The Mulligan Planet (5 page)

We took a turn down a well-lit
street with large potted plants where I felt the road should’ve
been, I noticed how my shoes reacted to the cobblestone as opposed
to the flat pavement, occasionally dipping into the ground. “After
my years of rest, I served in World War I and II, spent most of my
time in France and Belgium from 1915 to 1918, then Germany and
Japan in the 40’s. I did some mercenary work during the Cold War
and then went to Vietnam. As unlikely as it sounds I initially went
there to begin a new time of relaxation, study the many new things
the world had to offer. Psychedelics, music, food, I needed it all.
But after a few weeks the bullets went flying and I was put in a
position to bear arms again. '92 onward to '03 I did more contract
and operative work, mostly hits and whatnot.” A bright neon sign
was above a door made of glass read ‘Peter’s fish and chips’. There
was an image of a blue fish painted on one of the windows which
took up almost the whole wall.

“This is the place.” We crossed
the street and pushed the door open to be hit with the strong smell
of fried goods and burning cheese. A young, blonde, bearded man
came running out from behind a large refrigerator filled with
various drinks and containers of what appeared to be chocolate
pudding. “How can I help you today?” His voice was low, although
somehow perky. I waited for Kate who was looking up at the menu,
“You want to order first?” she looked over at me, “Yeah sure, um,
could I get the beef burger with no cheese or onions, and a
chocolate thick shake.” I look over the menu once more and settled
on a meal, “Could I get a works burger and a medium chips.” I reach
into my pocket for my wallet and found a bank card with the numbers
‘7825’ written on sticky tape wrapped around it which I peeled it
off and stuffed in my pocket. Our server punched in the last of our
order and looked up at me, “Any drinks for you?” I pushed my wallet
back away, “Just water thanks.” He smiled and scratched his beard
lightly, a twinge of sadness fell over me as I remembered Pat doing
the exact same thing and how I would probably never see him again.
“That’ll be $12.50.” I shook off the slight depression, “Yep, just
on the card thanks.” He lifted a small EFTPOS machine and punched
in the numbers, “Just on savings?” I let out a small laugh while
involuntarily pulling a semi-deranged smile, “I don’t know, yeah,
let’s try savings.” He regarded me for a moment and slowly handed
me the machine, “Just… enter your pin… and push ok.” I swiped my
card, punched in the digits and after a few seconds the satisfying
‘Approved’ popped up at which point I put the machine on the
counter, “Rightyo then, I’ll go set that up for you, about ten
minutes or so.”

“Thanks. You want to go for a
walk?” Kate smiled at me and nodded, “Yeah, a walk would be nice.”
We stepped back out into the cold street, I was slowly
acclimatising, we walked toward the road, I looked over to Kate and
caught her smiling over at me, “This is nice, not so fast paced as
the rest of life.” I began to cross the road just ahead of her,
“Yeah. Calm, peaceful.” I stopped halfway across the road and
gently grabbed her by the waist and looked into her eyes, she
smiled up at me as I lowered my head to hers where her soft lips
collided with mine, it felt so nice, so perfect, I couldn’t help
smiling slightly. We stayed that way for a few seconds before I
pulled away, “That was magnific…” I was stopped as I was hit by a
force as hard as a car and thrown a few feet in the air before
landing flat on my face, I struggled to turn my head to see, yes, I
was, in fact, hit by a car. My entire body felt sore, I could feel
I’d definitely fractured something; I must’ve subconsciously jumped
at the last second. I saw all four of the black sedan’s doors open,
producing four men in long black overcoats, a red cross sitting
above the heart, each wielding a baseball bat, low end guys I
silently laughed to myself, “Stay away ma’am, this here is a very
dangerous monster.” The men made their way toward me as I rolled
onto my back, “That one actually hurt a fair bit, nice job fellas,
though the outfits, bit nineties German-techno scene for my taste.”
One of them, I’m guessing the ringleader, balanced with one hand on
his bat and used the other to rub his bald head down to his strong
jaw, all the while giving me a wicked smile, revealing his sickly
yellow teeth, “Oh, you liked that huh? Then you’ll love this. But
first, any last words?” he bumbled out in a slightly Irish accent,
or drunk, I don't know honestly, “Yeah, just a question, why do you
guys keep coming at me with less numbers? It clearly isn’t
working.” I grabbed the base of his bat and pushed it up, resulting
in a powerful cracking sound and me getting covered in broken teeth
and blood as he reeled backward.

