Last Night on Earth

by James Peters

  I lined up my shot at the nearest enemy and put a plug right in his belly. I expected him to fall over immediately and scream in agony, but the shot barely slowed him down. He aimed his baton at my head with a long, fluid motion. I jerked back just in time. I pointed a pistol at his face and fired. This time, it worked. The slug of lead hit something important because that fellow stopped dead in his tracks and his entire body spasmed before he fell dead to the floor. “Gotta shoot ‘em in the head!” I yelled.

  Rhuldan reappeared back near Jekto, nearly solid and much paler than normal. He aimed his tiny gun and squeezed off a round. I watched astounded when his target’s head exploded into a purple mist.

  Jekto grabbed two of the guards in each of his upper arms and slammed them together with a sickening splattering sound and dripping guts. They collapsed to the ground dead. He picked up their weapons in his lower two arms and wielded them like they were weightless.

  Another guard charged me. I aimed and blasted him square in his mouth. Whatever purple goo was inside his head sprayed all over the fellow behind him. I fired three more rounds, and three dracnarians died. The first of my pistols was empty.

  Slowhand bounded from one enemy to the next, swiping with sharp claws. A trail of bloodied tentacles writhed like injured vipers on the floor behind him. At first, I thought his attacks were random, but I noticed nearly all the bloody snakes had eyes on them. He was taking out his enemies by blinding them.

  Ginn sprayed searing hot plasma on the nearest guards. “Down to forty percent charge,” she said, and then she twisted the control nozzle, cursed, and shook her hand like she’d grabbed the wrong end of a branding iron. “Switching to targeting mode.”

  A dracnarian snuck behind Jetko. I tried to scream out a warning, but the big guy didn’t hear me over the noise of the battle, and the squid-head struck Jetko in the back with its wand. Jekto wailed in pain.

  I aimed a Colt at Jekto’s attacker, killing the guard with a single shot. Jekto charged forward in rage and pain, leaving a trail of his own blood behind. He drove his golden horn into the belly of the nearest guard, impaling him. The guard’s body slid down, covering the dichelon’s rhinoceros face. Now he, too, was blinded, and he spun, wildly grabbing at anything within reach with his lower arms as his upper ones tried to push the squid-head off. It reminded me of watching a kid get his butt stuck in an outhouse hole. Lots of flailing and little progress.

  But I had my own problems. Three guards surrounded me, working in unison, swinging their disrupters as they circled me. I dove right, rolling on my shoulder away from them. I killed the nearest one and moved on to the next. My second shot was off-center and only wounded my attacker, taking a tentacle off but not even slowing him down. I shot him again. One less bad guy.

  A motion from my left and a glint of gold caught my attention, as a disrupter came swinging toward me. I knew I was too slow to stop it, and I prepared for my head to look like Jekto’s back. Time seemed to slow down as I raised an arm to block. The dracnarian’s head exploded before me, and the wand clanged to the ground. My heart felt like it was about to burst from my chest.

  I snapped my head back. Ginn’s rifle pointed in my direction. I mouthed “Thanks,” but she’d already turned her weapon toward her next target, and she was like a killing machine, she’d take one shot and get a kill — every time.

  In all the commotion, I’d lost count of how many rounds I’d fired. I knew I was down to just a few and didn’t have time to reload. I decided to grab the wand. It was well balanced and weighed about five pounds. I didn’t know if I had to do anything to make it disrupt, or if it worked on impact. I clubbed the nearest squid-head with it but he barely reacted, and I caught no signs of disruption, just what I’d call annoyance. Perhaps I had it set on “melancholy distraction” mode instead?

  Fine. I pointed my pistol at him and released the thunderous sound and destruction of a Colt .45. He had the courtesy to die right quickly, and I like to think while in a downhearted and preoccupied spirit.

  The room was littered with dead dracnarians, the floor slippery with ooze and blood. Jekto still struggled with the carcass covering his face. My eyes met Rhuldan’s, and I pointed toward the dichelon. “I’m going to try to help him,” I said. I couldn’t be certain he heard me, but he understood my intention, and followed, protecting my backside.

