The God Hunters

by Gordon D Lanyon

  I stepped up beside her, katar ready thinking, yep, that should catch his attention. I wasn't sure what I expected after her little show, but Mr. Blue Suit stepped forward. His vocal cords seemed stressed when he spoke or maybe it was just difficult for Kailex to exercise the level of control he needed to speak clearly through the dead. Whatever the issue, his voice sounded like a cross between Linda Blair's from the Exorcist and Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s Terminator.

  “You're here! That's good. Little time left for you. Little time left for this world.” Suddenly he stopped talking and his head bent quizzically to the side. His eyes were focused on me but I knew it wasn't me he was looking for. “But why am I talking to you? You're just a plaything, a broken toy. Where’s the great Huntress? Where is Katal-Tik? Are you hiding from me once great Huntress? Do you fear your God? Well, come out. I won't hurt you. At least, not right away. Not unless you continue to disobey me. I promise.”

  I felt Kat rush forward. All the power she brought with her made me dizzy for a moment and I swayed on my feet as she took over.

  “I'm here, but I see no God. I see only the walking dead. Show yourself or let us come to you.” There was no inflection in her voice. She sounded tired and beaten.

  “Ah, the great Huntress speaks! I knew you’d come. I‘ve been looking forward to this moment. Have you decided to join me? Brenal-Tik thinks you plan some treachery. He advises me to just kill you, but that would be boring. My offer stands. Join me and I‘ll give you a new body. One you can keep. A Tik could ask for nothing greater. This offer is beyond generous I know, but as your new God I’m feeling magnanimous!”

  “I‘m here. That should tell you all you need to know.”

  Blue Suit looked perplexed, then annoyed. “Not nearly enough I’m afraid! Your value to me lessens with each minute you delay. I don’t like people who make me wait. Now if you wish to join me, you’ll need to beg. Beg and I'll make you one of my Hunter generals.” He laughed but the laughter sounded slightly angry. “I want to hear the Beast in your voice Katal-Tik. Are you still Hunter enough to do the things I want done? Or have you lost your teeth? Make me tremble with fear and I‘ll give you power you can only dream of.”

  I felt Kat grab total control. Suddenly I leapt onto the nearest zombie. Power sizzled through me as I took everything it had in one taste, then another and another and another until I felt I was going to explode!

  “You wish to see fire Kailex? I‘ll eat your pitiful army, then come for you before I beg for anything!” she shouted. “Hunters hunt, talk is for fools and food!”

  Blue Suit started laughing. “Now that's the Huntress I remember! It seems your heart‘s still strong. Yet, still, you refuse to say the words. A simple declaration is all I need. Your word means everything to me. I‘ve watched you for decades and never seen you break it. For the last time, say the words. I grow bored, and a bored God is a dangerous thing. Swear your allegiance to me!”

  I felt Kat stiffen inside, make a decision. Felt my prison bars strengthen around me. Then from nowhere the energy gun I'd hidden appeared and she fired first at Walker then at Belle. Walker had time for one anguished cry of surprise before she fell. Belle just collapsed. A wave of zombies surged forward and scooped up both, then retreated back again leaving Blue Shirt alone in front of Kat.

  “Ah. An unexpected turn of events. I thought those to be your friends and allies?”

  “They served a purpose only. A true Hunter has no friends. Surely this action answers your question of fealty? They were my only chance to defeat you and now my treachery speeds back to the GateKeeper. No chance for life remains for me, except with you.”

  Inside Kat's head I raged. I screamed my anger so that even Kailex must have heard it but I didn't care. We'd been betrayed! Walker had been betrayed! All along she'd been right about Kat! How could I have been so stupid? She never cared about us! We were just tools she used to get what she wanted. Now she’d get her freedom and the cost was just two friends that never were. She’d always intended to use us as proof of loyalty to Kailex.

