Floxham Island ~ Sinclair V-Log AZ267/M (22 page)

“Enjoy the bed
buddy,” I grinned and he nodded.

“Thanks Sam.
I’ll think of you up there on the floor.”

“You do that,”
I snickered, allowing him his moment of one upmanship. “See you
guys at breakfast.”

The following
morning we were all up bright and early and after a swift
breakfast, we handed out protective suits and breathers to
volunteers and set out to our dread task. We decided to begin the
clean up at the admin and cell wings, as that was where the
heaviest concentration of bodies was. Three hours later we had
cleared the Admin Block and Cell Wings and everyone was hot and
tired. Each pile was laid out with one of the ten inch square
cremblocks at its centre. Once the fuse lines were attached Flark
stepped forward and said a few words.

“All seeing and
all knowing universal creator, we ask that you receive the souls of
these, your children and lead them into whatever afterlife you deem
appropriate for them. We ask forgiveness for what we have to do
here today and we ask that you keep us safe as we wait for help to
arrive. Amen.” The fuse lines were lit and with a hiss and a
whoosh, all the piles of bodies burst into white hot flames.

After a break
for something to eat and drink, we decided our next job should be
the workshops and the Accommodation sector. We needed to get them
cleared before nightfall and it was already approaching mid day.
The volunteers who’d helped haul bodies were sent inside and once
the security guys had changed out of their protective gear and re
armed themselves, we set off. The workshops were clear so we headed
over to the Accommodation Sector. This part of the island consists
of ten shared houses for staff and five hundred visitors and other
guests in the hotel. We’d found out from the plans that the hotel
rooms were a mixture of singles, doubles and family rooms totalling
two hundred and ninety four rooms on five floors to be checked for
creatures and bodies. We were dreading this job and all of us
remembered our first harrowing experience the night we got here and
had to clear the Admin Block to make it safe for us. A lump formed
in my throat as I remembered clearing the cell wings and how Ronjo
lost his life saving me. This was the last thing I wanted to do
again but it was necessary so I shook my head and rolled my
shoulders around.

“Okay people,
let’s do it.”

Amazingly, the
Accommodation sector’s ten shared staff houses yielded just a dozen
bodies and three of the flying creatures. The hotel was clear of
bodies and creatures and we actually found a dozen or so people
alive and hiding out there, all of whom were terrified at the sight
of us and thought we were escaped inmates come to murder them. They
came at us with shoes, boots and any other personal items they
could find to use as a weapon and one brave gal held a hairbrush in
front of her and had a look of steely defiance in her eyes that I
would be proud to display. We soon had them calmed down and invited
them to join the rest of us in the Admin Block and they were
overjoyed to accept. We now knew the whole island was clear of
creatures and everyone was very relieved. I kept my promise to Kitt
and got a spare vidicom from a vacant room in the hotel and took it
down to the cell block in triumph. Nembier had asked me to let him
stay in the cell for the day so he can Kitt could talk and they
were deep in conversation and Kitt had tears streaming down his
cheeks so I guessed some closure was going on. They were happy to
see the vidicom and were grateful to be able to sit and watch a
stream of mediocre movies until they drifted off to sleep.

I was smiling
as I made my way back to the canteen and hopped up onto a chair.
“Guys? Hey guys,” I yelled and the hubbub quietened. “For those
newcomers, welcome. I’m Sam Sinclair and I’m a Freelance Law
Enforcer, Tag code Sinclair 27593-4/167AZP. I have three prisoners
under restraint down in cell wing four, so I’m afraid the cells are
out of bounds to everyone without my express permission. During the
daytime, one of them will be joining us up here. He’s no danger to
anyone and is innocent of the crimes he is wanted for but I have to
follow the proper procedure and keep him in restraints until I can
hand him over to the proper authorities. That doesn’t mean he
deserves to be treated like an animal okay? He’s been through it
here with us since we got here and a lot of it while everyone
thought him to be a murderer. I don’t want to find out he’s being
bullied while my back is turned. The next thing is that now we know
the island is free of creatures, we can continue the clean up
tomorrow and should be able to let you all out to get some sunshine
by the afternoon. If you do go outside, please be aware that you
may see or encounter three large hairy humanoid creatures. They are
harmless and friendly and saved our lives a couple of days ago on
more than one occasion and if I get even a sniff of anyone being
cruel to them, I will go right off top okay?”

