by Nathan Ward
“You know me, mate. It’s safe,” Murdock repeated and then he jumped from the back of the ramp and crashed into the sand beneath him.
Jekel had begun to climb back to his feet and make his way over to Murdock, he wasn’t too sure what to make of what had happened - it was a miracle, which was all he could conclude.
“Are you okay?” Murdock asked as he approached, noticing the cuts and bruises he had sustained from the attack.
“I will be, I will be…” he muttered, rubbing his hands over his wounds, knocking away the embedded sand that had turned a rustic red from the leaking crimson, “It’s just a few scratches really,” he concluded.
“You shocked me, I didn’t think you had it in you, I was convinced we’d lost you back there,” Murdock said in surprise, resting his hand upon Jekel's shoulder.
“I think I surprised myself, Murdock. What did you do to them?” Jekel asked, turning to witness the Howlers cowering away.
“I rigged a transmitter and planted it on the big fella, now anything with the same DNA for up to a thousand meters or so will be attracted like a magnet, kind of like a distress signal pulling them all in and stripping their minds back, making them extremely malleable, specially for this thing,” He explained, tapping at his wrist device.
Joy and Enrique had now decided to disembark from the ship and head over to Jekel and Murdock, feeling slightly more comfortable around the now docile Howlers.
“I would invite you join us, Jekel. But where we’re going, I can’t even guarantee the safety of my own crew,” Murdock explained sincerely, his face remaining a mystery to Jekel, who had turned his attention to Joy and Enrique approaching from the ship.
“It’s okay, I'm getting used to travelling alone…I’m not a fighter, I’m a lover of all good things but I’d only get in the way, I’m sure you can appreciate that, Murdock.”
“One hundred percent,” he responded warmly as Joy and Enrique arrived beside him.
Joy took this rare opportunity to disengage her helmet, revealing herself to Jekel, who must have wondered what his rescuers looked like, she thought as a gentle breeze clung to her sweaty face, and as her gaze met his she smiled.
“It’s always lovely to see a friendly face, hello Joy Thorn,” Said Jekel, inviting a handshake with his outstretched arm.
“Like wise,” she replied, giving his hand a thorough shake and still smiling.
“I will now take my leave if that is okay, my friends?” he said as he let go of Joy's hand.
“I hope to see you again some day, Ashley,” Murdock replied, looking on in fascination at the man who had seemingly survived against impossible odds, as again, he felt curious, wondering if this man had some kind of secret – but it was certainly no secret that they had all warmed to him, and Murdock didn't want to say goodbye, but it was for the best considering where they were headed he reminded himself.
“Thanks again,” Jekel said, giving them a final nod, and then he turned towards the open land and went on his way, limping gracefully into the distance.
“He’ll be okay, wont he?” Joy asked, feeling concerned for his safety.
“I don’t know, I honestly don’t know,” Murdock replied, watching on as Jekel's figure faded away, out of sight.
Chapter 31: Follow the cavalry
“Come on now, back away, back way,” Murdock ordered with confidence, throwing his arms in the air to scare a path through the mass of Howlers surrounding them, “Joy! I’m going to require some of your medical assistance here,” he added, making his way through the pack while discreetly checking his wrist device to monitor the effectiveness of the inhibitor.
“Err... yeah, sure...” Joy muttered uneasily.
Then she scrambled behind Murdock, still on edge around the sharp teethed monstrosities even though they weren’t paying her much attention, it was almost as if they were sulking, with the way they stood there as gruesome green bile dripped from their tongues, sinking heavily into the ground at their feet.
“I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, perhaps because I didn’t know these pesky blighters were lurking beneath us...” Murdock murmured as he neared the familiar looking corpse of Henry.
“Joy, I want you to do a full investigation of the body, from head to toe. I need to know how he died, it’s crucial.”