  “You‘ve always intrigued me Katal-Tik. You might not know this but it was I who created you long ago. I was the one who measured and folded your DNA until I was certain you'd be the truest expression of the Hunters from our past. I cut away anything that might make you weak. You were my first and I always thought my greatest success. Until lately. Lately your choices created some doubt. You took this human and let him live. Let him have a voice.” Blue Suit shook his head. “That’s not the way of a Hunter. What you take, you take! I worried you’d lost your edge. I’ve seen it happen with others. The fallen. Those who’d allowed their Beast to subsume them. There’d be no shame if that had happened. That’s what I‘d thought had happened to you. Now I can see I was wrong! The Beast still lives in you. With you as an ally I’d be strengthened considerably. And so we come to this moment where I must decide to let you in, or destroy a treasured creation. I confess, I can‘t decide and time‘s a factor. There are things I must do soon that will take my full attention. You‘re dangerous but only one and I‘m many so I suppose there‘s little harm in bringing you in. You may enter.”

  Blue Shirt backed up to the door of the building and went in, leaving it open. A good portion of the zombies broke away, separating out, running smoothly in search of new prey. A smaller number settled in behind me. My guard, I supposed. Together we marched into the building.

  We descended into the basement. I saw quickly that the building was just a cover for Kailex's lab which was huge and stretched for quite some distance. It was filled with machinery, all of it working, humming away with a slight, irritating buzz that caused the hairs on my arms to rise. There was energy here, lots of it and it was building with each passing second. The irritating sound was that of machines rapidly reaching their stress points. I noted there was only one door in and groaned as I realized it was the same as the one at his other lab. Almost impenetrable to human devices. I screamed my anger, used it to mask my disappointment. Even if we had help, none could get through that door in time to make a difference! More and more it looked like we were done. I couldn't prevent my disappointment from leaking through my anger, felt Kailex pick up on it and send his amusement coursing back to me.

  At last we stood before the God King himself. He hung in the air, sitting in lotus position, head bowed as if thinking deeply or perhaps sleeping. He wore only a pair of blue jeans. His upper body was emaciated, lean to the point of starvation. It had cost him to make all those zombies. A pale energy, barely discernible to the naked eye surrounded him and I imagined it was this that held him in the air. Then I realized things were moving around him, gauges were changing, manipulated by invisible fingers. He was the heart of this machine and much of him was engrossed in its manipulation. Whatever he was planning, he was close to being finished. I could feel it. The room felt heavy, as if it contained too much power and that power was waiting for release.

  My attention had been on Kailex but I realized he wasn't alone. Bren stood off to the left, close enough to provide protection. Lisa was there as well, separated from him by a few meters. They'd given themselves space to move if needed. Both seemed nervous, twirling their katars, fake smiles plastered across their faces. Bren was concentrating on me but Lisa had eyes only for Walker. She'd been dumped on the ground next to me, Belle lay beside her. Walker's vest gave off a smoky burned smell. I could see the depression where the blast had burned almost through it. Despair filled me. I didn't try to filter my feelings. Let Kailex know what I felt, what did it matter? We were done!

  Kailex looked up. His eyes, round holes in his head, black to their core. “Ah Katal-Tik. You force me to divide my attention between my experiment and my decision about what to do with you. We must be quick about this. This brew I'm stirring will reach a crescendo soon and when it does this planet’s moon will be pulled from its orbit into the planet. When they meet I will at last have enough energy to power my own version of SHIP.” A bony finger poin
ted at the open space behind him that I suddenly realized wasn't all that open. Something was there, something partly here with us and partly in another space, perhaps even another dimension.

  “The science of this earth is so backward I couldn’t power my creation and without SHIP I can‘t escape to the next world. When the planets collide my collectors will drink the energy. At that point, my SHIP will live and I‘ll escape with those of my choosing. This world is likely to be completely destroyed in the process. Sadly that is sometimes the cost of great science. I‘ll live of course, and Fusto, as will my good friend Brenal-Tik and the lovely but not so brilliant Lisa.”

  He gave her a disparaging look, fake sadness rippling across his gaunt face but only laughter showed in his eyes. “I've had to heal her twice when death was already well established. I did what I could but not much remains of her intellect. Only her anger seems the same and her hate. Fortunately, I can use that. I will be in need of loyal generals for the next world we’re going to. I‘ve already picked it out. One more advanced than this backward pile of dirt. We can live a civilized life there while we rule.”

