"Sidjendo, whenever you finish playing with that, do you think, if you go back upstairs, you could do something about that damn machinery? As much as I like the heat and ambient light, all that ozone and that infernal racket have been giving me nothing but splitting headaches."
"I'll see what I can do." If those things went off, nobody would have to worry about that ever again!
The explosives had been designed for opening rock walls. You know, typical mining stuff.
The arming devices, for this reason, had all-too-simple designs. The suitcase contained a radio detonator, but one could just as easily set up a timer and push a button to get the job done.
I glanced over my shoulder.
It probably could have solved a lot of problems just to let it happen. The explosion would close off the lair from the base and stopped a lot of Ss'sik'chtokiwij from killing people.
Of course, it could also damage the heat exchangers and cause a thermonuclear meltdown, killing me, Grandmother, a lot of socmavaj, regular humans, impregnated humans, and the Ss'sik'chtokiwij growing inside them. Although a possible solution to many problems, I could not accept such a heavy burden on my conscience.
I doubted Ssorzechola had thought that far ahead. "Ssorzechola, if you do this, you'll kill yourself in the process."
"You're bluffing."
"What exactly are you killing, Sidjendo?" Grandma said with suspicion.
I didn't answer.
I visualized the diagram I'd seen of the processing station, then archival footage I'd seen about the atomic bomb, houses being reduced to powder in the blast.
Suddenly my body shoved the cylinders back into their foam pockets, snapping the case shut. I resisted the urge to do a victory dance.
I think this little `win' must have short circuited the worms, for I now had little difficulty moving around the chamber, and leaving.
I stopped by the weapon room. Getting holes punched in my arm didn't feel any better in Hissandra's body than it did in mine, but I did what I had to.
The Pale Ones' device that fired bullets appeared to be out of ammunition, and I had no clue about how to reload it. Instead I opted for a harpoon gun. Not as great as I imagined.
I had little desire to get up close and personal with an infected foe, especially when larger than me and ended up dragging me around instead. I discarded the harpoon and tried another.
A blowtorch. I nearly added new heat scars to my face.
Ss'sik'chtokiwij instinctively shy away from flame, so I flinched when the weapon blazed like dragon breath.
It didn't help that I had new memories of almost dying in a volcano.
I steeled myself thinking about the amazing things I saw humans do with fire in the recordings, eating it, forging mighty broadswords, lightly browning cakes...Yes, I thought. This will do.
The headaches returned.
I struck myself several times, but Ssorzechola's power grew stronger. My body drifted back into Grandmother's room.
I did the only thing I could think of: Blasting fire at my claw until Ssorzechola let go.
"Hurry, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik!" Sarah said into my mind. "Ssorzechola's power is weakening. Return to me!"
I needed no further encouragement. I rushed through the tunnels, explosives in claw, flamethrower on my arm, climbing the staircase.
I found a gathering of Ss'sik'chtokiwij on the next floor, and on the stairs leading up. It took some effort to get between them. I would have taken the elevator if it hadn't been so slow.
A Ss'sik'chtokiwij marked with strange ear-like flaps of chitin impatiently paced the platform. "I can't believe this. We're just supposed to wait for the food? It doesn't make any sense!"
Her companion, with shell markings like a domino, replied, "No, no. It makes them easier to kill that way. They get bolder, more complacent."
"Yes, but to go with food for entire days at a time!"
"The humans have an expression. `Good things come to those who wait.'"
"Ssorzechola is going to be waiting for my claws if this doesn't work!"
I kept climbing.
What a heavy suitcase! I had to stop a few times to rest, but I kept going, knowing that any delay would put me at the mercy of Ssorzechola.
A Ss'sik'chtokiwij appeared on the next landing, one with blotchy markings that made you think of a bulldog, two mismatched but lighter colored blotches giving the appearance of eyes on her black head, a nose blotch, and the forward part, being darker than the rest, giving the appearance of canine jowls. "What's that you got?"
"Experimental human slicing tools," I lied. "They're supposed to skin all the meat off their skeleton, but they seem to be broken. I'm returning them to Ssorzechola."
"Ssorzechola is just full of bad ideas. Did you hear about that starvation scheme?"
I nodded. "I'm aware. It's crazy."
"You think it'll work?"
"Maybe." Not wanting to take a stance either way, I hurried upstairs.
Operations had returned to normal. People read manuals, adjusted output levels, did what they could to lower the core temperature.
I watched them work their computer stations with fascination for a few moments, but then backed away when I realized I only served to feed the humans' complacency.
Many still recoiled at my presence. I considered that a good sign.
Tyrone Rockett oversaw the operation of water generation machinery, directing the staff in the maintaining of proper hydrogen levels. Obviously he had help.
The moment he saw me, he read from Noah's little script.
"I know, I know," I groaned in an annoyance. "Wait a few days, then eat everybody. I don't care, I'm a vegetarian."
Tyrone visibly shuddered. "That's...not what it says!"
"Do you presume to tell me what my own language says? Let me see that paper."
