Repopulated Ch. 01

"Two young women coming to visit Auntie Doris? How delightful!"

She hopped off her chair, setting her book on the counter. "What are you two planning on doing? Outfitting a new apartment? Are you moving in together?"

She leaned forward, her frazzled bubblegum pink hair dangling from under a woolen cap. Playing with her scarf, she chewed at her lumpy lip. "Don't tell me - you're looking for a sex swing."

Kate frowned at the woman, but Jackie broke into a hysterical laugh. "If you could only see yourself!" she exclaimed, pressing her hands against the edge of the table.

"No, Auntie, not this time," said Kate firmly, ignoring her lover. "We need another way out. And you should probably come with us."

"Running from the police?" asked Doris, screwing up her eyes. "I'm not sure I can support that kind of indecency."

"You know her?" asked Kate, frowning. "No, I don't want to know. This probably has something to do with where you sourced your kinky furniture, and while I admit I'm rather curious, we have a more pressing problem to deal with."

She folded her hands together, leaning over the counter with urgency. "Haven't you heard? The aliens are invading. The city's a warzone, and we're right in the middle of it."

She paused, hearing the sound of popping gunshots from right outside the store.

"Oh, no, everything is fine, dearie," replied Doris, her thick jowls wobbling as she shot them both a guileless smile. "If you don't see anything you like out here, just let me know. I might have it in the back."

Kate froze. There was something about this woman that was bothering her, and it had taken her up until now to figure out why.

She probably used her homespun appearance and familiar vernacular regularly to put patrons at ease, but there was something behind how she held her body that was telling. She was stressed, as if she didn't believe a word she was saying.

"Do you usually wear a scarf indoors?" asked Kate abruptly. "It's hotter than usual, and you're dressed like it's the middle of winter."

The woman's jaw dropped open, her eyes sparking with outrage. She adjusted the scarf. "What does my attire have to do with anything?" She lifted an arm. "If you're going to criticize me, you might as well leave, the same way you came in!"

"Nice book," grunted Jackie, sliding around the counter and picking it up. "Why were you reading it upside down?"

The woman screwed up her face, clenching her hands into fists. "Stop touching my stuff!" she growled, her eyes going terribly wide.

Kate shrugged internally, not impressed at her rage. It was surprising how much of her usual meekness had evaporated when the situation became life or death. She was already beginning to accept this, understanding implicitly that the morals of polite society would vanish in a world where everyone was greedily looking for a way to survive.

Stepping up to the woman, she grabbed her scarf, giving it a firm tug. The purple mosaic fabric unraveled, drifting to the floor.

Kate gasped as she noticed the fat, slug-like organism wrapped around the woman's neck. It was a gelatinous gray in color, with streaks of variegated purple running over the surface. Several half moon indentations were aligned down the center in a strip under her chin, moving up and down slowly as the organism wobbled.

Four large holes puckered open over the back of the woman's neck, giving her a glimpse of the reddish interior. It appeared to be breathing.

"You're infested," hissed Kate, taking a step back.

She bumped into a table behind her, unexpectedly rattling an ugly, orange lampshade. A noise of surprise escaped her lips as Jackie swiped at the woman's woolen cap, snatching it off her head.

A green, fleshy amoeba sat on her forehead, pulsing gently as the red stripe over the top rippled. As she watched, it squeezed itself down, a glowing blue liquid being squirted into the woman's skull.

Doris sighed, arching her neck as her eyes gleamed a matching blue color. "Why did you have to do that?" she asked, her voice booming with a tenor overtone. "Now this will be much harder for you."

The slug around her throat flexed, and she burped, tilting her neck. She didn't appear to be in any hurry to attack them, her lips smacking as she took a long swallow.

"How long have you been theirs?" asked Jackie, looking fierce. "You were wearing the same outfit when I saw you a week ago."

The woman's face flushed, greenish veins tracing over her cheeks, just under the surface of her skin. Kate flinched, but she simply folded her arms and backed up to the counter so that she could keep them both within view.

"What does it matter?" she pointed out, the slug around her throat wobbling every time she spoke. "We are here. Our mission was successful."

"And what mission was that?" asked Kate, holding onto the table as fear tingled down her spine.

The woman burped, the sound being expelled from the open holes in her neck. Jackie held her nose, disgust on her face as she retreated, her hand suspiciously close to her gun.

Kate took a whiff, immediately regretting her curiosity when the scent of iron mixed with burnt rubber hit her nostrils. What the heck had the aliens done to the woman's body chemistry?

Doris paused as she adjusted the slug's body, giving the two of them a cagey look. "When one is planning an invasion, it is only sensible to send in an advance force to ensure that the proper hard targets have been marked for capture and submission."

