Slimer

‘It came from that direction,’ cried Buckley, pointing down the corridor. ‘Come on.’

A sick feeling enveloped Paul as he followed Buckley at a run. If anything had happened to Linda…

There was a great deal of mutual relief when the two groups were reunited in the recreation room. After Paul had been reassured that Linda was alright and that the gunshot had been an accident he brought her and Chris up- to-date on whaj they’d learned since they’d left that morning. Then it wajj Linda’s turn to brief him and Mark on what had happened them. By the time she’d finished Paul’s anger towards Ales had been rekindled and he turned on him accusingly.

‘You were going to rape her.’

Alex stared back unabashed. ‘I was just foolin’ around,’ he said arrogantly. ‘I was drunk, I guess. Then after she hit me on the head I got a little mad.’

‘Is that allT Paul began to advance on him. ‘I should kill you.’ ¹

The switch-blade suddenly appeared in Alex’s hand. ‘Go ahead and try.’

‘Leave him, Paul!’ cried Linda. ‘I’m fine. He didn’t touch me. It’s Rochelle we should worry about. Something worse happened to her.Tell them, Ro.’

Rochelle was still sitting on the floor, slumped against the cupboard door. She hadn’t been taking any interest in what had been going on. There was a look of dazed terror in her eyes as if she was still seeing whatever it was that had scared her.

Then, on Linda’s urging, she slowly described the events in the aquarium. When she’d completed her story there was an uneasy silence. Alex was first to break it. ‘Must be the same bitch I ran into,’ he said, ‘but I didn’t see anything wrong with her mouth.’

‘And the same woman we encountered,’ said Paul. ‘Dr Carol Soames.’ He turned to Buckley who was looking uncomfortable. ‘Well?’

He shrugged. ‘She’s infected. With Phoenix. Just like the rest of them. It’s a kind of parasite…’ His voice trailed away.

‘And everybody but you got infected with this thing, is that right?’ asked Paul. '

‘Yeah. I told you that,’ said the American.

‘Ed, where are they all? This place is deserted. You’re the third person we’ve seen since we arrived. Where are all these infected people hiding? And what’s the reason for all the empty clothes we found?’

Buckley’s discomfort grew visibly more acute. ‘It’s complicated,’ he said. ‘I’ll try to explain but like I said I’m no scientist.’

‘Go ahead. We’re listening,’ said Paul impatiently.

But now there was a look of alarm on Buckley’s young face. ‘Oh no, it’s coming.’ He turned towards the open doorway and raised his gun.

Paul turned too. He hadn’t heard a sound. But the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand up.

‘Everyone grab a weapon,’ ordered Buckley crisply. ‘If we put enough bullets into it we might be able to kill it.’

‘Kill what?’ demanded Alex as he frantically looked around for a gun. ‘What’s coming?’

Buckley ignored the question. He hurried over to the doorway and reached for the light switch. ‘You all got guns yet? I’m gonna turn the lights off.’

With the exception of Rochelle, who hadn’t moved, they hurriedly grabbed weapons and took cover where they could. Paul, armed with one of the Ml 6s, took cover beside the couch, pulling Linda down beside him. She still had the revolver.

The room was suddenly plunged into darkness. The only source of light was from the open doorway. Buckley hurried back across the room and crouched down behind a chair near Rochelle. ‘It’s near, very near,’ he hissed.

But the only thing Paul could hear was the thumping of his heart. His eyes were fixed on the oblong of light that was the doorway. Any moment now it would be outlined there…

‘I still don’t hear a fucking thing,’ said Alex hoarsely. He was sprawled on the floor behind an upturned coffee table. Mark and Chris were huddled in the corner to the right of the door.

‘Sshhh!’ ordered Paul.

There was silence. Paul strained to hear any sound from outside but there was nothing.

‘It’s coming… it’s coming…’ whispered Buckley. ‘You’ve got to kill it. Promise me you’ll kill it no matter what happens to me. I’m finished anyway… I know that now…

Paul was too occupied with watching the doorway to pay any attention to what Buckley was saying. His finger wasj locked around the trigger, ready to fire the instant the creature, Charlie or whatever, stepped into sight…

‘It’s close now… closer…’ Buckley’s nerve-wracking! whisper went on. Then he said, ‘It’s hereV

Paul jumped, but the doorway remained empty.

Rochelle screamed.

Paul glanced sideways and froze with horror. Where^ Buckley had been crouched a dark shape was now standing.; And growing. It was already over seven feet tall but as Paul watched the shape grew even taller.

He had no idea what was going on but he swung the bar-' rel of the M16 round towards the apparition. Beside him he heard Linda gasp as she caught sight of what he was seeing too. The shape had turned slightly and the dim light from, the doorway illuminated part of it. Paul had never seen any-; thing like it before.

The face, if you could call it that, was long and smooth except for two large round eyes that seemed horribly blank and lifeless. At the bottom of the ‘face’ there was an eruption of small, squirming tentacles which parted suddenly to reveal an impossibly wide mouth full of triangular teeth.

As the mouth opened Paul heard the same terrifying and; utterly alien cry that he’d heard outside his cabin the night before. This was Charlie.

It was now over eight feet tall, its head almost brushing the ceiling. It had no neck. The head jutted forward from between a pair of massive shoulders from which hung thick, sinuous arms that seemed jointless and ended in two large clusters of tentacles which appeared to have teeth growing out of them.

Rochelle, still screaming, tried to crawl away from it. It noticed her immediately and lashed out with one of its ‘arms’. Rochelle was scooped up off the floor and flung backwards against the wall. She bounced off it with a bone-jarring thud and lay unmoving at the thing’s feet.

This had the effect of snapping Paul out of his frozen state. He took careful aim at the creature’s head and pulled the trigger. It jerked as the bullets struck home but didn’t fall. Instead it turned on Paul and, with an even more deafening screech of rage, began to advance towards him.

I’m going to die thought Paul as the creature approached him, but he kept firing and at the last moment it halted. It had been hurt, at last.

Two more guns opened up. Linda’s and Alex’s. Mark and Chris were rooted to the spot, unable to move. The thing bellowed with pain and lurched towards the door.

They couldn’t let it get away again, thought Paul. They had to kill it! He kept his finger hard on the trigger but then realised his gun was empty.

Alex barely got out of the way of the creature as it moved towards the door. As he ducked to one side the coffee table he’d been hiding behind was smashed to pieces by one of the thing’s flailing arms. Momentarily it filled the doorway with its bulk as it bent low to get through, then it was gone.

Paul wanted to throw up. His whole body was shaking with reaction. He walked slowly to the door and made sure that the creature was nowhere in sight then switched the light back on.

‘Jesus,’ whispered Alex, getting up off the floor. He was white. ‘What was.?’