“Were cornered in here,” I said, quietly.
We backed up against the wall and stood in silence as we heard the loud clangs of the exoskeleton suit, come towards the door. The figure flung the door apart with a single swipe and stepped through. There was no back door. No way out but past him.
Florina said, “Look,” as she pointed towards one of the immortals. It was twitching. Our pursuer hesitated as he watched the room come alive with the dead. Bones which had been static for years crumbled under the fresh pressure of their internal enhancements.
They couldn’t get to their feet, though some tried. They crawled on all fours as their dry flesh cracked and split. They tapped along the ground like spiders and pounced onto the man’s exoskeleton.
He kicked them away with ease. Dried out bodies flew against the walls and shattered. He was slowed down and distracted, but still he blocked our escape. The immortals kept picking themselves up and flinging their bodies against his hard metal torso, until they were too broken to move. The remains were left to squirmed on the floor; a grin of death frozen on across faces.
The armoured figure took one last step towards us and stopped. A moment later he said, “Hey, it’s me Roy. Don’t worry I’ve taken control of him now.”
“Roy?” I said.
Florina explains to me that his was the software that helped us escape. He’s been infecting her Rhealian mind implant for years.
“Infecting? He’s a virus?” I said.
Florina walked towards the exit, saying, “Let’s get to the ship.”
“Wait, no, no. We can’t leave,” explained Roy, “We’ve only just got here. Isn't it wonderful. I can control everything - all these creatures.”
“There’s nothing worth controlling here,” said Florina.
Roy didn’t respond.
“Come on, let’s leave,” she said, walking out. I began to follow her.
Roy marched up to us from behind, His feet clanged hard against the ground.
He said, “Come with me, I want to show you something.”
We both shrugged our shoulders and followed.
We walked down street after street.
I said, “Let me get this straight, there is a man inside this suit and the suit is being controlled by you?”
“That’s right,” said Roy, “The bounty hunter. He’s really panicking right now, I can tell you.”
Florona reached out and touched the metal exoskeleton. Her hand flinched as if she was surprised by the cold.
She said, “I was controlled by those internal enhancement when I was last here. It was terrifying.”
“Yes, it’ll be different this time,” said Roy.
“How do you mean?”
“Well, I’ll only take control when needed. Other times, I’ll let you be your own boss.”
We stopped dead in our tracks as Roy walked on.
“You plan on putting those implants into us?” I said.
He turned and stepped towards us reaching out for us with his grippers. Again we found ourselves running away through the streets.
The rattling sound of resurrecting immortals resumed. They started to burst out from every street corner and every building. White spidery machines, bones wrapped up in cloth, rattled cumbersomely along the ground.
They weren’t fast or efficient. Not anymore. As we ran more and more fell behind, fragile bones, too broken to be pushed along.
Eventually we cleared them all, and we continued in the direction of the shuttle.
Florina held my shoulder, and said, “He won’t let us leave. He won’t let the shuttle take off. He’s in my head. He knows things I know, I don’t know how much.”
“I see why you were so desperate to have him gone.”
“He always been asking me about Rhea. He would tell me, every night, how special he thought my mind implants were. He must have planned this from the start. It would have been him that sent our shuttle to this place. His only purpose used to be his mission. I think I’m a part of him now. I must have given him his new ambition.”
“What was his mission?”
“To destroy the ship.”
“What ship?”
“Any ship.”
Chapter 6
Clearing the city, we travelled through woodland outside. I had a pretty good sense of direction and was confident we’d come across the shuttle ahead.
They were almost on top of us when they emerged from the undergrowth. The people were filled with fear as they ran. They were wrapped in leather and animal skins. The primitives of this world. They ran towards us and scattered in fear on noticing our presence.
We both saw this as a sign that the way ahead wasn’t safe. Perhaps Roy had spread his control to all the immortals of this world. All of them now coming alive with the purpose of catching us.
We shot off at a tangent. We’d have to circle whatever’s ahead. It was starting to get dark and, though I had no idea if we could even fly the ship, I dreaded the idea of staying overnight.
Eventually, we came to a clearing and saw the shuttle in the distance. There were immortals around the base.
“Do you think we can fight them off?” I asked.
Florina said, “We could get them to chase us until they break, like the others did.”
I nodded. It seemed like the safest method.
We walked closer, readying ourselves for any reaction. They let us get within fifty metres of the ship before they even reacted to our presence. They scurried to the side of the ship we was heading and waited. They weren't going to chase us until we got close.
“Does Roy know our plan?” I asked.
