Wormwood Dawn (Episode II) by Edward Crae Page A

Dan’s heart and breathing slowing to a normal pace. His only thought was guzzling a beer and doing a few shots to calm his nerves. It was not the solution, he knew, but it was the only idea he had at the moment.
    “I wonder if they were looking for us, specifically,” Drew said, “or if they were just scoping the area.”
    “They might have been looking for the other squad,” Dan replied. “The ones we killed.”
    Drew took another look around before stepping onto the porch. “We need to make an entrance in the back,” he said. “Something that we can get through, but the crazies can’t.”
    As Drew entered the house, Dan looked around at the property; nervously thinking of how unsecured it really was. They were sitting ducks, it seemed, with no protection from military-types. Sure, they could fight off mindless shufflers and such, but actual humans were much smarter, and could easily penetrate their defenses.
    But, there was really nothing they could do about it. Securing the grounds would only make their presence obvious to anyone who saw it; anyone who happened to drive by.
     
    Dan hooked Drew’s phone up to the laptop, downloading the photos to his desktop folder. He double-clicked one of them, and the two stared at the photo, disgusted and reviled at what they saw.
    “Man,” Drew said. “It’s so alien looking. Like one of those facehuggers from… Alien. ”
    “Spore sack,” Dan said. “Definitely a spore sack.”
    He unhooked Drew’s phone, hooking his back up to open the connection to the bulletin board. “You need to hook up and root your phone,” he said as he typed out the bulletin board’s IP address.
    The forum was there, as usual, but no new videos. He clicked new post and waited for the dialog box to pop up. When it did, he clicked the upload button and selected the photos. After what seemed like an hour, the upload finished, and Dan clicked the description box.
     
    These are close up photos of a floater that we shot and tracked. It looks to me like a spore sack or something. Once the membrane was ruptured and we got closer to it, there was the smell of mold and methane gas. There were tiny puffs of dust that I assume were spore clouds or something. I think it is dead, or non-working now. We threw a can of Lysol at it and shot it. It seemed like the logical thing to do since it smelled like mold.
    Please let us know what you think.
     
    “Very eloquent,” Drew said. “You fucking Hunter S. Thompson, you.”
    “We’ll see if anyone responds,” Dan replied, clicking the post button.
    He got up and grabbed a beer from outside, cracking it open and sitting back down at the table. Drew pulled out his one-hitter, quietly puffing his breakfast as Dan drank his. They laughed.
    “What a couple of outstanding fellas we are, eh?” Drew joked.
    Dan grinned, scrolling down the list of posts. There was a new one posted by someone named JewGodMoses. Dan clicked it.
     
    I just saw something strange outside my fourth floor window. I’ve been staying in my apartment building in B-town, only going out at night. But now, I don’t even wanna go out at night after seeing this. It was something that was climbing the building across the street. I ain't sure what it was, but that shit was sick. It was all long and skinny, like a two-legged spider with long arms. It was climbing like it was nothing, looking in the windows and sticking its arm through a few of them. I couldn’t really make out any details, only its outline. It was black and blurry, like one of them shadow things people been talkin bout.
    I was scared shitless, no joke. This nigga was quakin.
     
    “Oh man,” Dan said. “That’s fuckin’ creepy.”
    “Here’s another,” Dan said.
     
    I went to a gas station nearby to siphon some gas from the pumps for my truck. While it was pumping, I went into the garage to see if there was any oil or anything else I could use, and I saw a huge cocoon mounted on the ceiling. It was white,