At this point one of them had
gone to hit me with his bat yet had quickly been thrown from view,
giving me enough time to get to my feet. There was a sound of
bending metal and smashing glass as I took a swing at the one on my
left and felt a massive stabbing pain shoot like an electric shock
through my arm as it connected with his soft jaw, his head cracked
to the left and a light burst of blood and saliva hit the
cobblestone as he fell. I gripped my arm, exhaling sharply as a
grunt came from my right and a bat collided with my leg, sending
another shock from my calve to my hip, eliciting a howl of pain
that I didn’t know I could make, I fell involuntarily to my right
as I heard another snap and a body fell next to me with its head on
a slightly demonic angle. The pain began to subside in my leg but
my arm was still killing me, the sound of a set of light footsteps
closing in on me had upgraded from annoyance to possible problem,
getting ready for another hit I was pleasantly surprised as I felt
soft hands slowly helping me up, “Come on, let’s take a seat for a
minute, police will sort them out.” She guided me to a bench that
sat behind one of the large potted plants and we did as the plant
did and sat. I could feel the pain quickly rushing away from my
leg, probably only a fracture I thought to myself, although my arm
was a different story. I was acutely aware that it was severely
damaged; the being run over thing probably didn’t help, throwing
the punch would've made the situation worse. I must’ve torn
something, but I was much less worried about that than how Kate
was, “You alright love?” she seemed slightly disturbed when I faced
her directly, “I’m fine, are you? You just got hit by a car and it
looks like your face took a Hell of a beating.” A light breeze
touched my face; it felt as if I’d been slapped with a glove laden
with needles. A drop of blood fell on my now torn up pants, “It’s
healing though, quite well, should be fine in a few seconds, if
not, a minute, how’s the arm?” the chill in the air was acting as a
full body ice block, helping the leg and the bruising around my
body, but my arm needed heat if I were to heal quickly, “I think
I’ve torn a muscle.” I could actually feel the flesh on my chest
and face healing, the skin brushing against my shirt, “Let’s get
you inside, you look pretty healthy now, he might have a heat-pack,
if he doesn’t he’ll have a tea towel and water.” I stood myself up
and there was no pain. I felt proud of my durable body as we began
our walk back to the shop I could hear sirens going off in the
distance and felt an even larger need to get inside, the
authorities and myself never got along so well.

We pushed the door open and the
bearded man was waiting near a glass panelled container that took
up the majority of the left side of his counter with two Styrofoam
boxes and a small box wrapped in newspaper stored inside, “What’s
happened to you?” I shrugged, “I fell, could I get a warm towel or
something.” He tilted his head slightly, “Into what, a wood
chipper?” I winced as another wave of pain rolled over me and half
collapsed into a waiting stool in front of the counter, “Please,
I’m in quite a lot of pain.” He nodded and went out the back once
again, I heard a tap turn on and off several times as we leaned on
the counter, when he appeared he had an old green tea towel that
was dripping all over his counter, “It’s a bit wet.” He dropped it
in my waiting hand, “Thank you, that’s fine.” As soon as the towel
hit my arm the pain seemed to be leeching itself into the
towel.

