The Mulligan Planet (17 page)

Neysor’s blood pumped loudly in
his ears as he ran toward the doctor’s room, he was having to
constantly remind himself that he was awake and that his love was,
in fact, great with child. The end of the hall was in sight and
Neysor struggled to remember which of the many doors was the
doctor’s, “Doctor?” a door a few feet from him opened and he ducked
into the dimly lit room where the doctor sat at her desk, “Hurry up
would you?” Neysor went to bark at her for insubordination but
stopped himself when he saw her excited face as he made his way
toward her desk, “What is it doctor?” she turned her head up to
him, her pale grey eyes darting between her computer and Neysor’s
face. He remembered when he had first met her, it was just over two
hundred years prior, she was a little girl with a passion for
helping people and, for one hundred and fifty years, she had
trained under the watchful eye of Neysor before starting out on her
own, abandoning her name, as many chose to do, and simply became
who she was; a doctor. “I fixed it commander!” Confusion and
insubordination were apparently the day’s themes. “Fixed what?” she
pointed frantically at her screen, “The neural decay and viral
component!” Shock filled the room as Neysor shook his head in
disbelief. He tapped the screen’s top and grabbed the rectangular
cartridge that came out before plugging it into a port in the wall
behind him which lit up and splashed the room in colour from the
graphical data, “How? How did you do this?” the amazement on his
face only continuing to intensify as he read, “I don’t know
commander, I was working with what Lai sent me from engineering
after I tended to her wounds and it all fit together.” There was a
connection in the data, something else beyond the perfected cloud,
“Wait… Here, if we released this the effects of the initial virus
would be reversed!” the doctor nodded happily, “Yes commander, we
could rebuild this world. So shall I send the data to the other
ships?” Neysor struggled to make words as he read through
everything in front of him, “No, not just yet. Call everyone to the
bridge, we are going to have a celebration.”

Being back in relative safety
felt good, I closed my eyes as I splashed water onto my face, the
white porcelain sink now a rusty red, the rain hadn’t quite rinsed
out my beard fully. I looked up into the mirror, yes I have a
reflection, deal with it. Anyway, being a vampire I’d grown out my
hair very quickly, it fell in ringlets and bounced as I moved,
while my beard was thick and soft, hanging down past my neck, it
kept it warm but was starting to get in the way. I tied my hair
back with a band from the corner of the sink and started trimming
with a pair of scissors; the thick bunches falling into the red
stained porcelain, the shape of my face slowly becoming clearer. It
felt strange, like my head was a kilo lighter, “Johnathon! Get out
here!” I dropped the scissors and shook my hair until the band came
loose before walking through the bathroom doors and into the open
lounge room where the light from half a dozen candles bounced
around the otherwise pitch black room, “I was born John Prince, no
athon. What do you want?” The guys were bundled around the couch
with a large piece of paper, “Plan time, I need help to figure this
thing out, what exactly is the idea, who goes with the plane?”
Steve put his hand up, “I'll go, I've got a feeling that being a
vampire will have its advantages in this mission.” I felt
uncomfortable being with a guy who hadn't exactly been happy about
finding me, but he had a point, “Alright, we'll take the plane, you
two stay on the ground, as soon as that thing comes down get to
tracking everyone.” Marcus was rubbing the towel wrapped around his
neck on his ears, “They may not all be together, who should we
focus on tracking primarily?” a second didn't pass before I let
out, “Kate, find Kate.” Mark opened and closed his mouth a few
times before settling for a nod, Steven wasn't so kind, “What if
she's dead?” I looked at him, his eyes cold and empty, locked with
mine, he really hated me, “Simple, if that's happened I kill
everything, with my hands.” he broke the stare and chuckled
condescendingly, “You really think highly of yourself, don't you
John?” I gnashed my teeth in my mouth, “Yeah, I really do.” He
looked back at me, a sly smile playing across his lips, “You know
she doesn't love you John. She used to work at that bar, you know?
The one with Amanda,” my hands clenched, he was doing this
deliberately, “yeah, she wore that uniform pretty well, this time
we went back to mine the-” I lunged at him before he could finish
his words, my nails hitting his chest and digging into the flesh,
he let out a roar of pain and caught my arm, quickly twisting it
behind my back, using the other to lock around my neck, pulling
inward in what felt like an attempt to decapitate me, I used my
free arm and slammed my elbow into his ribs loosening his grip on
me, bringing me an opportunity, I dropped down, spinning my body in
the process and tripped him up with my leg. He tried to catch
himself when he spun as I shot back up, driving my fist into his
lower back, there was a dull crunch and he collapsed onto the
floor, his mouth wide open but no sound escaped.

