ALIENS: EPIDEMIC
Disclaimer: The ALIEN Franchise and all related characters wherein are the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox.
Parts of this chapter were written while listening to the soundtracks for Tremors (1990) by Ernest Troost and Robert Folk, Halo: Reach (2010) by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, The Fly II (1989) by Christopher Young, and Prince Of Darkness (1987) by John Carpenter. These are all excellent music scores, and Reach and Tremors are the ones I listened to the most while writing this story in general, although I highly recommend listening to John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness score while reading this particular chapter, as it perfectly conveys a sense of dread and impending doom, one that I just cannot do justice with only typed words.
CHAPTER 03: ESCALATING DISTURBANCES
DATE: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 04, 2183
008 BLUE FLOWER DRIVE, ROSSFIELD MOUNTAIN RANGE, DIAMOND VALLEY
Staff Sergeant Verl Williams brought the jeep to a slow stop before parking it in front of the driveway of a mountainside homestead. The house had a very round curved shape to it, with a dark wooden appearance, although it was actually made of non-wooden materials. A covered air-conditioning unit could be seen on a cement block next to a curved window, with a shadow cast on it by a large tree just a few feet away.
In front of the house was civilian jeep, indicating that someone was probably home.
Stepping out of the jeep, Specialist Donovan Quail and Corporal Sasha Harrison kept their SMGs pointed at the ground with the safeties turned on. Their fingers rested on the trigger guards of their weapons. As a light breeze passed through the air, Harrison looked around at the quiet homestead her nose catching a whiff of something mildly unpleasant.
Walking up to the front door of the curved building that seemed partially built into the side of the mountain, Williams gently pressed the doorbell. A pleasant and slightly muffled chime emanated throughout the interior of the home behind the door. Williams waited for a few minutes before pressing the doorbell again. Once again, there was no response. Glancing over at one of the windows, Williams saw that a light was on, so someone was definitely home.
As Williams continued pressing the door bell, Harrison slowly made her way around the front lawn of the home, looking at the portion of the building that stopped curving and became straight before curving again with a door hanging open. "Sarge," Harrison called out softly. Williams glanced over in her direction briefly before he noticed the opened door.
"Check it out, but don't enter the house," Williams ordered Harrison. Harrison nodded her head in understanding of the orders and slowly crept over to the opened door. She was halfway through the yard when she felt something beneath her feet and heard a squeaking noise. Everyone's eyes were on her as she looked down and saw a green tinted rubber duck under her left boot.
Glancing back over at Williams and Quail, Harrison gave them a sheepish apologetic look before continuing forward towards the opened door. Glancing over to her right, Harrison saw that there were a set of keys lying on the ground. Her eyes widening in alarm, she cautiously crouched down near the keys to get a closer look.
There were stains of dried blood on the ground and the keys. "Sarge, we have blood on the ground," Harrison announced, catching Quail's and Williams' attention. "How much?" Williams asked her. "More than the relay station. This time, there are prints," Harrison said as she noticed the bloodied prints on the ground. They were somewhat reminiscent of a wolf or coyote's paw prints in their shapes and toe formation, however, they seemed a bit too big for a coyote. And there were no wolves on the Diamond Valley side of the mountain, nor were there any bears. Wolves and bears were only found on the western side of the mountain. Ecological research teams produced constant reports that suggested this.
However, there appeared to be two very distinct thumb-like shapes on the sides of the main paw area. Six digits, Harrison realized. Cougars and coyotes didn't have six digits. Neither did humans.
Standing up, Harrison glanced at the opened doorway of the home, glancing at Williams for permission to enter. Williams motioned for Quail to join her and silently motioned for them to move in, holding a finger up to his lips as a silent indicator for them to keep as quiet as possible. Both soldiers nodded their heads, with Quail moving around the edge of the lawn to avoid stepping on noise-producing toys, learning from Harrison's missteps.
When Quail had met up with Harrison, both soldiers again looked at Williams, who once more gave them the signal to move forward, silently. Both soldiers again nodded their heads and kept their weapons pointed at the ground with the safeties turned on as they quietly crept forward through the open doorway.
Stepping back just behind Harrison, Quail glanced at the other side of the door, seeing claw marks on it, similar to those found at the relay station. Quietly moving forward, he joined Harrison as she swept the homestead. The lights were all still on in the house, and there were pictures lining the walls.
The pictures were of the home's owners and their family. There was a picture of a red-haired man and a blonde woman holding a small baby in their arms together near the opened door to the bathroom. Peeking into said bathroom, Harrison saw no signs of movement. She resumed her trek through the hallway.
More pictures lined the walls, showing a young girl with a rain jacket that was too big for her and what appeared to be grandparents from both sides of the family gathered in front of the house with the main family. A few pictures and their frames were hanging lopsided or had fallen onto the floor, and there were dried blood stains on the floor and the walls, staining the carpet as Harrison and Quail moved forward, peeking into the open doorway of the bedroom on her right.
There was a small bed with a night-light, and there were plastic glow-in-the-dark stars posted along various spots on the walls and ceiling of the room. Creeping into the room, Harrison felt a tingling sense of dread growing inside of her as she saw some kind of slime trailing on the floor and a ripped-up cover hanging from the child-sized bed in the corner of the room. She craned her neck to glance back at the wooden door of the bedroom, seeing that it had claw marks on it and several splinters on the floor from where someone or something had rammed into it repeatedly.
Slowly backing out of the empty child's bedroom, Harrison met back up with Quail, who had held his position during her search. "Find anything?" he asked her quietly. "It's just like the relay station. Claw marks and torn surroundings," Harrison reported.
