Earth: Tentacle Breeding Ground – Ch. 1

“Everyone, please put your phones away so we can start today’s lecture. Yes, that means you, Arlo.” Professor Sarah Cassidy called out towards the black teen boy in a strained voice. He didn’t even seem to pay her any heed. Just what had gotten into her students this morning? Usually she could barely get them to keep their eyes open for the dreaded 8AM Biology 101 class, but now they were all abuzz and not even bothering to hide their blatant smart phone usage.



She ran an exacerbated hand through her shoulder-length auburn hair before sliding it down to massage her protesting emerald eyes. She really didn’t feel like dealing with this today. Freshmen always had this side to them, but she had assumed the worst was behind her now that they were a couple months into the university’s fall semester.



“Haven’t you seen the news, professor?” Asked her star student, Zoey, as her ever-curious azure eyes suddenly bobbed up and peered at Sarah through black-rimmed glasses.



The blonde ponytailed 18 year-old was bubbling with excitement, a stark difference from her usual reserved self. Despite her quietness in class, she burned with a passionate fire during her field hockey games, earning her quite a bit of respect with the upperclassmen. Sarah was impressed by the girl’s ability to balance her studies with her exercise, rewarding her with a fit build despite her bookish nature.



That said, Zoey was still very shy when off the field and tended to hide her athletic, ample curves under unassuming, baggy hoodies and regular blue jeans. Sarah knew that all the nerdy science boys in the class wanted to get into her pants, but none had the guts to actually make any progress.



Sarah remembered when the guys used to chase after her in college – her D-cup endowments easily caught their attention. Even though she was almost ten years older than her freshmen students, she could still spot many of the virile young males ogling her. She was flattered but not stupid enough to do anything with a student. She had tenure to think about someday.



“The news?” Sarah blinked, having zoned out for a second. She did remember hearing some sort of babbling newscaster on the radio during her morning commute to campus, but had quickly changed the channel to music to wake herself up. “I’m sure whatever it is can wait until after class. We have a lot to cover on cellular structure before the exam next week. So if everyone would please-”



“Here! Look, Cassidy!” Zoey’s friend Diana suddenly ran up to the podium, phone in hand, with her long black hair billowing behind her. Diana was the opposite of Zoey in class, but she, too, was quite popular with the guys. No doubt many of them found a certain exotic sexiness from her Japanese ancestry.



She was rather proud of her body, which she apparently maintained through yoga, and today she was showing it off as usual. She wore tight black yoga pants under a thin blue blouse, through which a black, lacy bra was slightly visible that did its best to boost her B-cup chest.



It was hard to say “No” to Diana, so Sarah glanced at the screen in her student’s hands with a defeated sigh. The video playing had some text that indicated it was a live feed. A handsome, smartly dressed young man holding a “Channel 5” microphone was quickly relaying updates in an excited voice. He gestured around the beach behind him with dramatic, readable motions.



“We are now receiving reports that the Coast Guard has finally located the impact site of the large unidentified object that crashed into the water a couple miles off the coast early this morning,” he said, his hand up to his ear as if listening to an earpiece.



Sarah recognized the beach as one just outside of the city. It was where she had lost her virginity during her first college spring break… and also had been the last time she ever had sex in the sand. Big mistake. She involuntarily shuddered at the memory.



“I-um-what… can you repeat that…?” The reporter’s tone changed suddenly and he quickly turned from the camera with a grim expression. “What do you mean they lost contact…? Hey is this a joke? We’re live here…I can’t… okay, okay! Cut the feed… cut-” Just then, the man’s panicked voice was overtaken by a cacophony of terrified shrieks. The camera jerkily turned to the right to see further up the beach to capture the source.



Sarah felt her hand absentmindedly reach up to her agape mouth. Diana’s grip on the phone began to shake and other students in the classroom let out loud exclamations of shock.



“Yo, what the FUCK!?” Said a man’s voice from behind the camera, as suddenly an impact sent it tumbling to the sand below where it continued to record the horrific action. Emerging from the turbulent shoreline were hundreds of floating, translucent pods. They were similar in shape and size to hot air balloons but with the major differences being that they were seemingly composed entirely of some sort of mottled, flesh-like substance and had long, draping tentacles languidly dangling from the bottom.



