The Guillotine

by Lucas Pederson

  THE GUILLOTINE

  Lucas Pederson

  www.severed press.com

  Copyright 2018 by Lucas Pederson

  ONE

  One never forgets the smell of burning bone.

  No matter how many times he cuts them out, even through the mask to protect his lungs from the sharp dust, he can smell it. And it’s a stench that lingers. One which slithers into the brain and stamps itself on the mind. A reeking stink forever imprinted in memory.

  Despite this, Ash hunches into his work. The ground under him trembles. The air-powered bone saw in his hand whirs, then screams as he sinks into the femur. Low rumbling sounds, even through the screaming of the saw. He glances up, frowns, and goes back to cutting the ones out of the stone.

  “Ash,” Julia shouts. “We need to move. It’s getting too close!”

  He shakes his head, cuts free the final section of the femur and goes to work on the smaller bones, careful not to break any. If he had more time, he’d cut the stone and lift the slabs out and worry about extracting the bones in the lab. As it is, however, there’s no more time.

  Sweat drips off the tip of his nose. The heat is getting worse. The ground begins to quake now rather than merely tremble.

  He cuts through the bones, collecting small piece after small piece he places in a tub beside him.

  “For shit sake, Ash,” Julia cries. “Leave it. We need to go now!”

  “If I leave them, they’ll be destroyed,” Ash shouts back, still cutting.

  “Better them than us.”

  “Go, then,” he says. “I’ll meet up with you guys later. I can’t leave these.”

  “It’s just a velociraptor, damn it. Plenty of them around.” Julia’s voice cracks a bit on the last word.

  Shaking his head, he frees more of the smaller bones and places them in the tub. “It’s not a raptor.”

  “I really don’t care what it is, Ash. We have like, zero seconds to haul ass out of—”

  “Done,” he shouts, placing the remaining bones in the tub and standing.

  “’Bout damn time, dude,” Julia says and grabs one side of the tub. “Startin’ to feel like a flame kissed steak right now.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Ash says, hefting his end. He smiles. “Let’s get out of here.”

  The wall of lava is about ten feet away. Any longer and they would have surely cooked.

  They haul the tub of bones to the SUV, strap it into the backseat and get in. He leaves the air-tank and bone saw. No time to drag the damn thing to the vehicle.

  Volcanic ash rains down on them and Ash can’t help but to think he got lucky. Even a minute longer would’ve killed them. If not the lava, then the ash. He might’ve been okay wearing his face mask, but Julia…

  No time to dwell on that now.

  He slams the SUV into reverse and they shoot backward away from the wall of lava. Gray ash clings to the windshield, obscuring his vision. But he doesn’t dare use the wipers. No, the stuff will smear and it won’t matter how much windshield fluid he uses. The fallout will just smear more. In the distance, the volcano spews geysers of reddish-orange.

  The tub of bones rattle and click as he slides the SUV around and speeds away from the site.

  So much for all the funding we begged for, he thinks, sighing.

  “They could’ve told us about the damn volcano,” Ash says as the SUV jostles over rocks and the rough tropical terrain. He swerves onto dirt road and things settle a bit.

  In the rearview mirror, the volcano continues billowing its hell onto Earth.

  “Probably why we got the site so cheap,” Julia says. “Bastards.” She huffs out a breath. “At least we got one.”

  “The scans showed hundreds of skeletons. We lost out.”

  Julia nods. “Well, at least it happened before all the gear and crew got here. There’s that.”

  Ash grunts, focuses on the road ahead.

  The sooner they get off this waste of an island, the better. No one on the Board said anything about a possibly active volcano. The mountain, he assumed was but a dead volcano. Long gone the days of its angry rampage. Also, he figured the Board would’ve mentioned something if it was indeed active.

  Assholes…

  Julia is right, though. At least the eruption didn’t happen with all the gear here. At least it happened now and didn’t risk the lives of his crew.

  The small carrier they rented for this little excursion rests, ramp settling on the white sand like a gray tongue, at the beach.

