Kiss Of The Scorpion: Writing Part 5

Hello again!

I’m back and ready to write.  I got lots to do.  Lots to write.  A whole lot on the plate.  And I like it that way.

Tomorrow marks the release of my first horror novel, and a DENTAL HORROR one at that!

So, to celebrate both my first horror release (“The Hygienist”) and also the week of Halloween, I searched back through some of my older unreleased short stories to capture the spirit.

It looks like I wrote “Kiss Of The Scorpion” in July of 2002 from the postmark on it.  I remember sending it to a sci-fi magazine with hope of a publication, but I only received another rejection letter.  I’m sure it’s floating around somewhere in a box where I keep those sorts of things.  I used to get annoyed by rejection letters, but they don’t bother me anymore.  They shouldn’t bother anyone.  A writer should always be writing for themself.  I definitely do that nowadays and have no doubts about what I write.

My writing has changed a lot from 2002 also.

Let’s keep that in mind when reading this.

Anyway, “Kiss Of The Scorpion” is named after a Monster Magnet song.  If you haven’t figured it out, I get a lot of inspiration from music.  And, apparently, I must have been in a Mafia-kind-of-mood when I wrote it.

So, without more rambling, enjoy a little Halloween horror story from yours truly…

Monster Magnet's God Says No

Kiss of the Scorpion

I had just lit my second cig to get the nerve to shoot the stuff up. We weren’t supposed to have smokes on this rock, but I grabbed them off Saro before we left him.

When Bambo saw that I was giving myself the injection, his eyes grew larger and his face was horrified.

“What the hell are you doin’!” Bambo screamed.

I didn’t try to explain. I just thought it made sense at the time. Maybe it would kill me, and maybe it would protect me. Either way, I had to do something.

Me and Bambo just kept staring at each other in decon after my ‘suicide’ attempt. It should have been the quick way out. I didn’t want what happened to Vito to happen to me. But, hey, it should be just a matter of time now, huh?

*****

When the supply ship docked, I didn’t know what to do. Saro had always unloaded our stuff before I managed to check him in. So this time I knew something was wrong.

When no one on the ship answered my transmissions, my suspicions were confirmed. For all I knew, the ship came in on ghost pilot. The ‘Family’ would not approve if this was Saro’s decision not to guide a ship into the dock without a ‘real’ pilot. 

Since my rank in the family is fairly low, I got Vito to come down to tell me what to do next. There would be hell to pay if it was me who botched things up, and Vito had let me know that the day I got in the business. When I went with Vito to pick up some ‘goods’ and the guy didn’t bring the right amount, a quick shot to the head showed me that Vito just didn’t take any shit from no one. And that was on the first day! 

When he showed up, Vito had brought along the rest of the guys. All five of us were together now for the first time since we got to A-88. The asteroid may be small, but one of us is always working so that we get the most amount of fiber we can. On Earth, the Family’s making a killing off it, so someone mines round the clock. I wouldn’t have that shit wrapped around my bones so that I could be some sort of superman even if it were legal. I ain’t that risky. Some of them just turn to goo if it don’t react well to their muscles and never stand again. Not for me. 

I told Vito Saro hadn’t contacted us, but he didn’t show any signs of distress. 

“Tony, you and Zalli go on in,” Vito ordered. “See if the boys are still in cryo.” 

When Vito switched over to that command mode of his, you didn’t ask questions. Me and Zalli quickly got the hatch to the ship open, a dank air seeming to push it, and made our way in to see what was keeping Saro. 

It didn’t take long to find him. He was on the floor next to the ship’s controls, with his eyes rolled back into his head like he had been popped or somethin’. 

Both of us waited a minute, taken by surprise, before I radioed back to Vito. “He’s dead, boss. Whatcha want now?” I asked as I picked up Saro’s pack of cigs. 

“Check him out, and see if ya can’t find anyone else in there,” he replied. 

As we turned Saro over, the only thing that me and Zalli noticed was a lesion on his face. We continued to look for some of the other guys and found them scattered around the ship. All eight were dead. Time to tell Vito. I had that privilege. 

“Boss, they’re all gonners,” I reported back. 

“Was it mutiny or somethin’?” Vito questioned. 

“I don’t think so. The only thing we’ve seen are some sores around their lips. Looks kinda—“ I didn’t get to finish.

“GET OUTTA THERE!” Vito screamed back at me. “VIRUS!”

I had heard of incidents like this before. A ship shows up carrying some sort of disease that gets loose and kills everyone that it comes in contact.

As soon as me and Zalli reached the dock, Bambo and Carri slammed the hatch shut. It wasn’t a look of fear on the four of them, but dread. I could only imagine my own expression.

Vito quickly looked over to me and barked, “Tony, flush that damn thing!”

“What about our cargo?” I remembered.

“Forget them! Just flush it!” Vito cried.

I ran to the dock console and hit the key that ejected the ship out into space. We didn’t even have a chance to mourn Saro when Vito started right back up.

“Get into decon before we all die!”

