Moon Dust (Alien Disaster Trilogy, Book 2) Read online

  Kat glanced sideways at Gem and stuck her tongue out. ‘This driving lark is easy when there are no other muppets in the way!’

  Gem’s face was a bag of nerves. ‘Kat, I said keep your eyes on the ro—COW!’

  Kat’s reactions weren’t as fast as Brandon’s, but her nerve was just as steady. She slammed her foot down on the brake, and held it there despite the angry shaking and vibrating of the anti-lock braking system. She kept her cool and steered around the rear-end of the cow as she brought the Jeep to a halt. The animal just stood there, completely oblivious to the near-miss.

  Jason picked himself up out of the footwell. ‘You missed!’ he said. ‘We could have made burgers!’

  Kat looked the cow in the eye as it turned its head slowly in her direction. ‘You wouldn’t want to eat this poor guy,’ she told her brother. The cow’s mouth was hanging open, its long wet tongue flopping out. Its eyes were dull and clouded-over.

  ‘Ugh!’ Gem said, squirming in the passenger seat. ‘At least it’s not gone mental yet and started chasing us. Get moving Kat!’

  The smothering dust was starting to thin out (like rain or fog, it seemed to come and go) and as it did a faint glimmer of sunshine filtered through. More cows were plodding from the fields on one side of the road to the other, and as visibility improved, it became clear that the Jeep was surrounded by a whole herd of cows: almost fifty of them.

  ‘Sis,’ Jason said. ‘Drive.’

  Brandon was peering out over the grey fields in the direction the cows were coming from. ‘No, wait,’ he said. ‘There’s something out there!’

  Kat twisted in her seat to look out in the direction Brandon was staring, but her human eyes couldn’t match his. ‘What can you see?’ she asked him.

  ‘Something alien. Come on—the bionoids are telling me that the air is breathable for now. Let’s go look.’

  Before Kat had time to say anything, Brandon had opened his door and set off through the herd of cows. Jason swore, but grabbed his dumbbell bar and followed. Gem stayed where she was. ‘This thing can go off-road. Follow them in the Jeep, Kat, but take it slow. That dust could be hiding a ditch.’

  Kat drove out into the field. The cows shuffled out of the way, but their heads turned to watch the Jeep go past, and some of them started turning around to follow. Brandon and Jason were about half a kilometre out from the road, examining some metal debris that was scattered around the field. Jagged shards of what must have been super-shatterproof glass were sticking out of the ground too, like some dangerous art installation. It was impossible to tell what the wreckage once was, but some of the styling and markings on it looked familiar …

  Kat turned to Gem. ‘It’s part of the alien mothership! It must have broken off, or been jettisoned, at some point … maybe before the crash. Look at that symbol!’

  The twisting double helix would have been recognisable to people from any planet.

  ‘It’s from the aliens’ freaky monster lab!’

  ‘Oh great,’ Gem murmured. ‘Well, here comes Doctor Walker to explain what that means.’

  Kat pushed the button that wound down the driver’s side window. Brandon stepped around a cow and stood before the Jeep. ‘This stuff is from that bioengineering station we found in the saucer, remember? The aliens were experimenting with mixing up the DNA of creatures from our world and theirs. Something must have been released and has been infecting the local wildlife.’

  Kat was appalled. ‘This is like some horrible alien oil spill, but with, you know, alien DNA stuff instead of oil!’

  Gem got straight to the point: ‘Are we infected too then?’ she asked her brother.

  Brandon shrugged. ‘This is a kind of genetic pollution, but it depends on how the alien DNA is being spread. It could be in the air, or in the food that the animals are eating … or some other way that we can’t imagine. But it must have been happening since the crash a month ago—in other words before the dust cloud came down. We just need to find some people and see if it’s affected them too.’ He patted the sickly cow that had butted into the conversation. ‘I can’t help these poor animals with the bionoids, but I might be able to help humans.’

  Gem’s face was grim. ‘You know, I’m not really in a hurry to find any other people anymore,’ she said. ‘Let’s avoid the towns and just get away from here. Far away.’

