Moonlit Retribution

Chapter Sixteen

“My God…” Mella whispers in awe as she hunches over the dead black-eyed creature at the edge of the woods. Half of its head has been blasted off, the remains of it leaking out in a pool of chilled blood. Its face is twisted into an eternal snarl of astonishment.

Ríjez, standing behind me and to my right, shuffles uncomfortably as Mella continues to poke around the creature, taking samples of everything, it seems: hair, skin, saliva, and, of course, blood. Which, now that I look at it more closely, likens more to the blood of the alien I'd encountered so long ago--a gray-blue substance that's splattered in thickened clots on the frozen ground--than any human.

“So,” I chirp crisply. “Is that enough evidence?”

Mella ignores me, muttering something about mutations and rapid evolving and some other crap that fails to intrigue me enough to listen. Shaking her head, she rises and rubs her hands, either in anxiety or just to ward off the cold. She stares at me calculatingly, then snaps her fingers, motioning to Ríjez. “Pull the cart over here,” she commands.

Rolling his eyes, grumbling, he does as he’s told and hauls the old trailer--not a cart--closer to us.

“You may be on to something, Hart. The body shows definite signs of internal changes, mostly in the chemical makeup. The blood is definitely not human, but there’s nothing saying that it’s of extraterrestrial origins.” She levels a neutral expression at me, but nods once. Approval. Awesome! “But, obviously, we need to get this back to the lab for more thorough testing.”

I deflate, shoulders slumping. “Obviously,” I say stonily.

Together, Mella and I heft the body--half frozen with rigor mortis and frigid temperatures--onto the trailer as Ríjez holds it up by the tailgate, keeping it steady. Then we start the slow trek back to the complex, Ríjez silently seething the entire way. I roll my eyes at this.

I don’t know why he’s so reluctant to study this; it’s not about the infection anymore. It’s about the creatures taking us over, the ones that are controlling us, the ones using the infection to wear us down. I haven’t told Mella about his condition, and she seems unaware of it, but he still seems extremely tense around her, like she’ll figure it out and abruptly drag him away to her lab, never to be heard from again. I have to admit that the notion is rather terrifying. Put in his perspective, I guess I can see why he literally fought me when I told him that I had spoken to Mella.

“Are you insane?” he’d roared incredulously. “You know what that bitch’ll do to me if she finds out about this! Forget what Andy’ll do; that wench’ll slice me up like a fucking spiral ham! For God’s sake, I thought I could trust you!”

I’d winced at this, knowing that all of what he said was true. I told him over and over that I hadn’t even mentioned the sickness to Mella, that it was only about retrieving the body and hopefully finding some conclusive evidence in the remains. He’d fought me tooth and nail when I’d asked him to accompany us, but, at last, he’d reluctantly acquiesced to come along.

However, I now have another concern: Mella’s health. She--as well as everyone at the complex, by now--has been exposed to Ríjez, and any amount of contact via body fluids could result in infection. I don’t know if anyone else has developed some kind of immunity, since no one has taken any obvious chances. In theory, no one--besides myself--will be human by the end of the month if we don’t find something fast.

I abandon my position behind the trailer and sidle up beside him as he continues to pull it along by the black metal of the tongue. Stubbornly, he stares straight forward. Though this agitates me, I can see why he doesn’t want to be near me. But that doesn’t mean I’ll give him the satisfaction of pushing me away.

“You’re pissed.” Wow. Brilliant deduction there, Vess. Your emotional insight confounds us all.

Ríjez stays silent, of course. Heaven forbid he speak to me with Mella around. I huff and retake my original position next to Mella, helping to push the trailer.

Dawn is slowly breaking past the gloom of the woods, lighting the eternally overcast horizon a shade or two brighter. I inch a tiny bit closer to Mella. “Keep your eyes open. I don’t know how many others are out here.”

She continues to look forward, her only response a clipped nod. I can’t tell if she takes my warning seriously or not, but I make sure that I compensate for her lack of elaboration and keep a 360 degree scan going. The path we’re taking is one of our more traveled ones, so the land is pretty stamped down and even.  Easy on our feet and the trailer, but also way too exposed. And Ríjez is the only one of us who’s armed. This makes no sense to me, considering that he’s the one who doesn’t have a free hand to aim and shoot, nor is he the most stable-minded of us in our little posse. I know that approaching him about it will most likely earn me more silence, so I don’t bother.

Mella, of course, is oblivious to his internal turmoil and decides to give us her input on the touchy subject of the previous night. “So Mister Ríjez, as a man of the law, I’m sure you know the repercussions of statutory rape.” She says it so casually, but the words are loaded like a deluxe nacho meal from Taco Bell--shut up, stomach! “Though I suppose a parole officer isn’t the same as a police officer…”

I huff irritably, shaking my head. “Just don’t, Mel. There’re more important things to worry about.”

She shrugs indifferently. “True enough, but for now, I feel we need to discuss this. I am your doctor, Miss Hart.”

“Nothing happened,” Ríjez growls quietly, his words almost soundless since he’s still facing away from us.

Mella sniffs daintily. “Piffle. I don’t believe what happened to her neck is a mere ‘nothing,’ Mister Ríjez. Besides, I haven’t a reason to judge. I’m simply curious as to how this came to be.”

I’m only half listening because I’m fairly certain I just heard footsteps a few yards to my left. “There was only last night. Nothing else,” I say distractedly, eying the woods worriedly.

“Oh, me and my big mouth. I suppose I shouldn’t have given you the idea. Teenagers,” she snorts distastefully. “Nothing but walking glands, the lot of you.”

“Excuse me--”

“I went to her.” Ríjez stops in his tracks, halting our procession, and whirls around to glare at Mella. “So just shut the hell up, doctor.”

“Could we all just shut up and drop it, maybe? Yeah? Good.” I glower at the woods. “And Ríjez, you mind loading the gun? I hear something.”

Narrowing his eyes, he immediately twists to the left and scans the forest himself as Mella mimics the gesture. As if my word isn’t enough. “Oh, come now. It’s most likely just a bear or something,” Mella says dismissively, placing her hands back on the trailer. “Could we possibly get moving? At this rate, the body is going to decay before we even set eyes on the house.”

I almost make some snarky comment on her declaration, knowing that bears don’t exist in the area. But I suppose she wouldn’t be the most forest savvy person, considering her lab life.

Gritting his teeth, Ríjez tosses a withering glare at her. “Could you possibly shut your trap? We aren’t nestled in that precious lab of yours, we’re out in the open where, if you ever left the damned house, you’d know that bears, though extinct in this area, are very capable of ripping your head off!” He pants after his tirade, leaving Mella looking vaguely amused. “And for your information, the footfalls are that of a biped’s, nothing on four legs.” He cocks the gun, aiming at the tree line. “So, pardon the cliché, but I believe we have unwanted company.”

Muscles tensing, I face the trees in a defensive stance, crouching slightly while Mella just stands there, crossing her arms petulantly. “Alright, seriously, you two are paranoid. I can’t hear anyth--”

And Andy crashes through the brush, stumbling on rubbery legs, aiming a rifle at Mella’s exposed cranium.

“And that is why you aren’t put on patrol, Everett.”