The Conqueror Worms Page 25

  “I am born again,” he snarled.

  Without even aiming to avoid hitting Carl, Sarah raised her pistol and pointed it at Earl. “Let him go!”

  “Back off, bitch,” Earl wheezed, “or I’ll squeeze his goddamn eyes right out of his head.” Blood streamed down his chest and back, and bubbled from his lips. I wondered how it was even possible that he was standing.

  Kevin tumbled off the bed, searching for his gun in the darkness. I finally spotted mine, lying half under the bed where it had fallen when I fell asleep. I bent over to snatch it up and a particularly violent tremor rocked the house. As I rose, my head banged into Kevin’s stomach. Kevin fell backward with a squawk, landing on the mattress again.

  “I said let him go,” Sarah warned. “Now!”

  Carl and Earl spun in a circle, their hands wrapped around each other’s throats. They toppled to the floor, and Earl rolled on top of Carl’s body, sitting astride his chest. Carl’s face was turning purple and the tiny blood vessels in his eyes were rupturing, turning them bloodshot.

  I raised my rifle and tried to get a clear shot, but there was too much going on; so instead, I crossed the room, intent on ripping Earl from my best friend’s body.

  “Behemoth’s gonna eat you all,” Earl said. “Wait and see! No sense in running. There’s nowhere to hide.”

  Carl’s tongue protruded from his mouth.

  I stared through the crosshairs, and that’s when I noticed it. The veins in Earl’s forearms bulged, and something squirmed inside them, just beneath the skin. Something long—like a worm.

  Moving quickly, Sarah crossed the floor and struck Earl on the back of the head with the pistol butt. Earl’s grip stayed firm. She swung again and there was a sickening crunch. Dime-sized drops of blood flew across the room, splattering against the wall. The house shook as she hit him a third time, and Earl’s grip loosened. His hands slipped from Carl’s throat and he fell over, sprawling onto the floor.

  Carl sat up weakly and shook his head. He coughed, and I noticed red welts around his neck in the shape of Earl’s fingers. I knelt beside him while Sarah checked Earl’s pulse.

  “You okay?” I asked Carl.

  He squinted, his eyes shut in pain. “C-cant…catch…m-my…breath…H-hurts…”

  The tremors increased. Pictures and knickknacks crashed to the floor. Somewhere below us, the foundation groaned.

  “Carl, can you stand up?”

  “It h-hurts…”

  “Earl’s dead,” Sarah told us. She stood up and spit on his body. “That’s for Salty and Cornwell, you son of a bitch.”

  “You sure he’s dead this time?” I asked.

  She nodded. “I can’t find a pulse.”

  I considered telling the others what I’d seen burrowing around beneath Earl’s flesh, but decided against it. There was no time.

  “Come on,” I urged Carl. “You’ve got to stand up. I know it hurts, but we’ve got to go.”

  The floorboards buckled and all across the house windows shattered in their sills. The dresser slid several inches across the rug.

  “What are we going to do?” Kevin shouted. “It’s right underneath us!”

  “Grab Carl’s arm,” I told him. “Let’s try to make it to my truck.”

  “But the rest of the worms are still out there.”

  I held on to Carl. “That don’t matter now, Kevin. Sarah proved that they ain’t bulletproof. The truck’s our only chance.”

  We helped Carl to his feet. He coughed again, tried to swallow, and winced. The claw marks on his throat were raw and red; angry looking welts that stood out against his pale white skin.

  “And when we get to your truck?” Sarah asked, wiping Earl’s blood from the pistol butt.

  “Try for Bald Knob, I guess. Pray that things are better there.”

  “That thing can swallow your truck in one bite,” Kevin argued. “This is pointless.”

  I let go of Carl and jabbed my finger into Kevin’s chest. “Do you have any better ideas, boy?”

  Kevin shook his head. “No.”

  “Then shut your mouth. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna wait around here while that thing eats the house out from underneath us.”

  “Hey—”

  Sarah cut him off. “Let’s go.”

  She stepped out into the hallway. Another tremor shook the house and she bounced against the wall.

  Another bout of coughing seized Carl, and he doubled over, grasping his throat.

  “Just…leave…me…”

  “Don’t even start with that,” I said. “We’re going to be okay.”