I knelt down beside him, “That's
why I'm sure of myself.” I stood back up, Harry had his sword drawn
while Marcus had taken to sitting on the couch, catching me looking
at him disapprovingly, “What? Like I’m going to get involved in a
vampiric punch up, hopefully this- whatever
this
is, sorts
out, at least for the next few days, we need to go see those
bandits, like you said, we could make some good bombs with that
fuel.” I rolled a cringing Steven over with my foot, “You're coming
with me to the bandits, understood?” he snarled slightly, then
half-nodded, “Good, now get up.” he just kept staring at me, pain
and annoyance in his eyes. It took me a few seconds to realise what
I’d done to him, “You can't move, can you?” there was a long pause
before he shook his head, “Are you going to fight me again?” he
shook his head, “No, I get it. And what I said about Kate... That
wasn't true.” I let out a sigh, “I know, come on, I'll help you get
to the couch.” I extended my hand, but he remained flat on the
floor, “I can't move at all.” I withdrew my hand, “Right, damn,
well, Harry, get him a blanket, I think we should turn in anyway,
we'll head to the camp tomorrow.” Marcus poked me in the shoulder,
“I don't think that's happening. Everyone down!” I dropped down as
the windows shattered, Harry was now laying on the other side of
Steve, “Hey John! Why don't we try talking to them?” we both just
laughed under the roar of gunfire, “You first!”

The shooting continued for
several more seconds before stopping suddenly, allowing for a voice
to call across the street, “Good evening gentlemen, how are you
holding up!?” I still hadn't stopped laughing, “I like these guys,
very polite, I'm going to introduce myself.” Marcus tried to pull
me down but Harry grabbed his arm, still unable to wipe the grin
off his face, “Let him go, I want to see how this goes.” I looked
through the shattered window frame to see that in the opposite
building's second floor stood three men, balaclavas covering their
faces, “Hello! How are you?” The front man gave me a thumbs up,
“We're doing really rather well this evening, seeing as you
survived that blast I think it's only fair to give you a chance,
give us the guns mate and we'll be on our way!” I gestured for
Harry and Marcus to move Steve away as a grabbed the frying pan
which had held our dinner, “Well, I don't know about guns! But I do
have this lovely pan!” a bullet whizzed past my head, “I won't miss
next time!” I gave them a huge smile, “Good!” I brought the pan in
front of my face as bullets flew, entering my body but just as
quickly exiting, it hurt, but nowhere near as much as it had been
before.

The firing ceased and I brought
down the pan, my wounds healing over under my now tattered and torn
clothes, “Look at what you've done! I loved this shirt!” I frisbeed
the pan at one of the shooters, spraying blood on their messenger,
“And you're still not getting my guns!” the remaining two had
darted back into the dark room, “Come back! I thought we could be
friends!” I looked around to see the others sitting behind the
kitchen bench, I tore off my destroyed shirt and tossed it aside,
“Harry, can you grab my bottle and a new shirt from the bag? And if
you can move Steve, you're coming with me, I'm going to sniff those
guys out.” Harry tossed the bottle wrapped in a shirt and I caught
it as Steve came to his feet, “How are we meant to track them?” I
drained the bottle and discarded it before pulling on the long
sleeved blue shirt, “No, I'm literally going to sniff them out.” I
jumped out the window and landed on the ground with a light thud,
“Come on, zeds will be on us any minute with all that gunfire.”
another thud shook the road as Steve dropped down next to me, “Race
you up there.” before the word race had escaped my lips Steve had
launched up into the air and straight through the window, “Woah...
How did you... hmm.” I took a step back, a deep breath, reassured
myself and launched off of my back foot and through the air, this
was one of the most exhilarating feelings of my life, I was
actually gliding as I went through the window, it was amazing until
my foot hooked on the windowsill and I went face first into the
body, “Nice one John, so how are we meant to sniff these guys out?
And why didn't we just follow them?” I brought myself into a
crouched position and took a drop of blood onto my finger from the
goon's splattered face, “We can't just wait in the shadows, they're
looking for us, they'd spot us in a second, and I'm going to show
you if you give me a second.” I snorted the blood off of my finger
and felt the rush, “Those guys got sprayed in their friend’s blood.
Hopefully it soaked into their clothes and will hold off from the
rain.” I breathed inward and immediately detected the traces all
through the room, “Back out the window, it's too pungent in here.”
we dropped back to the street and I breathed in once more and could
smell the faintest traces going down the street, “I found them,
let's go.”