Quail slowly nodded his head in grim understanding. "Come on, let's check out the main living area," he said. Harrison nodded in response and took point in front of him as she turned off the safety on her SMG, but still kept her finger on the trigger guard as the weapon remained pointed at the ground.
Slowly entering the living room, the duo saw that a flat-screen TV was lying face down on the floor. A couch had been recently moved around, indicated by the indentations visible on the floor behind it, and there were picture frames hanging crookedly on the walls, with a lamp knocked onto the floor, and several broken glass and ceramic dishes covering the carpet in various spots. There were more blood stains on the walls, but there were still no physical signs of any people present in the home.
There was a curved staircase that led up to the second floor and in the space behind the stairs was the kitchen. Knives were scattered on the ground, and there were more blood stains and bloody hand prints covering various surfaces. A small kiddie table sat in the middle of the kitchen, and some plastic toy trucks and dinosaurs sat on the floor nearby.
As before, the blood they found was dried. Whatever had occurred in this home had happened at least a day prior to their arrival. Walking into the kitchen, Harrison saw that some of the knives on the ground were missing parts of their blades, and many of the remaining portions were melted.
"What happened here?" Harrison asked with a concerned tremble in her voice as she looked around the battle-damaged kitchen. Something terrible had happened in this home. As she walked back over to the living room, she caught a whiff of something coming from upstairs.
"Quail, do you smell that?" Harrison asked, her nose scrunching up as the unpleasant odor entered her nostrils. "No, I-wait... yeah, I smell that now. Why didn't we smell it earlier?" Quail asked. "The open door. It allowed air to flow through the house, keeping the stench from building up," Harrison hypothesized.
"It smells pretty bad," Quail muttered as he cautiously followed behind Harrison up the stairs to the second floor. With each step, the stench became stronger. It reminded both of them of something that had died. Given what they'd seen in the house so far, neither of them would have been surprised to find a dead body somewhere.
As they cautiously moved forward onto the landing of the second floor, Harrison took out a set of nose plugs from one of her breast pockets. Putting the small white cylinders into her nostrils, Harrison felt relief as the horrid stench became somewhat nullified, although she could still detect it to a degree. "Quail, put in your nose plugs," Harrison ordered her subordinate quietly.
"Way ahead of ya," Quail said, causing Harrison to turn around and look at the little white cylinders in his nose. Giving him a thumbs-up with her left hand, Harrison cautiously resumed her journey through the house. Approaching what seemed to be a another bedroom, Harrison soon heard a beeping noise coming from within the room.
Peeking around the corner, Harrison saw a small cell phone lying on the floor, with a red LED blinking on and off repeatedly. The stench seemed to be at its strongest in this room, as Harrison and Quail both reluctantly pressed forward, stepping around the dried blood stains on the carpet as they approached the large bed with a set of legs sticking up from behind one side.
Approaching the side of the bed, Harrison saw a man with a gaping hole in his chest, the bones bent outwards, as though something had exploded from inside of him. Both the carpet and the side of the bed were stained with blood and excrement, as the man's pants and underwear were not secured. The man had red hair, and he was obviously one of the owners of the home.
"Quail, we found our first victim. Call the police. Now," Harrison ordered sternly. There was no hesitation in her voice. Quail nodded his head and began adjusting his headset and portable communication unit.
Staring at the body, Harrison soon turned away and closed her eyes.
TWO HOURS LATER...
As the blue-uniform clad police secured the room with yellow tape, Police Lieutenant Eric Flowers approached Corporal Harrison. "Okay, Corporal, you and your comrades have already given us your statements and everything that we need from you, so... you're free to go," Flowers said. Harrison quietly nodded her head in response.
"Do you have anyone checking out the relay station?" Harrison asked him. "Staff Sergeant Williams already asked me that, Corporal. We have investigators already scouring the place for clues, or at least whatever clues haven't been contaminated already," Flowers said with a scowl.
"Now, why don't you guys head back to your base and let us do our job? If we need you to come in for questioning, we'll call your base and ask for you," Flowers said. "Affirmative," Harrison said in response as she began walking away.
Lieutenant Flowers watched as the soldier walked out of the living room and out of the house over to the military jeep where her comrades were waiting. Jesus H. Christ! We already have dozens of people missing in Diamond Bay, and now this!? What the hell is going on here!?
"Lieutenant!" Sergeant Felicia Watters called out, grabbing his attention. "Yeah?" he asked the woman. "We just got a call from patrol unit Wilma-Three-Twelve, a mile up the road. There are three other homesteads in the same condition as this one!"
Flowers raised an eyebrow incredulously. "What. The. Fuck?" he asked in exasperation at the escalating situation. "What the fuck is going on?" There were at least fifteen other settlement homesteads located throughout this portion of the mountain range, and as the hours went by, it was discovered that all of them had experienced the same fate within the past week.
DATE: FRIDAY, JUNE 06, 2183
THE WILHELM FARM
It was dark, close to 21:30, when Terrence Wilhelm saw the last of his second shift employees drive home for the night. As the lights on the back of the small car soon took a left turn and disappeared down the road, Terrence Wilhelm began slowly making his way back into the the store to begin closing up. His house was only a twenty-minute walk away from the farm itself, located far back by a dirt road near the fields.
As he slowly began walking back, he began humming a tune to himself. He looked around at the fenced-in fields where the ostriches roamed with patches of bare dirt and large grass blocs making for an interesting environment for the birds. A few trees could be found in the field, although none of them bore any edible fruit. He couldn't risk the birds eating something with a parasite in it and contaminating the supply.
As he entered the store, he heard the faint sound of a loud cry from outside. Raising an eyebrow, Wilhelm grabbed a large industrial flashlight and a small hammer before heading outside. He raised the light to scan the fields, seeing several ostriches roaming around, their heads bobbing gently up and down as they walked.
