Chapter 15
Rayne screamed at the top of her lungs as she tried to grab hold of the worm. It wrapped its slimy body around her neck before I could even blink, and Rayne gasped for air as she clawed at her neck.
The worm’s head emerged from behind her head and reared itself up beside her ear. It opened its mouth to reveal the horrifying rows of teeth at the end of its writhing body. Then, the rows started to spin. They actually started to rotate around the inside of the worm’s mouth.
I realized it was so it could use them to drill into Rayne’s skull through her ear, which was clearly what had happened to the rest of the aliens on the space station. Rayne turned her head to look at the worm’s face, and she screamed again when she saw its head floating right next to her ear. The worm tightened its grip on her neck, which silenced her scream, and then it reared its head again, ready to attack.
I leaped forward just as the worm dove toward the side of her head. I grabbed hold of the worm just below its gnashing teeth and pulled its head away from Rayne’s ear. It was surprisingly strong, but I managed to wrench its head away from hers long enough for me to press the point around the neckline of the suit that Francine had made for her. The head section of her suit swiftly crawled up her face, which freaked her out for a moment, but once it was in place, the worm lost its grip. It tried desperately to squeeze her throat again, but the suit wouldn’t allow it.
Besides, it was also busy fighting me.
“Rayne, brace yourself,” I said.
“Okay,” she said with a hoarse voice.
I held the worm’s head with my right hand and grabbed its body with my left. Then, I pulled with all of my might while the worm screeched as it was forcefully dislodged from Rayne’s neck. I swung it around and slammed it against the opposite wall of the elevator. Its head hit the buttons that selected which floor the lift would stop at and managed to press buttons for the other floors as it connected with the metal. A splatter of blood shot out of its mouth and onto the wall, although I wasn’t sure that the blood was the worm’s. It was probably one of its other victims’ whose head it had drilled into.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t dead yet. I was holding it near the end of its tail, and it reared its head up to look right at me. It knew that Rayne’s head was covered with the suit now, so that meant that my exposed head and vulnerable brain was its new goal. It gnashed its teeth together and tried to bite me, but I slammed it down on the floor. Then, I placed my foot on its head to hold it in place while I grabbed its tail with my hands. I started to pull on the tail, and a couple of seconds later, the worm ripped in half, and its guts poured out over the floor. It went limp, and it was obvious that it was dead.
But the other one wasn’t.
I felt a weight suddenly land on my shoulder, and when I turned to look, I found myself face to face with another one of the bastards. It screeched and opened its hellish mouth, ready to burrow into my head. I grabbed its body just underneath the head, pulled out my gun, and fired a laser straight through its head with a short burst. Its head exploded, and dark green goo decorated the back wall of the elevator, along with a burn mark from the laser shot.
Clearly, there were more worms looking for bodies, so I quickly pressed the section at the neckline of my suit, and the headpiece poured over my head. Once I was protected, I checked the ceiling, but nothing else dropped through.
I looked down at the two dead creatures on the floor. They were disgusting, and it made me shiver to think about how many of them there were in the space station, coiled up around their victims’ spines or inside their brains, controlling them like puppets.
I looked over at Rayne, and I found myself looking at a masked face just like mine. From the outside, it looked kinda strange. But at least she was safe and protected.
“This is the worst day ever,” she eventually said. “Brainworms. Of course, there have to be Brainworms.”
“Those suckers are gross,” I said as I wiped some of the goo off my arm. “Did you see the--”
“Teeth?” Rayne said. “Yeah, they were kind of hard to miss. I’ve never seen teeth rotate like that, have you?”
“Nope,” I replied. “It was like a garbage disposal.”
“A what?” she asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” I replied. “So, these things drop down from the ceiling like Goddamn blood-sucking vampires. That’s not creepy at all.”
“It just landed on me, and the next thing I knew I was choking and looking right at its ugly face,” Rayne sighed as she put her hands on her head and took a few deep breaths.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” she replied with a nod, and even though her face was covered, I could almost hear her smiling. “Thanks for, you know, pulling that thing off me.”
“Don’t mention it,” I replied.
“No, really, I owe you one,” she said. “You, too, Francine. If I didn’t have this suit, I don’t know what would’ve happened.”
“That is alright, Rayne,” Francine said through Bob.
“The whole climbing up my face thing was kind of weird,” she said. “But I think I could definitely get used to it.”
“Well, hopefully, you won’t need to use it that often,” I replied. “Listen…”
“If you’re going to apologize for bringing me here with you, then shut up,” she said. “I chose to come with you. I knew what I was signing up for when we left Wildern. So, whatever happens while we’re traveling all over the place is on me, not you.”
“Got it,” I chuckled.
“Good,” she said.
We both jumped as a beep sounded inside the elevator, and a minute later, the doors of the elevator slid open on the next floor above the Medical Bay. Both Rayne and I braced ourselves for another attack. I aimed my gun through the quickly growing gap in the doorway, and Rayne did the same. I saw her roll her shoulders as she psyched herself up to possibly face off against more of the worms, and I did the same.