They gave off the impression of being gigantic flying octopi. It soon became clear that the swaying pink tentacles were not just cosmetic. A twenty-something blonde woman was standing next to a man whom Sarah assumed to be her boyfriend. Both had their phones out and were excitedly recording the happenings going on behind them, apparently more concerned with their followers than their safety. As such, they didn’t notice the writhing mass of tentacles suddenly lurch towards them from above.



In a flash, the tendrils wrapped themselves around both of their waists and violently yanked them up into the air. The man yelped and dropped his phone in a useless attempt to wrestle with the powerful bindings. The woman screamed and kicked her legs, but impressively managed to keep recording.



That’s some serious dedication, Sarah mentally mused.



Several more tentacles from the floating pods continued to rapidly scour the beach, grabbing more and more of the scattering crowd as they lazily floated along the sand.



Each person was reeled in and unceremoniously dumped into the transparent orb at the top of the creature… or at least Sarah thought it was a creature. As a biologist she was familiar with many forms of life but this thing was completely alien to her. The captives inside of it quickly began to flounder around, crawling over each other in an attempt to tear at the walls to escape. But no such luck. Sarah felt a chill roll down her spine from witnessing their helplessness.



After a few minutes, the main wave of the alien balloons had almost entirely drifted out of the camera’s view, seemingly headed towards the city. However, some of the creatures apparently decided that they were finished. Their collection sacs were nearly bursting with struggling captives. The curves of their bodies pushing against the membranous walls of their prison and gave it a grotesque, bumpy appearance. Without warning, a viscous, orange fluid suddenly began to gush up from the base of the sac and engulf the frantic people within.



The commotion died down rapidly as if everyone inside the liquid-filled balloon had gently drifted off to sleep. A bead of cold sweat dripped down Sarah’s forehead. She was momentarily worried that she had just witnessed dozens of deaths, but then she noticed small bubbles visibly rising from some of the captives – a sign that they were somehow still able to breath, perhaps? As a human, she was deeply disturbed, but as a scientist, she couldn’t help but be curious about this logic-defying spectacle.



She didn’t have long to study the scene, though, as the mysterious balloons slowly began to drift back out towards the ocean. As they began to sink into the depths, it looked as though the bathing suits and other clothing items of the slumbering humans were slowly beginning to dissolve away in the liquid.



Though it was hard to tell from this distance, Sarah thought she saw one woman’s newly exposed breasts being squeezed against the sleeping face of the man next to her, but then the waves covered the rest of the creature and it was gone from sight. The beach was now eerily quiet as the only sounds were the rolling waves and the cawing of birds from above. But the idyllic peace did not last long.



Another scream snapped Sarah back to her senses. This time it was not coming from the phone. She didn’t realize she’d been staring into empty space for some time now as Diana had already run towards the chaotic school hallways. Shouts and panicked yells could be heard all over the campus as several faculty members’ attempts to restore order were met with futility.



“P-professor Cassidy!” Sarah felt like things were speeding up from slow motion as she noticed Zoey tugging on her white lab coat. “W-we should go! Everyone’s freaking out outside! What’s going on, professor!?” The look of fear and confusion in her eyes tugged at Sarah’s heart, but for the first time she didn’t have any answers for her.



“Calm down, Zoey,” Sarah replied, in what she hoped was a convincingly calm voice. “I don’t know what’s happening out there but I do know that panicking won’t solve anything. So let’s just carefully make our way out together, ok?”



“Mhm…” Zoey shakily sighed as she relaxed her grip on the coat. Both women made their way to the door of the now deserted classroom. The window-less halls had quieted down by now as most people seemed to have made it outside already, but the distant sounds of sirens and panic could still be heard.



Sarah moved out into the hallway and began to walk swiftly towards the stairs to the ground floor, following the evacuation guidelines. Zoey was not far behind. They burst out of the doors and into the morning autumn air, still brisk from the night. Looking around, they could see that many groups of people were continuing to file out of buildings, with some heading to the parking lots while others simply stood around talking in confusion.



