by Tom Harem
"He's... he's right." The man said, the words coming out of his mouth as if they were being plucked away with iron, "just some medicine for the other part of the universe. A standard mission, that's what they told us. I believed it, you know? We all did. But it wasn't just that. Only the captain and a few of his close colleagues knew what was in one of the locked rooms. They told us it was just old stuff, junk, but they had someone there. She'll be here. We don't have much time. We better go now." He said, saliva dripping down his mouth. He no longer had any control over his own body. All the blood had flowed into his shirt and leather pants, and on his face remained only the dried red.
"We're not leaving until you tell us everything. Do you really want to take the risk?" Amelia asked him and slammed the gun on one of the doors. The sound spread through the corridors and echoed twice before it dissipated.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you. They were transporting a killer. One of the worst, one that kills for pleasure and not for need, reason or money. She... she killed one of the captain's men and freed herself. And one by one, she killed the entire crew. We didn't even notice the disappearances until we were only five, half of what we were at first. She's still out there. Until she kills me, she won't be satisfied. We heard her swear revenge on all of us. And now that you're here, she's going to to kill you too. Come on, we have to run." He was begging, sniffing, choking on his own saliva.
"You noticed I have a gun, right?" Amelia asked her, juggling her, "What's her goal?"
"We also had guns... They were of no use when she used plates and even cutlery to tear up the skin, perforate the neck and other parts of the body. She's fast, very fast. We didn't even see her pop up. You don't understand. She wants to flee out of here and she's going to make it. She'll travel across the universe and leave a trail of destruction. She killed my friends and now she's going to kill us," he said, a stream of tears trickling down his face.
"Where are the bodies?" Amelia asked, "Well, she can't leave this ship without this," she added and removed a small wavy key from her pocket, "only this key opens the hatch that gives access to our ship. And I assure you, she will only remove it from my hand over my dead body."
"I'm glad you say so." A husky voice said. Cold shivers wandered through the walls. Soon afterward, a psychotic giggle, coming from afar, made my stomach twitch, "I'm on my way." the person said, this time with a cleaner, feminine voice and still as if she had a hairball up her throat. Her voice was harsh. I had never heard such a distinctive voice before. It was frightening how much her timbre conveyed all her madness.
"I warned you. She's coming. We're dead. Dead!" The man repeated incessantly, his voice losing strength.
"Let her come then. I'm well prepared." Amelia said and removed the safety trigger from the weapon, "Get ready. I don't think we're going to make it out of here without a fight. Grab two or three boxes and let's go. We will come back for the others," she added.
I put the boxes in my arms and walked over to her. She looked both ways before she stepped forward. The walls still had noises traveling throughout them, but the female voice had dissipated a few minutes ago. The man tried to get up but his sweaty back slipped through the wall and his feet slipped into his own pool of blood. I ended up putting the boxes down on the floor and helping him, tugging off his arms until he could stand up. As soon as he stood up, he picked up the drill again and put it next to his pants.
"She'll show up and we might not even know it. No way I'm going unprotected," the man said, striving to calm down, "the bodies are all in the kitchen. She hid them there. I tried to go there, see if any of them were still alive, but she heard me. She still managed to hit me, but I was able to push her and escape," he added, showing the forearm where he had a slice that went almost from one end to the other.
Chapter VIII
We set off on our way, walking slowly, the sole of our shoes scraping through the patterned tiles, aware of any sudden movement, of any different noise than what we had already gotten used to. My heart pounded so hard that it seemed to be piercing the exit from inside to outside as my knees folded with every step I took, and the sweat ran down my chest gluing the clothes to my body. Even my brain sounded opaque, thinking of nothing more than that voice that still echoed in my head. We went back to the intersection where we had come from and Amelia peeked, with her gun next to the metal belt that fastened her leather pants and leaned against the wall with only one side of her face outwards.
