Major Karnage (38 page)

“You’d been captured . . . they were going to . . . I had to misdirect
them . . . there was no time . . . I made a choice . . . I didn’t know who
she was, Major . . . if I’d known that you . . . that she . . . I didn’t know
who she was . . .”

Karnage’s heart jumped. “Sydney. It’s Sydney, isn’t it?”

“I’m so sorry, Major . . . I didn’t know. . . .”

“Where is she, Cookie? Where is she?!”

“They’re preparing her,” Cookie said, “for the Intelligence . . . you
have to destroy it, Major . . . before it takes its new host. . . .”

Cookie shut his eyes, wincing as a powerful blast of white shot up
from his head and into the pipe. It careened through the walls, and
collected around a sealed hatch. The hatch spiralled open, and the
light flowed into it. The light flew down the tunnel, illuminating it
with a dull grey as it went.

“That will take you to the Intelligence . . . but you have to go,
Major . . . you have to go now . . . it knows I’m here. It’s trying to . . .
stop me. I’ll hold it off long as I can . . . no one can go with you, Major
. . . not Vel . . . not anyone . . . the Intelligence can jump from host to
host . . . that’s why you have to kill it now . . . before it wakes . . . it
knows you’re coming . . . it will try to stop you . . . be prepared, Major
. . . it knows everything about you . . . about us . . . it will try to . . .
you have to go, Major . . . you have to . . .”

Cookie shut his eyes. He didn’t speak again.

Karnage stood over Cookie’s limp form, hoping for more.
It never came.

Karnage felt Cookie’s neck. He still had a heartbeat.
Karnage rounded on Stumpy, pointing at Cookie. “Help him.
Figure out what’s wrong with him. How to stop him from bein’ . . .
how to stop that green energy from hurtin’ him.”

“Me?” Stumpy stared down at Cookie’s empty skull. “I’m no
medic, Major. I don’t know the first thing about this. It’s way beyond
anything—”

Karnage grabbed Stumpy and shook him. “You have to try,
Stumpy. You have to try!”

“Major.” Velasquez pushed herself between Karnage and Stumpy,
forcing Karnage to let him go. “There’s nothing you can do.”

Karnage returned Velasquez’s gaze. “There has to be something.
I came so far, and Cookie was there for me, every step of the way.
Without him, we wouldn’t be here. Without him, we’d all be—
goddammit, Vel, there has to be something we can do!”

“There is,” Velasquez said. “You can do what he asked you to do.”

“I can’t leave him like this,” Karnage said. “Not now.”

“You have to. Or we’re all done for. Including Sydney.”

Karnage looked down at Cookie. His fingers tightened into balled
fists. He felt like he was being torn apart. “He stuck by me. Trusted
me to help him. It’s my fault. My fault he’s here. If I hadn’t opened
my goddamn mouth. If I hadn’t lost my head. . . .”

“You’re doing like you always do, Major—the best you can. Just
like Cookie. He knew that. He gave me something to give to you, just
in case. Said I’d knew the time would be right, and I think that time
is now.” Velasquez put something cold and metallic in Karnage’s
hand.

It was a dog tag. Karnage read the inscription.

Cpl. Charles “Cookie” Blunderbuss

C&E – CPN FORCES

Karnage clenched his fist tight. He could feel the metal digging into his hands. “He may have given up on himself, but I ain’t givin’
up on him. Not yet.” He handed the tag back to Velasquez. “Here.
He’ll be needin’ that.” He turned to Stumpy. “You do what you can.
You’re not a miracle worker, but you’re pretty damn close, Corporal.
Try and figure how this contraption works. Just do your best. That’s
all I ask.”

Stumpy saluted. “I’ll give it my all, sir.”

Velasquez shook her head. “You never give up.”

“Not on my troops,” Karnage said. “Not ever. Show me this gear you got for me, Captain.”

Velasquez led Karnage over to the alcove. She handed him a
rocket launcher. “Spragmos Industries RPG-OX9.”

Karnage looked it over. “This is space combat gear.”

“You’ll be going into the centre of the ship,” Velasquez said. “The
atmosphere’s completely toxic there. No real oxygen to speak of.
Only way to get rocket fuel to burn is if it comes with its own oxy.
You’ve only got two rounds, so make ’em count.” Velasquez handed
him a pile of folded clothes and a helmet. “There’s a suit to go with
it. Rumour has it you’re human and need to breathe just like the rest
of us.”

