Floxham Island ~ Sinclair V-Log AZ267/M (7 page)

“Almighty
Creator, we ask that you open your arms and receive the souls of
all those of your children who passed from this life here in this
place. We ask that the pain and torment of their passing be
forgotten as they travel to whatever afterlife they seek for
themselves and we ask forgiveness for that which we are about to do
to their bodily remains. What we do is not done in anger or
disrespect, but with hope that these lives that are left may
continue until you see fit to bring them home to your side. Amen.”
Marta dabbed at her eyes and I smiled as I noticed Luggs sniff
loudly and wipe his eyes on his sleeve.

“Thanks Ronjo,”
I smiled. “Nice words buddy.” He nodded back in thanks. “Okay folks
let’s get it done shall we? All stick together now and we should be
finished before you know it.” We climbed the stairs once again and
worked our way around the offices methodically. It was a fairly
quick job and we got the top floor done in twenty five minutes. We
took a moment to stretch our backs before heading down to the next
floor and the process began again. Two hours later we headed back
down to the ground floor to find Ronjo and Eddy sorting out buckets
and chemicals he’d found.

“Eddy and I
found a second storage room through the back of the canteen,” he
told us proudly. “We have a dozen buckets and enough of this
chemical to float the Sally B.”

“Great job
guys,” Flark responded. “Who wants to volunteer to sluice the
floors down?” he looked around and three hands went up. The blue
eyed plank pilot, Marta and Kitt grabbed the buckets and headed
back up to the top floor.

“I’ll ferry the
containers of chemical up,” Ronjo offered as he grabbed a couple
and started to climb. My back was sore and I was longing to sit and
relax but I grabbed three and headed after him. We divided the
containers between the four floors and I did a quick mental
calculation. There was more than enough so I urged them to be
generous with it and headed back down to help clear the ground
floor. Luckily there were only two more bodies and we had them out
within ten minutes. Once the whole group were gathered back in the
canteen, exhausted and dirty with blood, Ronjo surprised me again
with his resourcefulness.

“Eddy and I
also found some overalls in the store room so anyone who needs to,
can change their clothes.”

“Great job
Ronjo,” I nodded as I took one and held it up. “Anyone with blood
on them should change, just to be safe. They’re not glamorous but
we’re trying to stay alive here okay. Marta, you can use the
bathroom first.” She nodded and grabbed an overall and left the
room. Ronjo made hot drinks and broke into the auto snack and we
had ourselves a veritable feast. It was only as I was beginning to
relax that I suddenly realised Nembier was still at large here
somewhere and Marta was in the bathroom alone. My drink crashed to
the floor as I leapt up.

“What’s up
Sam?” Dex asked.

“Oh shit,” I
hissed. “I forgot about Nembier and Marta has gone to the bathroom
on her own.” Dex’s dark brown skin visibly paled a couple of shades
and together the two of us raced from the canteen and headed for
the bathroom. My heart was in my throat by the time we got there
and I almost went rushing in but Dex stopped me just as I reached
for the handle, so I banged on the door and yelled. “Marta, are you
okay in there honey?”

“Yes I’m fine
thanks,” came the reply. “Why what’s up?”

“Jeez thank god
for that,” Dex sighed and I nodded.

“Dex and I are
gonna wait out here for you, just to make sure you’re safe okay?
Don’t worry. Take your time.”

We worked out a
system so that everyone who left the main group had a competent gun
with them and within another hour, we were washed and changed and
back in the canteen. We were exhausted but our spirits were
surprisingly high considering what we’d all been through and as the
sun came up we worked out a watch rota so that everyone could get
some sleep safe in the knowledge that at least two guns were
keeping an eye on things. My whole body ached but I settled down as
comfortably as I could and decided that as soon as I woke up, I had
to find Nembier again.

Six hours later
I was awake and standing at the nutri vend with Dex, wondering what
to choose. These machines offer various hot and cold foods and
drinks but although the taste may be acceptable, the appearance is
anything but. Whatever you choose, you get a coloured gelatinous
goo that looks and feels disgusting, but if you close your eyes and
ignore the feel of the stuff, the taste isn’t all that bad,
depending on your meal choice of course. There’s one on my ship and
I live off the stuff for months at a time.