  ‘No!’ Kat stated. ‘No running around like headless chickens. We need to find out what’s happened to people. It’s the only way we’re going to be able to find Mum and Dad.’

  Brandon seemed impressed. ‘Alright then,’ he said with a grin.

  Gem slumped back in the passenger seat. ‘Help people! Find people! Can’t we just worry about keeping ourselves alive?’

  The nearest cow tried to rub up against Brandon. It attempted to moo, but it came out more like, ‘Mooarch!’

  ‘Get in the car, Bran,’ Kat said, revving the engine. ‘Where’s Jason?’

  The dust cloud was descending again. Kat shut the window as she started to feel an irritating itchiness behind her eyelids, similar to the feeling she used to get when she wore contact lenses for too long. Jason hurried over from where he had been exploring around the other side of the alien wreckage. ‘We need to go!’ he shouted.

  ‘Yep,’ Brandon agreed. ‘These cows are getting agitated. They might turn on us any minute.’

  ‘Forget about the cows,’ Jason said as he bundled onto the back seat. ‘Something else is coming this way—fast!’

  Kat drove back to the main road as quickly as she dared. The Jeep bumped and juddered.

  ‘What is it?’ she demanded.

  ‘Horses,’ Jason said simply, looking anxiously out of the rear window.

  ‘On four legs or two?’ Brandon asked.

  ‘Four, no wait—TWO!’

  04—CHTEAU

  The fact that the horses were using only two of their legs didn’t seem to be slowing them down. If anything, they were now going faster, their bodies bent forward in a sprinting stance, front hooves jerking at their sides for balance. Six of them: powerful stallions, with muscles rippling beneath deep black coats.

  Kat kept her foot on the gas, accelerating to fifty, sixty, seventy kilometres an hour.

  Gem sat rigid in the passenger seat. They were hurtling at ever-increasing speed along a straight road into the ever-thickening dust cloud. If anything was hidden in the dust ahead—an abandoned car or piece of wreckage—then there would be no avoiding it.

  ‘How are those things doing that?’ Jason asked, looking back with panic in his voice. ‘Horses running on two legs: that’s not natural!’

  ‘Alien DNA could have overridden their genetic inhibitors …’ Brandon mused. He seemed as calm as ever, despite their crazy situation. ‘There’s a lot of untapped potential in humans and animals that a bit of rewriting of the genetic code could release—’

  ‘Go right, Kat!’ Gem shouted. ‘Get off-road!’

  Kat glanced to her right. At the edge of the road there was just a patch of uneven wasteland, broken up with stagnant pools and scrub. Kat swung the steering wheel and they found themselves jolting and bumping along, their speed slashed by half.

  ‘What the— What are you doing!?’ Jason screamed. ‘Those things are getting closer!’

  ‘I’ve ridden horses,’ Gem shouted back. ‘Alien DNA or not, those things are still horse-shaped. Trust me, they won’t be able to follow us!’

  She turned to Kat. ‘Just keep moving. Don’t crash or get us stuck!’

  Kat bit her lip as she concentrated on steering around potholes and crumbling brickwork. With the Jeep plunging and bouncing, it was almost impossible to see out the rear-view mirror, but Jason and Brandon’s commentary kept her in the loop:

  ‘They’re slowing down like they’re not sure! That one just fell! Gem, how did you know?’

  ‘Horses can’t deal with uneven ground on four legs, let alone on two. They can easily break their knees under their own body weight!’


  Kat couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Strike one more up for the girls’ team!’ She held out her palm and Gem smacked it in celebration.

  The jubilation didn’t last long though. After the wasteland, they entered the suburbs of Dieppe, a large port that usually boasted a population of over a hundred thousand people. Today though, the office blocks, retail parks and industrial estates were deserted. Quakes and dust storms had twisted the tarmac and smashed most of the windows. Like Royale, Dieppe appeared to be a ghost town.

  They drove along the Avenue de Breaute in eerie silence. ‘Keep heading towards the centre of town,’ Brandon said. ‘There has to be people here somewhere! Where could they have all gone?’

