Floxham Island ~ Sinclair V-Log AZ267/M (14 page)

“There’s a
small room inside this window,” he whispered. “Looks like there’s
refrigerators full of bottles and test tubes. There’s a table in
the middle and a couple of chairs knocked over. There’s a door
standing open that looks like it leads towards the main entrance,
maybe a reception area or something. It looks safe to me; can’t see
anything lurking there.”

“Okay, onto the
next window,” I nodded and we crept forward towards the main
entrance door which was flanked by floor to ceiling glass panels
either side. Dex leaned forward and peered in, but immediately
snapped his head back so fast he banged it against the wall and
winced.

“There’s a
crowd of those things in there,” he hissed. “Those things we saw
back there,” he nodded back towards where we’d encountered the
hairy humanoids.

“Those hairy
people?” Bud whispered from behind me

Dex shook his
head. “No, the other ones, the bald ones the hairy people killed.
There must be at least half a dozen in there.”

“Okay,” Flark
hissed from a little further back down the line. “We have enough
fire power to deal with them easily enough, don’t we?”

“Yeah, they’ll
be no problem,” I nodded, “but we need to know what else is in
there so we can be prepared huh? Maybe we should scout the other
windows too?”

“But two of
those windows are back around we’re we’ve just come from,” Cap
said. “That would mean we’d have to go back out into the open and
risk bumping into the hunch back.” Several of the guys were shaking
their heads in horror at my suggestion.

“He’s right
Sam,” Luggs said. “We’re gonna have to just go in and keep firing
until nothing else moves. Then we barricade ourselves in before the
noise attracts everything else in the vicinity.” This wasn’t the
ideal solution either but I had to admit that it was the only
sensible plan available to us at the time. We couldn’t risk getting
near the hunchback again and I reckoned its dinner was going to
last a while. We had no choice but to go in blind.

“Shit,” I
exclaimed. “I hate not having the upper hand. Okay, what do we have
that makes the least noise?”

“I’d say the
Incendipulse is the quietest we have but they’re messy. We could
set the whole building on fire.” Luggs said and Dex nodded. “The
laser rifles make more noise but they’re quick, more controllable
and less messy.”

“Yeah, let’s go
with the rifles,” Flark remarked and both Dex and Baz nodded.

“Okay,” I
replied. “Three guys with the Incendipulse guns keep to the rear
and cover our asses. It looks to me like three of us will fit
through that door at a time, so here’s what we’ll do. Three go in
and drop to your knees. Three more go in and hunker down low and
the last three go in standing up. That way we don’t run the risk of
shooting each other. Any questions? Okay who’s up first?”

Dex and Luggs
handed their incendipulse guns over to Boy and Carl and stepped
forward with Flark. Baz, Cap and Grelly stood behind them. Myself,
Stitch and Bud came up next, leaving Boy, Carl and Hank with the
Incendipulse guns at the rear.

“Okay guys,” I
whispered, “you ready?”

“Hell yeah,”
Luggs grunted. “Let’s get those bastards.”

“Okay then,
remember what to do,” I reminded them. “Dex, Luggs, Morry, you guys
drop right to the floor okay? You don’t want your heads blown off
now do ya? Baz, Cap and Grelly, you drop down into a crouch so me
and umm.”

“Stitch.”

“And I’m
Bud.”

“Right,” I
replied. “So Baz, Cap and Grelly, you guys hunker down a bit so
Stitch, Bud and me don’t give you an unexpected haircut. Right,
let’s go.”

The main door
to the lab was open a crack and Luggs gave one almighty kick and we
lunged in as one. The three guys in the front row dropped onto
their asses, the next three dropped to their knees and us three in
the third row stepped forward behind them as we all began firing
together. The inside of the small reception area exploded as our
laser rifles found their targets. All seven of the bald creatures
were killed within fifteen seconds before they’d had time to
register what was happening. We stopped firing and the sudden
silence was deafening after the racket our rifles had made and I
could hear the blood pumping in my ears. We just had time to take a
breath before we heard what was now a familiar screech.