He then heard rustling far behind him in the other field, and he saw several of the large birds running away from a section of tall grass. "Who's there?" Wilhelm called out as he began walking towards the field. He walked around over by the side of the road as he examined the fence, looking for signs of damage or holes.
And lo and behold, he found one. Wilhelm quickly came across a very large hole in the fence, with a large amount of dirt having been dug up from under it. The fence seemed bent inwards, towards the field, indicating that something had pushed through it with force.
He checked the ground for fur and paw prints to determine if a coyote or a cougar had managed to enter the field. There was no fur to be found, but he did find some strange slime near the fence itself. "What the hell?" Wilhelm asked himself curiously, before he heard another bird cry out.
He quickly shot up and looked around, aiming his flashlight over the tall grass with a concerned look on his face. He quickly began running back over to the store, barging inside and going behind his front desk to retrieve a small handgun and 9mm rounds. His license for the weapon was situated underneath its case in a special drawer, and he quickly ran through the safety procedures in his head as he began loading the gun.
Wilhelm knew that it would be safer for him if he called animal control services, but he also knew that if he called and waited, he could lose half of his ostriches in the time it could take for them to arrive. Those birds were his livelihood, and he had no intention of letting them get slaughtered. His own safety was at risk with what he was doing, but it was a risk that he was willing to take.
After making sure that the weapon was ready, Wilhelm returned outside, gun and flashlight in hand as he proceeded over to the gate that allowed entrance to the field. Keeping quiet, Wilhelm unlocked the gate very carefully before slowly opening it and entering the field. The dirt patch in front of him stretched for several meters in every direction, before rows and columns of tall grass took over in blocs throughout the enclosure.
Glancing over to his right, he saw several ostriches huddled together, their heads bobbing up and down as they gulped and looked around in fear at their surroundings. Looking to the left of the group, Wilhelm saw more ostriches gathered together. There were several groups of the birds, with up to five or six ostriches in each group, all throughout the enclosure.
"It's alright, birdies. I'm not gonna let anything happen to ya," Wilhelm said, just before the grass behind one ostrich moved and the bird let out a cry as it was dragged down and behind the grass. Wilhelm's eyes widened at the sight, not noticing the grass in two other blocs parting as something maneuvered through them.
He reached out and gestured for the birds to move. "Go! Move!" he yelled at the birds, waving the arm holding the flashlight. The birds began moving away from the grass and towards Wilhelm, until they stopped and began moving away from him as well.
Wilhelm heard the grass parting behind him before he began turning around. "Damn coyotes, huh? Pack hunt...ers," he said as he saw the creature that was standing up to tower over him. It stood at least seven or eight feet high, with a dark shining exoskeleton. Its head was elongated with no visible eyes, and save for the front and very back, the head was lined with pits and ridges.
There were yellow stripes and highlights along the body of the creature, most notably in oval-shaped sections with piped ribbing, giving the animal an almost industrial look, although in Wilhelm's eyes it reminded him of a large bee or a wasp. The creature appeared both mechanical and organic at the same time, like the concept of a synthetic, only perverted to an audacious degree. One thing was for certain, however, and that was that this was no cougar or coyote, although the maw of the creature had vaguely feline-like definitions in its cheeks and chin angles.
"The... hell?" Wilhelm muttered as he slowly stepped back from the creature. Drool dripped from its lips onto the ground below, and its lips soon curled to reveal metallic teeth. The creature opened its mouth and let out a rush of air, sounding like a mechanical hiss, almost akin to steam bursting out of a pipe.
Wilhelm slowly held up his pistol and kept his flashlight aimed at the creature as he backed away. The tall grass nearby rustled violently as something large sped through it, and before Wilhelm had a chance to react, a second creature had lunged out of the tall grass, barrelling into him and knocking him over, causing him to get off just one round from his gun before the creature grabbed the gun and yanked it out of his hands, throwing it to the side. Wilhelm let out a violent scream as the creature snarled and bit at him, using its clawed hands to lash at him. The first creature watched with some amusement as the ostriches nearby began scattering, running away from the struggle in terror.
A third creature quickly darted out of the grass and leapt onto the back of one of the birds, dragging it to the ground. The long necks of the birds made them unsuitable for hosting embryos, as several facehuggers had discovered when attacking wild ostriches the previous month, and so the large birds had been relegated to a food source. Meanwhile, Wilhelm continued fighting back against the alien creature that was attacking him, his screams echoing into the night.
DATE: SATURDAY, JUNE 07, 2183
DIAMOND BAY PRIMARY HOSPITAL, A-BLOCK, STREET A-012
Walking out of the elevator on the first floor after visiting a round of patients on the fifth floor, Dr. Calvin Phillips had his attention pulled away from the data tablet in his hands when he heard the shouting in the reception lobby. Looking over at the number of nurses and fellow physicians gathering in the area, Phillips grabbed one of his colleagues, Dr. Haruo Kawakita, and asked him what was going on.
"No idea. I just received a call that it was urgent," Kawakita said as he rushed over to the lobby. Brushing several people aside, Phillips saw a young girl being cradled in her father's arms, along with a strange pink and yellow-colored... thing attached to her face. It had eight legs and a tail wrapped around her throat.
"Won't somebody do something!?" the girl's father shouted hysterically.
"Sir, please calm down," Phillips said as he walked forward. "Just tell us what happened. What is this thing and how did it get on your daughter's face?" Phillips asked as calmly as he could. "I... I was taking my daughter to the park, and when we were passing an alley, this thing just rushed out and jumped on her!" the man exclaimed, distraught.
Just then, Phillips caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Two construction workers, as evidenced by their uniforms, were dragging a third worker in through the front doors. The third worker also had something attached to his face as well, only this creature was tan in coloration.
