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Sometimes They Eat People!!
By solidshoe
Sometimes They Eat People
By SolidShoe (Jacob Shaw)
1.
Under the old subway in Metro City, the construction crew planted ANFO charges. The foreman had his orders: break into the south face of the old archives. The archives had been around for at least a hundred years. During the wars, they had been used to house important documents. In the one hundred years since they’d been built, a score of underwater rivers flash floods had washed through the department, permanently ruining any documents. Now, the Metro City sewage expansion project had begun; the old sewers were simply inadequate. The project called for the complete destruction of the old underground warehouses, and now archives were the point of interest.
The ANFO charges would detonate the old wall on the south face, creating a throughway, and the construction workers would shore up the foundation before the sewer treatment specialists came in a laid the pipe. It was hard, hot underground work.
The work zone was, being underground, naturally dark, so they had to place mining lamps every few yards along the moist walls. The lamps cast a gray-red shadow over the underground tunnels. Along the work zone, there was equipment and rolled up blueprints. The men wore hard hats and back support braces.
There were some fifty-construction workers, twelve electricians, and two cops. Those cops were Steven McDuffin and Shane Tully. The undergrounds were known as the hangouts for vagrants, and many of these bums could get rowdy, and fast. The crack heads were worse, coming down out of the hot city sun to get a buzz. When these people got stoned, they got violent. The city couldn’t very well risk having its workers harmed by the scourge of society.
So the cops were packing guns. Light arm, 9mm pistols that were good for shooting down men and nothing more. The cops were also bored. There was literally nothing to do. The underground was dark and gloomy, the workers were focused on getting the job done, and music was not aloud. Both cops were literally sitting on their thumbs. They had retired to the old archive office. At first the office had been full of gossamer webs, decayed books, and heaps of cardboard. Somebody had even taken a shit in one of the old file cabinets. The cops cleaned the room, and soon they were sitting at an old desk, playing cards.
Outside, the men worked persistently. Many of them were foreigners, so they didn’t speak English, and of those whom could speak it, there was still quietness among them. It was not a day for jokes or polite conversation.
On the bottom floor of the Archives, on the wall that was known as the South Face, the ANFO was planted.
“Get to your safety zones. The timer is set for five min.” The foreman said, turning the charge cap and setting the timer. The men hurried out into their designated locations to await the small blast. The foreman soon followed suit.
Up in the archive room, the cops were alerted to the actions.
“You guys need to get back into the hall. We’re planting ANFO and the explosion could cause a ricochet. Might take out this entire room, hell, this whole floor.” A crewman said.
“Shit, and I had a good hand. Almost took that wedding ring from you, Tully.” Steve said, smiling.
“Hell, why not? My divorce papers are in the mail. What good’s a ring?” Shane Tully said back, half mockingly.
At five past the hour, the explosion shook the archives.
The craftsmanship of the beams was quality, so the archives never fell apart. The explosion did what it was triggered to do: destroy the old wall. Dust and plaster fell to the ground floor in exciting fashion, but that was all that was dislodged. The cop’s playroom never caved in, there were no ricochets, and there was even little to no smoke.
“Guess you guys can get back to that card game.” The crewman said, sounding dismayed that it was already time for him to get back to work. He had been hoping for some brilliant pyrotechnics.
“What’s this about divorce paper?” Steve asked his partner.
“Debra’s convinced herself that I’m fucking around. Says she can’t trust me.” Tully replied.
“Are you?” Steve asked.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t make it right. Your wife is supposed to trust you.” Tully said, grinning.
They went back into the room, sat down to play cards again, and then wondered simultaneously when the damn day would end. Being underground was a mind fuck. There was no sense of time passing; no knowledge of where day ended and night began. It was too quiet too, and the human brain requires a fair amount of stimulus, or else a person could go insane.
Ten minutes into the card game, Tully got a craving.
“Want some coffee?” He asked his partner.
“Blue collar bums probably drank it all. Probably shit anyway.” Steve said, not taking his eyes off of his cards.
“Well I’m getting some. Don’t ask for a cup when I step back through this door, and don’t look at my cards.” Tully said, stepping away from the desk.
