maynard said. “I was speaking figuratively. But now that the subject has come up, where is your mother, Toby?”

“I—I don’t know,” Toby said, feeling the sadness fall over him like one of Maynard’s curtains. “She just left.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, but I heard the others say that she was sick.”

“Hmm,” Maynard said, and then paused for a moment. “Interesting. I’m sorry to hear that, Toby. Truly I am. I know what it’s like to… lose a loved one.”

Maybe Maynard had lost his mom, too, Toby thought. He sounded sad when he said that he had lost a loved one. Maybe in a way they
were
brothers; two people who had lost their mothers. He wondered how Maynard had lost his mother.

“Now let us continue,” Maynard said. “Go to the next cage.”

Toby went over to the cage next to Johnny’s, ready to pull the curtains back. But Maynard stopped him.

“Not yet,” Maynard said. “Wait until I tell you what you are about to see. This cage is the first stage of the mutants. It’s what I call the proto-mutative stage. These are people who have become infected with the alien pathogen. What they become next depends on their own physiology. But first, this is what they look like. Pull the curtains.”

Toby hesitantly stepped forward and pulled the curtains open. Inside, was a creature that still looked like a human, but was pale and emaciated, and was in a fetal position on its side. It had no hair, had sunken eyes, and it mouth was toothless. It was unmoving, and appeared to be dead. Either way, it was frightening. How could a human look like this? As he studied it closer, he could see that its skin was almost transparent, and he could see the muscles and tendons underneath.

“This creature was found wandering through the woods,” Maynard said. “It is still mostly human, and could still reason and speak to a certain degree. It told me its name was Dalton before it begged me to kill it.”

“It’s dead?” Toby asked.

“Yes,” Maynard replied. “Very much so. I ended it quickly by thrusting an ice pick into the base of its brain. It is now simply for display. But it will decompose soon, I imagine. Though this particular creature was coherent, most of them are not. The creatures you saw me with are the same as this one, only slightly farther along. I keep them at their proto-mutated stage by preventing them from feeding.”

“Dalton,” Toby said. “If you bury him, you should make a tombstone with his name on it. That would be nice.”

“Yes, it would,” Maynard said. “Now, go to the cage behind you.”

Toby turned again and went to the next cage. He stood waiting for Maynard to speak.

“Now,” Maynard said. “This is one possible stage that the proto-mutants may take. This happens to fairly normal people who have a more aggressive personality than the average human. These may be athletes, hunters, thrill seekers; anyone who loves action and adventure. Pull the curtain.”

As Toby pulled the curtain, he immediately recognized the creature as a stalker. It was man-like, but appeared to walk on all fours while its front limbs retained their arm-like shape. Though this creature was dead, like the other one, it was still fearsome.

Its skin was a pale, glossy white, and hard-looking like plastic or wax. Its limbs were sinewy and thin, with long, sharp claws at the ends of its fingers and toes. There were four short scorpion-like tails on its back that were draped out at its side. Its face was very alien, appearing like a wax-dipped skull with a split bottom jaw.

“Stalker,” he whispered.

“Is that what you call them?” Maynard asked. Toby nodded. “That’s fitting. They do stalk around and attack things. They attack humans, animals, even the infected ragers. They, like the other mutants are fascinating to me. Unlike the infected fungal creatures that the layperson would call zombies, these are truly new life forms created from existing life. They come from cocoons, like a caterpillar would make, and then emerge as one of these, or something even more strange and frightening. Go to the next cage.”

As Toby walked over, Maynard began describing the next mutant.

“In addition to the humans who began to mutate, many animals did as well. This specimen is, or was rather, a coyote. Pull the curtain.”

Toby pulled the curtain open. Inside was a bizarre dog-like creature. It was shaped like a typical coyote he had seen, but with no fur, hard white skin, and fangs that jutted out like some strange alien from a sci-fi movie. Thankfully, it too was dead.

“Like humans, the rate and frequency of infections is varied. The most commonly susceptible animals are predators and other high strung animals. Most herd animals are immune, but you will occasionally find one that has succumbed to the gene-altering effects. Go to the next cage.”

Toby kept his eyes on the bizarre coyote thing as he went to the last cage. It was frightening, and almost looked like it would burst through the glass and gobble him up.