“So what’s it
to be Dex?” I asked. “Most of it will taste pretty okay, although I
wouldn’t recommend the Yamelian Pie to anyone but my most hated
enemy.” He laughed and nodded and I knew that as a soldier, he’d
know all about the nutri vend and this infamous substance. Yamelian
Pie is famous galaxy wide as being the most disgusting substance
known and no one I’d ever met liked it, but still those damn nutri
vends insist on offering it. “Y’know I’d like to end my life having
met just one person who actually likes that muck. Do you think I’ll
get my wish Dex?”

“Not a chance
in hell Sam,” he laughed and I was forced to agree; the chances of
that happening were slim to none. As we ate, we discussed our
situation and traded ideas as to how we might improve our chances
and better our living standards. Suddenly Flark entered with the
blue eyed plank, panting as though they’d been running.

“Well we now
know how the creatures were able to get across the trench,” Flark
announced and everyone looked up. “It was Chip here who saw it
first,” he indicated the blue eyed plank pilot. “Chip?”

“Yeah well umm,
it seems as though a landslide filled in part of the trench over at
the north end and formed a sort of bridge, enabling the creatures
to cross. I was on the top floor scoping out the area through one
of the windows and saw it. I could even see a couple of those
hunchback things strolling across it.”

“What about the
flying ones?” Ronjo cut in. “How the hell did they keep those
out?”

“We can answer
that too,” Flark said as he spread out the plans of the complex and
pointed to a small square on the perimeter of the island. “It seems
that this hut is actually an entrance to an underground room that
contains the power grid for the whole Island. It has a mag field
antenna on the top of it, which collects power from the planet’s
magnetic field and uses it to power the complex. It’s an old
fashioned system but reliable and gives an unending supply of power
directly from the planet itself. A lot of these types of
communities still use the system. Anyway, the antenna has probably
broken, cutting off the power grid but more importantly, cutting
off the laser shielding net.”

“Umm, can you
say that again in layman’s terms,” Marta asked apologetically.

“Sorry, yeah of
course,” Chip said as he flashed her a smile. “There is a net of
laser beams in a dome that covers the whole island, to keep out the
flying creatures I guess. When the antenna broke, the power to this
net shut down, allowing the creatures through.” He gave her another
smile and she nodded.

“But we’re not
without power,” Ronjo said. “We have some lights working and the
nutri vend and auto snack are still operative.”

“There’s bound
to be a system of back up generators somewhere,” I offered. “We’re
obviously running off some kind of emergency power system in
here.”

“Umm, I’m sorry
to put a dampener on things,” Marta said suddenly, “but something
has been bothering me. This may be a silly question but umm, how
did that creature get into this part of the building?” Silence
ensued as we all turned the question over in our minds. “When we
arrived,” she continued, “the main door was closed and we’ve not
discovered a single broken or open window, so how did it get in?
Don’t you think we need to find out before more come in the same
way?” My heart sank as the truth of her words hit home. Just as I
was getting to the point of believing that all we had to do was
find something to occupy our minds until the Sally B returned to
rescue us, we were back with the realisation that we could all
still be eaten alive.

“She’s right,”
I said, breaking the tense silence at last. “We must find how and
where it got in, even if it just means we know which part of the
building to avoid, but we have to find out. And I have to recapture
Nembier too, especially now he has another murder on his hands.”
Everyone looked at me in shock and I sighed. “Jena Marks’ body
wasn’t in the same state as all the other bodies here, and if she
was killed by one of those things, how come Eddy was unhurt? No, it
must’ve been Nembier. The only thing I can’t for the life of me
understand is why he would kill her.” Everyone ate the remainder of
their tasteless lunch in silence as we pondered our coming
mission.

Okay folks I’m
going to break the report here temporarily. I’m getting a bit dry
mouthed with all this talking so I’m going to get something to eat
and I have to change this vidicom lens too. V-log reference
AZ267/M, data log reference point 2458712/6541.

CHAPTER
FOUR

Hang on a
second while I readjust this new vidicom lens. There was an
unfortunate incident a couple of weeks ago when umm, oh never mind
that’s another story. Okay there we go, now where was I? Oh yeah,
V-log reference AZ267/M continuing report. Data log reference point
2458712/6542.

