Deadrise (65 page)

"I was wondering when you would return." Matt said, finally breaking the silence.

"I was injured in the fighting. My body needed time to repair itself." They were all taken aback by his thick, bubbling voice.

"What happened to you?" Susan asked, her voice tight with emotion.

"As I already explained to Matt, and he undoubtedly explained to you, I was implanted with an alien embryo when we camped in Summittown. Almost immediately it began
meshing
with my DNA. When I was hospitalized in Park City, the embryo was already beginning to mutate my body at a genetic level, taking control of my physiology and adjusting my metabolism. That is why I healed so quickly."

"That’s why you were in such a hurray to get out of there as well." Jenkins said.

"Exactly. Although I wasn't sure what was happening at the time. I suspected as soon as my blood test was analyzed at the lab they would detect the infection."

"The Park City militia showed up at the hotel looking for you just minutes after you left." Matt said.

"Had I not fled the city when I did, I would have been captured and possibly killed."

"No offense friend, but from where I stand, that don’t seem like such a bad idea." Jenkins said, cold and impassive as ever.

"I would not wish this curse upon anyone." Zack said softly. "But fortunately, the genetic compatibility for the embryo to bond in this fashion is extremely rare. Most who receive an embryo would be killed almost instantly, their bodies transforming into a Sentinel."

"A Sentinel?" Mac asked.

"A superzombie." Zack clarified.

"They called them Alphas down in Park City." Jenkins added. "Fucking aliens."

"This sounds like something out of a really bad sci-fi movie." Muttered Cmdr. King.

"Unfortunately, it is very real." Zack said.

"Why don’t you fill us in completely?" Jenkins demanded.

"Of course." Zack paused and looked each of them in the eyes before continuing. "The alien creatures that invaded the planet and caused the plague of walking dead are called Krylok. They have very highly developed ESP, and can communicate telepathically over vast distances. Cruel and evil in the extreme, they have existed for tens of thousands of years, traveling throughout the galaxy from world to world, invading and feeding upon the native life forms. When they have bled it out, they move onto the next world, which they have scouted out hundreds of years in advance. They have had Earth targeted for invasion for centuries, sending the occasional scout ship to observe and make note of her defenses."

"Where did they come from?" David asked.

"Not even the Krylok themselves know their true origin. They have no sense of racial history or culture. Conquering and feeding is all that drives them. In the past seventy-five thousand years, they have decimated over one hundred worlds. As for where they were before coming to earth, it was a planet in the Sirius star system, very similar to earth. It was inhabited by a technologically advanced race of humanoid creatures called Lupen. The Krylok had inhabited the planet and fed upon the Lupen for over one hundred years, driving them to near extinction. But the Lupen were a strong, tenacious race, much like humans, and they managed to resist and drive the Krylok from their Homeworld. The Krylok simply followed their plan and came to Earth, the next planet targeted for invasion."

"If they feed upon humans, who do they cause the dead to return to life and eat humans?" Cpl. Norris asked.

"I can answer that question." Jenkins said. All eyes, including Zack’s, turned to him. "It's how they soften us up. Cause worldwide chaos before they sweep in for the kill."

"Exactly." Zack said. "That was the plan, only this time, the plan went awry."

"Went awry?" Cpl. Philips exclaimed. "This whole planet has gone to hell in a hand basket. I wouldn’t call that awry."

"It could have, and should have, been much worse." Zack said. "The plan called for an atmospheric seeding of the plague, followed by massive, worldwide orbital bombardment of most major cities and military bases. Global wide collapse of defense and communication would have been achieved in a matter of hours. That did not happen. If you recall, the plague first appeared in Africa and Europe. And there were no orbital bombardments."

"Why?" several of them asked in unison.

"As the Lupen drove the Krylok from their world, they managed to inflict severe damage on the Krylok mothership just as it was jumping into hyperspace. The navigational system malfunctioned, and it came out of spacefold practically on top of Earth’s moon, where it crashed on the dark side. The majority of the Krylok were killed in the crash, and the mothership damaged beyond repair. Since it was the mothership that carried the massive, orbital bombardment weapons and the huge quantities of the biological agent needed for atmospheric seeding, the plan was changed. They now only had the smaller shuttlecraft with which to deliver the agent, and a limited number of craft at that. Still, they attempted a worldwide seeding, but with disastrous results. Apparently several United States military satellites, armed with nuclear warheads, destroyed most of the attack shuttles carrying the biological agent. Only two were able to release their payloads, and only a small portion at that. Africa and Eastern Europe were the targets. But that was enough. The plague was 100% contagious. It took almost a year, but eventually nearly every single human being on the planet was infected. It is passed from host to host much like the flu, or the common cold, but in a benign form. The agent does not become active until death, triggered by a body temperature of just over 80 degrees Fahrenheit."

"Room temperature." Cpl. Carey said acidly.

"Is anyone immune?" Norris asked.

"Like I said, the disease is 100% contagious."

"I’m still confused," Sgt. Turner said. "If these…Krylok feed on humans, why would they create a weapon that feeds on the same thing they do? That would be like stealing food from their own plate."

"It is a side effect of the reanimation. The drones function on base instinct. The most basic instinct in any organism is to feed. But the drones themselves actually take no nourishment from the act of feeding. They are merely following an instinctive impulse. Besides, the Krylok are relatively few in number. Even with hundreds of millions of drones, there are still plenty of living humans for the Krylok to feed upon."

"When we went on a supply raid down into Salt Lake City, we found some bodies whose brains were sucked out of their head. There was also a bunch of slime tracks. Did the Krylok do that?" Matt asked.

"Yes. The Krylok do not eat the flesh. They feed upon the brains and blood of their victims."

"What about those goddamned Alphas? What do they feed on?" Jenkins asked.

