A SYMBIONT IN IBM
by Anthony Durrant


As I crouched in the trench, I watched Enemy soldiers firing at the soldiers
beside me. In minutes, two of them were hit by the aliens' weapons and
vanished into thin air. Raising my rifle to my shoulder, I aimed the gun at
the Enemy in the other trench and fired, wounding one.

"Don't you think you should kill them?" Lieutenant Gale, my senior officer,
asked. Very ironic, I thought, that he should be named after the little girl
in The Wizard of Oz .

"I'm going to wound them, sir," I said. "I couldn't bring myself to hurt a fly
- if I did, then I'd be very upset about it. They're not dogs or cats or cows,
they're as smart as us - and should be treated with honour and respect - even
if they don't respect us in return."

Just then one of the Enemy soldiers tossed a small bomb at our trench. I dove
right out of there just as the bomb exploded, making everyone in the trench
behind me vanish.

"I wish," I thought, "oh how eagerly I wish, that I was in another land - a
land where there wouldn't be fighting, or war, or aliens - just happy people
living in peace. Perhaps someday I can find such a place - a place where I
could be happy for the rest of my life."

A hand grabbed my foot - that of Lieutenant Gale. He'd made it out of the
trench, too; his face was covered in dirt, but he was smiling at me proudly.

"I'm glad you made it out, Jinks," he told me. "Sometimes a man has to run
away and not stay where he could be hurt. Hurry to Trench C, my boy. I'll head
those aliens off."

As I ran, he turned to face the Enemy, aiming his rifle at the alien soldiers
on the ridge. I heard the shots that struck him, causing the Lieutenant to
vanish before my eyes. I hurried off up the hill near the trench, narrowly
avoiding being hit by the aliens' weapons. As I stumbled down the other side
of the hill, I tripped over the side of one of the aliens' foxholes and fell
into it. On the other side of the foxhole was one of the Enemy, hurt in
battle. He lay very still except for the bump that kept appearing in his scaly
stomach. I pulled off his helmet and saw the ugly face of a creature that made
me nervous. No doubt about it - I wasn't cut out for the army, as the sight
was

enough to upset me. His chest had a huge hole in it; a fallen man's shoes lay
beside him.

"I'd better help you," I said to him. "You're not my enemy - the Dictator is."

I bent down over him, and unbuckled his weapon. Just then, his stomach burst
apart, and something whizzed out - a small creature that was the alien's
brain. It was a symbiont, a creature who needed to be in another creature to
live. It was so fast I couldn't duck - it jumped on me and entered my body,
wriggling into me through a hole it made in my tummy. After the creature had
gone in, I bandaged the wound with a piece off my shirt. I felt full of
knowledge and confidence now - the symbiont was very old and wise. I laid my
head on the alien body and went to sleep in the foxhole. When I woke up, I
walked all the way back to headquarters.

"Captain Jinks reporting, sir!" I told the lieutenant who let me in. "Gale and
the others in my regiment fell to the Enemy. I'm the only soldier left. Gale
told me to report to Trench C, just before he fell to the Enemy's weapons.
Could you show me the way there?"

"It's behind the building, Jinks," the lieutenant told me. "Hurry there at
once."

"Yes, sir!" I cried.

I hurried to Trench C and waited for some action.

"Can you tell me something of the battle?" my friend Corporal Vapour asked.
"Have you fought any of the Enemy yet, Jinks? I know it must be very hard for
you."

"Yes, I fought and was wounded," I told him. "I was stationed in my foxhole
when a soldier jumped in with me and tried to fight me with his knife. He
nearly cut off my head, but I was able to destroy him with my hand-held weapon
before I blacked out from the pain."

"He has an Enemy brain inside him!" Vapour cried. "Get him, boys!"

I panicked and fled; the Corporal and the other soldiers gave chase. Soon I
hid in an old abandoned shed near a deserted trench, where I was sure they
wouldn't find me. Soon afterward, an Enemy soldier threw a bomb at the ground
on which the shed stood, and the explosion sent it flying into the air. I held
on for dear life as the shed hurtled through the sky into a white patch in the
air. When the shed landed, I was thrown to the floor and hit my head. When I
woke up later, I heard birds singing, and saw trees in the shed's only window.
Opening the door, I left that shed and found myself standing in the most
beautiful land I'd ever seen in my whole life.

"This is too much like The Wizard of Oz!" I cried happily. "Why, this - this
is Paradise!

Well, Toto, I'm not in Kansas anymore. I'm in a place where I can be happy at
last!"

"Halt!" a voice cried. "Raise your hands to the sky!"

I raised my hands over my head. Turning around, I saw a tall man in a black
uniform.

"Are you the wizard who has destroyed the sorceror Grendel?" the man asked.

"Why, I'm no wizard!" I told him. "I'm simply a young man from Chicago who
just came here from the battlefield at Normandy - and I didn't kill any
sorceror named Grendel. My name's Captain Arthur Jinks, and I was the one who
came here in the old wooden shed over there."

"I was told that a mighty wizard had destroyed Grendel," the man said. "Look -
I can see his feet poking out from under the shed. Do you see them, Captain?"

I looked under the shed and saw two feet coming out from under the shed,
wearing shoes made out of some sort of white fur that were more beautiful than
any I'd seen in my life.

"I didn't do that on purpose," I told the man softly. "It was an accident."

At that moment a lady appeared; the man put down his weapon and kneeled. She
waved her hand, and the man vanished into thin air in a puff of black smoke.

"Do you realize who you destroyed?" she asked. "Grendel was the sorceror who
kept the mummy of Lady Nepithet, a wicked witch, asleep in her coffin. Now the
spell's broken, so Nepithet's free once again to cast her spells over all the
land of Ibm."

"Who are you?" I asked her softly.

"I'm Lavinda, the Good Witch of the Waterfall," she told me. "I look after the
Mickelins, the people who live in this part of Ibm. You've freed them from the
bondage of the evil sorceror Grendel, who held the Mikelins in bondage for so
long. Grendel cast a spell that prevented Nepethet from rising from her tomb
while he was still alive. With Grendel destroyed, she's free once again to
work her wickedness on the wonderful Land of Ibm. That man in black was her
servant, who'd come to find the man who'd destroyed Grendel and capture him."

I noticed several people coming out of the nearby bushes. They all came up and
went toward Lavinda, who smiled down at them and spoke to them in a kind
voice.

"Something wonderful has happened!" she said. "This young man came from the
sky in an old shed that has fallen on top of the evil wizard Grendel the
Grave. Grendel was killed when the shed landed on top of him. Everyone -
please welcome Arthur Jinks!"

"You’ve set us free!" the Mayor cried, running up. "We’ll never be able to
repay you for what you’ve done, Arthur, and we all think you’re the nicest
person alive."

"Never in all the centuries I have lived," I told him, "have I heard such kind
words."

"You don’t look that old," Lavinda told me. "How old are you, Arthur?"

"Twenty-five," I told her, "but the being inside me is many centuries older
than that."