Stinger

Stinger Page 31

a silence settled over Inferno in the wake of the helicopter's crash. People who had been roaming the streets, talking about the pyramid and wondering if it was the Last Days, went home, locked their doors and windows, and stayed there in the violet-tinged gloom. Others went to the safety of the Baptist church, where Hale Jennings and a few volunteers passed out sandwiches and cold coffee in the light of the altar candles. Renegades were drawn to the lights of their fortress at the end of Travis Street; Bobby Clay Clemmons passed around some marijuana but mostly everybody just wanted to sit and talk, drink a few beers, and swap ideas about where the pyramid had come from and what it was doing here. at the Brandin' Iron, Sue Mullinax and Cecil Thorsby stayed on duty, making sandwiches out of cold luncheon meat for some of the regulars who wandered in, afraid to be alone in the dark.

In the clinic, Tom Hammond was holding a flashlight steady over an operating table as early McNeil and Jessie worked on the mangled arm of a Hispanic man named Ruiz, who had stumbled across the river a few minutes after the pyramid had crashed down. The arm was hanging by red threads of muscle, and early knew it had to come off. He said behind his surgical mask, "Let's see if I've still got it in me, kiddies," and reached for the bone saw.

across the river, the fire fighters had given up. The wreckage of workshops and storehouses still smoldered in Cade's autoyard, tangled heaps of debris opening scarlet eyes of flame. Mack Cade cursed and promised to have their asses on keychains, but without water pressure the hoses were just so much flabby canvas and none of the firemen wanted to go any closer to the pyramid than they had to. They packed their gear into the fire truck and left Cade ranting with impotent rage beside his Mercedes, the two Dobermans barking in furious counterpoint.

Smoke suffused the air, lay low in the gash of the Snake River, and hung like gray fog in the streets. Overhead, the moon and stars were blanked out. But time continued to move, and the hands of wristwatches and battery-run clocks crept toward midnight.

Mrs. Santos left the clinic on Dr. McNeil's orders to find volunteers to give blood, and her attention was caught by the large yellow Cadillac that was parked just down Celeste Street, with a view across the river. a white-haired woman sat behind the wheel, staring at the pyramid as if mesmerized. Mrs. Santos approached the car, knowing who it belonged to; she tapped on the window, and when Celeste Preston lowered it, the chill of air conditioning drifted out. "We need blood at the clinic," Mrs. Santos said matter-of-factly. "Dr. McNeil says I'm not supposed to come back until I find six volunteers. Will you help usi" Celeste hesitated, her mind still dazed by the thing out in Cade's autoyard, the skygrid, and the creature she'd watched crash into the bank building. She'd been on her way home after leaving Vance, but she'd had the urge to slow down, turn right on Circle Back Street, and drive through what remained of Wint's dream. Ol' Wint's rolling in his grave up on Joshua Tree Hill by now, she thought. Wasn't enough for Inferno to die with a whimper, like a hundred other played-out Texas towns. No, God had to give the coffin nails another twist. Or maybe it was Satan's work. The air sure smelled like hell. "Whati" she asked early's nurse, not understanding.

"We need blood real bad. What type do you havei" "Red," Celeste answered. "How the hell do I knowi" "That'll do. Will you let us have a pinti" Celeste grunted. Some of the steel had returned to her eyes. "Pint, quart, gallon: what the helli My blood feels mighty thin right now." "It's thick enough," Mrs. Santos said, and waited.

"Well," Celeste said finally, "I don't reckon I've got anything better to do." She opened the door and got out. The seat was lumpy, and her ass had been falling asleep anyway, just sitting out here for the last fifteen or twenty minutes. "Will it hurti" "Just a sting. Then you'll have a rest and get a dish of ice cream." If it wasn't melting in the freezer, she thought. "Go tell Mrs. Murdock you want to give blood. She'll be at the front desk." Mrs. Santos was amazed at herself, a Bordertown resident giving orders to Celeste Preston. "I mean... if that's all righti" "Yeah. Whatever." Celeste stared at the pyramid for a moment longer, and then she started walking to the clinic; Mrs. Santos continued along the street in the opposite direction.