"We need a doctor here! This thing just jumped onto Mike's face and we can't get it off!" one of the workers shouted with concern. "Who's Mike?" a patient in a chair asked just before her friend smacked her upside the head and pointed at the worker whose face was being hugged. The distraught father soon craned his neck to look at the workers, seeing their friend afflicted with the same problem as his daughter.
"What happened? Where was he attacked?" Phillips asked as he gestured for Kawakita to take over the father and daughter. "We were inspecting the supply depot on E-Street for spare girders when this thing popped out of nowhere and latched itself to Mike's face!" the smaller of the two workers explained.
"W-What have you done so far before bringing your friend here?" Phillips asked them. "We tried cutting one of the legs off, but the damn thing bleeds acid! It bleeds fuckin' acid! It ate right through my box cutter!" the larger of the two workers relayed in a panicked toned.
Meanwhile, less than a block away, a delivery driver was entering his cabin after securing the door to his van. Closing the driver's side door, he strapped in and buckled his seat belt before he inserted his keys and started the engine before pulling out onto the road. There was a nagging sensation in the back of his head until he remembered something very important that he had forgotten to do.
Keeping his eyes on the road, with a sigh, he reached over to the passenger seat in order to grab the delivery list and attached pen in order to check off his most recent stop. Instead of feeling the paper list, he felt another set of fingers on the seat next to him and looked over, seeing pink fingers with yellow stripes adorning the knuckles. "What the-mmph!" he cried out in alarm as a pink spider-like creature with eight legs launched itself at his face and clamped its legs around him, causing him to swerved his truck out of control as he kept one hand on the wheel while using the other hand in an attempt to get the creature off.
The delivery van swerved through traffic before eventually speeding onto the sidewalk and skidding out of control, slamming into a street light next to the hospital, startling the people inside the lobby and the other pedestrians on the sidewalk.
There were shouts of panic and hysteria in the aftermath of the crash, with one witness, standing right in front of the hospital, shouting for someone to call an ambulance.
DIAMOND BAY POLICE DEPARTMENT, STATION 01, LATER THAT EVENING...
"No, we don't need the army's help with this!" Police Chief Heather Young snapped over the phone. "We can take care of this on our own, thank you!" she added quickly. "Look, I have plenty of soldiers to spare if you need help searching the mountain range. It's no problem for us to provide support so that you can focus the majority of your own forces in the more heavily populated areas. I'm being serious here. I've seen the news reports," Captain Rosenthal said over the phone.
"You guys are being stretched thin. You've only got, what, eighty officers in the city total?" Rosenthal asked. Taking a vapor cigarette out of the left breast pocket of her shirt, the 53 year-old black-haired police chief stuck the soft and malleable white cylinder in her mouth.
"Look, Captain, You only have about eighty people yourself. Besides, we have our own Marine detail posted out here. We can use them more than we can use you. They're already here, and they've been trained to work alongside our own security forces in civilian areas. We'll be fine without you guys coming in here with tanks and blowing the shit out of the place looking for kidnappers and yellow spiders," Young said.
"Do you know anything about the creatures that have been reported on? Anything that hasn't been released yet?" Rosenthal asked her. Young merely huffed in response as she took the vapor-cig out of her mouth and held it between two of her fingers. It proved to be more soothing to her than actually having it in her mouth.
"Chief Young, please! My own soldiers could be at risk if these spider things attack them and they know next to nothing about them! Even if we stay out of the city on your request, we could still find ourselves dealing with these creatures out here in the farmlands. We know nothing about these things other than that they fucking exist and latch onto people's faces. Nothing else. Come on, what else do you know?" Rosenthal screeched over the phone.
"Look, I don't know shit, okay!? I've already got two patrol officers in the hospital with those things attached to them, and I don't know any more than you do, so quit bitching at me!" Young spat back in annoyance. "As soon as I hear from the hospital, I'll let you know what I've been told, okay? In the meantime, just shut up and... I guess, have your soldiers patrol the farmsteads to keep the farmers safe or whatever. Just... can you do that? If I give you some patrol routes to take over out in the farmlands, will you get off my back about coming into the city?" Young asked tiredly over the phone.
"How many Marines do you have over there?" Rosenthal asked her.
"I've got one extra large squad of eighteen soldiers, so-" "Soldiers? Are thought you said they were Marines," Rosenthal interrupted her. "Soldiers, Marines; what's the fucking difference?" Young asked. "Soldiers are in the Army and Marines are in the Marine Corps. It's a big fucking difference, Ma'am. Just ask the Marines posted over there in the city; I guarantee you they'll say the same thing," Rosenthal explained over the phone.
"Fine, whatever!" Young huffed in annoyance.
Just then, Captain Darryl Lantham entered Young's office. "Chief, I just got a report from-" Lantham was interrupted when Young held up her hand as she continued talking to Captain Rosenthal over the phone. Lantham nodded his head quietly in response.
"So, like I said, you can have your 'soldiers' take over the farmland patrol routes until further notice. I will let you know. When I-yes, Captain, when... look, when I hear from them, I will let you know. Good-bye," Young said before hanging up the phone on her desk.
"Annoying shit," she grumbled with a scowl before looking over at Captain Lantham. "Yes?" she asked him. "Chief, we just got a report from the hospital. Twelve more people have been admitted with those things attached to them," Lantham said as he walked over to the desk and handed his data tablet to her.
Young retrieved the tablet and began scrolling through the individual reports on each patient. "Shit, that makes thirty colonists," she said in discontent. "Where the hell are these things coming from?" she then asked in exasperation.