  Behind us, the dresser toppled over and the floorboards began to snap like twigs.

  Sarah urged us on. “Come on. The whole damn house is caving in.”

  We made it to the kitchen. While Kevin kept Carl propped up, I ran to the hutch and grabbed my truck keys off the top of it. Just as I did, the entire house seemed to jump up into the air. There was a horrible, deafening rumble from downstairs, followed by the sounds of snapping timber and crumbling masonry. Something—either the basement floor or one of the retaining walls—collapsed. All of us were thrown to the floor. Above me, I heard tiles sliding off the roof.

  Then, Behemoth roared. It sounded like a steam train was charging through the basement. The noise filled our ears, filled the house itself. It drowned out the rain.

  “Holy shit,” Kevin gasped, picking himself back up. “He’s right underneath us!”

  “Everybody out,” I said. “We’re out of time.”

  “You can say that again,” Earl rasped, stumbling into the kitchen. Blood streamed from his split scalp, staining the collar of his shirt.

  Kevin looked at Sarah as she clambered to her feet.

  “I thought you said he was dead,” Kevin shouted.

  She stumbled. “He didn’t have a fucking pulse!”

  “Let he who believes in me have eternal life,” Earl wheezed, and took another step forward. This time, it was unmistakable. Long, thin forms moved beneath his skin, traveling through his bare arms and climbing up his neck and face.

  Sarah choked. “Oh my God…”

  Carl and I raised our rifles at the same time.

  “Go ahead,” Earl cackled. A worm fell from his open mouth. “Shoot me again, you bastards.”

  Before we could, the house bucked in its frame again and then tilted to one side. Carl and Sarah were both knocked to the floor again, and Sarah’s pistol went off. Kevin crashed into the refrigerator. The kitchen table and the hutch both slid towards me, slamming me into the wall and pinning my legs. An excruciating jolt of pain ran through my entire body, from my toes all the way up my spine. I screamed, and black spots swam before my eyes. I fought to keep from vomiting as another surge of pain coursed through my body. My left leg began to shriek, from the thigh down. I knew right then that it was broken.

  Above us, the roof split open, revealing the dark sky. The rain poured through the snapped timbers and the wind howled, buffeting us all. The temperature in the kitchen immediately dropped.

  Beneath our feet, Behemoth roared.

  Earl staggered backward into the living room and Carl crawled after him. The two of them grappled and rolled onto the couch, which had also begun to slide across the floor. Carl’s fingers sought the bullet hole in Earl’s chest, and he shoved one inside. Shrieking, Earl snatched up a heavy glass ashtray from the coffee table and brought it swiping down on Carl’s forehead. I heard the sickening crunch from where I was pinned in the kitchen, even over the cries of the creature. The ashtray shattered.

  The house slid another foot, swaying like a boat at sea. The couch crashed into the recliner and Earl jumped free, abandoning Carl and wheeling on the rest of us. He still clutched a dripping shard of the ashtray in his hand.

  Lying in a prone position, Sarah aimed and fired. The shot went wild.

  The thing beneath our feet hissed like an industrial furnace ready to blow.

  Sarah fired a second shot,
catching Earl in the shoulder. He jerked backward and then grinned. Sarah pulled the trigger again as he flung the shard of glass at her. The third bullet plowed into Earl’s thigh. Another quake shook the house and Earl charged Sarah, leaping into the air despite his wounds. It was almost like he was possessed.

  Gritting my teeth against the pain, I fought to stay conscious, while Kevin ran to help Sarah. Earl’s teeth sank into her wrist and her blood welled around his lips. Sarah shrieked, dropping the gun onto the tilting floor. The house rolled again, rattling the foundation. Kevin slid away from them, his hands grasping uselessly.

  The tremor shook the hutch, and both it and the table slammed into me again. This time, something snapped—I heard a wet sound inside my chest. I cried out in agony, struggling to free both myself and the rifle. Every tiny movement was excruciating.

  The floor splintered beneath Kevin and his lower half dropped through the hole. He clutched the broken timbers, holding on for dear life.

  “Oh Jesus,” he screamed. “I can see it! It’s in the basement!”