"An antique shop owner?" said Jackie incredulously. "Why would they bother recruiting you?"

The woman's eyes hooded, the blue glow fading as the organism sitting on top of her head began to inflate, a single, baleful eye winking open. Kate trembled, getting the sense that it wasn't really the woman speaking. Rather, it was the tenebrous intelligence of this creature that was working her body like a puppet.

"Why wouldn't we?" the woman responded, confidence bleeding through her plump lips. "Whoever would notice one such as me wandering about, watching people day after day. Prying out details about their daily lives, sending them home with companions to help them to understand their new role under our hierarchy?"

Kate swallowed, seeing the plan as it might have unfolded. An unsuspecting couple, bringing home an old piece of furniture, containing an alien organism secreted inside. A slug, hiding itself behind a drawer front, waiting for the command to sneak its way out and assault the unsuspecting humans in the dead of night. Like Jackie!

Stunned at this thought, she looked at her friend and lover, narrowing her eyes as she tried to locate any trace of alien influence in her gaze.

She looked just the same as always, with an enticingly curvy bust barely hidden under a white t-shirt, supported by a hidden leather bustier. The friendly creases around her eyes were missing, but that was understandable given the current circumstances.

She seemed just as sharp as ever. She couldn't have been compromised.

"Like an infectious disease," nodded Jackie. "Smart. But why are you telling us all this? An intelligent alien like you must know that revealing your plans in a long, rambling monologue would give us time to put together an escape plan. We're smart that way."

The woman's fat belly wobbled as she laughed, the amoeba's eye snapping shut as its body squeezed another dose of the blue substance into the woman's skull. Her eyes glowed again, pinned on Jackie. "What makes you think that any of you are going to escape? I'm telling you all this precisely because it doesn't matter. Our mission is complete. Those who must be converted, have been converted, and everyone else is already within our net. It is only a matter of time."

Her unsettling words fluttered against an obstinant sense of rebellion within Kate. She wanted to tell the woman that the military would come to shut them down, to destroy all that they were plotting, but she couldn't.

Even if they were, that wouldn't help them right here and now. She pursed her lips, considering whether she should tell Jackie to simply plug the woman and move on, but the alien seemed rather talkative, and the gunshots outside seemed to be slowing down. Someone must be winning the battle, and she was rather hopeful that it was their side who would be the victors.

"Okay, so you're invading," said Kate sourly, setting aside her resentment at the fact that her kinky fun life had been entirely upended by their attack. "What do you want? Are you trying to absorb our world into some kind of intergalactic empire? Removing the native population so that you can replace it with your own? Or does the earth contain some form of natural resource you're trying to exploit?"

The woman wheezed, clutching at her chest. "A veritable list of all the standard science fiction tropes!"

The green organism on her head swelled, pulsing with the blue liquid stored inside. She sighed, air whistling from around her neck. "I suppose there is a kernel of truth contained within most of those suggested plots, but none of what we want is quite that simple to explain."

"It would be more than my life is worth to reveal such things to you, however. Not until you have been brought in hand. Fresh material can be so uppity sometimes." Her eyes fluttered as she gave them a slow wink. "We all have our parts to play within the great game."

This was pointless. This thing was only going to talk in generalities until their time ran out. It was becoming obvious that it was waiting for something to happen, and the longer they waited, the more dangerous the situation became.

"Shoot her," Kate said bluntly. "We've gotten all we're going to get. Ugly bastard."

Jackie grabbed the book off the counter and smacked the amoeba on the woman's head without hesitation. Kate flinched as the organism squished, a side wall bursting open as the blue fluid inside spurted out onto the woman's forehead.

Her eyes rolled up and she fell backwards, slumping onto the floor. "That's... one way of solving the problem," muttered Kate, shuddering as the blue fluid collected into a puddle.

It looked like pus, and she definitely wasn't going to examine that closer. Ugh.

The sudden silence in the shop was oppressive. She looked around with a leery eye, trying to spot whether more of the alien organisms were trying to sneak up from them, hidden in the furniture.

No, everything appeared clear, as far as she could see. There was always the possibility that the curtains were hiding more invaders, however. She didn't feel safe.

"Let's leave," she shivered, stepping towards the door. "If there's one infiltrator here, there could be more."

"Agreed," replied Jackie, drawing her pistol. "They could be all over this city. We can't trust anyone."

They turned to exit the shop, and the door swung inwards, sergeant Ben stumbling inside. Blood soaked the front of his uniform, and he groaned, clutching at his chest.

"He has an alien on his head!" shouted Jackie, raising her pistol.

