Floxham Island ~ Sinclair V-Log AZ267/M Read online

  “Morry Laymon, hi.”

  “Sergeant Dex Simmia. Dex for short. Hey guys”

  “I’m Luggs.”

  “Bazlon Janks. Baz for short. Hi”

  “Jo Capillianos. Cap for short.”

  “Hank Grollien. Hi.”

  “Rum Grelly but everyone calls me Grelly.”

  “Asken Stichings. Stitch for short.”

  “Tearlan Budjon. Bud for short.”

  “Carl Graskin.”

  “Stefano Masboyenkiaskonos. Boy for short.”

  “Great to meet you guys,” I grinned. “Okay let’s do this.”

  We exchanged glances and I nodded at Dex, who yanked the door open. We all leapt out, guns at the ready and squinted in the bright sunshine. Nothing leapt at us so after making sure the door was firmly closed behind us, we took a breath and regrouped.

  “Okay guys,” I hissed. “We won’t have the flying things to worry about, they’re night workers but we will have all manner of others. Just one thing by the way; those hunch backed things have shit eyesight so if they corner you, keep still and shut up. They work off sound and possibly smell too so if you keep quiet and don’t fart, they won’t know you’re there. Just wait until they go away and save ammo. If anyone wants to back out, now’s your last chance.”

  “We need eyes on each side and at the rear too,” Dex ordered. “Come on guys, make a formation huh?” The plan of the island showed the lab to be right on the opposite side of the roughly circular area on which the facility was built, so we knew where we were going. We turned to our left and set off to make our way around to the rear of the Admin Block, trying not to look at the corpses that littered the ground. In this hot sunshine they were getting extremely smelly and a couple of the guys coughed as they breathed in. Some of them were ones we removed in our hastily arranged clean up operation, but many lay were they’d died. Not a single one was intact and there were many single limbs and a couple of heads lying about. This was the most horrific sight I had ever seen and I knew I’d be having some sleepless nights over it. As we followed the path around the gentle curve we saw a long low building, separated into five different sections come into view to our right.

  “That’s the main storage facility and shopping sector,” Luggs hissed. “Right next to it is the shuttle landing pad. If we get short of anything, that’s where ya go guys.” It wasn’t until we got further around to the rear of the cell wings that we noticed the huge rent in the storage facility roof. A large flap of the metal roofing material curved up and back and several broken pieces lay on the ground. Several of the shop doors were smashed off their hinges and boxes and cans lay strewn about as litter fluttered around in the gentle breeze.

  “Well it’s no surprise that the stores are gonna be a target huh?” Carl hissed. “Guess I’ll be making do with nutri vend after all.” Luggs snorted and grinned as he nodded in response.

  “Keep that building in your sights at all times guys,” Dex ordered. “With all that food stored inside there could be any number of creatures in there at any time of day or night okay?” We continued around to the rear of the cell wings and soon found ourselves looking at a large square building; the sign that hung limply from the post at the crossroad of three paths telling us this was the recreation centre. Every window was smashed through and the double doors stood open, propped there by a couple of chairs. It was surrounded on all sides by large gardens in which trees swayed gracefully in the gentle breeze. Short blue grass grew everywhere, lush from the generous rainfall and the tender care of the island’s gardeners. Shrubs and bushes afforded us a little cover as we made our way forwards and we all noticed one of them had bright red flowers that smelled divine. A large pond flanked the right hand side of the Recreation Centre building with seats placed here and there around its edge.

  “Keep that building to our left guys,” Flark said. “It’s the most direct route to the lab which should be directly behind it.” There was just time to think that his last comment was probably tempting fate when we heard a loud roar from somewhere out of sight up ahead.

  “Shit,” Luggs hissed as he readied his laser rifle and snapped his head from side to side. “Where the fuck is that coming from?” The roar came again, definitely from somewhere up ahead.

  “It’s in front guys,” I said as Flark and Dex both nodded. “Somewhere up ahead.” Ahead of us was the corner of the recreation centre building. We ran to it and hugged the wall, thankful that there were no windows on this side through which something with large teeth could grab at us.