“This last specimen is something new that I had never seen before. I cannot tell you what kind of human becomes this type; not yet anyway. But I found this one just as it was emerging from its cocoon.”

Toby pulled the curtain aside, and stepped back in horror. The creature inside was exactly like the one that had attacked the camp. It was tall and skinless; only muscle and spiked bone. Its skull was exposed, and grinned like a demonic Halloween decoration with jagged teeth and black, hollow eyes. He remembered the one he saw as having glowing eyes, so knew that this one was dead.

“How did you kill this?” Toby asked.

“Let’s just say its death was… shocking. Now, I have no information on this one. As I said, I have never encountered one before. But what you are about to see now is the ultimate in mutation. These creatures are sentient, highly intelligent, and seem to be the same as they were in their previous lives. Only now, they are nearly invincible, and god-like. Behold the Overlord.”

A large curtain along the back wall opened slowly, revealing the most horrifying and alien creature that one could imagine. There, fastened to the wall by its arms, legs, and four long tentacles, was a giant-sized skeletal creature. Like the other mutants, its skin was white and glossy, but with armored plates of bone. It had black alien eyes that were like orbs of glass, and the most fearsome and evil rictus grin that Toby could imagine. There were transparent fangs that interlocked perfectly, as if designed by some mad scientist. Its very appearance made Toby shudder, and he stepped back in terror.

It was like looking into the face of the Devil himself.

“This, my little friend,” Maynard said as Toby’s vision began to blur, “Is our future.”

Chapter Three

“I can’t believe the debris has reached this far,” Cpt. Blair shouted over the chopper’s rotors.

“Jet streams and such,” Dr. Grace Hill shouted. “It’s not that unusual. It was a large impact, but not as bad as it could have been if the fragment had been a solid object.”

One of the Army grunts leaned over to her. It was Ramirez, a Private First Class whose job was to patch structural damage. She was tough as nails, but oddly curious about science—especially anything that had to do with the comet.

“If it wasn’t solid,” she said. “Then what was it?”

Grace leaned over to get closer. The chopper was loud enough, but the howling wind outside made it all the worse.

“Mostly ice, mixed in with small chunks of rock, hydrocarbons, amino acids, etcetera.”

Ramirez nodded, seemingly satisfied. Grace knew she didn’t have to explain much to Ramirez. She was a smart girl, despite her gung-ho military attitude. She liked her. A lot.

“Dr. Hill,” the Captain shouted again. “Once we reach Atterbury, I’m touching down. We’ll need more fuel to get to the Impact site.”

“Alright,” Grace shouted back.

She looked over to Ramirez, who gave her an upward nod. That was the signal for “all good”, Grace supposed. She wasn’t sure.

“Where are we now?” Grace asked her.

Ramirez leaned forward to look at the radar in the cockpit. “Looks like we’re just south of Indy,” she said. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“What is Atterbury?”

“Camp Atterbury,” Ramirez said. “It’s a training base for the Guard.”

Grace nodded, smiling. “That’s good. Will there be more soldiers there?”

Ramirez chuckled, and the other grunts joined in for some reason. Grace was confused. Had she said something amusing?

“What?”

“Not soldiers,” she said. “Grunts. Marines are Marines, Army are grunts. The Guard, well, they’re weekend warriors. But for now, that’s all we got.”

“I see,” Grace said, still not sure what the difference was.

There was a sudden jolt that knocked her off of her seat. She was grabbed by another grunt tightly, and shielded as he pressed her against the seat. The chopper spun and pitched, letting in the harsh winds and cold rain. Grace gritted her teeth, thankful that the young man had offered his own body in her defense. She could feel his hands clutching her lower leg and her shoulder. His grip was tight and secure.

“Hold on, Ma’am,” he shouted. “Just a little turbulence.”

“Captain,” Ramirez shouted. “What’s our twenty?”

“We’re right over Columbus,” the Captain shouted back.

Another heavy impact jolted the chopper again, this time throwing everyone from their seats. Grace’s backpack slammed into her, knocking the wind out of her, but she grabbed it in a death grip. The soldier who had saved her the first time hit the wall next to her, slamming the side of his head against the hard metal. She could see blood splatter and fly through the air in the weightless environment. The chopper was spinning rapidly, and descending like a lead weight.

She could feel herself screaming.

