Adaptation: book I (7 page)

Bilal stretched out on his bed, elongated, and came to a standing position. “And hi to you, too. Yes, I’m fine, thank you very much.”

His other friend, Raj, rubbed his body until it formed a tentacle that intertwined with his arm in pleasure. “Are you okay, little buddy?”

Lawrence came over and rubbed him until another tentacle formed to wrap around his arm as well. “I’m fucking with you, Bilal. You are okay, aren’t you?”

He regarded his two friends. They didn’t mind when he touched them in this way. They didn’t think it was like a snake wrapping around their bodies. He could see in their facial expressions and postures that they cared about him.

“I’m fine.” He released them.

Lawrence went to get something to eat from Bilal’s cabinet. “Did you find anything interesting down there this time?” he asked while examining a piece of fruit that had seen better days.

Bilal’s body began to ripple, and Raj cocked his head. “What’s wrong?”

“I did find something interesting.”

Lawrence bit into the fruit and studied his friend. Lawrence was twenty, had blue eyes and blond hair, and was strong and sturdy. Raj watched Bilal curiously as well. He was smaller with a compact yet toned body. He was forty and had the golden brown skin and slanted eyes of an Asian. He was Korean but had lived his life in America before the end of days.

“Well, show us,” Lawrence said while chomping away. “You always find some good shit. Tell us what you found, and we’ll explain it to you.”

“I can’t. I left her on earth.”

“Her?” Raj asked.

“A woman. One last human woman.”

“Fuck … me …” Lawrence said.

~***~

Bilal watched
the silent
house and worried. Maybe she had killed herself. Humans did that kind of thing when they were afraid or confused.

Bilal had shuffled back and forth before cursing to himself. He had to go inside, and that had not been his intention. He wanted to watch, that’s all, to make sure she was okay. Okay, no, that wasn’t it. He was curious. He wanted to indulge his curiosity. He liked looking at pictures and roaming through dead towns for a semblance of the life humans had once lived. And now here was a human right before his eyes. How could he not indulge his curiosity?

He lifted a tentacle and raised it, searching the air for any signs or sounds. Bilal turned swiftly. A wolf was coming up on him, stalking him, and he’d been so preoccupied that he hadn’t realized it. It was only one wolf, but it was a big healthy one.

Bilal withdrew his stinger just as the wolf leaped and went for him with lethal teeth bared.

Teeth sank into
Bilal’s flesh, piercing the protective outer skin but not enough to cause his fluid to escape. There was pain, but it wasn’t bad. He had no bones, tendons, or muscles, and bites could do little damage. If the beast managed to take a chunk of flesh, however, that could be a problem. Bilal wrapped a tentacle around the beast’s neck and speared its underbelly at the same time he flung it through the air.

The wolf came down on all fours with a pained yelp, but he scurried for Bilal. Wolves generally retreated in the face of the strange alien with flesh that gave instead of ripped and a stinger that could stab. This wolf was different. Bilal raised his stinger again, and this time it was filled with poison.

“No! Wolf, no!”

Wolf spared his mother the briefest look before leaping at the alien. Bilal was surprised at the human’s sudden appearance. She had darted out the door and was running across the yard toward them screaming at the top of her lungs.

In the brief moment that Bilal dropped his attention, the wolf sank its teeth into his flesh, this time shaking his head back and forth and tearing out a great hunk of flesh. Bilal sank his stinger repeatedly into the beast, and the human was finally upon them, slapping him and screaming until he released the limp beast.

Bilal watched in confusion as she gathered the wolf into her arms and rocked his lifeless body. “You killed my baby! Wolf!”

Bilal shuddered. The wolf was hers. He wrapped a tentacle around the hysterical woman’s neck and pulled her free from the dead animal. She nearly went mad with fear and grief as she kicked and fought. Bilal formed three more tentacles to wrap around her to keep her still. She soon resembled a wild-eyed creature encased in a strange cocoon.

“If you want this creature to live, then you will have to stop fighting me!” he snapped.

After a moment, she quieted, her struggles lessening. 

Bilal dropped her unceremoniously and allowed all but two tentacles to retreat to his body. These remaining two attached to the animal.

The poison would stop the wolf’s heart, but he could restart it as long as it hadn’t been too long without oxygen. His sensors entered the animal and sought the organ that pumped life throughout its body.

Carmella watched with her hands pressed against her mouth. She was shaking and crouched near her baby. He was dead. Tears streamed down her face as she watched the alien’s tentacles begin to burrow into Wolf’s body. She thought about how the Blob had healed her. He could heal her Wolf, too. He had to.

“Please,” she begged. She rocked on her heels and watched this hateful monster dig its dirty tentacles into her Wolf.

But then Wolf kicked. Oh! His legs began a rapid running motion as he lay on his side.

Carmella reached out and stroked his soft fur. “Please, baby boy,” she crooned. “Wolf, come back to me.”

Bilal turned to her. “He lives.”

She blinked at him. “You brought him back?”

“Yes, but he will sleep for several hours.”

Carmella focused on the area that must be the creature’s face. It had eyes, two holes where nostrils should have been, and a hollowed out mouth that seemed to float over a smooth, gelatinous mass of gray. It looked much like an octopus with wart-filled tentacles. She found it hideous to look at and was disturbed that it was not as tall as she was but definitely wider. Something this ugly should not be bigger than her.

