Forbidden World

by Jeremy Michelson

  I could almost feel Liz’s eyes rolling behind her armored mask.

  “Awesome. What do your instincts tell you, oh king?”

  “Well, I’m not a king, so…”

  She grabbed my shoulder and shook me. Not quite hard enough to snap my neck. Close, though.

  “You’re my King, bucko," she said, "So what does your gut tell you, Your Majesty?"

  I eased out from under her armored hand and went to stand at the edge of the platform. She came up behind me and held her flashlight hand out. Light splashed across the face of the tunnel.

  Which way had the stupid thing gone?

  There wasn’t anything on the smooth sides of the tunnel to give me a clue, either way.

  If I made a choice, it would be a random one. It wouldn’t be instinct. Because I didn’t know a darn thing about this planet. Other than everything about it was sad and creepy.

  Which way to go?

  Were there maintenance areas in the tunnels themselves? Little pockets of pressurized space? Every subway needed maintenance. Even super sophisticated ones like this one. And this one would need really sophisticated maintenance spaces.

  Or emergency spaces.

  If somehow there was a crash in the tunnels, there would be need for emergency access.

  Which wouldn’t be accessed from the tunnel itself.

  I turned and walked away from the edge.

  “Chris?” Liz said.

  I waved for her to follow. I followed the edge of the platform to the wall at the end. From there I slowly moved along the wall. Searching for…

  “There,” I said, pointing to a barely visible in the wall.

  Liz walked up. Played the light over it.

  She bent toward the doorway.

  “Son of a bitch,” she said.

  She reached out. Plucked something from the edge of the doorway. She held it up in front of my face.

  The light played over it.

  A hair. The same color as T&T’s.

  Twenty-One

  Titus

  The room the thing stuck him in had a lot of bones in it.

  T&T crouched in the corner farthest away from the haphazard collections of bones.

  Lots of bones.

  Bones that looked disturbingly human. Except for the skulls. There were triangular-shaped skulls that looked like the Don skull they had found the first day on this fricking haunted planet.

  Other skulls had three eye holes.

  Those must have been Blinky skulls.

  There were some other skulls that he couldn’t classify. Long ones with the correct number of eye holes that looked more like horse skulls. But the skeletons they went with were sort of people sized. Except for the extra set of arms.

  Then there were the red shell things that looked like furry lobsters.

  This place was just messed up.

  And it didn’t look like he was getting out of here alive. The thing that captured him was going to add its very first human skeleton to its nasty collection.

  He would have asked himself why he had to be the first one. But the answer was obvious. He’d gone out alone.

  In his defense, the planet had been fricking dead. Not a single frigging life sign. Just piles of dust everywhere.

  Nope. No organic life left on this miserable planet.

  Well, there wouldn’t be soon. Just him and Chris and Liz.

  That thing would make short work of all three of them. Even Liz with her fricking armor wouldn’t get away from that thing.

  He huddled, naked and cold in the corner. His stomach growled plaintively. Man, what he wouldn’t do for one of those nutrient bars right then. Actually, hell with that. What he wouldn’t do for a damned plasma cannon right then. Blow the freaking door off and run. Fire up the ship and blow off this flipped out planet.

  Why had mom let him join covert-ops anyway? This was all her fault.

  Though, she had tried to tell him to go into something like law instead. But lawyers were boring. And they had to read all the time. And write stuff. And go to courtrooms.

  And he really wanted to avoid courtrooms.

  Oh, right. That’s why mom got him into covert-ops.

  That incident with the sheriff’s daughter. And her mother. And their hairdresser.

  She had told him she was eighteen.

  She sure looked eighteen.

  Sure acted like she was eighteen. Or older.

  Everything would have been fine if the sheriff hadn’t shown up at the salon and barged into the back room.

  It was a good thing there was a back door right nearby. And if he hadn’t sprinted out of there, the bullet holes might have been in him instead of the door.

  He’d gone straight to mom. Because she was always good at fixing things.

  She fixed the incident by working him into her covert-ops organization. Which was cool. Being a spy was cool. Women thought he was James Bond. He’d tried to cultivate a suave image. Even faked a British accent for a while.

  Mom made him cut it out.

  She was kind of a killjoy.

  He stared at the pile of bones across the room.

  That was a killjoy, too.

  His life was quickly running out of joy. Pretty soon he was going to just plain run out of life.

  He put his thumb in his mouth. Now would be a great time for mom to show up. He could really use a hug.

  The creature thing–whatever it was–had grabbed him with its cold, mechanical hands. The rough metal rasped against his bare skin. Definitely left a mark.

  The thing had thrown words at him in its raspy, metallic voice. The heat from its mouth baked his skin. The strange chemical odor of the thing’s breath made him lightheaded.

  It interspersed human words with other, unrecognizable words. He kept telling it he didn’t know anything. But it just kept throwing words at him. Eventually he realized it was just repeating his own words at him.

  So he started having a little fun with it.

  I like to suck penises for fun.

  Your boobies are magnificent.

  Would you like to take a ride on my face?

  My dick is bigger than your dick.

