by James McEwan
She smiled at him. “Another beer, Sir?”
He smiled. “No thanks, just the check please.” she smiled again and walked off to get his check. Dominic went back to studying the information, trying to find anything he could use to figure out what was going on. “Something about this just smells.” he mumbled under his breath. He was too busy reading to notice the man dressed all in black enter the restaurant and sit down a few tables away with a good line of sight of him.
The waitress returned with the bill, he thanked her and finished up his meal. The man in black sat watching him behind the menu. Dominic punched in his credit account code, and placed his finger on the scanner. After a second, the scanner printed out a paid receipt. He took the receipt and stuffed it into his wallet, then left the restaurant. The man in black then slipped out behind him.
St. Claire unlocked his apartment door and entered. He lived in an okay part of town and it was the best his police salary could afford. It wasn’t much, a few rooms, bed, bath, kitchen, living area and his home office. Not much had changed in the layout of apartments in the last five hundred years. His home AI sensed he was home and switched on the lights for him. “Welcome home Dominic, can I start some food for you?” the computer’s voice was sexy, husky and very feminine .
“No thanks, I ate already.” he said.
“How about some music then or shall I offer other entertainment for you?” She said.
“No thanks Lucy, just a glass of scotch please.” he said.
“Okay Dominic, it is on the counter for you, if there is anything else I can do for you, don’t hesitate to ask.” Lucy the computer said.
He set down his keys and dropped his jacket on the couch, walked over to the counter replicator unit to pick up the scotch and downed it. “Another one, please, then dim the lights and open the safe.” he said.
Another glass of scotch appeared on the pad. “Here is your beverage and the safe is unlocked. Are we expecting company?”
He picked up the second shot and downed it like the first. “Yes I am. Lucy, I want you do shut down for the next few hours no matter what your sensors pick up. Do not call for help. Oh and one more thing. I need you to project a hologram of me watching the screen drinking my scotch. Got it?”
The computer did as it was asked. While a perfect hologram of Dominic St. Claire sat drinking a never-ending glass of scotch, while the real Dominic St. Claire was in his bedroom. One whole wall was moved aside to reveal a hidden compartment. The top half of the compartment was covered in antique firearms, the bottom half were drawers. St. Claire pushed a button on the top right drawer and it quietly slid open. Inside was a box. He lifted the box out and bumped the drawer with his hip. It slid closed again.
He set the box on the nightstand next to the bed. Next, he went to the closet and grabbed a black battle uniform. On the sleeve a worn patch that said “101st RepCom Police Corps”. The 101st was the elite police force for the Republic of Commerce. St. Claire had not worn that uniform for many years; combat policing was for the young not the old and broken.
He changed quickly and much to his surprise, it still fit. He went back to the wall and pushed on the left top drawer this time. The drawer housed his scarred and dented battle armor. “Never thought I would be using you again my friend. I just need you one more time.” he lifted it out of its resting place. He slipped it on and clamped it into place; it was heavier than he remembered. He selected his weapons. He chose only antique expanding gas powered weapons because the apartment building’s sensors would detect any kind of weapon power signature and set off the alarms. He had no attention of letting anyone know he was ready for them.
St, Claire opened the little box he had removed from the drawer earlier. Inside were several ID’s in different names, but all were with his picture and biometrics. Also, there were matching passports and a few prepaid credit cards. He took them all and placed them in the cargo pocket of his pants. Almost ready, he opened one more drawer and inside this one was his old jet belt. He took it out checked the fuel level. It was full. He attached the jet belt to his back. It snapped into place on the armor like it had never left it.
Almost prepared, he took an automatic shotgun down from the wall and inserted a twenty-five round magazine into it. He pulled the charging handle back and let it go. It snapped forward, chambering a round. “Now that is music to my ears.” he said out loud to the gun. “One last thing to do.” he said as he left the bedroom and walked to the balcony. He slid the glass door open leaving him an escape route, in case he needed one.