"Well, Captain Poncho has already taken some of his men down into the sewer system in A, B, and C-Blocks," Lantham said. Young glanced up at him from her seat with a raised eyebrow. "Someone reported seeing one of the creatures leaving a sewer-access junction prior to an attack. The Marines are scouring the sewers right now as we speak," Lantham explained further.
"Good. Any word on the colonists who are missing so far?" Young then asked him. "No, Chief. We still have over sixty colonists missing from within the city itself, and nearly forty more from out in the farmlands and mountain range settlements," Lantham replied. "We have missing persons posters and messages being displayed and playing on advertising screens all over the city, especially near the Mag-Lev train stations, but no one has reported anything yet," He continued.
"We also have a report that about a month ago, a team of nineteen humans and one synthetic went missing around the mountains. They were part of a geological survey team funded by Weyland-Yutani," Lantham explained. "A survey team? Wasn't this place already surveyed before it was colonized?" Young asked skeptically.
"This team was supposed to use advanced equipment to check the interior of the mountains for valuable minerals and other elements. They were due to make contact with a professor at the Diamond Bay University nearly three weeks ago to report their progress, but no one's heard from them since early May," Lantham finished, finally catching his breath. Young looked at the man, impressed by his ability to keep speaking for so long.
"Okay, keep me updated on the Marines' progress in the sewers, and have our patrol officers start carrying helmets with face plates around. I want them wearing those any time they enter a place with poor visibility or very little lighting," Young said. "Understood. What about defenses? I heard that those things have blood that can eat through metal," Lantham asked her.
"We only know what one hysterical construction worker said to a doctor. We haven't seen any reports from the hospital confirming or denying that bit of information yet," Young said in response. "Although, to be safe, if you shoot one of those things, make sure that it's from a distance. Better safe than sorry," she said.
Lantham nodded his head curtly. "Understood, Chief. I'll start printing memos on it," he said before turning around. "Hey, I didn't give you permission to leave the room yet," Young called out. Lantham glanced over his shoulder at her. "Okay, you're dismissed," she said.
UNITED STATES COLONIAL ARMY BASE A-001
"So, I take it that things didn't exactly go very well?" Lieutenant Kimberly Hargrove asked Rosenthal. "Chief Young is... very stubborn. She's agreed to let us handle the patrol routes her officers normally take out in the farmlands, but that's about the only concession I could get from her," Rosenthal said in response.
Hargrove nodded her head quietly. "When do we start sending our soldiers out on these patrol routes?" she asked Rosenthal. "Tomorrow, I suppose," he replied.
"Do we... um, know exactly what locations these patrol routes cover? Is Chief Young going to send us a map to plot them out?" Hargrove asked him curiously. Rosenthal opened his mouth to speak, only to realize that, no, Young hadn't given him any of that information. "I need to call her back," he said with a groan before picking up the phone again.
THE SEWERS OF DIAMOND BAY...
Coming up upon a small office for maintenance workers, Sergeant Calhoun raised his left fist silently as a signal for the three Marines behind him to halt. He then gestured for two of them to move forward and take point. "Check to see if the door is locked, and then inspect the room quietly. Keep your faces covered at all times," Calhoun whispered over his headset.
The two Marines he'd gestured towards, Private Alicia Mendez and Private Jacob Hollum, both nodded their heads in affirmation. "Affirmative," they both replied quietly as they passed Calhoun on the walkway of the sewer. They kept their M39 SMGs, which they had been forced to carry over their standard pulse rifles due to being in a heavily populated area, aimed at the ground with their fingers on the trigger guards.
Hollum arrived on one side of the door, next to a large window, and looked at the interior of the room. There were no signs of life that he could detect, so he motioned for Mendez to check the door lock. The door remained shut, and so Mendez took out her electronic lock kit and ran a bypass through the door's control panel.
The door soon slid open with a hiss, and the two Marines entered the room, quietly scanning for signs of the spider-like creatures that had been attacking people throughout the city. After a few minutes of searching the small room, both Marines reported over their headsets that the location was clear. "Understood. We're coming in," Calhoun said in response.
He quickly motioned for the Marine behind him, Private Gates, to stay close as they began making their way to the small office. Once Calhoun entered the office, he frowned at the state of the room. There were candy wrappers and magazines strewn about the floor, and a small trash bin underneath one of the desks was overflowing with used tissues and plastic food containers. "I thought you said the room was clean," he commented jokingly while looking at Mendez.
"We said it was clear, sir," Mendez replied. Glancing behind her, Calhoun spotted a large map of the sewer system pinned to a board on the wall, right next to a door that led to a staircase which would take them up into one of the many buildings in the city. "We're still in B-Block?" Calhoun asked as he saw the outlined section of the map, indicating where the office was located.
"Well, sir, there was a designation above the door outside," Hollum pointed out. Carefully stepping outside and looking up, Calhoun saw that there was indeed a designation above the door, stating that they were in Management Office B-03. Sighing, Calhoun returned to the interior of the office.
"Okay, make a note of the map. We'll take five and then resume our search. Any questions?" Calhoun asked Red Team. Everyone shook their heads, except for Gates, who was frowning at his motion tracker while still standing outside of the door to the room.
"Is something wrong, Private?" Calhoun asked him. Gates pointed to something out of Calhoun's line of sight, forcing the sergeant to walk out of the room and shine his light down the walkway. "What are you seeing?" Calhoun asked Gates.
"Down there, on the floor, next to the wall," Gates said quietly, his gun still pointed forward with his helmet light shining on the wall. "I don't see anything," Calhoun said. Gates slowly began creeping forward until he was crouching next to a spot on the wall that was just beyond the window of the office. "Look at this," Gates said.
