Null Specter Station! Chapter Four: Alive

 

They all heard Blind calling them then his strangled scream being cut off. Samzi already had Ati on the floor, desperately trying to find the cause of the infection as he coughed and writhed around.

“I’ll go check it out,” said Gwynzer, already starting towards source of the commotion, “get hold of Ben, let him know something’s wrong and do what you can for Ati.”

Samzi waved him off and concentrated on the patient, watching the bio scans marking the rapid deterioration in Ati’s fight for survival. There was nothing wrong! No viral signature, no chem hazard, nothing that would point to a reason behind the strange disease that now seemed to stalk them one by one. Ati lurched to the side in another coughing fit. Samzi had lit a glowrod and in the dim light he could make out the glistening wet blobs. Blood. Just like Thomas, Ati’s lungs were filling with blood. He reached to the medpack and grabbed a long tube and inserted it to Ati’s mouth, pushing it down deep within the mans respiratory system. The fluid filling him began to drain out and his coughing abated a little. Samzi had bought some time to cure the illness, but only a little.

Gwynzer ran towards the crates, grabbing a powerful torch and illuminating the path ahead. The beam lit them up like something from a childhood nightmare. Thomas sat bolt upright, cradling Blind in his arms and feasting on the flesh around a gaping neck wound. One of Blinds legs twitched in spasm and Gwynzer could see the blood around the hole welling up, fresh and bubbling. Blinds lungs feebly moved in and out.

Thomas was eating him alive!

“STOP!” he screamed, raising a blaster and aiming at Thomas.

Silence fell again as the echoes died away, only to be replaced by a sickly squishing noise as he drove his head further in to Blinds throat. He pulled away and turned to look at Gwynzer, his jaws still working while pieces of flesh hung from his lips and bright red blood covered his face. His skin was a sickly grey as if already rotten. He threw back his head and howled, a menacing terrifying noise that caused the hair on Gwynzers neck to prick up and seemed to suck the very air from his lungs. High above them came an answering scream, but this one came back louder, much louder.

The weapon in his hands shook as fear gripped him in an icy hold and chilled his core. “Thomas!” he pleaded, the words coming in a terrified shakey whisper as the thing before him tore once more in to Blind. Above, another screaming howl echoed towards him followed by another from deep below in the bowels of the tower. Thomas turned to look once more then screamed back as if challenging him. It pushed Blind away and stood before moving towards him, salivating and drooling.

As soon as he heard the screams Samzi keyed the com, “Ben!”

“Samzi? Wheres the boss?” he answered, puzzled at the break in the chain of command.

“He went to check on Blind, Ati’s sick now too and… I don’t know. We’re not alone here.” Samzi cleared his throat nervously, he felt silly telling Ben he was frightened, but he didn’t know what else to tell him. “I think we’re trapped, I don’t know if we’ll make it. Maybe you should track back.”

“Samzi, you’re the medic right?” a new voice came over the channel, it seemed calmer, in control.

“Who is this?” asked Samzi as he pulled open Ati’s tunic with a spare hand to check his chest.

“I’m Captain Krenyo, I’m leading the armoured column. What can you tell me about this illness? I need a full sitrep.”

“Sir, I can’t tell you anything, the scans pick up no infection, no hazards in the air...”

“Ok, what about the forces in the tower with you, how many Imperial troops?” Krenyo interjected.

“I don’t know, they don’t show on any of the sensor scans. Sir, I don’t think they’re Imperials.”

“Ok, regroup and get out and back to the LZ. I’m pushing the column forward. That sensor station must be destroyed.” Krenyo closed the channel and Samzi was left once more alone with his patient. Ati’s chest heaved up and down in the glowsticks light and as he watched something seemed to move inside, writhing under the skin. Ati’s flesh was turning grey, Samzi could see it moving up, changing from healthy fleshy pink to the sickly pallor.

The screams echoed through the tower once more.

Back near the crates Gwynzer dropped the light he was carrying and took hold of his blaster with both hands, trying to still the twitching weapon as the cries chilled him once more. Thomas lumbered towards him, that hungry mouth gnashing in glee at the prospect of another feast. “What the Sith Thomas, come on! You know me!” He still pleaded with him, yet deep down he knew that there was only one way this could end, kill or be killed.

Thomas lunged and snarled, a bright flash smashing in to his chest and throwing him backwards as Gwynzer pulled the trigger. At close range the weapon burst a hole straight through his chest and exposed flesh and bone. It twitched again then flopped to one side before lifting those dead eyes back to look at Gwynzer.

“Impossible!” he gasped, “Impossible!”

It outstretched an arm and began to try to crawl towards him, a bloody smear creeping across the floor as it edged forwards. Gwynzer took aim carefully and snapped off a single shot to Thomas’s head, twisting the corpse round as the shot struck home and obliterated it. This time it stayed still. Blind had stopped breathing and the howling echoed through the tower once more. Gwynzer bent over and vomited on the walkway, pausing until he was sure his stomach could take another look at the scene near the crates. Two of his friends were now definitely dead, one from his own doing, the other from something he still couldn’t understand.

“Gwynzer!” came a voice in the darkness, “we got to leave, NOW!”