Doctor Sekhar, his white jumpsuit spattered red from sleeve-end to knees, withdrew his hands from inside the man’s chest cavity, cradling a meaty lump.
“Beam me up, Scotty!” cried the doctor, before hurling the organ upward.
It struck the ceiling with a slap, and stuck. He cackled with glee.
The dull red lump peeled away a second later, falling to the floor.
Splut.
Kerys shrieked.
Doctor Sekhar jumped back, grasping his chest and hyperventilating. Deer-in-the-headlights shock in his eyes flashed to rage. He rushed at her, grabbing her arm and leaning his weight on it, pinning her to the cushions while cinching a black nylon strap tight around her left wrist. She struggled to shake the fog in her mind, but her free arm flopped about as if packed with lead.
“No!” she screamed. “Get off!”
The doctor seized her other arm in both hands and forced it down to the cushion. Kerys thrashed side to side, but couldn’t overpower him. She drew her leg back, trying to push him away, but he leaned too close for her to get it between them.
“Stop fighting. You’re in need of medical attention. You shouldn’t even be conscious right now given how hard I hit you.”
She squirmed her hand away from slippery, bloody fingers and raked her nails at his face. He cried out and jumped back. As soon as she reached over to grab the strap binding her left wrist, he dove across her, fighting to control her free arm.
“Get off me!” she roared.
“Oh, I remember now. You’re the patient complaining of a stomach issue. No matter, I’ll just remove the whole thing. That way, it won’t cause any problems.”
She screamed past clenched teeth, but her post-blow-to-the-head body couldn’t find enough strength to stop him from pushing her arm down once more. He broke eye contact to search for the second strap.
Kerys swung her head up, smashing her forehead into his nose. The impact left her seeing stars, but the doctor jerked upright, away from her. She planted her shoe against his chest, and kicked as hard as she could.
He wailed, lost his footing in the blood all over the floor, and crashed against the counter of medical devices, dragging two of them, plus a basket full of little plastic bottles, to the ground. Grunting, she sat up and grabbed at the strap around her wrist, fumbling at the release catch.
“Patient is exhibiting pronounced violent behavior,” muttered the doctor past the hand bracing his bleeding nose. “I’m afraid we’ll need to use restraints.”
The strap came loose a split second after he lunged to his feet. Kerys rolled away from the table, leaving him diving onto empty cushions. She tried to run, but blood took her shoes out from under her, dumping her flat on her chest; a noise like a barking goose came out of her on impact. An irregular fleshy lump of light purple striated with blood vessels sat on the floor inches in front of her face. She recoiled and forced herself up.
To her horror, pieces of MacLeod lay all over: on the floor, on the counter top, stuck to the walls, in the sink… everywhere but inside the man they belonged to.
Doctor Sekhar shambled to the counter and opened a drawer, rummaging for a small bottle before going back for a syringe. “Now, now, this won’t hurt.”
She surged upright and ran at him, stomp-kicking the drawer closed on his hand. He screamed, grasping his right wrist and tugging at his arm.
“What’s wrong with you!” shouted Kerys, leaning as much of her weight into the drawer as the slippery floor allowed.
He braced his body against the counter, pulling at his arm in an effort to free himself. Her left foot slid backward. She eyed the desk, where the glow from the computer monitor gleamed along the edge of Hellerman’s combat knife.
Clattering plastic snapped her attention back to the doctor. He pulled a used syringe out of a sharps container, holding it like an icepick while glaring at her ankle. Before he could stab her, Kerys jumped back, slipped, and fell on her ass. The doctor rolled away from the drawer, cradling his wrist to his chest, his eyes wild.
“It’s good that Avasar has a full medical plan. I’m going to need to run a few hundred tests on you.”
She scrambled to all fours, crawling for the desk. The doctor roared and jumped on her back, wrapping his arms around her. He grunted, straining to haul her upright, but he stepped on a hunk of MacLeod that took his right foot out from under him and sent them both spilling to the side. The doctor wheezed on impact, but his grip tightened.
