Proof of Concept (Asylum Chapter 15)

[Content Warning: strong language, violence, gore]

Amber eyes pierced the swirling dust cloud, pinning Jordan Deakes in place. Beneath his feet, the broken road continued to shudder as the creature wrenched itself from the hole it had torn open.

‘What the hell is that?’ Jaq’s hoarse voice barely registered over the crack of bone snapping against bone.

The beast advanced, its head appearing through the murk. Between the eyes and a black mouth, sinewy feelers extended left and right. They bent forward, jumping and skipping over debris as the creature investigated the ground before it.

The dust started to settle, affording them a glimpse of its long body. Inky black segments stretched for twenty feet.

‘It looks like a centipede.’ Gil’s tone was high, edging on hysteria.

‘Big fucking centipede,’ Theo said.

Hearing a nine-year-old boy swear snapped Deakes from his stupor. He knew the kobaloi only resembled children, but facing the giant arthropod was circumventing his normal mental processes.

‘Get to the building.’ He pointed to the two-storey complex that was the hub of the Asylum. Three people stood beside the open door, gaping at the centipede in disbelief.

Theo and Jaq shot forward, with Gil and Deakes close behind. The movement alerted the centipede. Its head spun in their direction and one of the antennae reached out, catching Gil’s leg and tripping him.

The clicking of bone on bone increased as the monster fully emerged from the dust shroud. Pale orange legs descended from each body segment, giving the beast surprising speed and agility. But the nerve-shredding sound came from two further appendages attached to the centipede’s foremost section; an extra pair of limbs, ending in large crab-like pincers.

One of the claws swept down, opening as it reached for Gil.

*

Theo stopped running when he heard Gil scream. He turned as his friend was hoisted from the ground by his leg. His own knees trembled.

Beside him, Jaq made to run for her brother. Theo grabbed her and held her in place.

‘Get off me,’ she spat as she struggled against him.

‘Listen to me,’ Theo said. ‘Deakes may be a human-’ he said the word as if it were a swearword ‘-but he’s better placed to help Gil. There’s nothing you can do but get in the way.’

Jaq’s wriggling softened. To convince her further, Theo flashed a smile which he hoped conveyed more assurance than he felt. She responded with a grimace of her own.

‘You two, get inside.’

Theo looked up. Thomas Harris, the head of the Asylum, pointed at the doorway, then turned to a bearded man. ‘Fletch, get the rifle,’ Harris commanded.

Fletch bolted inside, leaving Theo, Jaq, Harris and a Chinese man watching the assault on Gil.

*

He’s not a boy, Deakes reminded himself as Gil was hauled into the air. But as much as his brain understood the physiology of kobaloi, his eyes saw a twelve-year-old dangling from a giant claw. The centipede was pulling Gil closer to its mouth, a black pit which stretched open in anticipation. At each side of the maw, two stubby limbs waited to guide its food into the darkness.

With teeth bared in a hostile grin, Deakes sprang forward. He scooped up a fist-sized piece of concrete and hurled it at the centipede’s eye. His aim was off and all he achieved was striking one of the beast’s antennae. The feeler bristled and immediately lunged for him.

Deakes threw himself to the floor and rolled under the approaching attack. He got to his feet and jumped at Gil, wrapping his arms round the kobaloi’s flailing body. His weight pulled Gil free and they landed hard on the broken ground. Gil screamed and Deakes saw the cost of his actions; while being yanked out of the centipede’s claw, his trousers and flesh had been shredded. Blood welled from a dozen wounds in his calf.

‘Can you stand?’ Deakes asked.

Gil groaned, unable to answer.

The centipede’s claw swayed above them, snapping viciously as it swung from side to side. Antennae writhed across the ground in search of its lost prey.

Deakes scrambled backwards, away from a probing feeler, jumped to his feet and reached down for Gil. The kobaloi was light but his squirming made it difficult for Deakes to secure purchase. The second antennae found Gil’s arm – the claw zeroed in on him.

