James Scotson - Planets Falling

“I will assist you the best I can.”

“Thanks my artificial friend. It was nice to know you.”

We position ourselves before the great doors and wait.

Time passes painfully slowly. Finally, the first hard thud hits the door, shaking the foundation of the building and shattering our confidence. The door holds tight. More hits follow and there’s no sign of damage. I begin to hope that the door’s stronger than Sam predicted. However, at the tenth thud, a slight dent appears, with the doorframe creaking in protest. Theo groans quietly in disappointment. At the twentieth impact, it’s quite clear that we’ll be fighting soon. We all lower our weapons in anticipation.

At the twenty-ninth knock, the doors fall forward in a cloud of dust and debris. We squint at the dark opening, waiting for the first grub to appear. Nothing happens.

“Oh Amy,” Thresh calls from outside in a friendly, sing-song lilt. “It wasn’t very nice of you to kill my messenger. She was my only sister, you know.”

Gorian looks at me and mouths, “What?”

“Amy, come out and join me and your beautiful daughter. Do this and your friends can go free. This is my last offer. Otherwise, I’m sending my children in to get you. I can’t guarantee you won’t get hurt.”

I glance at Theo who gives me the strangest look of longing, fear, and happiness. He shakes his head no. I yell, “Thresh, I’m going to kill you.”

“Amy. Have it your way.”

The doorway swells with human bodies dripping with brown ooze. We begin firing and the bodies pile up, plugging the doorway and stopping the animated dead ones behind them. Bets yells, “Thresh, you’re done plugged up. You didn’t think that through, did you honey?”

Thresh laughs, “Hello Bets. There’s room for you too. Come on out.”

With a sickening crunch, a shower of arms, legs, heads, and torsos bursts into the entrance hall with a spray of brown fluid as a small grub forces its way into the gap. Its enormous teeth gnash at us as we unload gleaming plasma into its snout. It slowly advances.

I glance at Gorian, who looks terrible. She says, “Not now.”

“The baby?” I shout.

She’s in her own world, oblivious to me. She may be riddled with pain but she pushes through it, concentrating on killing the writhing creature in the entryway.

“Run and hide Gorian,” I yell.

She looks at me uncertainly, winces, and then backs away, continuing to fire. I turn to look at the monster, glance back to my side, and find that Gorian’s vanished. With one less defender, the grub advances more quickly and we back off.

“I think it may be time to scatter,” Theo yells.

We fire one more time and then retreat into the warm darkness that has been our home for months. I don’t look back but from the sound, the grub and its friends have broken through and are tearing the interior of the lodge to pieces. I run through the dark corridor where I kissed Theo. I should be thinking about how to save my life. Rather, I feel a poignant regret that I didn’t follow through, telling him how I really felt about him. I’m about to die and lose everything — my daughter to that fiend and the man I love to caution and loyalty.

I turn a corner and stop to rest, my chest heaving. A couple of shots ring out in one of the other wings. I hope that my friends are faring well, although I know that’s doubtful. An image of poor Gorian on the floor in the throes of labor being torn to pieces by a grub is too much for me to handle. I lose my dinner on the floor. As I wipe my mouth, something scurries toward me. It’s a live ground squirrel and somehow I know that I must follow it. It leads me into a small closet that I’d never noticed before. On the back wall behind a pile of rubbish is a door leading to a stairway. I take it down into a cramped cellar attached to a dimly lit tunnel.

The squirrel and I proceed through the passageway into a large room. Gorian’s sitting there panting. Iggy stands next to small box, not unlike Troll’s brain. “I’m so glad you found us. The squirrel brought us here. We thought it was you possessing another animal,” Iggy exclaims. “From the look of surprise on your face, the squirrel is not your idea. Welcome to Sam’s central processing unit.”

“Hi Amy,” Sam says.

I examine the squirrel closely, detecting a wisp of intelligence in its eyes. Fromer’s staring back at me. The squirrel scampers back up the stairs and is gone.

We tap into Sam’s surveillance system. The lodge is filled with creatures both dead and alive looking for us. We’ve seen no sign of Theo and Bets and hope that they’re hiding safely, like us. Thresh is angry, throwing furniture and cursing. Jonah sits at the kitchen table enjoying a mug of our delicious ale. He looks serenely happy. Thresh orders the grubs outside to search the perimeter and prevent us from escaping, although all the windows and doors are still shuttered.

“Sam, do you know where Theo and Bets are?” I ask.

“I allowed them to exit through one of the back service entrances and then resealed the door. They have gone into the woods and are past my detection.” Relief surges through me — they have a chance.

Iggy hops up and down, producing an odd wheeze that must be a nauron cheer. Gorian groans. I gently touch her taught belly — false labor pains.

“Gorian, breathe calmly and the pain will subside. The stress set you into false labor. You’ll be fine soon. No baby yet.”

“Well, Amy, I don’t feel fine.” She grunts.

I lean back on the cool wall. “Well, we’re safe for now. But, at some point, we’re going to have to emerge for water and food. They’ll wait us out.”

Gorian pants. “What do you think are the chances Bets and Theo will return with help?”

“From where?” I ask. “We’re on the side of a mountain.”

“Excuse me,” Sam interrupts. “You may want to see this.”

The grubs circle the building while thunder rumbles.

Iggy tilts his head. “Isn’t it a bit early in spring for a rain storm?”

Sam zooms his screen at the eastern perimeter. The buck’s back and not alone. Hundreds of woodland creatures, deer, caribou, elk, black bears, and magpies burst through the treeline. The grubs turn, seemingly startled. As the animals rush forward, ribbons of rain fall from the sky, transforming the snow on the ground to mush. The grubs, once weightless on the snow, are now mired in the muck. As the rain beats on the creatures, they begin to melt, ooze dripping from their backs. They shrink helplessly. The woodland animals pass the brown hulks and trample the few soldiers still standing their ground. Sam shifts the image to the front door, which is now a gaping hole. The animals rush in and we hear Thresh and Jonah yelling. They run out of the lodge into the melting snow, hacking fruitlessly with their blades at the rearing animals. They jump on the horses and ride away. It’s a shame that Silius and Phineus did not respond magically to whatever spell has been cast on the woodland creatures, throwing Thresh and Jonah and trampling them to death. I try to reach out to my beloved horses, but they can’t hear me.

The rain lessens and Gorian seems better. Sam announces, “Four humans and one large humanoid are approaching from the east.” We look at his screen and I gasp. Theo, Bets, Wenn, and father are walking through the mud to the lodge. Fromer follows behind them.

Iggy mutters, “Fromer?”

“You’ve met him then?” I ask.

Gorian says, “What? Do you know him? Nevermind. He was our security officer on the planet C9. He passed out of our universe through the portal there — we think — and became a superhero of sorts.” She pauses thoughtfully. “That sounds really weird. Regardless, I’d never have expected to see him here.”