Between Hsu Jaeshin’s sixth and seventh birthdays his uncle came to live with their family.  Uncle Gangmin was a thin, high-strung man with terrible scars on his shoulders and only three fingers on his left hand.  When he was drunk he told Hsu stories about the Bueludeh War.  About alien insects which all but overran the Land of Morning Calm in the late 1990s.

“No one was safe in those wilderness years.” he said hoarsely.  “Just hunting bugs in tunnels, and too much blood.  Everyone fought; women, children, even the useless hapas.  We were not easy to kill.”

Hsu’s father told the boy that he was making it all up and that he should pay the drunk no mind.  But Hsu had seen those weird grey scars before on the shoulder and neck of a washer-women in town.  As if someone had taken a razor and carved a zig-zag into their flesh.

Were they both crazy, with the same wounds?  Had there actually been an alien invasion in the 1990s which his father did not know about?  A war fought by gosu, pock-bangers and bullyangja?

The quest to answer that question would determine the future course of Hsu Jaeshin’s life.

---

These monsters were different from the ones which had terrorized his uncle.  They were rat-men, not insects.   Yet they had cornered him in a sewer and he was almost certainly going to die.

His breathing hurt.  Every half-gasp was like like a vice tightening in his chest.  And taking a full-breath....

The worst part was that he would not die alone.

Ten steps down the sewer tunnel stood Elim Green, panting against the wall.  The teenager looked frightfully small within his too-big patched coat.  His hands shook and he nearly dropped the wrench which he had used in fending off the second attack by the Toothsomes.

Between them was nine year old Gilcrest, clutching the side of his head where one of the creatures had cut a chunk from of his ear.

None of them had the strength for a third round.  But just a few tunnels away the Toothsome were massing.

Hsu painfully removed his mobile phone from his pocket and dialed the number for the U.K. Security Helpline.  They were useless, but someone should know what was happening with the Toothsome below Brixton.

020 7946 0745

No signal.

He let the phone fall to the ground with a heavy moan.  Of course not.

Elim had a low crazy-edged laugh.  “No reception in the sewers?  Our luck is consistent at least.”

Hsu tried to sit up,which sent a bolt of white-hot pain through his chest.  But he forced himseld onto his knees.  “My family – ” he groaned.

My family will not forgive me if I die on my knees.  He grabbed a pipe and pulled himself up onto wobbly ankles.

Gilcrest looked at him in surprise, then scrambled to his feet himself with a look of determination creasing his young face.  He picked up his spear and, adopting a moment of cocky bluster, he pushed the tip of the sharpened pipe into the river of liquid shit running gown the middle of the tunnel.

Elim nodded at him.  “Good call. Give ‘em all sepsis!”

The boy beamed yet Hsu felt compelled to tell him.  “Tenebrionids’ circulatory systems are connected to their digestive tract so you probably can’t give them sepsis.”

Elim glared.  “Can you add anything useful?”

“Stupid Goreo.”  Gil sniffed out with a hiccuping gulp.

He ignored the criticism.  This was not the time to work on his interpersonal skills so he shut that part of his brain off and streamlined his focus on the immediate problem.  “At least ten Toothsomes coming. Maybe twelve.”

“How can you tell?”

“Did you hear the cry that sounded like a seal being sodomized by a slide whistle?  That was a check-in call.  Two of the replies had the plural glottal and two had a pattern I didn’t recognize, probably indicating trios.  Ten or twelve aliens, plus the leader.”

“Kin’t they read each other’s minds?”

“Toothsome have a sense for one another’s emotions but with this many together I guess things get confusing so they do a manual count?  Normally you only hear those sounds over a great distance, where their awareness would be out of range.”

Elim sucked his lower lip.  “Can you imitate the cry and tell the pack to run away?”

“No. Humans don’t have the right vocal chords.  Anyway, they would know it was fake instantly because –”

“They are close enough together to know you aren’t one of ‘em.  Damn.”

Hsu frantically reviewed the scant data they had about Tenebrionid pack hierarchy.  Not the details... what was the big picture, here?  “We need to... if....”  He found the germ of an idea.  “Stand in the middle of the tunnel, not the sides!”

“Wot in the shit?”