St. Claire was ready as he sat in his bedroom watching a small screen. It was not the height of entertainment, but then again he was not looking to be entertained. He was watching the security feed for the building, mainly the hallway outside his apartment. “Okay you sons of bitches, come get me.”
Chapter 6
When Thad woke, it was dark, pitch black. He switched to infrared. The first thing he noticed was that he was hanging upside down and his body was wrapped up tight in what looked like silk rope. He looked to his right and there was Doctor Hammer and on his right was Quincy. “Quincy, you okay?”
Quincy stirred a bit before answering. “Let’s see, since I met you, I have been shot at, become a criminal wanted by the police, and now I’m tied up hanging upside down in the dark, probably trussed up like a tasty snack for something terrifying awful. So no, I’m not okay!”
He’s fine Thad thought. “How about you, Doc?”
“I have to say that I have been better, but overall I think I’m okay.” Doctor Hammer replied.
Thad looked around, it seemed that they were only a few feet off the ground and by the looks of things they were in a bit of trouble. The floor was littered with bones, mostly cattle by the looks of things, but there were a few human skulls on the floor as well. He struggled against the bindings to find that he was stuck tight.
“It looks like we are attached to the ceiling. I think that if I just swing myself a bit ...” Thad said as he moved his body back and forth. At first, nothing happened, but as he continued to move, his body began to swing back and forth. After a minute of rigorous swinging, Thad was moving pretty good, and the binding at the roof was starting to give way. “Just a little more.” he said.
“Wait, you can see in the dark?” Quincy said, more interested at that moment on how it was that he could see in the dark, than how he was going to get out of this mess.
“Just a little more.” the binding snapped from the roof and Thad fell to the floor landing on the bones of meals gone by. The sound made a sickening crunch as the bones smashed under his weight. Landing knocked the wind out of him with a loud “Oof!”
“That didn’t sound too good, you okay son?” Doctor Hammer asked.
Thad had fallen on top of a horn of a longhorn skull. The sharp point had pierced the web and his clothing, but once again, luck was with him, and the point was stopped by a hard point in his armor that was still intact. “I have felt better. Give me a minute to wiggle out of this thing, then I will cut you guys down.” Thad said, as he worked to get his arms free. He worked the web-like bindings back and forth across the horn’s sharp point until they failed and released his arms.
After a few sweat inducing minutes of wiggling and writhing, Thad was finally free. He used his DDSD to render up a force blade and a few seconds later, he had freed the others.
“That’s better.” Quincy said as he stretched. “I thought my head was going to burst with all the blood that was pooling.”
“You don’t have to worry about that, as one has never died from having the head exploded by hanging upside down. They die because too much blood in the head from prolonged time spent upside down crushes the brain.” Doctor Hammer said as brushed himself off.
“That is a relief. I will remember that next time I’m wrapped up like a pig in a blanket and hung upside down for a late night snack.” Quincy said.
“No, all you have to worry about is how all that bl
ood crushes your brain, causing a terribly painful death.”
“Thanks! Aren’t you the light of the party? Speaking of light, we are still in the dark here. What are we going to do?” Quincy asked.
While Quincy and Doctor Hammer were conversing, Thad had been busy. He had cut the silk-like webbing material that they had been bound with into strips, which he wrapped around the end of a couple of human femur bones. “Do you smell that?” Thad asked.
Doctor Hammer sniffed the air. “Smell what? All I smell is, well I’m not rightly sure what I smell. It smells like the inside of a dumpster in a back alley in Shanghai.”
“No, not that.” Quincy being a professional driver knew his cab inside and out. “Oil, I smell oil! That sweet smell of crude oil.” he said.
“Yep, looks like there is a vein of oil near here and it has been bleeding through the walls.” Thad said.
“Okay, but how is oil going to help us now, unless you think we need to be all oiled up to squeeze out of some hole in the wall to get out.” Quincy said.
