by Al Shield
She blocked them all out and slowly only two sounds remained. Her careful breathing and the frantic heartbeat of the gunman inside. He was reloading and it would only be a moment before he popped back into view.
So she willed her heart to stop momentarily and that just left one pumping heart to focus on. She attuned herself to the fierce rhythm and waited for the right moment, that split second, that slightest variation that signaled movement.
There - barely audible. But a pulse nonetheless for the legs to stand, to emerge gun first and fire at the crouching Nex. But she was more than ready for it and fired as soon as she felt it, the head popping up right into the path of the flesh tearing bone shell. It impacted brilliantly, exploding out of the man’s skull and putting an end to the deadly dance that the two snipers had been performing.
The battle ended shortly after and with Nex’s shoulder injury aside, the four emerged with very few injuries. Unit M’s armour plating had taken quite a beating while shielding K’Dian. As the thunder subsided the only sounds left were the intense moans of pain from the crippled and the dying.
‘Excellent work’ Dar'kannag mused as he took in the situation. There were more than enough stragglers to refill the soul chambers and the spares in the back of the wagon and now he could get his vehicle back to fully operational.
If only he could work out how to get back to his world and cheerfully rip the spine out of the sorcerer who had set the portal trap.
One thing at a time, he would taste his vengeance soon enough.
While Nex took care of her wound, fishing out the bullet with her boot knife very gingerly but without crying out, K’Dian started to drag the wounded survivors over to the Warwagon. Dar'kannag counted one more than was necessary for the remaining chambers.
‘For information.’ He explained ‘We know precious little of this world and who better to share it than one of these creatures?’
‘Ahh but will their fear last long enough to be of any use?’ Dar'kannag asked. ‘I doubt you’ll get more than gibbering and moaning when they take in our true magnificence.’
‘I have an idea’ K’Dian replied echoing his father from earlier.
He walked over to a nearby corpse. The creature had been run through with one of Nex’s shots and while it’s chest was a bloody mess, the facial features remained intact. K’Dian touched his hand against the creatures head and spoke a few words softly. His skin began to ripple and his own face started to blur and change hue as the information carried over. Hair exploded out his smooth head, his cheeks and his chin. In moments K’Dian looked like an exact copy of the fallen man, save for the two black pits of his eye sockets. To hide them he put on the pair of darkened eye shields the man had tucked into a jacket pocket.
‘How’s that?’ He asked.
Nex gave him a distasteful look as she bandaged her shoulder.
‘Utterly disgusting. But effective.’ She admitted.
Those subdued near the wagon who were still conscious and aware cowered in terror at the sight of their returned comrade. But K’Dian’s idea didn’t stop there. He walked around finding pieces of intact clothing from more of the dead, swapping out parts of his stained workers clothes. He also collected many of the firearms strewn on the dirt - they would be interesting to study later on he thought.
When he was done with his collecting he motioned Unit M over and flipped a panel open on his back, rifling through the medical supplies he had stored there. He pulled out a small vial and a sharp knife and crouched down by the nearest prisoner. A small patch on the man’s vest read “Benjamin”. The man quaked in intense fear as K’Dian came close.
‘You want to help me don’t you?’
The man was petrified and didn’t reply more than a fearful moan. So K’Dian popped the lid off the vial and lightly dipped the knife in. He then wiped away most of the liquid on his vest, figuring just the lightest dose would be more than enough for compliance. He grabbed the man’s hand and created a small scratch with the blade. In mere moments the man’s features relaxed significantly. His muscles went soft and he would have fallen had K’Dian not grabbed him in time.
‘You want to help me don’t you...friend?’
The man’s head turned with a huge look of bliss on his face. With drool starting to creep out of the edge of his massive smile he couldn’t wait to be of use to his old friend standing before him.
‘Of course...of course...help my friend...anything my friend...I love you man...’
‘Excellent. We have much to discuss.’ And grabbing him by the back of the neck K’Dian dragged him back to the building for a quieter place to have a discussion. Over his shoulder he called out to Unit M.
‘Unit, chamber the rest.’
And without hesitation Unit M began leaching the souls out of the survivors one by one.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘This thing is incredibly dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed to live.’ Omega spoke firmly.
The woman behind the desk, the one who had been relying questions in his ear piece to get answers out of the beast just sighed.
‘Spoken like a true soldier Alex and I commend you for it. However I don’t think you truly realise the magnitude of what we have chained up below.’
‘With respect mam, I do. It’s an animal. A cunning twisted animal that has caused death and destruction on a large scale and it needs to be destroyed before it happens again!’
At the directors request he had ceased his questioning and met her in her office that overlooked the containment chamber. Dar'kannag had called out as he left that he looked forward to his return and the chance to remove his head from his shoulders once he was free.