"Damn it. You must stop it. Be a man." She said as she saw the other man trembling, his nasal breathing and wheezing, suffocating the whole moment.
He was about to answer her when, from afar, metal banged the tiles and smashed them. Then again and again until the sound of the floor being broken stifle everything else. Once again, the walls carried the fear that came from the shattered tiles.
"You're listening, aren't you? That's what's going to happen to your heads," the voice said and then we heard her footsteps drawing closer, dragging whatever she'd used to destroy the ground.
"What are you waiting for? We're waiting for you!" Amelia screamed and laughed again, "You don't scare me, girl!"
"Good, another madwoman. What a hell of a trip. I only got into this because I was told it was easy money," the man said, leaning against the wall and wiping his forehead covered in sweat.
"And me, I thought I was just going to carry some boxes." I said to him, "Let's get out of here." I added, nodding with my head to get on the road.
The corridor that led us to the hatch now seemed longer than it did a few minutes ago. The sound of metal scraping on the floor had stopped. I could hear only the beating of my heart and sometimes the gnashing teeth of the man whose name I did not yet know. The heavy air ripped our cheeks off like someone was hitting us with a hard pillow on them.
"Come on, we're close now. Apparently, she won't even have the guts to show up." Amelia said and used her free hand to remove the hair on her forehead and put it behind her ear.
In a few seconds, everything changed. I have no idea what happened. Suddenly a girl with short brownish hair was on Amelia's shoulders pulling her hair. The gun leaped to the ground, cracking one of the tiles as they wrestled. Amelia walked backward until the other girl's back hit the metal wall. I had no plausible reaction. I still had the boxes in my hand and the serial killer was already spinning through the air, her fingers slipping through the fabric of Amelia's mantle until she was close to loosening her grip. They looked like a crashing plane, about to plummet. The crazy girl's boots ended up hitting the man's face, who hadn't moved yet, cutting off his upper lip and dislocating his nose. He landed on the ground, just like the drill. He covered his nose with his hands, entering into shock, his chest lifting and lowering himself unblemished.
"Get off me!" Amelia screamed as she now tried to hold one of the girl's arms to throw her out. I knew she could have asked me for help at any time, but she didn't.
Unlike the situation in the café this time I didn't feel the need to help her. My curved fingers glued to the boxes and my feet froze on the floor.
The killer's fingers closed around Amelia's neck as her legs curled and, like a serpent, surrounded the captain's hips. The woman kept laughing. She liked pain and danger as much as Amelia, but she took it to a new extreme. While Amelia was rational in her own madness, the girl, probably in her 20’s, was pure madness in all her prime. Everything happened too fast. It wasn't like the action films I had seen or the fights on my planet where anyone who attacked from behind would be known as a coward. Honor amongst scum, some said. There were no rules there and the fight wouldn't end in hugs and among full beer mugs pouring on clothes and on the rusty taverns' floors.
I looked away for a fraction of a second to the man leaning against the wall, his face lying on his shoulder and his chin already dipped in blood without even noticing that Amelia had thrown the other girl to the ground, were it not for the opaque sound she made when she hit the wall. They both looked at the gun, the black
standing out on the colored tiles and tossed themselves at it like two lionesses at a prey. The serial killer grabbed her first, but Amelia reciprocated with a kick in her face making her release the gun which slipped on the ground again.
"Help her, come on." the man said, his lips half open and covered in blood that sprinkled on his clothes.
I tried to take a step and pain spread all over me. It looked like someone had plunged a spear into my ankle and dragged it all over my body to my chest, where he made sure to push it all the way to the depths. They were still fighting on the ground. The girl was on top of Amelia, punching her while the captain used her arms to protect herself. Beneath the golden-brown hair that covered her face, it was possible to see these green eyes that looked like fissures that opened and closed according to her anger. Her clothes were torn and covered in blood. The fists were already swollen and covered with Amelia's blood, who did what she could to hold on. She had her chance when the girl swung backward to boost her punch force and she managed to remove one of the knives she had hidden in her boots and maneuver it until it hit the thickest part of her opponent's leg. She unleashed a screech and the cracks in her eyes grew as she lashed even more ferocious and merciless blows. The pain fed her instead of weakening her. The adrenaline flowed through her frowned body and her arms resembled two automatic machines.