Our feet hit the floor at the
same time as we darted down the darkened street, “What are your
plans when we get to these guys?” the scent had drifted left, “Ask
for it nicely and when that doesn't work we're going to kill them
all and take it.” we went around a corner and the faint glow of
floodlights in the distance came into view behind the small rows of
houses, “That'd be the park, let's get onto one of those houses and
scope out what we can before heading in there.” We hugged one of
the walls as I followed a drain pipe with my eyes, “We climb that
and we'll have a vantage point.” I felt a tap on my shoulder, “Two
seconds,” I peered between the houses, “John...” I put my hand up,
“I'm thinking, shut it.” his elbow pushed between my shoulder
blades, “What!? You're acting like a damned child... Oh...” while
turning several gun barrels met my gaze, my hands went behind my
head without the bandits having to say a word, “I take it we'll be
going with you guys then?” That's when the rifle butt met with my
temple, from there I zoned in and out, they were dragging Steve and
I, oddly enough my biggest cause for distress was the fact that my
clothes were getting soaked.

I came to properly when a light
was flashed in my eyes, I was in a chair, my hands bound behind my
back while my feet were strung to the front legs of the chair while
Steve sat in a similar state across from me, looking on
disapprovingly, “I suppose you're going to blame me for this?” he
shrugged and looked away, “Oh come on, don't be like that, I'm sure
we can figure a way to-” a guy in a black suit stepped between us,
I could barely make out anything about his face in this lighting,
just his glasses, “Get out? Not overly likely.” he had a
surprisingly kind voice, but it did little to calm my sense of
being trapped and I was quickly flexing out of the binds, “You must
be the dominatrix, I'll play my part. But master, are you sure this
is right?” he laughed, “That's a good one, so few reasons to laugh
these days, and please don't break out of those binds, they were
hard to find,” I heard a familiar click behind me, “and I really
don't want to have your brains all over this suit, so please, sit
still.” I stopped struggling, juggling whether it was worth testing
if I was vulnerable to being shot in the head or not, I went with
not. “What do you want?” I could smell the blood from the
messenger, one of the guys was here, meaning he was already
terrified, “What do I want? Hm, let's see, control, power-” he
paced the tent in front of me before stopping and staring me down,
“ORDER!” I retreated back into my chair as far as I could,
'Right... He's one of those...' “One of what's now?” I began to
doubt myself, had I said that out loud? “No, now stop thinking of
ways to get away.” 'Telepath, interesting, courtesy of that gas I
suppose, must've affected some people differently, but can you
respond?' he smiled falsely, “No, unfortunately, but this has been
useful regardless.” I smiled back, “Were you always a crazy nut-bag
with a God complex?” he stood back up, putting one hand on his
waist and the other on his chin looking around ponderously for a
moment before shaking his head slowly, “Yes, one hundred and ten
percent.” he cracked his knuckles and began for the exit, “Wait!”
his head dropped, “No, I don't have your friends and I haven't seen
them.” there was a long silence, “Thank you.” He nodded, “You're
welcome, now, I leave you in the capable hands of... I don't know,
evil henchman twelve.” a voice emerged from behind me, “Boris sir.”
The suited man rubbed his face, “I know, I know, but the true
question is, do I care? Watch them.” he walked out of the tent and
Boris walked between Steve and I, the scent of hard liquor on his
breath, “That guy you killed was a good friend of mine you know?” I
looked past him and at Steve, “Kill him?” he shrugged and nodded as
we both shot off of our toes and into Boris' stomach with our
shoulders, instantly crushing his internal organs and causing him
to cough a vast amount of blood and gore across my back. After a
few seconds of coughing and spluttering we collapsed into a pile on
the floor where I was able to bust out of my binds, “Delightful.”
we stood up, well, except for Boris, it felt wrong killing so many
humans when there were so few left, “Oh quit your moaning, it's
your fault we're even in here.” I tore the bindings off my legs,
“Yeah, let's play the blame game right now!” The tent door flew
open and showed a man with buzzcut brown hair in camo uniform,
“WILL YOU ALL SHUT-” his eye's darted from Steven, to me, to the
crushed Boris, his mouth wide open, I looked at Steven who just
tilted his head and pointed at the newcomer, “That's your fault
too.” I huffed.