Jou’s hand closed around my ankle, dragging me out into the hallway with ease.
“Boss says he wants you alive.” His deep voice rumbled slowly from within his chest, as though speaking was costing him more effort than hauling me around. “So I can’t kill you. Yet.”
I gasped in my first full breath in what felt like hours, my vision clearing as oxygen filled my lungs. I was behind and slightly to his left, my right ankle in his left hand. Smart, actually, it kept me from getting any leverage to deliver a solid kick. It did, however, let me get the pistol clear of the holster.
Jou turned at the sound, his unnatural speed allowing him to get a hand over the muzzle as I pulled the trigger. He barely flinched as the bullet tore through his palm, ripping the pistol from my grip and tossing it behind him. I was helpless as he slammed me into the walls, only staying conscious through sheer willpower and keeping my chin tucked down against my chest so I wouldn’t get too concussed.
As the blobs of color faded from my vision, I watched as he held up his damaged hand. The hole closed as a sinister grin spreading across his face. His voice penetrated the ringing in my ears.
“Boss says alive, not undamaged.” He resumed dragging me back towards the stairwell. I stopped struggling in a vain attempt to conserve my energy. Jou didn’t seem to notice nor care. My shoulder caught the emergency door as it started to close, but by that time I was beyond petty pain. Or at least, so I thought. I was dragged painfully up the stairs, each metal step slamming into my spine and the back of my head. Jou seemed to be in a hurry, and he was kicking my ass without even doing anything.
Two floors up. Eighty steps. Eighty hard shots to the body. If I wasn’t pissing blood by the end of this, it would be a miracle. Jou’s bone-crushing grip on my ankle was unrelenting. My shirt had gotten pulled up a bit while going up the stairs, and I could feel a burning sensation up my back as I was dragged across the carpeted floor.
Rug burn. Great. Talk about adding insult to injury.
I assumed he was taking me to the cells. If I had any hope of getting the situation back under control, much less surviving this experience, I needed to break free before we got there. At least I still had the tranq guns. Whoopee.
The non-lethal weaponry used lasers to form an electrically charged plasma channel, delivering a miniature lightning strike to the target. Against normal people, the resulting shock and miniature sonic boom incapacitates them, with minor splash damage to anyone within a few feet. The tech had been developed in the 21st century, for use against crowds, but development over the last few hundred years had made the application smaller, and more precise. It still wasn’t a good idea to use it any closer than five feet away, or you’d find yourself pissing your pants and drooling along with the intended recipient.
I was well within ‘danger close’ range, if not ‘danger stupid.’ No matter what, the moronic thing I was about to do would have to be timed just right.
The tranq gun cleared the holster with as much noise as I could make, counting on Jou to react the same way he had before. I wasn’t disappointed, bracing for impact and tightening my grip. Aiming while hitting the wall was difficult, but the design of the weapon allowed for a fairly large margin of error. All things considered, my luck was better than I thought it would be, his second swing brought me in front of him, and faster. He was trying to put me out cold for good this time. I pulled the trigger as the muzzle swung in the general direction of Jou’s shoulder.
My luck held, the point of impact was far enough away that I only felt a slight tingling in the sole of my foot. Jou involuntarily released his grip on my ankle, effectively hurling me down the hallway in front of him.
I skidded across the floor, drawing a quick bead on Jou’s legs and squeezing off two charges before he could come running after me. It seemed to work, more or less; one shot was supposed to take a normal human out of the fight. In Jou’s case, it just seemed to make whatever it hit go numb for a second. His knees buckled sending him to the floor. I got my feet, making a break for the detention area. With a little more room to move, I may just have a chance.
Oh, good, now I’m back where I started, I realized as I dragged up and out of Fletcher’s remains. Now what? Jou’s roar told me I needed to come up with something fast. One charge left in the tranq gun. I checked Fletcher’s. It had two.
