Machines of the Gods

by William B Lyons

  Just in front of this large screen, Neil hung like a fish on a hook. His feet barely touched the floor. His wrists had been bound by extension cords to a water pipe that ran the length of the room. The man’s eyes were almost swollen shut, and his face looked like he’d fallen into a meat grinder. Several teeth were missing too as blood seeped out of his mouth and formed a red puddle on the floor.

  Diamond Jack had stopped his attack for a few minutes to string up his victim and also to rest, but now he was ready for action again. “Wake up, punk!” he yelled. “I said, wake up!” He then slammed his fist into Neil’s stomach, causing the man to eject a sickening wheeze from his open mouth. Next, Jack hit Neil in the side three times before picking up the broken chair leg again and bringing it down on Neil’s shoulder. This action splintered the helpless man’s collar bone. “Open your eyes before a pluck them out with a fork,” Jack yelled yet again. “Come on, I happen to know that you’re still not suffering enough. I want total agony!”

  Neil slowly lifted his head, too weak and injured to move the rest of his body. A gurgling sound came from his bloody lips before his head dropped again.

  “Hey, faggot man,” Jack said, “you cannot even talk?” He pulled the man’s head back up and gazed into Neil’s swollen eyes. “Maybe I should just strike a match and burn your testicles for a while to see how loudly I can make you scream? Let’s try that for a while.”

  Neil gasped, breathing heavily. “Why don’t you just kill me?”

  Diamond Jack stepped back and gritted his teeth. The rage was building again, but he wanted to explain his actions just one more time. “I’m not ready to kill you yet. I’ve not pulled out all of your teeth with pliers. I’ve not dropped you in a pool of acid. I’ve not cut off legs yet either. Oh yes, you have a lot to look forward to. But first, I want to show you something.”

  Neil lifted his head again, wondering what this maniac was planning next.

  Diamond Jack walked over to the mainframe computer and started typing on the keyboard. Behind them, the static on the smartboard vanished and was replaced by a sky view of the entire Dallas area. He turned back around to address Neil again. “True strength is defined by the level of pain a man is able to overcome. Let’s see how rough you really are.”

  Neil’s eyes widened in fear. “What are you going to do?”

  Jack’s evil smile reappeared. “My death sphere is now in position to inflict maximum damage. In other words, this thing’s ray is perfect for giving my enemies a world-class hot foot. Think of it as urban tagging, but on a grand scale. Oh yes, I’m going to be blasting lots of people really soon. Who knows, I might even put my device on automatic and let it randomly vaporize targets on the ground forever.”

  “Stop!” Neil yelled, twisting his suspended body.

  Jack laughed and started typing again. “Let’s see, where should I start?” He looked up at the screen for a couple of seconds before focusing back on the keyboard. “Perhaps I should blow up the house located at 1524 Autumn Dawn Drive where your wife, Susan, is hiding out. Or maybe I should target the central building at Cedar Valley College where your son is currently in his Algebra class.” He looked back at Neil and smiled again. “No, there can be only one kickoff point and that’s Market Hall. At the moment, the entire administrative staff of the USG is meeting there to figure out how to deal with me. Think of it, all of them blasted to bits within seconds without ever knowing what hit them.” He nodded and laughed, pleased with his decision. Then, suddenly, his facial expression went blank like a deer’s eyes focusing on car headlights. He smiled as yet another thought came to mind. “Oh, what the hell, I’ll just blow up all three targets at once.”

  “No, don’t do this!” Neil yelled out in panic. “It’s me you want, not them.”

  “Say good-bye to your family and friends!” Diamond Jack laughed and press the “enter” key.

  All was silent. The picture on the screen remained unchanged. The computer did not execute the command. The lights did not dim or even flicker. Nothing.

  Diamond Jack stayed anchored to his very spot for over a full minute, expecting something to happen. When it did not, his confident smile was replaced by a vicious frown. With gritted teeth, he hit the “enter” key again. “Come on, activate!”

