Path of Ranger: Volume 1

by RJ

  That tactic of showing himself as a retarded thug used to help JB out a lot. Since he didn’t have much of a choice, he hoped that it would work once again.

  “This place, JB. Getting here was your destiny. This place is quite unusual. Unique things happen here. Things you might not believe in even if you saw them with your own eyes!” El went on with a narration full of excitement.

  “Try me.”

  “What do you know about the space-time continuum?”

  “Street thug…” he reminded her.

  El rolled her eyes ironically as if she was talking to an idiot. And since she and the others stuck to that cover story of the ranger’s for so long, seeing that reaction of the woman was odd. JB had noticed a long time before that a continuous usage of biostimulators make people degrade. Those five seemed as live evidence of that theory.

  “Making a long story short, here, on this station, the scientists have opened a portal to another dimension,” El tried to pick up her words carefully.

  “Fuck you!” the ranger replied cynically, but calmly.

  “It’s like a hyper tunnel…” she continued.

  “Oh, shouldn’t you show me some kind of a visual reference now? Something like you drawing two spots on the piece of paper and then bending the paper joining the spots?” JB played a fool again.

  “What?” El asked in return.

  Others exchanged looks, trying to figure out his last words.

  “Never mind… Go on.”

  “So it’s like a hyper tunnel, but based on another basis. We don’t use any kind of engines to go through it. Theoretically, the portal transfers an object by the force of its own current. All it needs is coordinates.”

  “Coordinates?”

  “A piece of our world, stable and conductive enough to handle the reading…”

  “Reading?” JB attempted to clarify.

  “It’s scientific stuff, you won’t understand,” El said.

  “Fuck you twice.”

  The initiative was pulled by Tina again, letting her partner have a break.

  “You see. The scientists tried to use rubidion crystals as markers. But all they have reached was just a ‘noise’ in the ‘ether,’ and just for a few seconds. In some cases, they even managed to transfer some amount of energy into our world. That energy made some animals mutate…”

  “So that monster I encountered…”

  “Yes, it was a bug once… Before the experiment,” Tina confirmed. “To establish a reliable connection, which may withstand a transfer of matter, we need a better-suited coordinate. Your blood.”

  “My blood?” now in place of that regular smirk of JB’s came a genuine mocking smile.

  Despite the awareness of his inhuman abilities and the power of gibsonium, the mutant still couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Nevertheless, he didn’t rush to break the play yet.

  “What is so important in that dimension that you want?”

  “Do you even have an idea what a potential that is?!” Eugene said judgmentally.

  “A potential for what? For developing weapons?” JB clarified. “The frolls aren’t enough for you, so you want to piss off someone else? Don’t the world have enough problems already?”

  “We may finish the war?”

  The ranger smirked and gained back that arrogant expression of his, after all.

  “Look, no offense, but… I wouldn’t trust you to finish anything…” he spoke to Eugene. “And you know what, I guess I’ll stay out of this one. I don’t want to be the one responsible for another cataclysm. Here on Earth especially.”

  When the mutant let the agents know about his attitude, he got up and walked towards the soda machine to get another can of the beverage. The next stages of his plan were supposed to be: a quick getaway from the station, reporting to the agency on the mission’s results and quitting the job for good. The main obstacle on JB’s way was those five. He had to keep fooling them just a bit more, just to get to his ship.

  Yet, they needed him badly and it was a problem. The ranger couldn’t tell how far they would go to hold him there. He needed more time to think. That sprawling routine of his had to gain him another few minutes.

  Fact 1: they are much more dangerous than they seem.

  Fact 2: I have no leverage there but myself.

  Fact 3: they will hunt me down, even if I manage to get out.

  Fact 4: just one side is going to leave this station alive: them or me…

  The conversation dragged for too long, JB could sense the growing tension. His old gangster hunch recognized a will to kill. They were ready, so was he.

  The third can of juice didn’t go as smoothly as previous two. Something was wrong. The first two servings had a metal flavor in it, JB didn’t pay much attention to that. But the last one was just disgusting. The liquid inside felt too thick and too cold. While the mutant was consuming half of it, he glanced a couple of times at the refrigeration machine, thinking about some kind of malfunction.

  I’ve paid too much for this stuff, for sure.

  When playing that innocent action, the pilot was walking around the room to the back door. That exit was in a small appendix, behind a few decorative plants. JB tried not to draw extra attention. But with a growing distance between him and the agents, the vacuum was growing too, which sought to be filled up. The men got up. And the whole group stared at the subject of their desire.

  “Where are you going, JB?” Josh asked.

  His voice sounded friendly as usual, but his eyes shifted for a second, commanding ‘fetch’ to the agents.

  “Are you kidding, Skyman? Can’t the man go piss or what?”

  The tension went up to its peak. The mutant stopped, so did the agents. Just a few meters were separating them. It was clear to everybody now. They wouldn’t let him go. Each upcoming second was adding to the inner rage on both sides, soon it had to go off. JB’s calculations went in the phase of deciding who he should disarmed first. His hidden hand felt the throwing knife’s handle on his fingers. He didn’t rush, just waited for the opponent to start his move. A few more seconds and the pressure would make one of them snap, JB had to recognize who it might be.

