Chapter 21

Twenty-One

Theo sat back down on the side of the bed where he and the monster had pleasured each other so very thoroughly just the night before. He still held the vial of serum in his hand, and he looked down at it, heart thudding dully.

Was it possible that the monster was right?

That there had never been any choice in this?

That Theo was exactly where he was supposed to be?

Theo did not want to believe that. It didn't chime with how he had always seen his life playing out and the direction he still hoped he could steer it in. Running around as a purple, glowing monster in the monster dimension was not part of that!

He placed the serum down next to him and looked up at Baku. The monster looked concerned in a way that Theo had not seen before. No, that wasn't true. He had looked similar when he had rescued Theo from the rages in the forest.

"The queen on my side, not far from here, she can eat through dimensions?" Theo eventually asked, though he already knew the answer.

"She is busy doing just that," Baku said. "It is not an instant thing though. Eating through dimensions is a time-consuming job. The fabric…resists."

"And the rest of them," Theo asked. "They're there to what? Protect her?"

Baku sat down next to him. "Yes, to give her time to eat through. It does not matter then if they die. So long as she and one more make it through, they can start over."

"But why?"

"Why does any form of life do anything?" the monster asked.

Abruptly, Theo thought about the number of species on his Earth who mated knowing they would get eaten afterwards and yet still they did it. Or the octopi who died immediately after birthing their eggs. Did they know that was going to happen? Would it make any difference if they did?

"My squadron is going in to kill them," he said after a moment. "And her."

"Do you believe they will be able?" Baku asked.

"There were hundreds of the nightmares when we left…" Theo shook his head, not quite sure how it was only a couple of days ago. It felt like days and days had passed. He wondered if time passed more slowly here but knew that it did not. It was just that so much had happened… "There will be hundreds more now, but my people call this a minor infestation."

Baku picked up Theo's serum and held it in his hand, the lights within twinkling. "The queens that eat through dimensions rarely stay for long, so the infestation does not get the chance to grow in the same way as some of the others."

"So the one down in Cornwall…"

"She cannot eat through, at least not now, though that may change in the weeks and months to come."

"But they wouldn't be eating through to your dimension?" Theo asked.

"No."

"Where are they going?"

"We do not know. A third world."

"So there are more worlds than just ours," Theo said, which made perfect sense to him. How could there only ever be two? He tried to imagine what that world might be like, the people that lived there. Were there monsters there? Were any of them like the munchers? Or would they, like the people of Earth, be shocked when the rips began to open, and the nightmares began to consume them? "We can't just let them go through..." he said slowly.

"No," Baku agreed. "Apart from the damage they might do there, removal of the substance that separates our two worlds is bad enough, but to add another world in…"

"It will damage us all?"

"Each time they eat away at the barriers it weakens both worlds, maybe even all of them."

Abruptly, Theo thought about the events that had led him to this point, one after the other in his mind, and then perhaps for the very first time wondered how Baku had ended up here as well, ingesting substances which altered him, but being more than willing to do so.

"Baku, how many of your people are there?" he asked.

"There used to be millions, Theo," the monster said sadly. "But since the nightmare and the rages there are far less now."

"Do you have a government?"

"No. Not in the way your world does."

"I'm trying to figure out why you're here on this mission alone instead of with a whole squadron," Theo said.

Baku shrugged one of his huge shoulders. "We have dozens of projects all aimed at finding a way to stop the nightmares. This is just one of them, Theo, and I am just a volunteer." He paused. "In truth it is one of the wilder projects and its success ranking is low."

Theo almost laughed. "That fills me with confidence!"

"But I volunteered for it because I believe it can work," Baku replied. "It is quite perfect in its simplicity. Disguised we can destroy her before she even knows what is happening! Imagine it, Theo. Every time one comes through and settles in to eat through the dimensional walls we will know. We can get there from my side and stop her before she can manage it. Her kin will welcome us thinking we are one of them. And then, when she is dead, they die. We stop them before they can eat everything in your world or eat through to another. We close the rip they created and any others nearby that might have formed as a result."

It was perfect in its simplicity. There was no denying that. And yet… "Why haven't you told my people what's happening so they can do something about it?"

"We have told them."

