Spores (14 page)

He spun around and plunged the knife into the creature’s body, pinning it to the door. At the same time, Pembroke let out a tiny whimper. Hayder gave his colleague a curious look. Jackson wondered if the penny had finally dropped.

“The white coated bastards and the blokes in suits have been feeding us a pack of lies ever since The Wasting started. The creatures in this Institute and all the others we’ve seen will all be dead in a couple of weeks.”

He watched their faces, wondering if they would believe what he was about to say. Jackson had doubts; after all, he thought it was all bullshit when he found the files on that computer in the lab.

“A couple of years ago, an unidentified object passed close to our planet. The scientists assumed it with a small lump of rock, at least until it changed direction and began transmitting an electronic message. The scientists intercepted the signal but only informed a select group of people.”

“I don’t believe this,” said Hayder, “fucking aliens?”

Brickman punched him on the arm.

“The scientists established contact and told them everything about our planet and our species. The probe sent out one more message before disappearing telling them to prepare for first contact. This was six months ago and The Wasting started just a few days later. The scientists, what’s left of them, still have a communication network. A vast number of new objects have been detected near Jupiter.”

“We’ll find a base of operations away from any towns and cities. Then we’ll recruit and tool up. They estimate that those objects will be here in about a month. That’s how long we have to prepare.”

The Sergeant is right, Hayder. I know what’s happening to me inside. I don’t want to be a monster.” He closed his eyes and pressed his head hard against the muzzle of the gun. “Do it.”

“Wait, look he’s my friend, so if it’s to be done, let me do it.”

Jackson looked at Brickman and nodded. The big man let the man go. He handed the pistol to Hayder.

“I’m sorry, man.” Hayder pointed and fired a single shot into his friend.

Chapter Thirteen

The unsettling feeling of deja-vu washed over Patsy as Daniel gently lowered her down. She kept her eyes fixed on that open door; despite his assurances, Patsy still believed that the fluffy beast would change its mind and rush back in here. The soles of her feet touched the tiled floor. As the soldier released her arms, an involuntary gasp escaped from her lips. She couldn’t help it; that disquieting sensation of abandonment crept up and covered the woman like a rotten blanket.

“Hush up, lass. I’ll be with you in a second.”

Patsy gazed up towards the dislodged ceiling tile, wondering if her handsome knight had somehow just sensed her irrational thoughts.

“Move to one side, lass. Here, cop hold of this.” He dropped his assault rifle. Point the bloody thing at the door,” he snapped. “Not at me.”

She remembered almost screaming in terror when they’d removed the tile and she saw that malevolent wrinkled face staring back at her just inches away. The tiny monster must have decided to take a nap on top of that metal filing cupboard. Lord knows what it must have thought when the whole polystyrene tile fell on it.

Patsy froze solid when that bastard nightmare pulled back its gums to reveal that set of serrated, black teeth. It soon moved when Daniel pointed his gun at it. Patsy guessed that it must have already learnt what guns could do.

They both watched it jump onto the floor and scurry out of the room.

“Daniel, have you lost your bloody mind?” She searched his face for evidence that this was a wind up, Patsy found none, he was quite serious. “But we’ve spent hours avoiding those things.”

He nodded, “I know we have but, let’s face it, we’re lost. This place must have been built by a lunatic with a hard on for Pacman.”

She stayed silent, unsure if he was having a dig at her. Patsy had told him a few times that she thought she knew where there were.

Patsy watched Daniel look around the grey walled room. Apart from the metal filing cabinet that stood against the far wall, the room was empty. She’d lost count of the amount of similar looking rooms they’d passed. Amber had told her on more than one occasion about just how large the Institute was and at the time, she’d dismissed her friend’s claims as mild exaggerations. Patsy had been here for months and thought she knew her way around pretty well. That bubble burst a long time ago.

“Sorry, Daniel, this place is a bit bigger than I thought.”

“It isn’t your fault. We’ve spent most of our time up in the ceilings; familiar surroundings look totally different when seen from below.”

He padded over to the door and peered out. “I reckon they’ll rely on more than their eyes to get around. I think that critter knows where it’s going.”

Daniel wriggled out of her embrace and stepped out into the corridor, “They’re about as intelligent as they animals they originated from.” He sighed, “I saw a lot of unpleasant things down in London and a lot of it I couldn’t explain.”

He’d told her a lot about his life before The Wasting while they were travelling, yet hardly anything about his time in the capital. She’d asked him a few times but Daniel had always been quick to change the subject.

“Those creatures had behaved differently, organised.” He closed his eyes and shook his head, “I can’t explain it. I don’t know; it’s as if they were being controlled or something.”

Patsy stepped out into the corridor, intending to give him another hug when she noticed a chunk of plaster missing from the wall next to her. The damage must have been done years ago as the previous decorators had painted over it. She grinned to herself; Patsy must have passed that bloody hole hundreds of times.

“Oh, lord. This is so unreal.”

“What’s wrong?” asked Daniel.

