Astilla
Chapter One
It was a obvious cool October night. The kind of night that makes your eyes water when you stare into space. Charlie sat out on the front porch smoking a cigarette with Brian. They always sat outside while Charlie smoked.
Charlie had the idea that if he smoked outside eventually he would quit. After two years though, it just became habit to smoke out on the front porch. Brian found smoking to be a disgusting habit and would tell you so, as he spit his chew into an empty Pepsi bottle.
At any rate, he enjoyed sitting on the front porch. As Brian made another deposit into his 20 oz plastic spittoon, Charlie took the last drag of his cigarette, leaned over towards the front door and dragged the rusty Folgers butt-kit closer to him. His face turned red as he leaned over the arm of the lawn chair and mashed his cigarette out.
Brian fair stayed reclined until his eyes caught several bursts of light speckle in the starlit sky. Some of the bursts streaked along and then fizzled out, but one seemed to burn brighter and brighter.
“Holy crap, Charlie. Do you see this? ” Brian said as Charlie made his final press to ensure the smoke had gone out.
As Charlie looked up, Brian fell out of his chair, spilling the contents of his Pepsi bottle. Charlie just watched in awe as what seemed like a small piece of the sun went roaring past the front porch. The projectile blazed, tearing a hole through the elm that stood in the side yard and then went on to obliterate the neighbor’s barn.
Quite dumbfounded, Charlie stood up and gaped at the tree that was burning like lady liberties torch in the night. Embers trailed off into the gloomy sky as the wind rustled them loose then carried them away. Brian managed to honest himself, muttering his disbelief that they were still alive.
Next door at the Bernalillos, it was a typical Thursday night. Maria was lying in bed reading the latest romance novel from her book club. Her husband Fernando, on the other hand, was tinkering on the Internet. With a click, he signed off from some questionably acceptable romance material of his possess. Rubbing his eyes and yawning, he made his way to the kitchen to get a drink of water. Two gulps in, Fernando choked as the meteor suddenly incinerated his barn.
With horror, Fernando opened the back door and ran outside. He had expected to find that a plane had crashed in his backyard. To his dread, all that was there was a smoldering crater where his barn used to sit.
“Ho – lee – Jesus,” he let out in amazement.
“Nando! What’s happened honey? ” Maria yelled with panic as she ran up slow her husband.
“Something hit the barn.”
Succor in the crater, the last of the flickers of fire turned to smoke. It hissed and popped as the coals smoldered around the cone shaped meteorite. For a moment the meteor lie nestled snug in the scorched earth. As it cooled though, it began to open, like a hideous pinecone chard in a forest fire. Its needles stretched out in the thousands and with a sudden poof were dispersed through out the lawn. It was as if an broad porcupine had spread out and then spontaneously combusted.
The sound of fire engines cried in the distance. Fernando and Maria edged their way back, intelligent to see the impact site. As they got closer two heads popped up over the top of the fence.
“Are you guys okay? ” Brian asked while looking at the hole in the ground.
“Yes. Nothing happened to the house luckily,” Fernando said. “What the heck was that? “
Charlie laughed, “It was a meteor”.
“Yeah,” Brian added. “I saw a bunch of falling stars for a second, but this one just kept coming.” With a itsy-bitsy tilt of his head he spit his chew onto the ground. “Don’t worry though. I made a wish on it.”
As the four of them laughed Fernando and Maria walked closer to the craters edge. Fernando took another step forward, letting out a shriek of pain. The others did not understand what was happening. Maria’s eyes grew frantic as she asked him repeatedly what was wrong.
Bewildered by the man’s sudden reaction, Brian and Charlie prepared to jump the fence when they heard two fire trucks, a police car and a paramedic roll up to the house. Charlie hopped off the brace of the fence and ran over to the team of fire fighters.
“There’s something wrong with my neighbor,” Charlie shouted. “He’s just over the fence”.
Two of the firefighters approached him. One of them, fireman Casey, asked Charlie what he had said as the other looked out towards the fence and noticed Brian, peaceful perched on it and signaling for them to come quick.
“I said there’s something wrong with my neighbor,” Charlie repeated, pointing out to the fence.
Casey signaled at the paramedic, who had fair clipped his phone to his belt. The man nodded and started over towards them, passing the other firefighters as they began spraying water on what was left of the elm tree.
As the paramedic got closer, the other men began running back towards the fence also. When they reached it, Casey’s partner struck the two wait on beams with his axe, popping them loose from the pole. The other men then pushed on the fencing until it fell over.
The rescue team was surprised to find the giant crater on the other side. They quickly made their way around it to Fernando, who was sitting on the ground with one slipper off and holding his foot. With intense pain in his face, Fernando rocked back and forth. Maria tried to explain to the paramedic that he had stepped on a splinter and that she thought it was from the barn. She then told him when she had tried to pull it out of her husband’s foot it seemed to melt and then was gone.
Greg, the paramedic, knelt down and looked at Fernando’s foot. As far as he could sing, there was no injury. He then ran his index finger down the center of his foot causing Fernando to flinch.
“So you can feel that alright? ” Greg questioned Fernando with a smile. “Does it hurt when I press on it? ” he asked as he pushed with his thumb.
