by Al Shield
That wasn’t the voice of his never forgotten father, that was the voice of..
‘Patches! I’m awake!’ His chest hurt tremendously with each word but his outburst had stopped her slapping him back into consciousness. He opened his eyes to see a small ring of exhausted and bruised but ultimately relieved faces.
‘Back away, give him some air!’ Patches ordered and Murphy and the rag tag bunch of survivors from the base stepped back.
‘Where am I?’ he asked dazed.
‘Director’s office. You were taking a nap under a big section of wall from over there. Luckily one of the junior sparkies heard you mumbling otherwise we may have left you!’
He tried to sit up but she pushed him back down.
‘Easy now, you’re not going anywhere.’
‘The monsters?’
‘Gone.’
‘Dead?’
‘No. Gone. They left a while back. The red one first with the fat man and then the other three. Once they exited we gave it some time before we emerged from hiding. It looks like we’re the only one left.’
‘We need to go, now.’ He groaned, his ribs on fire as he breathed in.
‘Go where?’ Murphy asked nervously. ‘Shouldn’t we wait for help? Surely someone is on their way after all this!’
‘A cleanup squad most likely.’ Omega grunted. ‘And I don’t want to be lying around when they get here.’
‘You don’t think..’ Patches asked aghast.
‘If the fat man is still alive, he will make the call. Teams will be dispatched and this place will be burnt down to the ground, with us in it..’
‘Surely not!’ Murphy exclaimed. ‘They need to know what happened here, about the red monster in charge!’
‘Don’t you get it?’ Omega yelled, a dizzy spell threatening to overwhelm him after the effort. ‘The monster pulls the strings. It calls the shots. And if he says burn, we burn, no questions asked.’
‘So what do we do?’ Asked one of the juniors, now on the verge of tears. ‘I don’t want to die.’
You are far from done.
His father’s words from his dreaming echoed in his mind. They need me and I need to stop the monsters from tearing this world apart.
‘How many of us are left?’ he grunted.
‘Just the nine of us.’ Patches replied.
‘How long have I been out?’
‘Not sure. About an hour?
‘Then we move quick, if the call has been made then they’ll be here in less than three hours. Get three vans and one truck from the pool and load it with whatever you can find. Weapons, ammunition, comm gear, medical supplies and food - throw it all in there. I’ll also need a volunteer to help line up some explosives.’
‘What the hell are you planning to do with those?’
‘We bring this place down to buy us some time. Nobody will think us missing if everything’s a smoking crater in the ground. We’re getting right off the grid people until it’s safe to appear again. Now move!’
The small bunch of survivors raced off to their newly assigned duties as Patches slowly brought him up to seating position, almost making him pass out from the wave of nausea.
‘I’m so glad you made it out of all this alive honey.’ She admitted as she checked him over for cuts and breaks. ‘And probably sooner than later, they’ll admit that too.’
You’ve got a lot of people depending on you.
His father’s words echoed in his mind again. And now was the time where they truly needed him most.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Even at the brink of exhaustion, the survivors moved quickly. No time to mourn the dead or even consider a moment of pause or reflection, they all ran on pure adrenalin as they ran through the shattered and in parts smoking base grabbing what they could. They scavaged all remaining supplies from the medbay and tools from the garage, food from the eating area and many big bottles of fresh water. Into the vans they were thrown haphazardly before each member turned around to head back into the base to continue the search.
With a pair of volunteers Agent Omega had strewn as many explosive devices as they could find around the base. When they ran out of proper explosives, the moved onto the next best things - 44 gallon drums of petrol from the engineering bay, sealed vats of chemicals from the various research departments and even grenades left spaced out and sitting in the floor in various rooms and hallways. The theory would be that the big blasts from the explosives would trigger a reaction with the smaller and impromptu devices scattered along the way. There was no time to place them in locations where they could cause the most structural damage, just the hope that there was enough to destroy any and all evidence of their survival on their way out.
Of course Agent Omega ignored the well meaning but strong demands of Patches to not move about and to not do any of the heavy lifting.
‘You can chastise me as much as you like when we’re all far far away from this mess’ he promised and he grunted while carrying a heavy barrel ‘But until then, we don’t have time for arguments.’ She glared at him for a few moments saying nothing before moving away to help another of the team salvage what they could out of medical.
It took just over two hours for them all to finish picking the place clean and lay enough explosive devices down to hopefully cover their tracks. By this time most of the adrenalin had worn off and Agent Omega hobbled outside to see a few of the team using the side of the truck to help them stand and fight against their exhaustion.
He also spied something large and very dangerous in the back of the large truck as they slammed the rear doors shut.
‘Is that what I think it is?’ he asked Sally, loading the van closest to him.
She nodded. ‘Murphy thought it might be a good idea to take it with us.’
‘Exactly what are we going to use it for? It’s not exactly subtle is it?’ He wondered out loud.
‘Because it’s built like a fooken tank!’ Murphy explained, coming around the corner. He was struggling with a backpack, heavily weighed down with excess tools, instruments, batteries and the like. ‘And while I have nothing but your faith in things that go kablooey there Alex, I fear it might be left standing when the dust settles.’