He sloshed into the slippery muck, holding his chest to stop his wounds from shifting.  “Come on!”

“You’re going to get sepsis.”  Elim observed.

“If we stand in the centre of the tunnel we are asserting our territory.”

Elim thought, then nodded and hopped down into the muck.  “If I challenge the leader is he forced to fight me?”

“I think so.  But if we cower on the sides of the tunnel we look weak.  They will just flank us and attack all at once.”

The creatures were coming now and there was no time for further planning.  Hsu retrieved his bag full of bricks and finally he turned on his mobile phone’s flashlight before stuffing it in his pocket.

Elim snorted.

“It is all I have!  The sewers are dark.  Maybe I can blind one if they attack me.”

“No, hey... yeah... go for it!  Sooner or later that cell phone strategy’s gotta work out for you.”

And then the Toothsomes were here.  A parade of hunched-over ratmen in dirty clothes came slinking through the sewer tunnels.  The bull male they had fought before was in the lead.  A few ranks back, the one with the withered arm.  That one had set this whole stupidity in motion by killing a young girl.

Elim stretched as tall as he could and pointed his wrench to the leader.  The group hissed angrily.  As the boys had hoped the leader advanced on his own!

Elim pointed again.  “Je défie! Fight me you damn coward!”

It sneered and sprang forward, rushing low and driving his claws upwards in a razor-tipped uppercut, which Elim dodged.  He kicked at the alien’s knee. It howled in pain.

Then Elim swung his broken wrench in a wide circle which caught the creature directly on its exposed teeth.  The alien’s head snapped sideways.

The pack gasped as their leader staggered and spat blood.  When he turned back a rivulet thick black oozed from his front tooth.  It had been cracked to its core, though the tooth had not yet broken off.

The leader’s eyes tightened.  He looked back at his pack and raised his hand sharply as if to say Stay back, I have this!

He did not have this.

When the leader’s head came back ‘round Elim’s wrench was there to meet it.  There was a wet crack as the tooth gave way entirely and another was knocked from its alignment.  The leader fell sideways into the sewer water and emitted a keening cry of pain.

Hsu held his breath.  Was that enough?

The Toothsomes murmured among themselves themselves.  Looking at and the male on the floor in the sewer offal, and then at each other.  They were as uncertain what to do next as the humans.

Elim held his wrench at the ready.  If this were an all-out fight he would bash the disabled alien’s head in.  But that would set the would group upon them...

The female Toothsome with an acid scar on her neck pushed her way to the front and stood over her fallen leader and checked his injuries.  Looking back at the group she gave a guttural whoop and pounded on her own chest.

Hsu swore.  “Oh no....”

Gilly looked back at him.  The spear was white-tight in his hand.  “Wot’s happening?”

“She is challenging him for leadership.  This could get ugly.”

Elim took a few steps back. Best to give this drama some room.  Hsu and Gilly mirrored him, backing down the tunnel.

Elim glanced back.  “Wait until they are busy then keep going.  We can take the long way around back to the entrance.”

“Right.”

Hsu’s chest burned. He had been sliced open and was standing in human shit... but it looked like he might actually survive!

The pack’s disagreement turned to shoving, snarls and bared claws.  This change of leadership to the dominant female was not universally accepted!

The boys backed another few steps away.

Most of the aliens ignored them but the Toothsome with the withered arm had not forgotten his prey.  Ignoring both the fallen leader and challenging female, he jumped forwards and ran towards Elim!

Elim had been focused on the female hunt-leader and was caught by surprise as the alien shoved past him and ran towards Gilly!

“Plant your spear! Put the back end into the ground and – ” Hsu groaned.  Too late!

Ignoring his injuries, Hsu swung the bag full of bricks overhand onto the creature's shoulders.  It slashed upwards and the bag sagged loose, tumbling bricks everywhere which threatened to turn Gilly's ankles while he retreated.

Everything was falling apart.  This fracas could delay the confrontation for leadership.  The female with the neck scar seemed inclined to finish off their visitors and decide who was in charge after.  Elim had done his job too well.

