Page 17 of Argurma Monster

He began to scan the horizon, searching for the next point of wreckage that he had cataloged when something shifted and rose along the side of a crumpled bridge. That the damage appeared to be caused by explosives mattered little when his entire focus was on the sole movement. As the shadows condensed and elongated, a figure straightened, and long metal limbs arched up to find anchor points as a coiled mass whipped among them.

A loud breath escaped Zoreth, and he picked up his pace, hurrying forward as Talech dropped to the ground and a shout of excitement came from the female bundled in his arms.

“Zoreth!” Beverly shouted.

She promptly began to wiggle hard enough that Zoreth felt his mouth curve in amusement when the male holding her relented with a growl and set her on the ground so that she could sprint to him. Her small body raced across the distance, navigating the debris from the bridge with a careless excitement that both warmed and concerned him. Opening his arms for her, he prepared to gather the soft warmth of her femininity close as she skirted a particularly large fallen piece of infrastructure. Small pebbles tumbled from it as the rocks unnaturally shifted and fell directly in her path, triggering his warning system as Talech roared his warning.

Zoreth’s eyes sharpened upon them, and then everything within him stilled, his vibrissae rising threateningly. The alien that rose from behind the fallen rock and twisted metal was tall and slender, the tri-crested slope of its brow and long silver hair of a species of which he was familiar. Yet its appearance was at odds with what he knew of the species. With the wild tangle of its hair, tattered clothing, the wide set of its vacant eyes and horrific, twisted gape of its mouth, it looked nothing like one of the gentle and peaceful Kaze whose settlements were welcome across multiple sectors. There was a feral viciousness with which it moved, gurgling as it lurched forward and lunged for Beverly.

Her scream filling his ears, Zoreth reacted, drawing up his blaster even as Talech raced forward, his spinal limbs extending lethally from behind him. The Kaze jerked as the blaster fire struck its body and head before finally falling to the ground at Beverly’s feet. She backed away from the fallen alien only to be hauled up against Talech’s chest once more. A terrible growl rolled from the male’s chest even as his mandibles vibrated in a soft purr for the female in his arms. Zoreth regarded Beverly, assuring himself that she was safe before stalking toward the alien. There had been no sign of the Kaze anywhere within the city until now, and he wanted to know from where it had come and why it had attacked.

Chapter 15

Beverly stared down at the dead alien sprawled on the ground in front of her and swallowed back the bile that crawled up her throat. That thing had clearly once been a person. Possessing a bony crest plate extending up from the forehead like an Argurma, this alien’s tapered to a teardrop point at the top and was instead layered with three crests stacked on top of each other. It complemented the alien’s delicate, pointed facial structure. He had a lithe build as well, though far taller than a human, with lavender skin that she could see peeking out from beneath the blood and grime covering it. He must have once been very handsome, but something had happened to him to turn him into something that was practically a monster. She shivered and backed into the safety of Talech’s arms.

“There are other beings living here... but how? We didn’t hear them or see any sign of them,” she whispered. She understood that there were humans barely surviving in similar crumbling cities on Earth, but there were always some signs of people living in a given area if one looked. But what they had seen so far of the city didn’t look occupied. It looked haunted. “I didn’t even know he was there.”

Talech rumbled soothingly in her ear, his wary glare fastened on the lifeless body as Zoreth slowly approached it. She bit her lip, struggling against her urge to break down and start begging. It wasn’t dignified of a scientist, but at that moment her scientific curiosity deserted her. She just wanted to get out of there. Her teeth bore into her bottom lip harder as Zoreth frowned and crouched down beside the dead alien’s head.

“A Kaze male,” he observed, and his vibrissae whipped as he shook his head. “You failed to hear him because he did not move until you passed his location. It is the same reason that neitherTalech nor I knew he was there. If he had moved at all, my sensors would have picked it up. I would have been aware of his presence.”

Beverly stared at the body, aghast. “That’s impossible. People don’t just not move. Even when we sleep, we move at least a little, enough that it would have been detectable if you were scanning for nearby movement. But you’re telling me that he went from nothing to full out attack without any precursory movement. It doesn’t make sense.”

