Read Online The Creeping Kelp by William Meikle, Wayne Miller - Free Book Online Page A

wouldn’t be drawn. He only spoke again as he left.
    “Stay off your feet for a while,” he said. “There’s nothing broken and you didn’t need stitches, but the surface abrasions are pretty bad and you’ll be stiff for a while.”
    “Thanks,” Noble said. “But I knew that already.” He was talking to an empty room. The nurse had already gone.
    Stay off your feet? My arse.
    This time when he swung his feet out of bed he didn’t feel like throwing up. He took that as a good sign and was about to head from the door when he realised he was only wearing a hospital gown, with nothing underneath. Another quick look around showed him his clothes in a small pile on a chair at the other side of the room. He headed that way, but soon realised the futility of the attempt—the floor bucked and swayed like a boat in a heavy sea and his wounded leg felt like a lump of cold wood grafted at his knee. He fell back in the bed, a cold sweat at his brow and a pounding heart in his chest. The room started to spin and once more, in his mind he was back, dangling at the end of a tether, the black tendrils reaching for him. He screamed, loud and long until his throat was raw and sore.
    No one came.
    Finally, he lay back exhausted and fell into a feverish sleep.
    Once again he came to his senses slowly. He was sitting up in the bed and a warm body was pressed up against his good side. He turned and looked into Suzie’s concerned face.
    “How are you feeling?” she asked. She had been crying again, but he knew better than to draw attention to it.
    “I’ve been better,” he said. “How long have I been out?”
    “Just a few hours,” she said.
    He saw in her eyes there was more to be said.
    “But?” he asked.
    It came out of her in a rush, as if she’d been keeping it bottled up. He sat in stunned silence as she told him of the attack on Lyme Regis. He hadn’t seen the video footage that she had sat through, but her voice carried the whole horror of it and his own experiences filled in the blanks.
    “How many dead?” he whispered during a pause.
    “Over a hundred. But it’s hard to be sure yet, as the town is being evacuated and many fled by car and by foot during the attack itself. The army has cordoned off the whole seafront—I’ve told them it’s near impossible to police the coastline, but you know how these guys think.”
    Noble nodded.
    “They’ll find that this enemy doesn’t follow any rules of engagement. It’s working on some primal instinct. I doubt it has a plan.”
    Suzie suddenly had a far away look in her eyes.
    “I’m not too sure of that... I’ve been running some tests on the sample. I believe there’s something more than just instinct at work.”
    He remembered something from the journal.
    “Didn’t Rankin think the same thing? He postulated some rudimentary intelligence, didn’t he?”
    He saw fear in Suzie’s eyes.
    “I think it’s more than rudimentary,” she said. “I think it has problem solving and cognitive skills. I’m been running some tests and…”
    Noble started to sit up.
    “Don’t tell me. Show me,” he said.
    She tried to push him back.
    “You need to rest.”
    “No,” he said. “I need to work. Fetch my clothes, would you?”
    While Suzie got the clothes Noble gingerly swung his legs out of bed and put some weight on the bad ankle. It felt better than before, the pain having deadened to a dull ache.
    And the floor isn’t moving, so that’s a result right there.
    He wasn’t going to be running anytime soon, but he felt he could at least manage a slow walk, as long as he didn’t have to go too far.
    He made Suzie turn her back as he dressed, which amused her greatly.
    “Who do you think undressed you in the first place?” she asked, smiling as she turned away.
    “I like to be awake when I’m getting molested,” Noble replied.
    She was still laughing at that as she led him out of the room.
    Once he got out into the corridor and looked around, he knew