  Ash guns the SUV through the sand, slowing only when they get close to the carrier.

  “Straighten the wheel a bit,” Julia says. “Hair to the left.”

  “I’m fine,” he says aiming for the ramp into the carrier.

  “Dude, I’m telling you you’re—”

  The right-side mirror shears off the edge of the opening. A loud squeal of metal scraping metal as the right side of the SUV swipes the carrier.

  Then they’re inside. He straightens the vehicle a bit and parks.

  “Oh, now you straighten it out,” Julia spouts and opens the door. “Jackass.”

  He chuckles, shuts the SUV off and climbs out. “I’ll strap it up and close the hatch, you get this beast moving. I don’t—”

  The entire carrier quakes. Metal groans all around them.

  Julia shoots him a wide-eyed look. Somewhere floating between fright and confusion. He waves a hand at her and hurries toward the hatch. He needs to bring in the ramp then seal the hatch.

  “Go,” he shouts. “Get us out of here.”

  The quaking happens again, this time nearly knocking him off his feet. The carrier’s groans are deafening. He holds on to the railing near the hatch, slams a palm onto the blue ramp button. It buzzes as it lifts away from the sand and pulls back into the carrier. And of course, the damn thing is like watching a clock minutes before quitting time at a factory. So slow. It’s—

  The explosion is so strong it knocks him off his feet. He lands hard on his ass. Pain laces through his tailbone. And there he sits, gaping as the beach thirty feet in front of the carrier opens up and vomits a glut of lava. The glut soon becomes a towering geyser.

  It’s not the only one, either. There are several smaller geysers shooting hell itself out of the beach.

  The ramp clicks into place. Ash scrambles to his feet and slams the side of his fist against the red button. There’s an airy whoosh, and the hatch slowly begins to close. Six inches of metal lowers from the ceiling. And like the ramp, it’s so damn slow.

  A stream of lava inches its way toward the carrier.

  Shit.

  He wastes no more time and hooks the SUV down, so it doesn’t move around in the open ocean. By the time he’s done with this, the hatch is just about shut. No matter how much he wants to join Julia in the wheelhouse, he needs to make sure the hatch closes and fully seals. He just hopes with all this time, the lava doesn’t reach the carrier and melt through. If that happens, they can’t go anywhere without sinking.

  The hatch clanks into the floor of the carrier. Several clicks sound, indicating all the locks sliding home. Fifty in all. The rattling noise indicates the hatch being sealed.

  Good.

  He rushes to the ladder and climbs into the wheelhouse where Julia is muttering a string of curses.

  “What’s wrong?” he asks, sitting in the seat next to her.

  “The stupid software is updating.”

  “You can’t override it? Go full manual?”

  Rubbing her temples, she says, “Okay, grandpa, look, there hasn’t been a full manual option in the last fifteen years.”

  “I’m thirty-seven…”

  “Like I said, grandpa, times be changing. Keep up.”

  “I don’t e
ven have a kid!”

  “You don’t need a kid to be old as dirt, dude.”

  He sighs. “Thirty-seven isn’t old as dirt.”

  “Since when?”

  He smiles. They’ve had this very argument/joke for two years now. All because she’s five years younger than he is. It’s also a thing they do during stressful times.

  Somewhere with the minute range, a robotic voice announces, “Software update complete. You may now continue your operations.”

  “’Bout damn time,” Julia says and engages the engines.

  The quaking intensifies.

  “Hurry,” Ash says. “Lava is close.”

  Her face is stripped of emotions, blank, while she gets the small carrier charter online and running. Sweat beads her temples and Ash nods. He can almost hear her heart crashing her chest. Almost feel the waves of worry washing off her. Something that wriggles over his skin like tiny worms.

  The carrier grumbles to life. All the buttons and monitors light up. The panel in front of her opens and a control yoke emerges. She touches a blinking green light on the yoke and a voice says, “Control systems online.”

