Short Story Saturday: Tapioca

Tapioca

Joanie looks across the table at me like I’ve lost my mind. Her bottom jaw hangs slack, and I can see where her back molars on the bottom are missing, leaving me to wonder how I’d not noticed their absence before.

“What? I don’t understand why you guys are even trying. It’s just my opinion until we know what’s going on, where we’re going to end up, that no one should be trying to get pregnant. Don’t look at me like that! We’re on a fucking alien spaceship, for fuck’s sake!” I shove a spoonful of the grey gruel that fills the bowl in front of me into my mouth. It’s not bad, but it’s also not good. It’s got this weird, oily film that coats your mouth and everything else it touches, and it has little squishy-like balls similar to tapioca. Gross! You get hungry enough, you’ll eat just about anything, including whatever the hell it is these squid things give us to eat. But, I can’t stand tapioca, so I pick and spit out the little blobs of disgustingness to dispose of them in the closest possible receptacle as soon as I can.

Before we went our separate ways on Earth, my brother called the aliens Squiddies. Part of me wishes I stayed back there with him, and I wonder for a moment what he’s up to before I brush the thought aside. He was always private in that scary, keep-to-yourself-psycho kind of way, but at least I never had to go on the news and say, “He was the quiet type. Kept to himself, really.” But he was right about the aliens, they do look like squids—not that I’d call them Squiddies or even Space Squids to their faces. They insist we call them friends; I don’t know that I could honestly call them that, though.

“You’re serious, aren’t you, Betty?” Joanie’s lips wrap around the spoon she holds, and then she slowly pulls it from her mouth, causing my breath to hitch and pulse to quicken. “This is our life now. There’s no going back. You saw what Earth had become. You couldn’t even see land or water through the thick layer of black smog when we made it into orbit. It was so much worse than the government made it seem. We were going to die there, and people were still reproducing. How is this worse? They’re taking us to a new home. We are meant to procreate. They wouldn’t have saved us if they wanted us to die. Would they have?”

A heavy laugh sounds behind me, and the tall, ginger-haired man it came from rounds the table, sliding in beside Joanie. “Or we merely saw what they wanted us to see. What do you think, Bet? They got beaks hiding in those tentacles?”

“That’s not nice, Travis! They saved us!” Joanie seems to struggle to keep her voice at a low level.

“Well, Travy,” I sneer at him, “it would only make sense. They do share pretty much all the other characteristics as the squids we have on Earth.”

“They’re not squids. Just because they look . . . weird, doesn’t mean we can’t trust them,” Joanie says under her breath and glances around.

“Let’s not forget, they call themselves Decaphaliods. Anyone who knows their shit, knows ‘deca’ for Decapodiformes the suborder of cephalopods, where the ‘phal’ comes from. They knew they looked like the squids from Earth, and they took the scientific name and class for those creatures and smashed them together to make a fancy sounding name to call them. I’d guess, they’d been studying us humans for some time . . . just waiting to make their move. I’m with Bet, Joanie, I don’t trust them.”

“See, Joanie,” I say and bite back the bile caused by what’s to follow, “as much as I hate Travy here, we’re on the same page. So, are you sure you want to bring a child into this setting?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Bet baby. Don’t be changing my honey’s mind. She wants a kid, I’m going to give it to her,” Travis says and smirks.

“You’re only worried about getting laid, and now since there’s no reason to have your nose in a book, you’ve got time to do so. It’s just sad that, out of everybody, Joanie chose you to collect sperm from. It’ll only be a matter of time before she comes crawling back to me, begging for a real fuck.” Irritated, I shove my chair back and stand. I grab my bowl and take it to the bin for dirty dishes. It’s still nearly full, but I’ve lost my appetite—well, what appetite I had—so I toss it as it is into the bin and walk to my quarters.

***

“I guess Travy’s rancid little swimmers stuck then, huh?” I asked. It’s been nearly a month since we really talked to one another.

“Doc’s pretty sure, yeah, but apparently they weren’t allowed to bring any medical equipment, so he said it could just be a bug.” Joanie fiddles with a cloth in her hand she’s been using to wipe her mouth with.

