Vending Machine Lunch (17 page)

Grabbing a
couple of shells from his jacket pocket, Johnston shuffled
backwards across the blood-stained floor and attempted to make a
lunge for his emergency weapon. However, he knew already that he
didn’t have enough time to reload and fire. Especially with his
jittery fingers.

Standing up
tall in front of Johnston, the possessed only gave a second pause
to let out a blood curdling screech filled with pure venom and
frustration, tensed hands held high with fingers stretched out, as
though he was praying to some unknown God.

He was praying
to some unknown God.

He.

That is when
Johnston realised that this particular possessed was actually a
woman. She leapt on top of the stunned and horrified Johnston, just
to have her brains blown out by Josh.

The echo from
the shot resonated around the chamber. Followed by a rather nasty
silence.

Johnston
groaned. The gunshot had caused bloody remains to be splattered
onto his face. He wasn’t impressed.

Josh helped the
spluttering Johnston up to his feet.

“That was a
close one, eh?” he grinned as Johnston coughed up a lung.

Johnston forced
the word “yes” out of his knackered lungs. His breath didn’t feel
good at all. It was shallow and strained, difficult to maintain. He
coughed with the force of a small explosion and spat something
black and liquid-like out of his mouth.

That is when
the last body stood up in front of them. The shadow grew over their
bodies as the half eaten possessed stood up. Its bowels were
flopping out of its body, dripping black blood onto the floor. Its
face was also half eaten, bones and cartilage sticking out of one
cheek, bloody menacing teeth visible from the lack of skin on its
face. It was a mess.

It lumbered
towards Johnston and Josh, without the nimbleness of the other two
thanks to its size. Johnston recognised the guy. Fat Jerry they
used to call him. Everyone used to call him it. He didn’t mind, he
often joked about his weight and how he was heading towards a heart
attack. Johnston often wondered if he actually cared deep down. Not
that any of that mattered anymore, Fat Jerry was now one of the
possessed. A half-eaten disgusting mess of a possessed at that.

Josh slid his
last two shells into his emergency weapon and shot Fat Jerry. With
an ear-splitting bang the shells penetrated Fat Jerry’s shoulder
and dug themselves deep. Fat Jerry didn’t even seem to notice. He
continued his slow possessive approach.

“Johnston!”
shrieked Josh as Johnston recovered from his coughing fit. Johnston
grabbed his emergency weapon, fumbled with his shells and shot Fat
Jerry. His aim for the head was also off. By a long way.

The shells hit
Fat Jerry’s thigh. Johnston cursed and was about to reload when he
heard a sickening clicking sound as Fat Jerry’s femur snapped. Fat
Jerry crashed to the floor, still grunting and attempting to get
up. However, he was no threat to Johnston and Josh now.

“Nice one,”
Josh chuckled, wiping blood off his face and inspecting the fat
possessed in front of him, “That’s Fat Jerry isn’t it?”

“Yeah,”
breathed Johnston. He wanted to throw up. The sight of the
possessed Fat Jerry, jerking about in his own blood, constantly
pouring out of the many orifices that he had, brought on a wave of
nausea.

They stepped
over the possessed hulk of a body and continued down the metal
path, suspended around the resonance chamber.

“We need to
take the lift don’t we?” asked Josh as they walked.

“Yeah,” replied
Johnston, slipping another two shells into his emergency
weapon.

They walked off
the circular suspended path that circled the main hangar and the
resonance chamber and towards a metallic hydraulic door, which lead
to the lift.

The door
sparked and groaned its way open, hydraulics squealing for mercy in
the red light. Silently, they entered the lift.

“Sierra Echo Job here to anyone of high authority. I’m
running blind here, almost out of ammo, surrounded by the
possessed. What are my orders? Over.”

“Which moron
came up with the name, possessed?” asked Josh as the lift creaked
into motion, taking them upwards towards the communications
offices.

“No idea. It
suits I guess. What else would you call them.”

“Sierra Echo Job, it’s Sierra Alpha Jacob here. Your orders
are to regroup with a small team of people located in the upper
section of the Alpha Labs. With them, you can then regroup with us
at the entrance hangar. Good luck. Over and out.”