  “Calm down! Let me help you!” I said, dodging his flailing arms.

  “You’re still alive?” Jekto asked.

  “Yes. Now lower your head and hold still for a second. Rhuldan is covering us.”

  Jekto slowed his flailing and bent down. I grabbed several tentacles and pulled with all my strength, but the corpse was stuck good.

  “I need to get some leverage,” I said placing my boots on the big guy’s knees and pulling, using my back and leg muscles. Sloop. The dracnarian’s guts released their vacuum grip on Jekto’s horn. I fell to the ground, covered in purple goo, some of which got in my mouth. It had a bitter, acidic taste with just a hint of ginger.

  As I struggled to my feet, Rhuldan kept guards from getting close to me, while Ginn and Slowhand continued to fight. I snapped my head around to make certain I wasn’t about to get hit.

  Jekto roared a fearsome battle cry. Fueled by bloodlust, he charged directly at the Kraken. A few guards stepped in his way to stop him. I tried to take one of them out to the sound of a click coming from my pistol. You’re on your own, big guy.

  Jekto grabbed the guard on his right by several tentacles and spun him in a wide arc, driving him into the next nearest guard, knocking the second one dead into the wall. He tried to repeat the procedure to attack the third guard. I learned that dracnarian tentacles can’t support stresses of supporting their entire body against centrifugal forces, so they snapped, sending it flying into the ceiling. The last guard stopped in his tracks, turned gray, and tried to run away, but Ginn’s rifle ended his life in an instant.

  Jekto continued attacking the Kraken, grabbing tentacles with all four of his arms and twisting them together as if tying knots. He pulled until they stopped moving, then grabbed two more pairs and did it again.

  I found enough of a lull in the battle to reload one of my Colts and pocketed the spent brass casings while the Kraken screamed in agony.

  Moby Dick’s voice echoed in my ears. “Fools! You waste your time and energy killing my guards. We aspire to die in righteous battle as it only advances our great cause. The Holy Essence is long gone from this place!”

  Slowhand raised his head, sniffing the air. “I smell treasure.” He bounded off to a side room.

  “Remember what we’re here for,” I called after him. He didn’t respond, but I assume he either rolled his eyes or flipped me a one finger salute.

  Moby Dick’s skin darkened. “Treasure is of no importance to me. My reward awaits me in perfect balance.”

  I watched him closely, studying the colors and listening to his words, and I had my doubts. “Search everything. I think it’s still here.”

  Slowhand yelled from the next room. “Jekto, how much can you carry? I’ve found their treasury!”

  Jekto took a few steps, stumbled, and fell to the ground.

  I raced toward the big fellow, and as I reached a hand toward him, surprised at the heat radiating from his body. “Is he supposed to be hot?”

  Ginn said, “He’s been fighting. We’re all overheated.”

  “This is more than that. Let me see your back, Jekto,” I said. His eyes fluttered, and he rolled over. The wound looked as if someone had cut out a pound of flesh, ran it through a meat grinder, and then slapped it back in place. It seeped a thick, brown liquid, but more concerning than that were the dark lines in his skin leading away from it. “It’s his wound. It’s poisoning him.”

  “Then there’s nothing we can do,” Ginn said.

  I couldn’t believe what she was saying. “What are you talking about? We have to help him.”

  “Not even the most trained doctors, usi
ng high carbon restraints and cliodepod tranquilizers will work on a dichelon. If we try to do anything with that wound, he’ll kill us all in his dying rage.”

  “It’s true, Idiom,” Rhuldan said. “He’s beyond help.”

  “I’m not going to just let him die here. Find me some alcohol. Whiskey, muldarian milk, whatever you have.”

  “Let it go,” Ginn said. She pointed her weapon at Moby Dick. “You move, you die.”

  Slowhand called from the distance. “Hey, when you guys are done wasting time, I need help with this treasure. I can’t carry it all.” He carried a large bottle of liquid. “Here, Idiom. Drink yourself stupid. It’s not a long trip.” He tossed it to me. I pulled the top off and smelled it. It was definitely alcohol.