It was only when I saw Amelia's eyes as flashlights losing their light, about to turn off, that I was able to free myself from my trance. I dropped the boxes, and some of the medicine that was in the jars, broke into dozens of pieces, as I grabbed the drill that was still lying beside the bleeding man.
"I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!" The murderer shouted, the blood seeping down her black latex pants giving them a wine shade.
Her punches never stopped. It didn't matter how many she threw, or how swollen and bloody her bones were, or even the fact that Amelia's face was bruised, her eyes clogged, and her lips cracked. I grabbed the drill and an image of the bar, of me worried whether I had killed the man, popped up in my head. I had to be careful not to kill her, but to see her dark eyes as rosin, as if her body was just a death machine, whilst hurting the captain, prompted me to react without thinking twice. I hit her with the solid, non-metallic part of the drill in the back of the head. For a split second, she turned her face to me before finally falling on Amelia's sweaty body. Her eyes shut and her arms collapsed next to her body.
I put the drill down on the ground and dragged Amelia's body, which was still under the girl since she didn't even have the strength to close her fist. She was trying to wiggle her fingers but couldn't even bend them at all.
"Take it easy. We're getting out of here." I told her, holding her head in my hands.
"Le...Let me go." She said, spitting blood when talking, "Shit. Everything hurts," she added.
"I'll call for help," I told her.
I pulled my communicator out of my pocket and activated it. I hadn't put it in my ear yet and I could already hear Matilda's voice complaining. Nice! I was afraid it wouldn’t work. The serial killer must have been using some sort of blocker.
"It's always the same. I bet they need to override some defense system and they don't know how. Come on, what do you need? I see you have activated your comms," She said.
"Matilda! We need help, quick. Tell Jessy to come over. Amelia's not breathing well and there's too much blood. Hurry!" I told her, checking the captain's wrist.
The pace was off, and she kept coughing up blood. Nobody replied to me on the other side for a few seconds. I could hear the distant footsteps and murmurs through the communicator but no words that I could perceive.
"What happened? Jessy's on her way and she's taking a first aid kit." Matilda said, her voice getting more nasal and shakier.
"I'll explain later. We're okay now, I guess." I answered her, "if Jessy's still there, tell her to bring handcuffs. We need to arrest someone."
"I told her. She'll get it. It shouldn't take long." Matilda answered me a few seconds later.
"We're just outside the hatch. Tell her to hurry."
Amelia seemed like a totally different person now. The defined facial features now included pale lines underneath the blood that was drying out. She looked about five years younger at least. The man was still standing by the wall, somewhat calmer, but still whining about the pain, sometimes releasing a scream to relieve himself. But the moments of pure silence were the worst. The air became heavier, rarefied, Amelia's suffocating breath seemed to get worse and I had to rotate my head until my torso hurt to be able to keep an eye on the serial killer in case she got up.
"Thank you..." Amelia uttered between her half-open lips, not having the strength to open them fully.
"I think I'm starting to like saving your life," I jokingly answered her, and she laughed, her body bouncing off the floor, "don't laugh. Jessy will be here soon."
"Do you have a doctor? I think I need one too." The man said, smiling for the first time. He had yellow teeth and a rotten gum. No wonder he needed the money.
Chapter IX
After about two, maybe three minutes, we heard the hatch rotate until the latch clicked and it opened. First came Jessy's long brown hair and then her face, with a disturbing and worried look, carrying a white first-aid box in her right-hand. As soon as she entered the ship, she stopped and looked around.
"What the hell happened here?" she asked, rushing to me, the objects inside the white box sliding against the plastic walls.
