The Mulligan Planet (15 page)

I nodded and made a face of
acceptance which Harry caught, “Yeah?” my eyes darting between the
geek safe-haven, “Yep. I'm going to kill you Harry. Creatively.”
instead of the slightest twinge of fear flickering in his eyes he
just scoffed, “Come on, it's ins- get down.” without questioning
him I dropped down behind an overturned sedan in the street next to
Harry, running footsteps slamming against the gravel were barely
audible under the rain. “What is it?” Harry peeked around the
corner, “Survivor, few zeds on his tail.” I went to check for
myself but Har grabbed my arm while shaking his head, “We let him
go. He'll more than likely just end up being dead weight.” the
survivor ran past the car followed by five zeds a few seconds
later. I had a new admiration for Harry, I've made calls like that,
but I've been doing it since the war, well, my first war. This was
all new to him as far as I knew. A few minutes passed and we stood,
more crouched slightly higher, and made for the store. “You ready?”
I nodded, my bored expression not deterring him at all as he pushed
the door open and ran giddily inside without searching, “Idiot.”
stepping in and locking the door behind me, “Harry.” I yelled as
quietly as I could.

As I was about to yell a second
time he came from around a corner, hands tucked behind his back,
“What have you got?” he was positively beaming, “I'll show you if
you promise I can keep it.” I shrugged, “Fine, you can keep it,
whatever it is, now show me.” he waited for a few seconds for what
I guess was dramatic effect before revealing a sheath in his hands.
It took a moment to process, “You didn't....” he nodded as he
pulled a long sword from the sheath, “Samurai sword!” I was
impressed by how cool the sword was but annoyed that he'd wasted
time on this, “Do you even know how to use that thing?” he nodded
proudly, dropping the sheath and swinging the sword like an artist
with a paintbrush, carving through a shelf like it was nothing. He
had skill, no denying it, and it meant we now had something that we
were sorely lacking, efficient silent kills that weren't so close
quarters for me. “Alright then, you're talented, anything here I
can use?” he scooped up the sheath and wrapped it around his
mid-section, “Roger had a baseball bat behind the counter, might
still be there.” I walked up to the counter and leaned over,
feeling around, knocking a variety of cups, containers and toys
before finally grabbing a long metal bat and pulling it out into
the dim store light. It was glorious, a long blue stripe running up
along its side and a tightly woven leather grip. “You know
something Harry?” he looked up curiously from a comic he had taken
to reading in my brief absence, “I might just keep you around.”

Neysor’s skin tingled as he
paced the ancient metal hall, the white room where he’d let Shenim
go into what felt like hours ago was sealed behind a red mesh door.
No matter what came from this test Neysor knew he was to be damned
by his brothers for breaking their laws, laws that he had helped to
write. He knew the consequences would be dire, but the commander
did not care about things he knew of, it was the unknown that
terrified him. The unknown of what was happening to his beloved in
that room made him uneasy, he could trust everyone on this ship, he
had known them since before he was given the Yuik, over a thousand
years he’d come to know every name and every detail of every single
Gralari woman on this ship, they were all worthy of respect and
trust. He had reaffirmed his trust in his crew and the doctor a
dozen times but it did nothing to relax the tightness building in
his gut. For a moment he remembered his brothers, how they had
played when they were still young in the fields of Ju-il where he
was born. Over a fifteen hundred years had passed since then, the
fire rains that burned his planet had come, the giant black-scaled
creatures that were the Darilles along with it. Darilles were fast,
unarmed beyond their massive paws and intellectual brilliance, they
were set on expanding their colonies throughout the universe,
starting with the Gralari home world.

By the time Neysor’s father,
Nilyan, had returned from an insurgent raid the fire had scorched
the land. The Darilles had taken the Gralari world from them, but
they rose again as warriors in the skies, scorching the planet and
fighting the Darilles ship to ship. For three hundred years
Neysor’s father and countless other warriors had fought before the
young brothers had reached manhood and joined the fray, fighting
alongside Nilyan aboard the Yuik when it was still his. Three
hundred years of war before Nilyan was taken by a Darilles paw
while Neysor watched. After fighting off the beast Neysor captured
it, tortured it, experimented on it, destroying its original self
and leaving a smaller, broken and obedient beast. This action set
off the chain of events that let the Gralari win the war with anger
and vengeance. The Gralari captured thousands of the Darilles and
turned them into the small creatures that were now scattered across
the rock that Neysor hovered over. He missed his brothers, he
longed to see them even with the knowledge that they would punish
him after this.