There was an
oppressive pause as the lift trundled upwards in near darkness.

“Listen…
Johnston… I don’t want to die,” said Josh.

Johnston said
nothing. Still nauseated, the lift continued taking them up.

“I don’t want
to- I’m not ready,” Josh continued, “It’s Jaimie, I think I love
her Johnston, I really think I do. I don’t want to die and I don’t
want her to die-“

“Spare me this
rubbish please Josh,” grunted Johnston, “If you love Jaimie so much
you’ll happily give your life to save hers.”

“We’re all
gonna die anyway,” moaned Josh, tears welling up in his eyes,
“We’re all gonna become demented possessed like Fat Jerry and every
other stinking person I once knew who I’ve had to kill today.”

“Don’t talk
rubbish,” said Johnston, watching Josh wind himself up to a mental
frenzy of panic, “The communications office is just after this lift
ride. We insert the card and get the hell out. The place will be
contained and an investigation will probably have to commence on
why this happened and how it can be solved. A total mess. Just like
everything else on this land.”

The smell of
burning crept up Johnston’s nostrils. He looked up to see that a
section of the wall pipes had caught fire up ahead. For a moment he
panicked that the lift wouldn’t manage it past the flames or they’d
be incinerated, however it became soon obvious that the flames
would simply heat them up slightly at most. The lift shunted it’s
way past them, the roaring of the flames distorting Johnston’s ear
drums. He coughed. The flames were damn hot, furiously licking up
whatever was inside that pipe.

They passed the
flames, the light disappeared under the lift. They were in near
darkness again.

“We’re not
gonna get out of this alive. Even if we do send the transmission
and get out of here,” gurgled Josh, “The Ninety-Nine will get us.
Something as big as this, the Ninety-Nine will want to cover it up
and… clean house.”

“Ninety-Nine?”
asked Johnston, lost and thinking Josh was cracking and going
slightly insane.

“The
Ninety-Nine. You know, the secret group of Ninety-Nine Enforcers
that do the top secret jobs.”

“No such
thing,” snapped Johnston, “I know this government is pretty
diabolical, but there is no secret Enforcer unit. There hasn’t been
anything as disgusting as that since the Mahusay Na Mundo-“

“And you really
believe that?” cried Josh, “Face it Johnston buddy, whatever is
going on here, we’re screwed. We’re out of our depth. The
Ninety-Nine will come and clean everything, no-one will be none the
wiser. We will simply be erased, never existed, taken off the
electoral roll and pretty much taken out of history. No-one will
know of this.”

“It’s
nonsense,” said Johnston doubtfully, “Even if what you are saying
is true, what do you suppose we do? We have regulations to follow
for everyone’s safety and I intend to follow them.”

“We don’t send
the transmission,” was the reply as the lift doors slid open. They
were at the communications tower.

Johnston
stumbled out, aware that he only had ten- or was it eight -shells
left. He could feel them jangling in his pocket as he walked. Josh
followed, a former shadow of his once confident self.

He was going to
reply to what he thought was an inane conspiracy from Josh, however
he decided instead just to confirm with Josh that they were going
in the right direction. Not that there was much choice, just a
dimly lit metal corridor.

They walked
cautiously down, looking at the splatters of blood up the wall. A
little further down, in blood, someone had written some words on
the wall.

DIE SUFFER BURN DIE

Josh thought
the jaded writing was terrifying, “Who wrote that!?” he hissed,
panicking.

“Probably the
possessed, I don’t know,” replied Johnston, suppressing his lungs
and forcing himself not to cough. They had to remain quiet. The
last thing they wanted was a gang of the possessed on their
head.

“Sierra Delta Jay to anyone out there. I’ve locked myself
in storage vent 12alpha-b. I- I fear something is after me, trying
to get in from the other side. Can someone around unlock the door
for me before it gets in? Over.”

“12alpha-b?”
questioned Johnston, “That’s at the end of this corridor isn’t
it?”

“Yeah,” replied
Josh, “Wait- you can’t be seriously thinking to help this guy?”

“All we have to
do is crawl into the vent and flick the unlock switch. We can’t
just leave the guy in there.”

“We?”