“No,” he answered. “Actually, it is starting to feel a puny better.”
“If you would like I could take you to the hospital to have it looked at further? Who knows what you really stepped on; could have been an venerable share of the barn. It still could’ve been hot from the looks of that crater.”
“Looks like you had a bomb go off in your backyard to me,” Casey added.
“Do you want to go to the hospital honey,” Maria asked as she rubbed her husbands back.
“No. I think I will be okay. I’m not going to the hospital over some stupid exiguous astilla.”
“But what if there is still a allotment of the splinter in your foot? “
Fernando rubbed his head and sighed. “If it is still bothering me tomorrow than I will go see the doctor.” With that, he pressed his hands on the ground and tried to stand up. Greg and Casey proceeded to grab him by both arms and help him to his good foot.
“You, alright? ” Charlie asked.
“Yes,” he said wobbly. “I’m fine. It was unprejudiced a splinter.”
“Why don’t you let us help you into the house? ” Greg offered.
“I can manage. Thank you.” Fernando said with some annoyance. “Thank you for destroying my fence also. It’s not like I didn’t have enough property damage already tonight.”
“We were just trying to help,” said Casey, with some confusion in his announce.
“Well you can help me by leaving my property,” grumbled Fernando as he hobbled his way back towards the house.
“I apologize,” implored Maria. “This has been very stressful on my husband. He loved that old barn and I know he feels extremely embarrassed over the splinter.”
“That’s all right ma’am”, Greg said. “That kind of stuff happens all the time. It’s going to be awhile though before all the people obvious off your property. In fact, here comes the press and what looks like some scientists of some sort.”
Maria looked through the break in the fence to see a large group of people heading towards them. “Well. I am going to go and make sure my husband is all right. Thank you all for your help. If there is anything you need, just let me know.”
“All right ma’am,” Greg responded.
Brian and Charlie waved to her as she walked away. “We’ll see you later Maria,” Charlie added.
“Goodnight boys,” Maria replied with a faint smile. The smile did nothing really to disguise the tired and stressed look on her face. It was obvious she had been a bit embarrassed herself.
Brian scooped the chew from his mouth with his index finger as he watched Maria walk back to the house. He waited until he felt she was out of earshot and then he mentioned how unique it was about Fernando’s reaction to the splinter. The other men agreed with him and Casey even called him a Nancy boy for being such a sissy about the whole thing. They all laughed about the wise crack, until one of the reporters on sight fell to the ground with a horrible dispute of pain.
Chapter Two
Once inside their home, things seemed to calm down for the Bernalillos. Still limping, Fernando assured his wife that everything was aesthetic and that he had simply over reacted. Kissing Maria on the forehead, he untied the belt of her robe and slipped the garment off her shoulders. The robe fell to the floor as she melted into her husband’s arms. He held her tight with his arms wrapped around her. She did the same and as she held him, Maria slid her hand into the back of his shirt.
“Ooh! Nando. Your skin is freezing cold,” she said, pulling slightly away from him.
Fernando smiled. “Yes. So don’t move away from me. I need you to withhold me warm.”
She smiled at him as well and ordered him under the covers of the bed. Without argument, he kissed her again and slid under the covers. Maria followed him in and pressed her body against him.
The cool of his body made all the hair of her body stand on end. Still, Maria’s exhaustion far outweighed the torment of her husband’s chilly skin. Within a matter of minutes the couple had past out.
Shortly after dosing though, Fernando became restless and awoke. Maria lay quietly as he sat up shivering. For him, it was as if he had awakened in an icebox. As his teeth chattered, Fernando rubbed his skin with his hands in a futile attempt to warm himself. He stared at what seemed like millions of goose bumps covering his body.
Panicked, he got out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom. When he turned on the light he was mortified to find that his skin was a grayish blue. A crawl went down his spine causing him to shiver convulsively as he tore the shower curtain launch, ripping it from three of its rings.
In shock, Fernando turned the hot water on and began filling the tub. It was all he could assume of at the moment. He had to get warm. Clawing at his cloths, he flung them off and climbed into the steaming bath. His mind began to race in confusion as he sat in the scalding tub. His body calm shook. The terrible grayish blue became a dark smoke gray as his eyes rolled back into his head, as his jaw locked originate, as the muscles of his body constricted.
When Maria awoke she sat strait up and gasped. She did not understand what had woken her and for the moment it seemed an unmemorable nightmare. Her hands felt for a security, which was not there. This only increased the fright she was feeling and as she tried to catch her breath, she heard the sound of water running.
“Nando,” she cried out, but there was no response. This gave her an uneasy feeling in her stomach. “Nando,” she said again as she climbed out of bed, letting out a sigh of disgust as her foot hit the sopping wet carpet. The water squishing between her toes as she made her way to the bathroom.
Piece of her did not want to launch the door for she feared what she would find, something stronger compelled her though as she bit her bottom lip and turned the doorknob. When she pulled the door open, visions of her seeing her dead husband in the tub mortified her. Peeking around the corner Maria found the tub poring over with water, but no Fernando. She was happily relieved and at the same time furious for what she believed now to be her husband’s carelessness that caused this.