  She pushes the throttle forward. The carrier shudders, groans. In less than a minute, they’re cruising through the blue waters of what used to be the Caribbean. Like everything after Earth went mad and mixed up its climates, after a large majority of the icecaps melted and drastically rising sea levels, the Caribbean and all its islands were reduced to a scattering on mini islands. Much as good portions of the continents have been submerged.

  Ash pulls up the rear camera and watches steam billow as the lava rolls into the ocean. Beyond this, the volcano still shoots its inferno into the air. All the fauna and trees, everything, is engulfed in flames.

  He turns the camera off, heart sinking.

  It was the greatest find he stumbled upon in years.

  Now it’s gone.

  He wipes sweat from his face with his handkerchief – his grandpa’s handkerchief – and stuffs it back in his pocket.

  “I think next time,” Julia says, “we check out the volcanic activity before we get the funding.”

  He snorts. “Or just stay the hell away from islands.”

  She nods, increasing the carrier’s speed a bit. “I hate the tropics anyway.”

  “At least it’s not the cold tropics.”

  Now it’s Julia’s turn to snort. “I’d rather skate on the ice than swelter to death in all that humidity, dude.”

  Smiling, he says, “Fair enough.”

  Funny thing, the cold tropics. A huge swath covering thousands of miles from what used to be the Gulf of Mexico, stretching down to what’s left of South America, and spreading as far east as the sunken Florida Keys. The temperatures in this massive region fluctuate between -40 degrees Fahrenheit and 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Only spot on Earth colder is around India.

  “Well,” Julia says, ripping him from his thoughts. “We have like six hours to the coast. You should get some sleep.”

  Ash stares out the window, squinting at the open sea. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Like hell. You’ve been on the go for two days straight.” She jerks a thumb over her shoulder. “Hit the bunk and get a few hours.”

  He almost laughs. He’s technically her boss, but he’s also her friend. And this is a case of a friend looking out for the other. Besides, she’s right.

  “Fine,” Ash says. “Wake me up when we’re close to the coast.”

  She flicks a hand at him, as if saying, “Be gone.”

  He lightly pats her shoulder and walks out of the wheelhouse and into a short hall. On either side are three metal doors painted white. They don’t have specific rooms to stay in, so he just picks one and steps inside.

  At once, he can tell the room hasn’t been lived in for a long time. It doesn’t smell bad, though has that slightly musty odor of neglect. At least there’s no dust and when he unties, kicks off his boots, and lies on the bunk, the mattress feels so damn divine he can’t help but sigh relief.

  After all the bullshit and near death by volcano, it feels good to just let it all go and let weariness sweep over him in sardonic waves.

  Within seconds, he’s asleep.

  He dreams of running within a world of bright orange trees and something is chasing them. Something big. They crash through the orange foliage, a small cave not far. It’s this cave he needs to get them to. The thing chasing them is too big. It can’t get them in there.

  But Ky stumbles over a protruding tree root and goes sprawling. His baby girl, only nine, he turns to pick her up when the creature bursts through the trees and snatches her from his hands. A Spinosaurus. Its long, pointy teeth stab into his Ky as it lifts its head and swallows her.

  He screams and screams and…

  TWO

  …he sits up screaming and someone is telling him to calm down. Someone tells him it was just a dream and to just take it easy. But all he sees is Ky’s body sliding off those long teeth and disappearing down the Spinosaurus’ gullet. All he—

  The slap makes a sharp crack. Hurts like hell, but…he blinks, coming into the here and now.

  “Jesus,” Julia says. “What the shit were you dreaming about?”

  She’s sitting on the bunk next to him as he tries to control his erratic breathing. Sweat slicks his face and dampens his shirt. And he needs to piss like no other right now.

  He swipes tears and sweat from his face. “S-Sorry. Just…it was about Ky.”

  Julia visibly softens. Her brown eyes lower. “It wasn’t your fault, you know.”

  Not wanting to talk about it, he stands from the bunk and walks toward the doorway on legs that feel like pillars of gelatin.

  “Where you going?”

