Floxham Island ~ Sinclair V-Log AZ267/M (4 page)

We had five
crew on board with us; Flark was Captain and under him was a pilot
by the name of Chip Trale; a blonde, blue eyed plank who obviously
felt he should’ve been a model or a vidicom star instead. His co
pilot was at the opposite end of the scale and the contrast between
them was more than a little amusing. Luggs was a throwback to some
time long ago when his race was first evolving from grunting
animals. A coarse individual, he was big but lacked grace when he
moved and seemed to have a permanent and unsettling leer on his
face. If I was a woman I’d feel very uncomfortable around him. The
navigator was our one female crew member and I felt let down as I
looked at her. Meesha Roddry was obviously a gal who liked a drink
and probably used it to mask out some past hurt that she hadn’t yet
come to terms with. She looked at every male on board in a way that
made it very clear she’d open her legs for anyone without a fuss,
even the old guy. We also had an engineer with us by the name of Jo
Cappilianos who told everyone to call him Cap. He was one of those
annoyingly happy folks with a permanent smile on his face who never
worries about anything and is always optimistic and joyful. The
kind of guy you like to punch first thing on a Sunday morning after
a heavy evening the night before.

We landed
safely on Floxham Island’s shuttle landing station and everyone
prepared to disembark. Hann and I had previously arranged for the
passengers to disembark first, while I would wait inside with the
crew before escorting Nembier into the prison. Once the passengers
were off, I got up and began to take down the wall boards shielding
him from view. I was just about to say something to Flark when the
scream rang out and everyone was shocked into silence. Everyone
looked at each other before jumping up and heading for the hatch to
see what the commotion was. As we followed the direction of the
scream we could hear sobbing. It was late afternoon and the light
was getting low when we arrived and the dull yellow landing lights
didn’t afford us much illumination so it wasn’t until we were
within a few feet that we could see the teenage girl sobbing and
being comforted by the plain woman.

“What’s going
on here?” Flark bellowed. The woman pointed into the gloom to her
left and we all squinted but could see nothing. Luggs took a step
closer and we heard him gasp in shock before swearing and turning
away to vomit. “What the fuck is going on Luggs?” Flark bellowed
again and Luggs pointed. He and Cap approached cautiously and
peered into the darkness. “Holy fuck,” Flark exclaimed as he jumped
back. By now I was getting more curious myself so I took a step
forward but he blocked my way. “I wouldn’t if I were you Mr
Sinclair,” he gasped as he looked at me wide eyed. There was no way
I was missing out on the fun so I stepped past him and took a look
and found myself staring into a pair of startled eyes. The hat told
me this was one of the prison guards and his shocked expression was
obviously a result of him having no body below the chest; the
gaping, bloody rent through which we could clearly see ribs, lungs
and liver telling us this guy met with a horrible end not long ago.
The shock made me leap back and I glared at Flark.

“What the
fuck?” I began but couldn’t think how to finish. Before anyone
could say anything else we heard a loud roaring grunt and everyone
looked around. Having been here before, I knew there were terrible
creatures living on Floxham but I’d never heard them so close
before and it unsettled me. The noise came again and Flark sprang
into action, bellowing commands and ordering everyone to run for
the main door of the prison. Shaking away my shock, I leapt back
into the shuttle to unlock Nembier and Luggs appeared beside me;
his size helping to ensure that my prisoner would give us no
trouble. Nembier looked scared, his eyes darting to and fro and he
obviously picked up on our unease. Feeling no desire to allay his
fears I grabbed my bag and dragged him from the shuttle; Luggs
holding his other arm in a vice like grip.

We leapt from
the hatch and raced to catch up with the others who were by now
over a hundred yards ahead of us. We heard another loud roar right
behind us and I turned to find myself looking at something I’d
never seen before and never want to see again. That image haunted
my dreams for weeks afterwards and almost drove me to drink. The
creature was two legged but hunched forward; the hump on its back
giving it a slightly bent forward appearance. It didn’t appear to
have arms that I could see, but its head was huge and out of all
proportion to the size of its body and I couldn’t help wondering
how the hell it supported such a huge head. The head was basically
spherical, if rather flat on top, with a wedge shaped jaw jutting
from the front with rather short but wickedly pointed teeth in two
rows, top and bottom. The thing that surprised me most was its eyes
and as I looked at them I realised two things that save our lives.
First I realised that we had no hope of out running this thing;
with two hundred yards of open space between us and the safety of
the prison, we were screwed. As I continued looking at that
horrific face I realised why those eyes surprised me; they were
tiny and the way it was moving its head told me those eyes were
almost useless. Realising that this meant it probably worked off
sound or smell or both, I scanned the head again for ears and
noticed a large hole on each side, surrounded by what looked like a
bony frill. It obviously uses sound far more than sight so I put on
my most commanding whisper.

