Floxham Island ~ Sinclair V-Log AZ267/M (9 page)

We headed
towards cell wing three and approached the steps that led down to
the door, which we could all see had been smashed to pieces. The
lack of bodies on the steps told us what we didn’t want to know and
Dex and I exchanged a glance and a nod. He reached towards the
sensor pad and looked back at me.

“Okay guys,” I
whispered. “Same procedure as in number one. Keep your heads and
keep firing. Everyone ready?” Luggs adjusted his gun and nodded;
his eyes staring into the gloom ahead, while Ronjo stared at me
with scared eyes. “Okay Ronjo?” He nodded and raised his useless
gun and I looked at Dex and nodded. “Let’s go,” I whispered as Dex
slapped the sensor and all hell broke loose. It seemed as if the
whole cell wing was filled with the shrieking creatures; the noise
and flapping of their wings momentarily overwhelming us. We stood
our ground in the doorway and fired as they soared towards us,
dropping one by one as they closed the gap. As they reached the
doorway they suddenly swooped around and away from our fire and
headed back to the far end of the corridor and the open emergency
door. For a moment I hoped they were intending to go back outside
but at the last second they swooped around and headed back towards
us for a second wave. Again we opened fire as they soared towards
us; their screeching splitting the air painfully. The last one fell
twenty feet from where we stood and we lowered our weapons as the
silence enveloped us.

“Shit, oh
shit,” Dex exclaimed as he ran a hand through his hair and sighed,
his dark brown skin enhancing the shine of sweat on his brow. Ronjo
stood between Luggs and me; his arms still held out in front,
weapon at the ready. Again, I gently put my hand on his arm.

“It’s okay
Ronjo,” I soothed, “it’s done. You did good. You did real well
buddy, thank you for your help. Relax now okay?” He blinked a few
times and lowered his arms as he sighed deeply. “Come on guys.” I
stepped forward, “let’s get that door closed huh?” We ran to the
end of the corridor and pulled the heavy door shut and locked the
lever in place. It was as we leant on the door to get our breath
back that we heard Ronjo’s yell. We spun around and I found myself
staring into a pair of gaping jaws; the two opposing sets of curved
fangs yellowed with age and I noticed one of them had its sharpened
tip missing. Time seemed to slow and then stop as first my hearing
left me, then my vision narrowed until I was looking through a long
tunnel with just that face at the end. The huge, soulless black
eyes bored into mine as the head retracted, readying itself to
strike forwards. The jaws opened even wider and I tried to come to
terms with the fact that I was about to die as the head began its
strike towards me. For as long as I live I will never forget the
sight of that eye imploding a split second before the back of the
skull exploded. The rest of the body came to rest against my legs
and abdomen; the wings spread out sideways and behind like a grey
leather cloak. Slowly, I looked up to see Ronjo still holding that
ridiculous AB11 Rookie at arms length, his eyes wide.

As my senses
returned, I was vaguely aware of shouts to the side but I was
mesmerised by the sight of Ronjo and that useless gun that just
saved my life. Slowly he turned his head to look at me, his eyes
still wide with shock and I saw the trickle of blood that ran from
one corner of his mouth and dripped off his chin. He coughed and
spat blood everywhere and looked down at himself. Still trying to
force myself to calm down, I followed his gaze and saw the gaping
rent in his abdomen that he struggled to hold shut as his
intestines slithered through his fingers and trailed down his
legs.

“No,” I yelled
as I came to my senses and rushed to his side. “Ronjo, stay with us
buddy.” Cold gripped me through to the bone and I held onto his
hand as he dropped to the floor spitting blood and gasping for air.
My heart leapt in panic as I crouched down beside him and looked
into his eyes as he held my gaze and died in agony. “You did real
good buddy and I’m proud to have you on my team.” He nodded slowly
and his hand went limp in mine. For long moments I held onto his
hand until I felt someone prying it from my grasp and reluctantly
allowed Dex to steer me back along the corridor to the central
hallway. Luggs was openly crying and I will admit I shed tears for
the guy too. He was scared shitless but managed to conquer his fear
and hold his own alongside the rest of us and he’d died saving my
life and I felt like a shit leaving him down there amongst the dead
prisoners.