“Oh no,” Luggs
sighed.

“Shit and
fuck,” Dex hissed.

We were in a
small square reception area. Two doors led off to our right,
another two on our left and ahead of us, a short corridor led to
another door. Both doors on our right stood open and one of those
to our left. The screech came again followed by another and we all
knew what was coming. Out of the corner of my eye I saw shadows
through one of the doors on our right.

“To the right
guys, they’re in there.” The nearest door on our right suddenly
burst off its hinges and the creature struggled to get through the
gap; its huge leathery wings getting in its own way and giving us
valuable seconds. We opened fire and its head burst open, spraying
blood over its companion who was also struggling to get through the
narrow doorway. We kept firing and it dropped to the floor on top
of its headless companion. A crash from the adjacent office caught
our ears and we looked toward the open door. Another crash and a
thump followed in quick succession and then it stepped into
view.

The humanoid
must’ve been nearly eight feet tall and stood looking at us.
Clearly a male, his long brown hair smelled strongly of unwashed
armpits and sweaty crotches and I noticed his eyes were pale grey.
His nostrils twitched as he sniffed the air, as if he was trying to
figure out what we were. We were mesmerised into silence as we
stood there, looking at him looking at us. I was about to speak
when the smallest of shadows right behind him caught my attention.
I shifted my gaze to his left and saw the large blocky head and
gaping jaws of another fat bloated creature creeping out from over
the pile of dead flying things. It must’ve smelled the hairy guy,
as it turned towards him and growled menacingly. Without thinking I
opened fire and blood gushed from an artery in its neck as it fell
to the floor behind the hairy guy, who spun around in shock and
looked at the creature lying dead at his feet.

“Guys,” I
whispered as calmly as I could. “Move away from the door so he can
leave; I don’t feel comfortable shooting him.” My companions nodded
and I heard Luggs grunt in agreement as we all shuffled out of the
way, leaving a clear route to the main door. The hairy guy
continued sniffing the air and kept looking towards the door; his
eyes flitting from the door to us and back again. Once, when he
looked right at me, I did something so instinctive and natural that
it wasn’t until afterwards that I realised how significant it was.
He looked right at me and I nodded towards the door and then smiled
at him. It seemed so natural that I almost spoke to him but managed
to stop myself just in time. He let out a snort and took a
tentative step towards the door, his eyes on us all the time. We
shuffled back as far as we could and the hairy guy snorted again,
before stomping towards the door and out into the sun. We ran shut
the door behind him and sighed heavily.

“Come on,” I
encouraged, “we have to check out the other offices before we can
relax and we should get these carcasses outside too.” Twenty
minutes later we sat in what we found to be a small kitchen and
tried to calm ourselves. Talk was about the hairy guy and what a
weird experience it was meeting him. Everyone agreed it made us
very uncomfortable being near him. Not because he was dangerous
because we all reckoned he wasn’t. It was his unsettling sameness
to ourselves while still effectively being a wild animal that
freaked us out so much.

The fact that
we were now enjoying a hot drink assured us that the lab did indeed
have a working power supply as Dex confirmed when he discovered a
solar generator in a small cubby hole. This was the first time I
felt something had gone right for me and I sighed with relief and
hoped that whatever happened during the next few hours, the solar
cells on the roof of this building remain intact long enough for my
DNA sample to be processed. Dragging myself to my feet, I got up
and went into the main lab and examined the array of equipment and
machinery within. Most of the stuff was unrecognisable to me but
I’d watched samples being processed a few times so I knew what I
was looking for and was confident I could work the machine.
Thankfully I eventually found the sample processor at the far end
of the room and switched it on and watched as lights flickered and
a faint hum could be heard. Closing my eyes, I thought back to the
last time I’d watched a sample being processed. It was a pretty
straightforward procedure but I wanted to avoid any mistake so I
went through it in my head a few times before I got out my mobile
sampler and connected it to the docking plug on the top of the
machine. A red light appeared on a panel at the front, which
flickered a few times before turning to orange and eventually, to
green. To say I was relieved would be putting it mildly and I
sighed now that my device had been recognised and accepted by the
machine and watched the digital screen as a display of my name, tag
number and sample log numbers popped up. Then just a tap on the
display screen to process the appropriate sample, wait for the beep
and the whirring noise that would tell me the machine was working
and I could relax. Once I was satisfied I went back to the kitchen
and sat down with the guys.