She pulled Wolf into her arms and tried to lift him, but the alien elongated its body and two tentacles appeared and wrapped around her wolf. She panicked until she saw him lift the hurt animal from the ground and cradle it carefully.

“Where should I carry it?” the alien asked.

Carmella pointed to the farmhouse.

The alien shuffled off.

Carmella was about to follow when she saw two eyes watching them from the woods.
The she-bitch. She watched her man get attacked and did nothing. It will be a cold day in hell before I let that good-for-nothing bitch back into my house!

~***~

Bilal carried the wolf
into the house and placed it on a couch the woman first covered with a blanket.

She knelt beside the couch and buried her face into Wolf’s neck. She was still for a long time before she lifted her head and looked at Bilal. “He’ll be okay?”

“Yes.”

She watched him with suspicion. “Why did you come back?”

Bilal expanded briefly as if sighing. “I’m … I wanted to make sure that you had healed properly.”

Carmella touched her shoulder. “That’s it? You’re not going to try to take me?”

She said “try to take me,”
Bilal thought.
I like this human’s spirit.
“No.” He didn’t like the idea of her returning with him to the mother ship and Earth 2. Somehow, this place was right for her. It went against everything that he had been taught. Humans had to be cared for. If the Centaurians didn’t do it, then humans were destined to return to their old ways of war and violence.

“You’re not going to take me?” 

Bilal regarded her silently.

“You … stung Wolf and it killed him. I’m pretty sure he was dead. But you stung me, too, and it just put me to sleep.”

Bilal seemed to sink into himself as he formed a smaller ball. It was his “relaxed” position. “We don’t generally poison living beings. It is against our way. We only want to share information, to help.”

Carmella frowned. “Way to do that by ending the lives of seven
billion
humans. You need a pat on your fucking backs for that one.”

He fought to keep his skin from coloring yellow. “It was not our intent. We had no idea that our ability to adapt would somehow invade your human cells and try to adapt within you.” He was quiet for a moment.

Carmella glared at him. “Not your intent. Right.”

“We are sorrier than you can ever know. We want to make things right. We realize that we have a debt to repay to mankind, and perhaps it can never be paid. But we will try.”

“Will you just … leave? Leave my house. And don’t come back.” She glanced at Wolf. “You helped me and you helped Wolf. But if you hadn’t come here, we would have never needed your help. You do understand that, right?” Her eyes narrowed. “It’s only when you show your ugly face that we need your help! So just get
out! Get out!
”

Bilal’s body elongated and he retreated, not taking his eyes from her. His skin began turning black.

Carmella began to sob. “You took everything and … you think that you can make it
right
?” Carmella’s hands formed fists. “You can’t magically bring my husband back. My
child
back! You can’t give me my mama or my brother or that fucking postman who refused to deliver the mail because the neighbor’s dog broke out of the gate!”

Bilal backed out the door to the porch, surprised at the woman’s sudden and complete turn. She had followed him out the door with a look of pure hatred that caused him physical pain. He had never been witness to human hatred at its worst.  Most humans were happy to be on Earth 2 where they could live in comfort and security with no fear of the disease that had taken almost everyone that they knew. Yes, there were those who hated the Centaurians, but
he had been protected from it by his parents and friends.

Bilal turned and moved down the porch stairs and away from her.

“Help me? Help me! Bring my baby back. Give me my baby. Give him …” She couldn’t finish. She dropped to her knees and gave in to the grief of all that had been lost. She cried all the tears for all the men, women, and children who had ever lost anyone. She cried for those who were dead and could no longer do so. She cried out her hatred and anger—and her loneliness.

Bilal was in the woods before he turned to look at her again. The woman lay on the porch curled into a ball as if she had been physically harmed. She cried harder than he had ever seen or heard anyone cry.

He turned and continued to his pod.

Physical harm ha
s been done to her and to all mankind,
Bilal thought.
By my kind.

“There you are.
Have you been hiding?”

Raj had found Bilal in the glade behind his mother’s home. Bilal liked being there despite grass and stones dotting the ground that were not friendly to his skin. He enjoyed the ways the sun filtered through the leaves of the trees and transformed everything. He huddled in the shadows and hoped to become so small that he would eventually disappear.

Bilal didn’t answer, and Raj sat next to him. Bilal wanted to be alone, but if anyone was going to interrupt his poor mood, then he was happy it was Raj. Bilal cared deeply for Lawrence because he was funny and upbeat and liked adventure enough to be best friends with an alien and a forty-year-old man. But he disagreed with Lawrence’s idea that if anything bothered you, you should “just get over it.” Unfortunately, life did not always cooperate.

“What’s wrong, Bilal? You’ve been acting weird every since you returned from your last Earth visit.”

“I saw the Earthling again.”

Raj frowned. “You said that you wouldn’t bring her. It’s why you didn’t tell your parents or anyone else about her. Did you change your mind?”

“No. I just wanted to see her.”

Raj pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one. Bilal didn’t understand smoking, but once a month he linked with his friend through his tentacles to make sure Raj’s lungs stayed clear and healthy.

“We have a word for that. It’s called
stalking
.”

“No. I’m not stalking her. I wanted to see how she lives. How is that stalking her if I’ve only seen her twice?”

“Then why are you mooning over her?”

Bilal had not heard this expression. “Mooning? Like when humans show their asses?” He remembered Lawrence explaining what mooning was by dropping his pants and showing his pale butt cheeks.