Vahn and the Bold Extraction, The

by Mason, Shane A.

  ‘But he looks so...kind of...gross yet harmless.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  Quesob stood behind the Doctor. ‘Just hurry up. This has already gone too far.’

  Doctor Thurgood glared at Quesob. ‘Relax, give it a few minutes to take full hold. We possibly only have one shot at this.’

  The minutes passed slowly, Lexington noting a certain tension rising that did not make sense.

  ‘Okay now,’ Doctor Thurgood said. ‘Come on.’ He encouraged Nap Retep. ‘Come on, you can do it, yes you can, just like we practiced, come on.’

  Nap Retep gurgled and after a little more encouragement reached out and placed his hands on Lexington’s bracelet. Doctor Thurgood clapped his hands, and patted Nap Retep on his head.

  ‘Good boy, now just stay.’

  Quesob fidgeted.

  ‘Well, now what!’

  ‘Shh. Just wait!’

  Yellow light burst from Lexington’s bracelet. It lasted a split second and then her bracelet became visible, and hung loose on her wrist.

  As the Doctor tugged it off Quesob could not help but look at Lexington with sadness as he now knew what would happen to her.

  Doctor Thurgood shook with excitement, mumbling and then said, ‘Oh my, oh my, I was right, I was right. Yes I shall be famous.’ He held the bracelet up. ‘And Now,’ and slipped it on to Nap Retep's wrist, and then moved back.

  Everything stayed the same, nothing altered. Nap Retep peeled off a few squeals of delight and then goo-ed some more.

  Quesob stated panicking.

  ‘Nothing is happening.’

  Doctor Thurgood craned his neck.

  ‘Yes I can see that. Thank you very much. Be sure to point out anything else obvious just in case it escapes my attention.’

  ‘Turn him back.’

  ‘Wait!’ Doctor Thurgood said. He bent down close to Nap Retep handing him a smaller sword. ‘Come on little one, just like we practiced, come on, you can do it.’

  Nap Retep burbled some more nonsense words. Nothing spectacular happened.

  Quesob paced.

  ‘Well!’

  Doctor Thurgood drew in a breath to berate him, but paused. Nap Retep’s face shimmered and shook like light waves melting around it.

  ‘Look,’ Doctor Thurgood directed Quesob.

  Lexington threw her head back and twisted it to the side to watch.

  Nap Retep’s hair faded from his entire head, leaving a hairless, ugly, baby-faced man-child. He uttered more gibberish.

  ‘Great,’ Quesob said. ‘You’ve discovered a rapid hair removal system.’

  Doctor Thurgood wheeled about. A crazed madman look of a determination crossed his face. With an upturned fist and his first finger poking out, he threatened Quesob.

  ‘Just wait!’

  He turned back, gushing at Nap Retep.

  ‘Come on little one, just like we practiced, come on, you can do it.’

  Nap Retep grabbed the sword and swung it around using the strength of his man body, but still with the clumsy inaccuracy of a baby. The sword hit the ground all around and apart from digging into the dirt, nothing spectacular happened.

  Doctor Thurgood scratched his head and took the sword off him. He lifted the sword up and then chopped at Nap Retep.

  Quesob cried out in protest, though the sword fell, blade first across Nap Retep’s face.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Don't get in the way of science!’

  Nap Retep laughed unhurt by the attack.

  ‘As I thought,’ Doctor Thurgood said, again proud of his achievements. ‘The bracelet has protected him.’

  ‘Great! What now. We use him as a shield. Look at him. He is a baby. A baby. As useless as a baby!’

  ‘Damn fool. Knower of little and even less. This is a giant leap forward. An adult has been stripped of all their conditioning so that the bracelet fits and works on them.’

  ‘Works? Go on make it work. Make it work!’

  ‘It is working.’

  ‘Oh wow, now what?’

  Doctor Thurgood looked over Nap Retep as if he examined a patient.

  ‘More tests I guess.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ Lexington said, shivering and trying to huddle her bound body together to get a little warmer. ‘The bracelets need a costume. Without it they will do little.’

  Quesob fetched her a blanket from one of the horses and put it around her. Doctor Thurgood relished this new information and tugged Nap Retep’s clothes from him, and pulled the botanists costume over his soft, podgy body, struggling to get them on.