  Babe, your ass is SO fine.

  That had been fun for a while. But the thing seemed to get frustrated. It shook him like a rag doll. For a bowel voiding moment, it seemed like the thing was going to open up its fiery maw and shove him inside.

  Then it stopped. Its head swiveled around.

  Abruptly, it let go of one of his arms. Its head came back around (from the other side, doing a complete 360), then it dragged him out of the other room and stuck him in here with the bone buddies.

  He had a feeling he was seriously boned, too.

  Twenty-Two

  Chris

  A touch from Liz’s armored hand opened the door. The King’s personal bodyguard seemed to have had access to everything in the city. And why not? The bodyguard went wherever the King went, right? And heaven forbid he had to open any doors his own dang self.

  Sometimes I had problems with authority.

  The door opened into–guess what?–another dark corridor. It would have been nice to go into a nice, well-lighted place. One that had clear directions and such. Like: This way to find lost asshats who went out on their own for whatever nefarious purposes motivated the nimrod.

  I also had problems with people who were sneaky and dishonest.

  Liz moved into the corridor, holding her flashlight hand in front of her. Her other arm was bent at the elbow. Her forearm bulged with the plasma blaster that had suddenly sprouted there. It hummed with a full charge. Ozone crackled through the air.

  Before we went in, I slung the pack off my back and took out three nutrient bars. I unwrapped one and shoved it in my mouth without even tasting it. The second one I recognized a flavor that might have been oats and cinnamon. The third one tasted vaguely like strawberries.

  I shoved the wrappers in my pocket.

  The energy shield that protect
ed me and kept me breathing was slowly draining my own reserves of energy. If I didn’t keep feeding myself, I might not have enough left to face down whatever might be at the end of this stupid corridor.

  Liz's flashlight hand washed light over the walls, floor, and ceiling. All of which were an industrial gray that looked like concrete. Apparently maintenance corridors were the same no matter what the planet. But what should I have expected? Sparkly lights? Moving floors that slid us to our destination? Concierge service?

  None of which appeared.

  The only thing was another door at the end of the corridor. For once there was an actual sign on the door at the end. In blocky, bright red lettering. The letters at first seemed like just a bunch of weird squiggles. But, as I squinted at them, they resolved into words I could read.

  At least the Dendon was doing something for me.

  “Authorized Personnel Only,” I said.

  Liz reached out an armored hand. “Let’s see if I’m authorized.”

  She put her hand flat on the door. A latch clicked and the door slid back into the wall.

  The light from her flashlight glinted off something in the room beyond.

  Then two red circles of light snapped on.

  Metal rasped on stone.

  And the thing attacked.

  Twenty-Three

  Chris

  The thing exploded through the door in a stink of hot metal and sulfur. Its burning red eyes rose above us. Light from Liz’s hand glinted off the thing’s crazed angles and twists of dark bronze metal.

  Liz shoved me backward. Hard enough to make me fly halfway down the corridor.

  A searing beam of white-hot plasma jetted from her arm.

  I caught just a glimpse of the beast before the light blotted everything out.

  It had a strange, segmented body. Covered in odd facets and depressions. Tubes and spikes sprouted from the body. I couldn’t tell how many limbs it had, but they seemed to sprout everywhere from the thing’s body.

  And where its head should have been were just two tubes with the blazing red “eyes”.

  The plasma splashed off the beast.

  Seemingly without damaging it.

  It reared up. A “mouth” opened on the body below the eye tubes. It was little more than a red slash. Flames flickered inside the opening.

  An ear-splitting howl issued out of it.

  Three of the thing’s segmented limbs rose up. Each thin, metallic limb ended in a curving, shiny blade.

  The beast surged toward Liz.

  “Your boobies are magnificent!” The beast shouted.

  It slashed at her. She stepped back out of the way. Drove another blast of plasma at it.

  Which splashed off the beast like before.

  I detected a sparkle of blue as the plasma dripped off it. Did the thing have an energy shield?

  “My dick is bigger than yours!” said the beast.

  I scrambled to my feet. The light from Liz’s hand created a nauseating dance of shadows in the corridor as the beast advanced on her.

  “Would you like to take a ride on my face!” The beast shouted.

  So, I was pretty sure this was the thing that kidnapped T&T.

  The beast surged at Liz. Its blade arms slashed at her.

  This time she ducked under the blades. And punched the creature right in its midsection.

  The beast absorbed the blow without blinking. The knife arms swung down at her.

  “Liz!” I shouted.

  One blade sliced open the armor on her back. Blood splashed out

  Another blade slashed her leg. More bright red blood splattered the walls.

  The third blade pierced her flashlight hand.

  The light exploded in a shower of blue sparks and red droplets.

  Liz screamed in pain.

  Just before the light went out, I saw the beast pull back its blades. And position them to plunge into her chest.

  “Babe, your ass is SO fine!” It shouted.

  I leapt toward her. I commanded the Dendon: Night vision. Turbo speed. Super strength.

  The darkened corridor suddenly became a world of dim green shapes. There was just enough light for me to make out Liz and the creature.

