Doctor Who_ Halflife - Mark Michalowski [5]
Joshua jumped as he heard the clicking of the two men setting their rifles.
He couldn’t believe that they were just going to shoot the horse-man-thing.
Maybe it was good, and not invading. An odd noise drifted through the dark –
a combination of electronic-sounding hums and clicks – and Joshua squinted, seeing the creature’s small, circular mouth moving. It was talking. It stopped after a few moments and tipped its head on one side as if waiting for a reply.
‘What d’you want?’ bellowed Pa boldly, but Joshua could hear the tremor in his voice. He saw him hefting the rifle in his hands. This felt bad.
The creature repeated its noises, but this time the sounds were accompanied by something very odd. The creature’s body, in the bluish light from the ship, had looked white – or as pale as made no difference. But now it was changing: a series of flickering dark bands, like the stripes of a zebra, were scrolling along it, from the top of the sheep’s head, down over the man’s chest, and right to the horse’s back end. They flickered as they went, changing thickness, stuttering on and off. After a few seconds, the patterns froze in place, before being replaced by a hypnotic pattern of black and white dots, expanding all over its skin, like monochrome fireworks. Joshua was entranced. This was like nothing he’d ever seen before. The creature was beautiful. He heard one of the adults say something, but was too enthralled by the creature’s display to catch it.
For the first time, because it was the only part of the creature that hadn’t shown the flickering patterns, Joshua saw that there was something on its chest, hanging round its neck perhaps. A Y-shaped thing about the size of his father’s hand.
Then suddenly, moving amazingly quickly, the offworlder galloped down the slope of the ship. Joshua heard Uncle Ake swear, and although the crea-7
ture stopped sharply on the grass, it made no difference. The next thing Joshua heard was the sound of his Pa’s rifle, exploding in the silence. He gasped and his throat choked up, as the beautiful creature jerked sharply, one of its slender hands moving to its side. It looked down, as if amazed at being shot, and lifted up its palm to examine it. Joshua could see a smudge of darkness, and knew that it was blood. He heard Pa say something to Uncle Ake, and called out, ‘No, Pa! Don’t shoot it!’
Pa turned quickly in the dark and swore at Joshua, telling him to get back to the truck. Uncle Ake shouted a warning to Pa, and Joshua saw that the creature was moving towards them, staggering and weaving about. Its head was tipped back, its mouth moving slowly, and Joshua could hear a low, guttural moan coming from it.
A second shot rang out, this one from Uncle Ake’s gun, and the creature spun on the spot, one of its front legs collapsing beneath it. Away in the distance, in the dark, he heard a rising, groaning noise, shuddering across the countryside – and then realised that it was just elephines, disturbed by the gunshots. Joshua flinched as, with a wail, the horse-man fell to its knees and slumped on to its side. The two adults began to walk towards it, guns pointing straight at its head. Joshua wanted to cry. This was just so wrong. Without thinking, he crossed himself, wondering whether, if he shouted loudly enough, Our Lady would hear him and come and save the horse-man.
‘Please, Pa!’ he cried out, running to him and grabbing his leg, desperately trying to pull him back. ‘Leave it. It hasn’t done any harm.’
‘It’s an alien, Joshua,’ intoned his father, as if it were something he’d learned by rote, a mantra that brooked no argument, no discussion. ‘Now go. Back.
To. The. Truck.’ He didn’t try to shake Joshua off, just carried on walking, dragging the boy with him as he cocked his rifle again. Joshua wanted it to stop, wanted his Pa to leave the horse-man alone, wanted to go back to the farm and pretend that the offworlder had never come. He buried his face in Pa’s side