Movement behind me. I whipped around, leveling the pistol, hoping beyond hope the non-lethal rounds would be effective against the new threat. I dropped it immediately as April and Bigfoot entered.
“John, what’s going on?” April’s voice was tense, but not panicked. “Whoa, what happened to you?”
Another bellow from the hallway, followed by heavy footsteps.
“Jou happened,” I said, “All prisoners at large except Holomisa. Kirby’s wounded, Brendan, Gerry, Fletcher, and Doc M dead. Jou’s coming this way. Fast.”
April nodded, drawing her tranq gun. Bigfoot followed suit.
“Hell,” he said, “Three of us should have no…”
Jou appeared in the entrance of the hall. I blinked several times at the sight. The prisoner, always large and muscular, seemed somehow bigger, but shorter. As though he had shrunk and grew more muscles, which should have been impossible. Legs like tree trunks, arms the size of my thighs. He smiled, rolling his neck and flexing. His smile was not pleasant and promised an inordinate amount of pain in my near future.
“You think you can take me?” His laugh, sinister and cruel, bubbled up from inside his massive torso. “Two pussy ass Marines and a split. This’ll be fun.”
April and Bigfoot cut loose with tranq fire, the shots sizzling as they ionized the air. 1.8 million volts of electricity coursed through the convict’s body, enough to down a full grown horse with ease. His clothing smoldered and his chest muscles twitched slightly, but he remained standing when he should have been on the ground, drooling and twitching. Jou looked down at the four distinct impacts on his chest with a chuckle, apparently more amused than incapacitated.
That did not bode well.
“That tickles,” he said, picking up Fletcher’s body. “My turn.”
Bigfoot dove as the corpse flew towards him. April wasn’t quite fast enough. Fletcher’s head struck her squarely in the chest, knocking her to the floor and stunning her. Bigfoot, kneeling behind a small desk, fired again as I raised the muzzle of my pistol. I knew the tranq shots wouldn’t do much, but maybe they could distract Jou long enough for me to come up with a better plan.
“First, I’m going to tear you apart, old man. Then I’ll deal with you, Manning.” His smile widened. “Then I’ll have myself some fun with the split.”
“Over my dead body, convict!” Bigfoot stood, tossing his now useless tranq gun away. He pushed up his sleeves and began to crack his knuckles. It would have been impressive as hell had I not seen just how massive Jou had become.
“Kinky, but I like it.” Jou stalked towards the older guard, rolling his shoulders. In his excitement, he didn’t notice me moving to flank him. Bigfoot gave me a slight nod.
I threw a quick glance at April. Her eyes were closed; the impact seemed to have knocked her cold. I hoped. Bigfoot squared up, fists in a classic boxer’s guard.
“Golden Gloves champion, three years running,” he said. “Think you got what it takes, boy?” Jou stopped, spreading his arms wide.
“Take your best shot.”
I made my move. Launching myself onto his back, I slid one arm around his neck and flexed. It was like trying to choke out a statue, but harder. Jou’s neck muscles were like iron. Jou roared loudly, more in surprise and anger than anything else. I brought the tranq gun up to his temple, whispered a prayer, and pulled the trigger.
Remember what I said about danger stupid? That move defines it.
The stun blast hit him hard, stopping him dead in his tracks. It also had the side effect of stunning me. I hit the ground hard, twitching uncontrollably, barely able to focus on what was happening.
“No snappy comeback?” Bigfoot said, grinning, “Oh, right, hard to do with a broken jaw.”
I was getting some feeling back into my extremities, but still couldn’t get the muscle spasms under control enough to move. I watched helplessly as Jou shook his head, bellowing.
My mouth moved, soundlessly, trying to force air through my lungs to shout a warning. Bigfoot got an arm up just in time to block Jou’s haymaker, but missed the follow up hook. The punch caught him in the cheek, whipping his head hard to the left. Jou’s next punch took the old Marine in the same spot, forcing his neck around further.
Bigfoot hit the ground, his head twisted at an unnatural angle. He didn’t move.
