The Mulligan Planet (2 page)

I had jiggled my keys in the
door for a moment after making it back to my apartment block
through the rushing city when I heard heavy footsteps approaching
me from behind, I popped the door and spun around to see my seventy
something year old neighbour Mr. Hagens. He had a habit of
wandering into my apartment. “Hey there sonny, how was work?” the
words escaped his dried lips like dust shooting from an old chair,
I seriously wondered if he had the oxygen to pump out of his body
to speak, he ran his hand over his almost bald head, his big
blue-green eyes boring into my soul. I began to back into my
apartment as I tried to recall what he had just asked, “Um,
non-eventful.” He rubbed his chin where I’m guessing a beard once
sat. “That’s no fun, I remember when I used to work nights at the
old theatre down in…” I cut him short as I stumbled slightly into
my apartment, “Yeah, I think I should get some sleep. But I’d love
to hear this story tomorrow.” I said as gently as I could.
“Alrighty then. See you tomorrow sonny.” He turned and left. I shut
my door while laying my head against it. I know I sound like a bit
of a bastard, but if I heard about when he worked at ‘The Colonial’
and the Prime Minister came through the doors for the twentieth
time I would kill myself... Or him. I turned around and looked into
my apartment to see my brown leather couch, my blue shag rug and my
TV. I would miss this place, I dropped my keys on the floor and
wandered down the short hallway to my bedroom, pushing open the
door with my fore finger and thumb. I looked into the black that
was my resting place as I began stumbling into my room, roughly
tugging my clothes off and sliding my draws open, producing a white
t-shirt, a long pair of flannelette pants and a towel which decided
to slip off of my shoulder, I grabbed at it without bending over in
the hope that it would miraculously appear back in my hands,
quickly giving up on the hopes of mastering telekinesis, for the
night at least, “I’ll have a shower in the morning.” I said to one
of my open palms. I felt so tired; I began to dress myself and
flopped onto my bed. Maybe I would sleep tonight I happily thought
to myself.

I rolled over to face my bedside
clock, its digital display flicking over to five a.m. I hadn’t
slept again. I sat up and rubbed my throbbing head. The memories of
what my turner had told me, “They will be back, they tried in the
century past and failed, they will be back, eighteen years into the
next millennium.” Those were the last words he said to me, he went
to sleep with his bedside curtains drawn that day. He killed
himself. He used to tell me how the black plague was originally an
attempt to rebuild our species, at first I thought he meant to cull
the human race, but he went on to explain that it was all about
genetics, a very new concept to me in that age. Vampires were a
dying breed in the universe and all of human evolution was
predetermined and planned. Humans were cattle and Earth was a
slaughter house, but something happened. Something that was unclear
to me and to my turner, it spread through the universe, killing off
the vampires, colonies at a time. What was a slaughter house was
now to be a new home. The black plague was released as an attempt
to ‘cure’ the human condition. It failed, the wrong cells were
attacked and the result was death. When I asked him how the first
vampires came into being he had explained that those in the blood
line of two parents infected with the plague who had died after
child birth were the first of our kind to exist on Earth. Vampires
like him could convert other humans into vampires like us, we all
had the weakness to light, didn't heal as fast and were nowhere
near as strong as our fore-species.

The original, pure vampires are
said to continue their research into a cure and if I understood
what he meant by ‘They will be back.’ they’re coming to Earth this
year. I was on the verge of a complete breakdown, the idea that
these massively powerful beings were on their way to Earth wasn't a
comforting feeling. Even less so was the fact that I was unable to
discuss this knowledge with anyone for fear of being committed and
discovered as one of the original monsters. As a result I hadn't
slept in four days and my mind was slipping away, my performance
with the hunters was sub-par to say the least and my lack of
patience was matched only by my lack of an ability to keep food
down. I slid my bedside drawer open and patted through until I
found it, a small sleeve of aluminium. I pulled it out, tore the
top off and shook the pill into my left hand. I let myself have a
moment; this is what I now survived on, pills. I brought my hand to
my mouth and swallowed, letting the vile sensation follow down my
throat, seeming to catch at the roof of my mouth and the back of my
oesophagus. I let out a slight coughing fit before hearing
something unnatural between breaths. Creaking as someone opened the
front door of my apartment. I got up and slowly opened my bedroom
door, my mouth opening to speak but instantly shutting as, instead
of my dozy, usually lost neighbour, there was a man, military
outfitted, scanning my living room.