  “It must be around the corner up ahead,” Flark said, nodding towards where the wall we were all hugging, ended a hundred yards or so ahead of us. Before I could reply the roar came again, accompanied this time by three similar roars.

  “Oh shit,” I sighed aloud. “It’s got friends.”

  “Well we have two choices,” Baz whispered. “We either wait it out here and make them come to us, or we work our way to that corner and see what happens.” I didn’t like either of those choices and judging by the lack of response from the others, neither did they.

  “Maybe they’re not roaring at us,” Grelly offered with a shrug. “Maybe it’s just saying hi to its pals. Maybe they’re fighting between themselves. Maybe they’re fucking. We won’t know if we stand here scratching our balls. We gotta move guys.” Even though we were all scared out of our wits, we all knew he was talking sense. We couldn’t just stand here; we needed to get beyond that corner to reach the lab anyway. We had no choice but to move.

  “For fuck’s sake I’m sick and tired of all this shit,” Luggs said as he stepped away from the wall and strode along the path towards the corner with what was either the most hideously reckless abandon, or extreme bravery. Dex shouldered his rifle and stepped after him, followed by Baz, myself, Flark and then the six other inmates. We stepped out from the relative safety of the wall and took in the scene. In the large open parkland surrounded by the recreation centre behind us, the hospital and forensic lab ahead, the accommodation sector to the far left and the antenna and workshops to our right, a standoff was taking place. Two groups of creatures circled the prize that lay between them. Several corpses lay in a heap, steaming and rotting in the hot sun; the stench bringing tears to our eyes. One group were hairless, fat bodied things that walked on all fours; each of their slightly too long legs sporting one hoof and one vicious claw. At a rough guess they were about the size of a grown man, although their fat bloated bodies looked way out of proportion to the rest of them. A wide, blocky head sat atop a short but fat neck; the long, narrow jaws opening wide to reveal short curved teeth designed for ripping and tearing. Each had a long, hairless whippy tail at the other end that thrashed constantly. These were the source of the roars we could hear and we all reckoned they would carry for miles on the air. Those roars were aimed at the other group that faced them in this standoff and as I looked at them, I gasped in shock and looked at Dex who stood next to me, equally amazed.

  The three of them stood roughly eight feet high, bipedal and covered with long sandy brown hair from head to toe with a darker stripe running down the back from the top of the head to the base of the spine. Their heads were slightly pointy on top and I could see very pronounced brow ridges that made me momentarily think of Luggs. I shook the thought away as I watched them facing the fat, bloated, roaring things; silent and staring despite the cacophonous roaring.

  “My god they’re humanoid,” Baz remarked behind me and I just nodded in shock. Suddenly, one of the fat, bloated things leapt across the no man’s land between the two groups towards the hairy humanoids who still stood silently waiting. The middle one then stepped forward and caught the creature in mid air and, grabbing one of its front legs in each hand, ripped its front legs clean off and dropped the rest to the floor where it lay screeching in its death throes. Two of the remaining fat creatures lunged forward as one towards the three upright sentinels as the remaining one lost its nerve and turned on its heels and ran
off across the park towards the accommodation sector. Within thirty seconds all was quiet; the roaring creatures pulled limb from limb by the three strange humanoids who still hadn’t uttered a sound. As they turned to leave, the smallest of the three suddenly turned and looked right at us; holding our gaze for long moments before rejoining his fellows and disappearing behind the other side of the recreation centre building. What I saw in those few moments will stay with me for the rest of my life and will, no doubt, haunt my dreams from time to time. What I saw was not wild survival driven by instinctive, animalistic urges. What I saw was intelligence, understanding and comprehension. What I saw was myself looking back at me. I was so shocked I couldn’t speak or move and it wasn’t until I felt someone shaking my shoulder that I shook my head and came to.

  “Did you see that?” I whispered. “Did you see what I saw?”

  “Yeah, I saw it Sam,” Dex replied, his eyes wide and as unbelieving as mine must’ve been. “I saw it but I don’t believe it.”