“I’d like to think it’s just a bug, and it is pretty early for morning sickness, I would think. Ugh, Joanie,” I cringe, “how can you let him touch you? Is having a kid so important to you that you’d risk intercourse with a complete and utter asshole?”

“He’s not all that bad.” She takes my hand in hers. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Betty. You gotta believe me that I never, ever meant to hurt you, but things change. The fact that we’re on a ship with beings not from our planet and going to a completely different one to live better lives is proof that things change. That’s how life is.”

I pull my hand away, fighting to control my anger. “Yeah, don’t worry about it, Joanie. I mean, you’re the only reason I’m here on this ship with these freaky fucking squid things, but you didn’t mean to hurt me! You never even mentioned wanting kids the entire time we were together. Four years and not a peep about it, so you can imagine my surprise when two weeks after hopping aboard Star Ship Squiddie to be with you, you leave me for the ginger prick to go try to have a kid.”

Joanie’s left hand flies to her mouth, and she stands abruptly. Her eyes are glassy and shining with unshed tears, and I can see she wants to say something, to respond in some way, but her cheeks are puffed with what I can only assume is vomit. As she turns and runs, I see just how baggy her clothes fit.

Maybe it is a bug, I think to myself. If not, she should probably ask if losing so much weight is safe for the fetus.

***

It’s been three weeks since I saw Joanie. I miss seeing her. Travis is also been avoiding me. I look around the dining room, noting that there are a lot fewer people than normal.

I turn in my chair, look at a man with sharp, hard features and dark hair, and ask, “Where the hell is everyone?”

He grunts and clears his throat. “Lotta folks been sick. I heard some have even died.” He rubs at his eye, then scratches his chin. “Not sure if the last bit’s true. I haven’t really looked into it. Wonder what they do with the bodies if it is true. I haven’t seen any.”

I need a second to take in what he’s said. I don’t even respond before I jump up and rush toward the last room that I knew Joanie was staying. Before I can reach the room, I run right into one of the things that supposedly saved us from our dying planet.

“Please do slow down,” it says in it odd, even tone. I’ve never figured out where their voices come from, whether they’re actually speaking the word or projecting them directly into our brains. “There is no need to move about so quickly. There is nowhere to go but here.”

I notice that it’s using one of its tentacle arms to rub a grey substance over its body. The substance looks strangely like the stuff they feed us, only without the little, squishy balls. I shudder at the resemblance.

“Sorry. Just going to see a friend.” I maneuver around the squid and continue on.

I make it to Travis’ door and pound on it with everything I have in me. Several minutes pass by with a few more bashes from my fist. I try the door, but it’s locked.

“Joanie! Are you in there? God damn it. Travis, where are you guys at?” I hit the door three more times with no result, so I turn around and begin walking away.

I hear a click behind me, and then the sound of a door sliding open.

“Bet,” Travis says, his voice strangled and strained.

I swing around and face him. His clothes are baggy, worse than Joanie’s were the last time I saw her. But it’s not just his clothes, his skin is baggy too, and it has a sickly grey pallor.

“Sweet balls of Aphrodite, Travis. You look like shit, but I’m actually glad to see you. Where’s Joanie? I need to know she’s okay. There are rumors about people dying,” I say, hoping he only looks worse than he is.

I watch as his cheeks pull in and then push away from his teeth, and then he swallows. It’s like he’s working to moisten his mouth. “Joanie’s—” he coughs a couple times and clears his throat, and I hold my breath, waiting to hear the worst, “—Joanie’s in bed. She isn’t well. She’s worse than I am.”

I push past him, nearly knocking him over. Something in my panicked mind has enough decency to have me mutter, “Sorry.”

“Yeah, sure. No problem,” he says and coughs again. “Come on in.”

I ignore him and rush to the side of the bed where Joanie lies. Her skin is devoid of color, and its greyish hue makes her look like a corpse. It also hangs loosely. In a matter of a few weeks, it’s as if her muscle and fat have shriveled away to near nonexistence.

“What the fuck, Joanie? What the hell’s happened to you?” I manage to say.

Her eyes open minutely, but she doesn’t say anything. It’s only at that moment, I see how dry her lips are. She tries to smile, and the fact that her teeth are no longer there is startlingly apparent.

