“I love you!!!” She screamed and then she was gone.
The beast crashed into the wall where Flicker had just been. It recovered and scrambled after her, while roaring its desire to do the unnatural.
I heard the crashing of the beast’s movement quickly dissipate and I was left alone, helpless to help the one that I loved.
That was a lie. I wasn’t helpless.
I crawled forward onto my knees and began to beseech God like I never had before, but the only thing that came out over and over was Jesus’s Name and yet my meaning ran far deeper. In a way saying the Name encapsulated my raw need for help in a way that couldn’t be said in any other way.
Flicker’s heart beat a mile a minute, as she cleared the bulkhead door. She had the time to close it, but there was no way she was going to lock that thing in there alone with Utah. She raced on as with a shout of triumph, odd for an animal to utter, the monster squeezed through the door after her, free from its dungeon at long last.
Flicker didn’t look back. She cleared the blast door and was out of the building and on the ground level within moments and speeding out across the surface headed for the aircraft. She’d blow this aberration of nature to kingdom come from the safety of airspace. That was unless it caught her. Surely it wouldn’t though?
She glanced back and screamed in horror. The monster was but twenty feet behind her and it was gaining ground fast, with only one intent in its glowing red eyes that were fixed on her like lasers.
She’d never reach the aircraft in time let alone have a chance to get it into the air!
She was going to have to fight this thing somehow. God give her strength!
Flicker dodged to the side unexpectedly and swung out with a sword arm down low. She caught the surprised beast on a robotic arm and sent it tumbling, but it was back up and at her within a second. One taloned finger raked across her cheek slightly, but a fisted punch slammed into her middle and sent her flying backwards through the air.
Flicker landed flat on her back thirty feet away gasping for air, without the conscious ability to move. It was too late anyway. The beast thing sprang upon her and anchored both of her sword arms to the ground with its robotic forearms. It growled out in fiendish delight, as it prepared to gore her.
Flicker cried out in her newfound faith in desperation, “Oh Jesus help me!”
Something massive and white slammed into the gorilla tearing it off of Flicker. It was a massive male polar bear. It sank its teeth into the back of the gorilla’s armored neck beneath the scull cap and pulled it upright, as it hugged it with its massive paws from behind.
The gorilla reacted with savagery by reaching up and slicing its talons into the backs of the bear’s front shoulders. The bear groaned in pain but held on.
In a cry of relief Flicker surged up to her feet and seeing her chance she took it. She swept forward and lopped off the straining unnatural aberration of a reproductive part and then she stepped in close and slammed both sworded arms into the gorilla’s gut to the hilt and twisted hard.
The gorilla roared in agony and threw the polar bear that was over three times its size up and overtop of Flicker’s head. It came for her then savagely and she backpedaled away slicing at its attacks on her. So intent on Flicker was the gorilla that it didn’t notice the recovered polar bear, who surged back ready for the fight.
Slam!
The gorilla dropped to the ground under the force of the paw strike to its head that would have killed any normal animal on the planet in its tracks, but the gorilla surged up off the ground and sprang at the bear. It tried to get at the bear’s neck with its huge glistening canines, but the bear, the champion of many a scuffle, dodged the attempt and succeeded in claiming the gorilla’s throat instead.
The polar bear fell over backward gripping the gorilla with both ponderous arms, as it held on to the throat of the gorilla for dear life. Flicker catapulted upward and after a talon entrenched landing on the back of the gorilla she slammed both sworded arms down through the gorilla’s back penetrating the thick armor once again.
The gorilla roared its rage and in a quick move Flicker’s left-hand re-materialized from a sword to a clawed apparatus of a hand, with which she reached forward and grasped the beast’s mouth over the top of its head, her talons curling over its metallic canines. She yanked back with all her strength to the point of snapping the beast’s jaw, as the bear continued to hold its neck and lower jaw in an unyielding grasp.
Flicker’s right arm still in the form of a sword flashed up and then down, as she gored the bladed arm down the beast’s throat, twisting viciously back-and-forth with it. The gorilla bucked in the bear’s grasp, as it choked on its own blood.
It was over quickly and Flicker removed her arm, as the beast’s red glowing eyes faded from color. Flickered jumped away from the carcass eager to be away from the slain monster.
The polar bear released its hold and shoved the offending twisted form of nature off to the side. The bear lumbered up to its feet appearing none the worse for wear despite the intenseness of the fight. Briefly it snuffled at Flicker’s hair before giving her cheek a big scratchy lick coated in slobber.
Smiling, but completely grossed out Flicker patted the bear’s massive neck and he gave a gapped mouth sigh of pleasure. The scene of companionship was perhaps reminiscent of the bond that perhaps once was between man and beast in the beginning of time, but was later corrupted from its original starting point of harmony and peace in the years leading up to the great flood.
The bear pulled back then and lumbered off, its assigned duty by its Creator complete.
Flicker watched the bear go with a tear in her eye, even as her heart was filled with gratitude for the Divine intervention that she’d received in her moment of gravest need.
“Who’s your friend?”
Flicker turned and launched her arms around me.
