Cain dropped to his knees, gasping for air. He coughed violently as his hand clasped his stomach. Brooks turned his head so as not to see what came next. Airoue slowed his pace and stopped next to the other two. He still held his attention in the direction of the fireball he saw ealier. Desperately hoping it was a landing craft intended to rescue them.
Brooks nodded respectfully to the captain as he leaned, exhausted, against a nearby tree. Cain wiped his mouth with his sleeve and spit into the mud. The acrid taste of bile filled his mouth, souring his already unpleasant mood.
"Where are we going!", Cain demanded, staring hatred at the mud in front of him. "Did you see a giant pit full of teeth that you thought we could huddle up in! I'm tired of searching for shelter on this God forsaken planet! First, the water tried to kill us, then some giant red dog ate the admiral! What's next! Predatory plants!"
"Stop talkin'! You ain't fixin' anything by complainin' all the time. If you got somethin' useful to say, then say it, but I'm tired of listenin' to you!", Brooks blurted. He was always a quiet man, so hearing him spout off surprised both of the others. It still caused Airoue to crack a wry grin.
Still, what Cain had said was a bit curious to Airoue. Humans had settled on hundreds of worlds, many with indigenous life. None of them had such a severely hostile environment. It seemed everything on this planet was out to kill. However, there was no time to dwell on that now.
"If we stay put, we're as good as dead.", Airoue stated simply. "You saw that fireball, you couldn't have missed it."
"Sorry, I suppose the giant monster eating my superior distracted me from your cloud watching.", Cain said dryly.
"It could have been a ship. And, frankly, it's the only thing we have to go on right now. If you have a better idea, Mr. Cain, please let me know. I'm open to all options right now.", Airoue said, not in the mood for more of Cain's sarcasm.
Cain shook his head, apparently giving up. He strained to raise himself from the ground, his breathing slowing a little. Brooks looked at him sideways and offered no hand to help. Without another word, Airoue started towards the direction of the streak from the sky, the white cloud of smoke still visible against the night sky. The other two, after a short stare of defiance at each other, followed.
"Sir", Brooks said cautiously from behind, "What if we don't find a ship? I mean, I don't want to be negative, but what do we do if it's just some debris or something?"
"Truthfully?", the captain asked. "I don't have a clue."
Cain laughed in disbelief.
"What I do know", Airoue finished, "Is that we are going to get out of here alive. I did not come this far to die in the jungle on some uncharted world."
"How strange", Cain interjected. "I did. It was actually at the top of my list of favorite ways to die. Oh no, wait, that's right, I bumped it for 'Death by disembowelment'."
Refusing to even acknowledge Cain anymore, Airoue walked on, his destination not more than a couple miles away. They could be there within the hour if nothing slowed them down too much. However, as they trudged on, Airoue felt something amiss. There was no sound coming from the jungle around them. Where before there had been the constant alien chatter of thousands of strange lifeforms, now there was only silence. Silence only broken by a strange chittering noise. It came and went. Airoue was beginning to feel as if they may not be heading away from danger, but instead into the belly of the beast.
As the group pushed on through the thick undergrowth, Cain began to fall back. He muttered to himself under his heavy breathing and scowled into the dirt. To make matters worse, a light rain had begun to fall. Their soaking wet clothes were the smallest problem. The rain smelled heavily of sulfur. The odor permeated everything, came from all directions and assaulted their senses. Their noses curled, their eyes burned, the taste filled their mouths like acid. Somewhere near him, the strange chittering noise started again.
"Marty...", a voice whispered from the woods.
Cain stopped and looked up in surprise. A familiar woman's voice filled his mind like music. He felt slightly dizzy, but this time it was not from exhaustion or the foul air. His eyes darted through the thick forest. He saw his shipmates drawing farther away through the trees. All around him the world seemed to blur, to spin out of control, the rain stopped and a yellow sunlight pierced through the trees. The world twirled nauseatingly around him. In an instant, the feeling was gone. The world twisted back into shape and everything was clear again. The beautiful pine forest in the middle of summer with flowers and sunlight blossoming among the trees. Standing directly in front of him was a tall woman clad in a beautiful white gown. Her hair was fire red and her skin the shade of a lamb's wool coat. Her blue eyes met his with a friendly and loving gaze.
"Marty.", her milky voice sang to him, beckoned him to come closer. She outstretched a hand to him, her arm extending unnaturally far to rest upon his shoulder. She was suddenly much closer.
"Marty, I can't believe I found you.", her voice whispered. "I've missed you so much."
"M...mother? How...?", Cain struggled with the words. His mind felt like cotton. He couldn't think straight. He only knew one thing for sure: his mother had found him. Saved him from trouble again. He was always getting into trouble.
"I love you so much, Marty.", the woman's arms opened wide and welcomed Cain into them. Into safety.
"Mother...I'm sorry. I won't get in trouble again...", Cain mumbled as he walked into her warm embrace, his eyes transfixed on hers.
Two shots burst through his mind and the world he saw shattered. The ghostly woman disappeared into a cloud and caught the wind like dust. The pine trees crumbled, light faded back into darkness and once again he felt the rain on his face. His head throbbed.
"Cain!", some voiced shouted from the back of his head, muffled and dull.