“No!” April’s shout got both Jou’s and my attention. Closing ground quickly, she threw herself at the larger man with abandon, the collapsible baton in her hand a flickering blur of motion. Jou, moving fast, blocked most of the strikes; however, the ones that got thru his defense caused him some trouble.
It suddenly hit me. Jou had somehow increased his muscle mass, but had sacrificed something else to do so. It’s why he appeared shorter, and why Bigfoot was able to break his jaw so easily. Bone density, internal organs, and lots of stuff in your body that can be sacrificed for some short term gains, at least in his limited mental capacity. He most likely hadn’t thought about exactly what he was giving up, just what he thought he’d need to put me in the cell.
Mass transference… something whispered in the back of my mind.
What the hell? Since when was my subconscious talking science behind my back?
April was still fighting, able to dodge most of Jou’s punches and grabs, but she was tiring, quickly. She stepped back, avoiding another whistling haymaker from the brute, but fatigue caught up with her, and she hooked an ankle. The stutter step to catch her balance was the opening Jou needed. His fist locked around her free hand, twisting and squeezing it back towards her shoulder. A wet sounding snap an instant before her scream told me he’d dislocated her elbow. Jou had left himself open, however, and the baton smashed into his wrist. His grip relaxed, and April staggered back out of reach.
“April,” my voice sounded like steel wool on aluminum, escaping my throat as a gasp. I could barely hear it, much less anyone else. I tried again. “April!”
“What?” her voice, strained and tight, still carried the rage she had shown earlier. Her left arm hung limp at her side, swaying gently as she bounced on the balls of her feet. “I’m busy!”
“His bones are brittle.”
Jou’s face showed his realization of his error as April’s grew more determined, focused. I watched her push through the pain in her elbow, a mental transformation that was a sight to behold. Estimating how long it took him to recover from my first tranq bursts, and to perform his physical change, I hoped he didn’t have time to make any more “adjustments.” April came in hard and fast on Jou, cracking the baton up his damaged arm, whirling and striking his lower extremities like a snake before pushing back up and driving the tip of the baton into the nerve cluster at the inside of his thigh, keeping him off balance and unable to block without opening himself up to more punishment.
I looked around, finally able to move without as much effort. The pistol Jou had tossed earlier lay about five feet away. I stretched, agonizingly slow, forcing my arms and legs to do my bidding. Four feet. I rolled onto my stomach, my feet weakly scuffing the floor as I tried to find purchase. Two feet.
C’mon Marine! Move your lazy ass! Concy’s voice echoed in my skull. One more foot…
April’s second scream, a raw sound of rage and frustration tinged with horror, came from behind me. I snapped my head around in time to see Jou, laughing triumphantly, lifting her by the neck with his good hand. He flexed, forcing her scream to fade into a wet gurgle. The fucker was crushing her throat.
Six inches, I stretched my fingers toward the butt of the 10mm, lunging with everything I had. The hard plastic grip felt cool in my hand as I tried to roll onto my back, making it as far as my side before losing momentum.
April dangled from Jou’s hand, her weak kicks and punches failing to do any damage as she fought for air. I raised the pistol as Jou gave her throat a final squeeze, shaking her like a rag doll.
“You need to stay alive just a little bit longer, frail. I have a promise to keep to the old man.” He smiled again as he tossed her to the floor, stomping down hard on her thigh. Her mouth opened silently, only a faint gagging sound emerging.
The spasms still had me. My fingers could barely grip the pistol, causing the sights to bounce around crazily. I didn’t have an angle. Jou brought down his foot again, this time snapping April’s remaining femur. She thrashed violently, trying to gain some type of hold with her good arm, managing to turn slightly in my direction. Jou met her with a solid kick to the torso, curling her into a fetal position.
I focused, gathering all the strength I had in my traitorous muscles. Only one chance.