  Still nothing.

  Jack looked up into the speaker overhead. “Computer, activate my command!” he yelled in anger. “Do it now!”

  “SYSTEM IS OFF-LINE,” the robotic voice replied.

  Jack stood back and gasped, gloved hands rubbing together, mind trying to come up with a solution to this new problem. “Redirect my command into the main system computer and then execute my orders!”

  “SYSTEM IS SHUTTING DOWN.”

  “No!” Diamond Jack yelled. He then started hammering away at the keyboard, hoping to somehow regain control of the main computer. “What in the hell is happening?” he whispered to himself. “This isn’t making any sense.”

  Neil slowly lifted his head and chuckled. “You’ve lost. All this time you’ve been following me, there has been a man in my office hacking into your alien program—destroying it. This complex’s computer can no longer be accessed from here. I knew that if I kept you distracted long enough, you’d never see what was coming.”

  Diamond Jack stood frozen in his tracks, temples pulsing, nostrils flaring. “I’ll kill you for this!”

  Neil’s head dropped back down. “It doesn’t matter. I was diagnosed with terminal cancer just six weeks ago. I don’t have much time left anyway. There is nothing that you can do to me now. It is your time to suffer.”

  Diamond Jack’s hands balled up into two fists as his teeth gritted together tightly. The rage was building to overload. He’d again been cheated. Neil Stone would not suffer for long, but he would still die in agony. “I’ll still win somehow!”

  “You have lost…” Neil gasped one last time before passing out.

  “Never!” Jack screamed and frantically activated the top button on the power gloves, turning them up to maximum. He then impatiently waited for the gloves to power up enough to deliver a super load. It wouldn’t be easy with the suit’s energy cells so low, but it would happen at least one more time. Slowly the seconds passed as he cursed to himself. Failure was not an option. Revenge was all that mattered. Nothing would come before that. The red dot around his index finger finally came on, indicating a full charge. At last, the time was right. “I hate you!” he screamed while shooting massive energy into the helpless man. “You will roast by my hand, you stupid animal!”

  The white bolts hit Neil with such force that the man was blown backwards as far as the restraints allowed. His body lit up with fire as this alien electricity engulfed the entire back of the room. Computers exploded as well as monitors and small transformers. Smoke bellowed from several directions as other things lit up too. More small explosions followed and blew apart light sockets, glass containers, overturned furniture, before finally igniting the wet carpet.

  Still, Diamond Jack kept the gloves energy focused on Neil’s flaming body until their power failed, and the bolts were reduced to just small sparks. However, nothing was left of his foe now but a chard chunk of dead meat. “I bet you really got a charge out of that!” he yelled out while spitting in the direction of his dead enemy. “Just like the electric chair, only with more sizzle.”

  The sprinkler system came back on and rapidly put out the flames. The sizzling sound and smoke still filled the room as many of the remaining computer shut off as well. In the distance, radio transmissions and other broadcast noises came over the speakers as much of the silencing equipment failed.

  Jack gazed straight ahead, mind racing to come up with a solution to this massive new problem. There was only one answer. He slowly reached into his pocket and gripped the cell phone. Only one man could have pulled this off so fast. Now it was time to confront this traitor too.

>   He carefully listened as the phone beeped again and again. Finally, someone answered.

  “Who’s there?”

  “Eddie, I know that you can hear me,” Diamond Jack said. “I can almost read your mind from where I am.” He paused for a couple of seconds. “You will pay for what you’ve done. This betrayal will be punished severely. That’s why I’m going to kill you slowly—very slowly.”

  While still seated in Neil’s office and gazing into the computer screen, Eddie breathed deeply and swallowed. “I couldn’t stand by and let you keep killing. It had to end.”

  Jack’s eyes narrowed with rage. “I saved your life. I gave you hope and focus. You owe me everything!”

  “No, you used me,” Eddie responded. “I was used to plant a monster virus into this complex’s network. I was used to translate dozens of alien blueprints and turn them into weapons of terror. Finally, I was used to activate the transmission codes to that super weapon in space that you’re blasting objects on the ground with. Without me, none of this would have been possible.”

