The Becoming - a novella Read Online Free PDF Page A

him deeper into the abandoned mine shaft, but in his
panicked attempt to free himself, Karl had lost all sense of direction. It was
possible the thing had turned around while he struggled against it, but somehow
Karl knew that was not the case.
    His attacker dragged
him along steadily. He gasped and moaned and was rewarded with absolutely no response
whatsoever. The monster either had nothing to say or no way to say it. In the
midst of his mindless panic, Karl Meyer now realized all the stories he had
ever heard about the Tonopah Mine were true. The whispered rumors of some
horrible entity lurking in the long-forgotten depths of Alpha Seven, eternal
and vicious and deadly, were not just stories but fact.
    Karl pulled and
yanked and tugged on the ropy thing which had clamped itself around his wrist
like a vice. It felt scaly and cold but organic. It throbbed with ancient life.
He closed his eyes in silent prayer and then reached up and tried to bite the
thing, and as he did he felt a second ropy tentacle twist its way around his
chest and move relentlessly upward. The thing wrapped and twined and worked its
way to Karl’s mouth, forcing it open.
    Karl tried to spit
it out and failed. He twisted and writhed and kicked to no effect; more ropy
things— Sweet Jesus, where are they all coming from? —worked their way
around his body. In a matter of seconds, he found himself completely
immobilized.
    And then the
invasion began in earnest. His jaws were pulled apart, the cold alien things
wriggling into his mouth, gripping his upper and lower teeth with inhuman
strength and he screamed, long and loud, now beyond all conscious thought, the explosion
forgotten, the mine fire forgotten, Susan forgotten, his children forgotten, Alpha
Seven forgotten.
    He twisted and
struggled. It made no difference. A single ropy protrusion slithered into his
mouth, pausing for just a moment on his tongue, flitting back and forth as if
reassuring itself it was safe to proceed. One second later it did, sliding down
Karl Meyer’s throat. As he felt himself being torn apart, possessed from the
inside, Karl wished with all his heart he had stayed inside the main tunnel.
Dying from poison gas would be infinitely better than this.
    And then he was
gone.
     
    2
     
     
    Present
Day
    Tonopah,
Pennsylvania
     
     
    A mountain of blankets covered twelve
year old Tim McKenna’s small form as he lay shivering in his bed. Tim’s mom
felt his forehead with the back of her hand for the third time in the last
twenty minutes. “You’re burning up,” she muttered. “I wish I could find that
darned thermometer. You’re definitely not going to school today, but I’m a
little concerned about leaving you here alone. Your fever seems to be spiking.”
    “I’ll be okay,”
Tim told her with a weak smile. “If you could leave some orange juice for me to
drink while I doze, though, that would be good. I’m pretty thirsty.”
    “Of course you can
have juice,” she said. “I’ll get it before I leave for work. I have a couple
more minutes before I have to leave, so I’m going to look for that thermometer
one more time. I know I left it in the medicine chest.” She clucked distractedly
and ruffled Tim’s hair and walked out of the bedroom.
    Tim waited until
he heard the click-click-click of her high-heeled shoes fading off down the
hallway and then ducked under the covers, pulling them tightly over his head
and anchoring them against the mattress with both hands. He had almost blown
his whole plan the last time his mom left the room by going overboard, staying
under the blankets too long. He had come up for air red-faced and sweating, raising
his body temperature almost to the point where a fever might no longer be
believable.
    One thing he
didn’t have to worry about was his mom finding the thermometer. Last night
before bed, Tim had swiped it out of the medicine cabinet—right where Mom
always left it; no wonder she thought she was going crazy—and slid it