Calhoun quietly approached the man and crouched down to look at the wall, finally seeing the bloodied carcasses of a few mice, with dried blood on the wall and floor. "Something attacked these mice, and I doubt it was each other," Gates said, frowning at the smell of the small furry corpses. Calhoun raised an eyebrow in suspicion at the small dead mice as well.
"You think those... things did this?" Calhoun asked Gates. Gates furrowed his brows in thought as he contemplated Calhoun's question. Given how little they knew about the spider-things that had been attacking people lately, anything was possible. However, not one witness to any of the attacks had described the creatures as having any visible mouths.
"I... don't know, Sarge." Gates then turned his head to look up at Calhoun with a thoughtful expression. "None of the pictures we've seen of those creatures have shown any of them having what look like mouths," he said with a shrug.
"Well, we've only seen what they look like from the top. Maybe their mouths are located on the side attached to their victims' faces," Calhoun suggested as a counterpoint. Gates looked back down at the dead rodents, silently mulling over Calhoun's words. "Hm. Maybe," he said with a shrug before standing up follow Calhoun back into the office with the others.
DATE: SUNDAY, JUNE 08, 2183
DIAMOND VALLEY, FARMER'S ROUTE
Driving slowly along the road, Sasha Harrison scanned the fields of corn, wheat, and various other crops that lined the side of the road. Sitting in the passenger seat next to her, Donovan Quail held a turned-off motion tracker and some spare face masks and neck guards. "I don't suppose we'd even be able to see these things coming in these fields, would we?" Quail asked rhetorically.
Sasha merely shrugged in response as she continued driving the jeep. Both soldiers had been given permission to carry their sidearms with them as a precaution, but they were otherwise unarmed. Soon, the duo came upon the fenced-in fields for the Wilhelm Farm.
Looking out the window, Quail soon noticed a very small number of ostriches walking around in groups. At first, he thought nothing of it, until he saw what looked like a hole in the fence as they passed it. "Hey, stop the jeep!" Quail said urgently.
"Why?" Sasha asked him as she put her foot on the brake pedal.
"I think I saw a hole in the fence," Quail answered, glancing back over his shoulder as he rolled down the window. "Hey, don't stick your head out there, dummy," Sasha warned him as she leaned over and grabbed him by the shoulder to pull him back before raising the window. "Sorry," Quail muttered apologetically.
"Alright, where did you see a hole in the fence?" Sasha asked him. Quail jerked his thumb backwards. "A couple feet back that way. We just passed it," he said. Sasha frowned before putting the jeep in park and shutting off the engine. She made sure to turn on the flashers before checking her side-view mirrors and getting out of the jeep.
Reaching down, Sasha kept one hand on the holster of her sidearm before cautiously making her way over to the back of the vehicle. As she walked closer to the fence, she soon saw the hole that Quail had been referring to earlier. Noticing the size of the hole, a feeling of unease began welling up inside of her. She quickly made her way back over to the jeep and got in, not bothering to buckle her seat belt as she turned the engine back on and took off the flashers.
"We're gonna make a quick stop at Wilhelm's," Sasha said to Quail as she began driving the jeep forward, slowly making a turn onto the dirt path that led to the farm. With surprise, Sasha and Quail both saw a handful of ostriches walking around the road, outside of the field. Eventually, they reached the parking area for deliveries and the store, with Sasha parking the jeep in front of the store next to a pickup truck and a few cars that belonged to some of Wilhelm's employees. Turning off the engine, Sash soon noticed that both a window and the door to the store were damaged and smashed open.
Sasha and Quail both checked their sidearms before getting out of the jeep. "Mr. Wilhelm?" Sasha asked loudly in concern. "Terrence?" she called out again as she walked towards the broken door of the store.
Looking around at the field behind them, Quail saw that the gate was unlocked, and at least two ostriches were walking around in the parking lot. "Hey, Sash? Somethin' ain't right," Quail said as he looked around and noticed the lack of noise or people, despite the presence of multiple parked vehicles. Sasha nodded her head in agreement as she pulled out her M4A3 service pistol, a standard issue recoil-operated semi-automatic weapon that fired 9mm rounds and came with a 12-round detachable box magazine, keeping her fingers on the trigger guard and aiming the barrel of the weapon at the ground while slowly approaching the front of the store.
"Terrence, are you in here? Is anybody here?" Sasha asked as she slowly stepped into the store, trying to touch as little of the area as possible. She quickly reached into one of her uniform's pant pockets and pulled out a pair of fingerless gloves to slip on.
"Terrence?" Sasha called out again as she crept around the clearly ransacked interior of the store. Shelves had been knocked over, candy bars and jerky packages littered the floor, showing the prints of some kind of animal in various locations. As with some of the bloodied prints she had seen the other day, these prints had six digits. "What the hell is going on here?" she asked quietly as she slowly walked through the farm store.
Sasha soon saw blood stains on the floor and some of the shelves. Swallowing nervously, Sasha slowly crept around the next shelf as she walked over to the freezers and fridges, noticing that they had been left alone, although there were still bloodied hand prints on the outside of the protective glass doors. Sasha remembered seeing a few cars and a truck parked outside, but otherwise, there were no signs of anyone being on the farm.
Walking over towards the register, Sasha carefully grabbed a box of wax paper and tore it open, removing a sheet and holding it in her gloved hands before reaching forward and opening the cash drawer of the first register. The drawer was full, and there were no signs of any of the money having been touched since it was put in the drawer. Looking over at the second register, Sasha noticed that the drawer hadn't even been put inside the machine, and there was a gaping hole where the cash drawer was supposed to rest.
Meanwhile, outside, Quail slowly walked around the perimeter of the store, eventually coming across a lone hat lying on the ground. Walking cautiously towards the hat, Quail slowly bent down and reached forward to pick it up, his fingers just touching the edge when a breeze passed by and carried a strong odor with it. Quail's face scrunched up in disgust as he once again smelled a death in the air.