The young man fell away, tumbling through the chopper and right out the side door. Grace screamed, attempting to reach out and grab him. But it was too late. Ramirez attempted to grab hold of his leg, but the chopper was jolted again, and her hand missed. Grace could hear her scream.

“
Jacob!”
she shouted.

There was an explosion in the cockpit, and the entire chopper was suddenly filled with flame, and unbearable, scorching heat. Grace closed her eyes, clutching her backpack, ready for it all to end in one fiery explosion.

But then she felt two tough hands grasp her around the waist. A pair of muscled legs wrapped around her, gripping her like a vise. Then, when she thought it was all over, she and her rescuer were pitched into the darkness.

Grace’s stomach flew up into her chest. She was falling. They were falling. She dared not open her eyes, lest she see the ground closing in on them. She did scream, however, but it was drowned out by the sound of the chopper slamming into the ground and exploding in a fireball that she could see through her eyelids.

“Hold on!” she heard Ramirez shout over the rushing wind.

They were jerked to a slower descent suddenly. Grace nearly dropped her backpack, and Ramirez’s legs nearly ripped her in half. She finally opened her eyes, seeing the treetops rushing up at her from below. Ramirez had deployed a parachute, but they were still falling rapidly.

Military speed.

In her head, Grace prayed to a God she didn’t believe in.

“What the fuck was that?” Drew said as they all saw the fireball in the distance.

Everyone suddenly crouched on instinct.

“Holy shit,” Cliff said. “I
thought
I heard a chopper earlier.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Dan shouted. “It could be Gephardt dicks.”

“Well,” Cliff shrugged. “If it was, they’re dead now.”

Jake stood back up. “If that was a chopper crash, we might be able to salvage some equipment. If it wasn’t too bad, anyway.”

Dan nodded. That was a good idea, but they were looking for Toby, not scrap.

“Look,” Toni said. “If Toby is out here, he would have seen that, and went toward it. We might find him there.”

“Alright,” Dan said. “Let’s go.”

Grace was slammed into the branches of a dead pine tree. Her backpack—and her breath—were knocked away, and she could feel the sting of her skin being scratched by the mass of stiff branches. Ramirez still had her legs wrapped around Grace’s waist when they finally came to a stop. They hung there, suspended, as the brutal cold wind pelted with its icy whips.

“Are you okay?” Ramirez asked from above.

Grace was in pain, but was alive, and thankful. “I’m alright,” she said. “But I dropped my backpack.”

“That’s alright. We’ll find it.”

“I hope so,” Grace groaned. “My laptop was in there.”

She could hear Ramirez grunting and straining against the buckles of the parachute. Grace reached out and grasped a branch, taking her weight off of her rescuer. “Are you stuck?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Ramirez answered. “But I think I can get loose with your help. Can you reach my left boot?”

Grace reached around and grabbed Ramirez’s left leg. She felt around her boot, finding a large knife strapped to her calf. “Got it,” she said.

“I can’t reach. Can you cut the harness between my legs?”

“You want me to cut there?” Grace asked, not sure whether she would want any sharp objects near her own groin.

“I can’t get my harness loose,” Ramirez said. “It’s the only way. Just be careful,”

Grace swallowed nervously and reached up to grab the groin straps. She slipped her fingers underneath it and pulled. It wouldn’t budge.

“You’ll have to wedge your foot on something and take your weight off of it,” Grace said.

Ramirez felt around with her boot. Grace directed her toward the stump of a thick, broken branch, and Ramirez pushed up. Now Grace could pull the strap down enough to slip the knife underneath it. She sawed carefully, so as not to cut or stab Ramirez, and in a minute or so, the strap was cut.

“Good,” Ramirez said. “Now move over if you can.”

Grace carefully grabbed a nearby branch and stepped over onto another. Ramirez climbed down through the severed strap, meeting Grace face to face. She reached into her cargo pocket and pulled out a small scope, putting it up to her eye and looking down at the forest below.

“Do you have any idea where we are?” Grace asked.

“In the woods, obviously,” Ramirez said. “But I have no idea where. We were around Columbus when we got hit.”

“What the hell hit us anyway?” Grace wondered.

“I have no idea, Doc, but whatever it was, it was huge.”

Grace gritted her teeth. There was nothing she knew of that was big enough to down a chopper. Nothing alive anyway. Maybe a giant pterodactyl, but those weren’t around anymore.

