"Steve Perry - Aliens 02 - Nightmare Asylum" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

“… Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done…”
The shadow grew larger.
“… on Earth, as it is in heaven…”
There came a faint rasping on the floor, and if the young man praying heard it, he made no sign.
“… Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors…”
The alien rose from behind the praying man, clear slime dripping in jellylike strings from its
jaws. The lips cleared the sharp teeth. Its mouth opened, revealing an inner set of smaller teeth, more
like a claw in their function.
“… And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…”
The inner set of teeth was mounted on a greasy ridged pole. The rod shot from the thing’s
mouth with incredible speed and power. The sharp teeth punched a hole in the top of the praying
man’s skull as if it were no thicker or harder than wet paper. Blood and brain tissue splashed. The
praying man’s eyes snapped open in a final surprise and he managed one word: “God!”
The alien caught his shoulders with its taloned hands and lifted him clear of the pew, the claws
piercing flesh and drawing gouts of blood from a heart that didn’t know it was dead yet.
The alien and its prey disappeared from view, leaving only a small puddle of congealing blood
and a few flecks of gray matter on the pew to show they had been there.
The pew stood empty and silent.
God, it seemed, wasn’t taking deliver-us-from-evil petitions just now.

Wilks leaned back and stared at the empty church on the screen. “Automatic camera,” he said.
“Probably set to catch thieves. Wonder how the signal got this far?”
Next to him, Billie’s face was streaked with fresh tears. “Jesus, Wilks.”
“Amazing how people keep sending the ’casts out. Like they really expect help. Or maybe it’s
like an old grave headstone, you know? The signals will go into space forever. Immortality as a radio
wave. Maybe they think a million light-years from Earth somebody will pick them up and give a shit.
You know, buy a bag of popcorn and watch the end of man, maybe on a double bill with a nature
special.”
Billie stood. “I’m going to see Mitch,” she said.
“Give him my love,” Wilks said.
She tightened, he could see her go tense, and he thought about softening it, but said nothing as
she left. Fuck it. It didn’t matter.
Wilks scanned the ’casts, looking for something different, but found only more of the same.
Death. Destruction. Bodies rotting in the streets, animals feeding on them. A pack of dogs worried
over a human arm. There wasn’t any sound, probably a traffic cam, but he could tell they were
growling and snarling at each other. The arm was bloated and slug-belly white. Been out in the sun
too long, Wilks figured. Well. Whoever had owned it probably didn’t have any use for it, might as
well let the dogs eat it. It was just carrion now.
He shut the feed from Earth off. It was all history now. Whatever he was looking at had
happened already, was over with, done.
He played with the scanners again, looking for wherever this ship might be bound. It was a
crappy situation, the ship having been designed without passengers in mind. He’d managed to rig a
few programs to get a read on the screens, which were only there for emergency backup anyhow,
way he figured it. Probably cobbled together after things went bad on Earth, and as such was built
with fence wire and prayer. After seeing the guy in the church, Wilks didn’t have a lot of faith in
prayer. Not that he’d ever had much to begin with.
The ship knew where it was going, maybe, but that didn’t help Wilks. There must be a planet
or wheelworld out here somewhere; there was a G-class star less than two hundred million klicks
away, but if it had satellites, he hadn’t spotted them yet. Had to be there, otherwise why would the
sleep chambers let them out?