The Mulligan Planet

by Zachariah Dracoulis

what happens to pets that bite?”

  He brought his fore-finger to his temple and pulled a mock trigger, my nostrils began flaring involuntarily, “You threaten my men again and I'l-”

  He twisted my arm slightly to silence me, “What? What will you do? You aren't exactly in a position to negotiate.”

  I snarled again, shook myself from his grip and started back toward the truck, “You can do what you want S, but it doesn't stop you from getting bitten.”

  I reached the truck and as I climbed into the passenger seat, next to a visibly proud Steve, slammed the door, “Oh come on, it was funny.”

  We started to pull away and drive toward the gates, “No it wasn't Steve, he was seconds from dropping all of us, he has a thin thread.”

  The gates opened and we drove out onto the street, “I know, that's why it's funny.”

  I tried to keep my serious face but failed miserably, “Yeah yeah, just get us to the crash site.”

  S was right about that, we were very alike.

  The streets had been cleared a fair bit compared to when I first tried to get out with Harry. Most of the cars had been shifted out of the way and the ones that weren't had short work made of them with the plough.

  When crossing into the lower suburbs the path of destruction became clearer. Not just from the ship, but the rain as well, most of the streets were covered in deep water. Drains were overflowing, chunks of burning metal were wedged deep in the road. The dead had been flattened against the ground, and it only got worse the closer we got.

  Roofs had been ripped off, the grass scorched, trees uprooted and burning hundreds of metres from where they originally sat. “This is the first time I've been glad about all this rain.” I looked over at Steve who was surveying the area, “The water will have cooled down the road enough for us to drive through without burning through the tires.”

  My eyes widened, I hadn't thought of that, we could've died because I didn't think of an apparently very obvious element, “Yeah, blessed be the rain.”

  The amount of debris surrounding us was increasing while the monolithic ship came into view, bursts of flame shooting out from time to time. It had obliterated most of the shopping complex while the surrounding area that wasn't crushed burned.

  “You all ready back there?”

  The window separating the cabin from the rest of the truck slid open and Harry's head appeared between Steve and I, “Yeah, the guys are actually pretty cool, and I'm looking forward to putting these guns to good use.”

  A heavy black barrel slid through the window and onto my lap causing me to pull my hands back and sit as far away from the heavy black weapon now sitting across my legs, “You want to tell me why you just threw a grenade launcher on me?”

  Steve looked over at me, his eyes opening fully as he retreated to his door, “What the Hell Harry!?”

  His hand came back through the window and pulled the launcher back away, “Oh don't be such a baby, it's not loaded.”

  Steve slammed the window shut and locked it, “You stay back there until we're getting out!” There were some muffled complaints that I really didn't care to listen for. I was much more interested in how close we were getting. Less than five minutes out and I still hadn't formulated a complete plan. How were we going to get into the ship? How were we going to make this all work?

  “You've got this John.”

  I looked over to Steven, “Pardon?”

  He smiled, “You always make this face when you're stressing about something. I saw it first on base. So I'm telling you right now, you got this. We've had our differences, but we all trust you, we'll get through this and then we'll find the team.”

  I really needed someone to say that, but I never thought it would be him, “Thank you. Alright, the plan is we get to the ship's touch down point/ I'm guessing that the blast I saw as we were coming down tore a fairly sizable hole in that thing. From there we just search the ship for whatever is jamming Lucy. Then we blast it, get out and regroup with the rest of the team.”

  I gave myself a little mental pat on the back, “Sounds solid to me.”

  I nodded, “I thought so, really simple.” I started fiddling with my gun, psyching myself up. Watching my feet, trying to regulate my breathing, then my head smashed into the dashboard as the brakes were suddenly applied.

  “What are you doing, why are we stopped?”

  I looked over at Steven who was staring out at the road, “Did you not see that?”

  I looked out the windscreen, nothing but a few zeds wandering around in their aimless sense, “See what?”

  I felt the truck start to rev back up as I rubbed my head, “I don't know, something ran across the road, probably nothi- there!”

  He slammed the brakes once more and I looked, “What!? I see nothing.”