A shake throughout the ship
forced Neysor from his distraction through remembrance. The storms
that pelted the Earth had been making it difficult for the ship to
maintain a perfect course. So far the artificial gravity had been
irreparably damaged and the automatic weapons guidance systems had
been fried. Neither of these things were concerns at the time, they
couldn’t go anywhere after this anyway. The ship shook again and
caught Neysor off guard causing him to fall slightly before leaning
on the red door as it rose quickly, taking part of Neysor’s hand
with it and into the slot in the roof. He stood with his hand
jammed in the roof while the bewildered doctor looked at him.
Neysor was traditionally a man of composure and precision. The
trusted doctor had come to know this after working so closely and
privately with him and Shenim over the past three months. After a
few seconds of processing the doctor decided not to mention the
hilarious spectacle in front of her “Commander, I have news.”
Neysor ripped his hand free and dusted it off, “Yes?” he’d been
waiting for this since Shenim’s vitals had changed and he’d ordered
her to stop being monitored. “You’re going to be a father.” A smile
leaped onto his face, nothing else mattered anymore, he was going
to be a father, “Brilliant, when will she arrive?” The doctor
smiled back at the beaming commander, “About seven months Neysor.”
he went to push past the doctor who grabbed his arm, an act that
had the same ramifications as what Neysor and Shenim had done, “One
more thing commander. It’s a boy.”

I’m going to skip ahead a
little, you’re not missing anything. We spent most of the time
running between buildings in silence, collecting a few odds and
ends, hiding, took out a few zeds every now and then. Three weeks
went by like that, the ship stayed in place, the rain had been on
and off, it was definitely getting colder, some mornings were minus
four or five degrees, but other than that nothing interesting
happened. We were in a department store with fluorescent lighting
rigs flashing above our heads, I was surprised at how long they had
lasted. Trampled bodies, broken items and glass surrounded us as we
made our way to the generator room, it was as if it was some
decorator’s job to come through and smash stuff. Harry sighed to my
left, “I thought there’d be more…” I shuffled the bag around and
checked that I still had a round chambered in my rifle for the
twentieth time, “More what?” Harry rested his shotgun across his
shoulder as he turned to face me, he’d grown a short beard by this
point, as had I, to keep our faces warm while heavier clothing kept
the rest of us comfortably toasty. I’d kept to the same jumper and
jacket clothing scheme for the past few weeks while, despite much
disagreement on my end, Harry kept the woollen trench-coat, it
looked good, but I was still waiting for him to get snagged, he’d
also kept the sword in a scabbard that hung loosely around his
waist, his hand usually resting on the hilt. “More survivors. It’s
been about three weeks now, yeah? Three weeks and the only living
soul I've seen that wasn't two seconds from getting chomped is your
sorry ass, and I don’t even think you count.” I laughed as while
rolling a body over with my foot, a screwdriver wedged in his
temple, “I take care of us, and I haven’t munched on you, have I?
Be thankful for that.” It was weird, I hadn’t been craving blood as
often, any food seemed good since the gassing. Harry poked a body
with his recently acquired shotgun, “We should clean these up, get
them out onto the street or in a pile somewhere, just so they
aren’t… incubating.”

I was about to agree with him
when something shuffled in the distance, “Harry, two o’clock, eyes
up.” Dropping to my right knee I looked through my rifle’s
short-range scope toward the disturbance and caught a head quickly
ducking from view, “Don’t shoot!” I looked at Harry who was already
staring at me, lips moving under his ruffled beard as he mouthed
‘
Bullshit
.’ Returning my vision back to the over-turned
shelf that the survivor was hiding behind I caught another quick
glimpse of a hood, “Who are you? What are you doing here? Come up
slowly, hands behind your head!” he came up with his hands cupping
his head tightly, “I’m looking for a John?” I relaxed slightly,
“Why?” the survivor’s voice was one I recognised but couldn’t quite
pick, especially while he was facing the ground, “Because he left
me in a hospital bed.” I smiled, and dropped my gun to my side,
“Steven?” he let go of his head revealing part of his head under
the encompassing hoodie, he looked healthier but definitely paler.
He crushed the mismatched and broken items under his stained white
sneakers as he made his way toward us, his gaze meeting mine when
he was a few feet away, “How’d you fi-” his fist cracking against
my cheek cut me short, “You had no right to do this to me!” I spun
my head back to face him, “Oooh… Well, I suppose so, but it feels
pretty good doesn’t it?” he hit me again, “Ten days I’ve been
looking for you and you’re cracking jokes, fantastic. Where are the
others, where are my friends?” Harry was looking slightly skittish,
his gun aimed at Steven’s hood while I wove my hand to dissuade
him, “I don’t know, I got left behind. Nice punch by the way, you
been working out or something?” he went to hit me again but I
caught his fist and cracked it back causing a yelp of pain to echo
through the store. I stood up straight and applied more pressure,
dropping him to his knees, “I don’t like getting punched, it hurts.
Now, how did you find me?” he growled, his teeth glistened as the
lights flashed again, “You were the last one to make communication,
for some reason that’s been making a slight ping in the system that
we’ve been able to track you with.” His words coming out in between
pained breaths and hisses before I let his hand go, “Who’s we? Who
else made it out?” he grabbed his hand and stood, “Marcus, we were
the only ones to make it out. Anton got us on a plane, all of us,
but he was bitten, a few minutes after take-off he was gone.” Two,
two of them were definitely still alive, I had someone left.

