Garrett winced under the mental strain of trying to contain them. His influence over them had waned drastically and now, he was on the verge of failure. They were there, waiting at the perimeter, trembling with anticipation, eager to invade Community’s grounds. Compelled by the organism, the humanoids were here for one thing: the crops.
The Organism’s offspring.
Garrett’s vision, declining much over recent days, had finally ceased. A condition of being one with the Organism, he supposed. In his blind darkness, the humanoids’ terrible faces materialized. Sunken, brittle remnants of tissue, eyes gone. Dead, but not dead somehow. He’d known some of them at one time, when they’d still been human. His heart sank as he thought of what they’d become. Of what had been done to them.
He tried but failed to summon names for those he’d known; recalling names had been all but lost to Garrett as he struggled to remember much of his former life. A daughter, though…he’d had a daughter once. He’d loved her very much. That, he was sure of.
When he imagined her face, however, it was superimposed by a tiny, blue flower.
Let us in, Garrett…
Let us in…
The single blossom then became a field of blue flowers, waiting to release their poison on another unsuspecting world.
He shook his head. “No,” he whispered. Even the effort to produce the thin wisp of speech was exhausting. He coughed and bone-dry, splinter-thin shards bit into his throat and the roof of his mouth. It no longer hurt, though; the nerves in his mouth might be dead, for all he knew. His tongue was a shriveled, dehydrated slug, slicked with a meager layer of mucous which still allowed it to move. Before he’d lost his vision, Garrett had witnessed his beard become a tangled mess of slimy whiskers more reminiscent of moss than human hair. It’d hung down to where his knees would’ve been had his legs not been absorbed into the plant. He supposed now it might’ve spread onto the floor.
Let us in…
You cannot resist much longer…
Garrett hung his head. This, he knew, was true; he couldn’t hold on much longer. And it knew that, too. Try, dammit, he thought. Do it for…
Stanley.
Raising his head, Garrett felt his heavy eyelids lift. A name! He recognized it.
The blue flower, Garrett…
Remember that, instead…
He closed his eyes and attempted to bring his hands to his head and massage the stress away, like he’d once been able to. But he’d lost his arms; they hung useless at his sides, now. Limp, emaciated twigs, incapable of movement, hanging like grisly ornaments on a twisted version of a Christmas tree.
“Leave me be,” he grumbled, shaking his head.
Stanley…Stanley…Stanley… Remember the name, he told himself.
There is only us, Garrett…
The blue flower…
Let us in…
“No…I mustn’t…”
Reaching out, not with his old arms, but with his new ones, the ones that were now vines and roots and leaves, a network of vegetation, Garrett visualized Community’s perimeter. He concentrated, trying to move the appendages. Beginning to tremble, he felt the wall behind him – a part of him – vibrate. The vines ensnaring the house became agitated. They whispered angrily, invisible shockwaves traversing outward, along the network of roots.
Don’t, Garrett…
Let us in, instead…
He ignored the Organism’s plea and sent out his mental directive. The effort was so difficult, so draining…
“Do it for…Stanley,” he moaned.
You mustn’t, Garrett…
You will let us in…
Shaking his head, he tried to picture the boy…his grandson…
There is only us, now…
Give us Community…
A sweet, innocent face floated out of the gloom in his mind. A little boy with dark hair.
Somewhere far off, something moved. A branch. A limb. Garrett’s limb. It thrummed with animation…
Let us in, Garrett…
Community…
The blue flower…
The boy seemed to study Garrett, but Garrett remained still. At his feet was a small, black dog. Doris…that was her name. The three of them were standing in this very house, but long ago. It was bright and cheerful, sunlight streaming in through the windows. Stanley cautiously approached the old man, but Garrett didn’t budge…pretending to be frozen. He was tricking the boy…
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The quaking zipped along the ground, under the ground, through it. He felt the Humanoids, poised to advance on the perimeter fence. Their gaze fell upon him. They could sense him just as he could sense them.
Garrett “saw” the one called Alex at the fence line; could feel his presence there. One of the humanoids moved, perhaps in response to Garrett’s waning energy.
Stanley inched closer to the old man; his eyes filled with concern. The air was thick with suspense, as silent as a church.
“Muskrat,” Garrett announced. Stanley jumped out of his skin, giving his grandfather a good laugh.
Garrett…
You will let us in…
The man in the wall savored this recollection of the boy, Stanley. God, he’d loved that kid. Still did love him…wherever he was. “Muskrat,” Garrett whispered. He had called him that. He smiled. God, that felt good; it’d been so long since he’d smiled.
Overhead, a cocoon of wide leaves unfurled, revealing the orb that shared the house with him. It flickered with life and an oppressive force seemed to compress the air around Garrett. Seized by pain, he grimaced, trying to fight the urge to surrender his will.
It’s alright, Garrett…
Give it to us…
The orb grew brighter and the pain intensified. Garrett thought his head might collapse inward at any moment. He groaned, shaking his head. “No…won’t…let you.” He concentrated, sending out another signal from within him. This one however, was a sort of bundled up energy that he’d been storing for just the right moment. And now, with the crushing weight of defeat all around him, felt like that moment.
*********
Then, he actually saw it move. “Oh shit,” mumbled Alex, retreating another step from the fence. The humanoid was looking not a him, but toward a tangle of brush, that for some reason, had started to shiver.
Alex wondered if more of the creatures would jump from the trembling foliage and attack, but instead…something…sprung from the brush like a wave, making a beeline for the nearest humanoid. It pulsed toward the line of former humans, turning up the ground as it did so. Even as he watched it, Alex couldn’t be sure of what he was seeing. The ground rumbled as the first of the creatures burst into a spray of dark debris.
The next humanoid had no time to react before it too, exploded, producing a sound akin to a stack of dry branches snapping all at once. One by one, each of the things was reduced to dust in the same way…like they were all connected somehow. The last of them saw what was coming – or sensed it, not possessing any eyes as far as he could tell – and turned to Alex. It stepped forward, stretching its arms toward him. It made it only a couple of feet before being reduced to rubble.
As the remains settled to the ground, Alex stood perplexed. What had done that to them? He couldn’t begin to imagine what force was behind the humanoids’ destruction; he was just glad it seemed to be on his side.
Heading back to the pickup, something stirred in the field. Spinning around, Alex squinted into the darkness beyond the fence. He imagined a scenario like in the horror movies he’d watched when he was younger, where a character mistakenly concluded that the monster that was just killed was truly dead. Don’t tell me the fucking things are getting up.
The twilight had deepened, and the shadows stretched across the field had grown too thick for him to make anything out. He got behind the wheel of the truck and switched on the headlights. And gasped.
Emerging from the tree line at the far end of the grassy expanse was another row of humanoids. More of them this time. They shambled forward, mouths gaping. Arriving with them appeared to be what Alex believed to be a swarm of flies. But as the things moved closer, the mass of dark particles was revealed as a cloud of black dust. Alex imagined breathing that shit in and being choked into unconsciousness.
He turned the ignition and the engine revved, then sputtered.
Oh, fuck you! Start, you bastard!
It did. On the second try. Shifting into reverse, Alex pulled away from the fence, performed a quick three-point turn and sped back toward the farms.