She drove her elbow backward into his chest over and over again until he let go and stumbled back cradling his gut.
“Patient is extremely psychotic,” said Doctor Sekhar.
“Look in a damn mirror, Doc.” She rolled into a crawl, putting her hand down on something squishy, but ignored the awfulness, focusing only on her effort to reach the knife.
“This treatment is mandatory, I’m afraid.”
Kerys reached Sekhar’s desk, grabbed the top, and pulled herself to her feet. The computer screen, despite a spattering of blood, still displayed the space marine video game, paused. The knife she’d taken from Hellerman lay between it and the keyboard.
Doctor Sekhar picked himself up. “Get away from that. I’ve only gotten to that boss twice. Damn you people and your constant interruptions! Now, stop fighting and let me do what I have to do so I can get back to my god… damned… game.”
She eased her arm forward, curling her fingers around the knife handle. Head bowed, she peered between her arm and her side, watching him approach. The instant he raised his hands to grab her, she let off a war cry, spun, and drove the blade into his chest.
The rage in his eyes melted to confusion. He looked down at her hand, back at her, and laughed before collapsing away from the knife. Kerys stood motionless, staring down at him for a few seconds before she lowered her arm. Blood dripped from the blade to the floor by her shoe.
“That’s a mortal wound.” Flat on his back, Doctor Sekhar laughed so hard he cried. “I’m dying! I’m going to die for real. Funny. I always thought it would hurt more than this.” He looked up at her and snickered. “Damn, I hate how these games cheat.”
For his last few seconds of life, he laughed uncontrollably.
When he went still, she looked down at the blade in her grasp. She might not have killed Private Foster; the man could’ve still been alive before Ellen stepped on him. The doctor, however, she had no doubt.
I killed someone…
Kerys tossed the knife onto the desk like it would burn her, and wiped her hand on her jumpsuit. She paced in circles, cradling the back of her head where a little blood matted her hair. Touching the spot reawakened a headache. Between that and guilt, she dropped to her knees and retched until she couldn’t move. Not having anything inside her to get rid of seemed to make her body try three times as hard to puke. When it stopped, she gasped for air, a thread of bile connecting her lip to the floor.
“He would’ve killed me.” She wiped her mouth on the back of her arm. Thinking of the smiling doctor she’d first met for a routine physical brought shivers of guilt. “What happened to you? You’re a doctor! You must’ve figured out something. Why is everyone going insane?” She sniffled, unable to stop crying. “I killed you…” She swallowed hard. “I didn’t have a choice. You would’ve killed me. You did kill MacLeod.”
She gingerly took hold of the knife again. Picturing Jaden smiling at her let her rein in her tears.
“I’m not going to quit. I am going home.” She huddled under the desk, clutching the blade close. I’ll stay out of sight ’til Gensch comes back… what if he doesn’t?
“He’s gotta…”
19
Not Cut Out
Kerys hid in the space beneath the desk for a while in silence, staring at a hunk of something that used to be MacLeod. That she didn’t feel any compulsion to look away from it worried her. She waited, listening to every creak from the walls, every phantom scrape echoing in the vents. A crinkle of plastic floated
in the wind―or did crazy still lurk the halls of Wayfarer Outpost?
Come on, Gensch. Where the hell are you?
She imagined him finding Corporal Guillen outside and an argument blossoming into gunfire. Or maybe the man hadn’t been hallucinating and something did wake up in the excavation. Her team had certainly been making enough noise. No. That’s silly. If there’d been aliens in there… this place has been here four years. Why did they wait until now?
“The vault…” Her mind leapt back to her pushing the buttons, finding the head. Could she have set something in motion? “No. I can’t believe that. Aliens? Live aliens here?”
She glanced to her right at the table holding MacLeod’s remains. A long, foggy exhale left her mouth. It’s as cold as a morgue. The thought got her teeth chattering.
“I can’t leave him like that.”
MacLeod’s left arm slipped from the table, and dangled.
Kerys yelped, banging her head on the underside of the desk with a startled jump. She stared at him for a few minutes, ready to run like hell if he moved again… but he didn’t.