  A soft circular light with hazy edges appeared above Nap Retep. Colours and forms danced around inside it as if radiant electricity had zapped the developing insides of an egg. It grew bigger and bigger. The shapes inside slowly became seed like and then plant like. What were a few became many until the sides of the circle pushed out and formed into a sphere with a rippled water-like outer. It grew to the size of a house, touching on the roof of knotted plants and started to push outwards, sucking air from around them. Inside it plants reproduced rapidly.

  Awe struck, Quesob froze. Doctor Thurgood panicked, realising they were about to be crushed to death should it get any larger. Laying flat he tried to scoot along the ground to Nap Retep to pull the clothes off him but could not reach.

  ‘The Bracelet,’ Doctor Thurgood cried out. ‘The Bracelet, pull it off.’

  So enamored by it, Lexington lost any sense of danger. For the first time she understood Ari's desire to become one with the land. There was something so virgin pure about the new plant life forming that she felt she could have given up her life to become enveloped in it.

  ‘THE BRACELET! PULL IT OFF!’ both Quesob and Doctor Thurgood screamed.

  She reached out from between the ropes and pulled the bracelet off.

  The sphere disappeared, and a handful of plants fell to the ground.

  ‘And tell me science man. What was that?’ Quesob asked.

  Doctor Thurgood shook his head.

  ‘I don't know.’

  ‘Then wake him up and let us leave this place.’

  Doctor Thurgood's mind whirled around trying to calculate the significance of what had transpired. Quesob shook him.

  ‘Change him back?’

  ‘Y...yes...yes.’

  ‘Give me the power to change him back,’ Quesob said, seeing the Doctor looking lost.

  Doctor Thurgood, nodded blank-faced, though clapped his hands, whistled and snapped his fingers.

  ‘Now you can change him at will.’

  Quesob dropped to his knee by Nap Retep, hesitated, and thought that perhaps it should all stop now. Perhaps if he left Daquan, as Nap Retep, whatever madness accosted him would stop. He sighed. If there was a chance the children of New Wakefield could be freed, he needed to take it.

  ‘Daquan,’ he said.

  Daquan blinked his eyes, and pushed his body up. He looked at Quesob and Doctor Thurgood, noting they stared at him with dismay.

  ‘WELL?’

  Horrified, they gawped at him, stunned.

  ‘What? What is it?’

  ‘You...you still look like a baby!’ Quesob said, worried.

  Daquan walked to the side of the waters and stared in. A fresh-faced young-looking Daquan about the age of three reflected back at him in the crystal clear waters. No hair could be seen anywhere on his face.

  ‘What happened?’

  Between them Doctor Thurgood and Quesob explained.

  ‘...Though why you are still looking like a baby, I’m not sure,’ Doctor Thurgood finished, sounding the most timid he ever had.

  A faint noise behind Daquan made him spin around. Lexington held the bracelet in one hand and tried to reach across to slip it on her wrist without making a noise. Daquan reached down and plucked the bracelet from her.

  ‘Quesob, time to set the trap.’

  Chapter 39 - deadly peril

  Quixote sprinted towards the dilapidated Cathedral-M
ansion, charging at his unseen foes, shrieking and sweeping his sword back and forth.

  Ari readied to jump after him, although Melaleuca’s hand held him back.

  ‘Let him flush them out.’

  Jerkin appeared at the stable door.

  ‘ATTACK!!!!’

  A line of large teenage boys rushed at Quixote out of the stable, swords and axes flailing for him. Quixote slowed to a halt, swishing his sword in a figure of eight, speeding it up until it became a humming blur, and then ran at them. The line stopped and fled.

  ‘NOW!’ Jerkin cried out.

  From behind Quixote, a stream of arrows flew at him, though he spun in time and hacked them in half, grabbing the last one and holding it high in triumph.

  ‘Next Volley!’ Jerkin shouted.

  From out of the window more boys fired slingshots of fist-sized rocks.

  Quixote whipped the shield off his back, fended them off, and then somersaulted left and then right. He soon bored of the attack and picked up the rocks, juggled them, and using his sword as a bat, hit them back at Jerkin and his attackers.

  ‘This is not much of an attack,’ Ari said.

  ‘That’s what is worrying,’ Melaleuca replied, her feelings indicating something else was a foot here.

