Janus the Arrival (The Janus Trilogy Book 1) (23 page)

   
The tiny incubator now lay redundant at the
back of the cave, as Jamie had since made up a large mattress woven with reeds,
which he’d gathered from the nearby stream. He’d sunk this into a deep crater
from which the babies, when grown, would hopefully be completely unable to
wander away from, if
for any reason he
didn’t happen to be around to keep a watchful eye over them. It appeared that
Jamie had finally stopped ageing at the human equivalent of someone in their
early twenties, but the young elders still continued to be growing quite
rapidly, whenever he checked on them, which in all honesty, was never less than
twice a day. Jamie had pretty much calculated that within another six weeks
he’d happily be living alongside four very beautiful young women. He simply
couldn’t wait for that moment to arrive, as he was becoming very lonely and
starting to grow a little impatient on this desolate, newly awakening planet.

Vicky
had spent the last two days and nights getting herself sorted out. Therefore,
she was in top form and raring to go, before she even started thinking about
tackling the next stage of her plan. She already knew that this was definitely
going to be the more difficult part. During her recovery she’d summoned up the
stone disks with the sole purpose of checking, and double checking the history
files of the Dra-Na-Zee. In doing so, she’d witnessed the complete destruction
of Pagos, and noticed, having replayed the whole thing over and over again, the
jettisoning of a small capsule from the darker side of the planet just before
it had exploded. Having returned again later, and studied it for a final time,
aware that she still had a lot to do and very little time in which to do it,
she went right the way back to the planet exploding and then traced the
trajectory of the capsule much closer. She sped up the image and watched with
great interest, as it finally entered the Earth’s atmosphere in the year 1978.
She smiled as she saw it land completely unnoticed in a small pond on Wimbledon
Common. Forwarding it ahead by two hours, she discovered it had then been
recovered by a much larger ship that had evidently travelled forward into the
future through an extra dimension of the time-space continuum. This thereby
jeopardised the whole fragile existence of the universe as this wasn’t usually
allowed. This turned out to have been a one-way mission that had been extremely
dependant on the correct balance being maintained by the five Dra-Na-Zee on
board. The chronicles declared that they’d known they only had the equivalent
of fourteen earth hours to complete their mission before the ship would finally
implode and the corridors of time close in on them. They’d been fully briefed
on the effects the pressure would have on their bodies, breaking down their
living cells into the tiniest of particles, before scattering them out into the
surrounding atmosphere. The volunteers had also known their deaths would happen
fairly quickly, although the initial part would prove to be excruciatingly
painful. Yet, they’d all been more concerned, that should they fail this
critical task, it would have caused history to change to the point that they
themselves, and their whole race may never have existed in the first place.

  
 
Setting their plan into action, they‘d
abducted Emma and John Storm three hours later, as the pair had driven home
past the common that evening. This was where, having finally gained her
consent, even though they’d been told to go ahead anyway, Emma had been
impregnated with the alien cells that had been recovered earlier from the
smaller sized capsule.

   
The Dra-Na-Zee crew died valiantly. They’d
achieved what they’d initially set out to accomplish, with the knowledge that
their names would sit immortalised in honour amongst the great historians of
Pagos in the higher cities, Halls of Fame. At that point, the vision
instantaneously faded from view, which enabled Vicky to rise from the chair and
head straight for the door, in order to get going with the last part of her
plan.

   
‘Are you sure?' asked the hairdresser
acting all prissy. ‘It’s just so beautiful as it is!’ she exclaimed.

   
‘Just cut it just as I’ve instructed
please,’ Vicky replied somewhat tersely.
 

   
‘And yes! You
can
keep the off-cuts if you wish. I certainly won’t be having any
use for them after this.’

   
Back at the hotel, much later in the day,
Vicky studied herself in the mirror and was shocked at the whole
transformation. The woman staring back at her had short, cropped, dyed blonde
hair. It was a good cut by all accounts, and it looked far better than she’d
ever expected it to. A change of clothing soon added the finishing touches, and
clad from head to toe in denims with a pair of bovver boots on her feet, Vicky
was finally satisfied that she’d fit in just fine on the busy council estate.
It was known to be an extremely rough place, but that was exactly the sort of
habitat that she was after. It would definitely add to her plan in a variety of
ways.