"Oh, not again," he muttered before grabbing the hat and lifting it up in the air, seeing nothing but dirt underneath it. He quickly dropped the hat and watched as it rolled onto its original position. "Why doesn't my Army cap ever do that?" Quail pondered for a few seconds before noticing a large hole in the second field's fence, in addition to a large amount of dirt and grass having been dug up from under it.
He was just about to investigate when he heard Sasha's voice.
"Hey, Quail! Have you found anybody!?" Sasha asked as she exited the store and walked around, soon noticing the smashed windshield of one of the parked cars. She soon heard boots moving on the ground and glanced over to see Quail emerging from the side of the store.
"Negative, Sash. There's no one here," he said in response as he walked over to her. "Have you checked these vehicles? Could someone be hiding?" she asked him as she began walking between the parked cars and looking in the windows.
There was no sign of anyone being in any of the cars. "Where is everyone?" she asked. "Sash, I think we ought to check the fields," Quail suggested. Sasha turned to look at him before noticing something over by a grain silo back near one of the field gates. There was some kind of dark-colored lump on the ground.
"Quail, see that?" Sasha asked as she pointed to the strange object in the distance. Quail turned around and looked over to where Sasha was pointing. "Yeah, I see it. Let me get the motion track-no, we'll just ending up picking up the ostriches," Quail said before shaking his head at the idea.
"There's enough open ground out here," Sasha said before making her way towards the lump on the ground. As she got closer, a terrible odor hit her nose. It was the stench of decay and blood. Whatever she was approaching was a body of some kind.
Getting closer, and pushing through the stench, Sasha soon noticed the feathers on the ground that were pushed around by the occasional breeze. The object on the ground was now clearly a dead ostrich. The animal's neck had been severed and chewed in several places, and its bones were visible among eaten and rotten flesh as flies buzzed around it.
The majority of the main body, however, was almost completely devoured, with only the featured wings providing any cover over the exposed and torn-apart rib cage of the animal. The legs of the bird had been eaten to the bone, with even the scale-covered ankles and feet having been torn up by whatever had attacked it. "Jesus Christ," Sasha muttered at the sight.
"Is that an ostrich?" Quail asked as he walked up behind Sasha, causing her to jump very slightly. "Sorry," Quail muttered as he noticed Sasha's reaction. "Quail, we need to check on Wilhelm's house. It's up that way," Sasha said as she pointed to the building seen in the distance, surrounded by tall grass and wheat.
"We should probably drive there," Quail suggested, his eyes warily scanning the tall grass as it swayed with the breeze. An ostrich could be seen walking through the grass now and then, the birds apparently exploring the area without supervision. Sasha nodded her head as she realized how vulnerable they both would be while traversing around the tall grass on foot, even with their service pistols at their sides. After all, they were only equipped with standard 9mm ball ammo. Armor-piercing ammunition could only be taken outside of the base for emergency combat scenarios, and being substitute patrol officers did not count as an emergency combat scenario.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Sasha said as she slowly turned around, keeping her pistol aimed at the ground as she and Quail both carefully made their way back to the jeep, constantly checking their surroundings for signs of danger. As soon as they were both in their seats, they locked the doors of the vehicle, with Quail being the only one buckling his seat-belt. Checking the area behind her as she turned on the engine and began backing up, Sasha carefully maneuvered the jeep with a K-turn before heading off towards the house in the middle of the field.
"Sash, put on your seat belt," Quail said. Sasha snorted at his request. "It's only a three minute drive at most," she retorted. "Sash, please. With the ostriches running loose, we should be careful in case we have to stop suddenly," Quail said pleadingly.
Putting the jeep into park, Sasha buckled her seat belt, grumbling about Quail being a whiner the whole time. "There. Are you happy?" Sasha asked Quail before putting the jeep back into drive and pushing ahead towards the Wilhelm's property. "Yes. I am very happy, Sash," Quail replied with an exasperated sigh.
"Cry-baby," Sasha muttered as she slowly drove up towards the house, her eyes scanning the dirt road and the tall grass for signs of ostriches and possible farm hands. Pulling up to a blank dirt area near a shed and a parked pickup truck, Sasha put the jeep into park. She and Quail both scanned the area for signs of danger.
"See anything?" Sasha asked Quail. Quail shook his head in response. "Alright, keep your eyes peeled," Sasha said before unlocking the front doors. She quickly unbuckled her seat-belt before getting out of the jeep and walking up to the front door of Wilhelm's home, once again drawing her service pistol and keeping it pointed at the ground.
Terrence Wilhelm's home was a standard rural housing unit in design and layout, constructed from a modular colonial cargo shuttle intended specifically for disassembly and reconstruction after arriving at its destination, as was the case with the vast majority of housing units found on LV-475 and other colonies. The nearby shed, however, had been constructed from spare parts located at a Colonial Administration surplus store within Diamond Bay. Despite the clearly high-tech origins of the home and shed, both buildings had very low-tech outer appearances that felt right at home with their surroundings.
"Terrence? Terrence Wilhelm?" Sasha called out as she looked up and saw a broken window on the second floor of the housing unit. Gulping, Sasha knelt down and searched under the face mat on the ground for a set of keys. Terrence Wilhelm had invited her and other soldiers into his home at times in the past, mostly for the sake of making sure that he had loyal customers, and so Sasha was well aware that the man kept a spare house key hidden under the mat.
Feeling the cool metal of the key under her fingers, Sasha smirked before grabbing it and pulling it out from under the mat, wiping the dirt off before inserting it into the manual lock and key hole on the front door's access panel. Walking up behind her, Quail noticed the broken window above them. "Shouldn't there be an alarm going off?" Quail asked Sasha as she turned the key and pressed the button to open the front door of the house.
