Planet Chimera (6 page)

The moon shined brightly,
a group of grey clouds making their way towards it, and the snowy
winds deadly. I coughed, skipping over the stairs, and landing on
the paved ground, looking for any signs of the children. A few tire
marks were engraved into the snow covered ground, leading all the
way to the gate; and to my disappointment, they had taken all of
the vehicles with them when they vacated, meaning I had to hike
back to the town. To be certain, I scouted around the whole manor,
looking for another vehicle to borrow, but my search was in vain.
And as I was about to leave, I spotted the barn, covered completely
in thick snow—the only place I had not searched. I trudged towards
it, my feet covered in snow, both of my arms wrapped inside my
coat, and stopped at the double doors. It was locked by some
electronic pad, requiring a specific key to be jammed inside it,
for it to open.
These people are really
living in the past
, I thought. Leaning
back, I slammed my shoulder against the door, using all of my
strength, doing it forty times, until the left side of the door
gave in. My right shoulder bones were broken because of this, but
at least it was open. Crawling through the small opening, looking
in all direction, I walked around, attempting to find anything to
aid me in my brave quest. Weapons, food, money, it didn’t matter to
me, as long as I could leave this pathetic rubble of a
planet.

“Jackpot,” I yelled, at the first signs of
useful weapons, stacked on the furthest wall in front of me. “It’s
about time something finally went my way.”

Shelves amongst shelves of artillery were
lined up against the wall; there had to be at least four hundred
rifles inside, a few hands guns, and three wind-up grenades. Upon
closer inspection, I realized that all of these weapons were all
wind-up weapons, requiring a certain amount of air pressure to be
forced in, before they could fire. Note to self: kick the whole
town in the rear, except for the children, when this is over. I
think, I understand why they were having a hard time dealing with
these mutant chimeras.

Abruptly, I heard what sounded like a
powerful gun go off, the sound very close, and I rushed outside to
see what was causing the commotion. Up above me, the same
projectile that had crashed me into this planet was coursing into
atmosphere, making its way to an unsuspecting victim. I scanned the
area, and from what I could make out, the projectile had been fired
from a location masked behind the hills overlooking the small town.
I spun back into the barn, picked up two rifles, three bandoliers,
a silver dagger, and all of the grenades. I wish I could have taken
all of the weapons; however, I couldn’t carry that kind of weight
for a long distance.

“Here we go,” I exhaled, placing a hood on
my face, and a cloth over my nose and mouth.

Exiting the barn, I hiked through the snow
at a steady pace, plodding through the gate, with no signs of the
guards at the entrance. I saw the trail of blood and broken glass
by the guard post and it didn’t take me long to figure out what had
transpired.

The forest, in front of me, was covered with
white snow, and the blizzard was making it hard to see anything.
Turning my head down, I started to follow the road, hoping it would
lead me back to the town. I needed answers from them, and if anyone
tried to stop me, I would lay claim to their lives with my own bare
hands if I had to.

5

The sky boomed, a gigantic flying object
making its way to the surface. It was covered in a blaze of fire, a
few pieces of the hull breaking off from it. I squinted my eyes, my
right hand shielding away the snow, trying to make a solid
description of the ship. It appeared to be a passenger ship, an
S-class model, used to transport space travelers to a distant
galaxy. I could not make out the color, to be exact, but it was
heading for the hills, a few miles from town. And from the way it
was nose diving, I knew that they were going to be casualties.

“It looks like they caught another one,” I
sighed, covering my face underneath the hood, walking along the
side of the road.