    
Standing at the far end of the estate
gazing up at the fourth floor flat, the extra police presence was fairly
obvious, even though they’d tried their best to keep out of view as best they
could. However, it was the size ten, highly-polished black shoes that always
gave them away, along with the fact that they all acted so out of character,
compared to the normal inhabitants of these ghastly looking concrete
structures.

     
Five minutes later, a group of noisy
skinheads suddenly appeared from the adjacent stairwell, which led down to the
underground garages that lay directly underneath. The large majority had either
missing or damaged doors, and many of them were completely vacant, as the more
savvy residents preferred to park on the street, where at least they had a
greater chance of keeping an eye on them. Vicky was already waiting for them as
they approached, and she did a pretty good job of returning the menacing stares
she received. It wasn’t just from one of them, it happened to be from them all,
and they looked a lot more threatening as a group, once they eventually drew
level with her.

   
‘What d’ya think you’re doing hanging
around on our turf, girlie?’ demanded a tall stocky bloke, who was obviously
the gang’s leader.

   
‘Nothing much if ya must know! I’m just
looking for some action,’ she responded, careful to remember to maintain the
stare, before adding.

   
‘With real men if I could only find some.’
This cheeky reply certainly caught them all momentarily off guard. It certainly
hadn’t been the sort of response that any of them had expected. Most people
usually ran a mile in this sort of situation, and they sure as hell didn’t
stand around asking for trouble.

   
‘So you reckon you can handle yourself do
you? The leader asked, rubbing his hand up and down the crotch of his trousers.
Vicky knew exactly what he was implying but still tried to act all unconcerned,
then simply nodded in response. She nearly screwed up, as she desperately tried
to think of a adequate reply, but eventually something came to her.

   
‘So you reckon that you can handle someone
like me with your little tiddler. Do you?’ This caused a few of them to laugh,
but the main guy didn’t look so amused.

   
‘Well come along with us.’ He told her.
‘Then we’ll see what you’re really made of. You old tart.’ Following a short
walk through the estate, they eventually went up some stairs that smell very
badly of piss. They then entered a really scruffy looking flat, whose walls
were covered from top to bottom in what appeared to resemble Nazi propaganda. She
noticed that certain areas appeared to be sprayed in unreadable graffiti. She
recalled that the stone disks had referred to these as ‘Tags’, some of which
had been created in all kinds of multi-coloured designs, with the odd one or
two looking quite impressive. Caught slightly off guard by her weird
surroundings, just as she was being ushered into one of the adjoining rooms,
Vicky was unexpectedly struck from behind, and pushed headlong onto a filthy
looking mattress lying trussed up on the floor. The leader instantly stood over
her and began to undo his jeans. Vicky soon saw that he wore no underwear, and
calmly waited until he’d finished lowering his trousers to his ankles, before
raising her foot and slamming it forcefully into his half erect penis.

 
  
Leaping to her feet, she watched the skinhead
collapse into a heap right beside her. He had his hands clasped firmly between
his legs and his face showed no doubt whatsoever, that he was in extreme agony.
A moment later, he turned his head to one side and promptly vomited straight
onto the bare floorboards. The rest of the gang looked on in absolute horror,
just before a tall ginger haired member of the gang, who she’d noticed at the
back, stepped forward and aimed a direct punch at Vicky’s head. Having realised
his intention, long before he’d even started to clench his fist, Vicky grabbed
the pale, freckled arm with utmost ease, as it sped towards her. Vicky could
immediately tell that he was a fairly powerful man, although she was quite
surprised that she’d had to exert more of her own strength than she expected,
in order to hold him off. His eyes looked in total disbelief at the woman who’d
moved with amazing speed and dexterity, and now held his arm in a vice-like
grip. He was even more surprised when she slowly spun him around and began
lifting him upwards towards the ceiling. Knowing that he was well and truly
beaten, he screamed a plea of submission as his right arm began making strange
cracking noises, which echoed around the room. Knowing that she’d made quite a
good impression, Vicky finally relinquished her grip and released the injured
man. On letting him go, he tripped and fell right next to his colleague, who
was still floundering around on the mattress and trying to regain his breath.
No other members had made a move, as it was all too weird to take in. Realising
they’d completely lost their nerve, Vicky waited a few minutes longer before
finally offering a hand of assistance to the ginger headed man, who appeared to
be a lot healthier than his colleague, who now lay in a rather undignified heap
on the floor.