“Don’t get your hopes up there, cowgirl.”
“Can you believe this guy, we’re God knows where, in the dark and he is making jokes.” Quincy said sounding a little annoyed.
“Now Quincy, I’m going to light the torch I just made so please don’t scream like a little girl when you see what you are standing on.” Thad said, then he hit the button on the force blade. He held the force field next to the oil-soaked torch head. The friction created by the field being so close, caused it to burst into flame. “And let there be light.” Thad said as he held up the new torch.
It took a few seconds for the doctor’s and Quincy’s eyes to adjust to the light. When Quincy saw the field of bones they were standing in, he let out a long girlish scream.
“Sorry.” he said.
Doctor Hammer picked up one of the many discarded bones and took a moment to examine it. “It appears that a rather large predator abides here and likes to eat anything that comes by.”
“Oh, that’s just great! Something really did have us tucked away for a midnight snack after all.” Quincy was a little more than unnerved.
“It would appear so.”
Thad handed both torches to Doctor Hammer. “Here take these, you will need them, I will lead, I can see better without the light.”
“Who to do you think you are? Riddick?” Doctor Hammer asked as Thad walked past him and into the darkness. He smiled, as fondly remembering the days he would sit and watch what they used to call movies.
“Who’s Riddick?” Quincy asked.
“Never mind son, just follow our friend.” Doctor Hammer said, as he passed a torch to Quincy.
Quincy took the bone torch and looked at it closely. “Did you just give me some dead dude’s bone?” Without answering the question, Thad walked down a narrow tunnel that led out of the room.
“It’s called a femur, and yes he did.” Doctor Hammer said and followed Thad into the tunnel.
“Oh, that’s just great! This just keeps getting better and better, hey wait for me!” He yelled out before chasing after them.
Quincy came running up the tunnel to catch up with the others and he was yelling at them as he ran. “Come on guys, I have seen this holo-vid before, the poor brother is left alone and gets eaten by some ugly-ass monster or something, no thanks.” He was so busy bitching he did not notice that Thad and the Doctor had frozen in their tracks. He ran straight into Doctor Hammer, nearly knocking them both over.
Thad wheeled around and placed his finger to his lip making the hush sign to Quincy. Confused, Quincy gave Thad a strange look, then he saw over Thad’s shoulder what had stopped them cold. Behind Thad, about a hundred feet down the tunnel was dreadfully large spider-looking thing. It was all red and looked more like a mix between a crab and a spider with a hard exoskeleton and the legs of a spider.
Quincy leaned in close and whispered to Thad. “So why don’t you use that fancy device on your arm and make a big gun and kill that thing?”
Thad held it up to show the smashed screen. “Love to, but can’t. It must have been damaged when I fell.”
“So gentlemen, I hate to ask the obvious, but what do we do now?” Doctor Hammer asked.
Thad grimaced. “We can go back the way we came and see if there is another way out, or we can try to sneak past this thing and hope it doesn’t wake up. What do you guys want to try?”
“I vote for sneaking past it, I don’t know about you two, but I want out of here in the worst way.” Quincy said.
“I agree.” said Doctor Hammer.
“All right then, let’s move quietly.” Thad said, not realizing it was already too late. The creature was more than awake, for it had been silently creeping up on them. Now it was right behind Thad and poised to strike.
Quincy was the first to see it. He screamed and threw his torch at it. The torch hit it square in it what passed for its face. The creature reared back on its hind legs and screeched. Quincy’s panicked move had saved Thad’s life and gave them a chance to run back the way they had come ... and run they did.
With only one torch, it was hard for them to see where they were going and the Doctor lost his footing, falling and dropping the torch. Quincy stopped as soon as he heard the Doctor scream. With his cat-like reflexes Quincy turned and scooped up the torch while Thad scooped up the Doctor and in a flash, they were back to running, the creature right on their heels.
