Brian Keene - The Conqueror Worms

“M-my…heart…”

“Oh God—are we having a heart attack?”

I tried to answer and found that I couldn’t. My lips felt cold. Numb.

“Just hang on,” Sarah said. “Stay with me.”

“Rose…,” I whispered, and blinked the rain out of my eyes.

Cackling, Earl closed the distance between us. The wounded worm slid along behind him, its body shuddering with each undulation.

Sarah helped me to my feet and we pressed on towards the house. We had to wade through the little earthworms on the carport, which was like walking through a foot-deep pile of spaghetti.

Carl and Kevin held the door open for us. Kevin still clutched the empty rifle.

“Hurry,” Carl yelled. “They’re coming!”

I heard Earl and the worm both bearing down on us. Sarah dragged me through the doorway. We collapsed onto the kitchen floor and Carl slammed the door shut and locked it.

We stared at one another in silence; the only sound was our harsh, ragged breathing.

Stifling a sneeze, Carl glanced out the window.

“Are they coming?” I croaked, as another jolt of pain shot through my chest.

“I can’t tell. That fog out there is like pea soup. It’s like it came out of nowhere! I don’t hear them, though.”

“Maybe that thing ate your neighbor,” Kevin said, smoothing his wet hair with his hand.

Carl smiled. “If it did, then it’s gonna have some really bad indigestion.”

I grabbed my chest and closed my eyes.

“You want your pills, Teddy?” Carl asked.

Swallowing, I nodded. “Th-they’re on my nightstand.”

He hurried off in search of them.

Sarah brought me a bottle of water from the refrigerator (even though there was no power, I still stored them inside the appliance to conserve space). She twisted the cap off and brought the bottle to my lips. I sipped gratefully, choking on the coldness.

Outside, Earl screamed—one long, drawn out wail. Rather than fading, it was cut off abruptly.

Then, everything was still again.

Carl returned with my pills, and the pain in my chest faded after I swallowed a few. I drank some more water, letting it soothe my scratchy throat.

The rain continued falling.

CHAPTER SIX

Twenty minutes later, we were still crouched there on the kitchen floor, sitting in puddles from our wet clothes, huddled together for comfort. We’d have probably been more comfortable in a safer room, but the others didn’t want to move me until my chest pains subsided. Kevin peeked outside several times, but there were no signs of the giant worms or of Earl Harper. I bade them both good riddance. The big one had probably eaten Earl, and then, having had its fill, burrowed back into the earth.

“Well,” I told Carl, “I guess now we know what happened to your house.”

He nodded. “And Steve Porter’s hunting cabin, too.”

Kevin looked puzzled. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Homes have been disappearing down into the ground,” I said. “Only thing left behind is a hole—about the same size as that thing out there.”

“Shit.”

Carl fetched some towels and spare clothes so everybody could dry off, and we cranked up the kerosene heater to its highest setting. Sarah put on one of Rose’s old sweaters and it fit her real nice. It was the first time I’d seen it out of her dresser since she died. Gave me a lump in my throat just looking at it. We didn’t say much to each other—just sat there with our teeth chattering and waited to get warm.

When the pills kicked in and I felt better, I went to the spare bedroom and unlocked the gun cabinet. Kevin still had Earl’s rifle, and I found some ammunition for it. I gave Carl the Winchester 30-30, and I took the Remington 4.10, loaded with punkinballs. Then I pulled out Rose’s old Ruger .22 semi-automatic pistol (I’d bought it for her one birthday long ago, and Rose had become an excellent shot—even better than me). I handed it to Sarah. I considered asking her if she knew how to use it, but something told me she did.

She eyed it skeptically. “That’s all? Don’t you have anything bigger?”

“Afraid not. But that there pistol will surely kill a man if you aim right.”

“It’s not a man I’m worried about. I was just thinking about stopping power. And as for killing, I don’t need a gun to do that.”

Carl and I both shuffled our feet, not sure how to respond. After a moment, we realized that she was smiling.

“You’re a regular spitfire,” Carl said, chuckling.

Kevin positioned himself at the kitchen door and continued staring out the window. “There’s no sign of them. Those things, I mean. We might be okay. Maybe they won’t come back.”

“Even still,” I replied, “I reckon one of us ought to stand guard at all times.”

“What were those things?” Carl asked.

I shrugged. “Worms.”

“Teddy Garnett,” he scolded, “don’t you ever make fun of me for stating the obvious again!”

Sarah and Kevin were silent.

“Have either of you seen anything like them before?” I asked.

Sarah shook her head, but she seemed hesitant.

Kevin was quiet for a moment and then said, “No, not like them. But we have seen some weird things. Not worms, but similar creatures, in a way.”

“Like what?”

“I’d rather not talk about it right now, if that’s okay?”

“Sure.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “Let’s rest up first. You can fill us in later. I imagine we all have a tale to tell.”

I looked at Sarah standing there in Rose’s sweater, and I suddenly missed my wife real bad. My eyes welled up. I excused myself, rushed down the hall, and locked myself in the bathroom.

I put the commode lid down and sat on it, and that’s when it hit me. All of it. The horror I’d just experienced and the despair of the last two months and the sheer loss. It crashed down on me like a lead balloon. I sat there for twenty minutes, and I shook and I cried. But I did it quietly, without uttering a sound. I didn’t want the others to hear me. And to be honest, I was afraid I’d start screaming and not be able to stop.

When I came out, they were all sitting around the kitchen table, drinking instant coffee while Carl told them about Old One-Eye, the legendary catfish that was supposed to inhabit a part of the Greenbrier River we locals called the Cat-Hole.

“So then Hap Logan took his little bass boat out one night, about two weeks after Ernie Whitt’s dog vanished while swimming across the Cat-Hole. It was a quiet night, and Hap had just about nodded off, when all of a sudden his boat started rocking. He sat up and looked around, but he didn’t see anything. But the boat started swaying more, like it was bumping against a rock or something. So he grabbed his flashlight and pointed it at the river’s surface, and guess what he saw?”

“What?” Kevin asked.

“Old One-Eye. He’d come up under Hap’s boat. There was one good eye on the left side of the boat, and a blind, milky eye on the other. Scared him something awful, he said. A lot of folks thought he was making it up, but I’ll tell you one thing—Hap Logan never went fishing in the Cat-Hole again.”

Sarah grinned. “Sounds like those worms aren’t the only big things around here.”

As implausible as it sounded, the thought of sitting in a boat on the river at night and seeing one unblinking fish eye staring at you from one side, and a white, sightless orb from the other, had always made me shudder.

I heated up what was left of the stew and served everyone a bowl, along with some crackers from the pantry. But nobody seemed to have much of an appetite.

“The bathroom’s available if anybody wants it,” I announced. “You can’t use the toilet, but I’ve got a wash basin in there and a five-gallon bucket of spring water to clean up with.”