Sweating and cursing, Deakes clutched at Gil’s clothing. He could not get a firm enough grip to pull him from the path of the descending claw.

He registered a gunshot, recognising the rifle report from his time in the army. Above them, a wet explosion preceded a shower of orbital fluid. The centipede backed away, giving Deakes the time needed to lift Gil from the ground. He pitched the kobaloi over his shoulder and sprinted for the safety of the building. At the doorway, Theo, Jaq and Harris urged him on while Fletch trained a rifle on the monster.

A glance over his shoulder showed Deakes that the centipede had abandoned its attack. It was turning around, heading back to the crater from which it had crawled. Its back end came into view. A chill shivered through Deakes.

A segmented tail rose from the rear section, brandishing a curved tip.

The tail whipped forward. Deakes dropped Gil and threw himself at Fletch. Fletch crumpled beneath him. A second later, the sting struck the ground on which he had been standing. He stared at Deakes, eyes wide and mouth agape.

‘You’re welcome,’ Deakes said with a wry smile.

*

Theo was only a heartbeat behind Jaq in rushing to Gil’s side. His friend was pale and was mumbling incoherently. Blood oozed from his leg, collecting beneath him in a tacky pool of crimson.

‘Come on, Gil,’ Jaq said, barely suppressing a sob. ‘Stop being a drama queen.’

Her brother fell quiet. His eyes turned to hers and his lips lifted sadly.

‘It hurts, Jaq,’ he breathed.

‘I know.’ She looked at Theo, imploring.

Theo gave her a tight grin. ‘They’re bound to have medical supplies here. Just hold on.’

He ignored the humans and ran through the open door. The beige lobby beyond was tiny, holding only a single rubber plant and a second pair of double doors. Neither door would open; the card scanner on the left told him why. With an impatient curse, he rushed back outside, stumbled and caught hold of Harris to stop himself falling.

Harris gripped his shoulders to keep him steady.

‘Calm down, Theo,’ he said. ‘We need to help your friend.’

‘Thank you,’ Theo muttered. He walked back to Jaq, surreptitiously pocketing Harris’s the ID card.

*

‘What the hell was that thing?’ Deakes asked as they carried Gil inside. He held the kobaloi’s torso while Harris took his legs. Fletch wandered ahead, opening doors, and Dr Zhu held Gil’s wrist, keeping a check on his pulse. Theo and Jaq trailed behind.

‘Let’s not speculate just yet,’ Harris said.

‘Wǒ rènwéi wǒmen zhǎodàole shīzōng de shíqī míng yǒusè rén zhǒng,’ Zhu said.

His habit of only speaking Chinese annoyed Deakes at the best of times. Right now, he wanted to slap the man. Had he had the opportunity to access the translator app on his phone, he may have been more accommodating.

However, he did recognise some of the words. Just after the last earthquake, Zhu had said ‘shíqī míng yǒusè rén zhǒng,’ which had been translated as, ‘Pock seventeen’. At the time, Deakes had assumed his app had been mistaken. Maybe it had been working correctly but he had not understood the context.

Fletch led them upstairs and into one of the rooms the staff used for overnight stays. It resembled a cheap hotel room; single bed, plain wood wardrobe and a tiny ensuite.

Deakes and Harris carefully laid Gil on the bed, then backed away to allow Dr Zhu room to assess the damage.

‘What was it?’ Deakes repeated his question, adding, ‘let’s speculate.’

Harris ignored him, rushing from the room.

Fletch’s voice trembled when he answered. ‘It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before. Not even in legends.’

Deakes spun on him. His opinion of the bearded man was not high. If Theo was correct and the Asylum had been involved in Cruise’s kidnapping, he was Deakes’s number one suspect. He had no doubt that Fletch would hide that he had any knowledge of the monster.

But his wan face gave Deakes pause. Fletch looked at him, his mouth stretched thin in a smile that bordered hysteria.

