Prisoner 3-57: Nuke Town (4 page)

The
creature in the hole howled.

The
head and one arm had entered the room.

Long
claws slashed away at the metal hatch, as more of the fuckers tried
to get in.

‘
Oh
well,’ I sighed, ‘what have I got to lose?’

I
tossed the grenade backwards. I turned my visor forward, so that it
could not receive any damage. I heard the grenade hit the floor,
rolls and clink against the hull. The explosion nearly blew my
eardrums. The helmet of my space suit seemed to amplify the sound. A
howling wind sucked me backwards. Debris, books, chairs and a desk
were sucked out of the hole I had created in the wall. It felt like
someone had tied me to the back of a sports car. I was dragged
backwards out of the hole. My world spun uncontrollably, as I rolled
head over heels through the deep black of space. Still I remained
tied to the metal chair. With each rotation I made I could get a
quick glimpse of the situation. The Earth Force cruiser was sitting
above a strange purple planet. It was like nothing I had seen before.
Silver rings surrounded the planet. It was beautiful. Escape pods
were flying down towards the planet.

My
x-com bleeped.

The
self-destruct countdown must have finished.

The
Earth Force cruiser ignited in a bright light of fiery destruction. I
had to close my eyes from the painful glare. It was like looking
straight into the sun. Several escape pods were caught up in the
explosion. That was one way of dealing with the evil zombie like
aliens. A horrible thought suddenly occurred to me. Debris from the
explosion was heading my way. It was moving fast. I had survived the
alien zombies, but now my choice of death was burning up in the
planet’s atmosphere, or being cut to pieces by shrapnel.

’
3-57...’
a voice crackled through the headset built into my suit.

It
was a female voice. One I did not recognise.

A
sense of relief filled my heart.

‘
Yes?’

‘
Hold
tight, we are coming to get you.’

I
was going to ask why, but what did it matter? I was saved.

Chapter Nine: Out of
the frying pan...

‘
Prepare
for pick up, 3-57,’ said the female voice.

‘
You
better hurry,’ I replied, as a twelve foot shard of metal shot
by me.

‘
I
am coming around.’

I
continued to spiral head over heels through the deep black of space,
as more and more pieces of the assault cruiser flashed by. If even a
single piece of that shit struck me I would be dead. The debris was
moving at hundreds upon hundreds of miles an hour. Something the size
of a coin would easily piece my body, as if I wasn’t even
there. It didn’t matter how good my armour was. At that rate of
speed the armour would not be able to stop anything. Every half a
second, as I completed another somersault, I could see the small
escape pod flying down towards me. Speed wasn’t one of its main
assets. The thing looked as clunky as a removal hover truck.

My
eyes locked onto a long metal beam, which looked like it was some
kind of support structure. It was on a direct collision course with
me.

‘
Doors
opening,’ said the woman.

‘
Open
them faster,’ I told her.

The
debris was closing in.

‘
Pick
up in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five...’

‘
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit.’

The
support structure was basically on top of me.

‘
We
have you three, two and one.’

A
sharp pain ignited it my upper back, as I flew through an open door
and was slammed hard against a wall. I gasped sharply. All the air
had been knocked from my lungs. It felt like someone had just slammed
a sledge hammer into my stomach. The sound of engines roaring
powerfully filled the air. The escape pod began to pull forward, as
the outer door began to slide closed. Everything shook at the heavy
impact of the support structure. Part of the hull was bent inwards.
If that had hit me I would have been a dead man. A cabinet above my
head burst open and several boxes fell down on top of me.

‘
We
got him!’ Three people charged down from the front of the ship.

I
looked down the barrels of several guns.

The
pain began to subside slightly

‘
Is
he alive?’ a muffled female voice spoke. The woman was wearing
dated green, brown and black camouflage combat suit. It was bulky,
but built to take damage. It was the type of suit they would have
wore four decades ago. The helmet looked more like something a
motorbike rider would wear. A black visor shielded her face. Next to
her was a young man. He was wearing black office trousers ripped at
the knees, and a blood stained white shirt. Shaky hands held a
standard issue military side arm The kid looked no older than twenty
years of age. The person that stole my entire attention was the woman
in the skin tight white space suit. The suit left nothing to the
imagination, every single delightful curve of her body was on
display. The front of the suit was unzipped, which revealed a very
tempting cleavage of her large breasts. The woman wore no helmet. Her
sweet angelic face was like a work of art. She was beautiful beyond
imagination and had the most piercing soft brown eyes I had ever
seen. Her soft brown skin tone seemed to add an exotic element to her
beauty. Her long black hair was tied back behind her head.

‘
He’s
alive,’ she said.

I
recognised her voice straight away. She had been the one that had
spoken to me when I was falling through space, but why had she saved
me? I didn’t have a clue of this woman’s identity. I had
never met her before in my life. I knew for a fact that I wouldn’t
forget someone so beautiful.

‘
Thank
god,’ said the woman in the bulky combat suit.

She
flicked up her black visor.

Time
seemed to stop.

A
cold shiver ran down my spine.

It
was Rose.

