Chapter 15- Prototype

Chapter 15

Prototype

Villa Cyranno, Venezuela

The fire burned bright and quickly, spreading out over the wrecked pig pen and its contents.  There was a low moaning sound from the inhabitant of the pen but beyond that, there was little sign that anything alive was inside it.

Elsewhere, Hannah could hear shouts, cries, alarums and excursions.  But she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the brightly burning fire.  There was motion within it but it was slight, muted and slow.  Something was still moving within the fire.

“If that doesn’t kill it…” began Storm.

“It’ll kill it.  Nothing can survive being burned alive.  Not for long anyway,” Said Chung.

Hannah looked over at Chung, studied his face.  She had a thought that she wanted to give voice to but she kept it inside, kept it close.

The fire flickered and continued to blaze away.  Embers floated up delicately.

“Don’t get too close,” said Chung.

“Do you think its dead?” asked Storm.

“We’ll dig it out in a minute and take a closer look,” replied Chung.

“Are you fuckin’ crazy?” squawked Newman.

“We’ve got to know what the hell that was we’re dealing with.  What kind of organism could have done that,” replied Chung, his tone sharp.

“I agree,” said Hannah.  They turned to look at her.

“We need some answers here,” she said plainly

Hannah took out her radio.  “This is McPherson.  Anyone copy?”

“Dietz,” came a curt reply.

“Captain, what’s going on?  Is the area secure?”

“No, not at this time.  Secure what you’re doing and then join us at the church,”

“Copy that,” she replied.

“Dietz out.”  The radio went dead and Hannah looked to the others.  “We’re wanted at the church.  Newman, Storm, make sure this site is properly secured and then join us there,”

“Yes sir,” replied Storm.  “Come on Danny-boy, let’s get a shovel.”

Newman looked pale and wide eyed.  Marcus Chung followed Hannah to the church.

“Did the Major say what was going on?” asked Chung.

“No,” replied Hannah.

“What do you think is going on?” asked Chung, looking for the answers that Hannah wanted.

“I don’t know.  I have my theories,”

Before they even reached the church they could see a fire burning.  There were now a small crowd of people in a rough semi circle around the church door. They seemed very upset and agitated.

“You speak much Spanish?” asked Hannah.

“Yeah, enough, “replied Marcus.

She stopped in front of the crowd and spoke to them quickly and calmly in Spanish.  Meanwhile Marcus spoke to one or two others.  The crowd were angry, why were they burning the church?  Why were they shooting the farm animals?  What was going on?

“There’s a possible contagion on the loose.  We need you to all remain in the village and to stay calm,” said Hannah.  Marcus looked over at her but then went back to speaking to his villagers.

“What sort of contagion?” asked a thin man with dark hair.

“A communicable disease.  You’re all safe as long as you stay within the village.  For now just stay out of the way, we need to burn the dead animals,” she said.

“You shot a man too, a priest,” said an older man, a barrel chested man with graying hair.

“Yes we did.  He was attempting to kill a member of the team.  Now we must get on to figure out what is going on.  Try to stay calm<” she said.

“I’m the Mayor here.  I want to know what’s going on,” said the grey haired man.

“I just told you what’s going on.  Excuse us,” She said and she turned to meet Captain Dietz.

After the Captain had told them what was going on, they were confronted with Captain Barrow.  He was bloody and bruised but otherwise didn’t look to be in too bad a shape.  However deep discoloration under his jaw showed plainly..

“What happened to him?” asked Hannah, able to keep the shock out of her voice.

“We’re not entirely sure.  But the priest attacked him,” replied Dietz.

“Is he going to make it?” asked Hannah.

“He needs medical attention, beyond anything we’ve got,” replied Dietz.

“Why did the priest attack him?” asked Marcus.

“No idea.  What sort of trouble did you run into?”

“A man whose been exposed to something.  He barely seemed human,” replied Hannah.

“Yes, that’s what happened here too,” added Wooderson.

“We don’t know that yet, it could be two separate incidents,” said Dietz.

“Come off it Captain” barked Wooderson.

“That’s enough out of you Sergeant,” replied Dietz.  “Our guy took twenty or thirty hits of nine millimeter ammo before he went down,”

“Including two in the head at close range,” added Wooderson sullenly.

“I must have hit our guy twenty times at least with the P-90.  He was still trying to get up even after we’d all but beheaded him,” said Hannah, amazed at the dull sound of her voice.

“Jesus,” said Wooderson.

“You didn’t see anything like that around here?” asked Dietz to Marcus.

“No, but I saw the body of the guy that McPherson and Storm took out. Something warped him, he looked awful,” said Marcus.

Dalton hadn’t said anything the entire time and that worried Hannah McPherson a great deal.  She heard the foot steps behind them and another choir of Spanish voices.  Storm and Newman showed up with a tote-bag and a shovel.

“We brought our thing,” said Storm, his face a bit paler than normal.

“Good man,” Said Marcus.

“It’s fucking horrible,” said Newman.

“Go and get a smoke,” Said Wooderson to Newman.  Newman nodded and drew a pack of cigarettes from his helmet.  

Whatever it was that they dragged from the fire, it barely seemed human at all.  Twisted limbs were coiled around a scorched torso and the face was bizarre, horribly disfigured.  The long, misshapen hands were bent at an extreme angle and bore long claw like fingers at the end of them.  Each of them had been embedded into the dead pigs.

In addition to that, there were pipe like extrusions from the “man” that had wound around what little remained of the pigs.  The pigs looked dissolved. 

“They look melted,” said Dietz.

“Yes they do,” replied Chung.

“Burned?” asked Dalton.  Hannah was reassured that he was actually paying some attention.

“Melted” repeated Dietz. “Like something got on them.”

“Something acidic perhaps?” asked Dalton.

The radio chimed and Dietz picked up the call.

“Dietz,” he said.

“This is Harrison, we’ve finished our sweep.  It’s kind of weird and the villagers are pissed but we’ve not found any missing guys.  Nor anything worth shootin’ at.”

“Roger that.  Finish your sweep and then double back here,” said Dietz.  Dietz looked thoughtful for a minute or two.

“Ostrow, Charlie are you there?”

“Ostrow here, what’s up?” came the reply.

“We’ve got a seriously wounded man here I want to ‘exfil’ him as soon as possible.”

“Roger that.  Get him down here and I’ll get him out,”

“Good man.” Said Dietz.  “Newman, Storm, you’ll carry the Captain carefully to the helicopter and get him onboard.  Newman, you’ll stay onboard with him and get him the hell out of here,”

“Hang on a minute,” said Dalton.  “I want Ostrow on site here.  We’ve got a rescue bird inbound, we’ll use that.”

“Sir, I’m not sure we should delay that long,” Replied Chung.

“Dietz, get in touch with Hospital Twenty Two and get them to come and pick up Barrow,” said Dalton.  Marcus looked over implorlingly at Dietz but Dietz nodded and took out his microphone.

“Hannah,” hissed Marcus.

“Sir, Major.  We need to move him quickly or he’ll not make it.” Said Marcus.

Dalton looked away.  Hannah looked on but said nothing.

“Sir?” asked Marcus.  “Sir we need to move him now or he’s going to die.”
“That’s enough from you Lieutenant,” barked Dietz.

“Sir I…”
“You heard me mister.” Said Dietz sternly.  Marcus looked down and Dietz finished his radio call.

“Hospital Twenty two inbound, one casualty to collect,” Came the reply.