With trembling fingers, he handed it to me.
They hadn't used Sarah's alphabet. It was all English phonetics. Frowning, I pointed out the phrases and their meanings.
"I'll have to ask Noah about this," he stammered.
I returned the paper to him. "Noah's dead. Go back to your room."
Tyrone's eyes bulged. "Where are you going with that suitcase?"
"It's for the geology department. We just had a cave in."
He stared for a moment, as if trying to read my face for truthfulness. Having no visible eyes, it didn't matter if they were shifty or not.
He decided to accept it at face value. "Oh. Carry on, then."
Despite Ssorzechola's influence, I didn't harm a single human at the facility.
That could have been because of her influence, for we both didn't want to kill them, at least, at the moment.
I left the processing station, crossing the muddy terrain to the base.
I'm pretty sure Ssorzechola didn't want me there. When a man came out with a box of tools, she tried to make me turn away from him, and when I tackled him into the mud and dashed through the open security door, my head pounded.
`Stop!' Ssorzechola shouted in my brain, but I made myself ignore it, like those shock collars I've been forced to wear.
Agonizingly slow progress. Worse, Ssorzechola took over my body about halfway and used my claws for murder. A young woman with a mullet. Red jumpsuit.
I fought myself for control, and with the help of a little fire, I became `myself' again, though Ssorzechola had forced me back down a few hallways, slowing my progress.
At long last I bolted through the doors of Unit 220.
The moment I entered the room, I screamed and leapt through the air, attacking my own body.
A bizarre experience, watching myself roast the exterior of my own body like a salted peanut, but I lost control of my muscles again.
"What are you doing!" Hissandra shouted with my mouth. "This is suicide!"
In my mind, Ssorzechola mocked me for quoting that bible passage about beating my body into submission.
"I am not in control. I am sorry." I slammed my own skull against the floor.
"Hey, it's your body!"
"It's yours too! Fight me for it! Please!"
I had hit myself before, but not like this. In Hissandra's body, it seemed I had the advantage of speed and muscle. I smashed my fists into my face, scalding my shell with fire again.
Hissandra-me struck back, trying to escape, but she tripped over a mound of shattered chair pieces, falling flat on her face.
I leapt, pounding on her.
"Stop it!" Maria cried. "Stop!" I couldn't control myself.
Roaring, Maria rammed into me. Her worm enhanced body, now the same size as mine, knocked me off of myself.
She invaded my shell with her newly acquired wiggling body extensions.
Not a pleasant feeling, any more than the initial infection had been, like being attacked by a hundred sewing machines at once, but the thread injected itself without the aid of a needle.
My vision turned red, and when it cleared, I swear I saw the human version of Sarah lying on top of my exoskeleton, tapeworms flickering out of her mouth, neck, ears, nostrils and just about everywhere else. "Sarah."
"Relax. I'll get these things out of you."
No one interrupted this process. Kumar leaned against the door frame, calm and not at all surprised by Sarah's activities. Hissandra-me, notably, had kept her word about keeping the man alive.
To my other side, Hissandra-me stood, watching the worms getting purged from the body I currently occupied.
"When can I go back to my old body?" Hissandra-me asked.
"There is no time. When all of this is over, you must make the arrangement yourself. With your Wooby Worms."
"I'm liking this idea less and less."
I myself didn't know how this body transfer would be accomplished, when mine had been bitten off. It seemed Sarah had more faith in miracles than I did. "We're using too much time as it is. I fear it may already be too late."
I lay still, allowing her to work.
To one side of me, near the curtains, I saw a small black woman bent over, tying straps around her ankles to secure her high heels in place.
Why would one purchase a pair of shoes that consist only of half a thin piece of rhinestone covered cowhide and a strap? One of many human things I fail to understand.
Another: Why a person would occupy oneself thus when they should really save time and flee the scene barefoot.
She left eventually, but what nerve!
Catching no glimpse of Aquila, I assumed the woman sought to aid the children, or Kumar's wife.
It took time to de-worm. I thought for sure that Ssorzechola would come out and kill us before we finished. The fact that she did not made me wonder if she even remained behind that curtain.
As if reading my thoughts, Sarah said, "It's very difficult to hold aunt Ssorzechola back. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up."
At long last, she climbed off me, and with the worms, her human image also departed, her body becoming the white shelled Maria, full of parasites.
I rose to my feet, trading my flamethrower for the weapon that I'd used to destroy Noah's head.
Since Sarah had rid Noah's corpse of parasites, in my absence, I didn't get reinfected.
The second I had the weapon attached to my body, a deafening roar shook the building, a pair of big claws ripping down the inner and outer tents, plastic, sheet metal and all, the support pillars and everything else with a thunderous bang. "You took away my godhood, but you shall still face my wrath!"
I aimed my weapon at her head. "I'm sorry, aunt. Too many people have died by your hand...claw. This has to end."
I closed my fist, but the device only clicked. Out of ammo.
I threw the device down in frustration, diving for the blowtorch, but Ssorzechola caught me by the throat before I could get there. "Shame, shame, Sidjendo. I always thought of you as the shrewd one."
