"What'll we do?" I asked Jet.
"We've got to get the others."
"I know that! How do we do it?"
"I don't know--you're the human here!"
"We need to take stock. Seventeen?"
"Yes?" the voice sang.
"Keep it down will ya'? Shesh! Don't let anyone but Jet and me hear you!"
"Ok." Seventeen sang softer.
"Jet, where's that radio Seventeen made for you?"
"It's in the railcar."
"Go get it!" I told her. "Seventeen, you are not used to dealing with humans--I want you to just communicate over the radio that you gave to Jet, ok?"
Nothing.
Seventeen had probably just said "ok" over the radio. It was a powerful ally, just not too wise in the ways of the world. I wondered if Jet had been like that when we had first showed up in her complex. I wanted to go up and take a peek through the glass in the doors leading into the rest of the complex but I was afraid to do that until I was sure that Seventeen was still with us and talking on the radio. With Seventeen on the radio I could turn off it's singing voice anytime I wanted or needed.
Jet came back with the radio. "I got it." her voice didn't sound quite the way I expected it to sound. "Did you hear what Seventeen said about the man?"
"Keep it down Jet. They might hear us!"
"Sorry."
"It's ok. What man are you talking about, Jet?"
"The one we just left, Cookie. He's killed himself. He banged his head against one of the supports and broke his neck...Do you people do that to yourselves?"
"No. You're sure he's dead?"
"I am." Seventeen's voice sang out of the radio. "There are now no signs of continuing higher body functions. Brain activity has ceased."
"Why did he do that to himself?" Jet wanted to know.
"You'd have to ask him, Jet. People like that look at life and death differently than the rest of us. I have seen people like that on the video--I never understood where they came from. They...I don't know! They are willing to kill others so why should we worry if they are willing to kill themselves. I find it hard to care..."
"It is illogical!" Jet complained.
"Yes it is, but we're still alive and so are our friends and if we want that to continue we've got to do something." I told her. We didn't have time to go into theory right at that moment. I had to get her going...I had to get us both going or it would be too late for all of us. "Are there any weapons that Seventeen might have access to?"
"Don't be stupid Cookie! If there were it would have already used them." Jet responded almost mad.
"Sorry. Ummm...I guess all we have is this one gun. Can Seventeen tell where all those cops are?"
"There are two cops in the corridor above and twelve in the cave and about fifteen outside--I can't be positive, but that ought to be close." the radio sang.
"Is there anyway to lock them out?"
"Yes. Do you want me to close the outer door?"
"Not yet! Jet, when Seventeen closes the door you and I will rush the two men guarding Toni and Killer. Do you still have the key for the handcuffs?"
"I gave it to you, Cookie. Remember? You used it to free my hands. You had it last."
I reached into my pocket and the key was there. "I've got it. Here. You take it. We'll rush the guards after we tell Seventeen to close the outer door. They'll probably hear it close and they'll be looking that way. As soon as they do that you and I will try to catch them by surprise from behind. Don't let them use ther guns. If you see one of them point his gun at anyone you must try to knock it to one side or something. Don't let them shoot you, but don't let them shoot Toni or Killer either. Got it?"
"Got it!" she said.
"Ready?"
Jet nodded her head.
I turned down the volume on the radio. "Seventeen? Can you hear me?"
"Yes." I heard from the radio. It was just loud enough that I could hear it.
"In a moment I'm going to ask you to close the outer door. Are you ready?"
"Ready."
I motioned to Jet for her to follow me and we crept up the gangway to the door leading out of the cavern. On the other side of the door I could hear one of the guards talking on his radio. I put my head on the floor and was able to see under the door. Toni was sitting with her back to the wall about where I had seen her last. They had stretched Killer's body out on the floor. He looked dead.
I looked at Jet and nodded my head. She nodded back.
"Seventeen? Close the door now!"
I looked back through the crack under the double door. Nothing was happening. Suddenly I heard someone on ther radio cry out that the door was closing. Both guards looked the other way, away from the door where Jet and I were, towards the outer door. I pushed myself to my feet and charged through the double doors.
Neither guard head me coming.
I got in. I got up to them. Then I didn't know what to do. Did I just shoot them or maybe dive into one of them and try to knock his gun away? I wasn't sure how to do it. I had seen how the police do it and decided to try that.
I went up behind the first guard and got into a good braced position with my feet apart, both hands in front of me on the gun. I took aim at the man's head. I suppose I should have just shot him and gone on from there, but I couldn't.
As soon as he knew I was there he would turn around and shoot--or maybe give up. I had to be ready to pull the trigger. There would be no time for me to think about it. If he looked like he was going to shoot me then I had to shoot him first. I made up my mind to pull the trigger at the first sign of aggression from him. He would be trained to want to fight. He would try to kill me. He might decide to give up, but if I saw anything that looked like he wasn't giving up I would have to pull the trigger before he could do something to hurt one of us.