“Whatever you say, mother.” Steve mocked.
Shane Tully walked with a swoosh. His gun belt was loose; it had to be, because his gut was just too abdominous, courtesy of a few too many late night Heinekens. Coffee would do him good. The caffeine would awaken his stupor senses.
As he walked down to the stairs to the first floor of the archives, he noticed that the workers were crowed near the newly formed hole on the South Face. From what Tully could see, there was only pitch-blackness coming out of the hole in the wall. Whatever was there, the men seemed to be ogling it something fierce. Tully went on over.
“What’s all the ruckus, guys? What, you find the gold at the end of the rainbow?” Tully said, trying to get a view of what was inside.
“Gold? Don’t know about gold, but I see a truck in there.” One of the men said.
“Truck?” Tully asked, but even as he asked, he could see a bit of the object.
“Clear out of there. We’re putting lamps in. C’mon, back the hell up!” Somebody said gruffly.
The men moved away. Some more men threw two plastic shiners in the room. The alcove was suddenly painted gray-red.
“Hell, it’s a truck. Looks like an old one at that.” A man said.
Tully moved into the room with the men. Then he saw the truck.
“Whew, whey! That’s a classic. 1954 Ford if I ever saw one. What’s that on the back?” Tully said, observing the old gray rusty truck with the busted windows and empty carriage.
“Yep, the plates say Ford. Looks like…that almost looks like a dogcatcher’s truck, doesn’t it? Words been rusted off the side, but I think that’s a city pound truck.” A man said, talking to Tully.
“What’s it doing down here?” Tully asked.
They looked around, and then they saw the debris. There were bulky concrete slabs.
“Any ideas?” Tully asked. The men were spreading out, checking the truck out.
“Well yeah, I got a pretty good idea of how it got down here. See that broken overhang on the roof? That’s looks like an older tunnel convention. Maybe a loading tunnel for the archives back in the day. Looks like it collapsed while the driver was making his run. How the hell that happened, is beyond me. Concrete is usually stable. Woulda took an earthquake to do it, and Metro City ain’t been hit with any quakes that I can recall.” The man said.
“Hey, there’s a note inside the truck.” A Mexican said in broken English.
The foreman walked over and looked inside the passenger seat. He pulled the note out of the truck, then read it. As the foreman read the note, a look of confusion spread over his face. Then he stood erect.
“Alright, that’s enough for today. C’mon, everybody out of here. We’re gonna need authorization before we can go any further.” The foreman said. “Officer, care to take a look at this?”
Tully walked toward the foreman as the others left the room.
“What’s up?” Tully asked.
“This note. Take a look at it. What do you make of that?” The foreman asked.
Shane Tully ran his eyes over the note. The same look of confusion swept over his face.
“Well, I’d say the fellow who wrote this was either a comedian, or damned insane.”
Tully turned to look back at the truck.
“Yes sir, I’d say he was crazy out of his goddamned mind.”
2.
Release. Sweet, blessed relief. They had been locked up far too long, buried in the tomb under the ground, forced to live off of insects and a reserve of putrid sewer backwash that flooded the archives three times a year. They were but a mere shadow of the things they had once been. Now, they were free again. They were still underground, yes, but only time would pass before they were free of their prison for good.
But first, they wanted some real food.
3.
The men were packing up for the day. They packed inside the crew quarters, a wooden domicile that had been crafted as a place to store clothing and food. There were two small shower ports, each with curtains lining them. Two men were taking showers, the rest were sitting on the wooden benches, chatting up a storm for the first time in the day, and generally relieved that the day was at an end.
Their relief left them when they heard the first scream.
Steve McDuffin heard the screams. He dropped his cards and reached for his pistol. Sweat popped off his brow. What the hell had happened? What the hell! He ran for the door, but before he could get out the room, the door opened on its on. Steve screamed as Shane Tully fell into the room. Steve took one look at him, and then screamed again. His partner was a bloody heap.
Tully fell back against the door trapping them both inside. His neck was flayed, with blood gushing down onto his dusty officers outfit. Somehow, he managed to speak.
“Don’t….go out…there.. Safer….here.” Tully said through a mist of red.