Karnage took the suit. “How much oxy I got in this?”

“Not a lot,” Velasquez said. “Couple hours. Maybe more, if you
only breathe through your nostrils. So try to stay good and pissed
off.”

“You know, I finally get that joke now, Captain.”

“Good for you, Major. You’re cleverer than I thought. That only
took you, what, twenty years?”

“Twenty five,” Karnage said. “But who’s counting?”

Velasquez helped Karnage into his space suit. She attached the
helmet to the metal neck ring with a loud
hiss-chunk
.

“Follow the white lights,” Velasquez said. “They’ll take you to the
centre of the ship. Find the Nucleus, and destroy it.”

“What’s it look like?” Karnage slung the rocket launcher over his
shoulder.

“Like a damn bowling ball,” Velasquez said. “Small grey sphere,
glowing green and sending out pulses. You’ll know it when you see
it.”

Karnage nodded. He slung his goober rifle over his other
shoulder.

Velasquez pointed to it. “If you think you need more firepower, I
got stronger stuff than that. Stuff that actually fires bullets.”

Karnage shook his head. “No point. Killin’ stuff just pisses off ol’
Mabel here.” He tapped the Sanity Patch through his suit.

Velasquez nodded. “Good luck in there, Major.”

“Do me a favour, Vel.”

“Sir?”

Karnage pointed to the hatch. “You see anything come outta
there that don’t look like me, you shoot it. Twice.”

“Only twice?” Velasquez looked disappointed.

Karnage stepped through the hatch, and found himself in another
fibre optic tunnel. Tiny spirals of white light spun along the walls,
and he began to follow them as they shot forward a few feet, spun in
place, then danced back before repeating the pattern again. It was
hard to keep them in sight. He had to twist his entire torso in order
to turn his head, otherwise he found himself staring at the inside
of his helmet.

Karnage found the suit disconcerting, like he was walking
through the world in a dream; his only real companion was his own
steady breathing.

He repeated his mantra in his head, reciting a name for each step
forward he took:
Cookie, Velasquez, Heckler, Stumpy, Koch, Sydney.
Cookie, Velasquez, Heckler, Stumpy, Koch, Sydney. Cookie, Velasquez,
Heckler, Stumpy, Koch, Sydney.

The tunnel flashed as the occasional burst of green shot through
the pipes. Curls of yellow mist hung in the air above him.

He came around a curve in the tunnel, and saw a figure draped
in shadow sitting on the floor, a gnarled energy spear resting on its
shoulder. Its torso was curled forward, head bent down. It cocked an
ear towards Karnage and nodded approvingly to itself. “Oh! Hello,
John.”

Karnage froze in his tracks. He recognized that voice.

“Flaherty.”

The doctor looked up. A burst of green highlighted his face,
giving Karnage a quick glimpse of squiggly pupils. “It’s good to see
you again.”

Karnage pulled his goober rifle off his shoulder as Flaherty
shakily rose to his feet, leaning heavily against his spear with one
hand. His other arm ended in a stump. An extra set of arms emerged
from Flaherty’s armpits, and they gestured towards Karnage. “I
must apologize for not believing you. ‘Unidentified Flying Objects of
Death.’” Flaherty chuckled. “Who would have thought it was true?”

Karnage held the goober rifle in front of him. “I did,” he said.

Flaherty nodded, staring at the floor. “You did, John. You did.
And you were right, weren’t you? You were right about so many
things.” He looked up at Karnage with his squiggly eyes. “And yet,
you were wrong. As you can see, there’s been no death. I’m still here.
They haven’t killed me. In fact, they’ve rewarded me.”

A pair of tentacles unfurled from Flaherty’s back. “They’ve made
me so much better than before. It’s a reward, you see. For all of my
hard work.

“You know, John, on some level, you were right about me. I didn’t
know about the invasion. But they were talking to me. In their own
way. Much as they were talking to Charles, but differently. They
. . . encouraged me. Helped me with my work. Provided me with
insights. But I’m afraid I didn’t get it all right. Not all of it. Not you.

“I’m afraid I must apologize, John. For the Patch. It’s not what
they intended. I was misinterpreting.” Flaherty’s skin filled with
colour, changing from white to yellow to orange to red and back
again. “I didn’t quite get it right, you see. It was . . . an error in
judgement on my part. A misunderstanding. There was so much I
did right. But you . . . you I have done wrong.