‘So best we take it before the clean up crew try to work out how to use it?’
‘Exactly! Now help me out with this’ he said as he dropped his shoulder and the heavy bag slammed into the dirt ‘I’ve still got another couple more packs to load!’
There was no moment of ceremony, no time to watch the cloud of fire completely engulf the entire base when Omega flicked the switch. He had sat and waited in the passenger seat in one of the vans as it raced away from the base and only when he felt they were well and truly clear of any and all damage, did he arm the trigger. It was only after a slow count of 100 when he finally pressed the button.
The glow of the great explosion appeared on the horizon for the impending clean up teams on their way but was missed completely by Omega and his team, concentration and focus instead on getting away as far as possible and figuring out the best way to lay low for as long a time as needed.
Omega turned in his seat and waved the trigger at Patches who was keeping an eye on some of the team who were trying to sleep in the back of the van. She had gone right back into her caring base mother mode as soon as the convoy rolled through the main gates with no wound left unstitched or unbandaged, no minor cut left untreated.
As she looked up at the waving trigger, a solemn nod was all she gave in reply. The base was her home away from home and never in her time there had she ever felt unsafe, until the last few days. She even spared a quick thought for the tall female warrior that had stopped the murderous rage from the soldiers in the medical area.
‘I hope wherever you are honey, you are keeping safe. I thank you for allowing Patches a little more time in this world. Still got my kids to watch over’ she whispered to herself as she looked out of the van’s rear windows, watching the other two vans and
the truck trailing behind. Murphy was driving the second van, Sally his assistant in the passenger seat. He hadn’t much since they left, deep in thought brooding over his wife and trying to figure out how long it would be before he could see her again, if ever. He just grunted when the hand held radio on the dash beeped three times, the signal from Omega that the fires had been lit. They would undoubtedly cover up all the deaths and destruction of the base by blaming it on a gas leak. If he had learnt anything in his time with the service it was that ‘gas leaks’ were very convenient in hiding truths and more often than not, not the cause of massive explosions. Would his wife cry or just sigh when she got the news? He hoped he’d be able to find out one day.
The procession was heading to a disused scrapyard that was still over twelve hours of driving away. Omega figured it would be a good a place as any to hide out for a time and great camouflage for the vans and the truck. Even the war machine carried with the convoy wouldn’t look out of place in amongst the rotting steel on the outskirts of a small town that rarely saw visitors. He had tasked one of the juniors with retrieving the ops cash out of the directors safe but didn’t explain how he managed to know the exact combination to the lock. There was close to $120,000 all up in non sequential bills - plenty for food and supplies, to buy information and pay for silence to survive for quite a while.
They would hide and heal and slowly glean what they could as carefully as they could. It might take months or even years when they found the means to emerge safely back into their own world but for now they were alive. They were relatively safe provided nobody dug deep into the wreckage to discover a small lack of bodies matching up with staff lists. And they were far far away from any monsters.
‘But I’m still coming after you Dar’Kannag.’ Agent Omega whispered to himself. ‘I will finish what I started here..’
Far far away and still heading towards the now levelled base, completely unaware of its destruction, the Nagdol was keeping itself amused by suggesting out loud the possible tortures Jorzan might enjoy inflicting on the hapless K’Dian when they arrive.
‘I hear my master has a spell that keeps your head alive and aware even when it’s cut from your neck!’ she said ‘What joy that would bring to watch your own body melt away to nothing!’
K’Dian had given up replying to her barbs many dark ideas ago.
‘Or maybe we could remove your brain and have you as an unfeeling minion? You could clean up after the master til the end of time. Or maybe just maybe..’
But K’Dian was busying himself keeping watch of what seemed to be slowly creeping up on them via the rear view mirror.
The Nagdol had taken the quietest back roads she could and skirted around even the sleepiest of towns in her journey back the base. Minimise all opportunities to be seen she had learnt at an early age. And if that meant taking a far longer route around things, then so be it. The long way would always be the right way in the end.
Out here apart from the occasional run down and in a couple of cases, abandoned and completely falling down houses and the odd piece of rusted out farm machinery laying in overgrown fields there wasn’t much to see. They had only seen two other cars in four solid hours of driving coming the other way, both of them battered trucks carrying hay and livestock.
So when he saw the white vehicle behind him the first time, he hardly gave it any notice.
But an hour later and suddenly it popped back in sight while he watched the mirror. His keen sight picking out the fine details that confirmed that it was the same vehicle as before. But what were the chances that the occupants had managed to take exactly the same route as they had? Perhaps they had travelled down different roads only to link up behind them again.
Whatever it’s purpose, he could now see that it was gradually shortening the distance between the two cars.
The Nagdol, blissfully unaware, continued voicing her suggestions of torture.
‘Myself, I’m a big fan of fire.’ She spoke out loud. ‘You put the torch to one of these creatures long enough and they will tell you everything. Everything you want to hear and every else as well. Oh how the mighty beg for release when fire is involved..’