“Oh shit oh Jesus Christ what happened to you!” Steve yelled.
“Ahhhhhh….take….” Tully reached out with one hand. His 9mm was there, caked in blood. “Will…need…too.” Tully dropped the gun. There was something else in his hand. A blood soaked piece of paper. He dropped that too.
“Man pleases! What’s happened? WHAT?” Steve said, but already he could it was too late. His partner was dead. He lay ragged against the door. The room was completely enclosed, so Steve couldn’t see anything beyond the old door window, which was caked with blood. All he could do was stand still and listen to the turmoil outside.
People were screaming. It didn’t sound good in the least. The workers were being harmed, and it sounded like nothing Steve had ever heard before. Motionless, he stood shocked and listened to the garbled messages of pain that came to him like an un-tuned radio station.
-oh god…..help…..no no no……over there!…..watch out!…..get it off me……ahhhhhhhhhhh-
Steve wet his pants. He didn’t even feel the piss running into his slacks. It was hot, and when the jet hit his bare skin, it snapped him out of his trance. Steve reached down and took the bloody weapon and note. Not yet daring, he only slipped the note into his pocket. He wouldn’t dare go out there now. Instead, Steve turned and ran to the desk. He dropped to his knees and huddled under the desk like a small baby, pulling his knees up into his chest.
Somehow, he managed to fall asleep. Through all the anguish, he slept like a baby.
Wake up! Wake up you damn fool!
Steve’s eyes opened. Who was screaming at him? He was groggy, lost in the phase of half-sleep and reality. Somebody was screaming for him to wake up. Steve looked around the room. He sighed. It must have been in his head. His mind was telling him to get the hell up. Steve suddenly remembered where he was. His dead partner still lay on the floor. The blood on him was crusting, and the smell was terrible.
Steve wanted to go back to sleep. He had been comfortable there, dreaming about mountain climbing. Now he was awaked. His legs were killing him because they’d been balled up. How long had he slept? Were they all dead?
Get up and do something!
His mind screamed again.
“OK!” Steve answered out loud.
He moved over to the dead body near the door. Steve bent to move Tully out of the way, when suddenly there was a terrible scratching. The sound was loud and terrifying. Something was trying to dig through the door. Steve grabbed his partner’s bloody weapon and raised it, ready to fire at anything that should decide to make an entrance.
“Come on! What ever you are, c’mon!”
Then the scratching stopped. Steve decided that he wasn’t quite ready to go out there. He would close his eyes and hope that whatever was out there, would go away. Sleep overtook him again.
This time, when he awoke, he was sure that there would be no more sleep, not for a long time. He was completely refreshed, and it horrified him, because now, if he chose to stay in the room, it would mean staring at the old dusty walls until he decided to do something else. Eventually, he would have to go out there. There was, of course, only one option: the lift. The underground archives were accessed by a turbo lift that ran up to the White Line train platform. He didn’t think it would be too hard to get to the lift; out the door, down the stairs, down the hall, up the lift. Whatever was out there, he was sure he had plenty bullets for it.
First, Tully.
“Sorry man. If I woulda known, I would have said fuck the coffee. Saw you cards. I had you beat by a mile.’
He began pulling the stiff away from the door. For a moment, his heart seemed to stop. What if this was a mistake? What if whatever it was was waiting right by the door? You can’t stay in here for ever! His mind was screaming at him again.
“Shut up already.” Steve pulled the door open.
The archive was dead silent. The lamps were still hanging, though no longer neatly. Steve noticed that many of them had been twisted vertically, and that others were caked with blood, which altogether blotted out the light source. The smell of death hung in the air; it was like being inside an old tomb. Steve looked around for bodies. He didn’t see any. Not a goddamn one.
“What, in god’s name---“
Something was coming up the stairs. Steve could hear it. The stairs were further back along the upper floor, so he couldn’t see them in the dimness, but he could hear the shuffling. He could hear the thick steps as something made its way up to his floor.
Then the sound was closer, and Steve knew that, whatever it was, it was now standing directly in front of him, hidden in the dark. Without giving it a second thought, the cop ran to the railing and threw himself over the edge. For a moment, he was flying, and then his chest crashed into the dirty floor. Steve quickly picked himself. Overhead, he heard a terrible snorting sound. He guessed that whatever it was, it was pissed that he had gotten away.
