Obsidian

Chapter Five

The creature kept squirming and was almost free from the encasement of the genetic prison I knew not more than an hour or two ago as Phillips. Swallowing hot saliva in an attempt to beat my stomach's urge of vomiting all over the floor, my mind rattled in many different directions. Every ounce of logic told me to turn and sprint until I had gotten off the grounds. Every milliliter of adrenaline formed throughout my body had told me to find a weapon and bludgeon the creature. Every cell of curiosity wanted me to get closer and analyze the monumental opportunity that was literally in front of me. The shrieking from the bug subsided but I knew I had to move now or never. The movements of the entity were more calculated and I could see it writhing out of Phillips a little more with each shuffle.

While I knew next to nothing of the complexity of the creature's makeup, I did know that regular leeches and parasites can't really see. Primarily, they have receptors that indicate light and dark. They also don't have ears but rely on vibrations to connect their surroundings. I took a deep breath and turned off my cell phone's built-in flashlight. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust but after they had, I prepared my weapon of choice and softly stepped toward the creature. It stopped making the awful sound after removing the illumination but I could tell how far it was away from me by the sound getting louder from the bug smacking Phillips' legs the closer I approached. I took one more step and could feel the air wisp by my right arm. I assume the bug was continuing the calculated motion it was doing before I had turned off the light. Davis, it's now or never. Don't let the world end because you are scared. My motivational speeches were not the best.

I didn't take a full step but shuffled forward and slightly turned to my right, assuming the direction I now faced was the direct area the bug was at, meaning the blind and deaf alien creature was within striking distance of me. If it's within striking distance of you, then you are within striking distance of it! I was slightly happier with that self-motivating statement and raised my left hand with the honey-coffee cocktail-filled syringe. I hesitated just a moment and then felt the same gust of air aggressively pass me in a downward direction. As I heard the smack against Phillips' battered limbs, I slammed my left arm down and felt the bottom of my fist connect with the membrane-like fluid that had coated the creature. Before there was a chance for movement, I pressed my thumb on the plunger and delivered the dose of breakfast options to the foreign entity's internal system.

It happened in a split second but once I was done, I immediately turned to run across the common area and back to the side with the tents. The creature had instinctually bucked as the needle's content was released into its system, and while I thought I was acting at superspeed, the shift of the creature knocked into my back calf as I was already turned around and attempting to leave. I tripped and fell forward but caught myself, escaping a complete fall to the ground. I heard the shrieking again and while I wanted to continue to the tents and never look back, curiosity got the better of me. I turned toward the horrific noise and turned the cell phone flashlight back on.

Still protruding from the impact, the erect syringe looked like a slanted unicorn horn as the creature was moving in what looked like an involuntary convulsion. Bubbling around the point of impact and steam from the creature's internal heat release was turning into quite a sight. The limp corpse attached to the creature was getting pulverized underneath the violent hits the bug was landing. The cry was different than when its receptors caught my phone's light. This sound, while encapsulating pain and fear, also held an octave to human ears that had a strange familiarity to it. It sounded like a hurt child calling out for help.

I turned and while I hoped I would have felt better at defeating the intelligent foreign life, I just felt like puking even more. I sprinted around the cafeteria. I almost kept going all the way to the west side where the tents were when the thought of backtracking to this location again seemed daunting. I stopped at the drink station and grabbed all the honey sticks, which felt like a dozen or so, and shoved them in my pocket. After securing them, I grabbed the handles of the two carafes and then ran toward the triage room.