by J G Cressey
Approaching the door, Eddy flipped the big survival knife in her hand and slammed the handle against the hard metal. “Open up, ya buggers.”
The alarming volume of the girl’s voice rang out into the silent night.
“Jesus, Eddy,” Toker exclaimed, “you wanna shout any louder? Maybe call a few beasties to come join us?”
They all turned around at that statement and peered past the low-level lights of the buggies into the surrounding blackness. Now that the storm had passed, the night had become eerily quiet, and the darkness seemed to be pressing in on them. Jumper raised his rifle and peered through the sights. “We’re good at the moment,” he said as he scanned back and forth.
“I can get us in.”
Cal turned to see that Viktor was crouched down with his hands buried in his faulty hovercase. Inside, Cal could see a mass of tools and complex gizmos, some state-of-the-art and expensive, others clunky and undoubtedly homemade.
“Off with the control panel if you please, M,” the boy said, holding up a slim-line punch tool. Melinda didn’t hesitate and got to work on the metal panel whilst Viktor plunged his rummaging hands back into the case. Cal was impressed to see how well the boy was holding up. Most his age, or any age for that matter, would have been bawling at the first sight of giant, gnashing teeth.
Not bothering to loosen the bottom section of the panel, Melinda grasped the metal and forced it open, bending it down to reveal the workings of the security system.
“Thanks, M.” Viktor stood, a small gizmo in his hands. He had a confident smile on his face and seemed to be revelling in his chance to contribute some skills. Fixing the gizmo to the exposed panel, he began manipulating the controls. “Should have this open in just—”
Suddenly, the boy lurched forward, his head hitting the metal door so hard that blood was left running down the metal as his limp body crumpled to the ground. There was a pale blur. Cal stumbled back, struggling to register what was happening. Melinda was moving fast. She had seized a white, lizard-like creature by its thick neck and was forcing it to the floor. Planting a knee in its back, she grasped its jaw and yanked its head back hard. There was a loud crack of vertebra. Then there was a cry from Toker and two shots from Jumper’s rifle. Another pale blur, and Viktor’s limp body was dragged away through the sand at frightening speed to disappear into the darkness. All this in a few seconds. Another few seconds, and Melinda had bolted into the darkness after the assaulted boy.
“What the fuck…” Toker gasped, sounding as shocked as Cal felt.
Eddy had her knife in hand, and Jumper once again had his rifle up and was peering through his sights.
“Jumper?”
“Can’t see him, Cal…or Melinda.” Jumper replied as he slowly moved in the direction they had disappeared.
Cal watched with gritted teeth as his old friend walked into the darkness. He could hear sounds in the distance. A lot of scuffling, even a strange, eerie whistling, but the sounds seemed to echo and were hard to pinpoint.
“Eddy, Toker, see if you can get this fucking door open,” he said as he made for the nearest buggy.
“Bugger that,” Eddy said as she ran past him towards the far vehicle.
“Eddy, hold—” Damn it. Cal let her go. She couldn’t cause much more trouble than they were already in. Climbing up into the nearest buggy, he quickly planted himself in the mounted bliss blaster and flicked on the night targeting screen. Setting the zoom to its maximum setting, he swivelled left and right searching for any sign of his friends.
Something moved, a pale shape, maybe five feet long, just like the one Melinda had dealt with. It was incredibly fast. Then there was another and another. Eddy fired a couple of short blasts from the other bliss blaster. Cal was impressed and surprised by her controlled shooting.
He carried on scanning, staring at the targeting screen and refraining from firing any of his own shots in favor of his search.
Then she appeared.
Melinda was running flat out, Viktor’s limp form in her arms. Cal would have thought it impossible in a machine—even in one as sophisticated as Melinda—but he could see real anger on her face, anger to the point of fury. He was beginning to suspect that Viktor’s modifications ran far deeper than he’d first imagined. Cal locked the targeting onto her and tracked her progress. One of the pale creatures darted at her with near impossible speed and snapped its jaws around her thigh. Melinda ignored the attacker, but it slowed her down considerably. Careful not to hit Viktor, Cal fired a couple of darts. One found its mark, and the creature instantly tumbled into the darkness. Cal barely had time to take a breath, however, before two more attackers bolted at her and attached themselves to the synthetic woman’s legs. Cal fired again and again. One fell just as another clamped on.