“Keep still
guys,” I hissed as loudly as I dared. “Don’t move a muscle and keep
silent.”

“What the
fuck?” Luggs started to protest but I shushed him immediately.

“Shut the fuck
up you idiot, it can’t see. Look at its eyes, they’re useless. It
operates on sound so shut the fuck up and keep still okay?”
Surprisingly, Luggs did as he was told and we stood there; the
three of us rooted to the spot as the huge creature approached,
turning its head this way and that, scanning for sounds. At one
point that huge head passed by my face with just a couple of inches
to spare and I felt and smelled its acrid breath. Nembier was
terrified out of his wits; I could feel him shaking as I held onto
him and I’d already decided that if he ran off screaming like a
kid, I wasn’t going to chase after him this time. It was then that
I was suddenly reminded of some of those old vidicom movies I love
so much as we stood there within twenty feet of the creature as it
slowly approached, head bobbing from side to side, ears cocked for
the slightest noise. After what seemed like an hour but was
probably less than a couple of minutes, the creature snorted and
lumbered away to the right and disappeared into the gloom. We
waited until we could no longer hear its footsteps thudding before
running for our lives towards the prison. We caught up with the
rest of the group as they reached the main door. We stopped to get
our breath and make sure everyone was accounted for and found that
so far at least, we hadn’t lost anyone.

“Oh fuck. Fuck
what the hell was that?” Luggs said, his voice trembling with fear.
“My god, what the fuck was that?” The guy was obviously terrified
but I had to hand it to him, he held onto his fear and I felt some
admiration for him.

“This whole
planet is full of them,” I said and he nodded.

“I know that
but why the fuck is it here on the island?” he asked, knowing I
hadn’t a clue.

“Fuck knows,” I
said as I shrugged my shoulders. “The trench is supposed to keep
them all out. Come on let’s get inside where it’s safe huh?” He
nodded and with a last fearful look behind, we entered the
prison.

Once we got
inside and shut the door we all thought we would be safe. We
expected the prison staff to come running up and ask us if we were
okay or had we lost anyone and would we like a drink to settle our
nerves but the place was eerily silent. The teenage girl was still
crying and being comforted by the plain woman who was in her
element having someone to take charge of. At that moment I realised
that although rather a plain looking woman, she would be very
useful in a crisis and I silently apologised to her for
underestimating her worth. My mind was still trying to digest what
just happened to us out there and I suppose a part of me still
didn’t quite believe it. Usually I’m not given to fits of panic but
at that moment a part of me was silently screaming for help.

“Is everyone
here? Do we have everyone?” Flark barked suddenly, breaking the
silence of the place and making us jump as his voice echoed around
the room. We all looked at each other and realised that yeah, we’d
all made it. “Is anyone hurt? Are there any injuries?” he barked
again.

“Does shitting
my pants count?” Luggs retorted immediately and a tense silence
ensued before one by one, we all started to laugh. Even Nembier was
grinning at that. It’s funny how, during high stress situations,
things make you laugh that might not in another situation. It’s
like it’s a survival mechanism for stress relief or something.
Normally I would have found Luggs disgusting but that made me laugh
and I realised that here was another good ally to have in a crisis,
despite him being a little coarse. Although I didn’t yet realise
it, subconsciously I was picking my team for when the shit really
hit the fan, which was in just a few minutes.

“Why is he in
restraints?” the military guy asked suddenly and everyone now
looked at Nembier, who blushed to the roots of his hair and looked
at the floor. In the panic I’d forgotten that no one knew about him
and for a moment I tried to think of a plausible lie, before
realising I’d just have to tell them the truth.

“He’s my
prisoner,” I replied, “and I brought him here for trial.”