As soon as the doors were open, I pointed my gun up at the high ceiling of the hallway that stretched out in front of us. From what I could see, there didn’t appear to be any worms clinging to the roof waiting to drop down and burrow into our brains. We peered into the dimly-lit hallway, but I couldn’t see any signs of movement whatsoever.
“Is it weird that I find it more scary when it’s totally quiet?” Rayne asked.
“Nope,” I replied.
“Because I do,” she said. “I really, really do. I mean, they could be anywhere. They could be in any shadow or any of the bodies on the floor. And I hate that they can’t just leave the bodies in peace, either. They use them like tools when they should be given a proper burial.”
“I know,” I sighed. “It’s awful. They’re parasites.”
“We need to find a way to stop them,” she said with a strong determination in her voice. “But--”
Suddenly, a blurred object zipped around the corner of the elevator and shot through to the back wall.
“Not another one,” I grunted.
I aimed my gun at the worm, but it moved again onto the ceiling before I could hit it. It bounced around the elevator like a toddler in a bouncy castle until it launched itself at my face. I was standing right by Rayne, and I unsheathed one of the knives around her belt, raised my hand, and sliced the bastard in half before it reached my head. It fell onto the ground with a squelch, and I kicked the two halves out of the doors just as the elevator door started to close.
As I looked deeper down the hall, I started to see one of the bodies in the distance start to slowly get to its feet. Its arms dangled down at its sides because the worm in its brain hadn’t assumed control of the two limbs yet, but the legs moved just enough to allow the body to turn around enough to look right at us. In the dim light, I could hardly see anything, but I was certain that I could see one of its eyes pop out as another worm burst out of its face.
“Close,” I said as I pressed the close button again. “Close, close, close!”
The alien started to run toward us with the worm hanging out of its face, and I kept on pressing the button, even though I knew that it wouldn’t make the doors close any faster. But, with only the backup generator operating the elevator, the speed of the doors closing was significantly reduced, meaning the doors only closed a few moments before the alien reached us.
“Man, I really wish I hadn’t slammed that worm into those buttons,” I sighed.
“It’s fine,” Rayne panted. “One more to go, and then we reach the top floor.”
“The next one’s the trading floor,” I said. “It’s gonna be packed full of Brainworm-infested dead aliens. As soon as those doors open, we start pressing the button to make it close. In the meantime, we shoot the hell out of any corpse that wakes up and comes at us.”
“Okay,” she said with a nod. “I’m ready.”
“Are you?” I asked.
“No,” she laughed.
“But you can fake it until you make it,” I said.
“I like that phrase,” she laughed. “Fake it until I make it. That’s exactly it.”
“So… are you ready?” I asked.
She gave me a thumbs up, and it took me back to when I had first met her. I had given her a thumbs up, and I had explained to her what it meant, and since then, it had been our thing, and it always made me smile. I gave her a thumbs up in return, and then we turned and braced ourselves for the doors to open.
The ding eventually sounded, and it struck me right in the gut when it did. I took a deep, steadying breath, and waited for the inevitable opening of the doors. I felt all of my muscles tense as my finger tapped the trigger of my gun. The night vision in my protective suit kicked in as the elevator door started to open again. Rayne’s green eyes were adapted purely to see in darker environments, so she could see fine as well. Her hands held her gun steady, and she showed no signs of the fear that she felt. She really was faking it until she made it.
“Here we go,” I said as I felt the elevator come to a stop.
We both watched as the door started to open. I took slow, deep breaths, and as soon as I could see the room beyond, my eyes started to scan the scene beyond. The Trading floor was lined with stalls along the sides of the massive room, and all of the products the stalls had to offer were strewn across the counters and the floors. But, there were more bodies, each of them just as discarded and abandoned as the products they were selling, probably less than an hour ago.
As soon as the door opened completely, I pressed the close button, and then all we could do was wait.
We watched as all of the bodies started to wake up again. I watched the aliens twitch and jerk, just like the first body had in the Medical Bay, and all of the others after that. One alien lumbered out from behind one of the stalls carrying what looked like some kind of crowbar and held it above its head like it was some kind of trophy. Its head snapped to look at us when it heard the elevator open, and it hesitated. Even though the other worms had come straight at us, this one was actually considering whether or not to come near us.
“Why isn’t it coming for us?” Rayne whispered.
“Maybe it’s… learning?” I suggested.
“Don’t say that,” Rayne groaned. “You think these things learn now?”
“Maybe they have some kind of hive mind,” I said. “They know that attacking us like they have been hasn’t worked so far, so now they’re coming up with some kind of different strategy.”
“Well, I don’t really want to wait around to see what that strategy is,” Rayne said as the elevator door began to close.
“Me, neither,” I replied as the door shut with a soft thud.
“Shit,” Rayne said as the elevator started to rise for the final time.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Don’t you remember how many dead bodies there were in the entrance hall?” Rayne said.
