The Unguessed-At Guest

The Unguessed-At Guest

"ALIEN OCCUPATION!" screamed one tabloid's headline.  "HORROR IN HALIFAX!" blared another.  Renee Reynolds rolled her eyes as she scanned the various scandal sheets while waiting her turn at the supermarket's check-out counter.  How could anyone take such drivel seriously? she wondered.  Sure, there had been a few unexplained and particularly gruesome deaths these past few weeks, but...aliens?  Too much.  She plucked one from the rack and began to read an interview taken of an alleged eyewitness.

"...and--I'm not making this up, I swear!--a snake or something crawled into his mouth and right down his throat!  He started twitching and clawing at his throat but, after just a few seconds, he calmed right down and acted as if nothing at all had happened!  The thing took him over, I tell you!  It's some kind of alien, and I'll bet it's not the only one.  They're going to get us all!"  Renee almost laughed aloud at the last.  Seeing she was next, she returned the paper to its rack, paid for her groceries and left.

She checked her watch and saw that she'd have to hurry, if she was going to be on time for her doctor's appointment.  She'd been suffering with some kind of irritation at the back of her throat for over a week now, and no over the counter medicines had helped.  Doctor Mallory had been good enough to squeeze her in at the end of his workday.

Renee arrived at his office and checked in with the receptionist, then took a seat in the small waiting room.  After about ten minutes, the doctor himself appeared at the entrance to the examination suite and beckoned her in.

"Okay, Renee, let's have a look."  He donned a headset and turned on its light, then held her tongue down with a depressor.  Shining the light into her mouth, he moved the little hand mirror into position and carefully swiveled it back and forth.  He sat back and switched off the light.

"Well, Doctor?"

When Renee noted the studied look of casual concern on his face, she began to be afraid.

"It's nothing, I'm sure," he replied, unintentionally hesitating just long enough to frighten Renee even more.  "I thought I could see something just out of the light's reach.  We could do a quick x-ray, if you wouldn't mind."

Almost in a panic, Renee agreed at once.  It had to be throat cancer.  Throat cancer had taken her father twelve years ago, her mother three years later; now, it was coming for her.

They walked down a long hallway to the small x-ray room.  Doctor Mallory seated her and then carefully aimed the x-ray tube at the base of her throat.  He stepped around the corner of the safety booth and pressed the exposure button.  Renee heard the usual soft click.

"I'll be right out," the doctor called.  "These digital x-ray pictures print pretty fast."  True to his word, he came out of the booth about a minute later.  He had the print in his right hand and was studying it closely.

"I need to check the machine; we may have to take another.  There appears to be something here, but it's indistinct--"

Doctor Mallory was so focused on the picture, he failed to see Renee's eyes glaze over, then roll up in their sockets.  He also didn't see her pick up the metal stool and swing it with considerable force.  The blow glanced off his left shoulder and struck the side of his head.  Bleeding and a little dazed, he managed to duck under the the next attack, only to see Renee completely spin around and continue the blow.  She caught him full on the back of his head.

Pain exploded in his head and he realized he was fighting for his life.  He smashed a locked door of a glass cabinet and grabbed a scalpel from the bottom shelf.  He didn't know why Renee had completely flipped out, but he knew he had to protect himself.  He dodged another swing, then moved in and slashed at her legs.  The blade sliced easily through her jeans and into her right leg's femoral artery.  Blood spurted everywhere, but it didn't seem to slow Renee at all.  She pressed her attack, alternating between sideways sweeps and overhead smashes with the stainless steel chair.

The battle raged on, an eerie silence broken only by Renee's grunts of exertion as she swung the heavy chair, and the doctor's gasps of pain, when one of the blows connected.  The doctor was too focused on staying out her way and not slipping in the scattered blobs of blood to shout and, owing to the x-ray room's location, they were too far from the reception area to be heard in any event.  Every few swings, he managed to open another cut on his deranged patient.

Eventually, the massive blood loss caused by her injuries took their toll, and Death claimed Renee at last.  Exhausted and in pain, the doctor finally made his way to the door, opened it and dragged himself toward the front of the office.

For a few moments, nothing else happened.  Then a wriggling motion became visible at the base of Renee's throat and began working its way upward.  Eventually, a slimy, tentacled head forced her mouth open.  Damaged by the radiation, the creature could no longer survive, neither inside nor outside its host.  That wasn't a problem, though.  Powerful muscles rippled and contracted, ejecting a small capsule which rolled and fell onto the floor.  The impact caused a tiny fracture, which the occupant immediately began expanding.  Before long, the opening was big enough to allow it to escape.

Perfectly suited to its new environment, it lay still for a few minutes...and then the little bug crawled away.


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