"They do not feed. Their sole purpose is to assist their Krylok masters."

"When did they start appearing? I was stationed at the U for months, and I fought deadfucks the whole time. But I never saw an Alpha until that raid."

"Same here." Sgt. Turner added. "We didn’t encounter them until the U and Ft. Douglas fell."

"The Sentinels didn’t appear until the Krylok themselves landed on the planet. They waited several months, until the plague was a worldwide epidemic, before sending shuttlecraft from the moon to earth. It has only been in the past few weeks that they came planet side. Once here they began implanting their embryos into human hosts, creating the Sentinels."

"Down in Park City, our partner Ron was scratched by an Alpha, but he didn’t turn into a normal zombie. A nasty, fungal rash spread across his body. He committed suicide before it could overtake him, but his body kept changing, transforming into some kind of gestation pod, filled with hundreds of little black slugs." Jenkins said.

"That is where the embryo's come from. The Sentinel
is
the virus, sentient, in its ultimate evolutionary stage. If its strain enters the blood stream, it will transform the host into, as you said, a gestation pod. In this manner the Krylok can literally create an army of Sentinels to carry out their will."

"The embryo's aren't Krylok?" Matt asked.

No. Although strong and vicious, the Krylok are unable to reproduce and their numbers are relatively small. Even more so after the mothership crashed onto the moons surface. They need the Sentinels."

"Why can’t they reproduce?" Jenkins asked.

"I do not know. No Krylok knows. If the Krylok ever knew, that knowledge has been lost. It is believed that those here on earth and the moon are all that remain of the Krylok species. The embryo...the Sentinels...they are biological weapons. The walking dead are an effect of that weapon."

"Those superzombies were controlling the deadfucks." Cmdr. King said. "How do they do that?"

"As I said before, the drones function on base instinct, and they instinctively recognize the Sentinels as their masters who are able to control them through telepathy. The same way the Krylok control the Sentinels."

"The other night, during the siege, you got into my head out on the balcony. And when you landed you spoke to me with telepathy." Matt told Zack.

"The mutation brought on by the embryo implantation caused
many
changes to my physiology. ESP is but one of them."

"Why did they implant you with one?" David asked.

"A technique they had perfected long ago and used on a hundred different worlds was infiltration. They would implant a native sentient species with an embryo, and it would return to society a spy and saboteur for the Krylok. I was one of their first attempts at creating a human infiltrator."

"But it caused you to mutate. I wouldn’t call that successful." Norris said.

"Humans were a new species to them. It would take several experiments to perfect the bonding with the human genetic make-up. I am merely a hybrid, a first step in creating the perfect infiltrator."

"I thought you said they had sent scout ships to earth in the past?" Jenkins asked.

"They did. They even landed one on an island in the south pacific, ruling over the local native cannibals as gods, thousands of years ago. Most likely they were experimenting with human implantation, learning what was needed for when the real invasion finally came. But there was an uprising of the natives. Those Krylok that survived were killed when the islands volcano erupted and the secrets of successful human hybridization lost with them."

"What about all the stories of UFO abduction and experimentation over the last fifty years?" Cpl. Carey asked. "Was that the Krylok?"

"It is a very large galaxy, with
many
diverse life forms. As I said before, the Krylok have invaded and decimated over one hundred different worlds, each with their own sentient species. I doubt the Krylok were the first alien race to visit and observe earth."

"So you think there are more hybrids like you?" Susan asked.

"I’m positive of it. Eventually, they will be able to implant an embryo and the subject will look and act perfectly human, but be one hundred percent loyal to the Krylok."

"Why are you not under their control?" Jenkins asked suspiciously.

"I don’t know. Like I said, human beings were a new species to them. There were aspects of our physiology, our willpower, which they were not accustomed to. Given time, that will certainly change."

"Somebody had to know they arrived." Mac said. "If the military satellites were able to destroy the initial attack wave,
somebody
in one government or the other had to have known they'd arrived."

"They knew. They’ve known about the Krylok since 1964. Why do you think there was such a tight media blackout on the whole situation? They wouldn’t even acknowledge that the dead were returning to life, let alone tell the public of an alien invasion." Zack said.

"Since 1964?" Jenkins asked.

"Yes. It started with a man named Mordecai Necrotura."

"Mordecai Necrotura?" David commented. "I’ve read that name here in the house computer files. He was the leader of a cult."

"He was far more than that my friend. Let me explain. Mordecai Necrotura was born with telepathic abilities. A Krylok aboard a scout ship contacted him via astral projection at an early age, guiding him in the development of his powers, promising Mordecai power and the rule of earth under their command in return for his cooperation when they arrived. In 1964 the scout ship did arrive, landing on a small island somewhere in the south pacific; all that remained of the island they had inhabited thousands of years before. The volcano was long dead and the island a tropical paradise once again. Mordecai was there to greet them. But the Krylok meant to betray him. He was to be their first human hybrid, but he refused."

"Why didn’t they kill him?" Matt interrupted.

"They would have if not for the appearance of the United States military. Exactly why they were there is unknown, but the Krylok were killed and Mordecai escaped. The Krylok believe their ship as well as a pair of Sentinels were captured."

"Those bastards and their secrets." Jenkins muttered.

"There is more. Mordecai Necrotura escaped, but with the knowledge of when the full Krylok assault would come. Using that knowledge, he founded an apocalyptic death cult of madmen, murderers, and occultists. That cult was called The New Humanity. They came to worship Mordecai as the savior of the human race, the one who would lead the chosen ones to salvation after the coming apocalypse. His financial and occult empire spanned the globe, but he made his headquarters here, in his hometown of Kittewa, Utah, more specifically right here at his estate on Rainbow Lake."