  “It knew,” a small voice behind me said and I turned to find Boy with tears in his eyes staring back at me. “It knows,” he repeated and we all understood and nodded. “It knows what it is. It has understanding of itself. They’re just like us.”

  “It’s gonna take me a long time to get my head around this shit,” I said as I ran my fingers through my hair, “and I may never achieve that but one thing I do know is that they never tried to kill us or harm us, so I say we avoid killing them unless they directly attack us okay?” Everyone nodded immediately.

  “It would be like killing another person in cold blood,” Luggs remarked. “I couldn’t do that, not after it looked at me that way. Shit that’s gonna give me goose bumps for months.”

  “Okay guys let’s go,” I said. “The lab is just across the park, at the right hand side of the hospital. The sooner we get there and check the place out and make it safe, the better.” We set off towards the lab, the wide open space all around us making us all nervous and jumpy. Halfway across a voice from my right made us all stop dead in our tracks.

  “Hey guys, we’ve got company at three o clock.” My heart fell as I snapped my head around and saw the huge lumbering hunch backed thing stomping towards us.

  “Okay now quiet guys,” I hissed. “Those guys are blind in daylight but they can hear a butterfly farting three miles away so stand still and shut up until it’s gone, and no farting either just in case it has a great sense of smell too.” The smell of the pile of corpses must be quite a draw and I suddenly wished we weren’t so close to the source of that smell. It stomped towards us, head bobbing from side to side so its ears and nose could guide it towards the heap. As the seconds ticked by agonisingly slowly, it passed within a few feet of us and I’ll go to my grave swearing on oath that not one of us dared to breathe for several minutes. The ground shook as it stomped past us and I slowly brought my head around and followed it with my eyes as it headed right for the pile. Still not daring to move, I watched as it circled, sniffing its way to the tastiest morsel.

  “When I say, we move silently towards the lab. Okay guys?” I whispered. “Wait for my word or we’re all dead.” As patiently as I could, I watched the creature as it continued to circle the pile and then lady luck smiled upon us. With its back to us, it dropped its head and began to eat. “Now,” I hissed. Together, the twelve of us ran on tip toes towards the lab building up ahead and even through the seriousness of the situation, the sight of Dex, a large black man with a military bearing tip toeing along like a ballet dancer, carrying a laser rifle in one hand and an Incendipulse gun in the other, was so hilarious I had to force myself to look away for fear of bursting out laughing.

  Right umm, I’m gonna sign off now. I’m tired and need to take a shower and hit the sack. I’ll pick you all up again in the morning after breakfast. This is V-log reference AZ267/M, data log reference point 2458712/6543. Good night all.

  *****

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Morning folks. This is V-log reference AZ267/M, continuing report. Data log reference point 2458712/6544.

  Now where was I? Oh yeah, the lab. Y’know, those hairy humanoid things really shocked the wind out of me. I guess everyone knows a little about evolution but we’re all used to being what we are today, right now and I suppose it’s natural for us to believe we’re the only truly sentient beings out there. It’s not until you’re faced with something like those things we saw that you realise how far we’ve come and y’know, there was just something completely unsettling about looking into those eyes and seeing what we saw looking back at us. The fact that it looked basically humanoid didn’t bother me so much, or any of the other guys but the understanding in those eyes, the awareness, that’s what did it. It was as if, in that moment when it locked eyes with us, it spoke to us about ourselves and unless I’m going completely crazy I swear I saw disappointment in those eyes. In fact, Baz told me later that he reckoned it looked at us accusingly, as if it was asking us what the fuck we were doing and where we thought we’d gone wrong. Several minutes later I realised it was shame that looked back from those eyes. Not the self critical shame of someone who knows he’s said something offensive and feels bad but too embarrassed to apologise but the sort of shame when you look at someone and realise you’re not that proud to be the same race or species.

  Anyway, we ran as silently as we could on tip toes across to the lab and made for the far wall so the building would be between us and the dinner party going on behind us. The main entrance was halfway down this end wall, flanked by windows on either side.

