His face was barely recognizable. I probably wouldn’t have known it was him, except for the blood covered beard. Claire’s grandfather.
I closed the drawer and moved to the next one. My heart slammed in my chest. Blood roared in my ears.
I didn’t want to look. I had to look.
I opened the drawer. Stifled a gasp.
Claire.
"Oh god, what have I done," I whispered.
Fifty-One
Gently I closed the stainless steel morgue drawer. I looked around the room. There was a stainless steel table in the center of the room with a rack of high-intensity lights above it. A cloth covered metal tray lay on a stand next to the table. The soldier's station was a small desk in a corner of the room. The room smelled of disinfectant, but it didn't quite cover the odor of decay in the air.
I had the two soldiers tied to chairs with some hefty twine I had found in one of the desk drawers. The round faced one was still out. The other one watched me with wary eyes. He was older, his dark hair flecked with gray. He was fit under the white skivvies I had left him with. He wasn’t an officer. I didn’t know how to read the insignia on his uniform I now wore, but I guessed the three chevrons meant he was at least a sergeant.
I clenched my fists, my fingernails digging into my palms. I wanted to go up to the man and punch him until he bled. Until his face broke. Until his body was mush under my fists.
I stepped over to him. Slow, deliberate steps. His eyes widened. His body trembled, his mouth set in a thin line. I leaned over him. Red light washed his face. It confused me for a moment. I looked at my hand. The little dots of light were still there, but now they were red. The light from my eyes was red too.
I realized I had found my rage.
“There were others,” I said, “Two women. Where are they?”
The soldier shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said, “If there were other prisoners, most likely they’d been in the brig or in medical.”
I thought of the ship falling, crunching and rolling Liz and Amber had been in the depressions on the floor. Would that have saved them from getting hurt?
“Where is the brig and where is medical?” I asked.
The soldier swallowed hard, his eyes darted back and forth. I could see him contemplating lying to me. Send me to the marine’s barracks, perhaps.
“I’m in no mood for games,” I said, “Tell me, or I’ll put you on the slab over there.”
His face paled. He gave me clear and concise directions to the brig and medical bay. Another question occurred to me.
“When were they going to do the autopsy on me?” I asked.
Sweat popped out along his forehead. Fear was a reek that rose up from him. It bothered me a little that I enjoyed making him afraid.
“This afternoon,” he said, his voice trembling, “Dr. Kincaid and the Blinky were going to do it.”
A Blinky? The Blinkies were a lot friendlier than the Stickmen, but I thought the three eyed aliens didn’t mix with the human population very much.
“What’s a Blinky doing on a secret human military base?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” the soldier said, “It’s part of Dr. Kincaid’s project, I think.”
I stood up. Dr. Kincaid was a traitor, though. He was in league with the Dons. Or was he? He was working with Julie, that much I knew for sure. But he was working a star drive for the Earth government, too.
I thought about my next move. I knew I should try to get Liz and Amber off the base, assuming they were alive and here. They were more or less innocent bystanders in all this.
Except they weren’t.
Claire’s grandfather had found the artifact–and had kept something else, apparently. He also had a Stickman’s vessel hidden in a secret hanger in a mountain. Claire knew how to fly it. Liz and Amber had been able to pin down and almost capture a trained mercenary.
How was it that they just happened to be out in the desert that night?
Maybe it was time to ask them.
Fifty-Two
Liz and Amber weren’t in the medical area.
I had left the soldiers tied up in the disinfectant and decay stinking morgue. I told the sergeant that I would be back for him if he tried to escape. Hopefully my threat would buy me a few minutes.
I had a small moment of panic when I went to leave. I was still glowing red all over. It was going to make me rather conspicuous. I stood for a moment, staring at my glowing hands.
“Lights off,” I whispered.
The light faded away. I sighed with relief. I took the sergeant’s tan baseball style cap from the desk and pulled it low over my eyes.
After that, I quickly made my way to the medical unit. There weren't any guards at the doors. I peeked through the small window on the door. It was empty except for a couple servicemen getting shots from a nurse.
Brig it was then.
I moved through the corridors as fast as I could without drawing attention to myself. The brig was at the back of the big complex that connected several of the huge hangers. As I rounded the corner, I saw two burly Marines with plasma rifles guarding the door. I walked past them, rounding the next corner and leaning back against the wall.
Going in the front door didn’t seem to be an option.
I pushed off from the wall and continued on. I found an exterior door and went outside. Hot desert air blasted me. Moisture immediately wicked away from my skin. My stomach rumbled and a sudden dizziness hit me. I leaned against the dusty wall until it passed. How long had I gone without food? Two days? More? I hadn’t asked the soldier how long I’d been in the refrigerator. I didn’t even know what day it was.
I slapped my stomach. “Be quiet. You were dead for who knows how long, I’ll get you something when I can.”
My stomach growled back at me. Plainly, it didn’t care. It had its own priorities.
I went around the corner of the building. I expected to find the area empty, like when Julie and her goon had kidnapped me. Now there were three Grums patrolling the area. I watched them for a few minutes. They drove back and forth along the back perimeter, each one farther out than the last.
So much for that idea.