In Sarge Dennison's house, across from where Reverend Jennings was leading a group of townspeople in prayer at the Baptist church, Daufin stood next to the chair in which Sarge was sprawled.

Now this was a curious thing, Daufin mused: the creature had been consuming the tasteless material called pork 'n beans from a round metallic receptacle, using a four-pronged tool, when he'd suddenly made an explosive noise from the depths of his chair, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes. "Gonna rest for a few minutes," he'd told her. "ain't what I used to be. You keep Scooter company, heari" and it wasn't very much longer before the creature's mouth had begun making a low buzzing sound, as if there were an efficient machine tucked away somewhere within. Daufin had approached him and peered into the half-open mouth, but could see nothing except the strange bony appliances called teeth. It was another mystery.

Her stomach felt weighed. The receptacle of pork 'n beans that Sarge had opened and given to her was empty, and lay on a table along with the tool she'd used to eat it. The act of feeding on this world was a repetitive labor of balance, visual acuity, and sheer willpower. She was astounded that the beings could force such sludgy fodder into their systems. Lying beside Sarge's chair was a long yellow envelope made of a tough, slick material, and on the envelope was written the cryptic word "Fritos." Sarge had shared the crunchy food curls with her, and Daufin had found them at least palatable, but now the inside of her mouth was dry. It seemed there was always some discomfort on this world; perhaps, in some strange way, discomfort was this species' prime motivation.

"I am go-ing to try to find an ex-it now," she told him. "Thank you for the ed-i-bles." Sarge stirred, drowsily opened his eyes. He saw Stevie Hammond and smiled. "Bathroom's in the back," he said, and settled himself in for a long nap.

This alien language was a puzzlement. The Sarge creature's buzzing began again, and Daufin walked out of the house into the warm dark.

Haze hung in the air, thicker than it had been when she'd come out here not long ago and seen the two flying machines whirling across the sky. She'd watched their duel, didn't really know what was happening, but reasoned it wasn't a common sight; there'd been humans watching from the street, and some of them had made high shrieking noises that she construed as sounds of alarm. Then, when the battle was over and the surviving machine fell with fire chewing its tail, Daufin was left with a single thought: Stinger.

Sarge had been kind to her, and she liked him; but now the need to find an exit called her. Her gaze swept the sky, scanning the violet mesh that trapped her and the humans in the same huge cage. She knew where it came from, and what powered it. Inside her there was a pressure as if some part of her was on the verge of breaking, and the pumping muscle at her center picked up speed. Hopeless! she thought as she scanned the skygrid from horizon to horizon. There is no exit! Hopeless!

a low gleam of light caught her eye, through the haze that clung close to the street. It was made of many colors, and it was an inviting light. If light could carry hope, Daufin thought, this light did. She began to walk toward the Inferno Baptist Church, where candlelight filtered through a stained-glass window.

The door was open. Daufin slid her head around its corner to peer inside.

Small white sticks with tips of light illuminated the interior, and at the opposite end from Daufin stood two metallic structures that each held six of the light-tipped sticks. Daufin counted, in the crude earth mathematics, forty-six humans sitting on long high-backed benches, facing an upraised dais. Some of the humans had their heads bent over and their hands clasped. a man with a shiny head stood at the dais, and appeared to be dispensing liquid from a large receptacle into tiny ones held in a metallic tray.

and above the dais was a curious sight: a suspended vertical line crossed by a shorter horizontal line, and at its center the figure of a human being hung with arms outstretched. The figure's head was capped with a circle of twisted vegetation, and its face angled up toward the ceiling; the painted eyes were imploring, and seemed to be fixed on a distance far beyond the confines of this structure. Daufin heard a painful sound from one of the people on the benches: a "sob," she thought it was called. The hanging figure indicated this might be a place of torture, but there were mixed feelings here: sadness and pain, yes, but something else too, and she wasn't quite certain what it was. Perhaps it was the hope that she'd thought was lost, she decided. She could feel a strength here, like a collection of minds turned in the same direction. It felt like a sturdy place, and a safe shelter. This is an abode of ritual, she realized as she watched the man at the dais preparing the receptacles of dark red liquid. But who was the figure suspended at the center of two crossed lines, and what was its purposei Daufin entered the building, going to the nearest bench and sitting down. Neither Hale Jennings nor Mayor Brett, who sat with his wife Doris on the first pew, saw her come in.

