The Hell With Earthside: A Novella (STRYDER'S HORIZON Book 1) (7 page)

The attack happened fast.

Our ambush was a bit slower to respond.

The
Dessup Gang had come dressed for the occasion. They descended upon us like Satan’s army. I froze in fear.

What if this isn’t the
Dessup Gang? What if Hell has come for me?

I could hear my brother’s voice in the screams that followed. It was judgment day for more than just me. We drew blasters and took cover.

Shots peppered the walls faster than the pulsing lights. A wicked laughter cut down those who had been too deep in conversation.

The bait had worked. But the fishing line was snapping. It took desperation for me to find my drill-runner and slide in. I rose up above the crowd and knew I shouldn’t worry about aiming. Too many of the Colonial officers were already dead. I just had to hope any that were still alive were out of the way. I had to even the odds.

“Fire!”

I couldn’t hear Dent acknowledge, but the blazing red cannon fire shot out without hesitation. I swayed back and forth trying to keep a blanket of fire in their way.

My assault bought Alice some time.  She was soon next to me barking insults at everyone. Then Clancy activated her cannons. Our ambush finally looked like something that was intended not to fail.

“Shoot those red bastards! Damn it,
Stryder! Get out of my shot!”

I dodged right
. Clancy’s firing was delayed. The hesitation took away Alice’s target. She let him know.

“You stupid asshole, just hold down that trigger of yours!”

“You’re turning it into a blood bath,” Clancy cried and cut off her cannons.

Alice whipped around. “Fire at those assholes!”

They shot back before she could. The decorative skull on the drill-runner splintered into oblivion. The shots were strong enough to knock Alice off course. She spun into a wall. She would’ve been a pancake had she not redirected herself at the last second.

I tried to protect her as she regained her composure.

My cannons stopped firing all of a sudden. I had three Dessup demons coming right at her. Their aim was horrible but they were getting closer with each shot.

“Fire!”

Dent didn’t respond.

“Fire!”

Still nothing.

“Damn it, Dent. Fire!”

The Dessup lit up Alice’s drill-runner. It dangled in the air, suspended by the barrage of blaster-fire.

“Fire!” I cried over and over.

Through all the hell and chaos I heard a pop.

I knew it was on Dent’s end. I knew it was a severed comm. I was disarmed.

Alice’s drill runner bounced off the ground, teetering from the sake of the gravitational orb within it and flipped into a giant marshmallow monster decoration.

I’ve heard wise men say, Hell is your failures replayed for all eternity. Here I was surrounded by the devils that would torment me.  There had been one hundred Colonial Officers filling the bay. One hundred had faked joy for the last time. Their minds were riddled with fear now as they cowered unprotected, waiting to be spotted among the frayed skeletons and ghosts.

They reminded me of
Callum.

I had met a man that night. I left without telling my brother. We snuck off and Callum came looking for me. Tucked away inside a truck I heard the commotion outside, a broken bottle, and then another. There was some one barking like a mad dog. Then I heard my brother’s voice.

Like some one flipped the thermostat. I felt the cold ripple down my spine like sharp needles. The
Dessup Gang had him. They shoved him around in a circle like middle school bullies. I loved my brother. I thought the world of him. I never had to worry about him. I remember the smirk on my face as I knew Callum would have them all on their asses soon.

He was too drunk.

They skinned him slowly. I tried to run out to help him, but the man I had met held me back. I tried to fight free, but he held me tighter.

“It’s too late!” he told me. “They’ll only kill you, too.”

I drew blood. Even as I broke free he blocked the door. I heard my brother’s screaming stop. I filled the silence with my sobs. Digging my nails into the man’s forearm. He didn’t wince. He pulled me tighter. Refused to let me run outside and stop them from what I saw next.

They flayed Callum’s skin. And then they shot him up in the air. His frayed flesh flapped as it fell back to the ground. They didn’t stick around to admire the landing.

You can’t clutch a mess like that. It drips through your fingers. It tears as people try to pull you away, try to tell you it’ll be okay.

You’ll never be okay,
Kimmie.

The Dessup Gang aimed at me.  I charged my drill-runner at them. The scream of a banshee burst from me. I twisted and juked, then went parallel to the ground like a swinging sword and struck a line of them. Bones broke and I didn’t get the pleasure of hearing it.

“
Kimmie!” a familiar voice buzzed in my ear. Gregor called my name again, “Kimmie, stay with me!”

“Gregor?”

“Yes, they attacked our station. It’s over now. But your gunmen are dead. I cannot reach Alice. Kimmie, what’s going on in there? All our cameras are down.”

“Alice is down, we’re out numbered and now out gunned.” I dodged cannon fire, watched the blur as it shot by me.  “Can you get my guns online again?”

“I can try, but no guarantee. Everything is smashed here.”

“Well, give me some good fucking news why don’t you?”

“Stay with me.”

It wasn’t enough. I swerved and directed myself towards another corner of the bay where a band of
Dessup where attacking some of the surviving officers.

“Tell them to launch the Shell attack now!”

Gregor didn’t respond. I knew they wouldn’t launch Tourner’s officers until more Dessup showed up outside our soiree. Maybe the Dessup inside were too smart. They knew it was a trap and being loyal to their evil brethren, they refused to call for reinforcements.

Would thirty dead
Dessup be enough for Callum?

No. I wanted them all.

“Kimmie, I can get your weapons online, just give me a second.”