Then Steve heard a guttural cry. It was a terrible shrieking, but at the same time, it was a sound he’d heard before, only it the familiar sound was heavily amplified.
“It can’t be….that’s….that’s impossible…” Steve said. Then he heard the thing upstairs start to run back toward the stairs. That was enough incentive for Steve to pick his ass up. He did, and not a moment later, he was sprinting down the hall, praying to god that he got to the lift ok. Behind him, the thing jumped off the stairs. Steve could hear the terrible creature gaining on him. He began to cry as he ran as fast as possible.
He spun around a corner, and suddenly he was faced with the hole on the South Face. His spine was instantly chilled as his eyes stared at the black expanse. He could sense that whatever was down there with him, it had come from that hole in the wall. The construction workers had unleashed something terrible, and it had killed them all. Steve almost screamed at the horror of it all. He suddenly didn’t think he would make out of this alive.
Then something big jumped on his back. Steve did scream then. Big claws dug into his shoulders, and he was instantly pulled down to his back. He looked up into the eyes of the attacker.
Then he blacked out from the pain.
4.
He awoke for the third time, and when he looked around, he saw that he was among heaps of bodies. The construction workers were thrown into a large heap of death. Steve could see that some of the men weren’t even dead. Most were close, yes, but some of the men could only muster up enough strength to breath, let alone escape. Steve was struck with the horror of it all. They were stockpiling food. The damn things were using the crew’s quarters as a refrigerator.
“Got to…..get…ANFO.” A Mexican man sputtered. Steve could see that his entire face was almost all gone. He was talking through a skinless mouth.
“Oh god, oh god, oh god” Steve muttered to himself, unbelieving.
“Got to..bring this place…..down. Got to!” The Mexican said in a strenuous tone.
“Where? Where’s the ANFO?” Steve asked the talking corpse.
“Got to….kill em both….both male….can’t let them breed!” The Mexican said.
“Where is the ANFO?” Steve said again.
The dying man raised his hand with all his strength. He pointed to a cabinet in the crew quarters.
“Got to kill em both. Both! They…..can’t leave here…alive…” The Mexican said, then he was quiet.
Steve jumped to his feet. He hated to do it, but he had to climb over the bodies to get the cabinet. So there were two of them, and they were both males. The Mexican was right. If they got out of this place, they would fuck up a storm. They had to be stopped. The Mexican had realized it even as they were tearing off his face, and Steve knew it too. Whether there were people half alive or not, he had to bring the archives down into the ground.
Steve heard groans from the half dead men as he was forced to step on them. Then he was at the closet. He pulled it open. Sixteen ANFO capsules fell out. They were in perfect condition, with their blasting caps still on. All he had to do was set each for ten min, get to the lift, then get the hell out of there before fire swept through the place. He just hopped the lift was still there.
Steve grabbed the capsules and stuffed them into the ANFO carrying bag. Before he could turn around, he heard something snort behind him.
Steve slowly turned.
There it was. The biggest fucking housecat he’d ever seen. It was the size of a lion, with a thick gray pelt and small black stripes. It looked like any alley cat, except it was huge. It also had teeth like the fabled saber-toothed tiger. This was a mutant if ever there was one. And it was looking right at him with those green night vision eyes.
The giant cat hissed at him. Steve could see blood caked on its teeth.
Then the cat was running at him. Steve ran too.
He dove inside the small shower as the giant cat leapt on him. The cat landed on the shower curtains and began thrashing on top of Steve. One of the giant teeth tore through the fabric and stabbed into Steve’s right rib. He screamed as the blood flowed heavily. Then the curtain was being ripped to shreds, as the cat was furiously digging to get at the man underneath.
Steve would be dead in a matter of seconds if he didn’t do something fast. The paws were tearing through the fabric and one became embedded in his chest.
Rarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!! The cat screeched. Steve freed one hand and reached into his holster. Desperately, he pulled the 9mm and fired up into the curtain. Once, then, twice, then three times. The big cat screamed in fury and rolled off him. Steve jumped flung the curtain aside and shot twice more at the cat, but he was too late. The giant thing skidded around the corner on its on blood. Steve took a deep breath, and it hurt like hell through his broken ribs and tattered chest.
Staggering to his feet, Steve raised the gun. The cat could be waiting for him to round the corner. Several minutes passed before Steve allowed himself to believe that the coast was, for the time being, clear.
“Fucking housecats from hell. This is impossible. House cats underground. House cats as big as fucking lions! Well why not? Huh? Why the fuck not!” Steve started laughing at himself. It was so utterly ridiculous that it was funny. Here, all this time on earth, mankind had been afraid of the notion of the creature from the void, of monsters from other planets, of supernatural creatures and evil magic. All that fear, and no one ever stopped to wonder what would happen if the world suddenly became over run by house cats on steroids. Wouldn’t that be quite the surprise?
“Two of them…shit, I’ve got to bring this place down. If those things ever got out….” Steve didn’t want to think about it.
He cautiously rounded the corner and went back to the ANFO bag. Steve gave one last glance at the heap of hurt men. Many more were dead now. Soon, they all would be. He was going to bring the whole works down.
Reaching for the second gun, Steve accidentally dropped the bloody note. It was the one Tully had handed him in his final throes of agony. Steve unfolded the bloody paper and began to read:
This is John J. Cuthbert, and if you are reading this, then it means you found my grave. I had to do what I did, for the sake of mankind. I run a truck for the city pound, and lately, I’ve been getting lots of calls from up around the science division at Oakley State University. Seem a few of the test subjects got away. They expressed interest in finding two of the animals: a pair of male house cats that they say must be found immediately.
Well I found those cats. Damn things were in an alley in one of the old neighborhoods. This is gonna sound crazy, but those damn cats were bigger than most, bout the size of lion cubs, but they looked like house cats! No, I wasn’t drinking on that day neither. Them cats had KILLED somebody! A black Negro boy must have been playing in the alley, and when I found them, they was tearing his skin off. I couldn’t save him, but I sure as hell caught them cats up and threw them in cages in back. Damn if they didn’t kill off two of the dogs, two mean Dobermans.
I couldn’t return these things to the University. They were freaks, and I knew I had to kill em. My guess was that if they ever got a chance to breed, they would spawn some sick things the like of which the word wouldn’t be able to combat. Killer house cats!!!
So I decided to crash my truck into the old steam tunnel near the train station. I figured if I tore ass into one of the slabs, I could bring the whole thing down, destroying the truck and the freaks. Well it worked, but I was unable to get out of the truck before the works came down, and so I’m now trapped down here, in the dark, with these freaks. At least I’ll die knowing that I did something good. That I saved mankind from the killer cats.
J. J. Cuthbert
Except ole JJ had failed. The cats had somehow survived; survived ten, maybe twenty, maybe more years. And now they were as big as the biggest lions, and hungry for blood. It was time for Steve to do was Cuthbert had died trying to. He would kill these things, even if it meant his life.
He rounded the corner to the straightaway and saw the lift. It was waiting for him. The hall was quiet; too quiet. Steve dropped to his knees and began pulling the ANFO capsules from his bag. The cats had to be somewhere deep in the archive; there were no hiding places between Steve and the lift. He turned his head to look into the darkness that he had just left. As he pointed with one gun, he used his other hand to set each ANFO cap. Soon, all of them read 5 min on the LCD screens. Steve gave a sigh of relief and began backing toward the lift.
His hand touched the mesh gate surrounding the lift. Without turning his body, Steve pulled the gate aside and climbed in. He flung the gate closed, and not a moment too soon.
The giant gray shape exploded from the darkness. Steve gave a startled yell as the giant cat hit the mesh. It was the second cat, and it was even bigger than the first. It looked like it could easily rip into the lift if he gave it a chance. He didn’t.
Steve reached down and slammed on the Activate button. The lift began to climb.
The cat jumped again, and this time it buried its huge paws in the mesh. The lift suddenly stopped. It was too much weight.