Cal dealt with the newest attacker before leaping up. Melinda was close now. “Eddy, we’re leaving,” he shouted as he slid down the rear of the buggy
Too consumed in her torrent of bliss blaster fire, the girl didn’t respond. He ran over to her. “Eddy, move it… Eddy.” Just as he was about to climb onto the buggy and drag her off, the girl ceased her fire and looked down at him. Her eyes were wild, almost feral.
“We’re—”
Cal didn’t get a chance to finish before the girl leapt at him, the big blade suddenly in her fist, which was pulled back, ready for a killing blow.
With barely time to swear, Cal ducked away, narrowly missing the blade as it arced downwards. There was a sickening thud. Turning, he saw Eddy on her knees. She was struggling to twist the big knife, which was embedded deep within the skull of one of the pale creatures. Failing in her attempts, she simply yanked it out and looked up at him.
“Thanks, Eddy. I owe you one,” he said, pulling her to her feet. Some of the wildness dissipated from her grubby face and was replaced by a grin.
The two of them ran back to Toker, who was hunched at the still unopened door. “Help me,” His voice was panicked as he fumbled desperately with Viktor’s device. “This tech is confusing to hell.”
Cal stared at it hopelessly and had to agree.
The sound of Jumper’s rifle stole his attention. His old friend stood twenty paces away, his longeye rifle planted firmly against his shoulder as he fired it into the night. Seconds later, Melinda burst out of the darkness. Thankfully, Jumper seemed to have dealt with all but one of her assailants, and she was once again moving fast. Not only that but Viktor looked to be stirring in her arms.
Cal moved to meet the synthetic woman and relieved her of the boy so she could deal with the last creature trying so relentlessly to drag her down. She ended its attempts with fast and lethal efficiency.
Cal ran back to the door and set Viktor down. He was relieved to see that the boy was at least partially conscious. “Viktor, we need you to get this door open quickly.” The words felt harsh seeing as the dazed boy had blood pouring from a gash on his forehead, but they needed to be said. To his credit, Viktor reacted relatively quickly considering his condition. As Cal helped support him, he began to manipulate the controls on his gizmo with noticeably clumsier fingers than his earlier efforts. At least he seemed to know what the hell he was doing. Cal looked back to see that the others had formed a tight, protective arc around them. Eddy had her knife in hand. Jumper was firing off round after round while Melinda was practically twisting the head off one of the white beasts. Even Toker was standing with his fists raised defiantly. Cal didn’t have time to assess the numbers of the pale attackers, but the increase of the strange whistling sounds didn’t bode well.
Suddenly, Cal felt Viktor sag in his arms.
Fearing the worst, he looked back to the door, but there was no door, just a blessed gap within the barrier. The boy had managed to hold onto consciousness just long enough. Brave lad.
“We’re in.” Cal had barely finished shouting the words before Viktor was snatched from his arms, and Melinda was bearing him through the gap.
“Toker, get—”
<
br /> “Shit, Cal. Shit, it’s got me.” Toker fell to the ground, one of the creatures gnawing at his arm. Cal dropped to his knees and began slamming his fist into its head. The beast was resilient, and only after a few blows to its eyes did it let go. Cal kicked the attacker away, and both men scrambled back towards the entrance. Eddy was also heading for the door, stumbling backwards whilst slashing her knife wildly at four new aggressors.
Cal sucked in a sharp breath as he took in the sight of countless pale shapes swarming around the buggies. “You first, Toker,” he shouted. The young man didn’t argue and scrambled though the entrance with desperate enthusiasm. Cal was no sooner on his feet when Eddy piled into him, white jaws clamped to her knife-wielding arm. Together, they tumbled back, hitting the ground halfway through the gap. Eddy was letting out a sort of animalistic snarl as she tried to shake off her biting foe. Having no success, she returned the favor by sinking her teeth into its neck. Cal tried to aid her by jabbing at its eye, but there was no need. Jumper was leaping over them, planting a dart in the creature’s back as he did so.