“Oh, right,” I sighed. “There were--”
“Hundreds!” she said. “There were hundreds. And we’re going there now. And we don’t know what’s waiting for us up there, but I’m willing to bet there’s a lot of slithering and burrowing going on.”
“Yeah,” I replied.
“But all we need to do is get through that room, and then we’ll be at the ship,” she said. “And then, we can get out of here.”
“Yeah, uh, about that…” I said.
“I don’t like that tone of voice,” she replied. “What does that mean?”
“Well--” I began, but before I could finish my sentence, the elevator beeped and the doors slid open.
Rayne and I tensed up as the doors opened, but instead of another army of the undead facing us, we found ourselves in a totally silent room. The bodies lay on the ground, completely still, and it didn’t look like any of them had begun to wake up just yet.
“They’re still dead,” Rayne said. “As in, dead dead.”
“Well, then let’s go before they do wake up,” I replied.
Rayne nodded, and then we both grabbed the trolley with the Nano-Developer and shoved it out of the elevator, while Bob hurried along after us.
Getting through the entrance hall was like navigating a labyrinth. We carefully pushed the trolley around the piles of bodies, and we were careful not to touch any of them or even breathe too heavily, in case we disturbed one hair on one head and woke up the whole troop.
I kept my sights locked on the doors at the end of the room as we navigated the grisly scene. I knew that once we got to the doors that we would have to open them wider in order to get the trolley through, which meant there would be several seconds when we were still. But, once we were through those doors and into the hangar, it was just a short sprint to the ship.
As I looked down at all of the dead lying on the ground, I thought about the fact that we had been running from the Karaak, who were a genocidal species, and we had managed to walk right into the nest of another equally genocidal species, only the worms were a little more gross-looking than the Karaak were. I just hoped that no other poor soul arrived here, since someone without a protective suit probably wouldn’t last long against the Brainworms.
What really worried me was the idea that someone could come here and take some of the worms with them. The creatures were more intelligent than I’d originally thought and had managed to take down the space station in no time at all, so there was still a chance that they could get off the space station and take down another whole ship, or even a planet.
We had almost reached the doorway, and Bob scurried ahead of us. He reached out with his two arms and started to push the door open wide enough for the trolley. I winced as the metal screeched against its track and cringed when Bob grabbed the ankles of the body in the doorway and dragged it out of the way. I kept my eyes locked on the body as we passed it, just in case it suddenly woke up, but it remained perfectly still.
“Maybe the worms killed these people first and moved down to the lower floors?” Rayne whispered as we entered the hangar. “Maybe they’re only on the lower levels?”
“Let’s hope so,” I replied.
Once we were out in the open in the hangar, Rayne and I sprinted over to the ship. The sound of the trolley’s wheels on the floor echoed around the cavernous space, and I turned back to check no one was following us several times, but apart from Bob, the coast was clear.
Still, as we got further away from the entrance, a pit started to open in my stomach. It felt wrong to simply fly out of here and leave it for someone else to deal with, and while I knew it wasn’t the easy route, I realized I had already made up my mind about what needed to be done.
We reached the ship, and I loaded the Nano-Developer into the storage compartment, though it was a bit of a tight fit thanks to the stasis tubes that were in there already. I quickly checked the Lilacrons’ vitals, and then made my way back down the ramp. Rayne had opened the door into the cockpit and had already loaded Bob into it, and she turned expectantly to me. But, her face fell when she looked at me.
“What is it?” she asked.
“You’re not going to like this,” I replied.
“What are you thinking?” she asked. “I know that face, and it’s never good.”
“We’re trying to save Earth and other species from the Karaak,” I said.
“Yeah,” she replied. “So?”
“So, these Brainworms are exactly the same as the Karaak,” I said. “They take lives without remorse and destroy everything in their path.”
“I’m not sure I like where this is going,” she muttered.
“I do not like it, either,” Francine-Bob said from the doorway.
“If we leave these worms here, they’ll probably get onto whatever other ship pulls up here and escape to another planet,” I said. “We’ve seen what they’ve done here. And they could do that to any species anywhere they want to. But right now, they’re contained in one space.”
“Don’t say it,” Rayne sighed.
“I think we should find a way to get the space station to self-destruct,” I said.
“He said it,” she groaned.
“That way, we kill the worms, and we save any future species from them,” I said. “We’re fighting the Karaak now, but we could end up fighting these worms in the future. And then, we’ll be thinking how we could’ve beaten them back at this space station. Think of all the lives we’ll save.”
“Why do you have to be so persuasive?” Rayne sighed as she stepped away from the cockpit doorway.
“You don’t have to come,” I said. “I’ll go alone.”
“Good joke,” she said as she crossed her arms.
“So, you’re in?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “These worms could take over the whole universe if they got the chance. You make a good argument.”
“Thank you,” I replied. “Okay, then. Let’s go find a way to blow this baby up.”
“Please, never say that again,” Rayne laughed.
She put her hand in mine, and then we turned and ran back into the lion’s den.