  The light went out, suddenly. A muffled yelp came from outside, then a strong hit on the wall shook the room. It transferred into machine gun firing. The source seemed to be somewhere around the main entrance. All the agents and JB switched the point of interest instantly, their own disagreements were put aside.

  An unexpected astonishment made the officers stare at the door for a while. That terrifying yelp was growing, and the firing didn’t stop either. Skymen took out a firearm from the holster to aim it at the door. Others prepared their compact automatic guns. Just after everyone had taken a combat position, the colonel remembered about the ranger. As strange as it seemed, he thought of JB as of an ally that moment. But the mutant wasn’t there anymore. He had been gone far long ago.

  “Damn it! He bailed!” Skyman shouted nervously.

  “Colonel, look!” Eugene pointed at JB’s fake iPhone that had been left on the armchair. “There may be something useful.”

  “Indeed. It is a device that no one from this time can hack or use, in fact. It’s a perfect place to store a secret data!” Tina excitingly added. “Well done, JB.”

  Fred picked up the device and shoved it into his pocket. Another horrible rahtiong scream came from outside. Now, when JB was gone, they had to get out as well. There wasn’t even the smallest piece of Skyman’s own will that wanted to go there, but he had to. They all were obligated to get that ranger.

  “Unseal the door!” the colonel ordered.

  Fred rushed to the exit that very moment, but he didn’t have to do anything. He was still a few meters away from the switch when an explosion happened and one of the door halves got torn off. The metal plate rolled right in front of the stunned agent straight to the other side of the room. The group slowly walked towards the smoking exit, where the debris of concrete were still
falling from the doorway.

  Josh and Eugene were the first ones to come outside. They found two dead rahtiongs lying near the wall. Everything around was burned by a thermal bomb: the hallway itself and the dead guards. The noise along with the shooting moved down the hall.

  “Go after them!” Fred shouted when running out of the room.

  “No! Stop!” the leader stopped him. “JB is the prime target! And if I know anything about him, he had probably picked other direction.”

  “But we can’t leave them alone like that. If these mutants releases the others, the whole operation might be in danger,” the young agent spoke his mind.

  Josh’s ambitions were telling him to execute the direct order given from above, but common sense was on the Fred’s side.

  “Eugene, El?” he turned to other agents. “Can you handle it?”

  “Absolutely!” the male agent confirmed.

  Eugene looked at the end of the hallway. The illumination in that area was gone, just frequent flashes were lighting the room. The shadows moved swiftly in those flashes and the sounds of fighting went along with them. The agent did a habitual move of making an injection in his neck. Then he made sure that El did the same. Now they were ready to go in.

  The other three agents went the opposite way. They were running along the hallway quickly. Being well aware how aggressive JB was in extreme situations, Skyman wouldn’t even consider the possibility of him hiding. The colonel was sure that the ranger would try to overcome as much distance as he could, to go through hell if he had to, but not stop.

  The corridor appeared to be long and winding. The shooting was left behind, the sound of it was getting dimmer and dimmer. And the steps of the agents seemed more and more loud. The hallway came to its end. A large dark hall was in front of them. Nothing but darkness seemed to be there. The colonel stopped the group before going in. Tina and Fred glanced at the leader from time to time, waiting for an order. Skyman kept still now, watching. His forehead got covered in cold sweat. He was nervous.

  “What should we do, Colonel?” Tina asked.

  “The exit from the station is on the other side. We need to block it. JB can’t get out…” looking at the light oasis on the other side of the chamber, Skyman was sharing his plan.

  “If he’s not out already…” Fred added.

  Josh shrugged, saying ‘could be’ with his look.

  “Let’s go!” the order came through.

  The agents ran into the chamber keeping their weapons ready. With the first steps inside they felt a change of conditions. It was hot in there, about thirty degrees. They used to need thermal suits to not freeze inside the station, and now it was heating up. Bad sign.

  When running through the hall’s center, to the left from the plant island, Tina stumbled on something. It was soft, thin, long, and slippery as a snake. Right after she stepped on it, a yelp came from under her feet. Just like the one they had heard earlier. The creature ran off swiftly to disappear in the dark.

  Then a painful high noise came from the other side. An animal noise. A sound of steps followed. The group was ambushed by a whole pack of monsters. Skyman wasn’t sure where his people were, so he opened fire in the safest direction, where the sound of running was coming from. Tina and Fred did the same. Shooting blindly all three of them could just catch some glances of shadows that appeared against the gun flashes. A few times sound of falling came through, accompanied by painful screams. So they did manage to kill a few of the beasts. But it looked like the others were getting just madder after it happened. The movements of those things became faster and the screaming more threatening.

  It was going on in that manner for a few seconds until the sonic wave put Tina out of consciousness. Her firing stopped and the weapon clanked over the floor right after. The woman didn’t fall, though. She stood in that astonishment for a bit longer, then she felt a massive hit in the stomach. Her gentle body was thrown across the chamber to hit the wall. If not for the vest, her spine would’ve probably broken.