I slipped backward into my room
and shut the door. I began pacing "Um, um, um, um...." everything
started to bind, my synapses finally kicking over, "Ahh, I have to
get out... Shit, I have to get out!" my hand shot to my mouth as I
dropped down, immediately realising that I had probably been a bit
too loud. I rifled underneath my bed, reaching around in the
darkness before finally gaining a firm grip on my emergency
backpack. I jumped up, feeling prepared to run out but at the same
time the feeling that something was missing. I looked down at my
bare feet, "Shoes, shoes are good." I pulled on my socks and boots,
hearing the man moving to my door, I quickly tied my laces as I
slipped myself into the gap where the door doesn't quite open
against the wall, inhaling deeply and quietly as the door slid
across the carpet slowly, holding my breath and waiting for the
perfect moment. The floor creaked, whoever was in the apartment was
right next to me, I let out my breath and heard his feet shift,
“Boo.” I pushed the door with all my force into the home invader,
creating a thick crack through the door followed by a thud as the
unconscious body hit the floor. I jumped over him and made for the
front door, where another masked soldier stood in front of me.
Black reflective glass showed my dishevelled self, causing a brief
moment of ego declination that was cut short as he brought his gun
to his shoulder while bellowing in a deep Russian boom "Freeze!” I
rammed into his chest with my shoulder, sending him into the
drywall behind him, "Come back later, I'm busy!" I slid left and
ran clumsily to the stairwell. Taking a moment to try and catch my
breath catching a glimpse of a shadow making its way up the stairs,
another one was coming, more probably following, I sighed, “Up I
go. Up is good." I began the three floor climb to the top of my
twelve storey apartment block, pushing through the doors
ungracefully in the hope of being able to look before my jump but
the heavy footfalls behind me prevented any such preparation. I
maintained my clumsy pace and sort of hopped over the ledge,
turning my run into a tumble as I fell through the sky, getting
brief glimpses of a pool beneath me, I attempted to position myself
for a pencil dive just before I hit the water, going all ten metres
down in a second and having my legs explode in pain as they
ploughed into the cobblestone base. I saw the blood begin to billow
around my legs as hands pulled me out of the salty water. That was
right around the time that I blacked out.

I woke up in a chair, one of
those ones with the mini desk attached that could barely hold
anything. On it sat a small notepad, a pen and a large yellow
envelope. Everything was fuzzy as I looked around, there were
people all around me and I could feel my head swaying from side to
side. A voice with a strong German accent rang through, "Hey, look,
he's waking up, good morning
mein freund
!" I felt dizzy, my
whole body was swaying now, I was desperately trying to make words
but nothing came out, I changed course and tried to find the source
of the voice, "Oh wait, he's going back down." My head fell toward
the desk and I blacked out half way. Suddenly I was far away, the
haunting image of my turner, "They will be back."

I was surrounded by fire, people
screaming, "Where are they?” his hand slowly pointed to the sky, my
gaze followed his finger as my face hit the desk. I shot up, eyes
wide, everything was clearer now. "Nope, he's up now." I found the
face that belonged to the German, he had brown eyes and brown hair
with a fifties style comb over, a faded scar ran from below his
left ear, a brown leather jacket with an upturned collar prevented
me from seeing where it ended. He smiled and gave a slight nod,
"You alright there?" I shook my head slightly to get rid of the
last few spots in my vision and smiled weakly, "Yeah, yeah I'm
good." I looked around and saw three others in chairs and desks,
the German occupying one of those, while another person stood at
the front, hands behind his back, standing with exceptional
posture. I followed his body expecting a stern expression but what
sat on his face was one of peace and happiness. He had blue eyes, a
prominent nose and narrow features combined with his seemingly
polished bald head made him almost impossible to not look at. The
two that weren’t already facing me turned. One, a strong faced man,
pale skin, thick jaw, and long brown hair tied into a ponytail,
"We've met." I recognised his accent from somewhere, "Sorry..?" He
chuckled, "You threw me, through a dry wall." he used his hands to
illustrate it. "Oh, I'm so sorry..." he wove me off, "Is good
da
, don't worry about it." Then the final person began in a
soft, sweet voice, "Hi, I'm the only member of the team you didn't
beat the crap out of." she was the only female member of the people
around me. She had shoulder length brown hair, these amazing eyes
that I couldn’t quite tell if were green, grey or a light blue and
beautifully soft skin, she smiled at me and I smiled back shyly.
The bald man cleared his throat and we all looked forward, "Hello
Mr Prince, my name is Anton, I am your link to HQ. Basically I get
the orders for your mission and I pass them on to you. The others
you see around you are Wolfgang," the German gave me a light wave,
"Gregorvich," the Russian nodded politely, "and Kate." The girl
smiled at me. "They are your squad. You, are their leader." My head
was swimming, one minute I'm being dragged from my apartment
block's swimming pool, the next I'm a commanding officer in some
unknown military group, "I... I'm... What?" Gregorvich turned to
me, "I explain
da
? You are older than any of us, you kill a
lot of hunters, you have natural skill, your experience in actual
war zones is... extensive, plus, not many understand my accent so I
can't be leader." Wolfgang looked to him "Ha-ha, don't kid
yourself. That guy in catering with the lazy eye and the speech
impediment would make a better leader than you.” I was freaking
out, and them joking around wasn't helping, how'd I get there, why
was I wearing jeans and a t-shirt, where were my pyjamas, "Hey!"
everyone looked at me. Now I was going to get answers,
"gahflerpaala?" oh crap, now they were all looking at me but I
wanted them to look away, the pretty girl was giggling, Wolfgang
raised an eye brow, "...What?"

