Dark Side of the Moon

by P. C. Rasmussen

  Stella looked up at him. "The Lost Boys?" she asked, her expression bland.

  "Yeah, that's what they call themselves," he agreed.

  She rose too. "Well, two of them are lost boys from what I hear. The rest ... they're just fucking cowards; especially that Jack guy. He's all talk."

  A part of Kyle agreed with that assessment. "Yeah. I was kinda thinking more of the kids, Daniel and Billy. They've had a rough time in this place," he said with a light sigh.

  "They should come over here and join us," Stella said. "It's pretty safe here and the moron twins aren't stupid enough to cross us."

  "I'll mention it to them," Kyle said and glanced around the clearing. There were several paths leading off in different directions and he begrudgingly had to admit that he'd lost his bearings. "Now, if you'll just point me in the right direction, I'll be on my way."

  Stella laughed. "Lost your orientation already?" She grabbed his shoulder and pointed at the path right across from them. "Follow that all the way through to the rim, then go right and you're back at the tunnel. Come by and see us. We appreciate fresh blood."

  Kyle grinned. "It's phrases like this that make others fear you."

  Stella chuckled. "In a place like this, it's good if others fear you," she stated.

  He took his leave of the others and headed back toward the tunnel leading to dome 2. And he would make sure he mentioned the invitation to Daniel and Billy. Those two needed to get out of harm's way and fast.

  ***

  Change in circumstance

  Jack and Andy were lounging on chairs outside their rooms when Kyle came back. They both looked up and Andy gave him a scrutinizing look. "Where the hell have you been?" he demanded to know.

  Kyle arched an eyebrow. "I didn't know I needed your permission to go anywhere," he countered evenly.

  "That's not what he meant," Jack said, obviously trying to smooth things over before someone lost their temper.

  "I just went for a walk," Kyle said and couldn't really decide why he didn't tell these two where he'd been; maybe because Jack had been so adamant about the gardeners being scary-type people. Obviously, the gardeners didn't like Jack and, considering the fact that he probably wouldn't raise a finger to help Daniel against the moron twins, Kyle could understand why. As jovial as Jack might seem, he was a coward and that was probably the vibe Kyle had picked up on when he had first met the guy. It put a different spin on the story Jack had told about why he was in LPC too and Kyle wondered if the girl he had talked about wasn't a metaphor more than an actual person. Then again, being the coward that he obviously was, Kyle found it hard to imagine that Jack had defended himself against unwanted advances.

  "See anything interesting?" Andy asked, his gaze locked on the floor in front of Kyle's feet.

  Kyle frowned and glanced down at his boots only to realize that not only had he tracked dirt all the way over here, there was also a very green leaf stuck to the top of one boot. "Yeah, a lot of green," he said and looked up to meet the other man's scrutinizing stare. "You got a problem with that?"

  Andy huffed and turned his attention away.

  "You went into dome 3?" Jack asked, his tone laced with surprise.

  Kyle shrugged. "Yeah, I did," he agreed.

  "And?" Jack asked. "Since you're back in one piece, I take it you didn't meet any of the gardeners?"

  He smiled in response. "Actually, I did meet them; all of them. And they seem to be a pretty nice bunch," he said and noted with satisfaction how Jack's expression tensed. "If you don't mind the crazy, that is," he added almost thoughtfully, which made Jack's expression relax a little again.

  Before the other man could open his mouth though, a distant shout reached them. Kyle frowned and took a step backward to clear the edge of one of the rooms. At the far end of the corridor between the rooms, he saw Vinnie stalking toward them and he was nearly carrying Daniel. "What the hell?" Kyle exclaimed and ran to meet them.

  Up close, he noted how disoriented Daniel looked, which could be easily explained by the bloody nose and the swelling right eye. Vinnie had Daniel's right arm over his shoulders and his left arm around the kid's back and Daniel seemed almost incapable of standing on his own two feet. "Gotta get him to the scanner. He's hurt bad," Vinnie huffed.

  "What the hell happened?" Kyle demanded and grabbed Daniel's other arm in an attempt to help, but Daniel let out a strangled cry of pain.