“Please understand. I’m not a violent man.” Flaherty pointed the
spear at Karnage. Green energy crackled from the end. “I must rectify
that mistake, you see. Undo what has been done. This is absolutely
not personal. I hold you no ill will at all. It’s just that I mustn’t let
this mar my perfect record. The mistake must be removed, John. Do
you see? Do you understand? The mistake must be removed.”

Karnage threw himself against the wall of the tunnel as the
crackling energy ball shot past him. Karnage aimed his goober rifle
at Flaherty and fired. The pink globule took Flaherty full in the face.
It knocked him back against the tunnel wall, covering his upper
body. The tips of his tentacles quivered violently at the top of the
expanding ball. His energy spear clattered lifelessly to the ground.

Karnage picked up the spear and squeezed past the mound of
quivering goober.

“See you around, Doc.”

The air grew heavy with yellow mist as the tunnel opened up into a
large chamber thick with squiggling tubes. A number of branching
tunnels ran off on all sides, each spilling their mass of tangled pipes
into the chamber. The pipes hung down from the tunnels above like
twisting jungle vines. Karnage felt like he was walking through a
giant junction box.

Green light flowed and coursed through the pipes in all directions.
The white lights danced into the chamber, and dipped and dove
into the maze of pipes. Karnage picked his way through, trying to
keep pace. The flickering white lights flitted like fairies through an
otherworldly forest burning bright with angry green flame.

Karnage felt the floor beneath his feet rumble. He twisted
his body around, and barely caught sight of something large and
black barrelling towards him through the edge of his helmet visor.
Karnage jumped out of the way as the mass hurtled past, smashing
through tangles of pipes before colliding with the wall. There was a
sickening crunch followed by a far too human scream.

The mass rolled over. It looked like a giant maggot with human
limbs sticking out from its body. The remains of a face were just
visible on its snout. Karnage recognized the features.

“Riggs?”

The maggoty creature struggled up, turning to face Karnage.
“I’m surprised you still recognize me, Major. There’s not a lot of me
left to remember.” It’s face scrunched up into a grimace as it let out a
series of rhythmic noises that Karnage thought might be an attempt
at laughter.

“How do you like it?” Riggs rasped. “My big promotion. They told
me I was moving up in the organization. That they wanted my brain.
And they got it. Oh god help me, they got it. My great reward for all
my loyal years of service.”

Riggs’s face contorted. His nose flattened out, pushing his eye
sockets out to either side of his head. He let out a strangled scream
as his lips split. Jagged teeth poked through the gaps.

“You were right, Major,” Riggs wheezed. “I should have died that
day in Kandahar. Should have gone down giving my life for my
buddies.”

“Yeah,” Karnage said. “You should have.”

“It would have been better than this. This isn’t living. This is
hell!” Riggs rolled towards Karnage, gasping. “Please, Major. Put
an end to this. Finish the job I didn’t have the guts to do back in
Kandahar. Please. I can’t live like this anymore. I just can’t.”

Karnage pulled his rocket launcher off his shoulder. He looked
down at the rocket glimmering in its tube, the spare one tucked
against its side. Riggs moaned in agony, rocking back and forth
against the wall.

Karnage shook his head. “Sorry, Riggs. You’re not worth it.”

Riggs started. “What?”

“I can’t afford it. I’ve only got so many Sanity Levels. I’m gonna
need ’em all for the battle to come.” Karnage’s eye caught a streak of
white light dancing near the corner of his helmet. It darted down a
mist-shrouded tunnel. He moved to follow it.

Riggs twisted his body, screaming. “You can’t leave me here like
this!”

“I have to.”

“How can you do this to me?!”

“I didn’t do anything to you, Roach,” Karnage said. “You did it all
to yourself.”

Riggs snarled. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? Watching me
suffer? Enjoying my pain?!”

Karnage turned back to Riggs. His face was fixed into a snarl.
His body rippled and undulated like an angry worm. Karnage slowly
shook his head. “You know, Roach, there was a time that I wouldn’t
have hesitated to pull that trigger. I’d have told myself I was doin’
the right thing—that I was takin’ the high road. Bein’ the hero. But
that would be bullshit. The truth is I want nothing more than to
spray your guts all across the goddamn universe.” Karnage tapped
the side of his helmet. “But that’d be givin’ in to the lizard brain.
Lettin’ my primal urges run the show. I’m thinkin’ big picture now.
Got to put that primal shit aside and get that lizard brain to take a
powder. Got to remember my long-term goals. My reasons for bein’
here. And they sure as hell don’t involve you.”