Earth Man (2 page)

Danny tried to contain the fear that came crashing down on him.
When he had been close to the animal the fear had been pushed away, but now the red light was blinking again and the horror he’d felt was back. Soaked in sweat he considered taking off his plaid jacket but it was giving him at least a little bit of comfort and security. This time as he walked toward the light he held his hands up, hoping it would scare away whatever was out there. The rifle lay discarded on the ground, forgotten and useless.

“
I can see you God damn it!” Danny shouted at the light, waving his arms at it. Still the light continued to flash, the same pulsing rhythm over and over. It was beginning to make a noise, a dull throbbing like a deep bass drum.

WHOOMB.WHOOMB. WHOOMB.

Danny could feel it in his chest. The entire forest seemed to pulse with the noise, expanding and contracting around the central red light. Danny swept his medium length blonde hair back out of his face and rubbed his eyes.

“
Please. Stop. Please.” Danny begged quietly. His eyes darted back and forth from one shadowy tree to the next, the paranoia overwhelming him.

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

The light disappeared and suddenly reappeared overhead. Danny looks up, covering his eyes. The light seems to circle above him, a red flaming ring of light. Small particles of dirt and grass were lifted off the ground and float upwards. The light seemed to pull everything around him into the air. He watched the rifle fly past toward the light and disappear. Small stones and bits of the forest begin to float free of gravity, spiralling around him and moving into the center of the light. Danny fought with all his might but he is soon pulled off his feet, lifted gently onto the tips of his toes. He frantically kicked his feet as his chest thrusts forward and a scream bursts out of him and echoes across the forest. The world seems to contract toward him as trees bend inwards and upwards at the same time. Reality shifts and distorts and for a moment a shape moves inside the light, almost as if they were standing behind it. Danny’s scream continued for a long time, long after the light vanished. Whoever stood on the other side of the red light did nothing to help him. Danny continued to scream into the darkness, passing in and out of consciousness. Even unconscious his body remained floating in the air. The light and noise pulled him back to consciousness even as it painfully overwhelmed him.

WHOOMB.WHOOMB.WHOOMB.

Suddenly he is released and he falls to the ground. Wracked with pain and seized by fierce convulsions, Danny could not stand or move. There was a presence in the light, a presence that reached out somehow and touched him. The beam of light stayed on him, even as he tried to crawl away. Alien, yet more than human, the beam seemed to transfer information to him. It was beyond his comprehension and his brain could not handle the influx of new information. His fear was too overwhelming, his panic too frantic for his will to sort through what was really happening to him. When the strange presence finally released its hold on him Danny could only lie on the ground on his side, holding his knees tight to his chin until he blacked out. This time he did not awaken again for a very long time. The light disappeared and the forest remained silence, only the night creatures would ever know the truth of what happened in the forest that night.

The deer, its wounds healed, stood over Danny and licked his face. It remained by his side until it caught Phil
’s scent. Phil’s flashlight beam cut through the trees just as the deer disappeared. Danny’s body was so hot in the cold air it seemed to be steaming. As Phil turned him over, he took a step back in shock. Danny’s face no longer looked human, his eyes were too wide and his mouth stretched open in a way that Phil had never seen before and would never forget for the rest of his life.

The emergency medical staff
did everything they could for Danny Boyle. By the time the paramedics had found him and Phil in the woods Danny’s face had returned to normal. The paramedics took them both to Mills Memorial Hospital but once they realized Danny’s vital signs were normal and his injuries appeared to be superficial, they had him air-lifted to Kelowna General. They suspected it was a brain injury and if so the people at Kelowna would be better equipped to deal with it, or at least that is what they told Phil. Phil did not call Helen until the helicopter was in the air and she responded better than he’d expected. Unfortunately things got worse at Mills Memorial; Danny suffered a cardiac arrest minutes before the helicopter touched down. As they rushed Danny to the second emergency room of the night, Phil was forbidden from seeing him. Phil used the time to talk to Helen and explain most of what had happened. When she finally arrived she was beautifully frazzled and obviously worried. Her short cut red hair was pinned back with black clips and her dark brown eyes bore into Phil accusingly, even while her full lips faked a smile around her perfect white teeth. Helen wasn’t very tall, no more than five and a half feet, but she was full figured and strong. Phil had seen her hold her own against men and he certainly feared her more than he’d ever feared Danny. They often exaggerated her temper, making her seem worse than she actually was. She really wasn’t a tough person to deal with; she just didn’t tolerate a lot of bullshit. Phil wasn’t scared she’d overreact; he was scared she’d give him exactly what he deserved. After all, wasn’t it his fault Danny was hurt?

After a brief hug, Helen started
hitting Phil with the questions.

“
What happened to him?” Helen asked.

“
I’m not sure. I’m guessing he fell, maybe hit his head. We got separated and when I found him he was just lying on the ground. There was no blood or anything, so I think he’s okay, but I don’t know.” Phil replied.

“
Fuck!” Helen said, falling against the wall. “Can I see him?”

“
No. He’s in the emergency room right now. I am sure he’ll be fine. Danny’s tough and takes care of himself.”

Phil said the words but he did not believe them. He
’d seen Danny’s face; whatever had happened to him was not normal. Phil had felt something in the woods and although he couldn’t say what it was or how it had made him feel, there was something.