The whole wall in front of me collapsed. Dust and smoke filled the rest of the bay.

Five drill-runners appeared in silhouette.

For a moment, the optimist in me thought they were Davis’ reinforcements. But thankfully, the optimist in me is a little more of a realist. I yanked my drill-runner high and to the left. Their fire was too slow to catch me.

“Weapons now!” I screamed at Gregor.

“One second…”

It was no use. I was already charging at the other drill-runners.  They had to be stationary to shoot. I saw that, their arms had abandoned the controls of their drill-runners. It seemed like it should’ve been something favorable for me. But it’s much harder to dodge five shooters. I had to get out in the open. I had to give myself more space to get away from them.

I went straight through the middle, hoping their fire wouldn’t stop my drill-runner. I felt every hit. Then like a breath of fresh air, there was nothing firing at me. I had flown passed them and they needed to turn to shoot at me again.

It lasted a good five seconds.

But that’s all I needed.

Gregor’s voice was music to my ears. “Weapons online. But I can’t see anything, Kimmie.”

“No big worries, chum. Hold down the trigger and leave the rest to me.”

Colonial Officer Davis was bagged. Of the several other body bags, I recognized Clancy and Dent even though I’d never seen their faces. Their lumps seemed to match their voices.

Gregor obstructed any further analysis of the command center gone to shit.

“Kimmie, you’re done. It’s over,” he said. “We go home now.”

It didn’t feel over.

Colonial Officers were tallying up the dead. Grand Officer Tourner had backed me up on my final foray into the bay. It was enough to decimate the remaining Dessup. I hated how anti-climatic it felt. All these years and it was finally done. All these years trying not to seek revenge and here I had.

Tourner
looked disgusted by Gregor’s embrace of me.

“Good work,
Stryder. Be careful, those are the kinds of moves that put you on the frontlines to face the Red Empress.”

“She’s done,” Gregor said.

Tourner scoffed at that. I let go of Gregor. He quickly replaced me with Alice, who had followed Tourner into the broken command center.

“They were just kids,” Alice said dodging the hug.

Tourner nodded. “It was right there for us the whole time. When Davis’ first mission in the tubes took place, the bodies were incinerated right then and there. No need to investigate who those scum had been. Twenty teens were soon reported missing. We chocked it up to the Dessup Gang. We didn’t realize they
were
the Dessup.”

“
Earthsiders?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s how they were everywhere they wanted to be. There is no way to penetrate
Earthside. They were here all along.”

“Punk ass kids.” Alice kicked a body bag. The cringing faces all around made me think that one belonged to a Colonial Officer.

I felt sick to my stomach. I knew it had been too good to be true.

“A quick background-check links all these teens together. All of them had made various statements against the Colonial. They admired the
Dessup Gang, stylized their violence after the stories they read.”

My stomach turned.
There had been hundreds.

Couldn’t I just keep pretending I had killed the
Dessup Gang?

“Are you okay?” Gregor tried to help me. I shoved him away. The rage was burning within me. I had found it in those moments of desperation. I had used it. It would never leave me now.

“No,” I said.

“
Stryder, regardless of whether or not this was the actual Dessup Gang, you have saved Earthside and we are grateful. I certainly had my doubts, and while this is far messier than I would’ve liked, you screwed in the light bulb.”

Alice stepped between us. It was a good thing too because I wanted to continue my rage on
Tourner.

“Kind of messed up you didn’t check up on your own people, a little detective work and you could’ve rounded them up no problem.”

“It’s called hindsight because you couldn’t see it beforehand.”

I’m not a wise man, but I know this. Revenge is like the horizon: as soon as you get there you’ll realize it’s not the place you want to be, but everywhere you look is just more horizon.

I found my posture and didn’t bother looking back at Tourner. “Upload my credits already.”

Alice and Gregor tried to convince me to come out with them to Macy’s Pub when we returned to Burnside.

“I don’t want to blow all my earnings in one night,” Gregor said. “You come and split tab with me.”

I told them I wanted time with Old Shepard. Told them I’d race out to the horizon first.

They looked like it was a sound method to curing my blues. They didn’t think that I might not want to come back.

Most racers don’t think about that either. But there’s always that chance you won’t make your destination. A lot can happen in a stretch of road. One turn, one faulty part.

Maybe the
Dessup Gang was still out there.

But I knew who wasn’t. I knew Callum was nowhere to be found.

I slid behind the wheel of Old Shepard knowing I wouldn’t make my destination. Still I raced for home. It was the only race I’d ever run.

THE E
ND…

KIMMIE STRYDER WILL RETURN IN….

<>

PRISONER

OF

EARTHSIDE

STYDER’S HORIZON #2

<>

Stryder’s allegiances are tested when a prisoner of war returns home.

Can she protect him from his dangerous past and far more troubling future?

Coming Soon

Daniel J. Kirk is a resident of Richmond, Virginia. He has written and published westerns, horror, and science fiction short stories throughout the digital world. His first published novel, a fantasy adventure tale, THE FORGOTTEN PRINCESS will be released Summer 2014.

His ongoing urban fantasy series: THE HATCHBACK WOMAN is available now:

HATCHBACK WOMAN #1-
10  
&  
HATCHBACK WOMAN #11-18

He can be contacted at:
[email protected]

And visit
www.brideofchaos.com
to keep up to date with new releases featuring Mr. Kirk and many more authors.