"Where am I?" thank God, real
words, Anton piped up, "Just outside Hobart." My palms started to
get sweaty, “How long have I been out?” my eyes were having
difficulty with darting to all the faces, “Four days.” Anton took a
more solemn tone, “Your legs, hips and spine were very badly
damaged, we had no choice but to keep you under. You healed up
within a six hour period, but we weren’t sure how you would react
to the immense pain if we awoke you suddenly. Have you any further
questions please don’t hesitate to ask at a later date, but
unfortunately we are running on a very small clock,” he perked up
again “So I shall begin.” I still had many questions but I figured
the trivial question of ‘where are my pyjamas?’ could wait. I
nodded to him, “Thank you. Now, as most of you know we have
recently confirmed our suspicions that a group has designed and are
currently building a WMD. The exact location of the weapon is still
unknown, but we can say it is somewhere in Northern Mongolia.”

Wolfgang raised his hand and
spoke, “So our job is to drop into Mongolia, locate the weapon and
deactivate it, sounds simple enough.” Anton shook his head, “You’d
think, but no, we’ve already got a team on the ground hunting it
down. No, your job is slightly more local,” he had the lights
dimmed while he started tapping on a tablet causing several images
of people and places to appear on the wall behind him, he pulled
the first image up to the forefront, it was a middle aged Korean
man in a suit, “we have recently discovered there is a summit of
seven of the wealthiest and dangerous weapons developers in the
world,” the screen started scrolling through images of others, “and
they have links to the weapon. Six of them will be meeting in
Brisbane’s CBD,” an image of a skyscraper appeared, “a thirty
storey building currently being rented out as an office block, the
other will be video calling them from his secluded beach-side condo
on the Maroochydore coast.” the bird’s eye view of the condo
showed, “The envelopes on your desks will contain the addresses and
targets. A small elite task-force has been assigned to you, as well
as this you have full access to weapons and vehicles.” The screen
went blank and the lights came back on. “Eliminate the targets in
any way you see fit, try and nab the data, failing in that, destroy
all evidence of your involvement. Other than those objectives the
mission is yours.” Anton looked directly at me and smiled lightly,
“I hope you are as good a strategist as we were led to believe.” I
was completely lost, weapons, angry Korean, Mongolia, Brisbane,
condo, what strategy could I have, what credentials did I have? I
hadn't been an operative of any sort since 2003, all I had now
was... I live in Brisbane, I knew the layout… that’s it. “I am.”
Why did I say that!? “Good, dismissed.” I felt like I was going to
be sick. We stood in oddly formed unison, starting toward the door
in a similar fashion. Gregorvich walked next to me and leaned in,
“You’re scared shit-less aren’t you?” I looked up at him in
surprise and slowly nodded to which he chuckled while clapping me
on the shoulder, “Do not worry friend, you’ll do fine. We’re all
here to help you, just because you’re the leader doesn’t mean we
can’t help,
da
?” I looked up at him, the man was huge, at
least 6’8, his eyes a deep brown, his ridiculously clean and
managed teeth revealed as he smiled, no, beamed at me, even his
vampiric teeth were clean and undamaged. I smiled back weakly.