“I don’t see why?” Joy asked, arriving alongside the bloody corpse that seemed to kick up as much of a stench as the whole horde of howlers put together as it slowly decayed, blood and guts and shrinking flesh all balled up together, making for a vile sight and a smell to never forget.
“I need to know if the UNA were involved, if they were, there might be something that can lead us straight to them.”
Joy was still getting used to the stink. She looked away from the sight, drew in a breath and let it out again, focusing now on the corpse, but still it looked as awful as it stank - Howlers were bad enough, but a dead body left to bleed out and serve as food for the crows, left to rot for days...She switched back to Murdock's idea and smiled.
“Oh, now that’s clever…am I now thinking what you’re thinking?” she asked.
“I don’t know, are you?”
“Like dogs?” she guessed.
“Precisely like dogs!” Murdock confirmed, taking a step back and allowing Joy more space to examine the corpse.
It was then Murdock took a brief moment, he couldn’t help but cast his eyes over the sight around him, the stuff of nightmares that surrounded him - he’d never felt more proud, knowing the lives he would be able to save with them and as he glared into the deep red eyes of one of the howlers, he remembered why he had chosen to fight, for the people they used to be before they were exposed to weapons and had their lives stolen from them. Once they had been part of humanity and now, with their help, perhaps the remains of humanity could be saved...
Murdock raised his finger to his neck and pressed down the switch that deactivated his helmet and then he took a long, deep breath of fresh air as it swept across his scarred face. Joy glanced over her shoulder, surprise registering in her gaze as she realised what she was seeing, and she turned away from the corpse, looking to Murdock, needing to say something, anything to let him know this was a bloody good thing...at last, he had finally stopped hiding behind that helmet, he had taken off the mask. Knowing he had started to accept his scars made her feel so happy for him, far happier than she could show at this moment, with a corpse at her feet and howlers all around them.
“I bet that feels good, to let your skin breathe for a bit,” Joy said softly, and then she began to carefully clean away some of the blood that was still loose enough to shift from the corpse.
“There’s a limit, I can only hide away for so long before I need to come to the surface,” he replied, looking up at the deep blue sky.
“I wish you’d stay at the surface,” Joy replied honestly, then she paused working on the corpse and looked up at Murdock, “This world's ugly enough...someone like you shouldn't be hiding away, not with all the good you have that shines from your eyes. You should stop hiding, do this world a favour – show it something beautiful.”
Murdock had let her words sink in, and he wanted to thank her warmly for the compliment, but the sun was scorching a little too sharply on his face now, especially on the tender scarring, reminding him of what he looked like and what he would have to get used to. If he survived the coming struggle he was sure forever would probably be long enough to get used to this – it would take the rest of his life to really accept it – at least, he would always know it was there. But Joy's words had moved him, although he felt the need to play it down, and so he did.
“Nah, I’d be way too vulnerable – not to mention too much sun is bad for the skin!” he remarked, making it sound light as if he had cracked a joke, while deep inside all he could do was silently wish for was the confidence he once had. But there was no hiding the fact that it felt good to let the scarring breathe, and being surrounded by thousands
of equally terrifying creatures allowed him to relax and let his shoulders sink back firmly below his neck- although Joy looked beyond the scars, he was sure many others would always stare - but not these creatures, these Howlers didn't care at all...
Among the horde of idle howlers, the giant mutation decided to take a step towards Murdock who had remained in the same position for the duration of the last few passing moments, just staring into the sky and listening to the gentle sigh of the light breeze. Then he closed his eyes tightly, blocking out the horror of its closeness as the giant leaned in towards him and begun to inhale his sweaty scent. Murdock could feel the air from its nostrils brushing against his face but he didn’t cower or fear for his safety, the thought of the beast so close was not pleasant but he had expected the creature to become overwhelmed by curiosity.
The embracing grasp of the device was strong but the last thing Murdock wanted was for its subject to feel a slave, no matter what the species or race, slavery died out long ago and Murdock swore to make this new world one of freedom so he embraced the moment, allowing the burly beast to explore his body.
