Edward Lee - Slither

Slydes saw that the pile of yellow things had stopped moving. She ain't lying. It killed 'em. "Gimme that can, bitch! I'll drink it, and it'll kill any of 'em left."

She laughed even more boisterously, holding up the can. "This is poison, asshole. It'll kill you in a few minutes. But you know? I'd rather die from poison than die from those things." She threw him the can. "So go ahead. Drink up."

Slydes looked at the can. He wasn't much of a reader, but he could indeed read the words WARNING: POISON! and the universal skull and crossbones under it. Slydes swore and threw the can away. Three long strides took him over to Nora. He grabbed her hair and dragged her toward the head shack.

Nora shrieked. Slydes liked that. Sassy, smart-ass bitch. If you think THAT hurts… He'd cut on her good, but first…

He needed some water.

That's the ticket. I'll be all right. I'll get me a good long drink of water, and that'll be that. This bitch is just tryin' to scare me. I'm sure I've done peed all them things out…

Wishful thinking for a desperate man… but a desperate man who was also a sociopath. "You're gonna be a of of fun, baby. I saw ya the other day-wanted to do a job on ya right then, lemme tell ya."

"You're a busted redneck no-account loser," Nora said, and yelped louder when he twisted her hair some more. "You're a fucking walking worm farm and you're gonna die."

"Keep talkin'. I'm a gator poacher. Did you know that?"

She responded through grit teeth, "Sounds like the perfect job for a big redneck moron like you."

Slydes whipped out his Buck knife. "But gator ain't the only thing I know how to skin." Then his big bearded face broadened in a grin. "I'll be nice'n slow, too. Might even pop ya a few times while I'm doin' it."

But first, the water. He dug the key from his pocket, and unlocked the dead bolt.

Even in her distress, Nora had to ask: "How do you have a key to that?"

"Damn it!" another voice barked out.

Slydes and Nora turned in startlement.

Trent stood behind them, his face stamped with anger. "Let her go, Slydes."

With a smirk, Slydes released Nora. "Lieutenant Trent!" she almost squealed in delight. "Thank God you're here!"

But 'Dent glared at Slydes. "I told you to never come here without my permission! I told you I was escorting a photo shoot! I specifically instructed you to stay away until it was over!"

"Jonas got more buyers," Slydes said, "and ran out. We needed to come out here to get more product. We'd planned to be in and out real quick but… things didn't work out."

"You're not kidding they didn't work out!" Trent yelled.

Nora looked mystified. "You know this guy?" she asked Trent.

"Yeah, I know him all right. The dumb son of a bitch is my brother, and so is Jonas. I gave them the key to these two head shacks."

"What for?"

Trent frowned. "For hydroponic marijuana. Jonas, my other brother, is a pot grower, and Slydes brings him back and forth in his boat. I've been letting them use these facilities for the past two years."

Nora looked deflated by the information. "I've read all about it," she said. "Hydroponic pot is twice as potent, and has double the street value. The only problem is the need for constant electric light and fresh waterbut that's not a problem out here, is it?"

"No," Trent said. "It's all unmonitored and it's all free."

"And you get.a cut of the profits…"

"Of course I do. It's just pot, for Christ's sake, it's not like it's heroin," he tried to justify. "I didn't see any real harm. The RTG'll be producing electricity for the next fifty years. And since I'm the only one who checks the island…"

"What the army doesn't know won't hurt them, huh?" Nora goaded.

"Something like that." Trent shook his head. "Shit."

"The army'll know now," Slydes spoke up, "'cause this bitch'll tell 'em." He whipped out his Buck again. "Lemme just kill her right now."

Trent drew his gun. "You're not killing anyone, Slydes."

"Can't believe you're pointing a gun at your own brother!" Slydes growled.

"Speaking of brothers, where's Jonas?"

"He's dead," Slydes said.

Trent looked astonished. "Dead? Are you sure?"

"He was sure as shit dying when I left him. Them yellow things got him. They're, like, eggs. He was coughing them up, and turnin' yellow. He told me to split before his mind went and he tried to infect me."

"Same thing'll happen to you," Nora interrupted. "Soon."

"Bullshit! I'll cut your skinny throat!"

"Just shut up!" Trent yelled. "I've got to think!"

"There's nothing to think about," Nora said. "One brother's dead and this one's dying of the same thing."

"Don't listen to the bitch! She's lyin', tryin' to turn you against me!"

Nora's face lit up in a cynical grin. "Lieutenant, he just passed a pound of ova out his bladder." She quickly pointed to the mound of dead ova.

Trent stared at it, then at Slydes. "You fucked everything up, Slydes. You should never have come here. I don't know what I'm going to do now."

"First thing you can do is let me turn this bitch into cold cuts. Then we can get out of here."

"Where's that girl with the funny lips you always got with you?"

"Dead, too," Slydes told him.

"No big loss there."

"Some big guy got her. He was all yellow, looked like he was rotting. Even looked like he was changing underneath his skin."

"Mutagenesis," Nora cut in. "It's not an uncommon trait among certain nematodes. Their ova will attack a potential host with a DNA-changing virus, to make the host's living body more habitable for the worms." She pointed to Slydes again. "That'll be happening to you real soon. It's already happening."

Slydes stepped toward her with the big knife. "I'm skinnin' her right now, so help me!"

"Back off, Slydes." Trent cocked his pistol. "I'm not thinking too clearly right now, so just… back… off."

Slydes stepped back, grinding his teeth.

"Did you examine the body of the man that Loren shot?" Nora asked.

Trent looked grim. "Yeah…"

"And it was no man from this planet, was it?"

"You know?"

"Loren and I got into the old control station. It was full of all kinds of alien shit," she said. "They turned the place into a field lab and were implanting worms into humans. And that thing in the trench we thought was a submersible… it's hovering over the island right now."

Just as Nora had said it, a dark spot drew over them, like a cloud moving in front of the sun.

They all looked up.

What they saw appeared inexplicable: a long rectangular dark spot whose covering had turned sky-blue. "It can camouflage itself," Nora said. But running underneath the object was a bright glowing white line. "And that line of light can only be its propulsion system."

Trent and Slydes just stared, dumbfounded.

"It means they're getting ready to leave," Nora added.

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Trent said.

"No, Lieutenant, that's bad, real bad. They've planted some bombs on the island-"

"Bombs? You're shitting me."

"Wish I was. And God knows how powerful they are."

Trent was chewing his lip in confusion. "Where's Loren?"

"He's probably waiting for us at the campsite, to take us to the boat," she told him.

Slydes finally snapped out of his daze. He looked at them both and said very slowly, "What the fuck is going on here?"

"Some really fucked-up shit, Slydes."

The bearded brother looked upward again. "And that thing is-..

"It's an alien spacecraft," Nora put it bluntly. "And those guys in the black suits and masks are its pilots. We think they created a new species of parasite by genetic manipulation."

"What the fuck for?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe to decimate the human race. The worm grows hundreds of times faster than any other parasite, and it can live on land and sea, and anyone it infects becomes a concealed carrier. They're not doing it just for shits and giggles."