  Diamond Jack’s jaw muscles tightened. There just had to have been some way of getting this man to see things like he did. Without that, his plans would be over. “Listen, Eddie, you can have all of your dreams come true. We are so close. Large companies will pay us billions for the blueprints I have. Some may even pay more to keep our stuff off the market. Just reconnect me to the system, and I’ll forget about all of the trouble you’ve caused. As partners, we can still have everything.”

  “No, I can never trust you. I know about how you killed that other guy before me. I was told how you just tossed his severed head into an eating place. No, you are a maniac who can never be trusted.”

  Enraged, Jack slammed the cell phone to the floor. The small device shattered into several pieces, and he savagely kicked away the fragments. Then, his mind completely slipped. “Die, everyone must die!” he screamed in uncontrolled rage, throwing a real fit like a demented child. He pushed a large mainframe and caused it to topple over. The machine exploded when it hit the floor, sending sparks flying. Then, after picking up the broken table leg, he started smashing every laptop and monitor in sight. “I’m going to kill everybody!” he screamed in rage, while still swinging wildly. “Everybody will die!”

  ***

  Two floors below, Steve gazed in shock at the sight before him. The large room looked like a typical laboratory. However, instead of just long tables and racks of test tubes and beakers, twenty huge tanks were scattered about this place. Inside these giant fish bowls, true horrors floated in clear liquid. Some held grossly deformed humans, who had multiple heads and twisted limbs. Other tanks had strange-looking creatures like none he’d ever seen before. Still other tanks held things that looked like hybrids. Stretched out on the floor were several bloody bodies of the missing SWAT team members and the other K-9 unit. They’d all been eaten down to their bones. There were holes in the walls as well. Then, there was that familiar loud buzzing coming from the boiler room just in the room directly ahead.

  Jenny just looked ahead, eyes fixed with a blank gaze. Even she’d never seen anything like this before. “Good God…”

  “What in the hell were you people creating down here anyway?” Steve finally questioned.

  “I don’t know,” she gasped. “This is all new to me.”

  “Like hell you don’t!” he hissed, trying not to make too much noise that would attract the attention of those flying monsters in the very next room. “You are an executive director at this complex. Nothing goes on without your knowledge.”

  She shook her head. “Look, this was a special project that was way above my pay scale. Only Neil had the authorization to approve something like this. You have to believe me.”

  Steve moved over to the door that led to the boiler room and listened. “Oh yes, I can hear the buzzing. Well, I’m sure that a lot of laws have been broken down here. And when this is over, your freaking chamber of horrors will be history. I’m going to see to it personally.”

  She walked over behind him. “Steve, this could be a secret military project. Those ancient aliens used these space bugs as a type of biological weapon. Maybe the military has currently been trying to do the same thing. These bugs were quite effective. Just look at what they’ve done to the SWAT unit.”

  “At least the aliens were smart enough not to pump up the reproductive systems of these creatures with a steroid compound. These things are multiplying out of control. They are more aggressive too. Face it, somebody really messed up.”

  She nodded. “Okay, I’m with you on that one. Come on, we have to destroy the center of this hive. That’s where the queen will likely be.”

  He lifted the flame gun and pointed it at the door. “Open it and get behind me. I’m going to light up those things immediately.”

  “Remember, short and controlled bursts.” She typed in the activation code on a keypad above the door’s lock and waited to hear the click of the latch. “You’ll have to limit fuel use in case we are surrounded later.”

  “Just be ready to haul ass when I give the word,” he said.

  The door latch clicked and she slowly pulled on the handle. The door slowly opened and they both peered in the chamber. Usually, the boiler room was empty and void of life. But not now. Those creatures were everywhere. The two hundred-foot-wide room had honey wax material that covered desks, tables, and cabinets. . The large compressors and the two huge boilers on opposite sides of this place were covered under a small hill of cone-like hive. The entire floor was littered with dozens of fist-sized black eggs. The back wall was also clustered with over a hundred of those things. The ceiling was a living mass of creatures too. Finally, in the center of this room, was a large bulging honey wax sack that hung over the central compressor.