Johnston
ignored Josh’s pessimism and pressed the button on his ear
piece.

“Sierra Charlie
Johnston to Sierra Delta Jay, myself and Sierra Bravo Josh are in
the area and we will be there shortly to let you out. Over and
out.”

Almost
instantly, Jacob piped up,
“You will do nothing of the sort Johnston! You
will get that transmission sent as soon as possible and then haul
your arse back to the entrance hanger. You hear me? We will get
Sierra Delta Jay out of the storage vent after…”

“Yes Jacob I
hear you,” said Johnston, fury rising in his chest, “And I’m afraid
you have no authority over me. We will be retrieving Sierra Delta
Jay from the storage vent and then continuing to send the
transmission.”

“Johnston! Sending the transmission in a code red is a
level one priority when the exterior lights are functioning
properly, never mind when they aren’t functioning properly! By
delaying the transmission you endanger the lives of everyone in
this facility.”

“Let me remind
you that we are only in this situation in the first place because
of your inconsiderate folly!” snapped Johnston down the com-link,
“Now we will be retrieving Sierra Delta Jay from the storage vent
before one of the possessed gets him or he dies of air starvation.
And there is nothing you can do about it! Over and out!”

They had now
reached the door to enter the communications offices. To the right
of the door, on the corridor wall, was a ladder leading to a small
metal grill. The grill was hanging off slightly; it hadn’t been
fitted on properly. This was the vent that lead to the storage vent
chamber.

“You cannot be
serious about this,” whispered Josh.

“Oh, not you as
well,” coughed Johnston, “Well I’m guessing you’re not going
crawling in then.”

“Am I hell!”
replied Josh, “This was your idea! You go and save the guy!”

Johnston sighed
and began up the ladder, “You’re all heartless,” he uttered as he
removed the grill and entered the small vent.

Johnston had
expected to have a wave of cool air hit him inside the vent. When
that didn’t happen, he sat upright, feeling slightly nauseated
again. He looked down at the unfriendly metal sight, which slowly
disappeared into darkness. Making sure his emergency weapon was
ready and taking a deep breath, Johnston began shuffling down the
vent on his bum cheeks, the light slowly fading as he
continued.

The vent was
noisy, despite Johnston trying to remain quiet. The slightest
movement turned to an almost deafening boom thanks to the sound
reflecting metal that the vent was constructed with. Turning a
corner, Johnston was now plunged into complete darkness. He
stopped, pausing to breathe and regain his strength and nerve.

A ghostly
silence fell upon him, the noise from his movements had continued
reverberating a while, before decaying to a range inaudible by
Johnston. He breathed a little more, sucking in air into his poor
abused lungs. Johnston suddenly realised he was terrified. Sweat
was dripping from his head, his heart was pumping loudly, he felt
sick and faint.

“Jay? Jay? You
still in there?” he murmured down the com-link.

“Yeah mate. You couldn’t hurry up could you please? I-I’m
certain something is h-here…”

“Don’t worry,
just, one, minute,” Johnston felt very sleepy, he was slowly
sliding down into a lying position, “I’ll… I’ll… be… there…”

“Mate?”

Shallow
breathing got shallower. Johnston’s vision blurred. How ultimately
tempting it was just to let go, forget it all, go to sleep. He’d
wake up in his unpalatable flat with nothing more than another day
fighting the continuous ego battle with Jacob. It suddenly dawned
on Johnston on how miserable his life was. But compared to current
events, it seemed like bliss. His sad miserable existence of
working, smoking and sleeping sounded distant and somewhat
desirable. Johnston felt that at that moment, he would have given a
lung to go back to that pathetic amoeba-like lifestyle. Oh how he
missed his pit of despair.

“Johnston mate, you need to hurry up! Something’s here-
something’s- ...”

Johnston bolted
up, still feeling nauseated. The panicking voice down the com-link
kicked him back to life. He felt oxygen spread across his body as
his weak veins worked overtime thanks to about twenty years of
adrenaline being used for the first time. The vent echoed in
reaction to his reaction to Jay’s pleas.

“Johnston! It’s here! Oh gawwd, what the fu- … - what the?
HELP ME! SOMEONE HELP ME!”