Our decontamination room was in the dock just in case of situations like these. After ten minutes, we each made our way to the meeting room. As I said, the last time the five of us were together was when we arrived on this rock. So, this was our first gathering since.

Vito had his opinion. “It must be some sorta virus that they picked up at their last stop. It must have taken out Saro and the rest of his crew quickly.”

It wasn’t like Saro not to let us know what was happening on his ship, especially if it was somethin’ like this. He sure the hell wouldn’t have come to us if he knew what he was bringing.

“I have never heard of a virus with symptoms like that,” Bambo protested.

“There are all kinds of diseases out there being found on new worlds,” Carri suggested. “I heard about a crew that picked up some bug on a farm world. They fucking shit their guts out.”

Vito continued, “Look, just go on about your business. I’ll report it all to the Family and let them know about Saro. We’ll get another ship with supplies.”

So, we went back to work.

It wasn’t until Carri’s shift ended, and Zalli went to replace him, that we found out that the virus wasn’t gone.

Zalli burst into the sleep room out of breath. We were all getting ready for our shift, when he told us that Carri looked as if the life were just sucked right out of him; pale and covered with lesions.

Vito immediately sent Zalli and Bambo back down to close off the corridor to Carri. Our mining had been suspended for the time.

While me and Vito were waiting for them to return, we heard the first scream. Bambo started yelling for help as we were halfway there.

When we reached Bambo, he was shaking. He pointed to a yellow puddle near Zalli’s body.

“He pulled his knife and was swinging. Musta cut up his face trying to stop it from spreading,” Zalli said as he pointed to the yellow fluid around Carri’s lips.

Vito turned to me. “Get a sample. We gotta find out what we’re up against.”

I grabbed one of the med kits in the corridor, found a syringe, and managed to suck up enough of the stuff for an analysis.

Vito told me and Bambo to head for the decon room. We would camp out there until we got everything worked out.

But before we made it to the room, we heard a yelp. I looked back and saw Vito suspended in the air. He was taking swings at the air when I saw a chunk of his throat disappear, yellow fluid surrounding the wound while blood spilled onto the floor. So much blood splattering around that I thought that I could see a dark red outline of something that was attacking Vito.

I turned around and almost knocked Bambo to the ground as I sailed past him to decon. When we reached decon, Bambo was in shock and didn’t know what to do, and I was scared shitless.

“What the hell just happened there?” Bambo cried to me once we made it to decon.

“Just get some fuckin’ tasers!” I yelled back at him.

I brought out Saro’s cigs and lit one up. Wouldn’t have to hide them now. 

But I didn’t know any more than Bambo did. When I saw Vito as he seemed to attack the air, and remembered how the same yellow fluid that we found on Carri appeared on Vito, I had an idea, but an absurd one at that. 

I didn’t have the guts to follow through with it.

I lit my second cig realizing that the first wasn’t enough.

I brought out the syringe and shoved it into my arm.

*****

“What the hell are you doin’!” Bambo screamed.

No need to explain irrationality. Bambo watched me, waiting for me to fall over dead in some sort of suicide, but I was fine. I don’t know what I was expecting, but nothing happened.

Bambo and I just stared at each other. Then I started to laugh. Maybe it was just the craziness of the whole situation, but Bambo kept studying me.

“You all right, Tony?” he asked.

“I guess so,” I lied. “I thought maybe it would help.” I tried to smile, but Bambo looked on in disbelief.

“I thought that maybe you was just trying to take the easy way out of this,” he said.

I never got a chance to respond.

A figure flew past me with supernatural speed and leaped on Bambo. The same figure that I had seen the outline of, except that I saw it clearly now. I grabbed my taser off the ground to take aim, but Bambo was in the way.

Amongst grunts, Bambo wrestled one arm free to reach for his own taser, but by then he was bitten, his life sucked out. My bolt flew across the room and the figure flew back against the wall.

I rushed to Bambo, but it was too late. The lesions had already formed on his face and his color was gone.

I turned to the creature.

An ancient myth from Earth lay in a pool of yellow fluid, its chest disintegrated by my taser, but its teeth fresh with red blood. As I looked down upon the corpse, it seemed to change before my eyes. The gaping hole in its chest was slowly shrinking as the wound healed itself. Its head turned to me, and its eyes opened suddenly, giving me a piercing stare.

I raised my taser again, and this time I blew its entire head off. I wasted no time as I grabbed its legs and dragged it to the airlock. Crimson blood and dark yellow fluid leaked out behind it, and I swear the thing seemed to be growing a new head. Once it was in place, I stepped out and punched the button as hard as I could.

Once I was sure I had blown it out of the airlock, I finally had a chance to rest. I flopped onto the floor, and propped myself against the wall. After a while, I felt a burning sensation in my arm. To my horror, the color was draining out. As I’ve been typing this last log entry into the computer, I keep losing control of that arm. Once I am done, I am going to send this message out and smash the computer. I don’t know for sure what is coming over me, but I have a good idea. I never believed in monsters as a kid, but I think I might be turning into one.

ds