Suddenly, something grabbed him and shook him back to reality. He was staring up into Captain Airoue's eyes. He glanced to where his mother had stood. Now, Davidian Brooks was kicking at a strange spider-like creature lying on the ground, cautiously keeping some distance.
"What happened?", Cain asked, his mouth struggling to work. He still felt in a daze, as if he were sedated.
"I was hoping you would know. After all, you were the one trying to hug the spider. What were you thinking?", Airoue said, puzzled.
"I don't know. I...I saw someone. There was no spider, no rain... It was like a dream...", Cain looked at Airoue with disbelief. "It was so real, though."
Airoue stood and walked to the dead spider. It had a small body, but long legs, nearly a foot in length each. The entire creature was a translucent yellow with a clear fluid flowing from the bullet holes in it's body. The strangest feature was a spherical mass on the head, with a red mass inside. As Airoue leaned closer for a better look, the chittering noise started again. This time it was very close and came from different directions. The brush nearby rustled as something moved through it.
Brooks backed away, nervously eyeing the undergrowth. Airoue once more drew his pistol. The bullet counter on the side read '4'. There were clearly more spiders than that in the woods around them. He hoisted Cain up and dragged him along as he backed away from the noise. It grew louder to their right and Airoue aimed his pistol in that direction as they backed more quickly toward their smoldering destination. Cain's legs began to function again and he backpedaled under his own power, working away from Airoue. The strange chittering increased, but so did a low rumble. No longer in the distance, it grew very near and very intense. The ground itself shook slightly.
Suddenly, from the bushes in front of them, the rumble became a crash through the brush as the red behemoth they encountered earlier rampaged through the woods, reeling and tossing it's head around in a fury, roaring with deafening power. It was covered with spiders like the one they had killed. The spiders were clinging to the beast and sinking a long retractable spike from their abdomen into the animals thick hide. He shook madly, flinging them in all directions, but the spiders emitted a loud chittering sound that seemed to draw more of them. They poured over the massive hulk and stung countless times. A clear fluid leaked from it's wounds.
"Run!", Airoue shouted.
Cain rolled his eyes and began to follow the others, though his legs were as supportive as gelatin.
From behind them, the large red creature roared in pain and anger. It filled the night and shook the ground. As the three ran farther away, the sound of the red monster diminished. His roars were less intense, weaker. Eventually, they stopped all together. The chittering sounds, however, did not fade. Instead, they grew and overwhelmed the night calm. It was the only sound in the jungle now.
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Ensign Chase had walked through the coridoors for several minutes and finally came to the junction that would take him to the security station where Corporal Deeks had gone. He took a right at the 4-way junction en route to the station when he heard a noise. Like click clacking across metal. A stacatto scampering across the panels over his head. It sounded as if there were several of them. Then, a clash of noises came from the hall ahead. It sounded like something splashing in water. The noise faded a bit and Chase moved closer. As he rounded the corner, the red emergency lights ahead were out and blackness filled the path. Water ran up to his feet as the hallway slanted down, deeper into the cold, clouded fluid. As he looked, a vein of red darkened the water.
"Help! Help me!", a voice shouted from beyond the dark. It sounded as if someone was drowning.
Chase pulled a flashlight from his belt and walked cautiously ahead. The water began to deepen as he moved down the hall, the red light behind him seemed a thousand miles away. The splashing ahead of him grew louder, but he heard no voices now. The hallway curved up ahead and Chase could not see around the corner. He heard strange noises in the splashing now. The water was half way to his knees. He shined the flaslight in front of him, but saw no one. There were ripples in the water ahead, not from Ensign Chase.
As he rounded the corner he shined the flaslight down the hall and was stunned by what he saw. A young girl with long black hair and a torn, bloodied white dress sat in shallow water only a few meters away. She was singing.
"The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout."
"Are you ok? How did you get down here?" Chase saw that she was playing with something.
"Down came the rain and washed the spider out."
"You need to come with me, it isn't safe here." He didn't question how a 10 year old girl got onto a military ship. He didn't feel that he needed to. Her presence was normal for reasons he couldn't explain. He shined his light on the object in her hands.
"Up came the sun and dried up all the rain and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again."
As he drew closer and shined the light on her, the object in her hands came into view. It was the severed head of Corporal Deeks, his face twisted and torn where the girl had been eating parts of it.
"My God...", Chase whispered to himself and he moved the light to the little girl. She twisted her head around unnaturally. She was bloated and pus colored, with dark purple veins running through her swollen face. Her white eyes glared back at him.
Chase screamed in terror and dropped his light into the water. The beam visible under the surface. He tried to back away, but stumbled and fell. He heard noises from where the little girl had sat. Something thrased in the water and scraped against metal. Chase desperately fished his hand through the water to find his flashlight. When he finally grasped it, he shone it into the darkness ahead. The mangled head floated in the water, but there was no sign of the girl. Chase searched frantically with the light. He noticed some scarring on the wall. Scrapes that led up to the ceiling. He followed them with his flaslight to their end where the little girl clung to the ceiling. Her head twisted back at him, she opened her mouth and her drowned face hissed loudly. She flung herself at him like a predator to the meal.
Chase screamed as the strange yellow spider sunk it's stinger into his chest. The sounds of thrashing in the water slowly faded. Only a strange chittering noise filled the empty halls of the security sector.