“I don’t wanna
leave him down there amongst murderers and crazies,” I said as I
wiped my eyes and lit a cigarette with shaking hands. “I want to
bring him back here so he can have a proper burial when this is
over. He’s a hero and deserves to be treated like one huh? Please?”
No one argued with me and we all agreed to retrieve him when all
the cell wings were cleared and made safe. Flark revealed that cell
wing seven contained nine of the creatures, three of whom had fled
out through the open emergency door when they’d started firing.
Kitt handed round some cold drinks before we got up and readied
ourselves for one final excursion, after which we could hopefully
remain safe until the Sally B returned.

Luggs kicked
the door to cell wing four open and thumped his fist on the wall in
anger. “I hope you’re ready for me down there cos I am gonna make
you pay, assholes,” he hissed. He taught me something about himself
at that moment that I never expected to learn. He cared. This rough
looking, course mouthed throwback with prehistoric eyebrow ridges
cared deeply about people and had a moral code that even I’d be
proud to have. As we headed towards cell wing four and whatever
awaited us down there, I made a vow to myself that if we got out of
this with our lives, I would keep in touch with Luggs and be proud
to have him as a friend. Doing the job I do means I can’t have
buddies like other people do. It’s impossible for me to go round
and sit and have a beer in the evening; I can’t make a date to go
to a show with my friends or catch a holadau game at the weekends.
You could say it’s a lonely kind of job so I try not to make
attachments of any kind; not just for my own sake but for the other
person too. Having friends makes you responsible for them in some
ways and I don’t want to disappoint anyone by not being able to be
there as a friend. It’s far easier for me to keep some detachment,
but I was determined to keep in touch with Luggs as I knew he was
someone whose presence was of value to me.

We descended
the steps and found the door to the cell wing still intact and
closed. There were no bodies outside so we prepared ourselves for
another battle. Luggs reached for the door and pushed but it held
firm. He looked at me and frowned.

“It won’t
open,” he hissed as he pushed again, giving it all his weight.
“It’s like it’s wedged from the inside.”

“What?” Dex
frowned. “All of us together, come on.” We all leaned against the
door and shoved as hard as we could but it moved less than an inch.
“What the fuck is holding it? I’m gonna switch on the light okay
guys? Get ready.” He slapped the sensor pad and the cell wing
flooded with light. We peered through the window but something was
blocking our view.

“What’s all
that shit in front of the door?” I said as I tried to peer through
the gaps in the debris that we could see piled against the
door.

“Search me,”
Luggs replied.

“But who
could’ve,” I began but something caught my eye off to the left of
my field of vision. “Hey I just saw movement off to the left. Can
either of you guys see?” Dex and Luggs peered in, then I noticed
Luggs eyebrows raise in surprise.

“Shit, there’s
a guy walking around in there. There’s someone alive.”

“And there’s
two guys over this side too,” Dex said.

“They’re alive
in there?” I couldn’t believe this. “My god we have to let them
know we’ve secured the place. They must be scared out of their
wits.”

“Should we?”
Dex said suddenly. “They’re prisoners remember. Murderers and who
knows what other types of crazies are in there. Maybe we should let
em keep on thinking it’s safer for them to stay barricaded in there
huh?”

“He has a point
Sam,” Luggs remarked and I had to admit that it was a valid point.
This was more complications we really didn’t need and I scratched
my head as I mulled over the problem. By pure chance I just
happened to glance to my left and notice a sign above the sensor
pad that made me smile. “Hey look guys. Over there by the sensor
pad, see? It says Cell Wing Four - Minimum Security Risk Protocol -
Extended Light Privileges. That must mean there’s no crazies in
there, just petty thieves and stupid kids wanting to be tough.”

“I guess the
low risk guys get more light than the crazies,” Dex remarked. “Well
let’s see if we can get their attention.” He began banging on the
door and yelling. We yelled at the tops of our voices and pretty
soon a face appeared, eyes wide with suspicion. Then another and
soon there was quite a crowd looking at us looking at them. Once we
persuaded them it was safe, they began to dismantle their barricade
and we were soon introducing ourselves to four hundred petty
thieves and fraudsters. They told us that like everyone else, they
first tried escaping via the emergency door but soon found that to
be a very bad idea, so they ran back inside but found creatures had
entered via other emergency doors. They decided to return here and
barricade themselves in by using their bunks and bits and bobs of
furniture from their cells. Once or twice they’d braved an
excursion to the canteen for food and water but other than that,
they’d remained alive this way for four days so far.