  Lying there alone, immobilized and helpless, she lifted her head to look up. Two barely noticeable blue dots were there. She recognized the eyes of the mutant, which they were after. JB had sat there for all that time. He was holding his position under the ceiling, on the ledge, waiting for monsters to get their bait. The far blue shining of her hopes got hidden by an emerged shadow of the creature that came to finish her.

  “Tina! No-o-o!” Fred shouted from aside.

  He was busy discharging hundreds of bullets into upcoming monsters toward himself, yet he tried to figure out how to help out the partner.

  Then something else came along. A bright orange light flew from upside towards the unarmed woman. It was a thermal grenade that fell several meters from her. Half of the chamber was eaten by the explosion. Josh and Fred followed their instincts and went down right away, taking cover behind the nearest flowerbeds. As for Tina, she was fine too. The monster that attempted to attack her covered the woman’s body from the fire. When the burning corpse of the beast fell on her, she came to her senses. Moving quickly and fiercely the agent crawled from the dead enemy away.

  There was a brief moment, right before the explosion, when the fire from the flying grenade supplied enough light for agents to see what kind of enemies those ones were. Frolls. Not common ones, but sick with rabies. There were dozens of them. No armor, no weapons. Just bare bodies and unseen rage. It was clear that it wasn’t an attack. Those frolls had been there for a long time. Kept by the station’s personnel for experiments.

  The shooting stopped. Both men agents were lying on the ground, there was no one able to shoot anymore. One thought stuck in Skyman’s mind: why weren’t they been torn apart yet? Even despite that unexpected explosion, there had to be a lot of frolls left in that chamber.

  Just when the colonel got a bit better, he reached for the weapon that he had dropped. On his way crawling towards the gun, Skyman heard a metal clanking coming from aside. Then he saw a man’s silhouette. It was JB. He was fighting the enemies using a sword. That blue shine of his eyes was unforgettable.

  Skyman finally got to his weapon. Just as he picked it up, he recharged it and pointed at JB’s direction. When the ranger was fighting off one froll, another came from the back. Skyman noticed that and discharged a whole line in him immediately. The big guy looked around to see as the dying humanoid fell down. He looked at Skyman showing him his gratitude and got back to fighting.

  “What do you say now, Colonel?” JB asked Josh when pulling him up on the flower island. “Do you still believe in that bullshit you’ve been told by your superiors? Do you still trust Brix Adamy?”

  They were standing back to back. JB took care of the frolls that tried to get to them from below and Josh was shooting the ones coming from the hallway.

  “Do you want to say something?” Skyman clarified.

  “It’s not just a research station, right? It a trap.” He looked into the colonel’s eyes for the first time. “A trap for all of us…”

  The last rounds were shot and the yelping stopped. The attack finished. The middle chamber got full of bodies of dead aliens. The floor, the walls, even ceiling, was covered in the purple blood.

  JB didn’t feel that tension between him and the agents anymore. He could relax finally. While Skyman and Fred went to check on Tina, the ranger stood still on that island. He cleaned up the blade and put in back into the sheath. Then he jumped down, right into the puddle of blood. A dead alien lay near him.

  “Damn, what were you thinking?” JB was commenting. “Studying their abilities is not enough for you anymore, so you mess with their brains now…”

  That ranger was sort of an expert on the physiology of the purple race so he could recognize a deviation in the eye and skin structure of the creature. He used a test-tube from his belt kit to take a blood sample.

  “What is it to you? They’re just animals,” Fred turned to JB. “Millions of people risk their lives every day to destro
y them! To finish the war! And you feel compassion for the enemy?”

  The ranger smirked and gave the young officer a hopeless look.

  “You still are to learn the difference between compassion and respect for a strong opponent.”

  After putting the test-tube in its spot, JB used a diseaster to record the fading brain activity of the alien.

  “Don’t you think you have too much honor in your words for those who have remorselessly killed billions of people?”

  JB looked up. All three agents were standing there, drilling him with their demanding stares as if they were the judges and waited for the sentence.

  “Too much honor? What exactly do you know about frolls?” the big guy started. “Each purple soldier by himself and their race in whole are one significant organism. They don’t have a division of nations, classes, where someone was considered better than someone else. They don’t have inner wars. The greed ain’t controlling them. People kill people. Frolls don’t kill frolls. We are the reason of this war! Not them!”

  Because of the adrenaline fix that JB had taken before the fight, he got so agitated that, for a second, he forgot who those agents were. On the other hand, the shadow of gratitude for another rescue vanished from the agents' faces.

  “It is true, isn’t it?” Skyman shook his head.

  “What is?” JB asked when checking his communicator for data analysis from the diseaster.

  Josh looked at Fred and Tina, then he switched his communicator to speaker mode. Other members of their group were on the line.

  “Colonel?” Eugene’s voice came through.

  “Report on the situation, Lieutenant.”

  “Four frolls were here, all dead now. Five guards died in the process. We got lucky that they were unarmed…” Eugene was saying. “Coming back to you.”

  “No, you don’t lieutenant. Stay where you are.” All agents kept still, but the ranger started to suspect something. Skyman’s stare at him got even more expressive. “We turn to plan B.”