  The big guy’s breathing seemed faint and his eyes closed. “Jekto, stay with me.”

  “There’s no dishonor in a battle death. Let me die.”

  “Sorry, I can’t do that. I need you to drink some of this. Take about half of it.” I handed him the bottle. He chugged it like it was a canteen of water and he’d been in the desert for days. “That’s enough for now.” I retrieved the bottle. “Now I need to do something, and I need you to show me the true warrior inside you. This is going to hurt, more pain than you’ve ever felt. I need you to remember that the poison in your system is your enemy and not me. Stay strong soldier, and you’ll fight another day. Attack me, and we both die. Understood?”

  “Yes.”

  “Control your rage. Fight the pain,” I said. I pulled my bowie knife from my boot and poured some alcohol on it. “I’ll work as fast as I can. Prove to me you’re the bravest dichelon in the galaxy!” I plunged the knife into his wound, cutting out the disrupted flesh poisoning his body.

  In my day, I’ve heard people scream. I’ve seen men get shot and shriek their last breath, and I’ve covered my ears at a woman’s wailing from delivering a baby. But you haven’t heard a cry like that of a dichelon having a fist-sized ball of flesh being cut from him. Blood-curdling wasn’t the half of it. He screamed with an intensity that would scare bloodthirsty lions away from a freshly killed zebra. Several times I watched as his hands clenched into fists, and he fought to keep control. It was clear he wanted to kill me good, but somehow he fought back his urge to rip my limbs off.

  I cut out all the bad flesh and scraped the wound clean until the blood flowing from it was more orange than brown. I dumped the remaining alcohol into the wound and packed it with some white cloth Rhuldan had found. Pointing toward a tapestry hanging from the ceiling, I said, “I need that,” I said.

  Ginn didn’t reply, but she grabbed the cloth and yanked on it, sending the rod that held it clanging to the floor.

  I cut the tapestry into several strips and tied it around him to hold everything in place. Jekto’s eyes fluttered and finally closed. “Get some rest, big guy.”

  I noticed my hands shaking, and I wished I’d saved some of the booze to soothe my nerves.

  Slowhand stood next to me and handed me another bottle. “Here. That was a stupidly brave thing to do.”

  “Hopefully he can recover. Did you find the element zero?”

  “It’s not here. We’ve searched everywhere. The one you call Moby Dick says it was removed by a team hours ago.”

  “I can’t believe it’s gone.”

  “I have a nose for valuable things. It’s not here.”

  “Then this was all for nothing?”

  Slowhand’s eyes lit up. “For nothing? I found their treasury. There’s enough here for us to pay off our debts and be set for a few years, even if we were to split it evenly. Of course, I’m the one to find the treasure, so I should get an extra share. Not to mention you’re not really from around here. What do you have to spend money on? Since I’m the one who put Sarge together and he doesn’t need coin, I should get…”

  “We’ll talk about this later. Do you think the base has taken out the dracnarian ships? I haven’t felt any earthquakes lately.”

  Slowhand curled his upper lip. “Felt any what?”

  “Tremors. They’ve died down.”

  “Oh yeah. In the heat of battle, I’d forgotten about that. Must have finished the…” Before he could complete his sentence, the moon shook with a massive explosion. Walls cracked, and everything shifted toward an odd angle. “That’s a sign we better get out of here!” Slowhand bounded off, carrying a crate of treasure. Rhuldan and Ginn both were filling their packs with what they could take as well.

  I began to follow him, but something stopped me. Moby Dick. I can’t believe he’d stay behind while the E.Z. was removed from here. He acted as if it was his own prize. I wonder… I walked toward the massive dracnarian, held my breath, and laid my hands on him.

  The universe opened up to me once again. Dust clouds formed into stars and ignited fires that burned for millions of years. I forced myself to remove my hands, falling to my knees. I caught my breath and called out. “The element zero is right here, team.”

