William Meikle - The Creeping Kelp

Neither of them looked back.

Clapham Junction railway station was in turmoil. The boards told of cancellations and delays all across the city. Much to Noble’s surprise, trains were still running out to the South and West and they were able to buy a ticket and get on a train heading for Exeter. Even as they pulled out of the station, they heard rumbling, like distant thunder, and as the train swung round a bend, they saw a tall pall of smoke rising over the city.

“They’ll never get it all,” Suzie whispered. “There’s too much of it. And it’s too smart.”

Noble leaned over and took her hand.

“You meant all that stuff with the Minister… about it being telepathic?”

She nodded and smiled weakly.

“I wonder what he thinks now?”

She squeezed Noble’s hand.

“You look terrible,” she said.

He realised just how tired he was. His wounded leg throbbed in time with his heartbeat and his vision seemed to be going in and out of focus.

“Try to get some sleep,” Suzie said. “We’ll need to be rested—I’ll be hitting the lab as soon as we get back.”

Always assuming that the lab is still there.

He thought it, but didn’t say it. The day finally caught up with him and he fell gladly into sleep.

He was woken sometime later by the sound of voices. Someone a few seats away had a radio and had turned it up for everyone to hear.

“We repeat, people are advised to stay as far away from waterways as possible, especially where these are tidal in nature. The menace is spreading fast and has reached as far as The Wash to the north and the Jersey Islands to the South and reports are coming in of possible activity in the Severn Estuary. All seagoing traffic in these areas is suspended indefinitely and the armed forces are at full stretch trying to contain the situation.

“The Cabinet is meeting in emergency session at an undisclosed location in outer London and no one knows when, if ever, the Houses of Parliament will be reopened. A team of scientists from the MOD is on the North Embankment right now assessing the damage to the buildings but it seems part of our cultural heritage and a symbol of democracy across the world may be damaged beyond repair.

“Although the menace now seems to be receding downstream from the capital, there is no guarantee that it will not return. There is a massive military presence being readied in an attempt to stop the vegetation’s advance at the Thames Barrier on the next tide, but their success is far from assured. This vegetation, if that is what it is, has proven resilient against everything we have thrown at it and fire only seems to serve to spread it over an ever-widening area. It is feared that a nuclear option may be the only recourse, but how do you nuke something as big as this danger has become?

“That is the question currently being asked in Cabinet. Meanwhile, we can only watch and wait with trepidation for the thing’s next move.”

The man with the radio swore, loudly and often, until asked to quieten down by a woman with two clearly frightened children. He took the radio away with him and left the carriage in a sulk, still muttering under his breath.

“What else did I miss?” Noble asked, looking over at Suzie. She tried a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“London is in uproar,” she said. “But at least everyone has woken up to the threat now, even if it did take the destruction of Westminster to do it. They say the kelp got nearly to the doors of Buckingham Palace before going back with the tide.”

She had dark shadows under her eyes and the skin looked red and puffy from where she’d been crying. He leaned over and took her hand as she continued.

“They say they might never know the final death toll,” she whispered. “But it’s in the tens of thousands.”

She stared out the window, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

“And they don’t know how to fight it—I don’t know how to fight it. Not yet.”

She turned back to look Noble in the eye.

“You will help me, won’t you? I know that if I can get back to the lab and that sample then I…”

Noble stopped her with a squeeze of her hand.

“I’ll be with you all the way,” he said. “But I’m not the only one who needs rest.”

She nodded, then surprised him by coming round the table to snuggle up next to him, laying a head on his shoulder.

Neither of them spoke.

They stayed that way for a while.

It was getting dark again by the time they arrived back in Weymouth after a long, detour-ridden trip in an extortionate taxi from Exeter. Suzie had been buzzing with nervous energy all the way, full of talk of the experiments she wanted to attempt on her sample. She only went quiet when the taxi came to a halt at the edge of town. Just ahead of them, military vehicles blocked the road.

“Looks like it’s the end of the line, folks,” the driver said.

Noble paid him, vowing to claim every penny back in expenses. By the time he got to the makeshift barricade, Suzie was already arguing with a stressed out soldier who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else but there.

“I told you, miss,” he said. “No civilians allowed in. The town has been evacuated for the public safety.”

He said the words as if he’d learned them by rote and had been reciting them far too often.

Noble could see Suzie’s ire rising.

“We’re on official business here,” Noble said. “We’ve just returned from a meeting with the Minister and have information that the Colonel will need right away. Or would you rather tell him yourself that you kept us waiting at the gate like beggars?”

Suddenly, the youth was all apologetic. He waved them through. Noble might have berated him for slackness if he’d had the energy, but the long trip from London had taken its toll on him, despite his nap on the train, and he felt like he needed to sleep for a week.

Suzie wasn’t about to allow any of that. She force-marched him to Nothe Fort and down into the lab. On the way, they saw several soldiers, none of whom paid them the slightest attention, and they also saw much evidence of a kelp attack that had stretched far from the shoreline and reached deep into the town. Several houses had been either caved in or burned to the ground in an obvious attempt to contain the vegetation. Noble was glad to get inside the solidity of the castle and only started to feel safe as they descended to the lab in the bowels of the building.

Suzie went straight to the bench. The jar containing the sample was still sitting exactly where they’d left it. Noble had a look in passing. The material inside the jar looked burned and charred, little more than ash.

“Are you going to be able to do anything?”

“I hope so. See if you can rustle us up something to eat and I’ll see what I can do.”

Noble found a makeshift canteen open two levels up. He got four sandwiches, two coffees, and an update on the situation from a weary squaddie behind the counter.

“Damn near got us, so it did,” the man said, his Scottish accent showing strong. “It took half the town before we got it pegged back and the bastard thing even crawled half way up the wall of the castle. I was shitting myself, I’ll tell you that, for nothing. And I’ll tell you something else—if it comes back, I don’t think we’ll be able to stop it.”

The castle felt somehow more oppressive and less safe as he made his way back to the lab. He found Suzie bending over the blackened mass of tissue, prodding it with a scalpel. He had to ask her twice before she would break off and take time to eat. Even then, her gaze kept drifting back to the charred thing on the table.