Shaking her head, she stomped into the bathroom, splashing on the linoleum floor. There was a strange smell that seemed to linger. It caught Maria’s attention for a second as she reached over the tub and shut the water off. It was when she did this that she noticed the pile of dark gray skin at the bottom of the tub.
Maria screamed, as the world seemed to close in around her. She ran from the bathroom, slipping slightly on the wet carpet. The tears flooded her eyes as she made her way down the dark hall and into the kitchen.
Franticly, she flicked the petite light on over the counter and grabbed the phone. It was when she dialed 911 that she noticed the shadow in the living room. It moved only slightly, but enough to notice the change on the floor.
Again that strange sweet smell permeated her nostrils. A smell like nothing she had ever known and so overpowering that it dizzied her.
“Nando? ” Maria uttered weeping as she moved to the opening between the kitchen and the living room.
The 911 operator answered and began asking if there was an emergency? Maria could not respond. Her eyes blinked rapidly and welted up with even more tears.
Before her, crouched along the far wall of the living room was a gray spiked creature. It turned its long head towards her, exposing its grizzly teeth. Its eyes were large and black and cradled in its long razor claws was a human head.
In shock, Maria became incoherent. She started to weep in both Spanish and English, causing the 911 operator to become distressed as well. Maria wanted to scream, but the terror of what she was seeing combined with her sobbing kept her breathless and frozen.
The creature growled with a extreme rattle. It then turned its attention away from Maria, dropping the severed head it was holding to the hard wood floor. The head wobbled and rolled for a moment, coming to rest on the rug with its awful eyes fixed in her direction.
This was more than Maria could handle. Nearly fainting, she fell to the floor and began to vomit, for the eyes that gazed at her so frightfully were those of fireman Casey.
The 911 operator was pleading with her to respond and began telling her that assistance was on the blueprint. That she should try to stay still, but in shock she began to rock back and forth, falling into a dream; her fragile psyche broken. With her head now buried in her knees, she rocked and mumbled.
The creature, no longer concerned with her, returned to its meal. In the corner of the living room was the disemboweled carcass of fireman Casey. His uniform was shredded and now only small remnants remained clinging to his lacerated flesh. One of his boots still hugged his foot as if it were in denial of its wearer’s demise.
With its abet flared, the killer snorted as it drove its snout into the dismal feast. Its long blade like claws cut away at the downed prey. The razor teeth tore at the sinews as it greedily swallowed, hardly taking a moment to breathe. Like a pig in a feeding frenzy, it gorged cracking through the bones as it went.
The dusky light from the front porch shone through the window of the living room. The murky shadow of the monster danced on the blood-spattered floor. Its long gray quills stood right from its back and spine, pulsing as it devoured, adding to the horror of the shadow.
Maria mumbled low, inaudible.
Suddenly, the creature was roused. Its head batted in the air for a moment as its mouth hissed, teeth gleamed and blood came drooling from the corners. It turned its head back and gleaned its eyes out the window. Then it was gone, gone into the early morning darkness, disappearing like a stone into the ocean.
Maria was still rocking when the first two police officers walked into her home. Their flashlights eyed the mutilation. One of the officers nearly fainted. The other officer recognized Maria from earlier that evening. It was State Trooper Adam Douglas.
When Adam and his partner were approaching the house he got a terrible uneasiness. From the drive they could see the front door open. It wasn’t until they walked up closer though and noticed the smear of blood that stretched from the sidewalk into the house that his nerves began to frazzle. When his partner Jon Littleton half fainted though, it felt as if something had snapped in his brain. His mind twisted as he moved past the carnage to the suffering woman on the kitchen floor. He did not want to believe that the twisted corpse was his friend, Mathew Casey.
Adam then looked over at Jon who was beginning to come around. The young trooper rolled over and pressed his back against the wall just inside the door. He had landed in his own vomit and soiled his crisp pressed uniform.
Seeing that Jon was going to be all right, Adam began looking all over. It had occurred to him that what ever had taken his friends life may still be there in the house. When he knelt down to Maria he did not discover her mumble, he just tried to calm her rocking. Unsuccessful, he reached for the button of his radio to call for backup. Adam’s hands shook as he pressed. The corner of his eye fixed on the boot, that terribly recognizable artifact, an image that would haunt him to the end.
His voice resonated in the room, “Yeah. God, I need…” he said, with his beginning to force its way into his throat. “I need some back up here right now. We’ve got a serious area.”
Chapter Three
When the other officers arrived on the scene, what should have been quietly contained became a media frenzy. Around a dozen State and local squad cars came barreling up to the Bernalillos home. This drew the attention of the two dozen photographers and press agents who were in the backyard unexcited working on the meteor anecdote.
Fire fighters concerned about Casey also arrived soon after as the word spread that something awful had taken place at the home. Neighbors from all the surrounding homes came out and some of the scientists had come to find out what all the fuss was about.
Some men from the government had just arrived when the paramedics wheeled Maria out. Photographers shamefully snapped away at Maria’s tormented and sedated face. As the EMS team placed her into the ambulance, one of the Government agents asked Greg if she had seen what had happened.
Greg shrugged, and told the man that all she keeps saying is “El Chupacabra. El Chupacabra.”