I watched the ship crash against the side of
the hill, sparks of electricity and fire reigning from above, and
the noise from falling debris ear deafening. Upon seeing that light
show, I highly doubted that anyone survived, not that it mattered
to me. Descending further, I finally saw the outline of the town,
the last house on the left, with a smoking chimney. A few road
vehicles had been parked next to it; I think I also saw a child
peering through the window. The excess snow on the porch had been
shoveled off, as well as the sides of the house. It was a small
house, about three bedrooms, a dining room, two bathrooms, and a
kitchen. It ran electric power, to my surprise, through my
mechanical gear contraption that generated power through some sort
of kinetic energy power source. Creeping up closer, my hand trained
on my flintlock, I peeped through the window, trying to see what
was going on inside. I heard a ruckus, and saw a few children
sitting by the fireplace, warming themselves up. And on the cotton
sofas, there were a few adults sitting next to each other, eating
warm biscuits with some tea, their backs turned towards me. I saw
the mayor—he came from the other room, a basket of bread in his
hands. Turning around, I approached the door, knocking on it with
haste, my hands completely numb.

There was silence after my knocks, the wind
still whirling through the night, and the trees completely
camouflaged by the snow. Nothing stirred in the woods behind me; I
looked around, making sure that nothing was following me, before
knocking on the wooden door again. I heard footsteps by the door, a
faint whisper, the door opening slowly.

“Ah, young one, it is a pleasure to see
you,” the mayor said, opening the door for me, a faint smile of his
weary face.

“Likewise, mayor,” I replied, pushing him
out of the way, and entering the house without asking for
permission. “I believe that you know the reason for my visit.”

“No, please elaborate as to why you are
here,” he snorted, closing the door behind me, twisting the lock on
the knob.

He wore a light blue pajama, with a flap on
the back, a sleeping cap, and socks above his slippers. Gazing
down, he scratched left knee, exhaling deeply, the cotton ball
attached to his sleeping cap falling over his face. And as he
straightened up, his eyes upon me, I grabbed his collar, and
slammed his body into the wall, knocking over a loose canvas.

“You know exactly why I am here, and if need
be, I will smite you in front of these children,” I yelled, my
hands moving towards his neck, and my anger soaring out of control.
“Who are those monsters and why did they attack us?”

“Please, mister, leave him be,” the child,
whose name I still did not know, cried, pulling me away from the
frightened mayor. “It is not his fault, so please let him go.”

“I demand someone to give me an explanation;
otherwise, I will throw a tantrum, and none of you will like me
when I am angry.”

Countless eyes stared in my direction, the
whole house growing silent; it was not my intention to threaten
their lives, but these dark times required drastic measures.

“Sit down, please,” the Mayor sighed,
standing up to his feet, fixing his collar slowly. “This will take
a lot of time to explain, and I fear you might not like what you
will hear.”

Looking around, ignoring everyone else, I
sat down by a rocking chair, on the furthest side, placing the
rifle by my side. The lady, whose fiancé had been maimed by the
foul chimera, approached with a look of terror on her face,
offering me some tea and a plate of biscuits. Shaking my head, I
brushed her away, refusing her offer with a few hand gestures. She
turned around, walking away to sit by the side of an older lady, a
bit of tears on her face. She wiped them off with a grey
handkerchief, avoiding my gaze, as a few kids approached her. The
mayor tinkered with the wooden logs using a metal rod, glancing at
me for a second, and proceeded to sit down, next to an older lady,
wearing a white scarf, who seemed to be his wife.

“Start talking already,” I yelled, placing
my right hand by the arm rest, tapping my right leg frequently. “I
grow tiresome of these charades.”

“Alright, Rave, I will tell you everything,”
the mayor said, his wife resting her head on his shoulder, a look
of sadness on her face. “It all started fifteen years, with the
appearance of a stranger, a man who we all grew up to fear. He
first appeared out of nowhere, saying that his ship had crashed
onto our planet, and we offered him food and shelter. He was
wounded, incision scars on his arms and legs, and only wore a
tattered red shirt and black pants. A week after his appearance, a
few of the townspeople, specifically adolescents, began to
disappear without a trace, to never be seen again. We panicked,
searching the woods for them, but our search was in vain. And the
disappearances kept increasing, the age range changing, and before
we knew it, half of the people in our small town had vanished. We
all began to dread, thinking they had been claimed by some unknown
invincible foe, but no one ever suspected the stranger dwelling
amongst us to be the one responsible. We kept going about our daily
business, searching for the missing people on our days off, until
one night—one very strange night. It was the first night a cloaked
chimera appeared in our midst; it had been tortured, mutilated, and
experimented on, and had a lot of mechanical gears on its back. The
creature assaulted an older gentleman, who was on his way home, in
the dreary night, beating half to death before it took off with
him. A young man saw this disturbing scene, reported it to the
local police, and led them towards the direction of the creature’s
whereabouts. What I tell you, Rave, is no lie, but it is the
untainted truth of the darkness that haunts this small town of
ours.”