“Everything
okay Sam?” Flark asked and I nodded.

“Yeah. The
sample is working up now. We just have to sit tight and wait for it
to finish.”

“How long will
it take?” Luggs asked.

“Several hours
I’m afraid,” I shrugged. “It’ll be dark before it’s finished so
we’d best resign ourselves to spending the night here.”

“We’d better
barricade ourselves in don’t you think?” Stitch remarked and Dex
nodded.

“Yeah, let’s
get all the desks out of the offices and pile them up against the
main door.” He stood but I raised a hand.

“There’s loads
of windows here though Dex,” I said, “and those things could easily
break in via any of the offices here. How about we barricade the
main door as you said, but then we do the same in the main lab.
There’s no windows in there and there’s lots of desks, tables and
heavy machinery we can make use of.”

“Yeah, good
idea,” Flark nodded. “We can take the nutri vend from here and
anything we find in the cupboards too so our night can be
relatively comfortable.”

“It’s a shame
the laser net isn’t working,” Hank sighed and scratched his
chin.

That’s one
thing we all agreed on and I nodded. If that thing was working it
would be a breeze surviving here for the next few days. “Hell
yeah,” I agreed, “that would be wonderful. Once we killed
everything we’d have no problems surviving here until the liner
comes back.”

“Well there’s
no point wasting time wishing for something you can’t have,” Luggs
remarked as he stood and headed towards the door. “Come on then,
let’s get these desks moved.”

“But that’s
just it,” Hank continued. “It’s not impossible.” We all turned and
looked at him questioningly. “I know I’m a prisoner here like all
the other guys. I’m here because I stole money from the company I
own, or rather the company I used to own.”

“So?” Dex
asked.

“So before I
came here,” he smiled. “Before I got found out that is, I had my
own company that manufactured and installed security systems. Laser
security systems to be exact.” We all looked at him open mouthed.
Dex, Flark and I looked at one another in amazement.

“You did?” Dex
replied and Hank nodded.

“Yeah.”

“So do you
reckon you could get this one working again?” I asked.

“Well I don’t
know,” he sighed. “You see, my company installed mainly small
stuff. Y’know, residential and small companies. Nothing on this
scale but the principle is the same. A laser is a laser. It’s just
how you use it that’s different and the set up for a security
system is basically the same whether you’re installing at a small
house or huge company headquarters. It’s just the initial
groundwork that’s difficult; the logistics of working out the grid
patterns needed to cover the area you want covered. Once that’s
been done it’s just a case of wiring up the power supply and
switching on.”

“The island
uses power from the planet’s own magnetic field to power itself,” I
remarked and Hank nodded.

“Yeah I know
and I wouldn’t have a clue how to set that up.”

“Shit,” Flark
exclaimed.

“But don’t you
see?” Hank said. “All the initial workup has already been done when
the island was built. The only thing that’s happened here is that
it’s gone wrong somehow. Maybe the antenna has broken or a wire has
come loose, whatever, but the thing is it should just be a repair
job not a full installation.”

“If the antenna
has broken, how can we fix it?” Boy asked.

“Well,” Hank
replied. “The antenna itself is just a metallic tube about ten feet
high. The important bit is the laser generator at its tip and the
magnetic field receiver at its base. The mag receiver collects
power from the planet’s magnetic field, as you already know. It
sends that power up to the laser generator nipple that must be
perfectly aligned with the receiver below in order for the power to
flow around to the laser transmitters that will no doubt, encircle
the entire island. If the tube itself is broken but the laser
generator and mag receiver are intact, then we can just repair the
tube or even stick a new post in the ground and re align the mag
receiver with the generator nipple and it should automatically
switch itself back on. In theory anyway.”