“Zo!” Diana suddenly exited from a nearby crowd and ran towards them. “I was worried I’d missed you! Didn’t you see my texts?” Diana wore an expression of both annoyance and worry.



“Sorry, Di… you know I keep my phone on silent during class.” Zoey said sheepishly, now glancing at the phone in her pocket, which indeed indicated several missed messages. The two girls began to chat as Sarah looked around to take stock of the surroundings, hoping to see other faculty members successfully finding ways to take control of the situation.



“Sarah!” A familiar man’s voice rang out and Sarah looked over her shoulder to see a figure approaching them.



“Professor Sparhawk!” Zoey exclaimed, noticing him just after Sarah did.



“Eh? You know this guy?” Diana asked incredulously.



“Unlike a certain lazy someone, I do extracurricular work between classes,” Zoey declared, clicked her tongue. “Professor Sparhawk is the supervisor for one of them. I’m making connections any way I can!” Zoey crossed her arms proudly.



“Adam! Uh, Adam.” Sarah chirped, fighting to hide the girlish excitement in her voice. He was well built with dark brown hair, steel-gray eyes, and just the right amount of stubble on his chin. He had a couple years on Sarah but they had both started teaching here at the same time and she had had a small crush on him ever since. Well… crushes are for giggling schoolgirls, she always thought, and besides, he’s a coworker. But her attempts to squash her feelings did little to prevent her thoughts from drifting to him while alone in bed at night. Adam made it over to them and took a few deep breaths.



“Ms. Jones,” he nodded at Zoey before turning to Diana. “Ms…?”



“Suzuki. Diana Suzuki,” she answered.



“Ah I believe I’ve seen you around the natural sciences wing. I’m Adam Spawhawk. I teach mechanical engineering, so we don’t cross paths much, huh?” He shrugged, “Everyone from my department has already evacuated… I assume you’ve seen the news?”



“Yeah, we were just watching… whatever that was down on the beach.” Sarah looked up at him, finding some extra mental stability with another adult near.



“I’ve been following the news on the radio,” Adam replied grimly, holding up a small handheld device. “The National Guard has been called. It sounds like these freakish things have been popping up all over the world!”



“Oh my god…” Sarah shook her head in disbelief.



“This can’t be real…” Zoey moaned. She clutched her arms to stop them from shaking.



“Does this mean exams are going to be delayed?” Diana quipped in an attempt to lighten the mood. It didn’t do much.



“I’m glad you are calm enough for jokes, Ms. Suzuki,” said Adam, turning to the nervously smiling Diana. “But right now we need to-”



He was cut off by the sudden blaring of the earthquake alarms coming to life across the city. The familiar, yet jarring test-tones echoed through the campus courtyard. A robotic male voice followed in monotone:



“The following message is transmitted at the request of the California Emergency Management. At 8AM Pacific daylight time, a large number of unidentified organisms entered into several beachside metropolitan areas. At this time, all residents of the state of California are strongly advised to seek shelter indoors, avoid windows, and lock any entrances. Tune into local news broadcasts as updates are made available.” The test tone played again and the message started to repeat.



Chaos. Everyone in the courtyard started running towards the campus doors to get back inside. People were shoved out of the way and nearly trampled, bags were thrown to the ground, and the panicked yells were almost as loud as the alarms.



“Let’s go!” Zoey yelled to the small group, her eyes suddenly sharp and focused. As she turned to sprint towards the door that she and Sarah had recently exited from, Adam grabbed her arm.



“Wait. This isn’t the place to be,” he said in a calm voice. “Come on, I know a better spot!” He began to jog towards the street while beckoning the rest of the group.



“Where are we going?” Sarah huffed as she ran to catch up. She was glad she had opted to forgo wearing heels today, despite it not being a lab session. Zoey and Diana easily kept pace alongside her as all four of them hit the sidewalk.



“Well, you know how they say a doomsday prepper is crazy every day except one?” Adam yelled over his shoulder. He was met with mixed reactions.