“So, what did you find, when you tracked the
creature down?” I asked, shifting my weight around, as my curiosity
was peaked. “What was it?”

“It was the stranger, the man who we had all
grown to love, cutting off the flesh from one of his victims, a
legion of his creatures behind him. He spotted us, and hollered at
us to approach him, his face relaxed and emotionless. I gasped at
the sight of blood on his hands, and I almost fainted when I looked
down, recognizing the man he had killed. It was our previous
constable, a dear friend of mine. He told us that he was building a
powerful army, a chimera army to be exact, and that he wanted us to
assist him with his goal, or we would all meet the same fate. At
first, we tried to resist, but his forces were too powerful—and
every attempt we made to take back our town all failed. So,
eventually, we gave in to his demands, doing everything he told us
to do, our hearts waiving with guilt and shame. Thousands of
victims were shot out of space, a few of them dying from the crash,
and we helped him capture the survivors for his horrific
experiments. It was madness, I tell you, pure horrific madness. For
the last fifteen years, we have kept this secret to ourselves,
unable to contact for help from other regions of the planet, and
things have only gotten worse.”

“I see,” I hummed, picking up my rifle,
pressing my right fingers against the long, smooth barrel. “So
that’s how it is.”

“Yes, Rave, and now that you have killed his
henchmen, he will surely come for all of us,” the mayor added,
picking up his cup of tea, his right hand shaking. “We should all
prepare for the next days to be dreadful and filled with
terror.”

“Who is this person you are all afraid of?”
I asked, winding some air pressure into the gun, the muzzle facing
the ceiling. “I would really like to meet him, if you don’t mind.
And if I take care of this problem, will you lend me one of your
ships?”

“And what makes you think you have what it
takes to face him?” a voice asked, causing me to shift my head
left, to see a lady walk into the living room, from the kitchen.
“Why should we trust you, after everything we heard the children
say about you?”

I had met her in the pub, when I first
arrived in this small town; she was the lady sitting by the corner
seat. In her hands, she held another basket of warm biscuits, her
cheeks pink and wet with sweat, and her hair wrapped inside a black
cap. She wore a light green dress, with white poker dots on the
edges, a metallic bandolier around her waist, and black boots that
were high enough to cover her knees. And as she sat down, next to
the mayor, she placed by the basket down by the table, and poured a
cup of fresh tea from the teapot. Sipping slightly, she raised her
head, looking at me, a serious look on her face.

“Milady, you only have to believe that I
mean well,” I said, reassuring her of my true intentions, the gun
on my lap. “I care not what you do after—all I ask for, in return
of my expert services, is a ship to leave this planet. I have
something important I need to do, and I am afraid time is not my
ally.”

“But, young lad, this is a dangerous issue,
and you might…..” the mayor interrupted, his hand extending out
towards me.

Before he could irritate me any further, the
door was kicked open, and in came a man dressed in a black uniform.
He was a tall, dark skinned man, in his late 50s, with mutton chops
on his face, a bit of grey hair on his chin. He held a strange
rifle, like a late century musket, but with a black and gold
barrel, a circular muzzle, and a magazine clip placed next to the
trigger. Brushing off the snow on his uniform, he placed the gun by
the door, patting some snow on his boots, before looking up. In a
fine nod, he smiled at everyone, not ushering a word of greeting,
and took a cautious glance through the window.