  The centre of town was creepier still. The sixteenth-century streets were narrow, and the tall brick buildings created claustrophobic, dust-filled canyons.

  ‘We need to find a base to stop and hide out in,’ Jason said. ‘Somewhere defensible and high up.

  Kat brought the Jeep to a stop in front of a tourist information sign. ‘You know what kind of buildings are usually defensible and high up, don’t you?’ she asked her brother.

  ‘Uh …’ he said, staring at the sign in confusion.

  ‘The Château de Dieppe!’

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘The castle, you bonehead!’

  ———

  The château was not only on high ground, with views over the town and coast, but it was also only accessible via a bridge that crossed an open ditch to the main gate. It was not quite as good as a moat full of water, but at least nothing would be able to sneak up on them unseen. The castle’s six-hundred-year-old brickwork was in pretty good shape too, and the high walls of the quadrangle and each of its corner turrets were smooth and featureless.

  But the best thing about it as far, as Kat was concerned, was that it had now been converted into a five-star hotel. Finally, they were able to spend a night in both luxury and security at the same time. Ensconced in the west turret, they were even able to spread out into two rooms between the four of them. Kat now stood at a window, wrapped up in one of the hotel’s white towelling dressing gowns. She was sipping a hot chocolate she had made from a sachet from the selection left by the kettle.

  Outside, the wind was howling and dust was battering the glass. The panes were small and double-glazed though, so they weren’t likely to break any time soon. Dusk was falling, and other than the automatic street lighting—and even that was off over most of town—there were no lights on anywhere else. Everyone had either fled, were dead, or worse …

  Gem emerged from the en suite bathroom, twisting a towel around her straight, waist-length black hair. ‘Your roots are showing,’ she said to Kat.

  Kat ran her fingers automatically through her fluffy mess of hair. Gem was right—the bold red dye was coming out, and underneath, she was showing a few centimetres of a colour that could only be described as … mousey.

  ‘Do you think the boys would approve,’ Kat said, ‘if we led a mission down to the salon de coiffure for essential supplies?’

  ‘Ha, I don’t see why not,’ Gem said. ‘Everything that we suggest seems to work out lately.’ She moved behind Kat and started playing with her hair. ‘I have a better idea though. You would look amazing with a short crop! Something, you know … elfin!’

  Kat felt a shiver of excitement … over a hairstyle, of all things! At eighteen, Gem was four years’ older than the rest of them, and her opinion meant a lot to Kat. ‘Do you really think so?’ she said. ‘When you see girls with short hair in films or on TV, it’s usually cos they’re either ill, mad or on the warpath!’

  Gem laughed. ‘When people watch the movie of our adventures, they’re going see that a girl with short hair can be the coolest heroine there is. Pass me the scissors!’

  The only scissors that Kat had to hand were on a Swiss army knife she had got from the store. ‘What will this film be called?’ she asked Gem as the her friend started snipping away.

  ‘Something awesome. Something like … Alien Catastrophe!’

  ———

  ‘Ag! Ah! Ai!’

  As she climbed the stone steps to the top room of the turret, Kat could hear some strange shouts and exclamations, punctuated by grunts and lots of huffing and blowing.

  ‘Ha! He! Hi!’

  She turned the corner to the final flight. At the top, she found Jason hanging from the frame of the door to the boys’ room. Each time he heaved himself up in a painful chin-up, he screamed out the next in sequence from the list of two letter Scrabble words that Kat had written out for him earlier.

  ‘Come on!’ she encouraged him. ‘Only another fifty-odd to go!’

  Jason’s energy must have drained immediately—he fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. ‘I didn’t need to hear that,’ he moaned between big gulping breaths. ‘Hey, what happened to your hair? It’s almost shorter than mine!’

  Brandon, lying on his front across the foot of the bed, turned to look. ‘Did Gem cut your hair? I think you stood a bit too close to the scissors!’

  ‘Well thanks a heap,’ Kat said, throwing herself on the bed next to her boyfriend. ‘You’re supposed to tell me how amazing it looks. What are you guys up to, anyway?’