“We have the
rest of this building secured now,” I announced, “so you’ve no need
to hide in here anymore. Before we go upstairs though, I must tell
you that we have a woman among our group and a young boy who’s deaf
and mute so please be respectful.”

A tall man with
a dignified air about him stepped forward. “My name is Clavan
Milgram and I embezzled money from the company I worked for. I was
guilty and I got found out and sent here to pay for my crime. All
of us here in this wing have done wrong but no one will come to
harm from any one of us. We are thieves here Sir, not murderers or
child molesters. Hopefully those have been dealt with by those
creatures. No one is in danger from us, I give you my word.”

“Then you’re
all welcome to come up and join us,” I smiled and shook his hand.
“I need to tell you though, that I’m a Freelance Law Enforcer and I
have a prisoner with me under restraint. He’s accused of murder,
but my job is to take him in, not to make a judgement about his
guilt or innocence. Is that gonna be a problem for anyone?”

“Who did he
kill?” a small thin man asked.

“He’s accused
of killing nine scientists on Agrillia 3 and there is a possibility
that he killed a teenage girl here at the prison, although I’m no
longer convinced of his guilt on that,” I replied and noticed Dex
and Luggs look at me surprised.

“You’re not?”
Dex asked.

“I thought it
was cut and dried,” Luggs said.

“So did I,” I
nodded, “but something happened that makes me think differently
now. I’ll tell you all about it later okay. Let’s get back and
introduce our new friends here to the guys upstairs.”

CHAPTER
FIVE

Flark and his
group were more than a little surprised to see Dex, Luggs and I
return with four hundred inmates and Marta’s eyes widened in fear
when she found herself surrounded by so many men. A wave of pity
flushed through me so I made a point of introducing her to
Clavan.

“Marta, this
here is Clavan Milgram. He has assured me that you have no need to
be scared okay? You’ll be safe here. He’s promised me.” Clavan
smiled and extended a hand, which she shook with a nervous smile. A
silent prayer filtered out from my mind in the hope that he hadn’t
been lying to me; I had no desire to look like a total idiot after
finding her gang raped by four hundred sex starved inmates.

“I give you my
word,” Clavan assured her, “that no one amongst us will be any
danger to you, or anyone here. Most of us are petty thieves and
many of us have families; wives and children whom we look forward
to getting back to once our terms are finished. Most of us in wing
four have less than a year still to serve until we gain our freedom
and none of us has any desire to earn more time here.” Marta nodded
and gave another nervous smile and despite only having met the guy
a few minutes earlier, I felt sure he was on the level. Like I said
before, I like to think I’m an excellent judge of character and I
just knew I wasn’t wrong this time.

The next two
jobs on my list were to retrieve Ronjo’s body and see to Nembier so
I excused myself and went to the canteen store room in search of
another pair of the overalls Ronjo had found the night before.
While there I also found the remaining stack of tablecloths so I
grabbed a couple and headed back to where the group still sat in
the central hallway, talking and getting to know each other.

“Hey guys,” I
called and all eyes looked at me. “A buddy of mine gave his life to
save me down in cell wing three, and I don’t wanna leave him down
there. Can I have a couple of volunteers to help me retrieve him?”
At least forty men stood and I was touched at their readiness to
help. “Thanks guys,” I smiled and led the way down into cell wing
three. It seemed weird being back down here in the silence,
surrounded by so many dead and it did creep me out a bit. My hands
instinctively balled into fists as I kept my eyes fixed on the body
I could see at the far end and marched right up to him. The floor
was awash with blood and I felt the cold wetness seep through my
pant leg as I knelt down by his side and spread out a couple of the
tablecloths. My eyes began to well up as I put a hand on his chest.
“Thanks buddy, you’re a hero, you know that?” We got him wrapped up
as best we could and carried him back up and laid him down by the
main entrance door alongside the remains of Meesha Roddry and Jena
Marks.