“What did he
do?” military guy enquired.

“Nothing, I’m
innocent,” Nembier suddenly interrupted.

“Aren’t they
all?” I snorted in reply as I looked around for somewhere to secure
him. A corridor stretched out ahead so I opened a couple of doors
and found one to be a bathroom. It wasn’t the ideal place to house
a prisoner but circumstances dictated that I think on my feet, so I
dragged him inside and cuffed him around a metal girder that held
the mezzanine ceiling up. He protested of course and I promised to
come back and move him once we’d gotten our bearings and found some
guards who could take charge of him. He gave me no trouble but as I
turned to leave he called me back.

“Sinclair?” he
called and I turned and looked at him. “Don’t leave me alone in
here too long huh? Whatever you think of me is irrelevant; just
don’t forget me, please.” That was another of those moments when I
really wondered about Nembier so I nodded and left the room.

Pretty soon we
realised that our arrival should have been noticed by now and the
lack of any staff coming to check us out became too obvious to
ignore. It was then that I had a thought that scared me so much I
instinctively backed away from it. There was no way I wanted that
thought; I didn’t want it at all but it wouldn’t go away no matter
what I tried. My mind forced me to consider the possibility that
the staff hadn’t come to see us because they were all dead. The
fact that no one else voiced the question made me realise that they
were probably trying not to acknowledge the same thought
themselves. Finally I knew someone had to take the lead if we
wanted to get out of this alive so I voiced what no one else wanted
to.

“Why is there
no staff here? Shouldn’t someone have come to check us out already?
Is everyone here dead from those creatures?” Blank faces looked
back at me as I looked from one person to the next so I turned to
Flark; instinct telling me to give the problem to the Captain.
“Well?” I demanded as I raised my eyebrows. “Where the fuck is
everyone?”

“How the fuck
should I know?” he countered angrily and glared at me. His response
surprised me; I was taken aback by his aggressive tone and was
about to respond in kind when it occurred to me that he was
obviously scared shitless. He sighed deeply and I remembered that
he was employed by a cruise line and more than likely has never
been in anything remotely similar to this situation before. This
made me feel bad, a little, so I backed off. The last thing this
situation needed was a row when we needed to work together.

“Sorry
Captain,” I replied and nodded at him. “Maybe we should take a look
around huh? Maybe split into a couple of groups and meet up back
here in an hour, what do you think? Is everyone okay with that?”
Hoping everyone would agree I looked around the group and everyone
nodded and grunted in response. It was the only sensible thing to
do anyway. Working alone all the time means I don’t have to answer
to anyone and I was about to suggest who goes with whom when I
remembered that Flark was technically in charge of us so I held my
tongue. “Captain? You wanna suggest who goes with whom?” I
offered.

He looked at me
and nodded. “Okay folks, we have 2 kids with us so maybe we should
first find a secure room and hide them in there while the rest of
us split up to search the place okay?” Everyone began to nod but
the old guy with the weird kid looked aghast and clasped the boy’s
hand tighter as he shook his head violently.

“No, I’m sorry
Captain but I can’t leave Eddy alone,” the old guy said. “He stays
with me or I stay with him.” My heart sank and I gave a silent sigh
and rolled my eyes as I remembered all those vidicom movies where
this happens and the kid ends up running off and getting everyone
killed. Flark was obviously thinking the same thing because his
expression darkened and I mentally clapped him on the back.

“Listen to me
dammit,” he snapped. “You saw what was out there and for all we
know this whole place could be crawling with them and who knows
what else. We have to take a look around to see what we’re dealing
with and we don’t want to have to deal with 2 scared kids when we
might have to fight for our lives. Now we find a secure room and
Eddy and the girl can keep each other company there while the rest
of us reccy the place. That’s an order not a suggestion by the way
so get with it people.” His expression made it clear it would be
unwise to argue so we moved off and within a couple of minutes we
found a small office with a lockable door. We arranged the desks
and chairs to make a little den and put Eddy and the girl down in
there together. The girl looked scared to be left on her own and I
felt sorry for her. She’d been no trouble at all so far and was
travelling alone and must’ve been scared out of her wits. Her eyes
were huge and frightened as I crouched down and smiled at her and
gave her hand a squeeze.