"Thing From Another World" - Part Four

Part Four

            “What do you think you’re doing?!”

            The flamethrower was lit. All MacReady had to do was topple over the fuel barrels and let the gasoline flow in the direction of the “Bennings” duplicate.

            All that stood in his way was Cara.

            “Just…let me talk to it,” she pleaded.

            “Talk to it?! Are you crazy?!” Gumball exclaimed. “It’s not a person; it’s a thing…a thing from another world!”

            “Trust me,” said Cara. “I’m just doing what the Doctor would do in these situations.” She slowly and carefully edged towards Bennings’ doppelgänger, addressing the extraterrestrial lifeform that maintained his human appearance. “You’re a parasitic species – I get that now. But what is your purpose here? Why do you want to take over the planet?”

            The mimic, barely capable of speech, only rasped one word: “Live.”

            Faster than she could comprehend, Cara fell back as it began to lunge for her.

            Had MacReady not intervened by incinerating the creature, Cara would have certainly been a goner.

            “Thanks, man,” she graciously told him.

            “Forget your thanks!” MacReady barked. “You nearly got us killed just now! What were you thinking with that act?!”

            “I was thinking we could’ve gotten answers,” Cara defended.

            “What kind of a human being reasons with something not of this Earth?!” A mortified Childs questioned.

            “Because she’s not of this Earth herself,” MacReady exposed. “She’s not even Norwegian, in case none of you noticed how her accent’s vanished all of the sudden.”

            Gumball groaned. “Oh, man…”

            Cara heard how disgruntled he was, suspecting him and his brother having something to do with MacReady discovering the truth.

            “Look, MacReady…”

            She attempted to reason with him, but his developing paranoia got the best of him.

            “The second we met you and your ‘boys’ is when this all started,” he judged. “I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if you’re the cause of these things being on our planet!”

            Cara scoffed. “Oh, please! You seriously think I…?”

            She stopped cold as soon as she heard the click of MacReady’s revolver, which he had trained right for her head.

            “Lock her and the kids in the tool shed,” he ordered his men.

-----------------

            The crewmen carried out the order without the slightest hint of hesitation; they had just as much reason to doubt Cara, Gumball, and Darwin as MacReady did.

            “Wait,” Gumball said as they were placed inside the bitter shed. “Why are Darwin and I being locked up? All we did was tell you the truth about Cara, who’s the only one of us that’s the real alien here.”

            Cara glowered his way. “Seriously?!”

            “Sorry, kid,” MacReady said. “We can’t trust any of you until we get to the bottom of this situation.”

            And with that, he and his men locked them in.

            Minutes later, they returned to board up all the shed’s windows and the door.

            “Why are Darwin and I being locked up? All we did was tell the truth about Cara.” The Time Lady furiously mocked Gumball’s earlier words. “I seriously can’t believe you guys would sell me out like that, after all we’ve been through! It’s not cool to rat on your friends!”

            “Could you please refrain from using any phrase with ‘cool’ in it while we’re locked up in this freezing shed?!” The shivering Gumball demanded. “Those guys could’ve at least loaned us more of their coats.”

            Cara herself tried to keep her teeth from involuntarily chattering, even as she spoke. “The funny thing is the alien organism terrorizing their precious research station is the most vulnerable one to these zero-below temperatures. If anything, MacReady’s got the right idea, just the wrong people.”

            “You see that, Darwin?” Gumball cynically indicated towards Cara. “That show-off-y Time Lady intellect is the exact reason we’re freezing to death right now.”

            “Hey, can I help it if I’m a genius?” Cara retorted.

            “We wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place, if we hadn’t stumbled right into your bigger-on-the-inside spaceship thing,” Gumball argued.

            “And who’s fault is that?” Cara roared.

            “Tina Rex! But, since she isn’t here for me to yell at, I’m blaming you!”

            “Gumball, let’s be real – you’d blame Cara even if Tina was here,” Darwin stated. “Miss Cara, can’t you just use your awesome alien tool to get us out of the shed?”

            “My sonic screwdriver!” Cara joyously cheered. “Darwin, I could kiss those lil’ puffy cheeks of yours! The trans-temporal functions enable it to work against wooden structures just like that shed door. Boys, I’ll have us outta here before you can say—”

            BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

            The three interdimensional travelers froze, but not in the way they had been since confined to their ice-box of a prison.

            Gunshots erupted from inside the research station.