I looked around. What was my next option? I spotted a ladder bolted to the side of the building. I ran over and started climbing. Dry wind buffeted me as I went up. I slowed near the top. Poked my head up just enough to see the roof.
Armed soldiers in silver battle armor walked along the roof.
I dropped my head back down and hustled down the ladder.
Shit.
Now what, genius?
The base was on high alert now. That suggested Mattany thought there were still some bad guys out there. Other than me, of course. I sat down behind a dumpster and tried to think it through.
Mattany was no doubt having kittens over the fact that his precious alien artifact was gone. Did his alien buddies, the Blinkies and the Stickmen know yet? He was probably sweating it either way.
Kincaid was back, and probably not in the brig with Liz and Amber. So Mattany didn’t suspect him of any hanky panky. So who was Mattany guarding the base from?
Julie, the goon, and the Dons?
I realized I was making an assumption. I assumed Liz and Amber were locked up in the brig. Could it be someone else? Julie and the goon? If that was the case, I wasn’t in any hurry to break those two out. They could rot there forever for all I cared. Forever and ever and ever.
I needed better information. There was only one guy I knew who had it. And he was scheduled to do an autopsy on me in a couple hours.
Fifty-Three
I hustled back to the morgue. The nearly naked sergeant had just gotten himself out of his ropes when I opened the door. He froze, halfway standing, wads of twine in his hands.
“Shit,” he said.
“Sit down,” I said.
He sat. I took the ropes from his hands and threw them in the corner. I sat on the corner of the desk, arms folded. Tried to ign
ore the disinfectant and decay odor. Avoided looked at the wall of stainless steel corpse drawers. The other soldier I'd tied up, the round-faced fainter was still out. The guy seriously had a weak constitution. It made me wonder how he got into the military.
“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen,” I said, “Kincaid and the Blinky are going to come in here to cut me up. I, of course, am not interested in being dissected. But I do want to talk to Dr. Kincaid. You and your faint hearted buddy here are going to sit here and act like nothing is wrong. Kincaid and I are going to have a little talk, and you two are going to keep sitting quietly like tan bumps on a log. You got a problem with that?”
The sergeant stared at me. He wasn’t looking as scared as before. Maybe I didn’t look as scary without my devilish glow.
“The Blinky isn’t going to just let you walk out of here,” the sergeant said, “They’re always armed.”
“What does it have? Plasma weapons or something else?” I asked.
The sergeant’s lips twisted in a sneer. “I ain’t telling you. You can find out when it gets here.”
Yup, his fear had definitely gone away. I turned away from his face. I was going to start pounding that face soon if I didn’t get a hold of myself. Though by the size of him, the sergeant would be doing some pounding of his own.
I wasn’t interested in getting beaten up. Everyone and everything had been beating me up lately. I was good and sick of it.
My gaze went to the stainless steel corpse holder along one wall. My heart skipped a beat as I thought of pale and lovely Claire lying in the drawer at the end. I remembered the touch of her lips, soft and warm on mine. Those delicate hands would never make any music again. She’d never strum cheerful tunes on that silly little ukelele. Never calm nerves with gentle sounds from her guitar.
My heart overflowed with sorrow. She didn’t deserve an end like this.
There was something below my sorrow. Something hot and smoldering. Something that burned to be released. I could feel its power snaking through my nerves. It rushed with my blood through my veins, swelling my muscles.
Fury.
Rage.
Lights on, I commanded silently.
My skin tingled and I luminesced red. I rounded on the sergeant. Red light flooded his face. His lips pressed thin, but he didn’t flinch. His face told me he had decided some funny lights weren’t going to scare him.
He needed something more.
I got up off the desk and walked over to the autopsy table. Super strength, I told myself. Power surged through me. It was the same feeling from when I Hulked out before. I felt like I could kick that stupid table to the moon.
I restrained myself. Instead I grabbed an edge of the table and bent it down. The steel creaked and groaned. It was as easy as folding a piece of paper.
I gathered a handful of the metal and crumpled it like foil, twisting it into a ball.
I turned to the sergeant. He was wide-eyed and pale. I went back over to him.
“I don’t have a lot of patience,” I said, “If you don’t cooperate to the fullest extent possible, I’m going to wrap that table around you and pitch you into space. Got it?”
He brave face evaporated.
He nodded. "Yes, sir," he said.
Fifty-Four
Kincaid and the Blinky entered the morgue about an hour later. Kincaid came through the door first.
“–fucking right, I am. That fucking fucker thought he’d fuck us over. But he sure fucked that one over, right?”
Back in his usual form, of course.
Behind him came the Blinky. He was about as tall as an average human, maybe just under six feet. Like all Blinkies, he was wide and thick. And he smelled like seaweed, a damp, fishy, vegetable odor. Blinkies didn't really have a neck. Their head sprouted between their shoulders like a giant pimple. His arms and legs were multi-segmented and moved in ways that hurt my eyes.
It was saying something that the Blinkies made earth people less uncomfortable than the Stickman. They were ugly as hell. Probably the only thing that made them relatable were their eyes. Their two main eyes were very human-like and were usually blue. Their third eye was larger and perched high on their forehead. The iris on it was always piss yellow. I’d heard that the third eye saw in a much larger spectrum than the other two did.
