Argurma Monster (The Argurma Chronicles #2)

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 neither Talech 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 insects rushed 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 the brain 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 use Garanga to 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 of Garanga’s system will drain my own systems. And then—”

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

Beverly gaped in horror. She felt sick. Leaning into Talech, Beverly pressed her nose against his neck, blocking out everything but his presence. This had to be some kind of hell. She wished they had never even left the cabin, though the structure had been useless in terms of keeping anything out. Even being back on Earth and facing a dwindling food supply was preferable to a planet full of... of.... zombie-making parasites. The scientist in her wanted to laugh, recalling decades upon decades of references to a “zombie apocalypse,” and yet what had seemed unlikely fiction had happened. They were on a planet filled with an incalculable number of potential zombies that had no thoughts and nothing but a desire to feed and sustain the parasitic host colonizing them.

“Fuck. We’re all going to die, aren’t we?”

“No.” Zoreth’s voice drew her attention, and she looked over at him as he stalked over to Talech. Ignoring the possessive Argurma’s growl, he gripped her chin between his thumb and forefinger and turned her head so that she was meeting his eyes. The burning blue light filling his eyes focused fully on her. “Someone is coming. Garanga has been running the beacon. We will find a high spot away from habitable areas to wait for rescue, even better if it is a transmission location where I can boost the signal for the beacon. We will not die here. We will get off this planet,” he vowed.

She wished she were as confident.