The 10mm slid across the floor, some stroke of luck bringing the grip in line with April’s good hand. She brought it up, pulling the trigger as it lined up on Jou’s knee. At point blank range, the bullet tore through the weakened bone and cartilage, spraying gore behind him. He dropped, just in time to meet two more rounds to the chest.
The last thing he saw was the barrel, now at eye level, belching flame and death. Brains and bits of skull exploded from the large exit wound, landing on the white floor amid a mist of pink. Jou fell back, finally still.
April dropped the gun, slumping with a wheeze. The effects of the tranq gun had subsided, finally, enough to let me get to my knees and crawl towards her. I could tell, though, that there was nothing I could do except comfort her. Two major bones broken, bruises forming on her windpipe, and me with no medical training that would be of any help. Comms were still down, too.
Where the fuck were the maintenance weenies?
“…ck that guy.” April’s voice couldn’t get above a raspy whisper. I got close enough to take her head in my lap, carefully, trying not to hurt her.
“He’s down for good, April,” I said, “Try to relax, ok?”
She gave a tight-lipped smile, clenching her jaw against the pain, failing as a cough racked her body. Blood poured from her mouth. Shit, Jou must’ve broken a rib on top of everything else, possibly puncturing a lung.
“Got the bastard,” she said, eyes closing. What breath she had left rattled on its way out, bloody froth bubbling forth from her lips. It was the last one she took.
I sat there for a moment, gently stroking her hair before easing her head to the floor.
ঠ
April’s death shook me up far more than I would have ever admitted publicly.
It was weird, really. I watched Bigfoot die. I’d stumbled onto Gerry’s half-eaten corpse, and killed the woman responsible. That one would give me nightmares eventually. I’d even been forced to pick some of Fletcher’s gore out of my hair on my way through the station, which had been disturbing on a new level. None of their deaths affected me the way that April’s had, though.
It made sense, when I managed to think about it. It’s why killing Doctor Marillac bothered me so much. I had a protective streak a mile wide, especially when it came to women. Call it what you will, but any man who loses his wife at a young age would feel that way. Hell, any man should feel protective towards a woman. It’s in our DNA, as they say. Protect the family. Defend the tribe. It’s encoded into us genetically.
What the hell was going on here?
I didn’t know. I didn’t understand how Jou had done…whatever it was. Change his body? It was outside the realm of everything I understood about biology, which was admittedly very little. I knew which parts were the squishy parts, and where to put a round from a g
ood distance away. The way Jou had changed was like nothing I had ever seen or heard of, except for in science fiction novels.
My thoughts drifted back to when I had sparked up my friendship with Dr. Isaac. He had talked about something similar once, I’m almost certain. Shape changing but mass staying the same or something. Or loss of mass?
Damn it, I don’t remember! I mentally screamed into the silence.
Relax, came that familiar, soothing tone from the back of my head. If you’re stumped, look elsewhere for the answers.
Shut up, subconscious.
It did have a point, though. I didn’t have the answers, but I knew several someones who might. I had to find them first. They also needed to be alive for me to get my answers. Which meant I had to find someone who had managed to get somewhere and hide from the carnage that the escapees had created. Someone who was both agile enough to avoid them, smart enough to run from them and young enough to not give up.
Son of a bitch. I knew the one person I needed.
I just needed him to be breathing and still alive. Conscious and coherent would be an added bonus. The odds of that being the case were not very good, if previous experience suggested anything. Still, one could hope.
Chapter Ten
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
-Albert Einstein
I checked the last place a scientist should go to in an emergency on the station first: Research. Unsurprisingly, that’s where I found him. That was the good news.
The bad news? I found him at roughly the same time that Hernandez did.
The svelte former paratrooper had Isaac cornered in the hallway leading into Research. The kid was plainly terrified and was almost in tears as Hernandez toyed with him. The prisoner’s face contained far too much glee in Isaac’s fear. I’d seen malice before, many times. I’d seen anger and rage. This, though, was something far scarier. It was a look filled with sick, sadistic pleasure. It was the visage of a true psychopath.
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