Eddy shoved the lifeless beast aside. Before Cal could push her to her feet, however, a hand grasped his shirt and dragged them both backwards. It was so effortless that there was no doubt Melinda was the one responsible. The view through the door was a mass of white movement. One of the creatures pilled though the gap only to be met with Eddy’s boot. Ironically she probably saved its life as the kick sent the beast toppling back just out of range of the door, which slid shut with lethal force.
All of them spent a few wordless moments breathing hard. Cal looked up to check on Viktor’s condition; the boy was conscious again, but Melinda was bearing most of his weight. “Well done, Viktor. You okay?”
“Think so, Cal. Not really sure what happened.”
Reaching into his pack, Jumper pulled out a med pack and began seeing to the gash on Viktor’s head.
Still breathing hard, Cal climbed to his feet and turned on the spot to take in the surroundings. There was little to see, just a few dim lights illuminating the empty space between numerous lifeless buildings. A damn ghost town. “Everyone else okay? Eddy, Toker, you hurt?”
“Ain’t nothing,” Eddy answered quickly.
Toker moved his arm about. “Bit bruised. The buggers were more gums than teeth.”
Call looked down at the dead creature and gave its white, scaly body a nudge with his boot. “Damn lucky for us. More new additions, Jumper?”
Without turning his attentions from Viktor’s head, Jumper nodded. “Fairly. They only come out at night. I’m usually safe up a tree.”
Cal shook his head, still not quite believing they’d all made it to the headquarters more or less intact. He looked over at Melinda. The synthetic had one or two gashes covering her legs. They were already filled with a blue, gel-like substance that Cal recognized as a smart healing glue common to all synthetics of value. It would replace or repair artificial flesh in a matter of hours, leaving no visible scar. Melinda was once again wearing her usual serene smile that Cal found far less human than the anger he’d witnessed on the other side of the barricade.
“I reckon we should shift ourselves up to the main control center,” Jumper suggested, having finished patching up Viktor’s head. “Find out what been causing all this chaos.”
No one disagreed.
The Big Game Headquarters were every bit as ominous as the barricades that surrounded them. It was comprised of a number of dark, dome-shaped buildings and one huge cylindrical tower that reached at least as high as the Alvorian oak that they’d slept in a couple of nights previously. Cal and the others followed Jumper through the tower’s entrance then down a long, featureless corridor that eventually led to a brightly lit, silver-walled elevator.
“This place is bigger than I was expecting,” Toker said as he stepped into the lift. “Do a lot of people work here?”
“Actually, not so many,” Jumper answered as he tapped a code into the elevator’s control panel. “The first four hundred feet of this tower is a solid block, supposedly extra security in case the gates fail.”
“Makes sense, I guess,” Toker replied as the elevator began a smooth but rapid ascent.
“Maybe,” Jumper said, a hint of a smile on his lips. “Personally, I think it’s got more to do with the human obsession of all things large and phallic.”
Eddy sniggered, “Yeah, whoever designed it was obviously a man.”
“Yeah,” Toker agreed, grinning. “A small man at that.”
Viktor blurted out a laugh, but Cal could see that the meaning of the joke was lost on the boy.
Looking at them each in turn, Cal observed the wide, twitchy eyes that accompanied their nervous chuckling. He’d seen this many times before: a post-battle reaction. They shared the look of those who had gone into battle and literally slipped through the jaws of death. They were an odd bunch, but Cal had to admit, they worked well together, a group of misfits who, when thrown together, just seemed to fit. He was glad of that not least because he had a nasty feeling that their trials were just beginning.