The weak one grabbed at Gilly.  Its black beady eyes could see in the dark far better than the humans’.  Without any real plan, Hsu grabbed his mobile phone and shone the light in the creature's face. F or a moment it flinched back.  Then it batted the phone violently aside where it broke against the tunnel wall.

My phone!

Gilly has dropped his spear and Hsu retrieved it just as Elim attacked the weak Toothsome from behind.  It howled in pain as the wrench crashed across its neck and upper back.  This at last activated the pack of Toothsomes.  They stepped past the fallen leader and closed on Elim!

The one with the withered hand tried to grab Gilcrest but the boy nimbly dodged so it settled for Hsu.  It tackled the large Korean man into the side of the tunnel and leaned forwards to rip out his throat!  It snapped, snarled and spat in as Hsu held him back.  His free hand groped for a weapon – anything! But all he found was his mobile phone.

In desperation Hsu shoved that into the Toothsome's jaws.  And then, inspired, he jammed the alien’s jaw shut on the broken phone.  Its powerful teeth splintered the phone's body.

It immediately began to smoke!

He kicked the startled alien back and then kicked it again in the chin.  Chunks of phone flew in every direction.  The Toothsome fell backwards with a coughing scream and pawed at its chin as the phone smoked, then burst fully into flames.

Everyone was looking, even Elim.

Hsu pulled himself up.  The Toothsome with the withered arm screamed and shuddered on the ground as flames spread around its mouth... and into its throat.  It lapped desperately at the sewer water in a futile attempt to put out the fire.

Gilcrest shouted.  “What happened?”

“I made it bite through the lithium battery in my phone!  Lithium burns on contact with air.”

A moment later Gilly had his mobile phone out, light on and shining it threateningly towards the aliens.  Elim followed his example.

The Toothsomes shied and slowly backed away.

Elim’s eyes tightened.  “Yeah, that’s right – every human being carries a mobile phone!  And they can kill you!”  He jumped and the pack flinched back.

The monsters had learned to fear the light of humans.  Just like medieval peasants wielding torches.

But anyone could hold a torch.  A sort of atavistic fallback strategy ingrained into his ancestors.  And possibly his descendants.

---

His clothes were beyond ruined.  They were caked with shit and blood. The tenement kids rigged up a shower for him under a concrete stairwell.  He used cold water to hose off while they scrounged up some exercise clothes and plastic sandals that could fit Hsu’s too-large frame.

He disinfected the wounds on his chest again and again until the hydrogen peroxide made his fingers ache.  He would need to go to hospital for more treatment.

Elim came and deliver his new clothes.  He probed at Hsu’s wounded breast with steady fingers before spraying sprayed it with more antiseptic.  Then he applied clever butterfly bandages which pulled the sides of the wound together and he painted liquid bandage over his heart.

“You are going to have a nasty scar here.”

(Elim had two nasty scars on his face.  At least Hsu’s could be hidden under his shirt.)

Gilly entertained the other boys with the story of their victory.  Of their party Hsu had gotten the worst of the sewer-sliming.  By contrast Elim’s patch-strewn coat had survived almost untouched.

The blond boy handed him a half-full bottle.  “Industrial strength antibiotics. Take ‘em for the next two weeks.”

Hsu squinted at the bottle.  “Is this horse medicine?”

“No, pig.”

Hsu jammed the bottle in his pocket.  “Why do you have these?

Elim shrugged.  “Sometimes you have a bit of action and you don’t want to go to hospital after. Oh, and also... Gilly picked this up.”

It was a jagged chunk of Hsu’s destroyed phone.

“Souvenir?”

“No dude – your SIM card is in here!  Take that chip out and put it in an old phone everything will just work.”

“Oh!  Thank you!”

“Thank Gilly.  And... you did a good job.  Uh, can you do something about that tunnel?”

“Yeah.  It might take a few weeks though.  The people who handle that now are pretty inept.”

It was still late afternoon when Hsu left the community estate behind.  It seemed like no time at all had passed outside but a lifetime vanished in the tunnels.

Special Copyrights notice:

Torchwood: Pack Animals © Peter Anghelides 2008. Toothsome and other elements from that story appear with the permission of the copyright holder.

The story Rat Men of Paris first appeared in More Fun Comics Magazine volume 1#8 in 1952.  It is in the public domain.