“It does not,” Zoreth agreed, a note of displeasure in his voice as he inspected the male.

Behind her, Talech’s purr receded, and his growl grew louder as he shuffled back from the body, taking her with him. Craning her head, Beverly peered back at him curiously.

“What are you doing?”

His face was set in hard lines, unrelenting as his gaze dropped to meet hers. “It smells wrong. It is not safe for you to be so close.” He grunted. “Nothing to see but death.”

Although she completely agreed and felt like they should all be considering getting the hell out of there, the analytical part of her brain kicked in. She could think of several arguments to counter his statement, one being that a body could provide numerous important clues, but she was hung up on one word. He didn’t say that it smelled unpleasant or foul—both statements she heard from him numerous times on the island. He said it smelled wrong, which sent a prickle of wariness through her.

“What do you mean that it smells wrong?”

She glanced back over at the body just as Zoreth stepped back from it, his vibrissae rising around him warily as something dark and long in several spots beneath the surface of the skin along the Kaze’s arms got larger and seemed to swell in thick black streaks. The skin suddenly split and several small insectsrushed out, their wedge-shaped upper bodies followed by long, tapered tails that possessed little legs compared to the larger grasping legs at the foreparts of their bodies. Like ticks to a warm body, they rushed directly for Zoreth, who lowered his blaster and shot each of them, turning them into slimy black smears on the stone where they had been.

His mandibles widening warily, he dragged in a slow, deep breath as Talech did the same. Beverly’s skin crawled at the phantom sensation of insects crawling over her body. She restlessly scratched at her arms in reaction. She hated parasites more than anything and that was exactly what those things were. A mass infestation of them. It was unwise to stay so close to a host body, but she remained silent. Knowing that the Argurma possessed additional taste and scent receptors within their inner mandibles and vibrissae, she understood what they were doing and didn’t want to interrupt them while they studied the body. That didn’t stop her from jumping slightly, however, when Zoreth’s voice suddenly broke the silence to talk to his ship’s AI.

“Garanga, scan body for abnormalities,” he growled.

The blue light that shot from his forearm was unexpected, and she eyed it curiously as it slowly ran the length of the Kaze. Just as quickly, the light snapped off and a familiar voice rose from a glowing point on Zoreth’s forearm. Was that...Garanga?

“Abnormalities found: internal organs and subdermal skin affected by infestation. Parasitic colony detected, species unknown. Two hundred and fifty-seven juvenile parasites are in colony clusters along the arms, legs, and genitals of the host. Thirty-five percent of the parasites are developed enough to survive the death of their host, and an estimated minimum of eighty percent of those surviving will reach maturity by consuming the corpse. These parasites are calculated to belong to the parental parasite attached to the host. Its head, mouth, and elongated hooks and feeding arms are imbedded into thebrain while its reproductive center is burrowed into the host’s back. As it reproduces asexually, it can deliver eggs into the host at sustainable intervals without interference.”

Beverly shivered. “How would anyone survive that?”

“They did not,” the AI responded. “Residually active areas of the brain following death indicate that only those areas for core bodily functions were utilized. Parasitic feeding arms surrounding the hypothalamus and fine motor arms extending into the once active regions of the brain and throughout the major organs of the body indicate that the parasite kept the host body merely operational following the death of the host.”

“No wonder we didn’t see him. He hadn’t been truly alive in quite some time,” she whispered. “The parasite had merely been waiting for a meal to pass by to ambush.”

Zoreth nodded grimly as he straightened. “I calculate that he is not the only one affected. Given his state, there is a high probability that the entire city is infested. Caution will be required at all times as we proceed.”

“Can’t we just useGarangato continuously scan for them?” she whispered hopefully.

The male gave her a solemn look. “It uses too much energy. Currently I will have to consume far more fuel than normal to sustain us both. A constant, regular use ofGaranga’ssystem will drain my own systems. And then—”

“He will cease to function,” Talech filled in.

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