In a brief moment, Kate saw the situation in stark relief. Jackie's lips were drawn back, but she appeared reluctant to shoot. A swollen amoeba sat on top of Ben's head like a sack of pus, wobbling as it gripped onto the side of his skull. Ben's eyes were white, spittle slobbering from his lips as his legs churned forward, the gun missing from his belt.

"Don't do it!" cried Kate, jumping forward to press Jackie's arm down before she could pull the trigger. "He's not himself!"

Gritting her teeth, Jackie lifted a booted foot and planted it on the officer's chest, pushing him back. The man moaned, falling over onto his side.

Gasping, Kate dropped to her knees, frantically searching for a way to remove the creature. It couldn't be! Not Ben! She couldn't afford to lose him, too! Not like her father!

Cradling his head between her knees, she lifted it up, examining the creature. She hadn't wanted to touch the one on the shopkeeper's head, but this was different. She was determined to save him, if she could.

Wrapping her hands around the pulsating edges of the organism, she probed at the edges, trying to figure out a way to separate it cleanly from a shock of his red hair.

It wasn't working. However she tugged at it, the body yielded, the translucent surface glowing a deeper green, but its flesh remained securely attached. The edge was somehow glued to his skin, an oozing white substance wrapped up with his hair.

She used more force, distorting the red stripe that ran over the top. Its baleful eye popped open, watching her efforts with disdain. She refused to let its yellow glare discourage her efforts, but all she could seem to manage was pulling out some of the strands of hair. The creature's body remained secure, attached with a clamping force that was beyond her strength to remove.

"Move back," ordered Jackie, "and I'll put a hole in it!"

"Is that your solution?" asked Kate, hysteria in her voice. "To shoot everything?"

"It's worked pretty well so far," she grunted. "Stand aside. I want to see if these alien bastards pop off if they're punctured with a bullet."

Kate lifted her hands. "No! You have no idea what it will do to him! Maybe we should examine the shopkeeper first - we don't know what it's done to his brain. It might kill him!"

The amoeba within Kate's hands squeezed down to the size of a dehydrated fruit, injecting its contents into the sergeant's skull. His eyes snapped open, the glowing blue fluid boiling within. "I wouldn't recommend that," he growled, his voice familiar, yet not at the same time.

"You wouldn't want to lobotomize your friend, now would you? It's not as though you humans have much extra brain matter to spare as it is." His lips curled into a cruel sneer.

Kate choked down her dismay. "It's not going to help us, anyway!" she declared. "Look at him! He's so weak, he can barely put up a fight!"

Jackie hesitated, a range of emotions flying across her face. She finally groaned, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. "I'm going to regret this," she sighed, putting her pistol away. "But it's not because of anything this alien says. I trust you."

That made Kate feel good, but it didn't solve their dilemma. "If that's the case, then trust me further. I think we should take him with us. He's our only link to understanding the alien invasion."

Jackie frowned. "That sounds like a terrible idea, borne out of misplaced sympathy for who he used to be. Who is he to you?"

Kate flinched, getting back on her feet. "I didn't tell you about this earlier, because it was deeply personal, but screw it. It seems like the end of the world, and I owe you an explanation."

Uncomfortable, she braced herself for the explanation. It wouldn't be easy to re-live, but Jackie deserved to know the truth. "You know that my mother died when I was a child? At the time, my father was busy, too. Too busy. That's probably why he ended up working himself to death before I was sixteen. Unfortunately, that left him little time to pay attention to me."

She gestured at Ben. "Enter Ben and his wife, Janice. The two of them were good friends of my father, and practically raised me. When they found out that I was a lesbian, they didn't cast me out. They're good people."

She crossed her arms, stiffening her back. "They never deserted me when I needed their help. That's why I can't desert him now, no matter what happens!"

"Very admirable," chuckled the Ben thing. "But... it's rather too late to save anyone now."

The air in the shop rippled, a line of green static trickling down like a waterfall in front of the wooden furniture. Several of the armored aliens appeared from within the curtain of shadows, their gauntlets pointed directly at Kate and Jackie.

Jackie raised her hands, giving Kate an annoyed glare. "You should have let me shoot him from the start."

Turning away from Kate, she raised her hands as Ben shuddered to his knees, retrieving the gun from her belt. "We can't have any of that," he murmured, handing the gun to one of the armored aliens standing next to the fallen shopkeeper. "Since the two of you are so curious, why don't you come with us? You'll find your answers there."

Kate sent Jackie a beseeching stare, but her lover looked away. There would be no solace there. There would be no foolhardy plan, no way out this time. They were well and truly captured.