Chapter 10
Archan and Shadow stand in the dark alley next to the closed Immigration Burger restaurant. It’s almost four in the morning. The approaching figure coming down the alley toward them is Century. Archan is leaning casually against a brick wall. Shadow, who was stationed between him and the dumpster, stands up and walks to greet Century, Archan follows suit.
“Shadow, Archan, how’s the night treating you?” Century asks.
“Good, I guess,” says Archan.
“Did you find an antidote?” asks Shadow
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a vial, “Here you go. I’m pretty sure this will work. Of course I didn’t have anything to test it on, but from the blood you gave me, I was able to give it a good shot.”
Century then explains his findings from the blood. Archan astounded, asks, “That’s eight different creatures and several insects! What in the world goes through the mind of The Host?”
“I have no clue and truly don’t want to know. But it’s a good chance this thing is pregnant.”
What?” asks Shadow.
“I think that would explain what I found and the increased and erratic killing pattern you explained to me, Archan.
Archan states, “I don’t want to imagine what the creature looks like, let alone its baby.”
“Could be babies. Some of the species that make up this creature could easily have nearly 100 babies,” explains Century.
“That settles it, we have to stop it,” addresses Archan.
Shadow could care less if it has one baby or a thousand. Her priority is her mother.
Century says, “And here’s the information on those two people,” pulls out a folder from inside his jacket.”
He continues, “These two are not the most interesting subjects. Mark is a recovering alcoholic who did some time in local jails for several bar room fights. He seems to be living a plain boring life now. And Jack, he’s a private eye who operates out of Florida and specializes in missing persons, no criminal record. Pretty plain too. There’s the information you asked for.”
“Thank you,” Shadow then starts looking the folder over.
Century says, “Well, good luck. I have an urgent and quite disturbing issue at hand. I have to leave the country for awhile and I’m pressed for time.”
Archan and Shadow each thank him, and then he’s gone back the way he came.
“So how do you think we should go about finding it?” asks Archan.
“We? I have to go give the antidote to my mother.”
Shocked at her lack of concern about this thing breeding, “Did you not hear what he said?! There could be 100 of these things multiplying and killing everyone in the city. It would be an epidemic! For crying out loud, I don’t even know what it looks like.”
“Ask Cana,” Shadow says as she heads out of the alley. She tosses the folder in the trash.
Archan runs up to her, and before he can grab her by the shoulder, she says, “Do it and loose fingers.”
He doesn’t touch her but runs to stand in front of her, “Shadow, let’s look for it for the next couple of hours. While it’s still dark. It hasn’t killed in broad daylight, only when it’s getting dark or at night. It probably rests during the day. There’s only a few hours left, you can go to the hospital then. Please. I’ll send Cana to look over your mother and if anything changes, he’ll let us know instantly.”
Shadow stares at Archan, trying to decide what to do. She looks over Archan’s shoulder and her decision is made.
“There it is,” she says. Archan turns around to see the odd looking person Shadow is pointing at. He turns to see it standing over a sleeping bum on a city bench. Archan heads over toward it. Shadow puts the vial in her fanny pack and gives pursuit. The creature notices them closing and takes flight.
“Damn it!” thinks Shadow.
“Try to follow us, Shadow!” yells Archan as some invisible force lifts him into the air in hot pursuit of the fleeing beast.
“That must be Cana,” she thinks as she tries to give chase on foot. After a few blocks she loses sight of them in the tall trees of McLaughlin City National Park. Shadow walks through the park hoping to find signs of them, no luck.
“How am I supposed to find them in this huge park?” The park is over 5 miles in all directions. Some parts are closed to the public, like the wildlife reserves. So she doubts they are there but, “Who knows where they are?” she thinks.
She stands surveying the area, when something runs across her foot. She looks down to find a squirrel looking up at her. While she’s looking at it, it ran over her foot again, then sits on its hind legs. “What’s going on? Could this little creature be trying to tell me something?” The squirrel stares at her for a bit then repeats its little act.
Shadow decides to walk toward it and the squirrel runs up a few feet, and then sits on its hind feet making squirrel noises. Shadow follows it; the squirrel starts up a run as Shadow follows. “I can’t believe I’m following a squirrel.”
The squirrel disappears into a bush and when Shadow steps through, she sees Archan lying down motionless in front of a huge tree. Before she steps completely out of the bush, she checks around for any sign of the creature or of a trap.
Once she’s determined it’s clear, she runs across the field over to Archan.
She checks him, the symptoms are too familiar, the creature gassed him. She hears something in the far away bushes, as soon as she stands, a spear-like object flies and pierces through her shoulder. It pins her shoulder into a tree, then another one pierces her other shoulder. She doesn’t scream, pain stopped bothering her a long time ago, and the gauntlet has all ready started healing the wound. Two more of these organic spears fly out of the bushes, each one nailing her in the palm of her hands, trapping them to the tree also.
“Damn it, I can’t move!” she thinks as her hands also heal around the objects.
Slowly the creature emerges from the bush. Pausing as if to make sure she’s stuck, then it restarts its gimp walk toward the helpless Shadow.
Shadow looks at the downed Archan, wanting to yell at him to get up, but knowing it wouldn’t do any good, she says nothing.
The creature stops, again a few feet away from Shadow. Shadow thinks, “I wish I could get my hands loose; then you would have something to be cautious about.”
It steps over Archan and stands face to face with Shadow. She says, “Wow, you are one ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly thing.” Unaffected by this comment, the creature blows its purple breath. The beast waits for the breath to take effect, not knowing it won’t.
Shadow, even in this predicament, could kill this creature in a matter of seconds but that would mean major sacrifices. The creature takes a step backwards looking over her, obviously wondering why she’s not out yet. Shadow notices the mid section of this creation. It’s moving and even in this dim light, she can see several little indescribable creatures moving around.
“What in the...” She knew it might be pregnant but now the reality of what is going to be unleashed sinks in. The creature apparently decides not to wait any longer for the comatose agent to kick in, steps forward again toward her. Shadow shows no fear, she’s not afraid of dying, but she’s very much afraid of the choice she had to make.
If she activates the suit’s fail safe electrode device, it would kill everything within 30 feet. The creature, its babies and Archan both would be dead easily, so would all the living creatures nearby. None of these factors are what makes the decision difficult. It’s the contents of the vial in her fanny pack. It, along with most of its contents would be vaporized and with Century out of the country and Archan dead, this could be her only chance to save her mother.
As the creature slowly extracts its tentacle-like drilling device toward Shadow’s head, she thinks, “If I die, not only will my mother die but so will many others, like Mike.” Shadow closes her eyes, clicks together the metal post of the back of her heels and only the third consecutive time,
the suits fail-safe device is activated.