  A broad smile stretched his thin lips until his teeth showed, “It's teeming with life, pacific in the extreme. No armies, no police to speak of, only people living full and happy lives. Meat without horns to poke us with! How good is that? Perfect really. I’ll be a God there. The hunger in the pit of my stomach will finally be quenched. The Hunger.” His eyes became even larger as he considered this, dark swirls of black on black moved within them agitated to the extreme. “It's hard to always be hungry,” he added. “I hadn’t anticipated that when I decided to become a God.” His head raised so that he looked directly at me. I could feel the force, the power behind that look. “And now Katal-Tik, it’s time for my decision. Life or death? Which is it to be? You need only ask to be saved and I‘ll grant your supplication. So speak. Say the words!” The last sentence held power. I felt it roll over me. This was the moment. I readied myself for what might happen next.

  Kailex started laughing. He seemed genuinely amused. Between gasps of laughter he managed to ask, “What Katal-Tik? I cannot hear you. Where are the words that would save you? Your voice is so tiny even my God ears can’t make them out. Do you beg me to let you live? Do you ask for forgiveness for hunting me?” And now his voice rolled out and over me with a depth of anger that was truly chilling. He was shouting now, spittle flying from his lips. “I created you! Gave you life! Made you strong enough that you were feared by all! And still you betrayed me? Thought to hunt me for the Game? For those imbeciles you would hunt me? I can tell you now, there can be no forgiveness. For crimes against your God there is only one judgement. Death!”

  And just like that, Kat was gone from my mind. The box that had held me was gone. I was free to act.

  Just like that our link snapped back into place.

  “Walker! Belle!”

  I drew my gun and started blasting zombies even as I heard Walker's “About friggin’ time!” Her gun blasts echoed my own a second later. Belle roared and a zombie head sans body sailed past me. Yuck! Between the three of us it only took minutes before all the zombies in the room were on their backs, heads blasted open, legs kicking. The smell of charred meat hung heavy in the air. As one we pointed our energy weapons at Kailex and his little group of assassins who hadn’t moved an inch to stop us.

  “Didn't see that coming did you?” I shouted, heart thumping so hard in my chest I was pretty sure I was moments away from a heart attack. My plan had worked! But had it?

  Kailex had an amused look on his face. I immediately hated the fact he seemed pretty calm in the face of such a drastic turnabout.

  “Indeed, you‘ve caught me. I suppose now is the moment we should all give up and go peacefully to our deaths?” Then he laughed, again with real amusement.

  “I like you Nick, and you as well Walker. Your pet, not so much, but Gods can make allowances. The truth is, I never wanted Katal-Tik. I knew from the start I couldn’t trust her. I require loyalty, something she’s incapable of giving, as you’ve already learned. And so I've banished her. Freed you and put her in your place, in that little box in your mind. I‘m holding her there now while we discuss our situation“. He grimaced. “She’s strong and not very happy. So let’s move this along. First, just so we can be sure where things stand, please, use your weapons to your hearts content. Fire away. Kill us all. But do hurry. Time’s running out and I‘ll soon need all my concentration for the next and final sequence of my experiment. I’m quite anxious to see how well it works!”

  For a moment I thought I‘d misheard him. He wanted me to fire? These weren’t ordinary weapons. These were from his world, made for us by SHIP. If there was anything that could kill him it would be these. And he wanted me to fire? Suddenly I heard the "whump whump whump" of Walker's gun, felt the energy flare out and smash against first Lisa, then Brenal-Tik and finally Kailex himself. Beautiful shots right on the money. I watched the energy flare, spread itself out like water crashing against rocks. Then dissipate in a splash of yellow fire. Now I knew why Bren and Lisa had been on edge. Kailex had known all along Walker and Belle were alive and told them to wait and do nothing. They must have wondered how far they could trust their new God-King. Now they grinned, no doubt relieved at the answer.

  Kailex nodded. “It was a good plan. Make yourself appear defenseless so I’d bring you inside, then finish me with those weapons which, by the way, you shouldn’t have. How did you get SHIP to make them when she‘s specifically forbidden to create weapons like those for crew? Ah yes, I see,” said Kailex snapping his fingers, childish glee lighting his face. “I‘ve answered my own question. You‘re not crew. Still, SHIP's programming shouldn’t have allowed this. It must have stressed her greatly to do this for you. Leadership! That’s what you have Nick! I value that. You even convinced the great Katal-Tik to follow you to her death, no small feat.”

