The Gastropoda Imperative by Peter Barns (ebook reader computer TXT) 📖

Queen had grown thin, her egg sack drying up. Using the last of her reserves, she had left her breeding chamber in The Pit and ventured out to find somewhere more suitable for her survival. She needed soil, soil containing the microscopic plant life that her skin could absorb.

It had taken the Sycler many weeks to move from deep in the laboratory beneath Flat Rock Island, out onto the rocky heights surrounding the big concrete slab. But she had persevered, driven by an urge she had no understanding of - an urge even the scientists who had bred her had no knowledge of. Here she found the soil she needed, rich in nutrients that would sustain her through her long torpid state of suspended animation.

The odour reached her and the Sycler moved, eye stalks elongating, like thin party balloons blown erect by a red nosed clown. At the tips, black eyes moved in search of a prey. Two smaller tentacles below the eye stalks quivered, scenting the air.

Turning, the Sycler eased her way out of the soil that had been her resting place for three years, body - although thin and emaciated - stretching to its full two metres.

Light shone ahead, something the Sycler usually shunned. But tonight she was driven forward, spurred on by a consuming hunger that overrode any fear of light.

***

Fin shook his head and set off across the concrete. As his feet crunched across the gravel on the far side of the slab, something caught his attention; a shooting star flashing across the night sky. He stared at it as he walked.

Tripping on a protruding stone, Fin stumbled, slamming his foot down between two rocks. A sharp pain drove the breath from his body as the rough edges peeled back the skin on his ankle. Crouching down on one knee, he wriggled his foot, trying to pull it free from the rocks, but managed nothing more than to tear some more cuts in his flesh.

Easing up his jeans, Fin slid his hand down his shin, encountering something wet. Pulling his hand back, he spotted blood on his fingers. He held his hand nearer to the dim light for a better view.

Suddenly realising what was happening, Fin plucked the lamp off the ground and shook it. Yes, it was definitely getting dimmer by the moment. Swearing , he pulled at his leg, praying that he could somehow work it free before the lamp failed altogether, but his foot wouldn’t budge.

“Don’t be so stupid, you prick,” he muttered. “When you don’t come back, they’ll come and find you. There’s no need to panic.”

But panic he did.

Fin tried to slow his breathing, feeling the sweat forming between his shoulder blades. Gritting his teeth, he tried to free his foot one last time. The pain was excruciating and he had to stop, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Looking towards the top of the steps, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. “Hey! Hey, up here. I’m stuck!”

He listened hard, but could only hear the subdued sound of music from the distant beach far below.

The idiots had the CD player on full blast!

“Kirsti, I’m bloody stuck up here!” Fin shouted at the top of his voice. He tried his foot again, pulling his leg back and forth, almost fainting from the pain before he stopped.

What was that? Had he heard something?

Fin took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself. It wasn’t like he was in some horror movie and a raving lunatic was about to jump out at him and lop off his head with a big, blood dripping axe.

Just as that thought had popped into his head, the lantern finally died, plunging him into darkness. Fin grabbed the lantern, tapping its side. It flickered back to life for a moment, then blinked out again. Prising the bottom off with trembling fingers, Fin pulled the two batteries clear of the compartment, dropping one in his haste.

The battery rolled away from him.

Reaching out for it, Fin swore when his fingertips slid over the slippery cylinder, knocking it even further away.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Stretching his arm out again, clamping his teeth against the pain in his foot, Fin strained as hard as he could.

His fingers slipped over the top of the battery and he was able to hook it towards him. He was gulping air into his lungs now, muscles trembling, hardly able to pick up the battery, imagining all sorts of terrible creatures moving towards him in the darkness.

Slipping the batteries into his armpit, Fin clamped his arm against his body, knowing that warming them sometimes gave a few more minutes of power.

Fin waited, eyes squeezed tightly shut, not wanting to see what might be prowling about in the surrounding darkness. He sat frozen, like the rocks grasping his foot, his ragged breaths wheezing between dry lips.

It seemed to him that he’d sat there for hours until, holding his breath, he slapped the batteries back in the lantern and twisted on the base.

Fin gave a shuddering sigh when the bulb gave out a weak glow. Holding the lantern above his head, he open his mouth to shout for help again.

That was when he saw what was making its way across the concrete towards him, and the first scream of terror tore from his throat.

***

”Come on, over here,” Betts laughed, pulling Lee across the sand. “No one will see us over here.”

Lee threw a blanket onto the sand and they sat down.

“Look at that sky,” Betts said. “Isn’t it the most wonderful thing you’ve ever seen?”

“Doesn’t hold a patch on you,” Lee said, pulling Betts down beside him.

She wriggled, trying to free herself as she giggled. Lee kept tickling her ribs, staring down into her eyes, an impish expression on his face.

“Stop it!”

Suddenly Lee leant in and kissed her lips. Betts stopped wriggling and slipped her hand around the back of Lee’s head, spreading her fingers through his hair. It was a long kiss and she was a little breathless when they came up for air.

“My,” she said, “good, but not quite as good as the view!”

