William Meikle: Infestation

And then we really would be totally fucked.

He looked across the deck to where the cargo bay doors lay open, bent, buckled, and spread-eagled. There was a black hole there he didn’t want to look into.

But someone will have to. And it will have to be done soon.

He walked back over to what was left of his squad; he saw the same worry in their eyes he was sure must be in his own.

Get them moving. And do it fast, before they have too much time to think.

“Sarge, McCally, watch the bloody cargo bay. I need to call in a strike on this boat.”

Svetlanova spoke first.

“Not the boat. The rig. Down there on the seabed, they’re still coming through the hole we drilled. They’ll keep coming through until the breach is shut. That’s where the big ones are.”

“Let them stay there,” McCally said. “I want off this fucking boat.”

“We can’t,” Svetlanova said. “They crawl. They travel in swarms on the seabed. Don’t you see? How do you think those ones you met first got ashore?” She turned back to Banks. “If you’re calling in a strike, make it a big one and make it on the rig, what’s left of it, down on the bottom.”

“Listen to the lass, Cap,” Mac said weakly. “She kens what she’s on about.”

Banks nodded. He’d already made his mind up anyway.

“As I said. Watch the cargo bay, lads. I’ll call in the strike.”

He got the phone out of his pocket and punched in the code.

“Pick up aborted catastrophically,” he said. “Calling for wildfire, at this location, ASAP.”

“How big do you need?”

“Everything you’ve got,” Banks said.

“Bad?”

“As bad as it gets.”

“Wilco,” the voice at the other end replied. “Wildfire in one hour from this mark. Good luck.”

Banks looked at his squad.

“You heard? We’ve got incoming.”

“How do we get off the boat?” McCally asked as Banks put the phone away. He still had his weapon trained on the cargo bay but, thankfully, there had been no movement from the darkness below.

“We don’t. Not yet,” Banks replied. “If the boat’s going to hit the shore, we need to clear it of those bloody isopods first. If we’re lucky, they all buggered off with the big one chasing the chopper. But we need to check.

“We’ve got an hour.”

“Good luck, Cap,” Mac said. “But there’ll be no running about in the dark for me. I’m done in here.”

He slumped at Svetlanova’s side and his legs went from under him. Hynd was at his side in a second and between the sarge and the woman, they got Mac back inside to where he’d been sitting earlier, at the foot of the steps inside the door to the deck.

He looked up and managed a wan smile.

“I think I’ll sit here for a while, see what happens.”

“I’ll stay with him,” Hynd said.

“No,” Banks replied, feeling like a shit but knowing he was right to make the call. “I need you and McCally with me if we’re to clear these vermin out.”

“Then I’ll stay with him,” Svetlanova said.

Banks really needed to keep the woman close; she was the mission now, all that was left of it. But he couldn’t leave Mac to die alone; not after he’d already left Nolan to the same fate earlier.

“Okay; keep the weapon,” he said to Svetlanova. “And come and find us when you can.”

He turned to Mac.

“Look after her, big man. Like you said afore, she’s a keeper.”

“Aye,” Mac said. “My maw is going to be so pleased to meet her.” He spoke again as Banks turned to leave. “And Cap… waste those fuckers. Waste them all.”

Banks let McCally and Hynd have a last word with Mac. He moved away along the corridor, standing over the dead isopod that almost filled the walk space. It had leaked stinking green goop again on the floor and he took care not to stand in it. As he remembered the shots that killed it, he realized he knew something else: he had a surefire way of finding out if there were any beasts still on board. All he had to do was turn on the phone and they’d come running.

A plan started to form but he wasn’t sure he liked it.

We’re going to need more firepower.

Svetlanova watched the three men walk away until they were lost in the gloom farther down the corridor. She couldn’t see that far quite as well as before but this wasn’t more cloud cover coming over.

It’s getting dark again already.

Mac tried to get a cigarette from his packet but even that was too much of an effort for him. Green spittle flecked his lips and his eyes weren’t red now but milky – opaque, with a hint of green.

“Are you still there, lass?” he said softly. “It’s getting awful dark in here.”

“I’m here, Mac,” she replied and took his good hand in both of hers. It felt cold, clammy – a dead man’s hand.

“I’m damned sorry you have to see me like this,” he said. “But I don’t want you fretting after I’m gone. This is the life I chose; it was always going to end in some deserted boat, or a road in the desert, or an empty power station. I was always going to be somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be. Same as it ever was for me, ask my maw when you see her.”

“I will,” she said and knew she meant it. “I promise.”

She lit a cigarette for them both and put one gently between his lips, where he puffed on it feebly.

“Last one,” he said. “Something else that will please maw.”

They smoked in silence, Mac enjoying the cigarette, Svetlanova because she had no clue what she might say to help in any way to ease what was imminent. Mac smoked his cigarette all the way down to the butt, then spat it out, leaving Svetlanova to grind it out with her heel.

“That’s that then, lass,” he said. “Time to go.”

He pulled away from her grip and reached, fumbling blindly for his weapon.

“No!” Svetlanova said and knocked his hand away from the weapon.

“Yes,” he replied softly and reached for the gun again. “I told you earlier. I don’t want to go like Nolan. I’m a soldier. Let me die like one.”

She helped him find the rifle and put it in his hand but he couldn’t grip it; all the strength had gone from him.

“I’ll need a bit of help here, lass,” he said. He coughed and watery green fluid flecked with blood ran over his chin. “Quickly now. Please? It’s getting really fucking dark in here.”

She helped him get the weapon under his chin.

“Tell my maw I always loved her,” he said. “And give her a kiss from me.”

They both had fingers on the trigger but Svetlanova was the one who pulled it, sending two rounds into Mac’s head. He slumped aside, leaving a smear on the wall where he’d rested.

It was mainly green.

Svetlanova rose, tears blinding her, hefted a rifle in her arms and headed off, not really caring where she was going, needing to put as much space as she could for now between herself and the body of her dead friend.

Two quick shots echoed around Banks, McCally, and Hynd as they approached the stern. All three stopped to listen. If there were more shots, it meant a firefight and they’d go to the aid of whoever was shooting. But all fell quiet again.

“Mac?” McCally said and Hynd nodded.

“I think so.”

“Bugger.”

Banks looked at the other two.

“Nobody else gets dead here. Are we clear? We’re all walking out of this. We owe them that much.”

“I hear you, Cap,” Hynd said. “But we’re not having much luck this time around. A strike’s incoming and we’re adrift, dead in the water. Do we have a plan?”