They reached the large cavern in which they had started, but there was no time to look for another way out. The creature was on top of them and Thad had to act fast. He grabbed the torch from Quincy and was waving it at the creature like a mad man.
The creature didn’t like the flames and would back off, but then it would try another avenue of attack, only to be met with fire again. Doctor Hammer and Quincy felt completely useless as they watched Thad fighting off the beast by himself. Quincy was watching really closely and noticed that the creature was positioning itself to do something, but what, he could not work out yet. Then it made its move. It stood up on all its hind legs and from underneath its body it bent its back end at Thad and fired a string of webbing at him.
“Look out!” Quincy cried out, his warning was just in time for Thad to see the web coming at him and duck out of the way. Quincy’s help seemed to irritate the creature because it forgot about Thad for the time being and charged straight for Quincy.
“Oh shit!” He yelled as he tried to run backward, but he tripped over a bone and fell. The creature was fast and it struck at him with its fangs. His hand landed on the femur of a cow and it was big and sturdy so he lifted it up and jammed it between the fangs as they came down at him.
The bone jammed into the creature was enough to stop it from sinking its fangs into Quincy. It reared up on its back legs and screeched as it used its front legs to dislodge the bone. Quincy didn’t stay long enough to find out what was going to happen next, he was back on his feet running towards Thad. The creature was able to knock the bone lose. It turned and hissed at them. “I think you really pissed it off.” Thad said.
“You think!”
“I think it’s not used to its food fighting back.”
This time, it slowed down its attack and advanced on the three men slowly. They were in a bind now, their backs were to the wall, and somehow it had gotten between them and the exit. To make things worse for them, the torch was flickering and about to go out. The Doctor spoke. “Is it just me, or do we seem to be in a bit of trouble?”
“I think the term is ‘screwed’.” Quincy mumbled, just before the torch went out. The creature reared up for an attack.
Thad placed himself between the creature and the others hoping that if it was busy munching on him the others could make a run for it. Ready for those menacing fangs to strike, the creature exploded in a mess of steamed meat and gore that covered them all.
Not expecting that to happen, Thad was a bit confused. Standing behind what was left of the creature were four c
owboys with rifles and flashlights. The man who fired the kill shot was clearly their leader and was the oldest by the look of his tanned and well-worn face. “You boys okay?”
Doctor Hammer spoke first. “No one seriously injured, so yes, I believe we are okay.” he paused to look himself over. “However, I think we could use a bath, and I think my companion here could use some clean pants.”
“Hey.” Quincy squeaked out, but no one was listening to him. They were too busy laughing at the comment.
The old cowboy walked over to Doctor Hammer with an outstretched hand. “Ray Phillips, but my friends call me Rawhide.”
“Doctor Julius Hammer and the pretty boy next to me is Mr. Quincy Jones” and then he pointed to Thad. “and that crazy bastard is Thaddeus” he paused and looked at Thad. “You know, I have no idea what your last name is.”
“No matter, you boys are really lucky we came along when we did. That crab spider was about to make a meal out of you three.” Rawhide stated the obvious.
“Crab spider?” Quincy asked.
“That is what we call them, don’t know the proper name for them, but they are one of the few natural species on the planet. Keep mostly to themselves, but they can be a pain in the ass if the cattle get too close to their hunting grounds.” Rawhide said, answering the question.
“The tall grass.” Thad said thinking back.
“Yes, the tall grass is a dead giveaway that there is one nearby. You see, they emit a powerful sedative that they leave on the tall grass so when prey comes in contact with the grass, it knocks them out for hours. Then Mr. Spider comes along and drags you off to his cave to either eat you, or save you for later.”
“But how did you find us?” Doctor Hammer wondered.
“Well, we came upon your grav bikes, saw they were laid down in the grass and figured somebody needed some help. Then it was just a matter of finding the right hole in the ground, and hope we were not too late.”