If it was just me I could take some degree of risk. If I guessed wrong then, oh hell, it's my fault, but that wasn't the case. I had all the rest of them depending on me. I couldn't take any chances. All I could do was give the man a half a chance to save his own life. What makes anyone decide to take up the gun as a career?
"Freeze!" I hissed.
He acted like he wasn't sure he had heard me. He had heard something but was sure where it had came from. He looked up like the sound had come from above him. Then he caught a glimpse of me out of the corner of his eye.
He began to turn. His head was turning first then his body. He was bringing his gun up to a ready position. It was a short rifle. Full automatic. Very deadly.
Everything was moving in slow motion. I was in control. Jet was back out of my way. The man had his face towards me. He could clearly see my handgun pointing at his head. We were less than two meters apart. His rifle was coming up. It was nearly pointing at me then he let go of it and raised his hands. I had almost pulled the trigger.
I felt a moment of satisfaction. I had a prisoner! I hadn't had to kill anyone. Just as I began to relax a little I saw his buddy turn around and see me. The way he had been standing his gun had been kind of pointing back in my direction to begin with. His gun was more like what I had (a pistol) except his gun didn't have a silencer on it. He fired blindly. The noise was deafening, the smoke, the spent shells flying, the smell of burnt gunpowder. I tried to take aim at him but he was shooting all around me and I couldn't find a place to target on him. I just began shooting in his general direction. I fired as quick as I could. I didn't know if I was hitting anything. I felt something hit me. I kept pulling the trigger until the man stopped shooting at me.
I stood there not sure what had happened. I hoped I had hit him and I had. I had shot both of them. The one who had shot at me was laying dead. His chest was riddled with bloody holes. The one who had surrendered was crying out in pain at my feet.
It was one of those situations where the poor man was dead--he just didn't know it yet. He had caught fire from both sides--both me and his buddy had shot him. I knelt down beside him and tried to comfort him. It was no use. The bullets had made many different sized holes in his body. Areas of missing flesh were in the most insidious of places. He had been torn apart not just shot. It was terrible.
It is unbelievable how much damage a bullet can do. It is amazing at the amount of injury a person can take and not die, immediately. It is mind boggling how much pain that can cause. The man was trying so hard to hang on and if he had what would he have had? His body was grotesque. Horrible to look at and incapable of doing it's function. Still the man fought to live. He fought not to die.
Slowly his cries of pain and his gasping for breath stopped. God had kindly let him come into His house. I hung my head partially in shame and partially in reverence for the death of a human. I said a prayer asking God to let the man into heaven and to forgive him--and me of our sins. The gun had fallen from my hand.
I jumped as a hand touched my shoulder. "Are you alright?" Jet asked.
I felt weak. I felt around for a bullet hole in me or something. I was covered in blood and gore from the dead man at my knees, but I was alright. That was something I wasn't sure if I was happy about or not. I felt sick.
My mind went blank.
I felt a hand on my shoulder again--this time it was Toni. "You saved us kido! Com'on! Get up! We've got to get you back with us again! We aren't out of this yet."
I looked at her disoriented. "Toni...I just killed a man...two men...I don't know...I tried not to...You saw what happened...That man over there made me do it...Did you see what he made me do? Look at this poor poor man!"
"You did good. No one can blame you for what happened. You had to do it! Now get with me--we've got to get out of here before the cops out side can get back in--and we've got to get Killer some help!"
I started to explain that I hadn't meant to hurt anyone when she slapped me. Hard!
"Cookie! Dammit! I need you kid! Help me here!"
She started to slap me again but I caught her hand. I was mad. I didn't like the fact that she had slapped me so hard. "Ok! Knock it off! That hurt! You slap me again and I'll knock your block off!" I looked at her serious. Suddenly I realized how I had been letting myself slip into a dream world of self pity. I couldn't do that. We had to get out of there. We had to do something for Killer. "Ok. Ok, how's Killer? Are you and Jet alright?"
"We're ok, but Killer's lost a lot of blood. We've got to get him to a doctor soon."
"Is he still bleeding all over the place, Toni?"
"Some, but not as bad as before."
I crawled over to where Killer lay. He was a mess. He had his blood and the blood of the two guards all over him. His knee was too bloodied up to let me see how bad it was. He felt cold to me. "We've got to get him cleaned up so he doesn't get an infection. His knee is still wanting to bleed. We can buy some time if we put a tourniquet above his knee. Help me drag him into the shower so we can get him cleaned up, Toni. The warm water will help him from getting too cold. We need to try to keep him warm. Jet, do we have anything I can use for bandages and a tourniquet?"
"Yes of course, we have a well equipped medical kit. I'll get it..."