Well as I said
earlier, we all ate our lunch pretty quietly and I think all of us
were further unsettled when we realised we had to go searching for
how and where the creatures gained entry to the prison and I was
more than a little irritated that I also was to be chasing Nembier
all over again. At least we all knew we weren’t going to have to
search the upper floors again, which narrowed things down quite a
bit but it also meant we couldn’t avoid venturing into the cell
wings. This was something I was hoping we wouldn’t need to do, but
we all knew there was nowhere else to go looking without going
outside so we decided to split up into two groups this time. This
would help ensure safety as much as possible and cut down the time
it would take us to search all eight cell wings. We tried to steal
ourselves for the carnage we fully expected to find in the cells,
but then something occurred to me.

“Y’know guys,”
I said as we prepared to split up into two groups, “the prisoners
down in the cells might not actually be dead.” Blank stares greeted
me alongside several frowns so I sighed deeply and explained as
clearly as I could. “Prison cells are constructed tough. They are
designed to keep folks inside, not to be easily broken out of, or
into. We could find the prisoners still alive down there. Still
alive and hungry and then we’ll have the added complication of
taking care of them.” Dex and Flark looked decidedly annoyed at
this.

“Shit,” Dex
exclaimed as he looked at me, “you’re right Sam. And there could be
another problem too. We could find some of them still confined, as
you say but some could’ve gotten out and be roaming around down
there. We could find ourselves surrounded by who knows how many
murderers and crazies.”

“Look, maybe we
should just stay right out of it,” Marta said, her faltering voice
giving away her fear. It scared all of us and I felt sorry for her
but at the same time, I had to get Nembier back. Call me a gold
digger if you want, but a guy has to live you know.

“We can’t
ignore it Marta,” the blue eyed plank suddenly cut in as he went
and put an arm around her shoulder and gave her his best movie star
smile. “We have to take a look and see where those creatures got in
so we know where to concentrate our firepower tonight. I’ll make
sure you’re okay honey, you stick with me huh? Besides, Sam here is
law enforcement and he’ll make sure they’re no danger to us.”

My irritation
rose several notches and I almost slapped him for that last remark
before realising that he was right; everyone would be expecting me
to be able to make sure not one of the hundreds of crazies and
murderers held in this place would harm them, just because I had a
couple of sets of handcuffs and a tag. Closing my eyes, I sighed
deeply as I realised the weight my job put on my shoulders.

Once I felt
calm I glanced at Ronjo and was surprised to see him checking the
gun I’d given him the night before. “Ronjo, do you want to sit this
out and do Eddy duty again?” I asked but he shook his head.

“No. Thanks for
asking but I want to stop being such an old woman for a change. I’m
gonna tag along on this one if that’s okay.”

“That’s great
buddy, glad to have you along,” I grinned and he nodded. It’s
amazing how people find reserves of strength and courage in a
crisis that they never knew they possessed.

“I’ll stay with
Eddy this time,” Kitt said as he took the boy’s hand. “I’m too old
and slow to deal with those creatures anyway. I’d just hold you
back and put you all in danger. We’ll stay here and tidy up a bit.”
Flark nodded and I guessed he must’ve felt a little relieved not to
have to baby the old guy again.

“Okay so let’s
split up into two groups huh?” Flark suggested. “Make sure each
group has an equal number of competent guns okay?”

Dex, Ronjo,
Luggs and me set off towards the rear end of the building and I was
pleased to have these guys in my group. There was no doubt in my
mind that I’d got the best of the bunch and I felt pretty confident
that we could deal with whatever came our way. The only potential
weak link was Ronjo but I had to admit that he was trying his best
not to be a burden. A large open space occupied the central core of
the building; a short corridor at the far end leading to a small
security station that guarded the entrance to the cell wings. A
desk and computer console stood at one side, behind which we could
see eight security vidicom screens, none of which seemed to be
operational. Beyond the desk, eight doors led off in different
directions, forming a semicircle like the rays of a sun in a kid’s
painting. The doors were numbered one to eight from left to right.
My group opted for the first four and left five through to eight
for Flark’s group. Flark had a set of restraints just in case he
should catch up with Nembier and I had another set in my own
pocket.