Page 4 of A Very Monstrous Desire

“I’m not here willingly,” Theo said.

The group sighed. They were all well aware of it.

“Not an issue, mate,” Joel said. “Just means you’ll want to get the thing done as quickly as possible. Besides, you’re an endurance runner, which means if the shit hits the fan you’ll return here and let the bosses know what’s happened.” He pointed south. “The route we’re taking to clean them out is almost twenty miles in any given direction from here to there. You can run that in two and a half hours.”

“Less,” Theo said, looking down at his feet. He understood now why they’d let him wear his favourite pair of running shoes.

“So, you’re our back up plan,” Joel added before pointing at Julia. “And you after him.”

“Might take me a bit longer to run that!” she said. “But I have no intention of running anyway. We’re going to clean these fuckers out!”

The group all agreed, even Theo, because he was rapidly coming to the realisation that he was stuck in this now, and it also felt quite good to have been assigned a key task. It was true that the task would only happen if they were all eaten or killed, but still, it was the thought that counted.

Joel continued his motivational speech, complimenting Julia and then Dimitri. Theo was impressed. As well as being very good looking in a heavy gym-goer sort of fashion, Joel was shaping up to be a good team leader. He was absolutely an improvement on Theo’s line manager in his regular job. Despite the fact they’d all worked remotely for years, Cara still didn’t understand that she needed to aim her camera at her face on teams calls, meaning Theo often spoke exclusively to her forehead.

Not long after the speech concluded, Joel made his way over to the truck and pulled out the containment bomb. They all stood back at this point to let him work, chatting amongst themselves, though Dimitri and Julia had taken watch lest something sneak up on them. The munching monsters weren’t the only monsters in the area.

“It’s ready!”

The containment bomb had been designed by a combined team of English, French, and German scientists. Desperation was often the mother of invention, and in this case, they had come together to invent something that would allow them to keep the munching monsters contained whilst they exterminated them. It worked by surrounding the entire area with a sound barrier pitched at a particular frequency overlaid with a pattern of vibrations. Theo didn’t quite understand how it worked but he knew that the munching monsters would not cross the barrier. Most of southern Cornwall, almost the entire coast of southern Wales, the channel tunnel, and various areas in northern France were live infestation zones surrounded by these bombs. Soldiers went in and they did not come out until the munchers were dealt with. That was easier said than done though, especially as the Normandy infestation had started before the bomb had been invented and the munchers had spread rapidly. MDF soldiers had been working there for months.

A humming suddenly filled the air and a few moments later Theo also thought he sensed a static sort of feeling, like a spark of electricity. The university students clearly felt it too, as they took a step back.

“We’re all set!” Joel said. “Everyone got everything they need?” He laughed. “Well, it’s too late now if you haven’t!”

“What causes the static?” Theo asked as Joel joined the group again.

“Static?”

“Can’t you feel it coming off the bomb?”

Joel frowned and lifted his gun. “It doesn’t produce any static. Look alive, troops, something else might be here with us.”

They did as he asked instantly, guns lifting and adrenaline suddenly spiking. They were far from the infestation here it was true but that didn’t mean they were far from everything that was a threat. The munching monsters in this part of England were not the same ones that were in Normandy or in Wales or even in Cornwall. They had come through a different dimensional rip somewhere in Somerset, which meant other things could and probably did come through as well.

Another screeching monster, maybe.

A manganese monster, unlikely.

But they were just two of the dozens and dozens of monsters that had flooded mainland Europe and its surrounding islands since the dimensional rips had started three years ago.

What had caused them? No one knew.

How many other dimensions did they lead to? Just one it was thought.

Was that confirmed? No.

Why were there rips in France and not America? England and not India? Italy and not Australia? No one knew that either, but Europe was on the front line and the rest of the world were either actively helping or were watching and waiting to see if they were going to be next.

“Let’s get into formation,” Joel said after a moment, and they all responded in the way they had been taught in their drill classes. Joel took point, followed by Gill and then Julia. Theo was next followed by the university students. Dimitri brought up the rear. “We’re not likely to see any signs of infestation today,” Joel added. “We’re too far out, but it’s important we start here, can’t take any chances, and you never know, and if in doubt, you damn well shoot.”

“Everyone human has been evacuated?” Gill asked. “Right?”

Joel laughed. “Evacuated or eaten, champ. It’s one or the bloody other!”

Chapter

Four

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