‘We have immeasurable data just from the short time it’s been in our custody. It would be most unwise at this stage to shoot our gift horse in the mouth so to speak.’ She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She looked tired but Omega knew full well that regardless of conditions, she was always a force to be reckoned with. He’d tried to guess her age once but given her commanding presence and incredible energy, not to mention having seen her throwing around very heavy weights in the compound gym with very little sign of exhaustion, he knew he would be far off the mark. A few greys or not in her short cropped hair, Director Iverson was not someone you dared to cross, even with the most minor of gripes. She commanded a tight ship and woe betide if you tried to rock the boat.
‘It lives for now until it proves to be no further use. Orders from further up the chain.’
‘Then we blow it to hell?’
‘Then we poison it somehow. The bio science division won’t be happy if they get a body and no head to play with.’
Omega didn’t approve at all, after all he had tracked the movements and the loss of many to the vile things claws. But he stoically kept quiet as she continued.
‘Your line of questioning has been excellent so far but when you return, aim for more information about their biology.’
‘Mam?’
‘He’s over 8 feet tall, purple and built like a small battle tank. The pale white one on life support downstairs is super slim in comparison and has a pair of massive rams horns curling out of its head. The ‘M’ thing has the bright sparks in engineering completely confused as to where the machine stops and where the monster begins. As for the other one..’
‘My men will find him soon enough.’
‘I sincerely hope so. Now that we know it’s ability to disguise itself outside of the eyes, tracking it down has now become a much tougher task.’
‘I have full confidence he will be captured.’
She nodded.
‘We need to know what they all are, are there more species of them? Are there bigger beings than him? As much detail as possible. Our canvas into this other world is looking pretty black right now agent and we need to paint in the missing details as soon as possible.’
‘That’s going to be a big fucking canvas’ he muttered.
‘It’s going to be a masterpi
ece’ she smiled ‘Now your guest is waiting. Feel free to get a little more hands on this time if he refuses to co-operate.’
Omega raised an eyebrow.
‘I promised bio science a full body. I can’t help it if it happens to be sporting a decent collection of bruises can I?..’
Dar'kannag burst out in laughter as Omega returned to the chamber cradling a sledgehammer.
“Oh meat, you truly amuse me. Do you honestly think that toy will fare any better than the stick from before?”
Omega grunted as he put the full force of his strength behind the swing and there was a solid thump as the head of the hammer smashed into the beasts massive chin. Dar'kannag couldn’t help but turn his head with the force of the blow.
‘Ugh!’ he grunted as he shook his head. ‘It seems you have been holding out on me little meat, I actually felt that one!’
Omega didn’t respond, following up the first blow with another. The another. Then one more for measure. A small crack started to form in one of Dar'kannag’s dagger like teeth.
‘Enough!’ Dar'kannag bellowed, his sore chin now throbbing and the taste of his own blood leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. ‘What is the point of this?’
‘A reminder of where you sit in this conversation. Now, shall we continue?’
The beast sneered but nodded reluctantly.
‘Your son, K’Dian. What is he?’
‘What is he?’
‘Do you have a name for what type of creature he is?’
‘He is the son of the mighty Dar'kannag, lord of the 36th circle. What greater title could he hold?’
‘His ability, to change into those he touches. Is that something you can do?’
He shook his head.
‘He was born with that power. I know not which ancestor it was from.’
‘Do all children in your realm have abilities?’
‘It depends on the line and the gifts of the ancestors. Some do, some don’t. K’Dian was one of the blessed ones.’
‘Were you born with powers?’
He filled the big room with echoing laughter once again.
‘Gaze upon me and despair little meat, am I not the most powerful being you have ever encountered? I...AM...Dar'kannag!’ he roared proudly. So far in his time in the world he hadn’t met anything that could even come close to his natural size and dimensions. If these creatures had anything like him, they were yet to reveal them.
Omega was getting tired of the boasting and shifted his line of questioning.
‘After you filled up your vehicle, what happened next?’
‘Your strange world was getting dark and Nex needed time to heal her wounds. So we used the building to recuperate.’
‘After that?’
‘The old creature appeared with his small unit..’
SHERIFF JOHNS WAS IN the middle of filling out some paperwork when the intercom buzzed. Domestic dispute in the Maton family - he’d got too much into his cups after the big game and had decided to unleash his disappointment with his team out on his wife. She in turn had been well and truly prepared for this with a shotgun, obliterating one of his knees.
While he was tempted to leave the known wife beater to his fate screaming and painting the kitchen with his blood, he still had to call him an ambulance. Not the worst incident he’d ever been called out to by far in his 32 years on the job and certainly not the last. He had been wide eyed and enthusiastic when he started but over time the call outs and the situations he witnessed had aged him far quicker than his love of bourbon and a fine cigar on a balmy evening ever could. The clean shaven face had given away to to a well kept white moustache, the warmth in the eyes faded to a steel. He still cared deep down, a lot - especially for those who struggled to defend themselves, it was just rare that he showed that side of him anymore.
‘Yes Angela?’ he buzzed his dispatcher back.
‘Boss, old lady Carpenter just rang and she sounded frantic. Apparently something terrible has gone down at Charlie’s.’
