Floxham Island ~ Sinclair V-Log AZ267/M (6 page)

“He’s a
murderer?” Ronjo asked.

“Yeah,” Kitt
replied, “so let’s hope the creatures get him before he gets us
huh?”

“Let’s hope for
that,” I agreed without realising the significance of Kitt’s
remark. “He’s not worth quite as much dead, but it shouldn’t be a
total loss.”

We headed down
the stairs and made a tour of the ground floor to find several more
ransacked offices and just two more bodies. Then we all agreed that
our next priority should be to find some place that offered us the
means to make a drink and maybe even get something to eat. It took
us no more than ten minutes to find the canteen where the office
workers obviously took their breaks and I was delighted to see
several nutri vend machines and an auto snack. Kitt and the young
woman, who introduced herself as Marta le Roque, went to fetch the
kids whilst I decided to go and check how Nembier got away.
Cautiously I entered the bathroom and found the restraints lying on
the floor undamaged. That was odd and I frowned as I checked them
over; if he’d forced his way out of them there should be blood on
them but they were clean. He must’ve somehow picked the locking
mechanism and this just confused me even more. In all my years in
this job I’d never known anyone pick these babies open, so the fact
that Nembier had obviously managed it both enraged and intrigued
me. Irritated, I sighed as I pocketed them and left the bathroom to
head back to the canteen for a drink. Halfway there the scream rang
out and I stopped dead in shock, momentarily startled out of my
wits. It was a woman’s scream and seemed to come from the general
direction of the room where we’d hidden the two kids, Eddy and
Jena. My hand automatically went to my hip and I unholstered my
laser pistol as I ran towards the scream, to find Marta in the
corridor with a hand over her mouth.

“What the
fuck’s happened?” I yelled. She closed her eyes and just shook her
head. “Marta. What’s happened?” I yelled again and shook her
shoulder. She pointed into the room and I stepped gingerly towards
the open doorway and peered in. The sound of murmuring voices met
my ears and I recognised it as the old guy Kitt so I headed towards
his voice. As I rounded the barricade we’d set up to hide the kids,
I felt my stomach lurch and the breath leave my lungs. Kitt was
trying to soothe his grandson Eddy and encourage him to move away
from the remains of Jena who lay by his side, her head in his lap.
The huge opening in her throat had sprayed blood for several feet
and Eddy was saturated with it. “What the fuck did that?” I hissed
at Kitt who ignored me as he continued soothing Eddy. “Kitt,” I
yelled, “what the fuck killed her?”

“How the fuck
should I know,” he snapped back.

“Well ask the
kid, dammit.”

“I’m trying you
idiot, you’ll have to be patient. He’s scared out of his wits.
It’ll take time for him to tell me what happened.”

“Hey kid,” I
barked and stepped forward. “What happened to her huh? Come on,
tell us what happened. Hey kid are you listening to me?”

“That won’t do
any good Sam,” Kitt hissed. “He’s deaf and mute.”

Now I
understood why Kitt seemed to be gesturing at him all the time; he
was using some kind of sign language with him. Then I remembered
when we’d put the kids in here and how I’d seen Kitt gesturing at
Eddy and how Ronjo seemed confused, no, shocked as he’d watched and
I made a mental note to ask him about that. We became aware of the
sound of running footsteps and soon Flark and the others entered
the room and gasped in shock at the sight of Jena. Before I forgot,
I went to look for Ronjo and found him outside, comforting
Marta.

“Hey buddy.
Y’know when we put the kids in there, before we set out to reccy
the place?” He nodded. “I saw you watching Kitt as he did that sign
language stuff with Eddy.”

“So?”

“So I saw you
suddenly look confused or shocked at something. Do you remember
that?” He hesitated just a little too long before shaking his head
and I knew he was lying. “Well buddy, if you do remember, I’d sure
like to know what it was you were shocked about cos there may be a
chance that our survival depends upon it okay?” He just looked at
me so I glared at him for a few seconds before turning away,
confident in the knowledge that he now knew that I knew he’d lied
to me and I hoped that this knowledge would encourage him to open
up. This situation was rapidly going down the shitter and I was
beginning to realise that I was not in control of my destiny any
more and that both scared and annoyed me. Adrenaline coursed
through me, so I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall as I
took deep breaths to try to calm myself down. Being stuck in this
hell hole, surrounded by monsters with a penchant for people’s
innards, with a bunch of civilians and just two useful ex military
guys on whom I could depend was bad enough but then within the
first hour of getting here I’d lost Nembier and two of our group
had been killed. Apart from the obvious, I was already aware that
something wasn’t adding up quite right about this situation and it
irritated the fuck out of me that I didn’t know what it was.

