The wasp homing in on them curled its tail to point its lethal stinger at them. A second one swooped down to join in the chase.
The three men ran.
Now the light in the cavern had increased to its maximum, the community of insects that dwelt in the forest increased in number. Their cacophony of buzzes, hums, and shrill calls filled the air and many seemed intent on investigating the strange arrivals trespassing in their domain. The three men constantly batted them away before they could bite, sting or claw at them.
Creatures the size of a cat that had a vague resemblance to a squirrel, but one designed by someone with a vivid and cruel imagination, emerged from holes in trees and bared fangs and claws at them. One leapt at the fleeing men.
Theo saw it coming and lashed out with his flashlight. The creature shot into the bushes.
Three more attacked from different directions.
Max struck one with an ice axe, impaling it on its blade. He quickly shook the carcass free.
The trajectory of another squirrel creature brought it in the path of a wasp. The wasp attacked. It landed swiftly on its back and stabbed its stinger into its body. The stinger throbbed when it pumped something into its victim and then leapt off to hover and observe. The alien squirrel screeched and writhed in midair. Its body swelled grotesquely and erupted in a spray of black blood and tiny insects. The group of larva with small wings and bulbous eyes hovered in the air briefly. The mother wasp circled them to round them up before flying off to its nest. The gruesome larva followed their parent.
The third attacking alien squirrel headed for Henry, who dodged aside to avoid it. It lashed out a claw when it shot past his face, leaving behind three small scratches on the tip of Henry’s nose. It fell to the ground and turned for a second attack. The ground around it moved. The creature squealed and leapt for the nearest bush. Thin, bright red, worm-like tentacles erupted from the ground and slithered through the air in pursuit of the fleeing alien squirrel. They wrapped around it, snatched it from the air and pulled it to the ground. The creature writhed in agony when the worms entered its body and began sucking out its internal organs. The ground around it became a dark, blood-muddy mess as it was dragged below the earth.
Henry shivered. He looked down at his feet. The earth around them moved. He jumped aside when the tip of a red tentacle appeared. “Keep moving,” he shouted urgently. “There’re monsters beneath our feet.”
With two alien wasps still after them, murderous alien squirrels looking for an opportunity to attack while they leapt from branch to branch and tree to tree to follow them, and killer tentacles writhing under the ground beneath their feet, the three men sprinted through Hell’s Garden for their lives. All wanted to be free of the vicious, terrifying place.
“There’s the wall,” shouted out Max, when he spied the tall metal structure rising from the undergrowth. A few rushed steps, dodges and jumps, and umpteen more insects avoided later, they reached it. A frantic search for the much desired exit immediately ensued. A wasp latched onto Theo’s rucksack and repeatedly stabbed it with its long stinger like a horny dog latched onto someone’s leg, but it failed to find any flesh to inject its eggs. Max snatched up a branch from the ground and swung it at the attacking insect. Its bright-coloured body splattered into a mess of yellow gore and red and black body parts that stained the bag. The force of the blow sent Theo staggering forward. Henry caught him. While Max fought off the wasps, the alien squirrels and any other thing that arrived to try their luck, batting them into the distance like a baseball pro, Henry and Max continued their search for an exit. They almost missed it because it was hidden behind a mass of creamy vines. Henry searched amongst them for the control button, found it and opened the door. After they squeezed through, the vines sprung back into place to act as a barrier for the inquisitive insects. Henry closed the door.
The three men stared at the door as they caught their breath.
Theo let out a relieved sigh. “That’s one experience I never want to repeat.”
Max glanced at the gore dripping from the bug-splattered improvised bat and dropped it to the ground. “Amen to that.”
Heads jerked and stared along the corridor.
Footsteps approached.
Henry shook his head in dismay. “No rest for the wicked.”
They fled along the corridor away from the approaching menace.
CHAPTER 8
Food
A THIRD DESPERATE PRESS of the button produced the same result as the previous two; the door remained closed. Richard turned and retraced his steps along the corridor he’d explored and halted when a door around the corner swished open. Fearing a monster was on the prowl he switched off his headlamp and listened. Voices he recognized drifted along the corridor. He moved around the corner. Theo, Henry and Max ran in the opposite direction. Though Richard could have called out, his fear of imagined monsters lurking nearby kept him silent. This fear also bade him to move cautiously and not run blindly through the ship where monsters lurked in the darkness. He switched on the headlamp, and at a slow and steady pace, he followed them. The three men leading the way would distract or give warning of any monsters that lay ahead.
The corridor Henry, Max and Theo rushed along ended in a doorway they couldn’t open. They retraced their steps the short distance to another door set in the right-hand wall, one they’d previously ignored. Though reluctant to leave the corridor, the approaching threat from the footsteps they’d heard, made it unwise to backtrack and seek out an alternative route.
A green glow seeped out when the door rasped open. The three men cautiously stepped through, closed the door and gazed around their new surroundings, far different from anything previously encountered. Transparent tubes lined the walls of the huge space. Though some were empty, most were occupied by giant monsters suspended in green liquid.
Though the sight of the large alien creatures was a surprise, it wasn’t as great a shock as it would’ve been if they hadn’t already experienced many other extraordinary sights since setting foot on board the alien vessel. It was evidence how people quickly adapted to their surroundings, and at least the giants weren’t attacking them.
The smooth metal floor that led between the towering walls of pods that stretched the full width of the room, was stained with dark patches, as if a liquid had been spilt and over time had dried out. Tubes, ducts, pipes and cables covered almost every surface of the shiny black metal walls not taken up by the large cylinders.
They stared at the nearest alien giant. Tubes connected to various parts of its body rose to the top of the cylinder.
Theo shook his head in astonishment as he took in the size of the impossibly large creature. “They must be ten yards tall.”
Henry’s eyes roamed the room. “Could these things be the crew?”
“Unlikely,” said Max. “They’re too big to fit through the corridors or doors we’ve passed through.”
“If they’re not crew, they must be cargo,” said Theo.
“An invasion force,” said Max ominously.
Henry glanced around at the empty pods. “What concerns me, is if all of the pods contained one of these giant creatures when the spaceship set out on its journey, where are they now?”
Bubbles rose ominously from the bottom of an alien-giant-occupied tank.
“I wonder if they’re alive; in suspended animation or something.” Theo asked.
“Let’s not speculate, alive or dead, whatever their purpose it’s unlikely it’ll ever be fulfilled as before long they and this ship will be submerged in the ice cold sea.”