  ‘Are they trying to flush us out as well?’ Ari asked.

  ‘Cover Quixote, watch him, help him, just do whatever is needed. I am going to head toward the Southern Hills and see if there is any sign of Lexington being taken there.’

  Ari ran to the end of the branch jumping from it and crying out a battle cry. He hit the ground hard and rolled to lessen his impact.

  ‘Cover me Quixote. I will take out the archers.’

  Quixote fired the rocks at the attackers sending them running in all directions.

  ‘ARCHERS HOLD!’ Jerkin cried out.

  Ari grabbed the first archer, who fainted in his hands. He snapped the bow and lumbered to the next one.

  Melaleuca leapt from the tree, trekking southwards across the fields using the detective costume to look for clues. Recent swathes where at least four horses had run, parted the grass, and deep imprints of hooves, where horses had galloped spread out. More importantly, her instincts confirmed Lexington and her captors had gone this way.

  She ran back to get the others.

  A large wheeled battering-ram rolled out of the stable while more archers on the roof fired flaming arrows behind Ari and Quixote to stop them retreating. A wall of flame erupted halting Melaleuca’s advance and trapping the boys. A large spear with an oversized arrowhead, lay pulled back on a king-sized cross bow attached to the battering ram.

  ‘YOU TOOK MY PLACE IN HISTORY,’ Jerkin screamed. ‘TAKE THIS.’

  The spear shot forth at high velocity, smashing into Ari and Quixote’s shields, and threw them through the wall of flames sending them sprawling for several meters.

  Melaleuca rushed to their side, though found them laughing and buzzing with the rush of the attack.

  ‘Nothing could hurt you two,’ she said. ‘Forget Jerkin. Come on we need to track Lexington.’

  Horses panicked in the stable, fretting as smoke wafted over them. Quixote brushed dirt off himself and took the horses as a cue.

  ‘Or we could defeat them anyway and grab the horses to speed us up.’

  ‘We don’t need horses,’ Melaleuca said. ‘We can just use your speed boots.’

  Quixote’s face dropped.

  ‘I’m sorry. I should have told you.’

  ‘What? Exactly what?’

  ‘They only work over ground that you have already trod over,’ he said realising his omission may cost them time. ‘They can only move fast over a small distance without treading it first.’

  Melaleuca shook her head. ‘If you and Lexington had worked together, then I ─ ’

  ‘Lecture him later,’ Ari said. ‘We need to finish Jerkin off. Look!’

  Con, Revile, Dunk, Stench and a handful of equally deformed Gorks walked slowly toward Jerkin’s small army. They had blankets and cardboard wrapped around them for protection and wooden swords in their hands.

  Con yelled out to the cousins, ‘Go do whatever you have to. We will hold them off.’

  Howls of laughter rang out from Jerkin and his band, and then one of them shot an arrow into the shoulder of Dunk. Dunk screamed, and collapsed in pain. Jerkin and his gang laughed even louder at the sight of Dunk squirming on the ground flailing at the arrow.

  Without hesitating all three cousins raced to defend their wayward rescuers. Ari and Melaleuca placed themselves between Jerkin and the Gorks while Quixote speed-booted around disarming everyone. He roared into the barn, spotted some rope and then at dead neck speed roped as many of them as he could together, while the rest fled.

  ‘DEATH BEFORE DEFEAT,’ Jerkin cried, standing strong.

  The cousins waltzed up to him. Jerkin stared up at the towering figures approaching him. He swung his sword at them striking them here and there, raining vicious blows down on them. The cousins rocked back and forth with the force of Jerkin’s blows, but remained uninjured.

  ‘Why didn’t you just rope them all together to start with?’ Melaleuca asked Quixote amidst Jerkin’s attack.

  Being ignored infuriated Jerkin. He could feel his strength waning. He dug his toes in and uttered a great cry, smashing his last blow down on the cousins with all his spent might.

  ‘More fun,’ Quixote replied. ‘I was playing.’

  Jerkin finally collapsed to his knees, exhausted. Quixote crouched and bound him tight.

  ‘Kill me,’ Jerkin said gritting his teeth. ‘Have some honour and kill me!’

  Quixote giggled at him, and said, ‘Nope. You can live.’