"If the house were locked properly... yes," Sasha said warily. The front door shouldn't have opened as easily as it had, even with the key. She knew from past interactions that Terrence Wilhelm often left his home unlocked while he was at the farm, but always made sure to activate the security system at night after retiring for the evening.
The ease with which Sasha had opened the door meant that Terrence Wilhelm either had already gotten up and left the house that morning, or he hadn't been able to lock the home the previous night. Certainly, with the state of the farm store and the open gates of the ostrich fences being what they were, Terrence Wilhelm would have at least called somebody for help, yet his employees' vehicles were still parked at the farm. Someone should have called the police or emergency services at some point, yet Sasha could not recall hearing anything over the jeep's radio or reading anything on the base's network computers about an incident at the farm.
"Quail, go look around the outside of the house," Sasha said. "But-" "That's an order," Sasha said firmly.
"Affirmative... Corporal," Quail said in response as he began making his way around the outside of the house. Stepping forward, Sasha looked around the inside of the house, seeing that everything was... intact. Nothing had been knocked over, and there were no horrible stenches coming from inside anywhere. Slowly walking through the living room, Sasha saw a TV mounted on the wall, and an armchair situated several meters back from it next to a coffee table.
"Terrence?" Sasha called out softly once more. This time, there was desperation in her voice, as the lack of any human presence on the farm and in the house was started to unnerve her. Perhaps having Quail search the outside by himself hadn't been the best idea.
Looking over at a wall nearby, Sasha saw a daily planner on a kitchen table. Walking over to the table, Sasha looked down and saw the dates and times written down in a log. The last recorded date for anything was on Friday, the 6th.
Sasha now realized that Terrence Wilhelm had not been inside his house for at least 48 hours.
Turning around and walking over to the stairs, Sasha carefully crept up to the second floor. She still had a broken window to investigate, after all. As quietly as she could, she swept the hallway and entered the storage rooms of the second floor. Terrence Wilhelm's bedroom was located on the first floor.
Entering the room with the broken window, Sasha saw no signs of rummaging. Everything was orderly and intact. Only the broken window gave any evidence that something had happened, but there was no sign of what had broken the window in the first place... until Sasha saw dirt marks and feathers on the floor. Foot prints, with six digits on them, just like before, covered the floor and wall under the window.
Meanwhile, outside the house, Quail inspected the mostly-eaten carcass of yet another ostrich. This one, however, was up in the branches of a tree near the shed. "Okay. So, we've got ourselves a cougar," Quail said to himself.
As far as Donovan Quail was aware, only a big cat could kill a bird that large and drag the body up into a tree. However, the big cats known for such behavior, such as leopards, were not found in Diamond Valley. And the wild prey populations should have been plenty large enough that a cougar wouldn't need to venture out and attack a farm in order to get food, at least as far as Quail was aware.
Speaking into his headset, Quail contacted Sasha. "Hey, Sash? I've found the body of another ostrich. This one's up in a tree. I think we're dealing with a big cat problem," Quail said. "Just stay where you are. I'll be right there," Sasha said over the headset.
A few minutes later, Sasha emerged from Terrence Wilhelm's home. "So, find anything in the house?" Quail asked her. "I found some prints in the upstairs storage room. They don't belong to a cat, though," Sasha said as she gestured for Quail to meet her over at the jeep.
"So no one's home?" Quail asked her. "No. There's nobody here. There hasn't been anyone here for at least two days," Sasha replied as she opened the doors and looked around, scanning the farm for signs of trouble.
"So what do we do?" Quail asked Sasha as she got back in the vehicle, prompting him to do the same. "We report this to the police, and we wait for further instructions," Sasha replied worriedly. She quickly started the engine and grabbed the jeep's radio, calling the Diamond Bay Police Department and explaining the situation.
"We'll have a forensics unit out there as soon as we can. Just hold on a little while, over," the reception jockey said. Sasha let out a sigh. "Can do. Over," she said before putting the microphone back on the hook.
Sasha reclined back in her seat and closed her eyes. "Just what the hell is going on, Quail? I mean, what the hell is going on? What are these spider things? Are the spider things related to whatever animals attacked this farm? And just where the hell are all of the people disappearing to!?" she asked him with frustration in her voice. Quail shrugged his shoulders in response.
"I have no idea," he said honestly.
Neither of them had any idea, really, of just what kind of enemy they were dealing with, nor what sort of nightmarish hell the creatures would be unleashing upon them and their comrades in the coming days as the infestation slowly grew into an epidemic.
Author's Notes: And that was chapter 03 of EPIDEMIC. Some of you may have noticed that there hasn't been much Xenomorph action in this story so far. Don't worry, I'm building up to it. And yes, the two varieties of Xenomorph, the T-37 Strain and the A-22 Strain, will come into conflict with each other at various points in the story. After all, the two strains both have their own respective hives, which means that they are both competing for resources and hosts in the same area. So, there will be warriors and runners for both strains, and queens as well.
Now, the next chapter will feature Xenomorph action, albeit in a restrained manner. It won't be until either chapter five or chapter six that the roller coaster really starts moving and we enter heavy action territory. Also, I'm sorry if parts of the story seem a bit disjointed. I'm just doing what I can to build up the characters and the settings before diving into the action, so that you, the readers, can care about what happens on some level. I'm also trying to establish how much time is passing as the xenomorphs abduct and build their hives' populations before they actually begin their large scale assaults on the humans. I just hope I don't bore all of you to death first.
As always, please be sure to let me know what you think of the chapter and/or story so far in your reviews, along with suggestions for how to write certain things better.