He then climbed into the back of the ambulance and swung the door half shut. “She’s in shock just now. She’s not going to make any sense.” With that, Greg closed the door on the man and the ambulance drove away.
One of the reporters then asked the agent “What the hell is El Chupacabra? ” but the agent, ignoring him, turned away.
Minutes after Maria left Troopers Adam and Jon came out of the home. They were instantly greeted by a mob from the press. The reporter who questioned the agent scrambled up to the mob while scribbling something in his note pad.
The press shouted at the two officers, demanding to know what was happening. Before they could answer though, the officers were hurried away by the government agents. As the agent’s vehicles sped off, helicopters flew in over the site. The sky seemed pocked with choppers as they combed the area from above.
A Hazmat team also arrived. One group started herding the mass of people away from the house while the other group place up a quarantine area around the perimeter of the yard. Even the officers investigating the case were sealed from the space and taken for testing.
During the excitement Brian and Charlie had near out of their home. And as they walked down the street towards the Bernalillos house the white unmarked Hazmat trucks had zipped past them. When they arrived at the house they were met in the street by one of their neighbors Mark. Mark was standing in front of the house wearing sandals, boxer shorts, a University of Michigan sweatshirt and a snowcap. This was usually how they found him.
Beside Trace was his girlfriend Kay who still looked half-asleep in her sock feet and long thick terrycloth robe. She yawned as Brian and Charlie walked up to them.
“Oh yeah? ” Charlie said as he greeted his friends.
“You missed it,” Mark began. “They wheeled Maria out of here on a stretcher. I think her husband got killed or something.”
“Really? ” Brian replied, looking up towards the house. “That’s messed up.”
“Yeah. Kay and I heard one of the officers say that they consider it could be a serial killer.”
“Great!” Charlie responded. “That’s just what we need,” he muttered, shaking his head with disbelief.
Kay agreed, “I know. I won’t be able to flipping sleep now with some wacko running around.”
The cold morning air made Charlie’s nose start to accelerate. He sniffled as he watched the Hazmat team go in and out of the house. They all looked as if they were in a unpleasant hurry and on one of their trips he noticed that two of them were carrying a stretcher. On the stretcher was a black body bag and slow them came a third person carrying a smaller black bag. They loaded the surreal cargo into their white truck and the driver rushed it away.
The group just stood in silence as they watched it drive into the distance. Brian pulled his can of chew out of his pocket and started smacking it on his fingers. Charlie took out his cigarettes, pulled one out of the box and placed it in his mouth. Mark and Kay then signaled for Charlie to give them one as well.
No one could believe what was happening. Before last night nothing big had ever really happened in Lapeer. It was a fairly slight town and aside from having a prizewinning horse farm, it had never been mentioned in the national news. Now they were to become the focus of attention all over the globe.
Across the street from the Bernalillos home, just a few rows into the tall weathered corn, a pair of eyes watched anxiously. The eyes were poised outrageous and peered through the heavy breath that clung to the cold morning air.
There was a thirst in the breathing as Brian and Charlie said their good byes to Mark and Kay, the crouching predator began to scoot. Not radiant they were being stalked, the two friends turned and started home. For the creature, the hunt had begun.
The Chupacabra picked up sprint in the corn, rustling the dry stalks as it went. Oblivious to their danger, Charlie pitched the butt of his smoke as they rounded the corner to their street.
Brian was about to say something to Charlie when the Chupacabra leapt from the field. When its long nine-inch talon like claws struck the pavement they made a hideous clicking and scratching noise. The sound caught the two’s attention, causing them to whirl around.
As the Chupacabra made another leap closer, a UPS truck suddenly struck it. The creature came out so snappy the driver did not see it until it was bouncing off his grill. The force of the immense ugly brown truck sent the creature rolling for nearly forty feet.
Everyone had thought the driver had struck a dog. Mark and Kay, who were standing on their front porch, had not taken watch of it until they heard the thud. After the thing stopped rolling and came to a rest, Kay, thinking it was a dog, ran out to it.
The Chupacabra ‘ chest heaved as it lay unconscious in the middle of the road. Kay had run up to it, not really looking at what it was and when she turned to tell Mark to call animal control it awoke.
As her head faced forward Mark screamed out, but the claws split her from her left shoulder to her right thigh. Her intestines spilled out as the creature’s jaws snapped around her neck.
Before Effect could even reach the street, the Chupacabra had disappeared with Kay into the corn. Brian and Charlie reached Mark just in time to stop him from chasing them into the field. Marks’ sweatshirt tore as the two held him back. His face filled with tears of dismay and rage as he swung wildly to break free. One of his swings struck Charlie in the face, turning it instantly red.
Dazed, Charlie righted himself, still holding onto Mark. His fingers twisted in the disheveled sweat -shirt. Brian managed to get in front of him, clamping his arms around Marks chest and pressing him back.
“Let me go,” Mark shouted.
Brian just stood firm. “No. You’re not going in there.”
“Just let me go. I have to get her,” Mark let out with a heart stout of pain. He made a final attempt to throw himself loose. “Let me…. Go.”
“Mark. You’re not going in to the field,” Charlie reiterated. “That thing will kill you too.”