Phil hugged Helen again, trying to reassure her.

“It’ll be okay Helen. Trust me this isn’t how Danny Boyle’s going to die, falling down a hill on a hunting trip. At least you were wrong.”

“
I was wrong? What about?” Helen asked.

“
You said we’d probably end up shooting each other. So let’s be happy nobody got shot.”

Helen laughed and wiped her eyes, turning away so Phil couldn
’t see her cry.

“
Danny will pull through, Helen, don’t worry. He’ll be good as new.”

Danny lay in the emergency room hooked up to a breathing mask. He suddenly jolted awake, sitting upright and looking around with a dazed expression in his eyes. He startled the Doctor and all three nurses in the room, who tried to lay him back down on the stretcher. Nobody was wearing face masks but the doctor had on a pair of latex gloves. Using one hand the doctor tried to push Danny back down. As he lay back, they all quickly pulled their masks on over their faces.

“
Please lie down sir. You had an accident and suffered a minor heart attack. The EKG is running now and your heart seems to be okay, but we need you to relax and let us run a few tests.”

Danny
laid down and breathed in oxygen through the mask. He tried to remember what had happened but his memory seemed fuzzy, like he was hung-over. All he could recall was a deer, perhaps two. It was dead now, because of him and yet for some reason he thought perhaps it was not dead after all. Confused he closed his eyes and listened to the beeping machine and the sound of his breathing, letting it lull him asleep. Just before he passed into the realm of dreams he heard a quiet skittering noise like the sound of a thousand tiny little feet.

“
This hospital is falling apart! Ugh!” shouted one of the nurses as she backed away from the sink. A variety of bugs began to climb up out of the sink drain, spreading out into the washbasin. A second nurse saw them and quickly turned the water up as high as it would go. The two women splashed water on the insects, forcing them back down the drain.

“
Call the janitors, tell them to bring some Drano up here, this is disgusting!” the third male nurse shouted.
“Drano? Call an exterminator!” The second nurse said.

Neither
of them noticed that the variety of the insects they were dealing with. Spiders, earwigs, ants and silverfish all crawled together, acting as if they were one species or of one mind. It took a few minutes but the nurses soon washed them back down the drain. The male nurse dumped hand sanitizer into the sink, letting the water run for a few minutes until it was boiling hot just to be sure they got them all.

The Second walked along the beach of the Baja Peninsula wearing the human skin it had borrowed in Africa many weeks earlier. Although it had arrived on Earth first, it was designated the Second, responsible for the protection of the one known as the First. The humans were hiding the First, moving it from place to place but they could not hide it forever. Together they needed to prepare the planet for the arrival of more of their kind.

It muttered to itself, occasionally stopping to bend down and smell handfuls of dirt. Years had been spent trying to cross the great oceans of this planet and now that it
had arrived it was impatient. It had been apart from the other Growth for too long. It needed to find the scent of the First so that it could track it.

“
The First. The First must be found,” was all it said, over and over again.

Somewhere in the maze of li
ghts was the object he sought, that which would allow the others to come and join him and the new, wet rock he had discovered. The Second coughed and wiped its mouth with the back of its ragged sleeves. A streak of dark blood stains its mouth and hand. Using a long crooked finger nail it drew an X in the blood. Looking down at itself it realizes it must find new dressings, the swim across the sea left little of its body or clothing intact. The small, inconsequential parts of its human victim had been eaten away by the sea creatures and it would need new flesh if it were to continue unobserved among the dominant species of the strange blue planet.

Danny had lost count of how many times he
’d opened his eyes to new surroundings in the last twenty-four hours. He would wake up feeling fine, only to feel overwhelming nausea and dizziness. When he closed his eyes to try and make it stop, he’d fall back into the darkness of unconsciousness. This time however he saw his wife Helen standing over him and the darkness faded. As she leaned over him she smiled and swept back her short, curly red hair. His daughter Morgan, who was eight going on eighteen, leapt up onto the bed next to him. Although she looked like her father, Morgan had her mother’s hair with just a touch of Danny’s blonde through it. Morgan also had Danny’s blue eyes, a combination that made her quite striking when she wasn’t a little dishevelled mess. Morgan was all sweetness with ferocity much like a house cat; gentle but armed with her mother’s claws.

“
Careful Morgan!” Helen said, bouncing on the bed, but Danny took his wife’s hand to let her know it was okay.

Danny
’s oldest boy Raymond hung back; being thirteen he was no longer comfortable showing affection. Danny waved him over, pointing to the spot on the bed next to his sister. Ray scowled but hopped up next to him anyway.

“
Daddy’s a bit bruised so take it easy, okay guys?” Danny said, pulling Ray close. He kissed his son on the head and although the boy scowled with his mouth, his eyes shined brightly.

“
So you’re okay Dad?” Ray asked, trying to sound cool.

“
Everything seems to be working, but I feel like I got run over by a car full of fat people.” The kids giggled at his joke.

“
We thought you were in a coma.” Morgan said.

Danny looked up at his wife.
Obviously she must have overheard the word coma from an adult.

“
You were out for two days.” Helen said matter-of-factly. Danny was once again surprised at her strength, amazed at how calm and cool she was.