Trouble at the local biker bar had died down some after repeated visits from Johns and the boys but occasionally an incident would flare up, usually booze related and usually requiring some cool off time in the cells behind his office for all parties involved. Charlie the old Bikie did try his best to keep the disturbances to a minimum under threat of having his service of alcohol license revoked. Well that was when he wasn’t directly involved.
‘Another drunken dust up out the front?’
‘Well you’re not going to believe this, but she swears she saw a monster dragging bodies inside.’
‘Say that again? Monster?’
‘Yeah something big, purple and scary. Bigger than a man and terrifying to see strolling around. The old lady was screaming about bodies and blood everywhere. She was hysterical, sobbing, screaming. It took me a bit to calm her down to get the story out.’
‘Now.. she’s not getting senile in her old age is she?’
‘I don’t think so boss. I saw her at the church fete on Sunday and there she was hosting the cake stall. I had a five minute conversation with her when I was doing my rounds about her teaching me and the family back at high school and she was still as sharp as a whip. Whatever has gone down at Charlie’s sure did rattle her - I’ve never heard her like this.’
He paused for a moment to plan his next move. Once upon a time he’d just jump in the cruiser by himself, maybe with a deputy if there was one lounging around. But if there was any grain of truth in any of this, any at all then it sounded like strength in numbers would be needed. He wasn’t as fast on the draw as he prided himself on when he started - best not take any chances.
‘Ange, call in 4 of the boys - any within 5 clicks. Tell em to meet me here and bring their wedding suits. We’ll go for a look as a group.’
‘Will do, be careful Sheriff.
The wedding suits were the nickname they’d given for the ballistic body armour carried around the back of the cruisers and in the lockers on site, getting their name from the fact that were rarely used but essential for big occasions. And the way this was relayed, it just might be the biggest occasion around these parts for a while.
THEY SAW THE DRAG MARKS from the road as the packed cruiser pulled up to the biker bar. Johns wound the window down for a clearer look. The blood trail in the dirt looked like something or someone wounded had dragged themselves to the road, only to be dragged back before they could get away. Further up lead to more drag marks and a tonne more blood. No bodies, just red everywhere and scarily a limb or two.
The motorbikes normally parked out the front were scattered haphazardly with a few looking like they’d been in a vicious accident with bent frames and parts ripped off and strewn about.
‘Now what the hell did you think that?’ Kyle called out from the back, pointing at the huge impact beside the window where Dar'kannag had launched the first bike. Sheriff Johns didn’t reply, listening to his gut feeling instead. It had never let him down before and right at this moment it was screaming that something was terribly wrong here.
‘We keep a distance.’ He finally spoke as he drew up by the side of the road. ‘Everyone behind the cruiser and keep your heads down. Locked and loaded and roll out as soon as I kill the ignition.’
‘Boss you don’t want us a couple of us to do a wild circle round, keep an eye on the back?’ Jimmy next to him asked.
Normal operating procedure would be to have the place surrounded and to cover as many angles as possible but nothing here felt normal at all. Whoever did this amount of damage to a bar full of bikers would probably be best met with forces at fully grouped, not split up.
‘We take no chances here until we get a clearer picture of what we face here’ he grunted. ‘Now move.’
He killed the engine and they all bundled out of the cruiser quickly, taking positions behind the vehicle. Kyle passed the sheriff the megaphone.
‘This is Sheriff Johns of the county of New Savannah’ he broadcasted ‘If the
re is anyone in the building, please identify yourself.’
Nothing replied back. A crow croaked in the distance.
‘Attention, this is Sheriff Johns of the county of New Savannah. We are armed have the building covered. Please identify yourself.’
Again, nothing.
‘Failure to comply could lead to us using lethal force.’
Finally something in the building stirred.
‘I COUNT 5 OF THEM, cowering behind their vehicle’ Nex reported as she looked out of a nearby window. She sounded disappointed by their lack of numbers. Her shoulder wound was healing up nicely thanks to K’Dian’s first aid work and she was itching to get back into the thick of battle. Unit M had picked up the vehicle movement on his scanners before it had come to a stop on the side of the road.
‘Potentially a scout patrol’ Dar'kannag mused. ‘Perhaps there is a bigger force on the way?’ He had spent the last hour dragging the slain bikers inside to draw less attention to the four of them while they worked out their next move but obviously someone or something had seen him working or passed the building while the battle had been raging. More battles wouldn’t get them any closer to discovering how to get back to their realm.
‘Want me to end them quickly?’ she asked. ‘We have no need for any further souls.’
‘If I may’ K’Dian interjected ‘I would like to see how well this disguise holds up against those seeing it for the first time.’ He was still in the form of the slain biker - balding with a big bushy beard and a gut to match, still with the void pits where his eyes should be hidden behind the sunglasses. ‘We may need my abilities to source more information later on and this would be a helpful test as to its effectiveness.’
Nex looked at Dar'kannag and he nodded hesitantly. While the biker under the influence of the pain medication had been very forthcoming with information about everything, his knowledge of worlds outside of this one was non existent and so K’Dian had impaled him through the skull with a nearby tool. Perhaps these ones would be a good test of gaining information without the threat of death or dismemberment.