“He’s only
saying that cos he delivered their baby, ain’t you papa?” Luggs
squeaked and everyone laughed.

I blushed and
couldn’t help laughing with them. “Okay, okay yeah I helped deliver
their newborn and I feel kinda, responsible. Now that we know the
island is safe, I vote we all sleep in the Accommodation sector
from now on; sleeping on the floor here is getting seriously old.
Is everyone okay with that?”

The following
morning we cleared the cell wings of the dead, then moved around
the island methodically and had the job done by mid afternoon.
Everyone was glad to be able to get out into the sun and I escorted
Nembier as he took a walk around the island. We could relax for the
first time in what seemed like months and some real friendships
were made during that experience, many of which I know will remain
solid despite the vast distances between them and a few of them, my
own. There were a couple of the guys I wanted to keep in touch with
and I had already exchanged Unicom numbers with Dex, Luggs and Baz
and I knew that we’d all keep in touch and maybe even meet up from
time to time. The emergency team finally arrived on the third day
after the clean up finished and the day after that, the Law
Enforcement Agency arrived to take official control of the prison
and I was finally able to hand my prisoners over. Relief flooded
through me as I gave them the evidence bags and the data from my
mobile blood sampler and data recorder and told them everything
Kitt and Nembier had told me and officially signed them over into
the care of Floxham’s new Governor, who assured me that this new
information would most likely ensure Nembier’s release. As the
shuttle returned for the last of the Sally B’s passengers and crew,
I went to speak with Nembier for the last time.

“Hey buddy,” I
smiled and shook the hand he offered me. “You did good Professor.
You did good.”

“Thank you Sam
and thank you for believing in me.”

“Just doing my
job,” I smiled. “I’m sorry again for losing it with you that first
day. I’ve told the Governor all about it, so don’t feel it’s been
brushed under the carpet and if you wish to file a complaint, I
want you to know I won’t fight it and will happily compensate you
okay?”

“You’re a good
man Sam,” he smiled. “Your belief in me in compensation enough.
Money I can acquire easily but the belief and trust of another man
is a rare treasure and one I wouldn’t wish to exchange for
money.”

“You take care
of yourself Professor?”

“Be safe Sam.
Be safe in all that you do.”

Well, that’s
where the tale of Floxham Island ends really. We returned to the
Sally B and I got some much needed R and R, which the leggy blonde
was more than happy to help me with by the way and I was able to
enjoy the liner and its delights for four days before my next job
came in. Oh, one thing before I sign off. The governor assured me
that the three hairy guys, Omega, Adam and Eve and the newborn
Floxy would be taken care of and that they and their kind had been
welcome members of the Floxham family since the prison was first
built. Their scientists study them and learn about them and their
medical team take care of their needs. He told me that they’d been
trying to encourage them to breed for ages without success and were
delighted that they now had a healthy newborn. He also told me he
would make sure she was always named Floxy.

Thanks for
listening folks; I hope you found my Floxham adventure interesting.
Be sure to catch my other video logs huh? This is Sam Sinclair, Tag
Code Sinclair 27593-4/167AZP signing off. V-log reference AZ267/M
complete.

The Lilean
Chronicles: Book One ~ Redemption

The Lilean
Chronicles: Book Two ~ The Sleeping

The Lilean
Chronicles: Book Three ~ Changing Faces

The Lilean
Chronicles: Book Four ~ Avalanche Effect

Merita King has
loved the science fiction and fantasy genre in both books and
movies since she was a young child. She has been greatly inspired
by years of watching movies and reading books and has wanted to
make a contribution to this genre for many years. Her stories all
contain a strong spiritual thread as she believes that spirituality
is universal and crosses all boundaries. She believes that the
creative process is largely intuitive and can be very effectively
blocked by too much pre-planning. “Plot lines, characters and
events all come to me intuitively,” she says, “and this makes the
act of writing a constant pleasure.” She is a psychic medium and
lives alone in Hampshire, UK.