Kitt eventually
persuaded Eddy to let him take him to the bathroom to clean up, so
the rest of us headed back to the canteen. The thought of all those
bodies that surrounded us worried me; not because I’m squeamish or
anything but because I guessed the smell of all the blood and guts
would be an attractant to the creatures outside. Why no one else
had thought about this amazed me but then I reminded myself that
these folks are just civilians and don’t have the kind of common
sense that fifteen years in this business has given me. A tap on my
shoulder made me jump and I turned to find the dark skinned
military guy standing behind me.

“Hey buddy. We
haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Sgt Simmia, 43rd Garrison,
Unit Seventeen, Hecklorian Defence Corps. Pleased to make your
acquaintance.” He extended his hand and shook my own.

“Sam Sinclair,”
I replied with a nod. “Freelance Law Enforcer, Tagged. I’m real
pleased to meet you buddy. I’m beginning to feel lost here amongst
these civilians. By the way do you have a first name or would you
prefer me to call you Sergeant?”

“Oh sorry, the
name’s Dexter. I’m originally from Earth but my family emigrated to
Heckloria when I was eight after my uncle married a Hecklorian
woman. Call me Dex.”

“Good to meet
you Dex. I’m from Sigma Prime.”

“Sam, can I ask
you something in confidence?” he whispered suddenly and leaned in
towards me and I nodded conspiratorially. “Am I the only one who
thinks we should maybe clean the place up a little? You know, the
bodies I mean. It makes me more than a little uncomfortable knowing
they’re just lying all around us and the smell must be like a
dinner siren going off for those things out there. Surely it would
make sense to get rid of em? Put em outside or something or even
burn em maybe. What do you think?”

Well, to say I
was relieved would be putting it mildly; I was so happy that
someone was thinking along the same life preserving lines as me, I
could’ve kissed the guy. Being in this situation was bad enough but
being here surrounded by nice but useless survivalists made me
think I’d been given the bum’s rush, so the fact that Dex was now
mirroring my own thoughts was both a relief and a delight. My
relief must’ve showed as he smiled when I nodded frantically.

“Hell yeah I
agree with you. We should definitely get them outside as soon as
possible. Animals work off smell don’t they? I know that
hunchbacked thing that almost got us at the shuttle has bad
eyesight so it obviously uses smell or sound or both to compensate.
Besides, it’s better to be safe than sorry huh?” Dex nodded and I
was pleased I had one ally on whom I could depend. For the first
time since landing in this hell, I thought just maybe I might
survive. This lifted my spirits a little so I decided that as no
one else had taken the lead, I might as well, so I spoke up.

“Hey guys can I
have everyone’s attention for a minute? Guys? Hello, guys please.
Thanks. Umm my name is Sam Sinclair and I’m a Tagged Freelance Law
Enforcer. I used to be in the military and I’ve been in law
enforcement for fifteen years now and although I’ve not been in
exactly this situation before, I’m clued up about survival
techniques and have had to live by my wits on one or two occasions.
My pal here is a Sergeant in the military and he and I have been
discussing what’s happening here and we both agree that if we’re
going to remain here any longer, we need to clean this place up.”
Murmurs went around the group and I groaned inwardly; this wasn’t
going to be easy.

“Well hey
honey, I’ll fetch you a broom,” Luggs retorted and everyone
grinned.

“Very funny,” I
glared; disappointed that as ex military himself, he should know
better. “Now listen you idiot. All of those corpses with their guts
hanging out will be giving off a very distinctive and inviting
smell and every meat eater for hundreds of miles will be on their
way for a free feast. Me and Dex here know that we should move the
bodies outside of this building to help ensure our own safety.” The
grins had dropped from the faces now and I sighed inwardly as the
truth of my words began to sink in.

