Chapter 2
Two
Theo and his fellow MDF soldiers were packed into half a dozen army issue trucks which were then sent off in different directions to surround the infestation. They were new trucks that had been designed specifically for the MDF which meant they had some elements not to be found in a regular army truck. Inside they all had super strong ear protectors on their laps which they had to put on in the event of passing by a screeching monster, as the thing would deafen them given the chance. And outside there was a coating on the metal which was resistant to the venom of the manganese monster. Since slipping into their dimension through a crack in Wiltshire, a group of them had taken to roaming the woodlands of the west of England and melting metal. Why? No one knew. They just…did…and only got angry when the MDF tried to stop them.
Theo was sat next to Julia, which in truth he had made sure of, as there was a confidence about her that he quite liked and was thinking that perhaps he could buddy up with her during the fight to come. He doubted she felt the same about him, but she was either far too polite to say so or was confident she could shake him off once they were out of the truck. Theo suspected it was the latter.
They rumbled out of the army base and along one of the A-roads now designated entirely as a corridor for the MDF. Though Theo had never travelled these roads before he knew that even just a couple of years ago there would have been tourists driving along them on their way down to the coast for a holiday. Campers full of parents with their children, maybe even grandparents too. The beaches along this part of the country were some of the warmest in the country during the summer, though they were even warmer now. It was something to do with the dimensional rips. They'd warmed everything up a bit. Theo wished it was summer now, as the truck was freezing, making him feel grateful even for the army issue jumper.
He shifted slightly in his seat as he considered that, looking down at his lap as he did so where his ear protectors and monster-removal gun rested. Theo had never even held a gun until six weeks ago when his attempts to challenge his conscription had failed completely and he'd found himself shipped out to the army base whether he liked it or not. There was no messing around either. Induction consisted of being given a uniform, a backpack of supplies, and a sort of multi-use gun which had a mounted torch, and a compass, but fired bullets too. What you did with it after that was on you.
Six weeks was not really long enough for anyone to become competent in marksmanship, Theo had argued to their commanding officer, who had taken precisely zero notice. Luckily, Theo had played quite a bit of Call of Duty when he was younger, so he felt like he had some advantage. He was confident he could shoot something if pressed into it.
"You look as though that gun is about to bite you."
"The safety is on," Theo said. "I think…"
Julia laughed. "Let's hope so." She paused. "How are you feeling?"
Theo was grateful that Julia was talking to him, but he wished she'd asked another question. "About the mission?" he asked. "I'm…ambivalent."
She shot him a look, a smirk playing around her lips. "Ambivalent? That's an interesting word."
"I'm not sure what other word to use."
"You're not scared?" she asked as she took his gun to check if the safety really was on. "Excited? Nervous?"
Theo shrugged. "All those things but since I don't want to be here, since I never wanted to be here, I've decided to go for ambivalence."
Julia laughed again at that. Across from them were two young soldiers, early twenties perhaps, and they were eyeing Julia with obvious admiration. Objectively, she was exceedingly pretty, Theo thought, but she held little interest for him even if he wasn't in a life or death situation where there was a non-zero chance that he might get eaten.
"I know you're furious," she said. "Though usually by the time conscripts get here they're resigned to it, but not you."
"There was barely an hour between my legal challenge being refused and them shipping me here," Theo said. "So hardly any time to resign myself to it."
"You mounted a legal challenge?" she asked with a low whistle.
"Yeah."
"I bet they loved that."
"They didn't, no."
She laughed and passed him his gun back. Theo was quite pleased to see that he had made sure the gun was safe. Regardless of his views on the mission, Theo didn't want to deal with the embarrassment of shooting himself or one of his fellow recruits.
"You've had six weeks now to get used to it," Julia said.
"Each of them as grim as expected."
"And you've not changed your mind even now that you know how important our mission is?"
Theo sighed. "Julia, I know the mission is important. Of course, it is. If we don't deal with them, the munching monsters will eat the whole damn planet. I get that. I absolutely do. I just don't want to be the one who does have to deal with them."
"You'd leave other people to do it?"
"Yes," he said. "People like you, people who will be good at it, who want to do it. I don't want to do it, and I am honestly not convinced that I'm going to be very good at it either. My preference is to come in at the end when all other options have been exhausted."
"You're one of the fastest marathon runners in this part of the country," she said. "Speed and endurance are essential when dealing with munching monsters. It was one of the reasons you were conscripted."
"How do you even know that?" Theo asked, once again cursing his lifelong hobby for landing him in this spot. He knew it was the main reason his challenge had failed. He'd been told as much by the army judge.
When the conscription was put in force some months ago—in response mainly to the rapid breeding of the munching monsters—it was based on a lottery system. Everyone over the age of eighteen and under the age of fifty was included and a percentage of them called up monthly depending on the number of dimensional rips active, the level of threat from the monsters trying to slip through, or simply whether enough people had volunteered. But the MDF had soon realised that you can't just send people to fight monsters when they can barely run a hundred yards or lift more than a few pounds. They got eaten…and quickly…and that was not good PR for the MDF! And so, without really telling anyone, they had rigged the system a little, weighting it towards more athletic people, checking local running club memberships, gym memberships, boxing clubs, and anything else they could get their hands on! It was sneaky as fuck, but Theo admired their cunning.
Julia shrugged. "Becky let me read all your files."
"She shouldn't have done that!"
Another laugh and Julia wiggled her eyebrows. "She was easily convinced."
Theo was about to ask exactly how Julia had persuaded their instructor, but a screech sounded then. The entire squad acted quickly, grabbing their ear defenders to cover their ears, and keeping them in place until they were given the signal to remove them ten minutes later. Quite a few of the squad gave it an extra minute. Several MDF members were partially deaf now thanks to the screechers. Apart from that element of them, the screechers were generally quite friendly monsters, so Theo was pleased not to be on a mission to remove them.
"I was a runner as well," Julia said once they could talk.
From the looks of the monitor at the front of the truck they were fast approaching the area that Becky had shown them on the map. Theo would have liked to actually look outside, but there were no windows on this part of the truck.
"Never had a marathon time as fast as yours," she added. "Well, I only ever ran a half if I'm honest, but I managed a sub two hours, well just over, more like two-twenty if I'm really honest. By the look of your times, you trained hard, and you trained well." She paused. "You've got discipline, Theo, and you've got some resolve to you. No one could run for miles on end without some of that, it"s so bloody boring!"
Theo had managed a sub two hours thirty on his last official run. He'd been given a ‘good for age' place for the London marathon as a result. But then, one of the very first dimensional rips had appeared in Hackney and the capital was suddenly busy dealing with an influx of spitting monsters. That was almost three years ago now. London had been intermittently covered in a slimy, orange mucus ever since.
"Besides, we're here now," Julia added. "We just have to make the best of it." She paused and looked him up and down, as if making a decision. "Why don't you and I stick together, keep an eye on each other? You watch my back, and I'll watch yours."
"If we're about to get eaten I'll be faster than you," Theo said even as he nodded his agreement.
"Over long distances," she replied. "I could probably outrun you in a sprint."
"That's doubtful," Theo said. "But I hope we won't ever have to find out."
And Julia laughed once more. "Now that you've said it, Theo, I have a feeling we most definitely will!"