"Then—"

"Their solution is to continue to attack the nightmares as well as any other monsters that come through, eventually destroying the queen."

"If they had the serum though…"

Baku shook his head. "It is not something we would share, Theo. Its base could be used to mimic other creatures and we would not trust your people with that technology."

"You haven't shared the tech that opens and closes rips either?"

"No." Another shake of his head. "We fear they would use it to rip through to our world. Perhaps even to the lands where we live."

Theo couldn't even argue against that because some of the governments probably would! "But you're willing to trust me?" he asked.

"You are different," Baku said.

"I'm not, Baku. I am just the same as any other human."

"No, Theo, you're not." He paused for just a moment. "In my original plan, Theo, I was simply going to give you the serum without your knowledge, explaining everything only when it was too late. I told myself it was for the greater good and the deception on my part would be something I would have to live with."

"What changed?"

"I told you that I began to want you," Baku said. "And far sooner than I have ever wanted another before. I began to feel it and act on it before I thought to do otherwise. You were affected and then it was too late." He shrugged again. "We have been close now. I cannot deceive you."

"Thinking with our dicks," Theo whispered, and Baku laughed.

"Yes. A common failing in both our species."

Theo took the serum from Baku's hand and held it once more in his own. "The serum works only for a short time?"

"Shorter than we would have liked but we can only take so much before the effects become irreversible."

"The more you take, the more it alters you?"

"Exactly. My calculations suggest you will mimic with less serum and for longer than I can," Baku said. "And as things stand, I cannot mimic for long enough. My calculations are all based on the fact that the queen must move far enough away from the first rip to be able to create another, and that is generally a distance of fifteen minutes."

"That's a time measurement," Theo said. "Not a distance."

Baku waved the words away. "It is the same thing. Regardless, the serum needs to work for at least fifteen minutes to ensure we can reach her." He paused. "She seems to know when there is danger close by and moves to a safer distance."

"How long does it work for you?"

"Twelve minutes at most."

"But you think it will be longer for me? How do you know that?"

"I took your vibrations when you were on the army base and again when you arrived at the infestation site. After one of your team set off your containment zone. A technology we did share."

Theo remembered the feeling of static, and he shivered as he realised that was Baku. The monster had been so close. "I thought our scientists invented it?"

"With some help."

He started, realising then what else the monster had just said. "The army base? You were watching me there?"

Baku nodded. "Yes. In truth, Theo, I became intrigued by you then. By the time we met my attraction for you was almost inevitable."

"But…" Theo shook his head as he imagined the monster watching him as he trained for his mission. Theo knew he'd spent those six weeks wearing nothing but a scowl. What had the monster been thinking as he watched Theo? Had he planned there and then to fuck him? "Was I the only one who had the right vibrations?" he eventually asked.

"No," Baku said. "There was another, the female you were with in the infestation zone. It would work with her also."

"You didn't take her though," Theo said.

"My preference was you," Baku replied. "I didn't realise why…" He reached out and took Theo's free hand, and Theo's body responded to that as it had from the very beginning. It welcomed it.

"Baku…"

"At least I did not realise then," the monster added. "I watched you and you intrigued me. And I thought that intrigue was because you were the right human for this job. I was wrong about that though. That was not the reason at all." He paused. "And perhaps it was wrong of me to use my attraction, our attraction, in such a way. But it is done now, and I cannot change it."

"Baku…"

"But this will work, Theo. I know it will," he insisted. "I have tested it."

"At the store," Theo said because it was all making sense now. "The munching monsters..."

"They were from a much smaller infestation," Baku said. "They were responsible for the rip in the store, the rip I pulled you through."

"The queen?" Theo asked.

"I was able to reach her before the serum wore off," Baku said. "But only because she was not a queen who can eat through dimensions, and she retreated back to mine."

"How long before they realised you weren't one of them?" Theo asked.

"Exactly twelve minutes," the monster said.

"But we need fifteen? And you're absolutely sure of that?"

"It is the distance that must exist between rips," Baku replied. "They cannot form any closer to each other than that. If she wants to eat through to another dimension, she must put that distance between herself and the rip she came through."

Theo realised then that he had never seen rips close together. Never.

"And the rest of them?"