“We tried.” She choked up. Fresh tears slipped down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. We tried.”
After crawling out from under the desk, she tucked the knife in her jumpsuit pocket and retrieved a pair of blue exam gloves from the drawer in the counter. She gathered the various bits, hunks, and blobs, depositing them one by one in his open chest cavity. At first, she tried not to look, but forty minutes and dozens of pieces later, it didn’t bother her anymore.
Each time she put something back, she whispered an apology.
Eventually, she ran out of parts in reach. The rest of MacLeod stuck to walls too high for her to get to. Kerys pulled the knife from her pocket and advanced on the supply closet door. She yanked it open, ready for someone to attack, but the room held no people.
A sleeping bag, a cluster of water bottles, and a stack of hydra trays sat on the floor in between two shelves of various medical supplies.
“Doc was watching us the whole time… bastard waited for Gensch to leave.”
She dragged a stepladder out and used it to recover the rest of MacLeod’s internal parts. After a bit of poking around the auto-surgeon’s menu, she found an autopsy command menu and managed to get the machine to stitch him closed.
That, she didn’t watch.
Tromping boots overpowered the whirring-clicking of robotic arms. Kerys readied her knife and ducked out of sight against the wall by the door.
“Kid, you still here?” said Gensch.
Kerys wanted to melt into a puddle from relief. “Yeah. What happened?”
“Thing almost done with him?” Sergeant Gensch walked in, put his hands on his hips, and smirked. He glanced at the wall and tracked his gaze around at all the gore. “So, looks like there were complications with the surgery?”
Her lip quivered. “MacLeod’s dead…”
Gensch started toward her, but stopped when he noticed Doctor Sekhar. “You okay?”
“No. Not really. The doctor was hiding in the closet. As soon as you left, he jumped me from behind, knocked me out. I woke up… MacLeod was already dead. He… umm…”
“Yeah. I get the picture.” He took a step closer, shaking his head.
Kerys leaned against him, not quite hugging him. He didn’t embrace her back, but he didn’t really have to. She figured for a man like him, this equated to an uncharacteristic show of emotion. “Outside?”
“I couldn’t find him. Heard Mitchell on the comm a few times, but I think she’s gone loopy. Kept ranting about ‘it’ coming for her. I must’ve run around the damn complex four times. Couple of jackasses by the landing pad were playing tag with bullets. Figured I’d join in. Been awhile since I had a good match. Other than that, no sign of anything.”
She cringed. “What about aliens… that light?”
“I think Guillen saw Deering running wild with an excavator laser. Found him and his exo suit shot to shit and back in the cavern. Could’a been Guillen. Looked like APEX.”
“Huh? Apex? Deering?”
“Lars Deering, and APEX is the standard-issue ammunition for our rifles. It’s ‘grunt speak’ for armor-piercing explosive. Each bullet has a microsecond fuse, designed to punch a hole in armor and explode inside where all the soft bits are.” Gensch pulled his vape wand from his pocket and took a hit, grinning. “Think ol’ Lars might’ve scared the corporal. Counted at least twenty holes in that exo.”
Kerys sighed, gathered her composure, and stopped leaning against him. “Thanks.”
“Mmm.” He took a step and booted Doctor Sekhar in the head. “That’s for Andy.”
Kerys peeled the exam gloves off and tossed them across the room onto the counter. “So now what? I’m an archaeologist; you’re a soldier. Is this place going to run itself for six months without MacLeod or his team to maintain it?”
He chuckled out a cloud of vape fog. “Either that or we better learn to hold our breath.” He tipped the inhaler at her. “You’re a smart one. I’m sure you’ll figure any of that technical crap out with the user’s manual.”
“I can try.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms for warmth. “What about MacLeod? Does this place have a morgue… or something?”
“Ehh… I suppose we’ll eventually get around to burying the dead. Haven’t tried to dig outside, but we got the excavation site. Damn place looks like a tomb. We can use it for one. Before we deal with that, we need to secure the area.”
“All right.”