  The thing’s blades were zooming toward her chest. Going in for the kill.

  But I was faster. I zipped up to Liz. Grabbed her and slung her over my shoulders. As I pivoted the thing’s blades slammed my side.

  Lightning cracked and boomed as they hit my energy shield. For an instant, the corridor was filled with searing blue-white light.

  I didn’t wait around to see what happened to the creature.

  I slammed out of there in super speed mode with Liz’s blood running down my body.

  Twenty-Four

  Chris

  So…apparently sex is a good thing.

  At least, that’s what I found out after I got Liz back to the ship.

  I ran up out of the subway station and into the dusty, windy streets of the dead capital city of Dendon. The thin atmosphere blasted past me as I turbo speeded it back toward the ship.

  Over my shoulders, Liz was unmoving. Her golden armor slashed and pierced by the unholy monstrosity that attacked us in the underground corridor.

  Her blood ran down my arms and soaked my shirt.

  I tamped down the gibbering panic that tried to take control of my mind and body. I didn’t have time to give in to my inner scaredy-cat. If I crawled under a rock and hid, Liz might die.

  And without her, I wouldn’t have a heart. I might as well be dead too.

  The ship came into view and I almost cried with relief.

  I hated that stupid, rancid cat food stinking ship. But right then it was the closest thing to home we had.

  I needed it to fix Liz.

  And fix me.

  I could feel the Dendon sucking the energy out of my cells to sustain the burst of speed and the energy shield around us. Already my limbs were shaking, My gut twisted with ravenous hunger.

  I tried not to think of the calories I’d need to make up for this.

  It was going to put a dent in the ship’s rations.

  I slammed us into the ship’s airlock. Fought the lightheadedness that tried to drag me into unconsciousness as I waited for the lock to cycle.

  Keep me going, I told the damned traitorous Dendon inside me.

  I am not a traitor

  Fuck you. You're a traitor to me. You knew that thing was out there. You let us walk right into it. What else is out there, you backstabbing piece of crap?

  Funny, it didn’t answer.

  I wasn’t waiting, either.

  I carried Liz into the ship’s joke of a medical bay. It was barely a closet. Lights flickered on, revealing a single, narrow metal slab of a bed in the center of the room. On one wall was a row of cabinets filled with Earth style medicines. On the narrow wall at the head of the bed was a med-scanner of Blinky manufacture. Supposedly modified for humans.

  I wasn’t feeling like trusting it, but I didn’t have a lot of choice at the moment.

  I lay Liz down on the metal bed. She was still covered in her golden armor. She clanked as I set her down.

  The armor over her leg and back hadn’t closed up. Blood seeped out of the open wounds. Her hand was a mass of blackened metal.

  She moaned and moved her head back and forth. I leaned over her.

  “Liz, sweetie,” I said, “Can you pull the armor back? Please, sweetie. I need you to do it so I can help you.”

  She moaned again. Raised her good hand to her throat.

  Her fingers clinked against the armor. But it stayed stubbornly in place. She needed to concentrate to make it retract. But her pain had to be fogging her mind.

  I moved down to the wound on her leg. Blood seeped from the sliced metal. I tried to force the metal open so I could get a better look. But it was like trying to pry open a manhole cover with a toothpick.

  Somehow I had to get that gold, supposedly invincible, armor off of
her.

  I closed my eyes and concentrated on the Dendon device within me.

  Are you going to help me?

  It didn’t answer. But a feeling of electricity ran over me, making my skin tingle. I kept my eyes closed. And thought about what I wanted to happen. Pictured it in my mind with as much detail as I could muster in my hunger weakened state.

  I opened my eyes. Put my hand on the area below her throat.

  Where the golden disk lay.

  I imagined my power going into the disk. Imagined that power repairing the armor. Calling it back to that golden disk so I could save Liz.

  You risk your own life. Your physical energy reserves are dangerously low.

  The Dendon. Piping up when it was least convenient.

  “I don’t care,” I said, “Give it to her. Give everything to her.”

  A King must make difficult choices. Sometimes sacrifices must be made. Sometimes the kingdom needs the King more than he needs his own comforts.

  “She’s my heart!” I shouted, “I won’t live without her! And I’m not anyone’s damned king!”

  She said you are her King.

  “Stop it with your games! She’s not my bodyguard. She’s my Queen, you bastard! I live for her, not anyone else!”

  The Dendon went silent.

  But power surged through me. Out from the center of my being, down my arm and into my hand that lay below her throat.

  For a moment, I thought it hadn’t worked.

  Then the armor rippled. The cuts in the armor’s skin brightened and crackled with energy. And closed up.

  I kept my hand on her chest. Even though I was so weak I could barely stand. Blackness crowded the edges of my vision.

  I fought it back. Continued to pour my power into her.

  The blackened armor over her hand lightened. The scorched material fell away in a drift of ash. The wound in the metal closed.

  The armored form before me gleamed like it was lit from within.

  And I was feeling like a drained husk. My breathing became labored. My heart, once hammering like a crazed drummer, was slowing. Lub-dub…Lub-dub……