  Considering the fact that the sphere of element zero was significantly larger than Moby Dick’s mouth, I really didn’t want to figure out how he had gotten it inside his body, but that’s where we found it. Ginn and Rhuldan both fired several shots into his head to put him out of his misery, and I got busy cutting. After operating on Jekto, slicing open the massive dracnarian seemed an odd combination of disgusting and interesting. Purple ooze ran for a while and then gelled. My knife struck something too hard to cut through, and I pulled back the flesh. The black orb was wedged behind flexible ribs. I stabbed and sliced through them until the sphere rolled out on the floor, glistening in goo.

  Jekto stood and walked carefully toward me. “I’ll get this, my friend.” He grunted in pain as he lifted the ball of element zero. “Now let’s get to the ship.”

  Rhuldan had put his cloak and hat back on and carried a crate presumably filled with valuables. “It’s time to leave.”

  “Grab that!” Slowhand said, as he pointed to a pack filled with credits. I flung the bag over my shoulder, and we marched back toward Sarge, my legs burned and shook with each step. I kept up with the others, noticing Ginn’s legs quivering as well.

  The common area, not long ago filled with civilians and commerce, now looked like a war-zone with goods and rubble spilled into the street and fires breaking out in multiple areas. Noxious, black smoke blurred our vision, making our passage more difficult, and caused my throat to burn. I coughed as dust filled my lungs, and Slowhand sneezed a high-pitched squeal, sounding like a long whistle.

  A tremor shook everything, and debris peppered us from above. “Ginn, hurry!”

  I followed her toward the docking bay. When a rock the size of my foot landed on his back, just inches away from his wound, Jekto screamed. I sighed in relief when we finally entered the docking bay.

  Sarge yelled at us as we approached. “Double-time it, soldiers! We’re under attack, and I don’t enjoy waiting around for your pansy asses! Get up that ramp before I shoot you myself!” Hearing his voice was a strangely comforting sound, especially since I knew he didn’t actually have any weapons.

  Fayye stuck her head out Sarge’s door. “Hurry! It’s not safe!” Her eyes were wide, and her hands shook as she talked.

  Ginn grabbed one of Jekto’s hands to help him aboard. He looked a pale gray color, and he staggered, carrying the sphere of element zero. “We’ll put that in a transport pod for storage.” She opened an interior side hatch and detached a sealed container from its docking system. The entire unit seemed to magically float without support.

  Meanwhile, Sarge’s engines were spooling up for launch as the overhead hatch opened. Another strike hit the moon. The ship rocked.

  Ginn opened the top of the pod. “Set it in there. Now, remember, Jekto, this pod number is 4A. Just don’t use this pod when you need to defecate; got it?”

  “Yes.” Jekto’s eyes fluttered as he released the large ball. “I’m going to rest now.” He leaned against the wall and closed his
eyes.

  I leaned in close to the big guy to see if I could hear him breathing. He released a loud snore, and I smiled. “I think we made it.”

  As Sarge was just clearing the docking bay doors, his voice boomed from the speakers. “Brace for impact, we’ve got incoming debris! It looks like half a daemon is falling right toward us. Taking evasive maneuvers. Strap in, the chance of complete circumvention is zero point three percent!”

  Ginn grabbed a seat and cinched up multiple belts. I did the same. An impact caused everything to spin sideways. A rush of wind and the sound of metal bending, filled my ears and overwhelmed my senses. How could I help? I held my breath and placed my hand over the Bible in my duster’s breast pocket. If it’s time to take me, Lord, please make it quick and mostly painless.

  Chapter Fifteen

  An Unexpected Stop

  Rhuldan leapt into action, grabbed an emergency repair kit from a bulkhead, ripped it open, and unfolded a large, thin sheet of nearly clear paper. When he snapped the material taught, it turned blue from the outside in. Ginn released her belt and helped him. Together they kept the paper from folding onto itself and from being sucked out into the vacuum of space. Their patch stuck in place, expanding outward like a bubble where the hull was broken away at the rear corner. I gasped for air. The ceiling spun wild, and I couldn’t see.

  Ginn grabbed a cylinder roughly the size of a loaf of bread. She broke off the top and pulled the trigger, spraying a black liquid to cover the patch. “Sarge, get us under control, now!”

  Sarge didn’t respond.