“He’s right,”
Luggs suddenly announced. “My apologies Sam. All that blood will be
sending out a very clear signal and we’d be fools not to do
something about it.” His quick apology shocked me and I again found
myself contrite at the speed at which I initially judged him by his
appearance. Shit, I was beginning to like the guy.

“I agree,”
Flark joined in, “and although I only have authority over the
shuttle crew amongst you, I would urge everyone to agree that this
should be our next task.”

“Why can’t we
just get back to the shuttle and leave?” Ronjo asked all of a
sudden and my heart sank. It was too soon for this question and I
hoped that the revelation the answer would bring could be delayed
until we’d at least made ourselves relatively safe and comfortable
here.

“Because the
liner isn’t due back here for three days and the shuttle doesn’t
have enough fuel to maintain an orbit for that long,” Flark
explained.

“Then why don’t
we call them up on the comms?” Marta cut in.

“They’re
already out of range of the shuttle comms,” the blue eyed plank
pilot replied. “The shuttle isn’t designed for the long haul so
there’s no need for it to have long range comms. I’m afraid we’re
stuck here until the liner returns so we have to make the place as
safe as we can.”

“I really don’t
think I could face handling the bodies,” Ronjo admitted. “I’m
really sorry but I’m not military or anything and although as a
minister of religion I’m used to dealing with the dead, actually
handling mutilated corpses isn’t really part of my resume. I’m more
than willing to do anything else though to make up for it; you have
only to ask.”

“That’s okay
Ronjo. You’ll pull your weight buddy, don’t worry and thanks for
your honesty,” I smiled and couldn’t help but admire the way he was
handling this situation. That smile was also for me as I gave
myself another pat on the back for the way I’d expertly summed him
up earlier. He was obviously not a man of action so I’d labelled
him as thinker guy and now I knew why; he was religious. “Does
anyone else object?” I threw out the question, hoping no one would
say yes and sighed with relief when no one did. “Okay then I reckon
we should start at the top and work our way down. Ronjo, since you
can’t do the dirty work, perhaps you’d stay here and keep Eddy
company and maybe keep up a supply of hot drinks for us?”

“Of course, I
can do that,” he nodded, “and I’ll see if I can come up with some
buckets so the floors can be sluiced down to at least try and wash
away the blood. There may even be some cleaning chemicals hidden
somewhere around, this place must’ve employed cleaners don’t you
think?”

“May I ask a
question?” Marta cut in and everyone looked at her. She reddened a
little but held her head up defiantly. “The bodies are all torn to
pieces, with their guts hanging out and everything. Could we maybe
find something to wrap them in first? I don’t fancy having to carry
armfuls of people’s guts down four flights of stairs.” Everyone
nodded and I have to admit, the thought didn’t exactly excite me
either.

“There must be
tablecloths or something around here,” Cap replied as he went to a
door at the rear of the canteen, “or bin liners; anything to make
the job easier. Hey look here guys.” We all rushed over to find a
large storeroom containing all sorts of stuff, including a huge
pile of tablecloths.

“Fantastic,” I
sighed, happy that at last something was going right for us. “Okay
folks, grab a couple each and we’ll leave the rest of the pile at
the foot of the stairs.” My smile turned to a frown as I turned to
see Ronjo looking upset. “Ronjo? What’s up buddy?”

“I’m sorry
guys, it’s just that to put them outside to be eaten by those
things just seems a little, well a little, well y’know?”

“Yeah I know,”
I nodded. It seemed just a little callous to me too but this
situation demanded we act to preserve our own lives and
sentimentality would get in the way. Then I had an idea. “Would you
feel happier if maybe, as a minister, you said a few words before
we begin?” He brightened immediately and I noticed Dex wink at me
for my quick thinking.

“Yes I would
feel better,” he nodded, “if everyone would be okay with it.”

We gathered at
the bottom of the stairs and Flark called for quiet. Ronjo spoke
quietly but his voice was unwavering as he beseeched and his wisdom
found its way into all of our hearts. I’m not a particularly
religious guy but I do believe in some greater consciousness
somewhere that hopefully knows the content of my character and my
heart and I do hope for an afterlife of some sort when I die.