All of Marks’ energy had depleted. The two friends held him as the Hazmat team moved past them. They had pealed off their white protective suits and were now wearing Military uniforms. Some of them wore gas masks and carried automatic weapons. Others wore masks and carried flame-throwers.
Beside the team a man signaled to them while talking on a radio. More helicopters flew over and within ten minutes several military vehicles arrived. The three friends were then placed in a jeep and taken to a safer area, while the soldiers with flame-throwers lit their weapons.
One of the soldiers stopped the man with the radio and asked him. “How do you like yours colonel? “
Placing a half-smoked cigar into his mouth and lighting it he replied “Extra crispy private. Extra crispy.”
With that, the flame-throwers moved in, sweeping along the sinful of the corn and igniting the first few rows.
The Army had set up a perimeter around the entire field. The idea was to contain it, go in on it from all sides and then destroy it. Most of the soldiers did not know what they were attempting to waste they were simply given an order. For the few who did know, their understanding was working perfectly, in fact to perfect for they had severely underestimated it.
To the Colonel it seemed the world was on fire. He stood at the edge of the field and watched as the smoke plumed into the air, suffocating the sun. When the troops reached the center he received a call on his radio. They had surrounded the Chupacabra.
Taking the final puff from his cigar and then pitching it into the street. The colonel made his draw to the center, trodding over the ashes as he went. When he reached his men he stood before them looking at the creature.
The men whispered with confusion. They wondered what it was they had found and how it managed to drag the woman it had beside it.
The Chupacabra had curled into a ball. Its needles in the thousands stood on ruin. As it stayed there, its skin seemed to turn to stone, an almost shale like appearance.
The Colonel, recognizing the private, waved him over. “Well son. You promised me extra crispy. Waste that overgrown porcupine son of bitch.”
“Yes Sir,” the private sounded off, turning his flame-thrower on the creature. The ball of needles lit up receiving the flames while several other soldiers blazed away at it also.
The needles popped and crackled, sometimes hissing while that strange smell drifted through the filters of their masks. That smell, like honey, but somehow terrible, lulling and different.
When the flame-throwers finally stopped the Chupacabra sat sizzling and smoldering in the dirt. Then, without warning, it suddenly exploded. The screams of agony from the soldiers were nearly simultaneous as thousands of long sliver like quills were hurled into them. In this smoldering field of death, the DNA strands were planted.
Chapter Four
Ten minutes away from the scene, the old Imlay City fairgrounds had been converted into a tent city. Military vehicles sat in ready, as did the national news vans. When Brian, Charlie and Mark rolled in, it was positive that this was something much greater than a serial killer or rabid wild dog.
They were greeted at the medical station by a group of men in biological suits who rushed them into the tent. Each of the friends was then stripped and given a contamination shower. This is a shower, which consists of two people scrubbing a person down in extremely hot water. The person is scoured over their entire body with a wire brush until a layer of skin is removed.
Once the showers were completed, a series of blood tests and shots were administered, but never really explained. It wasn’t until they found themselves in a room with Officer Adam that some truths began to surface.
The Friends were glad to see a familiar face in the room as they sat down next to him. The three men grimaced with distress as they eased into the metal folding chairs. Brian sat with his body cocked to one side. “I’m surprised they didn’t stick that wire brush up my ass and scrub my colon.” He said while attempting to keep as much weight off his rear as possible without actually standing up again. The others laughed and winced at the same time.
After several minutes of sitting in discomfort, a woman dressed in a stark dim suit entered the tent. She walked at an easy pace, coming to a stop around ten feet in front of the semi-attentive men.
Officer Adam was the first to allege. “So are you going to whisper us what the hell we are doing here? Oh, and while you’re at it, maybe you could explain why two goons threw me into a boiling shower and then proceeded to sand parts of my body that I didn’t realize I had? “
The woman, who appeared to be in her mid thirties, walked a few steps closer to Adam. She looked at him with distress in her warm brown eyes and clinching jaw. Dropping her head for a moment, she broke eye contact, looked up at the other men briefly and then reestablished her train of vision towards Adam.
“I know y’all – are – wondering what is going on. I’m going to try and brief you as definite as possible. Some of you, I understand, have seen some things that have maybe raised some questions in yawl’s minds…”
“Yeah! What in God’s name killed my girlfriend? ” Mark shouted, as he stood up from his chair.
Tears welled in the woman’s wide eyes. “Look. You’re not the only one who’s lost a love one. My brother was one of the soldiers that went into that field and none of them came out alive.”
Everyone was silent for a moment. Mark just stood there looking as if he had swallowed his tongue.
“I’m sorry sir. I know how difficult this must be for you,” she said, wiping her eyes with the palms of her hands. “Also, I want to apologize to everyone for those grueling showers. They were necessary though. You and everyone here can not risk contamination from that being.”
“Umm – Excuse me. We didn’t get your name,” Adam said with a smile, breaking some of the tension in the room. “My name is Adam.”
“Oh – Yes – I’m sorry. You’re Officer Adam Douglas – lawful? “
Adam, detached smiling, nodded his head yes.
Wiping her eye a last time, she forced a smile. “My name is special agent Anna May Tidwell. I’m piece of a special FBI team that hunts and destroys certain types of anomalies. In this case it appears that we are after a Chupacabra or Gene Stealer.”