Lee slipped his hand under her top and tickled her ribs again. Betts screamed and slapped at his arms, trying to breathe around the laughs that burst from her mouth.

“No don’t . . . stop. Stop . . . I can’t breathe.”

Back along the beach Troy and Lyra smiled at each other as they listened to Lee and Betts laughs reach them on the gentle breeze. Lyra shivered.

“Cold?” Troy asked.

“A little.”

“Perhaps I should go and collect some wood for that fire I was going to make.”

“No. It’s okay. Do it in a minute.”

Farther along the beach, Kirsti looked back over her shoulder. Fin had been gone a long time and she was getting worried. She knew what a joker he was and wondered if perhaps he was hiding somewhere, waiting for her to come looking for him, so he could jump out and frighten her. It was just the sort of thing he would do. Well she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

The scream cut through the night air like a jet fighter and they all jumped to their feet, hearts pounding as another scream came. The pure pain and terror it conveyed shocked everyone.

“What the fuck—” Troy looked along the beach. Lee and Betts were running towards him. He could see Kirsti over by the barbecue.

“That sounded like Fin,” Lyra said, her voice trembling as she clutched at Troy.

“Kirsti, is Fin with you?” Troy shouted.

Before Kirsti could reply, another scream ripped through the darkness, ending in a wail that made them all shiver.

“It’s coming from up there. Come on. That’s Fin. He’s in some kind of trouble.”

“No wait,” Lee panted as he reached Troy, “Let’s all stick together. Grab one of those lanterns.”

They ran across the sand to the long flight of concrete steps, already panting for breath by the time they got there.

“Fin. Fin. Are you alright? What’s happened?” Troy’s voice echoed off into the distant ridges. He tried again, his voice desperate. “Fuck—” he muttered when he got no reply. Somehow the deep silence frightened Troy far more than the screams had.

Chapter 27

The creature reared up over him and Fin cringed as its tongue flicked in and out of its mouth - like a miniature arm, covered with row upon row of chitinous teeth. He scrabbled away as far as he could, his trapped foot feeling as though it had been plunged into a pan of boiling water as he pulled at it. The smell from the creatures pouting maw was making him dizzy and Fin turned his head aside, gaze still locked on the wicked looking tongue.

The creature was a deep orange colour, elongated, with what appeared to be a hard surface along its back. Its mouth was set beneath a big, muscular foot that oozed a thick slime which glistened in the moonlight. Two black eyes studied him from the top of long eye stalks.

It looked like some kind of slug, but far far bigger than should have been possible. The creature weaved its body back and forth in front of him, as though searching for the best place to strike. Its tongue scraped along his cheek and it felt as though he’d been touched with a red hot poker.

Fin screamed again, loud and long.

Bending over, the creature inspected his damaged foot, it’s long tongue rasping at his torn skin.

God that hurts! That hurts!

Fin gulped in shallow, rapid breaths, heart pumping furiously, his whole body tingling, alive with adrenaline.

This couldn’t be happening. Please God. No!

The creature raised itself up again and Fin saw something white hanging from its maw.

Is that a bone? Please don’t let that be a bone!

Fin screamed again, scrabbling around on the ground.

Then his foot moved between the rocks and his heart leapt into his mouth. He was getting free.

Ya, you big ugly fucker. I’m going to tear your fucking—

Fin’s thoughts were cut short when the creature slapped its mouth against his, the tooth covered tongue pushing its way down his throat with a rasping noise that vibrated throughout his head. The stink was overpowering and Fin felt his bile rising.

Something pumped from the end of the creature’s tongue, filling his throat and Fin had no option but to swallow it, the lumpy liquid burning its way down his throat into his stomach.

Fin fought for breath, his eyes growing round and wide, bulging from his head. He slapped at the creatures sides, grappling for the eye-stalks, but when he touched them, they just rolled back into themselves, out of his reach.

Finished with its task, the creature pulled back. Its own toothed tongue, having fixed into Fin’s with its backwards facing teeth, tore Fin’s tongue from his mouth. The creature lower itself to the ground, laying quietly for a moment, as though recovering its energy.

Fin could see the creature’s strong muscles rippling under its scaly skin. His mouth was full of blood and he could no longer scream - not that he had the energy anymore. He felt woozy and was losing the use of his limbs.

Rolling on to his side, he watched the creature move away across the concrete pad, the muscles of its flexible foot moving in synchronised waves from front to back, powering it across the ground faster than he would have expected.

Fin heard voices calling in the distance, but couldn’t move - couldn’t even blink. It felt as though his whole body had been wrapped in cotton wool. It was peaceful. After all the pain and terror, it was like being cradled in his mother’s arms as a youngster - safe and warm.

Then Fin felt something move inside him - deep down inside him - in his stomach. The pain returned ten-fold - a thousand-fold. He tried to scream but he could make no sound, not so much as a click of his throat.

What frightened Fin the most - what took his mind to the edges of insanity - was the knowledge that, whatever was happening inside his body, there was nothing he could do about it. He could only lay helplessly while the pain and terror wracked him - body and mind.

Fin had seen the documentaries about insects laying their eggs inside other creatures, and how the hatchlings then ate their way out