“We need to climb down,” Ramirez said. “It doesn’t look too far to the forest floor.”

Grace nodded, but gazed in the direction of the chopper. There was a bright glow coming from the crash site, meaning it was still burning—and possibly spreading. She wondered if anyone else had survived.

“We should find the crash,” Grace said. “Maybe someone else survived.”

Ramirez began climbing down, urging Grace to follow. “I doubt it,” she said. “But we’ll go anyway. We need weapons. You wouldn’t happen to have anything in your backpack would you?

“No,” Grace said, beginning the climb down. “Nothing but my laptop and solar charger.”

“Shit. Stop.”

Grace froze due to the urgency of Ramirez’s voice. Something was wrong, she knew. Ramirez was still, and her gaze was directed at the forest floor below.

“What is it?” Grace whispered.

“I’m not sure. Something white below.”

Grace cringed. She knew that anything with pure white skin was likely a dangerous mutant. Even worse, most of them could climb fairly well, some of them even capable of crawling on the ceiling.

A growl sounded from below that sent chills up her spine. Her teeth began chattering, and her heart pounded. With the freezing cold air, and the prospect of a carnivorous mutant below, their odds weren’t looking too good.

She stayed as still as possible, clamping her hand over her mouth. Ramirez was also as still and stiff as a board. The two of them were frozen as the creature wandered around below. Grace could hear it sniffing and growling, and could see the faint outline of its body. It walked on all fours but was human shaped, with four tentacles that were barely visible in the dim light.

Anthropomorphic Malefactor
. Mutant created from a human. She knew them well; the human as well as the animal types. They were incredibly dangerous, infectious, and always hungry. From her observations, she knew that they also fed on the fungal humanoids. As dangerous as it was, she was thankful it was not something greater. Still, she would rather face a group of fungal humanoids than a mutant.

Slowly and carefully, Ramirez lifted herself up to Grace’s level to see her face to face.

“It knows we’re here,” she whispered. “We have to distract it somehow.”

“With what?” Grace asked. “I don’t have anything, do you?”

“All I have is a knife,” Ramirez said. “And I don’t think that’ll work.”

Grace remembered that she had an apple in her pocket. Thankfully, it hadn’t fallen out. She had been about to eat it when the chopper was hit by its aerial attacker. She pulled out the apple, showing it to Ramirez, who shrugged and took it.

“I’ll throw it to create a distraction, and then we’ll climb down as quickly as possible.”

Grace nodded. “Then what?”

Ramirez pursed her lips in thought. Then, the creature below roared as it finally caught their scent. Grace gasped as she looked down. The creature was staring straight up at them, gnashing it huge maw as its claws dug into the trunk of the tree.

“Ramirez,” Grace whispered in terror.

“Yeah?”

“In case we don’t make it, what’s your first name?”

Ramirez looked up with a sly grin. “Gena.”

The search party heard the hissing of a creature in the distance. The foul sound echoed through the forest, causing them all to stop and reassess their strategy. If Toby was anywhere near the crash site, the creature could be after him. They had to find him before he was eaten or mauled to death.

Dan and Cliff both scoped out the area ahead of them with their IRs. Though there wasn’t much to see, there was a definite heat signature about two hundred yards away. It would take several minutes to get there.

“To the northwest,” Dan said. “Slightly off course to the crash site.”

Without a word, they all picked up their pace. Dan and Cliff both checked the area again as they ran, making sure they stayed on course. The heat signature grew larger, and the hissing and growling was growing in intensity.

Someone was in trouble.

Dan stopped to look again, seeing the definite shape of a stalker in the distance. Strangely, there were two more heat signatures higher up. Confused, he lowered his rifle and caught up to the others.

“It looks like there are two people up in a tree,” Dan said, nearly breathless. “The stalker is trying to get at them.”

“Maybe crash survivors,” Toni said.

She was probably right, which was disheartening. They all wanted to find Toby, especially Dan. He couldn’t let the boy down. He had made a promise to take care of him. But now that promise would have to wait. There were others in trouble; likely military folk who could be of help.

Ahead, he could hear the growls increasing, and the whip-like snap of tentacles. Then, there was an intense and fearful shout. It was a woman’s voice. They all picked up their pace, desperate to help whoever was in trouble.