“Whoa! Put those things away sister!” I exclaimed.
Flicker grinned, as her talon-sword combo re-materialized into a hand structure that didn’t look quite so menacing. She hugged me then and I her.
She drew back slightly and said with a throaty purr, “I most definitely am not your sister!”
“Thank God for that!” I managed to get out before her lips claimed mine in a celebration of both life and the fact that we were both still together to enjoy it.
Flicker glanced over to the fallen aberration of nature and shook her head smiling, “Pretty crazy huh?”
I lifted one of her arms up slightly, “Announcing the new monster slayer champion of the world.”
She ducked her head down bashfully and said, “It really wasn’t me. I didn’t get very far on my own. All the credit goes to God for sending me a wrestling buddy.”
I nodded my head understanding, “This is a thing I know, but you have to admit you looked pretty cool in you’re part of killing the savage beast.”
“Liked that did you.” She said with a bashful smirk.
“Very kick butt chickish of you, but please don’t use your mad moves on me!” I said holding my hands up in mock surrender.
She chuckled loudly and I couldn’t refrain from mentioning what I thought of her voice. “You have such a sexy voice!”
She looked at me in surprise, “Isn’t it kind of rough sounding?”
“Yeah you sound like a power ballad singer from the 1980s.”
“I’m guessing that’s a good thing?” She asked hesitantly.
“You betcha!”
She shook her head at me like she thought I was silly.
I turned back to the buildings beyond us growing fainter, because of the snow beginning to fall. “I guess we go back and dig around some more, as unappealing as that sounds.”
“Why do that when we have what we need right here.” Flicker said.
I turned back puzzled by her words. She was at the fallen beast’s head. I watched as she reached down and gripped the beas
t’s metallic skullcap at the back edge and then with a crumple of metal bending force she peeled it up and over exposing the brain cavity of the mixed up ape.
“A bit gruesome don’t you think?” I said, as I was a little sickened by the sight.
The gore didn’t seem to bother Flicker, as she rooted around with one hand pulling first one item and then another from the bloody open skull.
“Well would you look at that. Two for the price of one.” Flicker said holding up the two devices that she’d pulled free.
One device I recognized as the device I had been tasked to find on this little jaunt into the monster’s lair. The other device was the third one we were in search of.
“Great! That means I can cross one of these fun little excursions off my list!”
Flicker looked troubled though and I asked, “What is it?”
“The device that Jane is building for you. I have never known of such a device needing more than just these three components. I don’t think you need a fourth component.”
I nodded grimly. Jane had a lot of explaining to do when I got back.
We started off for the aircraft, as the snow thickened in its dissent upon the island. The red line of the scratch on Flicker’s cheek stood out against the whiteness of her skin around it. I leaned to the side to kiss it as we walked.
I abruptly stopped in the snow and brushed at my lips before exclaiming, “You smell like rotting fish!”
Flicker laughed, “This is a thing I know.” She bent down and scooped up some fresh fallen snow to wipe at her face where the bear had licked her.
Flicker glanced back at the whiteness, which concealed the surface buildings from view now, “Are we just going to leave the facility open for others to find?”
“Oh that.” I said, as I pulled a detonator out of my pocket and activated it.
The ground shook and flame and debris blew sky high behind us lighting up the snow all around.
“Problem solved.” I said.
We were at the aircraft and I stared longingly at it for a moment. Flicker voiced what she knew I was thinking, “You want to drive don’t you?”
“You have no idea!” I may not be big on flying, but this thing was more like riding a motorcycle than it was like flying a plane.
“Well hop on then.” Flicker said in open invitation.
I brushed the snow off the seat and sat, as Flicker settled down behind me. “You need to hold on tighter.” I said.
She pressed against me from behind firmly and locked her fingers in front of me.
“Close enough for you baby?” She whispered in question into my ear in a sexy way that was all her.
That was an affirmative and she chuckled, as I took off roaring upwards into the sky leaving the island and the snow behind. Flicker hugged me tight and pressed her lips in a kiss against my neck.
“I thank God every moment of the day that I found you.” I said speaking into her mind.
Her response was poignant in its sincerity, “When I found you my life started in earnest, as if I had never really lived or experienced anything of notableness before you.
I turned my head and we kissed and then kissed again. Somehow Flicker found her way back around in front of me, as we enjoyed experiencing each other in a kiss, as we both yearned for something more.
Chapter Nine
Anger Management
“No word from Utah?” Chantry asked weakly from his wheelchair, as Maria pushed him through the garden in the hot morning sun.
“No, but you know he’s under orders not to contact us unless he has something solid to go on.”
Chantry nodded, but he continued to fret inside over the delay. Perhaps he should have asked Flint to do the mission. No, that wouldn’t have been good. The traitors would have known he was on to them if he’d sent Flint.
No he would just have to trust the young man to accomplish the task he’d assigned him. He hoped he hadn’t put too much on Utah’s shoulders to accomplish by himself.
“Stop worrying!” Maria intoned into his thoughts.
Chantry sighed, “I know, but it’s my nature to worry.”