"She killed the rest of the crew. There's only that man left." I told her, "did you bring the handcuffs?"
"Here." She said and pulled rusty gray handcuffs out of her pocket, "Matilda made a few changes. This can monitor her heart rate. If she even thinks about any funny deeds, her adrenaline will rise and we’ll now before she acts. Now let's take care of Amelia. Rarely have I seen her like this."
Jessy knelt beside the captain and wiped her face with moist wipes until the pallor and the blood faded away. There was still a faint trail of red, but I could already see her eyes, still closed, her nose that had stopped bleeding, as well as her chin and the whole area of her neck.
"We have to get her out of here. I can't do much for her in a place like this. What are you waiting for? Arrest that woman before she tries to do it again,' she told me, 'and tear a little of your sweater and tie it around her leg. It'll stop her bleeding."
I was so distracted that I hadn't even remembered that the serial killer was still lying on the ground, passed out, meters away from us. I had never done anything like that before. The closest I'd ever been to such a situation was maybe five years ago. And when I say close, it's literally close. I watched two men tie an old man to a pole just for fun.
"Are we really going to help her?" I asked as I walked towards her.
"Maybe we shouldn't. But I told you, I'm a doctor, my duty is to help people. That's the oath I took."
She was already on her back. I held both her arms and handcuffed her, pulling the cuffs back twice to make sure they didn't come off easily. I tore part of the right sleeve of my sweater and tied the knot around the girl's leg. She didn't even flinch. I tapped her pockets and found a little radio that had been crushed, probably mid-fight. That had to be the blocker she was using.
"Doctor, do you have anything for the pain?" the man said, lowering his arms and showing her his dislocated nose.
She took a cushion out of the box and placed it under Amelia's head. Then she picked up a bottle of pills and handed it to the man.
"How are we going to get them out of here? They can't even talk or stand up."
"Don't worry about it now. Take her to the hatch. Matilda will help you to pull her up. Right, Matilda?" Jessy said, pointing to the serial killer.
"Yes, of course." Her voice was heard in our ears, "I'm coming."
I grabbed the killer by the arms and dragged her out as Jessy opened Amelia's eyes and used a small flashlight to check the irises in her eyes. The door appeared to b
e stuck now and I had to shove it to get it open. I must have hit the most sensitive part of my shoulder on the metal of the door as a sharp pain grew in my shoulder as I made the effort to lift the killer. Matilda was upstairs, arms stretched out, hoping to receive her.
"From creating machines and recovering ships to carrying killers." She grumbled as she pulled her up.
I pushed her by the ass while Matilda held her arms until we could finally get her on our ship.
"For such a skinny girl, she's very heavy." Matilda said, "Come up too. We have to take her to the prison."
"Prison?" I asked before I started climbing the stairs.
"It's basically a cell for our prisoners. No one's ever run away from it. I did it myself and planned the defense system. I'll show you." She said.
I grabbed both the girl's legs and Matilda gripped her arms. She led me into a chamber beyond our rooms, right at the bottom of that hallway, whose metal door only opened with a key she had clamped to a necklace hanging on her chest. It was a large room, with a dim light that rocked on the ceiling, the metal walls and iron bars separating the part of the room with normal floor and the part of the floor with tar. We put the girl on the other side and Matilda closed the door. Her leg was still bleeding, and my clothes were soaked in her blood. She was still passed out, but I knew that as soon as she woke up the anger would come out and we would have to deal with her somehow. But right now, it was a problem for later.
"This one won't give us any trouble anymore," Matilda said and pressed a red button on the left wall.
Red beams arose in front of the metal bars, the color changing between dark red and light red, and preventing the girl from even trying to stretch her arm out of her cell.
"If she touches one of the lasers with one finger, she'll end up without it. I told you. She won't be able to get out of here." Matilda said and smiled, "I'll see if I can find out if she's in the system."