“Does this have anything to do with the meteor that crashed in my neighbor’s yard last night? ” Charlie said, while raising his hand up.
“Are you Charlie Lockwood? ”’ Anna Asked.
“Yeah.”
“Hi, Charlie. Well – we are investigating that possibility legal now and there is a likely hood that the two events are not coincidental.
Brian stood up now, scratching his raw arm. “So are you saying that that thing is from space? “
“I’m saying that it could be.”
“And what did you call it? A Chu-paaa-cobra? Is that the word for giant alien spot dog or something? “
Charlie giggled a tiny causing the others to smile some as well. Brian, tranquil standing, started scratching his back now. Anna approached him, turned him about face and rubbed his back with the palm of her hand.
“The showers y’all were given will have much the same effect as a sun burn, so it’s best not to scratch with your fingernails. As for giant alien space dogs, that’s to be decided.”
With a light pat on the support Anna stepped relieve from Brian. Brian, smiling, eased benefit into his chair and shot Charlie a boasting eye.
“The Chupacabra,” she began again, “Actually got its name from the Puerto Rican’s. One of these creatures was first sited there several years back. It had slaughtered an entire field of goats. Upon investigating this anomaly though I found that similar creatures have been sited for quite some time. In 1872 Lewis Carroll refers to this creature in a poem titled Jabberwocky. Carroll wrote, “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! / The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! / Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun / The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Adam ran his hands through his hair and exhaled. “So you’re saying that these things drop out of space every so often, go on a killing spree and then objective seem to disappear? “
“In the past this was the case, but recently it’s changed,” Anna May paused for a moment. “We believe the Chupacabra has – evolved.”
With a startling shriek a siren began bellowing through the camp. The sound was nearly deafening and unraveled the men’s nerves. Adam went to Anna May and grabbed her shoulder.
“What’s happening? “
Anna looked him in the face. “Some thing very bad is happening,” she yelled as the siren tried to drum out her protest. “Y’all have to stay here. I need you to stay safe inside. This dread means we’re under attack.”
“Where is my partner Jon? “
“He’s safe. He’s in quarantine. I’ll finish my briefing when I get back. Stay -in-side.” She yelled as she ran to the door. Within another breath she had gone.
The four men stood in the room listening to the mayhem outside between the shrieks of the anxiety. They could hear the sounds of the trucks running mingled with the smell of the fuel. There were scattered voices, all of them urgent and panicked. Shadows moved along the outer wall of the tent as Charlie moved to the corner of the room. There amongst a pile of equipment was a portable battery operated television.
Picking the TV up by the handle, Charlie walked it over to the limited folding table that stood in front of the chairs. Setting it down, he turned the little gray knob and clicked it on. The rest of the guys grew attentive as the mask crackled with static.
It took a moment for the tube to warm up and when the recount finally came they saw what they believed was the outside of their compound. The Channel Five News crew was reporting the action-live. Troops scurried through local town’s people who had been evacuated to the camp. There was a view of terror on the people’s faces as they pooled together. Tanks and armored vehicles moved slowly through the herds of innocents.
The camera then moved wildly, unable to conclude focused on the announcing reporter as screams rang out with the sudden explosion of gunfire. Blood curdling cries flooded the air as the Chupacabra’s cut through the ranks.
Several of the creatures moved as though they were weightless shadows. Their tyrannical claws were non-distinctive, cutting down anything within their grasp. It was only if they stopped to try and feed that soldiers were successfully able to shoot them. This did not always stop them.
Some of the Chupacabra’s that were hit were only enraged, leaping onto the vehicle and devouring the gunman. The few that died curled into balls as the life left them, splaying the needles upon their backs.
Occasionally, shadows of the creatures waved along the outer wall of the tent. The four men inside rummaged through the pile of equipment in the corner looking for any type of weapon in which to defend them selves. This proved to be fruitless and extremely despairing.
“There’s not even a freakin’ Buck knife in here!” Mark bellowed as he heaved another box of junk aside. Brian honest stood in silence, ready to swing the section of a tent pole he’d found.
Charlie watched the demonic shadows as the dismal carnage unfolded before him. He felt as though he may vomit and focused his energy on trying to breathe. It was all too unreal for him. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He idea about how insignificant his problems had been before now and how he had thought they were so important at the time. There was a cold chill that permeated his body and sank into his bones as a drop of sweat rolled, as if in dreary motion, down his forehead making it just to his cheek.
A shadow grew monstrous and ever closer to the wall and it wasn’t until it crashed through that Charlie was broken from his state of shock.
To all of their surprise it was Anna May. She ordered them all into the Hummer and none of them failed to obey her. Within seconds they had piled in and she had torn her way out the other side.
Chapter Five
A spine cringing screech pierced through the armor of the Hummer. It made the occupants teeth clinch as a plot of claws ran down the side of the vehicle. When the creature’s final nail slipped from the rear quarter panel another Chupacabra leapt.
This one was more successful than its predecessor. Its claws sank deep into the roof, gleaming in the failing sunlight. It let out a gurgling roar, punching forward until it was able to study over the edge and into the vehicle through the windshield.