  A stream of profane words poured out of Jerkin’s mouth.

  Melaleuca looked over to Dunk. The ground around him soaked red and his face became pale.

  ‘Doctor’s outfit. Quickly,’ Melaleuca said to Quixote.

  Ari rushed to the side of Dunk. Con stood there looking at his fallen comrade along with Stench and Revile and the other Gorks.

  ‘Why aren’t you helping him?’ Ari questioned Con.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Con replied. ‘It’s just…that…well…we are not..supposed to.’

  Ari bent down, applying pressure to the area around the arrow.

  Quixote rummaged in the ruck-sac and handed the doctor’s outfit to Melaleuca who quickly threw it on.

  Con leant down and grabbed the arrow, yanking it out of Dunk. Dunk screamed in pain.

  ‘Arggh!’ Ari shouted. ‘What….should have left in.’ Blood bubbled and squirted out. ‘It was stopping the bleeding.’

  Melaleuca knelt by him. Within a matter of minutes she healed the wound, though Dunk’s face lost all colour. He looked up at Melaleuca forming a big smile out of his grotesque harelip and said, ‘I....the..the resistance..I...made..a...difference..eh?’ and then slipped into unconsciousness.

  Ari shook Melaleuca’s arm.

  ‘Mel! Doctor him.’

  ‘Shh.’

  She checked him again.

  ‘I did, I mean I was….I am…..’

  Her hands poked and prodded. She put her hand on his abdomen and laid her ear on his chest.

  ‘He’s lost too much blood. His descending aorta from his heart barely has movement in it.’ She ran her hands up and down him again despairing.

  Dunk smiled, breathed his last, and his head went limp.

  Melaleuca stood up and backed away a few steps.

  ‘It’s as Lexington said. We assumed the costume’s power was unlimited. But it’s not.’

  She looked to Ari and Quixote, both moved by Dunk’s pathetic but valiant death in trying to help them. ‘I can’t bring people back if they are too far gone. I healed him, but I could not make blood.’

  For the first time in his life, Quixote felt all silliness drain out of him as he gazed at the lifeless corpse of Dunk.

  ‘Perhaps or perhaps we have not yet found that
costume.’

  Con saw how much Dunk’s death moved them.

  ‘Do not mourn for him. I have never seen him smile. Odds are he would have died before he reached 14 and probably for something pointless. He has died a hero’s death, something that would never happen to a Gork in their entire life. Be proud of that.’

  Melaleuca went to speak, but Con stopped her. ‘Go and do what it is you are doing. We shall hold the tied up ones prisoners.’

  In a flash the commander in her fired up and without anymore thought for Dunk, she said, ‘Boys! Lexington needs us,’ and then with a curling fire, hinting at that smoldering spark others had glimpsed behind her eyes, said, ‘Before this day is out more may die. We stay fresh, we play. We need to be above this.’

  They both snapped to attention.

  ‘We need horse riding outfits,’ Melaleuca said to Quixote, and he sped off.

  Melaleuca turned to Con. ‘Do as you say. Hold these kids prisoner. We will return and give Dunk a hero’s send off’

  Con nodded, and Melaleuca saw a sense of honour flooding through him. She could see it was a feeling he never thought he would have ever experienced.

  Quixote returned with horse riding outfits for them, and the cowboy costume for him.

  Horses saddled and wearing only the clown costumes and the riding and cowboy outfits, they set out across the fields heading for the Great Southern Wasteland. Despite Dunk’s death, Quixote’s natural silliness and the clown costumes made them laugh soon after.

  Mile after mile they followed along a narrow ravine, every so often stopping to check the poorly drawn map and check for hoof prints. The light started to fade as evening threatened to fall.

  On through barren scrubby hills they trotted. Nothing grew there other than moss and lichen and the occasional patch of tussock grass. Rocks and cracked earth padded out their trail ahead, and even the hills looked scarred with massive scree-gravel slopes ripping down the side of them. It was as if a giant with a sword had stabbed them and torn asunder the hills, spilling their insides out. No trees or shade or any soft thing of comfort could be seen.

  Night fell, and apart from the stars above no light shone anywhere. The silence got even more silent and despite the costumes and their stout hearts, they all felt the total desolation of this land in their souls. Melaleuca donned the Ninja suit and they pushed on into the darkness.