“Let go you bastard! Let the fuck go!” Steve screamed, then started kicking at the clinging claws. As he kicked, he saw that the mesh was going. The cat was trying its hardest to dig its way in, and if the mesh broke, all the cat would have to do would be to jump in a take Steve.
“ I said, LET GO!!!!!!!” Steve ran fourth and, no longer thinking, sunk his teeth into the cat’s paws. He bit down harder than he ever had in his life. He drew blood and filth into his mouth.
That did it.
The cat let go with a startled scream, then drew back and started licking its paws. It suddenly no longer cared about Steve.
“All that, and you’re still just a snobby fucking cat after all. Good bye, and good riddance.” Steve said as he gave the cat one last glance before he was lifted out of view. Then he was alone. In four minutes, the underground would cave in for good. He hoped those two freak cats died screeching and on fire. It was all that mattered now, that they suffered too.
Steve slumped down. He was almost to the top of the lift, almost to the old train station. With any luck, he’d be able to catch a train. Three minutes to go…
There was a terrible clash as the ceiling to the lift broke away. Steve looked up. He moved his head just in time to avoid the death swipe of the bloody claw. The first cat! It was one top of the lift! Smart fucker! Steve lie on his back and shot up into the ceiling. One of the bullets hit the cat’s paw. There was another of those shrieks as the paw was pulled away.
Then he was at the top. Steve burst from the lift and ran out into the White Line station. He was alone. A single Elevated train was sitting there. It was off duty. The conductor was standing outside the train, talking on a sell phone. She saw Steve running at her and began backing up.
“Get on the train, now!” Steve screamed. “Get it started! There’s going to be an explosion!”
“What?” The woman said, frightened. Steve grabbed her arms and yanked her back to reality.
“There are mining bombs planted in the underground subsystems, and they are about to blow. Get this fucking train started now!” Steve hissed.
That was all the woman needed to hear. That, and the fact that he was wearing a cop’s uniform, got her moving. She jumped into the front of the train and started it up. She hit the door open button, and the doors slipped free. Steve jumped aboard.
He wasn’t the only one.
“What the fuck is that! Hey man, look out!” The woman screamed as she saw the big cat running up the aisle.
Steve knew what he would see before he even turned. Instead of wasting time turning, he dropped to his back and pulled the 9mm. He knew the cat would pounce him, as it had the first time. This time he was ready.
In slow motion, it seemed, the cat was flying through the air. Steve was looking at the underside of the beast. He pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened. He was firing an empty weapon. Before he could reach for the second 9mm, the cat was again on him. This time, it didn’t bother digging into him. It collapsed its jaws around his head. Steve screamed as he knew what the cat intended to do. It was going to crush his head with brute force. He couldn’t help but scream.
The conductor saw the cat trying to crush the man. She looked around desperately for a weapon. Anything! Then she saw the man trying to reach for a second gun. Scared as hell, she ran over to the tango and reached for the weapon. Steve was screaming as the teeth were sharing his skull. His vision was going black.
Then he heard the sonorous thunder. Three shots crackled through the air, and suddenly the cat’s jaws were relaxing. Then the cat was falling off of him, and Steve was free.
“Thank….you. Now get this…thing rolling. One min left, I think.” Steve managed.
“We’re already moving. We’ve been moving for a minute now.” She said, breathing hard.
“Then get ready.”
There was a terrible explosion. Behind the train, they could both hear tile and concrete becoming meshed together. A series of explosions were taking place underground. Through the blast, Steve swore he heard one last cry from that solitary cat still down there. Good, he thought, I hope it hurts. I hope you died hurting bad.
Then they were moving through dust. The explosions were ended.
“Mister, are you ok?”
“No, not really. I think I need a Dr.”
“Hold on, we’re getting there.”
She examined the cat. Was she really seeing this?
“I never knew house cats could get that big. That they could do…what it was trying to do to you.” She said, in wonder.
“Lady, before today, neither did I.” Steve took a deep breath. He was fighting back the darkness.
“All I know is that sometimes they get big. And sometimes, just sometimes, they eat people.”
And then there was nothing but darkness.
The end.
Thanks for reading…comments are welcome
7/28/2002 9:43:50 PM
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