‘Something like that should not exist,’ he muttered. ‘It’s impossible.’

In the past year, Deakes had met a woman who could transform into a raven, a boy who could talk plants into sentience, a siren, vampires, fire-breathing beetles.

‘Everything here is impossible.’

Harris returned with a first aid kit, hurried to Zhu’s side and began dressing Gil’s wounds. The Chinese man took a syringe, drew some clear liquid from a vial and leaned over the kobaloi.

‘What is that?’ Jaq demanded. ‘What are you giving him?’

‘Morphine,’ Harris said. ‘Just a small dose.’

Within seconds of the painkiller being applied, Gil’s trembling subsided. His expression relaxed, the pain replaced by an easy, peaceful smile.

Zhu said something in Chinese, reminding Deakes that he still hadn’t turned on his translation app. The message was relayed by Harris in English.

‘He’ll live. He’ll be out for a few hours and will likely need a few days to recuperate, but there should be no lasting damage.’

Jaq issued a sob, the sound a mixture of released anguish and realised relief.

Harris turned on Deakes. ‘Perhaps you can explain why you brought these kobaloi here after they explicitly declined my invitation.’

Deakes’s stomach knotted. This was the first time Harris had displayed anything approaching hostility toward him. Had Andrea been present, she would know exactly how to diffuse the situation. But she was absent, sent by Harris on a secret mission.

Still, Harris did not hold a candle to the first sergeant-major Deakes had encountered at boot camp. That man had rattled him so badly that nobody could come close to filling him with shame and dread.

He held Harris’s gaze as he explained.

‘Their Sage has gone missing. The kobaloi thought the Asylum may be responsible and I was proving to…’ He turned to indicate the clan leader. In confusion, he said, ‘Where is Theo?’

*

When the others had been carrying Gil upstairs, Theo had made his departure. On his previous visit to the Asylum, he had been escorted to and from the recreational area. Moving past there now, he pressed further into the building.

As suspected, Harris’s pass accessed every locked door. Theo expected he would find Cruise in no time. He had no idea where they were holding her, but he had seen enough movies to know that humans always kept their prisoners underground; dank dungeons or sterile cells. All he needed was to find a staircase that led down.

He popped his head around an open doorway. Four people busied themselves in an office, ignoring both him and one of their ID passes left on a nearby desk. He hurried by unseen. The next doors led to a large room lined with TVs, a storeroom, kitchen then a toilet.

The corridor ended at a final door. Theo grinned as he read Authorised Personnel Only. He was on the right track.

Harris’s ID opened the door and he slipped inside. The air was cooler and carried the scent of disinfectant. Immediately on his right was Dr Zhu Jing’s office, according to the name plate. Theo doubted Cruise would be in there, but he wanted to be thorough – and his curiosity was piqued.

Bookcases lined one wall, expensive-looking lab equipment occupied a bench in a corner and, in the opposite corner, sat an L-shaped desk. Ignoring the scientific gewgaws and the heavy-looking reference books, he wandered to the desk. An A4 notebook lay on one side, with a pencil-filled caddy within easy reach. On the other side, a flatscreen monitor suspended over a keyboard.

Theo touched a key at random and the screen came to life. White lettering on a royal blue background: Proof Of Concept (POC).  Beneath the words, an empty field awaited a password.

With a disinterested shrug, he left the room and continued along the corridor. A lab, larger than the kitchen he had passed, contained only two people. Both were engaged in their separate tasks, allowing Theo to sneak past without alerting them to his presence.

The next door bore the warning Danger: Live Specimens. He pushed it open to reveal a descending flight of stairs. Cruise was as good as found.

With lips twisted into a victorious grin, Theo followed the steps down.

Author's note:

'Wǒ rènwéi wǒmen zhǎodàole shīzōng de shíqī míng yǒusè rén zhǒng,' translates as, 'I think we found our missing pock seventeen.'

* * *

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