“Hungry?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Not really.”
“Great. Me neither. Come on.” He tucked the vape wand in his pocket, drew his sidearm, and walked out.
Kerys followed him close, the squeak of rubber soles on metal floor echoing in the stillness. A distant thud made her jump. Gensch halted and aimed down the hall. She all but stopped breathing. A moment later, he lowered his arm and moved on. They crept across the third floor and descended into warmer air. By the time they reached the first floor, she almost had feeling back in her fingers.
“Is it possible for it to be that cold without a problem? Please tell me that’s not a sign we’re losing air.”
Gensch shrugged one shoulder. “Got me. Ask MacLeod.”
Damn.
A door on the right creaked open a short distance ahead, swinging out into the hall. Gensch whipped his arm up to aim. Kerys clutched her knife. Ten seconds later, Gensch made a ‘wait here’ gesture with his left hand, then advanced. He swung wide to the left, angling on the doorway, but dropped his arm once he got even with it.
“Wind,” he muttered.
She started breathing again.
Gensch led the way to the cafeteria, and a short while later, they sat with rehydrated meals steaming in front of them. He peeled his open without hesitation, attacking turkey in gravy. She stared through the clear plastic covering at fried chicken fingers, corn, and mashed potatoes.
Five minutes of watching him devour his food while smelling hers got her to open her Hydra tray, and she forced herself to eat. To get the image of MacLeod out of her mind, she pretended none of this space stuff had been real. In her mind, she made herself think she’d only gone jogging, and sat inside Mrs. Finlay’s coffee shop having a snack.
Neither spoke during their meal. Once they finished, Gensch stood, grabbed the empty trays, and tossed them in the trash box. The act struck her as funny.
“What?” He gave her a confused look.
“It’s not really funny, but… we’re basically in hell and you’re still putting trash in the bin.”
He laughed. “Ain’t no reason to give up on cleanliness. We still gotta live in this paradise for another six months. Might as well treat it like home.”
She cringed at the word ‘home.’ The notion she could’ve ever been excited to be here seemed ludicrous. He headed for the southwest exit, away from the residential pods. Kerys followed, not questioning where he went until he wou
nd up right back at the barricaded dead end where she’d first found them.
“What?”
“Figure we could both use some rest. It’s almost midnight.” He grabbed Hellerman’s body by the back of the jumpsuit. “Be right back.”
She sat on a clump of plain, grey blankets. Hellerman’s legs slid out of her field of view as Gensch dragged the man off. “Where are you putting him?”
“Infirmary. Nice and cold up there.”
“Okay.”
A few minutes later, she paid a visit to a one-person bathroom at the midpoint of the dead end spur. After flushing, she checked herself in the mirror. A quick wet-towel pass cleared blood from her face and hands. She wanted to grab a clean jumpsuit, but it didn’t seem worth risking a walk across the outpost alone. Prodding fingers tested the lump on the back of her head, which didn’t appear as large a wound as the pain made it seem.
Sergeant Gensch returned a few minutes after she wrapped herself in blankets. He sat with his back to the opposite wall, arm balanced over a knee, silver wand dangling between his fingers. Kerys stared at the spot next to him longingly, blushed, and looked away. The whoosh of his vape tube filled the silence and faded. She looked back at him. He flicked a glance at the floor beside him. His expression seemed to say ‘if you want.’
“So how’d you wind up here, kid?”
Kerys buried her face up to the nose in the blanket and sighed. “I went out with another expedition a couple years ago. We found a significant amount of non-human artifacts, some major pieces too. I was the most junior person on the team, so when everyone got home, I got overlooked. Almost everyone else involved had their faces on the news, magazines, archaeological journals….
“Not me. Fast forward a couple years, someone at Avasar finds my name on the crew roster, vids me. I talked to her for a bit and the next thing I know, I get offered this contract. She sent photos of the primary chamber here, said they think the ‘complex’ had between eight and ten rooms. I felt like a little kid at Christmas. My mouth said yes before my brain could react.”
Wayfarer: AV494 Page 21