As the white vehicle crept closer K’Dian could see that it was old and rusted in parts. There were a pair in the front of it, a male and a female and then it looked like more people seated behind a window? There hair was blowing in the wind unlike the ones directly in front so they must on the back of the vehicle exposed to the elements he deduced.
The female in the front had now pulled out a pair of focussing lenses and was now using them to scrutinise the car K’Dian travelled in.
‘Acid on the other hand?’ droned on the Nagdol ‘Well that’s a different story. I find it not as subtle as fire but it still has it’s uses. In fact there was one time when..’
The battered old white pickup truck was now directly behind their car, causing the Nagdol to finally take notice.
‘Damn rednecks! If they’re in such a hurry, why don’t they just go around me?’ She pushed the button to bring her window down and gave them a wave to pass, all the while muttering how she’d happily murder them all in their sleep if she only had the time to spare. The pickup moved into the next lane and crept up beside them. A unshaven man in dark glasses similar to the pair that K’Dian had been sporting since his last transformation leaned over and looked directly through the back window. He let out a smile as their eyes met and he using his hand, motioned for K’Dian to lie down.
K’Dian cocked his head to show he didn’t understand the command.
The man motioned with his hand again and then pretended to lie his chest on the tray of the pickup as a demonstration.
‘Hey...wait, what the fuck are you doing back there?’ The Nagdol growled as K’Dian suddenly slumped over with his feet braced against the door.
The pickup truck eased up on the throttle, just enough to drop back slightly so when the driver wrenched the steering wheel to the left, it slammed into the back half of the other car putting it into a spin.
‘I’ll skin you all alive!’ The Nagdol screamed as she tried to wrestle the spinning car back under control but it ran off the road and only started to slow when it plunged through the wire fence, the pickup truck right on it’s heels.
As the car came to a stop the furious Nagdoll reached into the centre console for a large pistol and flung open the drivers door, only to have it viciously kicked back at her by one of the men who had sprung up by the side of the vehicle. The swinging door smashed into her arm forcing her to drop the gun in pain and before she could go for another weapon, the barrel of a shotgun came to rest against her temple through the open window.
‘Easy now there kitty cat.’ a heavily accented man spoke. ‘Wouldn’t want things to get any worse than are now do we?’
She spat at him but raised her open hands slowly, shaking the one that got smacked by the door to possibly numb the pain.
‘Now out of the car lass, slowly now.’ The man stepped back to allow the door to open. He was tall and broad shouldered and the gun stayed pointed at her head the entire time she exited. There was something about the way he moved too - smooth and calculated, like special forces. He also wore a strange little unfamiliar skull on a necklace that looked out of place against his farm hand clothing.
‘Now just in case you think of bringing out your twin sisters, I want you to have a good look at what’s currently dancing on your chest there.’
She looked down to see three laser dots centred on her chest, then looked back to see two men and a woman aiming their long barrelled rifles at her. Again, all of them sported the strange skull necklaces. One of them, the one who had signalled to K’Dian to lie down, smiled and waved at her. She just hissed back.
‘You might be fast little kitty, but I can tell you that my friends over there are quicker on the trigger. Play nice and maybe we’ll get you a nice bowl of milk when we’re all done here..’
She screwed her face up and s
wung her good hand, now sporting a set of sharp claws at him. But the man saw it coming and blocked the arm with his shotgun before swinging the stock up and catching her right under the chin. Her head bounced back and into the car body and she slumped to the ground in pain.
‘Bad kitty. I was hoping we could work this out as adults...’
He leaned into the open window and spoke to K’Dian.
‘You okay in the back there shades? Anything broke?’
‘I...I think I am okay.’ He replied. ‘What is going on, who are you people?’
‘All in good time lad. Lemme just declaw miss kitty right here and we’ll be right with you. Hang about hey?’
He picked the Nagdol up by the back of her jacket and dragged her through the dusty ground over to the pickup where the woman in the front seat emerged with two sets of cuffs. The Nagdoll resisted at first but another reminder with the shotgun pointed at her head was enough for her to stop moving. Her captors cuffed her hands and her feet before hauling her onto the back of the pickup truck.
Once that was done, they all lowered their weapons. The tall man with the accent put his gun away before he returned to the car to let K’Dian out. He spoke quietly as he undid the cuffs behind his back.
‘Now you could run...but we’d prefer if you didn’t. We’d much rather you meet our boss on your own free will and not kicking and screaming. Let it be known, my friends are not above a little hurt if you do anything foolish, understand?’
K’Dian nodded as he rubbed his wrists where the cuffs had rubbed against his skin during the car spin.
‘Also don’t try to change your look around us, we know what you’re capable of. Trust us..’ he said as he rubbed a thumb over the necklace. ‘We can and will sniff you out...’
K’Dian’s mind was racing at a million miles an hour. They seemed to know everything about him and the Nagdol, but he didn’t have the slightest clue as to who they could be.
‘I still don’t know if you are friends or foe?’ He finally spoke.
