What Lurks Between - A SciFi/Horror Novella - Part Thirteen

michaelkingswood (53)in #story • 7 years ago

Last we left Barry, he had remembered bit more about what happened on Ketcham Station.

Some scientists types had been talking about something called a Quantum Tunneler.

Hmmm…..

Artwork copyright Revensis and Mikhail Matsonashvili, licensed through Dreamstine

What Lurks Between - Part Thirteen

The Quantum Tunneler.

The bunny and I were walking the streets again, looking for the bunny monster’s next victim. I hardly noticed where it was taking me, the people around me, or the time of day. Which was unusual; it - she - had almost never taken me out during the day, let alone on a hunt at that time. And yet there we were. She must really be hungry to throw caution to the wind like this. But I did not care. Maybe I should have, but I did not. My mind kept going back to those words.

The Quantum Tunneler. That was important, and I could have sworn I had heard those words before. But from where?

That one.

The bunny monster’s insistent thoughts intruded rudely into my head, forcing me out of my contemplation as it directed me to the right, toward a woman sitting alone on a bench a half block down the street from where I stood.

I hated when the bunny monster took women.

As we approached, I saw that the woman was not like the other victims had been. She was young, with red-gold hair and a lovely face. Her clothing and jacket were inexpensive but not in disrepair. There was no odor of alcohol around her, and she did not seem beaten down by the world. Rather, she appeared cheerful. Not at all like the others.

She saw me coming and quirked an eyebrow upward. “Spare some change, mister? I’m on the road,” she said. Her voice was clear, strong. Optimistic.

I shook my head, a negative meant for the bunny monster, not for her.

Not her; the monster could not have her. I tried to veer away, but I felt the claws dig in deep. Deeper than usual; deeper than they ever had after that first day with the monster. I had to bite my lips to keep from crying out from the sudden agony.

“Mister?” The girl sounded concerned. “You ok?”

I curled my arms over my chest and tried again to turn away. Maybe I could keep the monster form reaching her…

But, despite its increased bulk, the bunny monster remained more than limber. It squirmed against my chest, digging its claws in with each move, and forced itself out of the V in my trench coat. There it paused for the briefest of moments, casting a baleful look at me that promised pain and worse.

The girl saw it. Her concern became confusion, followed by enchantment. “What a cute bunny…” He words were lost in a shriek of sudden terror as the bunny monster bared its fangs and leapt at her.

It should have got her. Should have killed her and feasted on her blood, just as it had so many others. But somehow, in that one moment, I was the faster. As it leapt, I lunged forward, stretching my arms like a wide receiver going for a pass that was just slightly overthrown, but never actually expecting to catch the thing. When I felt soft fur in my hands, I almost let go in surprise and shock. Hell, the bunny monster froze in shock as well; or at least I presume it was in shock. Regardless, it did not move in those couple seconds I had it in my grasp.

I did not stop to wonder at the turn of events. Instead, I turned and hurled the bunny monster away, as hard as I could. It flew through the air, tumbling head over fluffy tail in a way that, in different circumstances, would actually have been funny. Then it struck an overturned trash can at the entrance of a nearby alley.

Part of me wondered, hoped, that the impact had killed it, but I knew better. At most it would delay the bunny monster’s attack, only now it would come after me as well as the girl. We had to get out of there, and fast.

I turned back to her. She was looking at me with wide, fearful, but confused eyes and her mouth was agape.

“What… What…” she stammered.

But this was no time for explanations. “Run!” I cried, and shoved the back of her shoulder, turning her around and propelling her away from the bunny monster’s landing spot before she could raise a word of protest.

Amazingly enough, she ran. I could not understand it at first. Maybe it was because the whole situation was just too weird. Maybe I managed to put enough fear and command in my tone that she decided it would be better to do what I said, at least for the moment.

Or maybe it was the roar - an actual honest to God roar - of fury that the bunny monster made before it set out after us.

I had seen how quickly it could move. Its small body was deceptive, and I knew it could catch us easily if we did not get out of there, and fast. Problem was, get out of there to…where? All up and down the street, shops were boarded up. The few that were not were open for business, their entrances standing wide open to admit customers. Not exactly an ideal place to run, where the bunny monster could easily follow.

There were cars, though. A steady stream of cars flowed down the street, and every so often a cab. If I could flag one of them down, we could… I shelved the thought as soon as it reared its head. In the time it took to get a cab, the bunny monster would be on us. And besides, I had no money on me and I doubted the girl did either. She had just been begging for spare change.

“What is that thing?” the girl asked in between gasps. She was getting winded quickly, a bad sign.