Carefully he begun to open his eyes and cast his sights over the creature, something he instantly regretted as he decided it was definitely more comfortable to handle this with his eyes closed - his arachnophobia had rocketed into overdrive as the sight of its six beady black eyes resembled that of a spider, glistening like diamonds.
“Come on now, pull yourself together, man!” Murdock muttered under his breath, looking away from the creatures face and switching his gaze back to the blue skies overhead which seemed so much more appealing than thoughts of all things spider related, as he tried to will his skin to stop crawling at the thought of it all.
“Murdock, can I borrow you for a second?”
The sound of Joy's voice tore him away from his fear of spiders and felt like a way out, an instant escape route from his fears as she turned to him.
There was a pause.
“Murdock!?” Joy said again, and now she sounded shocked as she looked on, alarmed at the creature's sudden closeness.
“It’s okay, don’t panic,” Murdock said calmly and quietly, his tone reassuring Joy.
He slowly begun to remove himself from the pack, not wanting to upset the creature by his sudden absence but it seemed to remain docile, retracting back into the mass of Howlers that had begun to rummage into the ground.
“What have you found?” Murdock asked, approaching Joy and kneeling by her side.
“Well…nothing yet, but I’m definitely getting somewhere. I’ve cleaned him down as best as I could it’s just the fact that there’s so many entry wounds, it’s hard to tell them all apart. It might be worth informing Enrique we’re going to be here a while…” Joy said, looking into Murdock's deep brown eyes - something she had not been able to do for a while, and she wondered if he had missed looking into her gaze as he looked back at her, and that look lingered for the briefest time.
“Well the UNA could be anywhere; we can’t leave before we have an idea of what way we’re headed,” he replied, accepting the situation, “Take as much time as you need, I’ll have a word with Enrique.”
Then he gave Joy a warm smile as he rose to his feet, turned and then begun to traipse through the idle Howlers in the direction of Enrique, who was checking over the war bird’s dusty hull as it sat modestly on the sand.
“I’d start to get comfortable my friend, Joy reckons we’ll be here a while yet.” Enrique continued to knock away sand from the ships crevasses.
“Perhaps it’s a good thing; maybe the night will bring us an advantage,” he replied, considering the available benefits of the delay.
“If we were to strike at night the shadows would hide the Howlers charging at their gates…” Murdock concluded, merging with Enrique’s thought path and considering all the possibilities to help them in the looming battle.
“Precisely,” Enrique agreed, glancing over his shoulder and not expecting his Captain to be stood there with the helmet off, his face exposed, “Might I add, it’s good to see your face…the sun and the air will help, believe me,” he added, knowing too well the scarring had taken a devastating effect on Murdock, it was there in his eyes, a fleeting glimpse of pain that he quickly banished.
“Thank you, Enrique. I’m getting there…I’m getting there,” he replied, taking a deep breath, “And now I had better help Joy; we don’t want to be missing our window…”
“We have approximately six hours before sunset, do you believe it will take that long?”
“Believe me, Enrique. It might be like finding a needle in a haystack…”
“What is it she’s doing exactly?” he asked.
“Conducting a post mortem, I have a feeling the UNA had something to do with Henry's death and being Ex UNA myself, I’m certain there will be a bullet lodged inside him somewhere… I’m certain,” said Murdock.
Then he turned away and went back down the mound towards Joy and Henry's corpse, while Enrique watched on with a puzzled expression drawn on his face as if perhaps there was something he wasn’t quite understanding, something lost and gone beyond his reach. It made no sense, he thought, beginning to feel the pressure of whatever darkly loomed ahead pressing against his mind.
Over the course of the day, the sun had risen and fallen over the heads of the weary travellers but as it cast its last glimmer of light over the tired scorched land, Joy felt assured she was close to making the discovery that Murdock had hoped for. She reached towards her ass and pulled a flash light from a rear pouch and threw it in the direction of Murdock, who had drifted off away from this place, his thoughts on a train of thought far from the harshness of reality.