"That's Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, Ssorzechola! If I had been as shrewd as you say, I wouldn't have waited this long to kill you!" Hissandra-me leapt on my aunt, gouging a hole through her exoskeleton with her claws.
Ssorzechola hurled her to the floor, accidentally dropping me in the process.
While she abused my other body, I ran to the flamethrower, affixing it to my wrist.
"Hey!" I shouted, hurling debris at her.
My aunt came rushing at me like an angry bear. I retreated just enough to avoid her heavy weight, blasting her with the flamethrower.
Ssorzechola shrieked and backed away, but I kept lighting her up, until she burned like a candle.
She probably would have fried to ash, if not for the unit's recently reactivated fire safety features.
Loud alarms blared as a monsoon came down from the sprinklers.
Ssorzechola roared, going on the offensive.
I aimed the weapon and fired, but the downpour reduced my mechanically aided dragon's breath to the rather unimpressive type of flame that comes out of a cigarette lighter.
Ssorzechola threw me into a wall, beating me with her fists.
My head hit the section of wall next to a portion I'd previously blasted through, knocking down a chunk of metal and some heavy piece of equipment I couldn't identify.
Ssorzechola struck me again. I heard bones cracking.
A flashing gray cylinder rolled between me and my aunt.
A few feet away, Kumar stood with the lead suitcase, hands on a detonator. My jaw distended in alarm.
I kicked, scratched and punched myself away from my aunt, diving through my widened blaster hole.
I stumbled over pieces of a shattered shower in a demolished bathroom, glass and imitation porcelain crunching beneath my feet.
Bang! The tile floor slanted at an angle, throwing me into a wall.
Since the blaster hole no longer led to 220, I climbed the slant, past a dislodged bathroom door, prying open a stubborn pressure door in the living room. I staggered into the hall.
When I entered 220 once more, I found Hissandra-me punching and biting Ssorzechola while Kumar prepared another bomb.
With black hair plastered to the sides of his head, soggy dress shirt and khakis, the Indian looked very serious and determined. He hurled a primed explosive at my aunt, gripping the detonator.
Unfortunately, Ss'sik'chtokiwij have brains.
Ssorzechola picked up the cylinder, grinning as she appeared to examine it.
Hmmm... Her expression seemed to say. I wonder what this is?
When Kumar's thumb came down on that button, she quickly dropped the stupid act, throwing the thing back at him.
Kumar ran dove out of the way just seconds before the whole corner of the room erupted in a planet shattering blast.
"Well..." Ssorzechola dusted her claws. "That was fun. Now, if we are finished with this little game..."
She didn't plan on the entire floor collapsing beneath our feet.
We Ss'sik'chtokiwij only suffered a few bruises and scrapes from the detonation. The others...not so lucky.
Along the rear wall, behind where the inner curtain once stood, a blood waterfall poured down, bleeding limbs stuck out from the broken building parts like a small scale version of the World Trade Center disaster, or a tornado. People screamed in pain from whatever heavy objects had fallen on top of them.
Kumar lay on the floor near one corner, pinned under an air conditioner unit. It looked like he would probably live, but never be able to walk again.
Ssorzechola shoved me backwards over Sunny's empty cookie cart, into a pool of fruit smelling liquid and cookie crumbs, beating me with her fists.
She picked me up, and threw me down on the cart so hard that it collapsed.
Hissandra-me pounced on her back, but Ssorzechola shrugged her off, striking me with such force that the floor bowed and collapsed, chunks of loose debris splashing into the sewer below.
"Come to me!" Maria roared in a surprisingly loud voice.
Ssorzechola laughed. "You think you can command me like Noah and my other pawns?"
"No. I don't need to."
Seconds later, men and women with guns came popping out of holes in the walls and ceiling, peppering Ssorzechola with a hail of bullets.
My aunt roared in outrage, and for a moment appeared to die.
Our victory proved to be short lived.
Ssorzechola gave Maria a nasty grin. "You only think you have control!"
She made a slicing motion across her throat with one claw, and five humans screamed and tumbled headfirst through the holes, breaking their necks as they hit the floor.
She wiggled her claws, and the remaining humans shouted "Ssorzechola!", sending down a rain of bullets upon me, Hissandra and Maria.
Maria clenched her claws, and the firing stopped.
The two worm ridden Ss'sik'chtokiwij faced each other like dueling cowboys in a spaghetti western, circling each other for the kill.
In one deft movement, Ssorzechola ripped open a section of the flooring, and five adolescent Ss'sik'chtokiwij burst from the sewer below, attacking us.
Maria let out the angriest shriek I'd ever heard come from her mouth, leaping upon my aunt.
The two plummeted into the sewer.
Before I could find out what happened, two possessed Ss'sik'chtokiwij ripped into my other body with their claws, causing her to shriek in pain.
Then three came after me. People started shooting again.
These Ss'sik'chtokiwij seemed more than enough to destroy two battle weakened adults.
If the humans' bullets didn't get us first.