“Hate to interrupt this reunion
John, but we’ve got company.” I looked around to see that there
were dozens of figures shambling out of the darkness, sniffing the
air, “Grab a weapon from the duffel.” I brought my gun to my
shoulder as the bag on my back got unzipped and rummaged through,
“I take it your friend here is human?” Steven had gone with the
last assault rifle and clip we had, “Yeah, why?” we formed a circle
facing outward, well, a triangle, “They don’t tend to bother me too
much unless Marcus is nearby.” the shotgun cocked as Harry gave me
a jab in the back, “After everything that you’ve put me through
John I am not letting you ditch me.” We continued to move around,
scanning the area, “Wouldn’t dream of it mate, do a head count
Harry. Steve, where’s Marcus?” I could hear Harry counting under
his breath, he got up to fifteen when I stopped listening, “I’ll
take you to him, it’s not far.” Zeds had started testing the
boundaries and were coming closer now, “Twenty seven, we need to
leave.”

One darted toward us and I felt
the shock-wave from the shotgun to my left as Harry put the first
down, “Follow Steve, we’ll get the power later, Steve, get us out
of here.” One came for me and I swung the butt of my rifle hard
into its head, I faced Steven who had his gun up to his shoulder
and was now letting out bursts into the group in front of him,
“This way!” we covered his back, they weren’t sniffing any more,
they were snarling and sprinting after us, “Pick up the pace Steve,
I am not dying in a bloody shop.” The lights shut off right as an
electronic crackle came from ahead of me where Steve had brought a
walkie-talkie to his face, “Marcus get the doors open, I’ve got
John and his… friend. The lights have cut out and we’re being
followed, be there in thirty.” As my vision adjusted to the
piercing dark I wished that the ability would leave me, there were
a lot more than twenty seven now, “Let’s go!” Steve had started to
run, “I can’t see anything John!” I had a tendency to forget that
Harry wasn’t a vampire, “Listen to his feet hitting the floor,
we’re getting out of here, just don’t panic.” I looked at him, the
terror dancing on his face as he fired into the darkness, lighting
up hundreds of faces, he gave up with running backward and sped off
toward Steven. As soon as the lights had turned back on I decided I
was done looking backward as well and just ran, the guys were far
in front of me as they turned left. ‘Worried I’ll leave
him
behind huh?’ Hands were moving in on me as the snarled voices
poured into my ears. I reached the corner and saw the open
maintenance door with the guys on either side, guns raised high, I
sprinted for the door and turned when I reached it, firing at the
horde, “Get in! I’m right behind you.” Click, slide, clink, bang, I
started stepping backward, click, slide, clink, bang, hands grabbed
my back and pulled me in, slamming the door shut in front of me. I
turned to face everyone, Harry was grabbing his knees panting,
Steven was still glaring at me from under his hoodie, then at the
end was Marcus, smiling weakly, a bandage wrapped around the top of
his head, he’d grown out his facial hair as well and was wearing
baggy cargo pants, a white t-shirt, which was only just visible
under the thick brown jumper, “Hey John, how’s things?” I shuffled
my bag off and dropped my gun on it, “Quiet, you’re the first
survivors we’ve seen in days, you?” he shrugged, “Been worse, at
least we’ve got some good weather.” I walked over and hugged him,
“I’m sorry Mark, I tried to catch them, I promise, I tried so
hard.” He returned the hug and we split apart, “Who’d you lose?” I
scratched the back of my head, “Kyle, the rest got away with the
chopper. I… slipped.” I noticed Harry and Steven had walked off and
were chatting away, “Who’s the new guy?” I chuckled, new guy,
“That’s Harry, met him on day one, we’ve kept each other out of
trouble for a while, where can I dump my stuff?” Marcus’ frown
coupled with a slam at the door reminded me, “We’re not staying are
we?” He shook his head, “I wish we could, but you saw how many
there were, even with that heavy door they’ll still eventually rip
it off its hinges now they know food is in here.” I bent over and
put my gun in the duffel then slung it over my shoulder, “What’s
the contingency plan?” he shook his head again, “There isn’t one,
this is a back room, that-” he pointed to the creaking metal door,
“is the only way in or out, had its benefits, but not so much
anymore, we’ve got about ten minutes before they get in. So let’s
take a seat, have a few drinks and let this nightmare be over,
eh?”