Anna reached into her jacket and with drew a pistol. She handed the gun to Adam as the creature hurled its claws into the window. The windshield split where the nails struck causing it to spider web as Adam fired the weapon through the roof. There was a loud roar followed by a thud as the Chupacabra rolled behind the Hummer, coming to rest in Anna’s rear view mirror.
Everyone seemed to simply breathe for a while as they sped away. The only sound came from the humming of the wheels on the pavement. Brian was the first to break the silence.
“Why do I get the feeling that you haven’t told us everything? “
“Look,” Anna May said, “I could have left you help there, but I came and got you! You should just be happy that I saved your skin.”
Adam looked at Brian and then at Anna. “So- have you told us everything? ” He watched her as her face turned red. She pushed a wisp of hair back that was in her eyes and let out a deep breath.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she said as she pulled a pack doublemint gum from her side pocket. She ripped the tab open, pulling a stick from it. “None of this was protest to happen.”
Anna chewed the piece and then passed the pack relieve to Charlie who was eye balling it like a steak dinner after a famine. He and Mark graciously approved one and then returned the pack back to the front.
“What do you mean -this wasn’t order to happen? ” Brian questioned with a look a distress on his chiseled face.
“This was not suppose to happen to us; not here. We had an agreement.”
“With who? ” Adam asked growing even more angry.
“With the Russians,” she admitted as she took another piece of gum from the pack and shoved it into her mouth.
“In the days of the Jabberwocky it was believed that these once Alien creatures could be destroyed by cutting their heads off. This was only momentarily effective though, for a mortal wound only caused the creatures body to prepare for a reproductive metamorphous.
Once the metamorphosis was complete, the creature would take on a conical- form splaying its needles out in an attempt to prick some unsuspecting animal. It was believed then that if pricked a poison would take hold of the animal, thus possessing it and eventually turning it into a Jabberwocky itself.
It was rumored for some time that one such creature had haunted a small village in Siberia. The people had little food to launch with and as the Jabberwocky slaughtered their cattle, they became desperate.
On one fateful night, in a heavy snow, twenty-four men set out to kill the Jabberwocky. They tracked it for miles until they realized it had lured them away, circled around them and then had gone back to the village.
When they returned to the village they found that most of the women and children had been killed. One woman rose up against it though. Helena Selimaj. Even though it had gashed her wide open she still managed to split it down the middle with a meat cleaver.
Story has it that some of the men rushed in, just as the creature fell dead. Its body curled and formed the cone as Helena fell in a coma. Later Helena would die from her wounds.
The men, in their ignorance, believed it would be best to burn the cone and destroy any chance of it coming back. This would prove to be their undoing. With haste they sent the cone into the pyre and it is said that it burned as bright as a star. Many of the men stayed to see it burn until there were but flickering coals in the ashes. To their surprise though the cone remained and within a bat of their eyes the cone exploded sending thousands of needles into the unsuspecting watchers.
The poison took hold of them quickly and those who were not struck modern what they must do. They killed those who were infected and cast their bodies into the pit. One of the infected managed to escape though. He ran, changing as he went, until he finally collapsed high in the Siberian Mountains.”
“Thanks for the history lesson,” Brian said sarcastically “But could you just get to the point? “
“The point is, they found it. In the 1980’s they found the missing creature frozen in the mountains. The team that found it took it to a lab. Russian scientists then used it to produce more of the creatures. It was believed that once they learned how to control these creatures they would become powerful weapons.
To test them, they were loaded onto the residence shuttle and transported…”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Mark interrupted. “You’re full of crap. I can’t possibly maintain that the U.S. allowed Russia to transport this killer mutant thing into site. Especially during the frosty war when the Iron Wall was our sworn enemy.”
Wind whistled through the hole in the roof. “It seems crazy I know Mark, but it’s true. The U.S.S.R and the U.S.A were never really competing. It was all a ruse. The ultimate goal of both sides was to create a Social Democracy fueled by capitalism. This Fresh Order would then be made manifest all over the globe.”
“You’re so fleshy of crap!” Mark yelled. Brian shook his head in disbelief as he packed a large chew into his mouth.
“It’s true Anna said sternly and I don’t care if you believe me. Those things were loaded onto the shuttle and they were transported to the space station. If ya’ll don’t believe me, unprejudiced contemplate about those you’ve lost and all the soldiers that were just killed and if you still don’t maintain me than try popping the bubble you’re living in with your pinhead.”
“Alright. Everybody cool it,” Charlie warned like a father at his last wits end on a family vacation to hell. “Just continue with your explanation Anna.”
Anna glared at Mark in the rearview mirror and began talking again. “As I was saying before the creatures were then kept frozen aboard Sputnik until their scheduled time for deployment. With precise timing they were jettisoned from the space, striking the atmosphere during an anticipated meteor shower. Operation “Falling Star” was the first of these deployments, which landed in Puerto Rico. This is how the creature acquired the name El Chupacabra.
The experiments were conducted to see if there could be a so-called alien beget of population control. It seemed perfect. No governments would be blamed for meteors hitting the planet that contained alien life forms. This would further concrete the fear of alien invasion and the idea of a one-world government, forged to better “protect” the people of our planet.
It was thought to be a full proof plan. They build a controllable enemy and employ it to drive fear into the people of the world. This constant threat of attack keeps them in check. The people are more readily susceptible to giving up their freedom in exchange for government protection.”