  “Lord have mercy…” Steve whispered, slowly lifting the flame gun. “Stand behind me. I’m going to light up that hive sack first. That’s probably where the queen is.”

  “No, wait.” Jenny slowly withdrew her pistol from her shoulder holster and screwed on a silencer. “I’m going to try something.”

  Steve’s eyes widened. “Don’t be a fool. You’ll make those things swarm too soon. And if they get past us, nothing will stop them from getting to the surface eventually.”

  “I’m aiming at a fuel tank on the wall. The gas inside burns very hot. Once the fire ignites the fuel, close this door and we’ll cook these suckers before they can escape.”

  Steve looked about the room and sized up the situation. Maybe it could work, he realized. It was at least worth a try. “Okay, Jenny, we’ll have to be quick. Also, the sound of your gun may still cause them to go into a frenzy—even with the silencer in place.”

  “That’s already covered,” she replied, tightening the silencer cylinder to the gun’s barrel. “The spewing of the gas might alarm a few, but their reaction time should be slow because they’ve never seen humans before. At least I hope that’s the case.”

  Steve nodded. “Okay, let’s see what’s really going to happen.” He glanced at his watch. “Those jets will be on the way pretty soon. At least if they follow proper protocol. It’s now or never.”

  Jenny squatted down on one knee and took aim. There was no way to see the canister under the dozens of those creatures clustered on the wall, but she knew where it was. Yes, this was it. She then gritted her teeth and fired.

  The gun jerked and a clear fluid started squirting from somewhere beneath the mass of alien creatures that were clustered on the far wall. A few of the things parted and allowed the liquid to flow freely into the air and form a puddle on the floor. Then, several of the creatures became airborne, doing a strange dance. Others laid frozen, wings outstretched—ready to attack.

  “Go on, burn them all!” She stood back, giving Steve plenty of room to start the blaze. “Fry the eggs first. We don’t want any of them hatching later. Nex
t, set the honey sack on fire. That’s probably where the queen is.”

  Steve pulled the trigger and a stream of fire spewed out toward the center of the room, engulfing the eggs. Then, he lit up the giant honey sack. It ignited like paper, as shrieks came from all over this place. The fluid caught fire and flames whooshed across the floor and up the walls. More shrieks echoed from all over the room as many of the creatures caught fire. “Get ready to haul ass.”

  Over a hundred of the flying demons were airborne, swarming around in circles. The entire chamber was blazing now. The buzzing sound was very loud. Many of the eggs split open to reveal the tiny squirming bodies of young creatures.

  “I’m shutting the door before the gas explodes!” she yelled, already pushing against the heavy steel hatch. “Get back!”

  He turned off the flame gun and leaned against the door to help Jenny in her efforts. Once the door closed, he locked it and looked back at Jenny. “Where to now?”

  “We’re going to the control room.” She looked down the hallway. “I’m sure that Neil probably could use our help with Diamond Jack.”

  Steve nodded. “I can’t wait to finally meet Diamond Jack face to face.”

  There was a loud boom. The room shook as the light from flickering fire came from under the boiler door. Then, more shrieks from those dying creatures echoed through the walls.

  ***

  From within the flaming boiler room, the giant cacoon split at the top and a large bee- like creature climbed out. It flew into the ceiling and ripped through the sheetrock before vanishing in the darkness.

  ***

  Above Steve’s and Jenny’s heads was lots of movement in the vents. In fact, the entire ceiling was vibrating under the weight of hundreds of those creatures.

  She looked up and then back at Steve. “We have to get moving before the rest of the hive comes down on us.”

  He followed closely behind. “How did they escape the boiler room? I mean that chamber is solid concrete. Maybe the ceiling?”