“I know where we are, I work here.” She shrugged. “Well, used to work here, anyway. That’s my lab. That horrible thing has just scampered into my lab.”

“You’ve only just noticed our location?”

“Everything looks the same, Amber once told me that she wanted to paint al the walls in bright colours. You know, to make the place look a little less than a prison.”

Patsy hoped that her friend was okay, they had yet to find anyone still alive. She wouldn’t know how she’d be able to live with herself if Amber was dead.

“Bright walls are all very well, but I’d prefer huge red arrows painted on the walls, pointing to the bloody exit.”

“Come on,” he said, taking her hand. “Let’s go inside.”

To her initial relief, the lab looked deserted; perhaps the creature was using this room as a short cut to somewhere else. Oh God, Patsy hoped so. There were way too many nooks and crevices in the lab to start thinking about dozens of those things hiding and just waiting to pounce on them.

“You never told me what you did in here.”

She slowly turned around, looking in dismay at the changes wrought by the new scientists; she had difficulty recognising the place. “I was just an assistant researcher; we were doing what we suspected everyone with access to scientific equipment was doing, trying to find a cure.”

Patsy padded down a narrow aisle, gazing at the collection of glass jars at either side. These weren’t here before. She tapped on one of them, wondering what was inside.

“Graham was in charge of the operation, to be honest, I was just a glorified fetcher and carrier, I also made lots of cuppas. These weren’t here before you lot turned up. Have you any idea what’s inside them?”

Daniel slowly nodded, his ashen face suggested that she shouldn’t have asked him that question.

“I’ve tried not to tell you what our main jobs were back in London.” He picked up one of the small jars and dipped his forefinger into the opaque liquid. “I didn’t tell you because I thought you may think of me as some sort of monster. Our main duty was to protect the remaining scientific community and assist them in any way.” He smiled, “You could say that we were their fetchers and carriers but we stopped short of making the arrogant pricks cups of tea.”

Daniel placed the jar back; he paused and looked at her. “I hope you’ll forgive me, Patsy.” He held the jar out in front of him and poured out the liquid. Stuck at the bottom of the jar was what appeared to be a lump of coral. Patsy leaned closer and her stomach slowly turned over when she worked out just what it was.

“As the disease was affecting the older people, the scientists wanted human cadavers, preferably from before the outbreak.”

Patsy stared in revulsion at the severed hand. Thick patches of bright orange fur grew from the grey, mottled flesh.

“They had us raiding hospital morgues and pathology labs; thankfully most of the places still had working generators.” Daniel sighed, “You won’t believe the fun and games we had, dragging half a dozen frozen bodies through the streets of London.”

She inspected the hand, despite the decay and the damage caused by the foreign organisms, Patsy didn’t think that this had been removed from a corpse. She looked at Daniel, wondering if he was lying.

He placed the jar back and wiped his hands on his jacket. Patsy stared at the hand, in particular the tiny gold band around the index finger. That piece of jewellery looked very familiar. Then it clicked, Patsy suddenly went cold. Mark Erikson, the beefy hunk whom she’d dated a couple of weeks ago had a band just like that one. Could it be just a coincidence?

Daniel gazed at her then groaned, “Oh, crap. I’m sorry, you need to believe me, Patsy, if they have continued their experiments up here, I knew nothing about it.”

She didn’t know what to believe, Graham had been using human subjects, only his were definitely dead. Two men died a few weeks ago when part of the ceiling collapsed on them while they were exploring one of the older sections. Patsy thought Graham was going to have an orgasm when the committee allowed the science team to use the bodies for research. Thinking of Graham’s experiments jogged a forgotten set of memories. He seemed to know just what the results would be. Was he guessing or did he know the answers beforehand? Also, she did notice a flicker of recognition when he met the head of the London science team, despite pretending that they didn’t know each other.

“I’m really sorry. Patsy. I should have told you about this earlier.”

She still couldn’t decide whether he had told her the whole truth or just part of it; then again, at this moment in time, it didn’t really matter. Patsy believed that Daniel was a good man. After all, he was technically a deserter. His comrades would probably shoot him if they captured the poor man.

“It’s okay, Daniel, it’s not like we’ve had much chance to sit down and have a cosy chat now, is it?”

He remembered the shock of him grapping her arms and lifting her back into the cavity above the ceiling. If he hadn’t had a firm grip of her arms, the man would have received a face full of fingernails. Her fury evaporated when he urgently whispered that he was trying to save her. There was no time to tell him that her friend was down there as more soldiers were climbing into the cavity. They’d managed to escape but by the time they’d been able to get back onto the floor, Amber was nowhere to be seen.

“It looks like we’re not the first ones to visit here,” he said. “Look at that.” Daniel said, pointing behind her.

She turned around and looked at the large rectangular hole in the ventilation pipe; there used to be a grille over that. It Looked like Daniel was right, someone had been here.

“It might be your friend, Amber. It makes sense that she probably would have travelled above ground; after all, we did.”

“If it was her, how do you know she dropped in? Maybe Amber used the shaft to escape from the lab.”