  He put his hand up to shut me up, “Just watch.” I peered around, waiting, then I saw one, maybe two hundred metres ahead of us. Not much bigger than a child and jet black. It, scramble across the road on all fours, they were creepy enough, why did they have to scramble as well?

  Anyway, another darted across in its disturbing fashion, then another, and another and another. Becoming more and more frequent before one cluster stopped. Taking in their surroundings, some had massive eyes and no other recognisable facial features. Others had mouths that encompassed the majority of the centre of their head's while two slits sat on either side of the mouths.

  I checked my gun's clip and went to raise it, Steven's hand stopping me, I looked over to him shaking his head with his finger on his lips. I silently agreed and continued to watch what was happening ahead of us.

  Eventually a group of soldiers in red and white armour joined the creature's ranks armed with rifles I'd never seen before, increasing the struggle to remain silent.

  I took a moment to regard their armour, helmets that joined halfway between the neck and their shoulders, covering their faces. The chest-pieces somewhat curved and bulbous, suggesting females based on my years of watching sci-fi and playing video games. The rest of the armour was rounded, seemed reflective and looked like it wouldn't stop a bullet if I threw it, so if it wasn't anti-ballistic, what was the use of it?

  One of the zeds finally made a move on one, its hands and teeth sliding off, the soldier rotated her gun and wedged it deep inside the flailing zombie. A blade erupting from its back before being lifted through the head, spraying the black creatures in deep red.

  She shook her gun off, “Neysor! Caflun il kikson!” A large, caped man appeared, surveying the butchered remains of the zed. He let out a slight growl and kicked it aside.

  “Hey guys! Why've we stopped!?” My eyes widened as the man I guessed as the commander looked at us. He definitely wasn't a man, no discernible nose, though two nostrils were present. A white braid ran from the front of his head and down his back. But his teeth, now visible as he bared them at us, were all intensely sharp and white.

  “That's not good.”

  His nostrils flared, “Shenim! Batur felcom vel!”

  The soldiers raised their guns while the black creatures darted toward us. “Definitely not good!” We started reversing, the creatures gaining while green bolts were fired, grazing the truck.

  “What's going on out there!?” We spun backward down the street we came from and started toward the ship through backyards/

  “You have lost your speaking rights Harry!” The truck tore through an above ground swimming pool, coating us in water and turning our view from chaos to blue.

  “Get that out of my way!” I unwound the window, grabbed the blue pool plating and tore it aside. We were back on a road and it looked like we'd lost our tail.

  Steve drifted around a corner, the ship now ten feet from the front of us. A hole into what appeared to be a hall looked promising as we ground to a halt about a metre from the ship. “What the Hell was that!? With the teeth and the... ah.”

  I rubbed my temples, I figured that there was
a crew from the ship, but I had not quite expected that. Steven had not lost his terrified expression since we'd seen the black things. Until it was replaced with a slight grin as I watched him raise his foot off the brake and let the truck roll into the ship, a crunching sound greeting us as the bonnet bent inward.

  I exhaled sharply, “I hate you so much.”

  We climbed out of the truck, “No you don't, I'm the only one you really relate to.”

  I laughed, “That's true.”

  S's men jumped out of the truck bearing arms, immediately lining up against the truck, Harry and Marcus close behind, tossing Steven and I M4s,

  “What happened back there?” Harry passed me my backpack from the duffel.

  “I'll explain more once we're out of here.”

  He nodded, “Alright, there's some extra ammo in your bag as well.”

  I let the M4 swing at my side idly as I slipped my backpack on, “Thanks.”

  Marcus was checking out the hole, a shotgun hugged firmly to his chest while Steven patted him on the back, “This is going to be a breeze Mark.”

  Mark shook his head, “That's not it, this hole is pretty fresh, see these scorch marks on the road, someone from the ground on the outside blew this open.”

  They walked back over to us, “Do you think it could be the team?”

  He nodded, “It's certainly possible, I mean, they wouldn't have gone far after losing you, not in that chopper.”

  I pushed past them, dropping my gun behind me, “Kate!”

  The guys joined me at the hole, “Wolf! Greg!