  With her free hand, Sarah dug her fingernails into Earl’s face, slashing at his nose and cheek. Skin peeled away, leaving red racing stripes. Worms burrowed beneath the wounds. Earl tried to scramble away, but Sarah rammed her elbow into the bullet wound in his shoulder.

  “Not this time, you son of a bitch,” she snarled. “This time, I’ll make sure you don’t get back up.”

  Carl rolled off the couch, dazed and bleeding.

  “My God is hungry,” Earl rasped, and then punched Sarah in the face—once, twice, three times in rapid succession. Sarah’s shoulders sagged and blood streamed from her nose. Then, twisting her hair in his fist, Earl forced her head down and marched her past me across the rolling floor. Her body was limp and she put up no resistance. They were heading towards the basement.

  I don’t know how he kept moving, how he stayed alive. Earl was in bad shape; a bloody, shot-up mess. But somehow, he refused to die. Perhaps whatever was crawling around inside his body had reanimated him. Taken control. Maybe there really was something to the black magic gibberish he’d been spouting before, or maybe he was just being bullheaded. I don’t know. I can only tell you that it was almost as frightening as the monster digging up through my basement floor.

  Earl and Sarah reached the door. He gave her hair another twist, and she squealed.

  “Sarah!” Kevin screamed, trying to free himself from the hole.

  The rain pattered against the kitchen tiles.

  “Carl,” I shouted. “Get up! My leg’s busted and I can’t get loose! You’ve got to help Sarah and Kevin!”

  Carl shook his head, trying to clear it. He wiped the blood from his eyes and tottered to his feet.

  “Come on, Carl,” I urged. “Move!”

  Earl flung the basement door open and Sarah screamed. At the same time, Kevin freed himself from the hole.

  I don’t know if it came from the open door or the chasm in the kitchen floor, but the stench was overpowering. It immediately filled the house, choking me with its ammonialike stench. My eyes and nose burned.

  But as bad as the creature’s smell was, the sound—my God—the sound was worse. That same forceful exhaling of air that I had heard the other worms make, now magnified tenfold. It pushed against my eardrums, making my head throb.

  Sarah teetered at the top of the basement steps. “Let me go, god damn you!”

  “My pleasure, bitch!” Earl pushed her forward. Her shriek was cut short, lost beneath the cry of the great worm.

  Kevin crept unsteadily past me as the floor began to shimmy again. Enraged, he threw himself at Earl and they both pitched forward into the cellar.

  Carl made it across the floor to where I was pinned. Grunting with exertion, the two of us managed to push the table and the hutch aside. My leg and side throbbed when I moved, sending a fresh burst of pain that made further movement impossible.

  “Where’s it hurt?” Carl asked me.

  “My leg’s broke,” I panted, “and I might have busted a rib, too. I’m not sure. But don’t worry about me. Kevin and Sarah fell into the basement. Help them.”

  But Carl wouldn’t listen. He lurched away, looking for something.

  “Carl, what are you doing?”

  “Finding something you can use for a crutch. Now hush. Just rest.”

  I glanced around the kitchen in confusion, staring at the wreckage of my former life with Rose. Amazingly, the only thing that didn’t seem to have been destroyed was the kerosene heater. It had slid a few inches, but remained upright. The kettle had fallen to the floor and rolled away, but the heater itself stood firm.

  “Carl, just forget about it!”

  He didn’t answer, and passed from my sight.

  I dragged myself forward to the doorway—each inch that I crawled was excruciating. Sweat broke out on my forehead and under my armpits, and my body began to tremble. The creature’s stink grew stronger—overpowering my senses as I drew closer. Finally, I reached the basement stairs and peeked over the edge, afraid for what I would find.

  I screamed.

  The cellar floor was gone, replaced by a giant, slavering mouth—at least twenty-feet wide. It sounds crazy, but that’s the only way to describe it. The entire floor had vanished and Behemoth’s mouth occupied the space where it had been. A small outcropping of concrete at the bottom of the stairway was all that remained. Kevin and Earl struggled on this tiny alcove, while Sarah lay bleeding on the stairs. Below them, the worm pulsed and quivered hungrily, the massive throat convulsing. Its mouth was lined with lamprey-like tentacles, each one tipped with another tinier mouth of its own. These smaller mouths opened, even thinner tendrils emerging from them. Then, rising from the center of Behemoth’s throat, rose a stalklike tongue composed of more worms, blind and wriggling. All of the tentacle-worms chirped greedily, sensing the prey above them.