“N-not really…”



“I don’t think I’ve heard that exact line before…”



“Hmm… yeah, maybe something similar I guess…?” The women glanced at each other with confused faces.



“It was a rhetorical question!” Adam turned up the street and the other three followed. “My engineering hobby kinda led me to make an underground survival bunker. Don’t judge me! It was for a youtube video. But while I was at it, I thought, ‘hey – let’s get this thing working for real!’” Adam’s voice showed signs of embarrassment but he kept his head high as he ran.



“Are you serious!?” Sarah asked in a loud voice, having slightly fallen behind the younger, more athletic girls. “We should just go back!”



“Did you see the madhouse in there? Besides, we all saw those things. There’s no way we want to be grouped up in a public space like that!”



“You… have a point… but isn’t this a little…”



“I’m not a crazy killer or anything, Sarah. I’m just an engineer. Please, you can trust me! My house is only a block away!”



Sarah felt nervous about going to the house of a man whom she barely knew outside of work, but she wasn’t alone. She certainly didn’t think Adam was a sketchy guy – she was attracted to him, after all. Still, she couldn’t help but think of awful scenarios.



Her head became clouded with thoughts of her and the girls being forcefully stripped naked by his strong hands and tied up with their legs spread lewdly open. Adam’s appreciative eyes gliding over their exposed bodies before having his way with them while the world outside burned.



Sarah shook her head and felt a small spot of moisture between her legs as gentle warmth crept into her abdomen. She was certainly not into the idea of being raped, but it had been a while since she’d been with a man, so even small, dark erotic thoughts got her worked up these days. She swallowed and found her resolve.



“Girls, I say we go for it. what do you think?” Sarah asked.



“I think that’s the safest bet for now…” Zoey replied, seemingly quite levelheaded.



“I’ll go where you go! It’s not like I have any better ideas.” Diana agreed.



“We’re close; it’s this way!” Adam continued to lead, pushing past several other people running up and down the sidewalk.



They turned the corner at the end of the block and got a glimpse of the distant city skyline. Pillars of black smoke rose up in several spots and more of those strange balloon-like beings could be spotted, rising up alongside the tall buildings.



A loud smashing sound made Sarah jerk her head back over her shoulder to see one such creature suddenly attacking the college campus behind them. A woman attempting to open her car door several hundred feet away from them suddenly got hoisted into the air screaming.



“F-fuck! Where did that come from!?” Diana gasped.



“Ah… ah… w-we were just there a moment ago!” Zoey looked to be on the verge of tears, her iron-willed sports persona suddenly melting away.



“Hurry! We’re here! get in! Get in!” Adam sprinted into the front lawn of a nearby house and began to frantically fumble with the lock on a small wooden shed.



“Shit, shit! This is it?? Adam, oh my god they’re coming!” Sarah stammered behind the shaking man, watching yet another tentacled monstrosity crest the nearby houses. “Get us inside NOW!”



“Dammit I’m trying! I made this lock tricky on purpose in order to impress the audience, okay!? Fuck me! I’m so fucking dumb! Graah!” With a final holler, he suddenly burst through the door and into the shed. The women all crowded into the small space and hastily closed the door behind them. Though it looked like wood, it was clearly some sort of painted steel.



“Give me a little space, please!” Adam yelled, his frustration and fear taking him over. “Back up!” He pushed aside a rug on the floor and tossed it beside a rack of gardening tools. Underneath was a hatch, which he was already prying open to reveal a ladder leading into the earth. He held the door open, some color returning to his face as he began to calm down.



“Ladies first,” he said, trying to hide how shaky his voice was. He flicked a switch on the wall and the tunnel downwards became illuminated in a dim red light. They didn’t have to be asked twice, especially with the sounds of screams and an unearthly groaning from above getting closer by the second.



They each practically slid down the ladder, with Adam going last. He firmly secured the hatch behind him, leaving them all in the eerie red glow of the bunker. The layers of earth above them shut out the terrifying sounds and for the first time that morning, silence surrounded the group.



“Come on.” Adam took the lead again and squeezed past the ladies through the narrow passage. He pressed a button and suddenly more lights came on as a generator loudly whirred to life.