“Probably,” she replied.
Twenty metres now. We held our place. The immortals just stayed there.
“This isn’t going to work,” I said, “They’ll be calling for reinforcements.”
Sure enough, we noticed more immortals emerging from the woods behind us and we fled. Our plan was a failure. At least we knew the immortals were reluctant to get involved in a chase. After a couple of hours, we found a spot by a tree to spend the night. We talked about taking it in turns to sleep but when I woke it was morning and Florina was asleep by my side.
“We have to try again,” said Florina as she came round.
I nodded, getting off this planet seemed our only hope.
I said, “We should try the other ship. The bounty hunter’s ship.”
“We don’t know where it landed.”
I said, “I think I can work out where it went down from the position of the shuttle.”
We made our way back to the shuttle. It seemed deserted.
“It’ll be a trap,” said Florina.
I agreed, but it was tempting.
I said, “We should take a closer look. If it’s a trap we can run.”
We got closer. Twenty metres - no sign of life. Ten metres - nothing? Then three immortals emerged and ran at us. Upright on two legs. These were new. The primitives we’d passed in the wood. They pounced on Florina and began dragging her away. She was clearly their priority.
I backed away and watched her as she screamed. There was little I could do.
The primitives blooded bodies were puppets, dragged about by their internal enhancements. But there was something else wrong.
“They’re dead.” I said to myself.
“Yes,” came the voice from behind. It was Roy in his bounty hunter suit, “The whole surgery thing was a bit more complicated than I thought, But I’ve had my practise, now, and I think I know what I’m doing. It’s been great doing all this running around, but once we get some internal enhancements installed the better it’ll be for both of us.”
He lurched forward, reaching out for me.
I ran towards the shuttle. The door was open and I climbed inside. I tried shutting the door behind me but it didn’t react.
Roy appeared in the doorway and started climbing inside.
“I don’t see why you're so resistant to this. I think it’s an excellent
idea.”
“Why,” I cried, “It’s not your mission.”
“My mission?” repeated Roy.
“Yes, you have a body now. Why don’t you blow up the ship.”
Roy pauses and looks around, “That’s an excellent idea.”
He turns from me and becomes absorbed with tearing off the panel around the ships drive. I took the opportunity to run from the ship.
I ran as far as I could. When it blew, I threw myself on the ground.
I turned to look at the wreckage. The great cloud of smoke. Nothing could have survived that.
I found Florina shortly after, running my way. The immortalised bodies of the primitives had collapsed when the ship blew.
She said that it wouldn’t stop him and he’d be back. He’d recover and regain control soon.
We headed in the direction we’d seen the bounty hunter’s ship land. It would be locked, but it was the only way off the planet.
We found it along the side of a cliff. We circled down and, as we approached, the door opened.
We walk onboard and saw a man sat facing us by the control desk.
The door started to shut.
“Sit down over there,” the man ordered, pointing to some crates on the side.
A small gun turret was mounted to the ceiling above him and seemed to be reacting to his thoughts.
I said, “We have to take off.”
“We have to wait for my colleague.”
Florina explained, “The man in the suit is dead. We have to leave now or we’ll die too.”
The man looked at the readings on his panel. “You might be right. Blown up in that explosion, was he? Why don’t you explain to me exactly how it happened.”
The turret twitched with his words. I felt quite sure that he was willing to shoot us at a moments notice.
Florina stood up, “If we don’t get off this planet right now-”
“Careful, You just stay back there,” said the man.
He seemed quite menacing - scared even.
He tapped at the ships controls and the ship took off.
“Where are you going to take us?”
“Cronus, to collect the bounty. Then it’s back to Death’s Hold for you.”
“We’ve got away from it all,” I said. I started laughing, “Free from that crazy Roy.”
Florina started laughing as well. Then her laughter turned to tears, “No, we’re not free. There still a copy of him here.” She points to her head and whispered, “He want’s to blow up the ship.”
I held her quivering hand and said, “Ask him if he can hack that gun. Disable it and maybe we could come to some agreement over the ship.”
The man looked suspiciously at us and said, “What are you two talking about?”
I read the smile from Florina’s face to indicate an agreement had been met. After a number of minutes, Roy hacked the gun and took care of things for us. Florina seemed shaken by the death, in a way, it was her doing.
We’re travelling to Dalmain VI now. I’m monitoring our way by eye in order to prevent any more deceptions. I don’t think we’re free - not yet. That gun turret’s still twitching above us - but I think we’re getting there.
The End
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