“Long story,” I said, knowing it was a lame answer. I cast around, looking for something, anything, and then I saw it. At the corner of the next block, across the street: a T station. If we could get down there and onto a train… “Come on,” I said, and picked up the pace. I was already running at well beyond a comfortable pace, but now that I had a goal in sight, there seemed no point in holding back.

The girl opened her mouth, to protest I thought, but just then the bunny monster roared again and I heard a crash from astern. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw that it was rapidly closing the distance; it was maybe twenty meters behind us now. The crash was from another garbage can. The bunny monster must have knocked into it, because it lay on the ground in the monster’s wake, rolling away slowly as it spilled its contest onto the sidewalk.

Gross.

But it spurred the girl on to greater speed.

We charged down the street. I heard the bunny monster behind us, but I did not dare look back again. It would cost too much speed. The T-station was only a short distance ahead, and I began to think we might make it.

Then something solid and sharp struck me in the center of my back and I stumbled forward, landing face-first on the sidewalk.

It had me. I could hear its breathing, feel its claws digging in as it scurried up my back toward my neck. Briefly, I thought it would just punish me and that would be it; everything could go back to the way it was. Or maybe I hoped that. But deeper down, I knew that was not the case. It meant to drink me dry, then have the girl as well. After all, it did not really need me anymore; it had had its nourishment and was about ready to deliver its babies. Whether it killed me now or in a day or two was immaterial at this point.

I squirmed, trying to roll over and slam my weight into it, but again the bunny monster seemed to weigh more - much more - that it should have. And when it thumped down on my shoulder blades with its front paws, I found myself slammed into the sidewalk again.

Fool.

Its thought entered my mind, and with it images. Horrible images. The things it planned to do to the girl after it finished me. And then to others once its babies were born. I had always known it would be bad, but to see it… I screamed then, and not just because I feared for myself.

But then, suddenly, I heard an impact above me, felt a lurch, and the bunny monster was gone.

I looked up in time to see the girl following through on a kick. The bunny monster’s excessive weight must have been a trick of the mind, because it sailed through the air and landed hard in the street. Right in the path of a delivery truck.

The driver tried to hit the brakes, but the bunny monster landed too close. The squeal of skidding tires and the smell of burning rubber reached us at the same moment as the, softer, sound of the bunny monster going SQUISH beneath the truck’s left front tire.

I rolled over and pushed myself up onto my elbows, ignoring the pain in my back and chest for the moment as I stared at the truck’s tire. I could see one of the bunny-monster’s rear legs sticking out from under it, unmoving.

My mind screamed out in protest. Seriously? It could not be that easy. I had lived in terror and guilt for how long, fearing to lift a finger to that thing and letting it do all the things it had done, and in the end it was that easy to kill? All at once, my disbelief turned into guilt, and disgust at myself. I had been such a coward.

I flopped back onto the sidewalk - the new wounds in my back screamed in protest, but I ignored them - and pressed the palms of my hands to my eyes, trying to ward back tears of remorse and pain.

The girl’s voice interrupted my self-pity party. “You ok?”

I lowered my hands and found myself looking up at her face, which was only a foot or two above mine; she was crouching down next to me. “Been better,” I said softly.

She looked me up and down quickly, then nodded agreement.

“Hope so.” Gee thanks, lady. “What was that thing?”

I groaned and forced myself into a seated position. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

She snorted. “Try me.”

Just then I heard a creaking, from over by the delivery truck. I turned my head, and saw the impossible.

The truck’s tire was moving, bulging out in places and then returning to normal, as though something was squirming around beneath - or within - it, trying to get out.

“Oh no,” I said as cold dread filled me. I began pushing myself to my feet. “We gotta get out of here.”

“What?” asked the girl. “Why?”

I found my feet and pointed at the tire. Her eyes widened in renewed fear.

The bunny monster was still alive.

A small crowd had gathered, people dressed in everything from dirty clothing little more than rags to tailor-made suits. They clustered around on the sidewalks, staring at us, at the truck, but most of all at the tire as it squirmed around. They were all in danger from that thing, but I couldn’t worry about that. The bunny monster’s first desire would be to get me. And the girl, whoever she was. It wanted her, above and beyond the others - there were surely many others - that we had passed on the street that morning.

I grabbed at her arm, half expecting her to push me away when my fingers closed. But for wonder, she did not, transfixed as she was by the sight of the bunny monster struggling to free itself.

“We have to get out of here,” I said as fiercely as I could while still keeping my voice low, so it would not carry.

She was trembling intensely. Her eyes were fixed into a terrified stare, and she did not respond.

I snapped my fingers in front of her face and she jerked.

“We have to go. Now!”

She nodded quickly, in fearful jerks.

That was enough for me. I grabbed her arm more firmly and pulled her along behind me as I made a beeline for the T station, now only a few tens of meters away.

*****

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