Maria parked him and walked on to a clump of flowering daylilies that were Chantry’s favorite. She picked one and returned to give it to him.
“Thank you my dear.” He said, as he admired the beauty of the flower in his hand that sparkled in the warm morning sunlight.
Chantry was grateful for the warmth of the sun that helped to take away the chill from his bones. It seemed like he could never get warm anymore.
All of Elon’s healing touch was gone, as if it had never been. Chantry knew he didn’t have long, which was why he was so anxious for this situation of betrayal within the Agency to be resolved.
He with great effort calmed down his racing thoughts tinged with anxiety and focused on the flower in his lap and the warmth of the sun. It really was going to be another beautiful day.
Chantry glanced up from his inspection of the blossom to the flower of feminine appeal showcased in the form of Maria. He looked at her out of a frank appreciation for beauty without any lust behind the focus of his thoughts.
Beauty can be defined in many different forms and persuasions, as varied as the eyes of the beholder, but Maria in Chantry’s opinion showcased the most foundational form of beauty that a woman could possess. Her beauty could be evoked or summed up in just two words, good genes.
Society has gone far from its humble origins of one man and one woman, but society at its barest level still relies on the ability to procreate and continue the species despite the cover story that beauty has many important purposes and diversions other than procreating and the responsibility that follows of raising one’s own offspring.
In Chantry’s opinion many of the other masks or interpretations of beauty were simply that, a mask to cover up what many now lacked, which was good genes. Good genes were at a premium, as evidenced by the price of black-market organs and gene therapies on high demand the world around.
The longer that humanity continued to exist the more scattered, damaged, and in some cases completely lost, good genes became. It was a rare thing to find a person that had come through the gaps and pitfalls of history sporting a complete picture of health, but that was Maria.
Chantry let his eyes roam over her appreciating the Creator’s handiwork. Maria stood at an average height of about five foot six. Feature wise she seemed a conglomeration of several peoples with Middle Eastern being the strongest. Her Middle Eastern look gave her skin a warm brown color that women all over the world coveted and regularly exposed themselves to acquiring skin cancer in tanning salons in their dissatisfaction with the skin that God gave them.
Chantry firmly believed Adam and Eve must have been of such a brown color with the other colors of pigmentation separating out over time to their different extremes. Everything about her face was completely symmetrical, which bore evidence of both good genes and a history free of parasites and disease.
Almost no one on the planet could boast of having a truly symmetrical face. Those that did were often worshiped as models or actresses. Beyond being symmetrical Maria had everything else that exuded a naturally fertile beauty. Her form curved and dipped in and out in a healthy hourglass shape that lighted men’s passions with the desire to have her if but for just one moment.
“You’re not turning into a dirty old man that I have to worry about are you?” Maria asked with one dark eyebrow arching high.
Chantry knew she was only kidding him so he played along with her and wiggled his bushy eyebrows suggestively, which caused her to laugh.
He enjoyed the sound of her laughter for it was rare, but seriousness returned as he watched her. He asked, “Have you never wanted children Maria or a home with a loving husband in all your long years?”
Maria’s laughter faded away and she became her usual serious self again, but she didn’t make eye contact as she responded, “How do y
ou know that I haven’t?”
“You are many mysteries combined into one big puzzle my dear, but one thing I can say is that you’ve never had children.”
“Oh and how’s that?” She inquired.
“Mothers have a certain intrinsic quality about them and you don’t have that yet. It’s a very defining aspect of someone, who has labored and suffered in order to bring a new life into the world. Besides that I’ve seen you quite a few times in those skimpy hooker outfits on missions to know that the only thing that you have that engenders a stretch mark is how you enflame men with the desire to have you.”
Maria felt a blush touch her cheeks at Chantry’s ribald statement. Chantry could be quite blunt with his choice of the vernacular, but she chose to humor it this time. She knew what he was about. All this talk on the physical, as well as his perusal of her was his attempt at laying the groundwork to get her settled down with a man before he passed away, inveterate matchmaker that he was.
Chantry, like most men, thought that the most stable form of existence for a woman was to be fully yoked with a ring on her finger, laid out flat taking it from her man several times a week, with a baby swelling her belly out every couple of years, until the kids were old enough to take to soccer practice. Her response to that was, ‘No thanks! Not interested!’, But men were ever if not annoyingly persistent.
Maria wished that men would just leave her alone. Chantry, bless his heart, just couldn’t help but fall into the proverbial pit of masculinity’s approach to what a woman wanted or needed from life.
Chantry was studying her again and mentally Maria prepared herself for the next round of this recurring debate with him.
“You’re not a lesbian are you?” Chantry asked with an arched eyebrow.
“Good heavens no! Why would you say such a thing?” Maria said deeply disturbed that he could think such a thing of her.
Chantry chuckled in response, “Because I saw your defenses all thrown up, as you enacted your proverbial strategy of playing keep away with me. I thought I’d shock you out of your defensive line with a statement I know couldn’t be further from the truth in regards to you.”
Agent on the Run (The Agents for Good) Page 8