  “I found this—my God…,” Carl gasped behind me. Blood still dripped from the ugly-looking gash on his forehead. He held a baseball bat in one hand, which I guess he’d thought I could use for a crutch.

  He gaped at the creature below us. Then, without another word, he turned and fled.

  “Carl!” I was shocked and dismayed. I’d known Carl for most of my adult life, and never once had I known him to be a coward.

  Earl shoved Kevin toward the edge of the pit. Kevin punched him in the temple. Snarling, Earl punched him back. Kevin dodged the blow, brought his knee up into Earl’s crotch and then grabbed the madman by his neck and waistband. With a single, mighty heave, he threw Earl over the side.

  Behemoth roared, as did the small worms inside his mouth.

  Earl screamed, twisting in midair. The wormtongues stretched forward in eager anticipation. Pale slime dripped from their mouths. Earl latched on to a jutting piece of floor support and clung to it, dangling over the stinking maw. The earthworms inside of him wriggled from his gunshot wounds and burst through his arms and cheeks. One uncoiled from his ear and plummeted down into the pit.

  “I—I worship you,” he cried out. “Lord, please!”

  “Kevin,” I shouted as best I could, weak from the pain in my leg. “Sarah! Let’s go.”

  Sarah didn’t move.

  My leg was starting to swell, and when I coughed blood leaked from the corner of my mouth. Then my ears began to ring and my face felt flushed. I knew enough to recognize that I was going into shock.

  “Hurry,” I gasped.

  Kevin stood at the edge of the concrete and stared down at Earl.

  Earl’s fingers slipped on the concrete and he struggled to hold on. “What are you looking at, boy? Give me a hand.”

  “You shot down our helicopter,” Kevin said. “You killed our friends.”

  Earl’s arms trembled and his face turned white. More earthworms dug their way out of his flesh. “Y-yeah, but I’m—”

  Kevin stomped on his fingers. Hard. Hard enough to make me wince, despite my own pain, and despite everything that E
arl had done. Screeching, Earl lost his grip and fell. His scream lasted only as long as his descent—about two seconds.

  Then, the worm-tongues inside Behemoth’s throat began to feed. At the same time, the throat muscles contracted and Earl was drawn farther inside.

  Kevin picked up Sarah and plodded up the swaying staircase.

  Beneath him, Behemoth swallowed Earl with a noxious, gaseous belch. Then the mouth opened again and the tentacles began to slither upward, feeling their way across the bottom stair.

  “Please, hurry,” I coughed, and more blood trickled from my mouth. Each cough brought a sharp, stabbing pain in my side.

  Suddenly, I sensed movement behind me and saw Kevin’s eyes grow wide. I turned around and there was Carl, wearing a pair of oven mitts and lugging the still hot kerosene heater.

  “I thought you ran off,” I told him, smiling weakly.

  “Not hardly.” His bloody expression was one of wounded pride. “Why would you think something like that, Teddy? After all we’ve been through? I didn’t run off. I just went and cooked something up.”

  I coughed blood and nodded at the kerosene heater. “Isn’t that a bit hot?”

  He nodded, struggling to hold the heater upright. “Yeah, and it’s burning a hole through these here oven mitts. This thing got one of those automatic safety shut off switches?”

  “No,” I groaned, as Sarah and Kevin stumbled out of the tilting stairwell.

  “Good,” Carl said. “Then get out of my way.”

  Kevin gently sat Sarah down. “Can you stand?” he asked her.

  “Yeah.” She nodded, and then caught sight of my leg and the blood leaking from my lips. “Teddy, what happened?”

  “I’ll be okay.” I smiled, trying to reassure her. “Been through worse back during the war.”

  Kevin stood up. “We’ve got to get you guys out of here. Mr. Seaton, what are you doing with that kerosene heater?”

  Carl nodded towards the basement stairs. “Reckon we’ll see if that big ugly bastard likes hot food.”

  Wincing, I dug into my pants pocket and tossed Kevin the keys to my truck. I was thankful that I’d put them there before the table and hutch had pinned me against the wall. Otherwise, they’d be lost now, scattered by the rolling floor.