  ‘Training,’ Brandon said. ‘Next time we get in a jam, it’s going to be the boys’ team who get us out of it. Watch this.’

  He cocked his fingers like a gun and pointed them at a row of paper cups lined up on the table opposite. With three flicks of his fingers, three of the cups were shot up into the air as if hit by bullets.

  Kat was amazed. ‘Hell, Brandon. That’s … wow! You fired the bionoids at them?’

  ‘With all the power of a peashooter,’ Jason grunted.

  ‘Yeah, for now,’ Brandon said. ‘I know I’ve used them for physical effects before: walls and shields, cushioning clouds and all that … but firing them fast, accurately and instinctively requires practice and effort.’

  ‘But Bran, you said …’

  ‘I know; I said I’d never use the bionoids as a weapon. This is for self-defence, I promise. It could be useful too for fast on-the-spot healing jobs. If you got hurt in the middle of a fight or a chase, I could just point and heal without having to stop and wait for things to calm down like we do now.’ He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.

  Kat put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Are you okay?’

  He shrugged off her hand. ‘I’m alright,’ he said. ‘I’m just trying to concentrate on a million things. I’m maintaining a barrier around the whole tower, as well as getting a visual feed of what’s going on outside. My brain feels like a computer running a load of programs in the background. I could do with a RAM upgrade.’

  ‘You look like you could do with some sleep,’ she told him.

  ‘I can banish sleep, remember.’

  ‘You shouldn’t have to, Bran!’ Kat said. ‘Hey, listen: you said that the bionoids only respond to you cos they recognise your brainwaves, yeah?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well … can’t you set them up to recognise someone else’s thoughts and commands too? It makes no sense for you to be the only one in control. What if you get knocked out again, or injured … or worse.’

  They sat on the bed facing each other as Brandon thought this over. The only sounds were shallow grunts as Jason did push-ups on the floor.

  ‘Maybe,’ Brandon said eventually. ‘But it would have to be someone I really trust.’

  Kat raised an eyebrow, but Brandon’s response was interrupted by a noise like a fence crashing down outside. Jason got off the floor to go and have a look out the window.

  ‘We have visitors,’ he noted. ‘You getting this, Brandon?’

  Kat was looking directly into Brandon’s eyes, but she could tell that his mind was elsewhere, with the bionoids outside. ‘I see them,’ he said.

  Kat jumped off the bed and went to join her brother at the window. The horses were back. Three of them galloped (on four legs) past the base of the turret, di
sappearing into the dust that hung in the air. Less than a minute later they reappeared from the opposite direction: they were circling the castle.

  ‘This is like some kind of zombie alien Grand National,’ Jason said. ‘We should have a sweepstake.’

  As the horses passed for the third time, one of them stopped in its tracks directly before the window, some twenty metres below them. It raised itself awkwardly onto its hind legs and reared its front hooves above its head. The horse’s eyes were white and unseeing; its mane matted and ragged; its coat dirty and covered in cuts and bald patches.

  As Kat watched, its hooves split and fell away from its body. Underneath, two large scaled, silvery claws unfurled and flexed themselves.

  Jason’s mouth was hanging open in awe. ‘Is it ... mutating?’

  ‘No,’ Kat said. She suddenly realised what was happening. Back at the store, the cats had worn the same dead-eyed expression that had made her think they had been brought back to life somehow. But she had been wrong. Looking down at the pathetic animal now, she could see that it had died a long time ago, and was still very dead …

  … but the thing that had killed it, and was now occupying its corpse, was alive and ready to break out.

  ‘The aliens have been growing and walking about inside those poor animals’ bodies,’ Kat said.

  The thing below stood up straighter and flexed its limbs, and the horse’s skin and muscle, which was never designed to stretch into such positions, tore and ripped. Kat turned away from the window in horror.

  ‘Are we safe?’ she asked Brandon?

  ‘Completely,’ he assured her. ‘I’ve got a shield around the whole turret … but not so high that the roof is going to fall on us this time!’

  Gem came running up the stairs from the room below. ‘I’ve seen them!’ she gasped.