  He pauses, “Need to piss.” He finds his way to the head and unloads his sloshing bladder.

  Finished, he washes his hands and steps out, finding Julia standing there, arms crossed over her chest, glowering a bit.

  “You should really talk about things like this, you know? Keeping it all in isn’t good.”

  Ash grunts. “Yeah. I know. Someday, maybe.” He brushes by her on the way to the wheelhouse.

  “It’s been four years, Ash.”

  He spins on her. “Look, I’m not ready to let her go. Why can’t you understand that?”

  “I know you’re not, but you need to. I mean, what do you think Ky would want?”

  Shaking his head, he turns away from her. “Ky’s dead. She doesn’t want anything.”

  “You—really? For shit sake, dude, think about what she’d think if she was still alive about how you’re suffering. I know she’d be pretty disappointed in you right now.”

  Ash stops, hands curling into shaky fists at his sides. Fingernails digging into his palms. He counts down from ten until the anger subsides. His hand unfurls, leaving deep, purple, crescents in his palms.

  “You’re right,” he says. “I…just miss her more and more every day. She’s even in my dreams now.”

  Not far behind him, Julia says, “Ash, none of what happened was your fault. You need to accept that fact. Was it tragic? Hell yeah it was. It hurt me to see you so down. But there’s a time you need to let go, dude. Let her rest.”

  She’s right. Of course she is. But…letting go right now, he just can’t do it. Almost feels like a betrayal to move on in life without her.

  Ky wasn’t eaten by a Spinosaurus, of course, that’s all a dream, but she might as well have been, given how unlikely things went to shit.

  A one in a million crapshoot, really.

  “She was taken from me,” he says. “Right out of my own house. I should’ve had more security in place than a locked gate. Alarm system, all that.”

  He’s in the wheelhouse now and Julia isn’t far behind, spouting, “No one expects someone to break into their home and kidnap their kid. Especially in small town Iowa. It’s just not thought of much. And it’s not your fault that bastard picked your house to do all that either. Sometim
es shit is just random.”

  Ash plops into his chair, not sure what to say. Shortly after, Julia sits in the seat beside him.

  According to the ETA monitor, they’ll be reaching the coast in less than an hour.

  Leaning back in his seat, he mutters, “He didn’t have to kill her.”

  Julia doesn’t say anything for a while. She stares at the approaching coast. Then, “No. He didn’t. Some people, man, no one can understand why they do what they do. Some people are just evil.”

  He glares at the control panel, too caught up in hate to say anything. It froths inside him, this hate. A froth threatening to boil over each passing year. Every time Ky’s bright, smiling face shifts across his mind’s eye, the hate gathers. It’ll take over if he lets it. If he allows the boil to spill over. Then what? If—

  The force of the hit is so strong it lifts the heavy carrier out of the water and spins it about one hundred and eighty degrees. All Ash knows is when everything settles is they’re not facing the coast anymore.

  During the wild spin, he fell out of his seat.

  Now he climbs back in and buckles up. His breathing is erratic, heart trampling through his chest.

  Once he gets himself under control, he faces Julia. “Okay, what the hell was that?”

  Julia shakes her head. She frowns at one of the monitors. As above, so below, cameras set in the carrier capture what lies under the surf. She doesn’t respond.

  “Did we hit a sandbar, maybe?” he ventures.

  Again, she shakes her head.

  “Then what the fuck—”

  “My dad said there were monsters in oceans now. Some are prehistoric, some…mutations.”

  Ash blinks at her. “You mean that shit in the news is real? That…that…leviathan was real?”

  Julia nods. “I actually know the daughter of the dude that killed it. Anyway, I didn’t see what hit us and I don’t think we should stick around to find out.”

  He gapes at her. She’s talked about monsters in the ocean before, but he refused to believe any of it. He thought, surely, it was just the media hyping up what could have been (in the case of the leviathan) something as simple as an accident on an old oil rig. And yet, he knows they didn’t hit a sandbar. Something struck them from the side hard enough to spin a ten-on carrier around.