The flash light pounded against the ground and embedded itself in the sand which snapped him from his daydream.
“Huh?” he exclaimed, weary eyed and wondering what had been said. “What...What did you say, Joy?” he asked.
“I didn’t say anything; I think you were drifting off?” she replied.
Murdock blinked, fighting off his weariness and the slight resentment of being pulled from a brief nap and a fading dream where strangely, he had walked through sand much like this, but there had been no corpse, no blood, no Howlers...just him and a woman, and they had stopped walking, looking to the kind of sunset as Murdock had pulled her close and looked into her eyes...A strange dream indeed, because in that dream, the woman was faceless... Murdock blinked again, shook his head and shook off the last trace of the dream, now firmly back in reality once more as he blamed the heat and tiredness for such thoughts.
“You were definitely drifting off,” Joy said to him.
“Was I, Joy? I can’t even remember…”
“Don’t worry, we’re all shattered…maybe you should put your head down?” Joy suggested as the last remnant of the suns warmth and glow sparkled against her moist cheek.
Murdock smiled a tired but loving smile, feeling warmth in his heart as he looked to Joy Thorn, the woman who had become such a close friend, “I think I can hold out, besides we’re going to be mobile soon…”
“Not if that flashlight isn’t shining over my way…”
“Oh! I’m sorry, here…”
Murdock scrambled for the flashlight and held it over Joy's head to assist her, lighting up the ugly rotting flesh that remained on Henry's skull as Joy continued her analytical investigation, digging deeper into the facial wounds with her sharp portable instruments.
“This has turned into quite the date, mister!” Joy muttered while her concentration remained on the lifeless subject.
“I’ll be the waiter, delivering the candle light!” Murdock added with a cheeky out burst of laughter.
“Waiter? You’re my date, mate. And here’s our wonderful grub!” Joy concluded, smirking as she made another incision in to Henry's flesh.
“Well you do look lovely and all but feasting my eyes over that…I think I’ll stick to being the waiter!” Murdock chuckled, hoping Joy would
n’t take offense.
“Suit yourself, spoil sport” Joy replied calmly, easing Murdock's worry.
“I think I might have actually found something…” Joy then added, as with her eyes pinned to the incision that her long sharp instrument had dug into, she carefully begun to wiggle the shaft against the fleshy insides of Henry's head, hoping to be nearer to finding a foreign body within him - then suddenly, she struck gold. The end of the instrument had begun to scrape against something solid, and she worked carefully, knowing she was certainly on to something now.
“Do you need a hand?” Murdock asked, leaning in towards the wound.
“I should be okay,” Joy stated, carefully inserting another long tool to assist in the eviction of the object lodged against the skull. The two instruments closed in around her goal and Joy begun to draw it out with the smallest amount of pressure until it finally gave way, losing its grasp and falling into a gush of flurrying crimson.
The eviction notice had been served and the tiny metal object had come running into the palm of Joy’s glove.
“Is that what I think it is?” Joy asked as she tried to wipe away the blood that covered the surface of the object.
“It is…” Murdock confirmed as it became very much apparent that Henry was shot in the head, whether that be by UNA or rogue travellers- it was definitely a bullet forged from the iron pits of UNA command, Murdock made no mistake in remembering what they looked like as Joy brought the shell to a shiny golden gleam with the scruff of her sleeve.
“It’s perfect, that’s going to lead us straight to them!” Murdock confirmed, delighted that the end was now closer than it had ever been.
The goal now achieved, Murdock got up and wandered towards the dying light of day, raising his hand, removing his glove and placing his fingers in his mouth. He let loose an ear splitting whistle which came as quite a shock to the surround mass of howlers that had begun to hibernate into the night, but now the sound triggered a response making their ears and flesh stand on end. The creatures pulled themselves out of the ground and on to their feet, snarling and hissing towards one another.