Toni and I dragged Killer into the shower and turned on some warm water. Jet had the medical kit and I used a knife from it to cut away Killer's pants and the one bandage he had. His knee was sickening to look at. I cleaned him up as best as I could using my bare hands. There were different ointments in the medical kit but I was afraid to use any of them because they were made for an alien's body chemistry. I got a fresh bandage put on. He had nearly quit bleeding. I think he was running low on blood.
"Toni, I hope you're thinking about what we're going to do next. We gotta get Killer outa here."
"I know, Cookie. We could go out the roof where it opens to let the machine out, but then we'd run into all those cops out there and even if we didn't we would still need some kind of transportation to a hospital. We could get back in the railcar and go to the next complex, but that's five hours away and Killer wouldn't last that long. Jet, you know this complex better than us...what can we do?"
***
It was a first. The president had been in a meeting when his aid pulled him out and briefed him on what intelligence was sending. The manager of Tower colony had been seen leaving his mansion with the revolt leader. The revolt leader had been wheeled out in a wheelchair obviously under duress. They had left the mansion escorted by five hover cars and a hover truck containing a whole platoon of Tower colony police.
The group had gone out to the frontier surrounding Tower colony and suddenly returned to Tower city. After a brief stop at a hospital the caravan had gone back out to the desert to a place near where they had been when they had turned around earlier.
They had landed and gone into something that appeared to be an old cave. It was suspicious. Colony managers didn't normally go into caves in the middle of the desert--especially in the company of revolt leaders. Intelligence had dispatched an agent for some up-close and on-hand observation. Something had happened inside the cave and the colony manager was still inside. The agent had been making regular reports when suddenly a strange signal, coming from inside the cave, had begun jamming his signal.
The consensus was that the revolt leader had led the colony manager to his stash of alien artifacts/weapons then something had happened. Something had gone wrong. The UCL had the information and Tower colony didn't. It was time to act--get the alien artifacts from Tower colony while they were at the stash having trouble.
President Dan Chet decided things were happening too fast. This would be his only opportunity to get all the alien artifacts for the UCL. Word had already spread throughout the membership and they were anxious to have the artifacts. They didn't want some maverick colony like Tower to suddenly surpass all ther efforts.
Dan decided he would be present when the UCL made contact with the colony manager at the site of the stash. He would carry an army with him--to help him persuade Tower to share ther good fortune (or else).
***
"How much longer?" Toni asked Jet impatiently.
"Why do you keep asking me for Pete's sake? You know I don't know any more than you do. Seventeen is who you ought to be asking."
"You ask it."
"Why? Are you saying you're too good?"
"Hey!" I interrupted crossly. "We're all getting uneasy. They said they were sending us a hover car as quick as they could so can it will ya? Seventeen, is there any word yet?"
"They're about ten minutes away. Shall I open the roof now?"
"No, wait."
"As you want. How is the injured one doing?"
"He keeps drifting off then waking back up. I'm trying to give him a few sips of water when he can take it. I'm sure he's in a lot of pain but at least he's not losing any more blood."
"That's good." Seventeen commented. It's voice had changed. It didn't quite sing all the time now. It had been a shock to it and the others--what had happened. Seventeen had said the 'others' had been shocked when it had relayed pictures to Apex.
It had gotten them awake. We had asked them for help. They had offered us a ride to the nearest medical aid. They would have extended the aid themselves except they had no knowledge of human anatomy.
They wanted to help anyway they could. The 'others' would be good friends.
We were loaded up in the lift for the machine. As soon as the hover vehicle the 'others' had dispatched for us arrived, we would load up and be away before the cops outside could stop us. We were ready. I had the gun I had used earlier. Toni had the automatic rifle and Jet had the handgun we had taken from the dead guards. Jet also was in charge of the communicator for Seventeen. Even Killer had been awake enough to know what was going on.
"They are here!" Seventeen announced on the radio in Jet's hand. "Some of the police have found the exit--wait--they have been neutralized--"
"You mean killed. Don't you?"
"Oh no Cookie, the ship is equipped with a neutralizer...stunner...stun gun. You have that technology--don't you?"
"Stun gun? I'm not sure. I don't know. You mean it doesn't kill?"
"No, they will sleep, I think you call it, for an hour, maybe more. They will be alright and you can make your escape."
I felt a tremble in the lift, a rumble. "What's that?" Toni wanted to know.
"The ship." Seventeen responded.
"Ship? How big is this thing? I thought they had just sent a hover car or something to get us."
"They did, Toni. The ship is here to escort and protect the hover car. There are many people hidden ten kilometers from here..."
"More cops?"
"Maybe. They are wearing different uniforms. We are thinking they are from another colony...yes...they were here to steal the technology of the creators...they are now neutralized as well...it is safe. May I open the outer hatch now?"