"This is the blood of Christ," the reverend intoned as he finished pouring the sacramental grape juice. "With this blood we are whole, and made new again." He opened a box of Saltines, began to crush them, and the pieces fell into an offering plate. "and this is the body of Christ, which has passed from this earth into grace so that there should be life everlasting." He turned to the congregation. "I invite you to partake of holy Communion. Shall we prayi" Daufin watched as the others bowed their heads, and the man at the dais closed his eyes and began to speak in a soft rising and falling cadence. "Father, we ask your blessing on this Communion, and that you strengthen our souls in this time of trial. We don't know what tomorrow's going to bring, we're afraid, and we don't know what to do. What's happening to us, and to our town, is beyond our minds to comprehend...." as the prayer continued, Daufin listened closely to the man's voice, comparing it to the voices of Tom, Jessie, Ray, Rhodes, and Sarge. each voice was unique in a wonderful way, she realized. and the correct enunciation was far different from her halting tongue. This man at the dais almost turned speaking into song. What she'd first considered a rough, guttural language - full of barbarity and made of unyielding surfaces - now amazed her with its variety. Of course a language was only as good as the meaning behind it and she still was having trouble understanding, but the sound fascinated her. and saddened her a little, as well; there was something indescribably lonely about the human voice, like a call from darkness into darkness. What an infinity of voices the human beings possessed! she thought. If each voice on this planet was unique, just that alone was a marvel of creation that staggered her senses.

"... but guard us, dear Father, and walk with us, and let us know that thy will be done. amen," Jennings finished. He took the plate holding the little plastic cups of juice in one hand and the cracker crumbs in the other, and began to go from person to person offering Communion. Mayor Brett accepted it, and so did his wife. Don Ringwald, owner of the Ringwald Drugstore, took it, as did his wife and their two children. Ida Slattery did, and so did Gil and Mavis Lockridge. Reverend Jennings continued along the aisle, giving the Communion and saying quietly, "With this you accept the blood and body of Christ." a woman sitting in front of Daufin began to cry, and her husband put his arm around her shoulder and drew her closer. Two little boys sat beside them, one wide-eyed and scared and the other staring over the back of the pew at Daufin. across the aisle, an elderly woman closed her eyes and lifted a trembling hand toward the figure above the dais.

"With this you accept the blood and - " Jennings stopped. He was staring at the dusty face of Tom and Jessie's little girl. a thrill of shock went through him; this was the alien creature Colonel Rhodes was searching for. " - the body of Christ," he continued, offering the grape juice and cracker crumbs to the people on the pew in front of her. Then he stood beside her, and he said gently, "Hello." "Hello," she answered, copying his dulcet voice.

Jennings bent down, and his knees creaked. "Colonel Rhodes is looking for you." The little girl's eyes were almost luminous in the golden candlelight, and directed at him with intense concentration. "Did you know thati" "I sus-pect - " She stopped herself, wanting to try again with more of a human's smooth cadence instead of the halting Webster's pronunciation. "I suspected so," she said.

Jennings nodded. His pulse rate had kicked up a few notches. The figure sitting before him resembled Stevie Hammond in every way but for her posture: she sat rigidly, as if uncomfortable with the way her bones fit together, and her right leg was drawn up underneath her. Her arms hung limply by her sides. The voice was almost Stevie's, but with a reedy sound beneath it, as if she had a flute caught in her throat. "Can I take you to himi" he asked.