  “We’re nearly there guys,” I hissed as I got my breath back. “Let’s check through these windows before we make for the door though. We don’t want to go bursting in there until we know what may be hiding or sleeping in there.” Dex was at the front of our group so he edged forward and peered in the first window, cupping a hand to block out the light.

  “There’s a small room inside this window,” he whispered. “Looks like there’s refrigerators full of bottles and test tubes. There’s a table in the middle and a couple of chairs knocked over. There’s a door standing open that looks like it leads towards the main entrance, maybe a reception area or something. It looks safe to me; can’t see anything lurking there.”

  “Okay, onto the next window,” I nodded and we crept forward towards the main entrance door which was flanked by floor to ceiling glass panels either side. Dex leaned forward and peered in, but immediately snapped his head back so fast he banged it against the wall and winced.

  “There’s a crowd of those things in there,” he hissed. “Those things we saw back there,” he nodded back towards where we’d encountered the hairy humanoids.

  “Those hairy people?” Bud whispered from behind me

  Dex shook his head. “No, the other ones, the bald ones the hairy people killed. There must be at least half a dozen in there.”

  “Okay,” Flark hissed from a little further back down the line. “We have enough fire power to deal with them easily enough, don’t we?”

  “Yeah, they’ll be no problem,” I nodded, “but we need to know what else is in there so we can be prepared huh? Maybe we should scout the other windows too?”

  “But two of those windows are back around we’re we’ve just come from,” Cap said. “That would mean we’d have to go back out into the open and risk bumping into the hunch back.” Several of the guys were shaking their heads in horror at my suggestion.

  “He’s right Sam,” Luggs said. “We’re gonna have to just go in and keep firing until nothing else moves. Then we barricade ourselves in before the noise attracts everything else in the vicinity.” This wasn’t the ideal solution either but I had to admit that it was the only sensible plan available to us at the time. We couldn’t risk getting near the hunchback again and I reckoned its dinner was going to last a while. We had no choice but to go in blind.

  “Shit,” I exclaimed. “I hate not having the upper hand. Okay, what do we have that makes the l
east noise?”

  “I’d say the Incendipulse is the quietest we have but they’re messy. We could set the whole building on fire.” Luggs said and Dex nodded. “The laser rifles make more noise but they’re quick, more controllable and less messy.”

  “Yeah, let’s go with the rifles,” Flark remarked and both Dex and Baz nodded.

  “Okay,” I replied. “Three guys with the Incendipulse guns keep to the rear and cover our asses. It looks to me like three of us will fit through that door at a time, so here’s what we’ll do. Three go in and drop to your knees. Three more go in and hunker down low and the last three go in standing up. That way we don’t run the risk of shooting each other. Any questions? Okay who’s up first?”

  Dex and Luggs handed their incendipulse guns over to Boy and Carl and stepped forward with Flark. Baz, Cap and Grelly stood behind them. Myself, Stitch and Bud came up next, leaving Boy, Carl and Hank with the Incendipulse guns at the rear.

  “Okay guys,” I whispered, “you ready?”

  “Hell yeah,” Luggs grunted. “Let’s get those bastards.”

  “Okay then, remember what to do,” I reminded them. “Dex, Luggs, Morry, you guys drop right to the floor okay? You don’t want your heads blown off now do ya? Baz, Cap and Grelly, you drop down into a crouch so me and umm.”

  “Stitch.”

  “And I’m Bud.”

  “Right,” I replied. “So Baz, Cap and Grelly, you guys hunker down a bit so Stitch, Bud and me don’t give you an unexpected haircut. Right, let’s go.”

  The main door to the lab was open a crack and Luggs gave one almighty kick and we lunged in as one. The three guys in the front row dropped onto their asses, the next three dropped to their knees and us three in the third row stepped forward behind them as we all began firing together. The inside of the small reception area exploded as our laser rifles found their targets. All seven of the bald creatures were killed within fifteen seconds before they’d had time to register what was happening. We stopped firing and the sudden silence was deafening after the racket our rifles had made and I could hear the blood pumping in my ears. We just had time to take a breath before we heard what was now a familiar screech.