I swallowed and got my gun into the ready position. I looked over at Jet. She looked like she was ready. Toni and I had shared our sparse knowledge on guns and she was as ready as we could make her. We had spare clips of ammo. I wasn't sure if there were anymore bullets in my gun or how to load it if it was out. I'd just have to cross that bridge when I got to it. I felt like I could figure out how to reload--I just hoped I wouldn't have to put that to the test.
Jet looked at me. She was ready. I looked to Toni. She was ready.I turned my head back to jet and nodded my head. Jet told Seventeen to open up the cavern doors and move the lift, we were on, to the top. It was beginning--again!
***
It was light out when we got off of the lift. I remembering wondering why it was so light at that time of night (it was probably around eleven). There were lights shining down. I thought they were from the hover car but then I saw it was already on the ground about ten meters from where we were. I looked up and that's when I saw the ship.
It was...colossal. Bigger than big. Bigger than huge. It was all the way to colossal--maybe beyond. I remember wondering how they could get something that big into the sky as I helped Jet and Toni drag Killer to the waiting hover car. Killer woke up and saw it and wanted to immediately get on board it. It stayed behind to pull sentry duty for the complex and to keep anyone from leaving. It would have no problem.
Jet told Toni how to fly the hover car and we took off unsteadily. It took awhile before we were clear of the ship. I guess when one is that big you call it a mother ship. Once we were away I began to wonder where we would go--where we could go.
"Never let leaving become more
important than where you are
going."
(old saying).
I was with Killer in the back of the hover car. I cradled his head in my lap. He would come around for a minute or so then his eyes would roll back in his head and the lids would shut. He'd be like that for awhile then he would wake up again. He woke up once and wanted to know where we were going. He said he wanted to go to New Tower.
Toni nor myself had never been there so we didn't know what to expect. We were disappointed. Toni said it reminded her of the prison--except the prison was nicer.
We landed and waited to see what would happen. People gathered all around but none came up to see who we were or what we wanted. Finally Toni got out and walked over to where some of the people were. She shouted at them that we had Killer and he needed medical aid. They hesitated for a moment then they all ran up to the car. The door was opened before I could stop it and a hand reached inside. I pointed my gun.
"Hey! Watch it! That thing could be loaded!" a male voice chastised me.
"It is! Get back--all of you!" I demanded.
"We're here to help. Relax. What are you--a dweeb? You don't hurt Killer anymore and we won't hurt you. Now come on, give him to us!"
I opened my arms and let the man drag Killer from the car. "He needs blood. He's been shot. He's lost a lot of blood."
Some man was taking charge. I think he was one of Killer's own men. He made the crowd back off so Killer could have room to breathe and sent word for someone to come to administer to Killer. He ducked his head into the vehicle. "Give me the gun. We won't hurt you--I just don't want you shooting anyone by mistake, ok?"
"The gun stays with me!"
"Ok, but at least put it on 'safe'. He grabbed the gun from my hand and held it up for me to see. "Turn this like this..." he demonstrated. "This is 'safe'. Turn it back when you're ready to use it, ok?"
He acted like he might give me my gun back so I just nodded my head and waited.
He looked at me realizing I was just waiting to get back the gun. "Maybe I'd better hang onto this for awhile. What happened here?"
"The colony manager forced Killer to show him where the alien weapons were. He shot him..."
"Alien weapons? Oh! The rain machine! You were there?"
"Yes!"
"You were the one operating it?"
"Kinda."
"What's your name?"
"Cookie."
"Mine's George, glad to meetcha! Wow! Where's the machine now?"
"It's still where it was. May I have my gun back now, please?"
"Yeh sure, here." he handed me the gun. "We owe you a lot. Thanks. I've got a guy coming to fix ol' Killer right up. I've got to help but sit right here. I'll be back in a minute or two and we'll get you fixed up, ok?"
He retreated from the car and shut the door with out even waiting for my answer.
"Are you all right?" Jet wanted to know.
"Fine, Jet."
"He didn't see me, did he?"
"I don't think so."
"What will they do when they see I am not one of you?"
"I dunno. Toni and I will protect you."
"This will protect me." Jet claimed as she held up her gun.
I looked at it. The 'safe' was off. "Let me put the 'safe' on on that thing before you shoot someone you don't want to." Jet handed me the gun and I flipped the switch on it and showed her how to flip it off again, if need be. "We're alright. Let them get organized then we'll get out and you can meet some of them, if you want?"
"Yes! Yes, that would be great!"
"Maybe we can even get some rest. I'm worn out."
"Yes my internal clock says it is past time to begin sleep cycle. Are you alright?"
"Just tired Jet. How about you?"
"Fine, Cookie."
The whole book in zipfile format.
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