There was a quick expression of fear on her face, like a glimpse of dark water through white ice; then gone, frozen over again. "I must find an exit," she said.

"You mean a doori" "a door. an escape. a way out. Yes." a way out, he thought. She must be talking about the force field. "Maybe Colonel Rhodes can help you." "He cannot." She hesitated, tried again: "He can't help me find an exit. If I am unable to exit, there will be much hurting." "Hurtingi Who'll get hurti" "Jessie. Tom. Ray. You. everyone." "I see," he said, though he did not. "and who'll do this hurtingi" "The one who's come here, searching for me." Her eyes were steady. Jennings thought something about them looked very old, as if a small ancient woman was sitting there wearing a little girl's skin. "Stinger," she told him, the word falling from her mouth like something hideously nasty.

"You mean that thing out therei Is that its namei" "an approx-i-ma-tion," she said, struggling with the stubborn fleshy slab inside her mouth. "Stinger has many names on many worlds." The reverend thought about that for a moment, and if anybody had ever told him he'd be talking to an alien and being told firsthand that there was life on "many worlds" he would have either decked the fool with a good right cross or called for the butterfly wagon. "I'd like to take you to Colonel Rhodes. Would that be all righti" "He can't help me." "Maybe he can. He wants to, like we all do." She seemed to be thinking it over. "Come on, let me take you to - " "That's her!" someone shouted, startling the trays of grape juice and cracker crumbs out of the reverend's hands. Mayor Brett was on his feet, standing halfway up the aisle, his wife right behind him and shoving him into action. Brett's finger pointed at Daufin. "That's her, everybody!" he yelled. "That's the thing from outer space!" The couple in front of Daufin recoiled. One of the little boys jumped over the pew to get away, but the one who'd been watching her just grinned. Other people were standing up for a good look, and nobody was praying anymore.

Jennings rose to his feet. "Hold on now, John. Don't make a fuss." "Fuss, my ass! That's her! That's the monster!" He took a backward step, collided with Doris; his mouth was a shocked O. "My God! In church!" "We don't want to get all riled up," Jennings said, making an effort to keep his voice soothing. "everybody just take it easy." "It's because of her we're in this fix!" Brett howled. His wife's pinched face nodded agreement. "Colonel Rhodes said that thing got inside Stevie Hammond, and there she sits! God only knows what kinda powers she's got!" Daufin looked from face to face and saw terror in them. She stood up, and the woman in front of her snatched her grinning little boy and backed away. "Get her out of here!" the mayor went on. "She don't have no right to be in the Lord's house!" "Shut up, John!" Jennings demanded. People were already heading to the door, getting out as fast as they could. "I'm about to take her over to Colonel Rhodes. Now why don't you just sit down and put a lid on - " The floor shook. Daufin saw the light sticks waver. One of the metallic holders toppled, and burning light sticks rolled across the crimson carpet.

"What was thati" Don Ringwald yelled, his owlish eyes huge behind his wire-rimmed spectacles.

There was a crackling noise. Concrete breaking, Jennings thought. He felt the floor shudder beneath the soles of his shoes. annie Gibson screamed, and she and her husband Perry ran for the door with their two boys in tow. across the aisle, old Mrs. everett was jabbering and lifting both hands toward the cross. Jennings looked at Daufin, saw the fear slide into her eyes again, and then fall away, replaced by a blast-furnace glare of anger beyond any rage he'd ever witnessed. Daufin's fingers gripped the pew in front of her, and he heard her say, "It's Stinger." The floor bulged along the aisle like a blister about to pop open. Brett staggered back, and his elbow clipped Doris solidly in the jaw and knocked her sprawling to the floor. She didn't get up. Someone screamed on the other side of the sanctuary. Stones were grinding together, timbers squealed, and the pews rolled as if on stormy waves. Jennings had the sense of something massive under the sanctuary's floor, something surfacing and about to burst through. Cracks shot up the walls, and the figure of Jesus on the cross broke loose and crashed down upon the altar in a flurry of rock dust.