They moved to the end of the hall and stared around, mouths agape. It was what could only be described as a man-cave. A small bar with drinks, a beaten up old couch in front of a large television with gaming consoles, a sword mounted on the wall, and the like, all surrounded by merrily blinking Christmas lights that lined the ceiling.



“I, uh, know it’s not much to look at…” Adam said, scratching his stubble and looking down. It was hard to tell if he was blushing or if it was just the red lighting from the hall behind them. “But make yourselves at home. I need to go start up a few other things. Feel free to look around! Bathroom’s that way.” He pointed at a doorway connected to the hall. They noticed a few other doors as well. “I’ve got food storage, a small kitchen, some bedrooms, and a communications slash monitoring room as well. Just don’t touch anything in there please.”



“A-Adam… this is…” Sarah started to speak.



“Childish… right?” He replied nervously, his back still turned to them..



“AWESOME!” Yelled Diane, who ran into the room and began to touch everything, “It’s like the Bat Cave!” She pulled the sword off the wall and gave it a few mock swings. Adam turned around with a look of surprise and bemusement on his face, clearly happy that his geeky hobby was receiving such praise.



“Is that right? Well I’m glad hahaha!” he beamed, beginning to flip some more switches and plug a few things in. The gentle hum of machinery started to reverberate through the air.



“Um, Professor Sparhawk…” Zoey nervously asked. She was looking at her phone with disappointment. “You mentioned a communications room… would I be able to use that to call my family? My phone doesn’t get signal down here.”



“Oh… oh god of course! You all must be super worried! I’ll be right over to set you up. I have a signal booster somewhere in there.” Adam finished what he was working on and brought them over to a side room that had several monitors and speakers set up with complicated-looking interfaces. “I ought to call mine too and let them know I’m safe.”



“Your, um, family isn’t in your house?” Sarah asked sheepishly.



“What? Oh, no, it’s just me. My parents live out in Boston.” Adam replied absentmindedly as he began to turn on some of the devices.



“Oh, good.” Sarah sighed.



“Good?”



“Ah, yeah, that they aren’t wrapped up in all of this!



“Mm. Well, we can only hope. Last I heard, the sky jellyfish were being seen all over the place. Ah, here we go.” A radio suddenly crackled to life and the group listened in.



“-that’s why the military can’t do anything! Because of all the human hostages in these things! Not that firearms have been effective anyway but we need to be thinking of other solutions. Ground teams lost contact with Air Force One a little while ago, and government response has been all over the place. We need to call it as it is, people: aliens! It’s aliens like from the movies! We need to rise up and-” The broadcast continued like this for a while. Adam cycled through several channels only to hear the same things, ranging from fear mongering to solemn prayer. He sighed.



“Here, plug this into your phone’s charge port.” He handed Zoey a cable. “I only have one, so we’ll have to take turns.”



“Thanks…” She gently took the cable and connected it to her phone. “It seems to be working; I have a signal!” She quickly pressed a few buttons on her screen and held the phone up to her ear under her disheveled golden hair. “C’mon, c’mon pick up Stevie… pick up…!” She muttered under her breath. The ringtone suddenly stopped and her eyes widened.



“Stevie? Stevie is that you!? Are you alright!? How are mom and dad?” Zoey’s tongue was practically tying itself into a knot in an attempt to ask as many questions as possible in a single breath. “Wh…what…? Gone…? Where are you right now? Oh my god… s-stay there… I’m gonna get you help! Wait! Wait Steven, don’t-!”



She jerked up out of her seat and yanked the cable from her phone. “My parents are gone!” She cried. “M-my brother, Steven, is hiding in his closet but there was a loud noise and he suddenly hung up on me! W-we have to go save him! I-I don’t know what I’ll do if… if…” Zoey’s blue eyes became reddened with tears as she desperately looked back and forth at the group members.



“Slow down, Zoey…” Sarah gently put her hand on the terrified girl’s shoulder. “We can leave rescue missions to the professionals. I’m sure that any minute now we will get news of rescue works evacuating citizens…” She looked hopefully over Zoey’s shoulder at Adam, who was listening in on the radio with an earpiece. He glanced at her and slowly shook his head with a grim expression.