It
was my sister.

She
was alive.

She
was real?

Chapter Ten: End of
the World

‘
What
in the hell is going on?’ I asked the obvious question.

They
had me sat on a bed at the back of the escape pod. My handcuffs had
been removed and I was finally free. I could see flames licking
across the front windows, as we flew down towards the purple planet.
A fourth person was piloting the ship, as the other three kept me
company towards the rear of the vessel.

‘
We
came here to rescue you,’ said Rose.

‘
You
aren’t real,’ I replied.

‘
I
am real, Brother,’ countered Rose.

‘
You
killed my friends!’

‘
No.
That wasn’t me, Brother. They were tricking you. That was your
punishment.’

‘
They
are tricking you.’ The words echoed within my mind. How many
times had she said that to me before? I had been a fool and believed
every last word that she whispered into my ear, but Rose wasn’t
real. She was a sickness. I am a paranoid schizophrenic. She took
control of my body and went on a bloody rampage. It is why Jane and
the others left me to die at the hands of those evil creatures.

‘
You
aren’t real,’ I repeated.

‘
Christopher,
it’s me,’ she said.

There
was something nice about hearing someone call me by my actual name.

Was
that my actual name?

That
is what they told me my name was, but... I can’t really
remember.

‘
I
say we kill him,’ said the young man.

‘
Shut
the fuck up, Robbie,’ said Rose.

‘
The
guy is insane. He doesn’t think you are real. We have to put
him down.’

‘
That
isn’t an option.’

‘
You
said yourself that he might be dangerous.’

‘
Yes,
but that is because they tricked him. They convinced him that he did
all the bad stuff that I did. I was sick. I’m not sick any
more’ She turned her attention to me. ‘I’m not sick
any more, Brother. Dad paid for me to get treatment. I am healthy
now. And it’s all because of you. You protected me for all
those years. I know it must have been hard for you.’

I
cradled my head into the palms of my hands.

‘
This
isn’t real. I don’t know what to believe.’

Did
IO tell me the truth? Was Prisoner X really threatening the lives of
four million people, or was this some kind of new punishment? They
had made me believed that Rose wasn’t real, is this a new kind
of mind fuck? Are they trying to convince me that Rose is real so
that they can take her away again? I don’t know what to
believe. I know what I want to believe. I want her to be real. I want
her to be alive. I love my sister more than life itself. Could I
really believe that she was real? Was there any way to prove it? No.
The other Rose, the one that killed my friend, she convinced me that
she was real through accessing my memories. It comes down to trust,
did I trust her? Could I trust Rose again?

‘
We
don’t have time for this,’ said the beautiful woman in
white.

‘
She’s
right,’ said a guy coming down from the cockpit. He was in his
mid-twenties and wore a similar Earth Force Special Forces battle
suit. He had two sub-machine guns holstered on each hip and a high
powered Earth Force assault rifle in the back holster. The man had a
crew cut and a scar down one of his cheeks. I could see from the look
in his eyes that this man had looked into the face of death and
survived, many times over. ‘The ship has switched to
auto-pilot. Safe zones have been uploaded to the x-com maps, but the
landing strip is some distance from them. We are going to land in a
hot zone. We are going to have to move fast. Do not stand and fight.
Do not get split up.’ He walked over to Rose and kissed her
upon the lips. ‘Stay close to me, Rose.’

I
didn’t know what to make of it all.

This
was Rose’s boyfriend?

‘
We
don’t have time for this, Brother,’ said Rose. ‘When
we reach the safe zone I will tell you everything you need to know. I
will answer all your questions, but until then we need to survive.
Are you in?’

I
pressed the button on my battle armour and my helmet sealed my
battered suit.

My
bolt rifle was pulled from its holster.

I
cocked the weapon.

‘
I’m
in.’

‘
Good,’
said Rose. ‘This is Clay,’ she pointed to her boyfriend.
‘You have already met, Robbie.’ This time she pointed to
the young man that wanted to put a bullet in me. ‘And this is
my best friend, Fiona.’ My eyes unconsciously fell on Fiona’s
cleavage. She smirked, as she zipped up her white lightweight combat
space suit. I could see the cheeky twinkle behind her eye. She quite
liked the fact that she had caught me looking. One by one they
clipped on their helmets and prepared their weapons. The ship bounced
and banged, as the auto-pilot flew us over a dead land with flaming
fires. A whirling sound came from the doors, as they began to slide
open. The horrifying sound of the creature’s howls filled the
air. Men and women screamed in agony. The gunfire was deafening. I
could see Earth Force fighter jets shoot by overhead, dropping their
payloads. Napalm illuminated the night, as a sea of fire rained down
from the sky. My eyes fell on the creatures. A sickening sensation
filled my stomach. Hordes upon hordes of them were pouring over the
hills that surrounded the drop zone. They were clambering over each
other. There were thousands upon thousands of them. It looked like
the gates of hell had just been opened and every last demon was being
set free. We were trapped in a canyon of fire and death.

‘
Let’s
go!’

Clay
and the others charged out into the battle.

My
new nightmare has just begun.