a section of the church on the left collapsed, the pews splitting apart. Dust whirled through the last of the candlelight, and Daufin shouted, "Get out! Get out!" as people surged toward the doorway, trailing screams. Jennings saw the carpet rip apart, and a jagged fissure opened along the aisle. The floor heaved, shuddered, began to collapse inward as dust billowed up from the earth. Ida Slattery almost knocked Jennings off his feet as she barreled past him, shrieking. He saw Doris Brett fall through the floor, and the mayor was climbing over the twisting pews like a monkey to get to the doorway.

Gil Lockridge fell through, and his wife Mavis a second afterward as the floor opened under her feet. The Ringwalds' oldest boy pitched through, and hung screaming to its side as Don reached down for him. "Praise be to Jeeeesus!" Mrs. everett was shouting insanely.

Pews were splitting with gunshot cracks as the floor pitched wildly, fissures snaking up the walls. Overhead, the wooden rafters began breaking and plummeting down, and the stained-glass windows shattered as the walls shook on their foundations.

Some of the candles had set fire to the carpet up near the altar, and the nibbling flames threw grotesque shadows as people fought to get out the door or climb through the windows. Jennings scooped Daufin up and held her, as he would any child, and he could feel her heart pounding at furious speed. Mrs. everett fell as the floor collapsed beneath her; she hung to the splintered edge of a pew, her feet dangling over darkness, and Jennings grasped her arm to haul her up.

But before he could, Mrs. everett went down with such force that his own arm was almost wrenched from its socket. He heard her scream turn into strangling, and he thought, Something pulled her down.

"No! No!" Daufin was shouting, twisting to get out of the human's grip. Her insides were aflame with rage and terror, and she knew that what was happening in this place was because of her. The screams pierced her with agony. "Stop it!" she cried out, but she knew the thing beneath the floor would not hear her, and it knew no mercy.

Jennings turned, started for the door.

He took two strides - and then the floor broke open in front of him.

He fell, both arms scrabbling for a grip as Daufin held around his neck. He caught the broken edge of a pew, splinters driving into his palms. His legs searched for a foothold, but there was nothing there. a rafter slammed down so close he felt its breeze on his face. He sensed more than felt something moving sinuously underneath him - something huge. and then he did feel it - a cold, gluey wetness around his feet, closing over his ankles. In another second he was going to be jerked down as Mrs. everett had been; his shoulder muscles popped as he heaved himself and Daufin up, and the suction on his ankles threatened to tear him apart at the waist. He kicked frantically, got one leg loose and then the other, and he latched his knees on the pitching floor. Then he was up again and running, and as the roof began to sag he cleared the doorway, tripped over a crawling body, and pitched onto the sandy lawn. His right side took most of the impact; he let go of Daufin and rolled away to keep from crushing her. He lay on his back, stunned and gasping, as the church's walls were riddled with cracks and sections of the roof crashed inward. Dust plumed up through the holes like dying breath. The church's steeple fell in, leaving a broken rim of stones. The walls trembled once more, wooden beams shrieked like wounded angels, and finally the noise of destruction echoed away and faded.

Slowly the reverend sat up. His eyes were itchy with grit and his lungs strained air from the whirling dust. He looked to his side, saw Daufin sitting up with her legs splayed beneath her like those of a boneless doll, her body jerking as if her nerves had gone haywire.