Chapter Eleven
BIG BLUE
As far as high-tech rooms were concerned, the control center of the Big Game Headquarters was right up there with the best of them. It was a huge, cylindrical room filled with smooth consoles neatly concealing a host of scanning, communication, and monitoring systems. There were no walls as such, just a crystal-clear exterior viewing panel that reached from floor to ceiling and wrapped itself around the entire circumference of the large, circular space. Other than the obstruction of the elevator shaft situated in the very center of the room, a person could see three hundred and sixty degrees of far-reaching views, a vast sea of desert leading to jungles and distant mountains. One simple flick of a control wand, and those mountains would appear not so distant thanks to the multi-league zoom technology that was integrated into every inch of the impenetrable smart-glass. Multiple holo-maps could also be beamed from numerous ports located in the brightly lit ceiling to detail the locations of the hunters and scooper ships dotted around the vastness of the Big Game Zone.
That immaculate, technologically advanced room was exactly what Cal expected to see as he stepped though the elevator doors. What he actually saw was a chaotic array of destruction. Every single console had been shattered, mass tangles of circuitry spewing out of them to lay strewn across the glossy floor like the guts of some giant cyborg. None of the holo-maps were active, and Cal could see that each of the beaming ports in the ceiling had also been smashed.
“What the hell happened?” Eddy asked, rushing past Cal to examine one of the mangled consoles.
“Seems we’re not the only ones who’ve been through a battle,” he replied, moving forward and putting a protective hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Careful what you touch, Eddy. Whoever dropped in for a visit could have left a few surprises.”
“Right you are. Look at these though, eh,” Eddy replied, doing her best keep her hands at her sides. “These ain’t like no plasma hits I ever saw. I mean, there’s no scorching. It don’t look there was any heat at all.”
Cal took a closer look, impressed with the girl’s observation.
“So they just fell apart then, eh?” Toker said.
“Watch it, mush nut,” Eddy warned, “Else I might just make your face fall apart.”
“Eddy’s right,” Cal said. “Whatever weapon shattered these consoles wasn’t your usual military fare… In fact, I don’t know of any weapons that would cause damage like this. You, Jumper?”
Jumper gave a puzzled frown and shook his head.
“But if there’s been weapons and a battle and whatnot, where’s all the bodies or like…blood an’ stuff?” Toker reasoned. “I mean, where the hell is everyone?”
Limping and still a little unsteady on his feet, Viktor joined Eddy in getting a closer look at the damaged consoles. “Who could do such a thing to all this beautiful tech?” he asked no one in particular. The b
oy wore a look that suggested he was indeed looking at blood and dead bodies.
“The headquarters is pretty big,” Jumper said after a moment. “Maybe we should do a search, see if anyone’s still around?”
Cal nodded in agreement.
“I could maybe save us some time,” Viktor said, seeming to snap out of his horrified state. “Melinda.”
The synthetic strode over to him, carrying the broken hovercase as if it were filled with feathers, and placed it on a nearby work station. Viktor flicked it open. “Somewhere in here, I’ve got a scanner,” he said, pulling out numerous devices and setting them neatly on the desk. “It’ll scan this place and all the surrounding buildings in seconds.”
“How accurate is it?” Cal asked.
“Here,” the boy said, pulling out a small device with a screen crudely taped to its side. “It may not look like much, but it’s very accurate, Cal. My own design.”
Cal didn’t doubt it for a second; his faith in the boy’s tech abilities was growing exponentially. Nobody moved or uttered a word as they awaited the results of the little machine.
Viktor looked up, his bruised and battered face solemn as he shook his head. “There’s no one here. This place is completely lifeless.”
“I don’t know about you guys, but this is starting to creep me out a little,” Toker whispered after a moment.
“You’re a bloody pansy,” Eddy scoffed without even bothering to look his way. “So what now, Cal?”
Cal looked up to see them all staring at him, uncertainty in their eyes. Even Jumper looked more unsure than Cal had ever seen him. He sighed inwardly. It seemed the answers were going to be a harder find than he first thought. Not only that but his young companions and his old friend were putting their faith in him to find them. But where the hell to start? His mind felt full yet strangely empty. And he had to agree with Toker: The situation was starting to creep him out. Even if the crew of the headquarters had been attacked and the bodies taken, this whole place would be filled with Federation officials and engineers by now. They might not give a damn about a lost reject raft, but Mars was big business, a food supply that Earth couldn’t do without. A reaction should have been instant.