  “What have you done to Kat?” I snapped. I could see where this was going. Abruptly, I felt a presence step from the shadows. Fusto! He handed a metal canister to Kailex who carefully inserted it into the machine next to him. Immediately the hum increased until it vanished altogether leaving only the notion of a sound so high it was beyond the human ear’s ability to hear it.

  “The final piece I needed,” crowed Kailex. “Power from something you call plutonium and terribly difficult to get in sufficient quantities. I imagine all sorts of authorities are streaming toward this building because of this?” The question was largely rhetorical but Fusto mutely nodded, then stepped away so that he stood near me blocking any quick approach towards Kailex. Saying nothing, he simply stared down at me, his eyes expressionless.

  “Well that’s it. With the plutonium in place, there’s nothing left to do but leave.” I felt the pressure of his gaze lock onto my own. “The truth is, I really do need generals, Nick. Which is why I allowed you and Walker in. Did you really think I couldn’t sense they were unhurt?” He waved negligently toward Walker and Belle.

  “I allowed this charade so I could offer you what I never intended to give Katal-Tik. Even for a God, a world is a big place to rule without help. I told you I imprisoned Katal-Tik in your mind but the truth is, I’ve only blocked her access to you. My grip on her is tenuous at best and I can’t pull her out. Not by myself. The mind she hides in is yours, and you’ve learned to put up strong blocks. She’s using them against me now. I could break them of course. But time is a problem. I’ll need your assistance if I'm to do this quickly. Let go, drop those blocks. Working together we can expel her, and a mind without a body cannot survive. She’ll die and you’ll be free. Really free.

  He paused, watching me closely, a slight frown on his face. “You hesitate? Do you really need convincing? She took you, forced you into something you never agreed to. Basically raped your mind. I can only imagine your anger. Her death would complete our revenge, yours and mine. A traitor dead and two Generals gained to help subdue a world. Perfect win f
or both of us. What loyalty can you have for her? She sold you out. Don’t make the mistake of thinking she has feelings for you. She’s incapable of them. I know because I cut those silly emotions out of her. The only love she could possibly have is for herself. I made self-preservation one of her core traits. She‘d do anything to survive, and she did didn’t she? She betrayed you. Gave you up to me. Personally, I can't stand traitors, can you?”

  “Kat never sold us out,” I said through clenched teeth. I looked at Walker for confirmation but her troubled eyes told me she was as uncertain as I was. Then she smiled and showed her teeth as her eyes blackened and swirled inkily. I saw her ready herself.

  “Fuck you Kailex,” she grated out. Then she pointed her katar at Lisa. “I'll kill this one first,” she slowly turned so that the katar pointed next at Brenal-Tik, “and then him. This time I'll cut their heads off and let my Beast drink. When I'm done there won’t be anything left for you to save.” Then she laughed and spun her katar.

  “Stop!” shouted Kailex, looking truly puzzled. “You can‘t win. If I don’t lift a finger, you can‘t win. Why choose death when I offer you life?”

  “My Beast agrees with you,” shouted Walker, laughing crazily, “but my Beast doesn’t control me. I’ve promised to end its hunger with a tasty God. It’s panting inside me, demanding to come out and meet you! But first I’ll kill your girl toy.” She pointed at Lisa.

  Things were fast approaching a state of no return with the fate of the world hanging on the decisions made in the next few minutes. I had to at least try to negotiate with Kailex. “What if we agree to go with you?” I asked quickly. “Will you spare this world? We can take Bren or Kat's SHIP. The lives of billions must mean something to you.”

  In answer Kailex shrugged. “Brenal-Tik's access to his SHIP has been revoked by the Council. They recalled it days ago, perhaps fearing he was about to betray them, or angry at his lack of progress. I’ve already tried contacting your SHIP. Your Meeta has locked it and claims she’ll not hand it over under any circumstances. Not even to save you. No, our only option is to use my newly created SHIP and it needs power, the kind this world is centuries away from developing. It must die so a God and his acolytes can live. A fair trade I think. And besides, I want to see if this will work.”