Maybe that’s why it spotted me so quickly.
The Blinky spun around, multi-segmented hands going for the weapons strapped to its legs.
Super speed.
Everything stopped. I went over to the Blinky and plucked the weapons from their holsters. The sergeant had told me they were some kind of stun ray. Like a Taser, but without the wires. Whatever it was, I didn’t feel like being on the receiving end of it. Though it was something of a novelty, the thought of having something non-lethal aimed at me.
I stepped back from the Blinky. The super speed was hard on me. Just a few seconds and already I was feeling fatigued. I felt like I could eat an entire cow, raw. Hooves and all.
I held the guns up and turned off the super speed.
The Blink’s hand grasped empty air and all three eyes widened. Fear, surprise, anger? I don’t know.
I shot both of them.
Kincaid and the Blinky collapsed to the floor. I turned to the sergeant and the other soldier. Who was finally awake. I shot both of them too. They slumped against the ropes holding them to the chairs.
I stuck both guns in my belt and summoned my super strength. I picked up the Blinky and put him into one of the refrigerated corpse drawers. He was a tight fit. I made sure the drawer latched shut.
I slung Kincaid’s limp form over my shoulder and left the room. The corridor was empty. A small bonus. One that wouldn’t last, though. I hadn’t gone more than twenty feet went another soldier appeared.
His eyes went wide and he fumbled for his plasma rifle. I yanked one of the stun guns out and shot him. He fell with a thud. His rifle clattered across the floor. I looked at the Blinky’s gun. It didn’t show me how many shots I had left. Hopefully it would be enough.
I crouched by the soldier and checked his pulse. Strong and steady. I breathed a small sigh of relief. I didn’t want to go on a killing spree. I was still a pacifist at heart.
Well, sort of.
I took the soldier’s plasma rifle and slung it over my other shoulder. As I stood a wave of dizziness washed over me. I put my hand against the wall to steady myself. The pit in my stomach twisted and I felt faint.
I needed food. The super strength was draining me. Fast.
The dizziness passed after a few moments. I took a deep breath and pushed off the wall. I needed to hurry. I adjusted Kincaid’s limp form on my shoulder and headed off down the corridor.
I only encountered three more soldiers before I got to the brig. I stunned them all. As I rounded the corner, the two guards saw me. They were better trained than the other soldiers. Or maybe it was because they already had their rifles in their hand.
They almost got me.
The nearest one spotted me first. He snapped his rifle up and got off a shot before I could shoot him.
I jumped aside.
The blast blew a smoking hole in the wall.
I shot guard number one with the Blinky’s gun. The other guard was almost as fast. I stunned him before he could shoot, though.
They collapsed to the floor. I kicked their rifles away and set Dr. Kincaid down.
Another wave of dizziness hit me and I had to kneel on the floor. I went through the guards' pockets and was rewarded with a granola bar. I inhaled it. My stomach laughed at the pitiful offering and demanded more.
I had a vision of taking a huge bite of a Guydoro’s green chili and bacon cheeseburger. For a moment tears welled up in my eyes. The moment seemed like a lifetime ago. A more innocent time. A time when my boss was just an asshole and no aliens were chasing me. I was just a normal guy.
I shook it off and stood up.
There was a small wire screened window s
et in the heavy metal door. Beyond the window was a small, dingy room, lit by a rack of caged fluorescents. There were two people in the room, lying on benches bolted to the wall.
Liz and Amber.
I breathed a small sigh. Now maybe I could do something good.
The door was locked. I found the keys in the first guard’s pocket and unlocked it. I started to turn the knob and hesitated. The last time I had tried to let Liz out of a locked room, the goon had gotten punched in the face. I didn’t want to suffer the same fate.
I stayed behind the door and pulled it open.
“Liz, Amber,” I called to them, “Come out.”
I waited a moment and nothing happened. I moved toward the opened then paused. Decided to try something. I pictured an energy field around me that would block out things that wanted to hurt me. I said the word in my mind:
Shield.
I felt a surge of power, a tingling on my skin. I stepped into the doorway. A fist flashed out at my face and bounced off.
“Ow! Fuck! Son of a bitch!” Liz shouted.
She shook her hand as she hopped around the small room.
“Hey, it’s you!” Amber said, “Aren’t you dead?”
Both women were dirty and disheveled. Their clothes torn and stained. There were brownish spatters on Amber’s shirt that looked like dried blood.
“Are you okay?” I asked them.
“Fine, fucking peachy,” Liz said. She glared at me, rubbing her hand. “What are you doing here you jerk?”
Well, I hadn’t expected to be greeted as a hero. Maybe I’d hoped, just a little.
“I’m getting you out of here,” I said.
“Maybe we like it here,” Liz said.
Amber looked at her like she was crazy, but she didn’t say anything.
I shrugged. “Your choice. I’ll leave the door open. Either way, I have to get going.”
Liz spat at me. It landed at my feet. “Fine, run away, you bastard. Go get someone else killed.”
I ducked my head, my face burning. “You know about Claire?”
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