"Some of the nightmares will be on this side but very few," the monster said, and he gave Theo's hand a squeeze. "They will not risk the displeasure of the rages. If we get close enough…if we move fast…and if you take the serum, Theo, it will absolutely give us enough time."

"You hold them off and I kill her?"

"Yes."

Theo closed his eyes, imagining how it would be to be surrounded by the munching monsters, their clicking beaks and their chattering teeth, and they would be all around him. And she, the queen, she was bigger and stronger, and she would absolutely gobble him up given the chance. He frowned slightly as he considered the queen he had seen in the clearing.

"How would I even kill her?" Theo asked.

"Your knife, straight through her brain," Baku said.

It sounded so very simple…and yet… "I never wanted to be part of this," Theo said.

"It is not the life I would have chosen either, Theo," the monster replied. "I do not crave the danger. I do not seek out the thrill of the fight. But I handle the danger well. I fight better than most. Just like you. And this is the life that we have been given, the life that contributes to our people in the best way we can."

"Do you know what I do in the real world?" Theo asked even as Baku's words spoke to something deep inside of him. "I crunch data, Baku. Lines of data for whoever pays me to. It's dull and it's repetitive and it was always enough." He paused and snapped his eyes open. "Why isn't it enough now?"

"Because you are a natural soldier, Theo," Baku said, and his voice was heavy with approval. "A natural adventurer. This is what you are supposed to be doing. What I felt when I first saw you, it was surely that. And that part of your nature calls to the very same part of mine."

Theo thought of the infestation down in Cornwall that they could never completely eradicate. How many people had died trying? How many people had lost their homes and their livelihoods to the nightmares there? Then there was the infestation in Tenby, the one in Normandy, the one blocking the channel…

Theo's fellow humans were out there fighting them over and over. Humans like Gill who might lose an ear. Or like Dimitri who might break a bone. It was constant, relentless, and they were there doing it day after day.

Those infestations could all be stopped by the death of the queen only no one could ever get close enough. Bombing the infestations was not possible given all governments had agreed never to bomb an active rip for fear of making it worse. Shooting them all up worked to some degree, but the queen simply slipped back through to her own dimension when threatened in that way, well, no, not her own, but Baku's, returning again as soon as she was able. They could shoot the nightmares over and over but when there were tens of thousands they couldn't shoot them fast enough. Only, if what Baku was saying was right, if they really could get to her this way…

"How many times can I take the serum before it alters me forever?" he asked.

"You only need a single dose to stop her," Baku said. "That will alter you slightly but not forever."

"Yes, but how many?" Theo asked again.

"Our research suggests that if there is enough time between doses that we could dose over and over, but there must be some weeks in between," Baku said. "It becomes cumulative over a shorter time period."

Theo took a deep breath, part of him not quite believing what he was about to say. How quickly things had changed and not in the six weeks since he had been conscripted, but in the time he had spent here with Baku. "If I do this then it isn't going to be the only one," he said slowly. "We're going to take care of Cornwall and Tenby as well."

Baku frowned. "Those queens do not eat the dimensions."

"No, not yet, and they eat my people regardless," Theo said. "And that needs to stop. You have a map of all the rips, don't you?" he added. "All the ones that have fractured out from the originals?"

Baku nodded.

"So we'll close any others we find as well," Theo continued. "Kill the munchers, close the rips, save my people."

A pause and then, "Agreed."

"And if the serum turns me into one of the nightmares?—"

"It will not," Baku said.

"But if it does?—"

"I will take care of you." He tilted his head. "And you will do the same for me, will you not?"

"I will."

"Then we are in agreement, my human," the monster asked. "That we will stop this queen and then we will stop the others consuming your lands."

"I guess we are."

Baku looked relieved. Theo was both annoyed and pleased about that. He found himself wondering whether the bond that the monster had forced between them would fade as well or whether that was cumulative.

"I want to kiss you now," the monster said.

"I'm not sure now is the time, Baku," Theo replied though he wanted that as well.

"Then when?"

"When the queen is dead, and we are not."

Baku nodded. "Then we have a plan."

"Yes," Theo said, and his body thrummed with nerves, with horror, but also with a strange kind of anticipation. "We have a plan."