I felt my shoulder get lightly
squeezed and looked up at Kate’s smiling face, “You feeling any
better?” there was a tingle through my body as it finally began to
heal itself completely, “So much better.” There was a light thud on
the counter as the bearded guy put the bag containing our dinner,
really wish I’d learned that guy’s name, anyway, he put a bottle of
water and a large plastic cup with a thick brown liquid rolling
around inside it onto the counter, “You two have a safer night.” I
scooped up the bag and water, feeling the pain in my arm was no
longer existent I handed him back the towel with a nod, “Thank you
again.” He wove me off and disappeared to the kitchen once more as
we pushed through door. The street felt slightly warmer, despite my
torn clothing, Kate’s arm linked with mine, I heard the soft sound
of slurping as she drank. “So what’re we going to do now?” I felt
her arms shrug against mine, “Want to go see the beach?” I tossed
this around in my brain, “Yeah, beach could be good.” We made our
way back to the car. People began to slip out of their concrete
shelters to embrace the city’s lights, I watched as the breath
turned to steam as it escaped their mouths, pushing a serene
thought to my mind, 'I could drain all of you of your blood in a
few minutes', I let out a sigh and when we reached the car I opened
my door and climbed in, pulling it closed once I was inside. Kate
slid in next to me, “Mind if I put the heater on? I’m freezing in
here.” I shook my head. Kate’s hands shot for the heater knobs and
spun them up to full; my face got blasted with warm air as I
grabbed the wheel and pulled out into the now busy traffic, Kate
shifted in her seat, “Mmm, what is this stuff? It’s delicious.” I
looked over to discover she’d finished off my bottle, and
immediately shot my eyes forward, ‘oh crap oh crap oh crap, I’ve
drugged her.’ “Ummm… that’s something I made.” I found myself
sweating and clenching the wheel as I drove toward the coastline,
“What’s it got in it?” I must’ve opened my mouth a dozen times
before I came up with the perfect lie, “Scotch and blood.” ‘Oh
great job, grade A.’ I felt her eyes leave me, “Oh, well that
explains a lot.” the food shifted in the back seat as we turned a
particularly sharp corner and onto a long stretch, “What do you
mean?” her hand slid up my thigh and I veered to the right side of
the road, and back to the left, not before getting screamed and
honked at by passing drivers. “Woah!” I looked over at her smiling
slyly at me, her hand made its way higher, “How about we skip the
beach and make our way back to your place?” I swallowed a lump that
must’ve been the size of an apple. “Oh… Ok.”

‘Come on, why’re you so jittery?
Let’s go!’ I really seem to have a lot of inner dialogue when it
comes to high stress environments, don’t I? Anyway, I swear this
wasn’t me, it was the inner dialogue, the inner dialogue hit the
brakes, spinning the car around, and accelerated back the way we
came. We were halfway back to the base, the road was completely
devoid of life, when Kate lifted her hand, she grabbed my hand and
put it on her thigh, just under her skirt, my heart was going
crazy, and then she brought it right up and began moving my hand
around. A moan escaped her lips and she arched her back against the
seat, her breath getting heavier, “Let’s have some fun…” she moved
my hand and climbed on top of me, “Oh… I think we’re having plenty
of fun… lots of, you know, non-dangerous fun.” She began to grind
against me, leaned in and starting kissing my neck, her moans
became more frequent, “I… oh… disa… oooh… agree…” I saw the base’s
lights begin to come into view, “We’re… almost at the base… Why
don’t we continue this inside?” I moved her head with mine, she
looked into my eyes, breathing heavily, bit her lip, and smiled,
“Alright, but be quick about it.” She jumped back into her seat and
I floored the accelerator, next thing I knew I was fumbling with my
keys while Kate wrapped her arms around my midsection, sliding them
down, “Screw this, could you take a few steps back?” her hands slid
off of me when I grabbed the door handle, preparing myself to catch
the door as I pulled, but instead of tearing the door from its
hinges I ripped the handle out of its socket, “That’ll do.” I spun
to grab Kate but she’d got the jump on me, literally, she jumped on
me and I tumbled backward through the door.

Her lips pushed up against mine,
I hooked my foot on the door awkwardly in an attempt to close it,
resulting in my legs hooking together causing me to tumble backward
onto the rug with Kate still on top of me. I rolled her on her back
and began running my fingers up her sides, she pushed me up off of
her and slammed me into the wall behind me, ripping my torn clothes
off me. I tore her jacket and top off to reveal a black bra while
she kicked her boots off and worked on my belt, I grabbed her ass
and reversed us, pushing her into the wall. I started kissing her
neck and she pushed my head down in between her breasts while
running her fingers through my hair, I slid my hand up her thigh
and felt her tremble as I pulled out her lingerie from under her
skirt and threw them to the side, I lifted my head back up to see
her eyes half closed, her breath licking my face, “Don’t stop…” she
whimpered. I shuffled my pants down slightly and pushed myself
inside her, she let out a moan, wrapped her legs around me, pulling
me closer, and I resumed kissing her neck, “Bite me… slowly…” she
whispered in my ear between heavy breaths and moans. I sunk my
teeth into her neck and felt my mouth fill with the sweet,
tantalising taste of fresh vampiric blood. She scratched my bare
back and screamed in pleasure. After what felt like hours we
collapsed on the floor panting in a helpless sense, our body heats
reflecting from one another. She lay there beautifully, her chest
heaving with each passing breath, her hair spread out on the
hardwood floors, my hand wrapped around hers and right as I fell
into a deep sleep a single thought passed through my mind, ‘I
really like it here.’