A movement draws my attention her shoulder, but as I focus, there’s nothing there. I put it off as a side effect of the moisture filling my eyes. I hear a shuffle and look up to see Travis finally making it over to the bed. He sits on the corner.

“She hasn’t said anything in days, and I haven’t been able to get her to eat in a week,” he says, and then rubs at his chest with his hand. He grabs a glass from the bedside table and drinks heavily.

“How did you let her get so bad?” I control myself enough not to screech it at him.

“The doc said there’s nothing he can do, that he’s never seen anything like what’s been going around. Said we just need to ride it out and hope for the best.” He shakes his head.

I try to keep the tears from spilling and running down my face. I wipe at them with my palm when I fail to keep them at bay. “Joanie, you hang in there. You stay with me. I love you. Please, I can’t lose you like this.”

I move the blanket to uncover her hand, and I grab ahold of it with my own. I gasp when I feel the hand has no structure. The fingers, hand, and forearm are pliable, bending and squishing like those goo-filled stress balls. Before I can let go, I feel several small movements under her skin. I jerk my hand away, and I stand, backing away.

“What the actual fuck, Travy? What’s wrong with her hand? Her arm?” I yell.

“I don’t know.”

I go to speak again, but Joanie’s breaths pick up. Her chest heaves as the air whistles and hisses as it leaves her body. I see where it looks like several things squirm under the skin in her neck, and I scream.

The next thing I know, several of the alien squid beings are sliding into the room. I have enough time to see Joanie still, her labored breaths halting, before one of the beings grabs me, pulling me out of the room. I feel a jab in my arm, and I’m plummeted into darkness.

***

I wake in a room, staring at a white ceiling and some kind of tubing hanging from it. My arms are strapped to the table I’m lying on. There’s a noise to my right, and I try to turn my head to look, but it’s secured in place.

“Ah, finally awake,” someone says. “Maybe you can clear something up for us? We have done test after test, and there is not any sign of egg implantation within your body. You are obviously eating or else you would have died of starvation long ago, so how is it there is not a single trace of egg or larvae in your system?”

“Who are you? And what are you talking about?” I shout and then struggle with my bindings. “Why the fuck am I tied down?”

“Just calm yourself,” the squid says as it comes into view above me. “Have you been eating?”

Giving up, I answer the thing. “Yes, but I pick out the tapioca. I couldn’t stand the shit on Earth. I sure as hell didn’t plan on eating it here.”

“Tapioca? What is that?” the squid asks.

“The squishy balls in the gruel.” I clench my teeth and suck in a raging breath as what it’s said clicks into place.

“Yes, that explains it.” It pauses, and once I’m about to speak up, it says, “If we let you out of here, are you going to eat all of the food provided to you?”

“Why the hell should I? It seems to me that a minute ago you implied it has some kind of eggs in it that implant themselves in our bodies.” My last memories resurface—Joanie’s shriveled body, her arm pliable as if it didn’t have bones, the movement under her sagging skin. “Oh, my god!” I gasp, fighting back the tears that force their way into my eyes. “Is that what’s wrong with the sick people. They’re not sick, are they?”

“Sick? No. But, unfortunately, they do not survive the process. A side effect we have not been able to fix,” the thing says as I watch it rub a layer of that grey slime on its top half, and I shudder, thinking that it probably is more than likely the same stuff they’ve been feeding us.

“Why did you take us away? Promise us a new home, a new life?” I say through clenched teeth.

“Your world was dying with you along with it. We saw your potential as incubators, but you must understand, not all of you will die. Most are going to make it to a new home where they will procreate. Only the finest specimens will be used for incubation. We want our offspring to have the best start possible, so we will give them the best food we can find. You have fallen in the first group of humans to continue the growth of our species. You should be honored.”

“Honored?” I laugh. “Oh yeah, sure. Honored to have been lied to, used, and . . . eaten from the inside out? Do I have that right? Is that why her arm felt like a sand-filled bag? Bones and all, huh?”

“Yes, sadly it is not a very pleasurable experience. Know that nothing goes to waste. Our young use everything within the body, only breaking through the skin when everything has been used.” It acts like what it’s said is the best news in the universe.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better about essentially being eaten by maggots with tentacles? Because it doesn’t. I knew you things were weird and disgusting, so I don’t know why I didn’t figure you to be damned parasites.”