She knew how close the hunter had been. Maybe it had sensed the gathering of creatures in that abode and had struck as a demonstration of its strength. She didn't think it had known she was there, but it had been so very close. and too close for some of the humans; she looked around, quickly counting figures through the dust. She made out thirty-nine of them. Stinger had taken seven. The knot of muscle at her center would not cease its hammering, and her face felt gorged with pressure. Seven life forms gone, because she had crashed on a small world where there was no exit. The trap had closed, and all running was useless.... "You did this!" Someone's hand closed around her shoulder and yanked her to her feet. There was rage in the voice, and rage in the touch. Her legs were still wobbly, and the human hand shook her with maddened fury. "You did this, . you little... alien bitch!" "John!" Jennings said. "Let her go!" Brett shook her again, harder. The little girl felt as if she were made of rubber, and her lack of substance further infuriated him. "You damned thing!" he shrieked. "Why don't you go back where you came from!" "Stop it!" The reverend started to rise, but a pain shot from his shoulder down his back. He stared numbly at his feet; his shoes were gone, and gray slime clung to his argyle socks.

"You don't belong here!" Brett shouted, and shoved her roughly away. She stumbled backward, all balance lost, and gravity took her to the ground. "Oh God... oh Jesus," the mayor moaned, his face yellow with dust. He looked around, saw that Don and Jill Ringwald and their two sons had made it out, as well as Ida Slattery, Stan and Carmen Frazier, Joe Pierce, the Fancher family, and Lee and Wanda Clemmons among the others. "Doris... where's my wifei" Fresh panic hit him. "Doris! Hon, where are youi" There was no reply.

Daufin stood up. Her center felt bruised, and the foul taste of pork 'n beans soured her mouth. The anguished human being turned, started staggering back toward the ruined abode of ritual. Daufin said, "Stop him!" in a voice that reverberated with power and made al Fancher clasp his hand on Brett's arm.

"She's gone, John." Jennings tried to stand again, still could not; his feet were freezing cold, and seemed to have been shot full of novocaine up to his ankles. "I saw her go down." "No, you didn't!" Brett pulled free. "She's all right! I'll find her!" "Stinger took her," Daufin said, and Brett flinched as if he'd been struck. She realized the human had lost a loved one, and again pain speared her. "I'm sorry." She lifted a hand toward him.

Brett reached down and picked up a stone. "You did it! You killed my Doris!" He took a step forward, and Daufin saw his intention. "Somebody oughta kill you!" he seethed. "I don't care if you're hidin' in a little girl's skin! By Jesus, I'll kill you myself!" He flung the stone, but Daufin was faster by far. She dodged aside, and the stone sailed past her and hit the pavement.

"Please," she said, offering her palms as she retreated to the street. "Please don't..." His hand closed on another rock. "No!" Jennings shouted, but Brett threw it. This time the rock clipped Daufin's shoulder, and the pain made her eyes flood with tears. She couldn't see, couldn't understand what was happening, and Brett hollered, "Damn you to hell!" and advanced on her.

She almost stumbled over her legs, righted herself before she fell; then she propelled herself away from the human being in the complex motion of muscles and bones called running. Pain jarred through her with every stride, but she kept going, cocooned in agony.

"Wait!" Jennings called, but Daufin was gone into the haze of smoke and dust.

Brett took a few paces after her, but he was all used up and his legs gave out on him. "Damn you!" he shouted after her. He stood with his fists clenched at his sides, and then he turned back toward what was left of the church and called for Doris in a voice racked with sobbing.

Don Ringwald and Joe Pierce helped Jennings up. His feet felt like useless knobs of flesh and bone, as if whatever had grasped him had leeched all the blood out and destroyed the nerves. He had to lean heavily on the two men to keep from going down again.

"That does it for the church," Don said. "Where do we go nowi" Jennings shook his head. Whatever had broken through the church floor would have no trouble coming up through any house in Inferno - even through the streets themselves. He felt a tingling in his feet; the nerves were coming back to life. He caught lights through the haze and realized where they were coming from. "Up there," he said, and motioned toward the apartment building at the end of Travis Street. That place, with its armored first-floor windows and its foundation of bedrock, would be a tougher nut for Stinger to crack. He hoped.

Other people were coming from the houses nearby, alerted by the noise and screams. They followed as the two men helped Jennings along the street, and the rest of the congregation moved toward the only building that still showed electric lights.

after a few minutes, Mayor Brett wiped his nose on his sleeve, turned away from the ruins, and walked after them.