Adam looked at the gun in his hand then back at Anna May then pointed it at her. “Are you kidding me,” he said with his eyebrows furrowing. “You knew about this all along and you never warned anyone? ” His hand broke out in sweat against the handle as the sun flared across the barrel.
Anna May just kept driving as the wind whistled. Her eyes fixed on the road while she popped another piece of gum from the pack and stuck it in her mouth. “Are you going to shoot me? ” she asked with a smirk, a wad of gum bulging in her cheek. “Or do you want to know my part in all this? “
Chapter 6
Somewhere along M 53 the Hummer pulled off and rolled to a conclude in the parking lot of a motel 6. The engine choked and popped as Anna turned the ignition key off. “So. Ya gonna shoot me? ” she said in a soft calm relate.
“Shoot her, shoot her, shoot her,” the three in benefit were yelling.
Adam looked at the men then back at Anna. With a lot of question in his sigh he lowered the weapon and tucked it into the back of his pants. “No. I’m not going to shoot you. I just… Oh Jesus.”
Before Adam could give warning the lethal creature was upon them. With a crash it sent its sickle like claws through the rear driver’s side window. They found the soft tissue of Marks temple sending glass and blood into Brian and Charlie’s face.
Brian, in a apprehension, pulled the handle to the door and rolled out of the Hummer. Charlie followed behind him as the Chupacabra took a second swing. Its razor sharp nails thrust, tearing the headrest from the driver’s seat as Adam pulled Anna towards him.
Screaming, Anna pressed further and further towards Adam, trapping his arm gradual his attend as he scurried for his weapon. The Chupacabra, snorted, peering its long head into the vehicle. Its spines rose as its eyes glared into Adams. Three shots rang as a yell of injure pierced the air.
As Adam and Anna squirmed out of the vehicle the creature flailed around in pain. Its claws ravaged the seats as its arms swung pal mal. One of the swings clipped Anna’s calf as she made her way out the passenger side door.
Scooping her off the ground, Adam ran for the lobby of the Motel 6 holding Anna in his arms. Brian and Charlie had already found their way inside. Charlie held the door open as Adam ran in. Anna was crying and biting her lip from the pain as Adam laid her down on a love seat just inside the lobby.
“They’re everywhere,” Brian yelled as he hopped over the front desk. He immediately fell, disappearing behind the counter. His right foot had landed on the tile floor, but his left had landed on the severed head of the receptionist. In shock, Brian shot up immediately fumbling with the phone beneath the desk.
“Oh, Ch…Christ. They’re inside,” Brian muttered, wiping his nose with the encourage of his hand. Staggering, he pressed the phone to his ear. There was no dial tone. He clicked the receiver several times then smashed the hand situation on the desk. The round speaker piece rolled across the floor, coming to rest beside Charlie’s foot.
Charlie looked down at the piece in despair. There was a peculiar calm that came over him, a clear sense of utter helplessness. As it progressed it seemed to tune out all of the chaos in the room. It was the kind of mental numbing that happens during times of extreme duress. The mind, fully aware of the inevitable outcome, floods itself with endorphins in preparation for the body’s destruction.
Brian had floundered back over the desk and was screaming at Adam. Adam was telling him to shut up as Anna squeezed his hand and cried in agony. Shadows darted back and forth on the floor as the sun blazed through the windows.
A disturbingly unnatural smile cracked along Charlie’s face as a lope welled in his eye duct. The shadows on the floor grew provoking the crawl to swell further. All life in the room seemed perverted and meaningless. It was as if the four of them had entered a listless motion machine, bent on filtering reality from the fiber of their existence.
Adam, quiet trying to control the uncontrollable, was trying to tranquil Brian, trying to talk some sense into him, trying to give them all reassurance. Officer Adam Douglass, the highest scores in his recruit school, the recipient of several medals of Honor and bravery, always a servant to his fellow man. Despite his ignorance, it was a testament to humanities will to survive, to prevail despite insufferable odds.
The shadows became one.
Anna, feverish, was gripping her leg. The pain, puss filled and bleeding, was causing her to slip in and out of consciousness. For a moment she had seen that horrible tooth ridden face in the entrance door window. Her mind went black again transporting her to that endless void where even thought was dark and irrelevant.
Her head dipped and the light was back, fuzzy and painful. Delirious and reeling, she dismissed the images she kept seeing. She had seen her mother, vivid and beautiful, standing before her. Though her mother had passed some years ago, she had believed her to be real, but the darkness took her mother again and replaced her with that grizzly face.
She faded once more and when she came encourage the windows were filled with the terrible images of the Chupacabras. All of them peered at her shadowy and hungry. All of them fixated with their teeth gleaming, staring at Anna with their black and soulless eyes.
There was a unpleasant crash inside the motel 6. There was the sound of breaking glass all around them. They could hear the heavy nails clicking on the red porcelain tiles.
A trail ran down Charlie’s face, staining his cheek as it went, breaking at his chin then falling into the shadow that consumed the light.
As the creatures flooded into the lobby the sounds of screams resonated then were replaced by the sounds of tearing flesh, shattering bones and the howling cries of the current dominant specie.
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