If it’s offended, I can’t tell. Hell, I’m not sure if these things have emotions. Motion catches my eye, and I focus to the hose thing that hangs above me. One of the Squid’s tentacles is wrapped around it and pulling it down toward me. In my peripheral, I can see another of its tentacles move and what I assume is the other end of the hose. It looks like the thing is connecting it to itself.

“Wait! What are you doing?”

“If you cannot cooperate, if you insist on resisting, then we must force feed you. We are running out of time, as we plan to move the second group onto this ship, shortly. None of the first group can be present when this happens. We do not want things to be more difficult than they need to be,” it says, moving the hose closer to my face.

“I need to know something. Why, if your species was just planning to use us to house your larvae, did you leave behind so many? Why did you weed out those you deemed unworthy if you were just going to kill us?” I ask, unsure of why exactly but wanting an answer, nevertheless.

“Ah, our young take on traits from their hosts. While you may find our actions monstrous, we are merely trying to survive, so we are doing what needs to be done. But traits such as urges to kill your own kind or to molest little ones or rape those we find weak in our kind or to take advantage of others to the point their lives are miserable . . . those are traits we do not wish to pass on to our young. So, we left behind the humans who held higher levels of what we felt were bad traits,” it answers me.

“I should’ve stayed with my brother,” I say.

“If it makes you feel better, he will die too. The planet may heal, but the people left, they will be far more dangerous, wanting to feed their cravings. Most may starve at some point. You humans were far too dependent on corporations to provide you with food to buy. Very few of your kind would know how to survive, needing to hunt and forage. Your brother may outlive you in years, but, yes, he too will die as you would have, had you stayed.” I see it slather on more of the grey substance on its long body . . . head . . . I’m not even sure I care anymore.

Something drips on my face, next to my mouth. I cringe and look at the hose dangling above me. A slick looking, oily drop of grey dangles from the hose. Looking past it and toward where the hose meets the ceiling, I see where the clear tubing is filling with the grey substance. Then a tentacle settles on my chin, pulling my bottom jaw down and opening my mouth. Another tentacle wraps around the hose.

“Now, this will be easier if you don’t fight it,” it says as it feeds the tubing into my mouth and pushes it into my throat. “Just let it in. Try to swallow. The goal is to get it down to your stomach. We want the deposit to be direct.”

I gag, feeling the oily residue coat my throat, making the tube slide just a little easier than if it were dry. I force myself not to swallow, willing it not to go any further. I hoped to wake up from this horrible nightmare that had become my life, but I knew it was all too real. I feel the tears rolling from my eyes and down my cheek. My stomach clenches and my throat tries to wretch to expel the invading tube that has triggered my gag reflex, but it is to no avail.

The Squid quits pushing on the hose, and I can feel that it has made it to its proper destination as my stomach begins to fill. It isn’t just that my stomach was filling, I could feel movement. Small, tiny, quick spurts of movement.

“You should not have to suffer long. And the process will go much more quickly for you as you are getting a direct infusion of freshly hatched young. You see, we have the ability to have live young or eggs. We laid eggs to feed your kind, which was given in lower doses. So, it takes longer that way. The eggs need to accumulate to a decent number before hatching, but with you, I can fill you directly with as many as I can, and they can start to consume you and grow immediately. It should only be a few of your planet’s hours before you lose active consciousness. You will still be awake, but you will not be aware. I believe your kind would refer to the term vegetable. Your body will die within a day or two, which should fall right in the timeline we need it to.”

I try not to listen to it. I try to ignore the tube down my throat, the tears falling from my eyes, and the painful expansion within my stomach. I didn’t know how painful it could be to fill your stomach beyond its ability. I feel it stretching to accommodate. I try to scream as something pops inside my body. I can see my abdomen being inflated upward and outward.

The thought that this thing, this Squid has to see what’s going on, crosses my mind, but it doesn’t seem to realize. The pain becomes unbearable. My vision goes black as I feel liquid run down to my breast from my stomach and a searing pain shoots through me.

“Oh, it seems I miscalculated. Sorry about that. I’m afraid we will have to close that up,” the Squid says.

Its voice sounds far away. The last thing I register is the tube being pulled from my throat.