    
Gary Ernshaw was the estates hard man,
having led the gang for the last eighteen months. His deputy and best friend
was Tony Butler, who was more commonly known as ‘Ging.’ They’d ruled over the
rest of the mob together and built up quite a tough reputation for themselves
in the local area. Rival gangs knew better than to wander onto their patch, as
past attempts had already proved, with intruders getting ‘a right kicking’ for
doing so. The local police were well aware of their antics, but they tended to
ignore them most of the time, unless of course, they were provoked or called in
for anything more serious than the usual tit for tat. The estates residents
knew that to cross the gang could lead to all sorts of retaliation, such as
having windows broken, car tyres slashed or even being physically beaten in
some instances. Although, those who’d been brave enough to have made a stand in
the past, had either given up under the strain of constant intimidation, or
simply left the estate altogether. At the end of the day, mob rule seemed to
pass down between the generations in most places, and Vicky now sat at a table
opposite the reigning leaders. It was agreed between those assembled, that no further
trouble would follow, given that Vicky had already earned their respect. She
was certainly a tough cookie, without a doubt, and was even being given an
offer to become part of the gang if she wished.

   
‘So what exactly is it you’re after then?’
asked Gary, still massaging his nuts.

   
‘I’ve already explained that too you,’
replied Vicky. ‘I’m simply looking for some action and a half decent place to
crash out at night.’

Gary
and Ging looked at each other and nodded their agreement.

   
‘Okay! That’s what we offered. You can stop
here with us. It’s not a problem, as long as you put in your share, which
includes anything you nick, because we still have to pay rent on this place for
what it’s worth. It transpired that there were only three of them who’d live in
the flat on most occasions, although they’d informed her that other members of
the gang often crashed out, as and when they were too pissed or drugged up to
go anywhere else.

   
Over the next few days, Gary and Ging proved
to be quite gentlemanly whenever the three of them were alone. This was
probably because they didn’t have to prove themselves and put on the usual
tough-guy façade that they needed to do whenever they were out in public. Yet
Vicky was quite amazed that neither of them had made any sexual advances
towards her so far, well apart from the time they’d first met. She worried that
maybe she’d scared them off by being too hard on them initially, which was
turning out to be a little bit of a pain, especially as her Dra-Na-Zee hormones
were starting to beg for it.

    
Most days were pretty boring, as these
were spent loitering around on the estate, which essentially allowed Vicky to
keep a close eye on Rachel’s flat, some of which she was able to control. If
any of the others had noticed her strange obsession with the block of flats
opposite, nothing had been said about it so far. Well at least not to her face
it hadn’t. A great many drug deals were carried out during her time with the
gang, but Vicky always turned down any offers of a fix by insisting that she
much preferred a beer. She really enjoyed herself during a football match at
Stamford Bridge one Saturday afternoon, and even found herself cheering every
time Chelsea scored a goal against the opposing team. However, it was following
this match, as they walked back towards Fulham Broadway underground station,
that one of the rival fans made a big mistake, and pulled a knife on Gary.
After a few insults had been exchanged, and in a completely unexplained
incident, the idiot was reported to have slipped and fallen onto the rails,
just before being electrocuted. When questioned, none of the gang admitted to
having witnessed the actual incident, although some had mentioned seeing a
bright yellow light go off, just before he fell. The handful of members of the
gang who’d been held for questioning about the whole thing, finally got
released once they’d signed their statements. It was certainly a big discussion
point for a while, and during the journey home Vicky was still as high as a
kite on the adrenaline flowing through her body. She’d really started to enjoy
the thrill of killing.