“Besides, how would we even get there? I’m sure everything will be okay.” Sarah had found that one trick to being an effective teacher was faking confidence.



“Y-you don’t know that! We have to go help him NOW!” Zoey cried out. Diana nervously shuffled in place and cleared her throat.



“Well, her house isn’t too far away… I’d say it’s probably a ten-minute stroll from here. Part of the reason why her parents offered to pay for her to go to USC was so that she could be close to home. Helicopter parents and all…”



“O-oh… did I not mention that…?” Zoey stammered, clearly flustered. “Yeah, I live close by; we could do it! Di agrees with me!” She sniffed, lifting her glasses in order to dry her eyes on her sleeve.



“Umm… well, I nev-never really sa-” Diana stuttered.



“Diana, please!” Zoey pleaded.



“Did you somehow miss the giant aliens flying all over the city on the way here?” Adam snapped, spinning in his chair. “Zoey, I take it you’re a smart girl. How exactly do you plan to get there and back without being grabbed by one of those things?” He looked at her incredulously. “Not just that, but this bunker was only designed to support four people at MAX. Adding a fifth would put dramatic pressure on our resources.”



Zoey stared at him with sad puppy dog eyes and a quivering lip. She stood there practically swimming in her oversized hoodie, looking absolutely pitiful with her tear streaked cheeks and messy hair.



“Dammit…” Adam swore under his breath. “Fine! Fine. We’ll figure this out.” He pulled a map out of a drawer and spread it on desk. “Show us exactly where your house is.”



***



Ten minutes later, Sarah, Zoey, and Diana furtively creaked the shed door open and peeked out into the surrounding neighborhood. Truth be told, they didn’t have much in the way of a plan other than “don’t get caught”.



Adam had been adamant about staying behind because if he got captured, they wouldn’t be able to operate the shelter. He also asked them for the contact info of their families so he could try and get in touch with them in the meantime. Sarah suspected he was just trying to save his own skin while staying snug and warm in the bunker. It was… understandable, but her impression of him dropped slightly. He didn’t leave them completely without aid, though.



Sarah gripped the single-shot flare gun he had given her. This was a bit of a last resort as it wouldn’t really do much damage to anything and it would also have the minor inconvenience of alerting any and all nearby living beings to their exact location. Great if rescue workers were in the vicinity but not so great if the “sky jellyfish”, as Adam called them, were watching. Do they even see? How do their sensory organs work? Sarah was still fascinated by their anatomy. If she could just write a detailed thesis paper on them, her tenure would be secured for sure… not that such things mattered much any more.



“Come on, girls, the coast is clear.” Sarah eased the door open and gingerly stepped outside, looking around the area. The other two shuffled out behind her, huddling close. They started making their way down the road, keeping to the side and ducking between shrubs and parked cars as they went.



“Hey, I don’t see any more of those creepy coleoids floating around,” Diana whispered. “Knock on wood, though, right?”



Sarah and Zoey blinked at her.



“What?” Diana stared back at them in confusion.



“‘Coleoids’!?” Zoey exclaimed. “Since when do you use big words like that?”



“I guess you paid more attention in my classes than I gave you credit for.” Sarah said approvingly.



“See? I know things,” Diana proudly declared, smirking at the look on both of their faces and sticking out her modest chest. Now that Diana mentioned it, Sarah glanced around the skies and didn’t see any sign of the large sky jellies.



“Okay then, do you know why we still hear screaming and stuff despite those ‘coleoids’ not being here anymore?” Zoey retorted, continuing to scan the area as they swiftly but carefully moved down the street. Sarah heard them too. Sounds of panic were still erupting sporadically around the area, though the nearby streets and skies were empty. No aliens or humans in sight. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.



“Yeah… that’s… odd.” Sarah nervously agreed. Suddenly, she grabbed the girls and yanked them behind a parked van. “Shhhh! Get down!” She wildly covered their mouths while stifling her own breathing.