  "The moron twins. Bastards snuck up on us. They were all over Danny before I could even blink," Vinnie growled and he sounded furious. Vinnie looked okay, though, apart from a bloodied bruise on the knuckles of his right hand.

  Kyle tagged along on the way to the 'mall', hoping against hope that the door was open. Neither Jack nor Andy made any move to join them and Kyle made a silent promise to himself that he was going to have a word with them about their lack of commitment when he got back.

  When they reached the 'mall', the door was shut. "Son of a bitch," Vinnie spat.

  "Daniel?" Kyle tried to catch Daniel's wavering attention. "How long until the door opens?"

  Daniel tilted his head back a little and winced. "'bout an hour," he rasped.

  "Fuck, that's too long," Kyle said and eyed the door and the surrounding wall closely. There was some sort of pad laid into the wall next to the door. He placed a hand on it, but nothing happened. For a moment he considered the pad and then glanced back at Vinnie and Daniel. "Dan, put your hand on this," he said.

  Daniel was in no position to argue and, with Vinnie's help, did as requested. The air rush on the other side of the door was very obvious and moments later, the door opened. "Didn't know it could do that," Daniel rasped.

  "Yeah, well now you know. Let's go," Kyle said and led the way.

  The door to the scanner room was open, telling Kyle that the pad outside was connected to it somehow. Vinnie dragged Daniel inside and Kyle followed to help him get the kid up on the scanner bed. "You just lie still and let the machine do the work," Vinnie said, then took a step back.

  "Don't," Daniel pressed out, grabbing out for him with his left hand. He had to stop short of the big guy's arm, though. The movement was obviously painful.

  Kyle grabbed his wrist, stopping any further movement. "Easy, slugger," he said with a smile he didn't really feel. "We'll be right outside, okay?"

  Daniel reluctantly allowed Kyle to shift his injured arm back onto the scanner bed. "Don't go," he nearly whispered.

  A little awkwardly, Kyle patted his shoulder. "We'll be right outside," he promised. "Let's get out of here and let this thing do what it needs to do," he added to Vinnie, gave Daniel a reassuring look and ushered Vinnie outside.

  The door slid shut behind them, sealing Daniel in. A second later, the machine went to work on him. Kyle watched for a few seconds, making sure that the machine didn't aggravate the kid's injuries, before turning his attention to an increasingly angry Vinnie.

  "Tell me what happened," he said.

  "Like I said, we were looking through the pile and got separated. Once Dan was on the other side, they jumped him, beat him up. He was trying to fight back, but those two fight dirty," Vinnie said, his tone strained with anger. "I jumped them, punched one of them in the face hard enough for it to matter, but he didn't go down. They took off, but vowed to get Daniel. I can't let that happen. What they'll do to him if they get him alone ... I can't even stomach the thought."

  "Look, big guy, I know you wanna look out for the kid and that's great. But they're two and you're one. Going after them alone is not a good idea," Kyle tried, well aware where Vinnie was heading with that anger.

  Vinnie merely glared through the glass wall separating them from Daniel. "I promised him I'd look out for him. And look what happened," he snarled, then turned and strode away.

  "Vinnie?" Kyle called, hoping to stop him. "Shit," he hissed and glanced in at Daniel. The kid mouthed three words. Go after him. Kyle nodded, raised a hand goodbye and jogged afte
r Vinnie. But once he got out of the 'mall', there was no sign of the big guy. He assumed that the moron twins wouldn't have headed back to the scrap pile, but he knew nothing about their routine or how they thought. "Son of a bitch," he muttered and briefly considered what to do.

  Despite their previously less than helpful attitude, he figured he needed to talk to Jack and Andy, so he steered his steps back to the rooms they occupied and found them both there together with Bark and Billy. He briefly reflected on the fact that Stan was nowhere around, then focused on Jack. "If someone were to go after the moron twins, where would they go?"

  Jack arched an eyebrow. "Are you telling me the moron twins did that to Daniel?" he asked back.

  "Who else?" Kyle snapped. "Answer the fucking question, Jack!" His temper flared instantly and it bothered him on some level that he wasn't in control right now.

  The older man's expression tensed a little. "From what I know, they hang out near the scrapheap," he said, his tone laced with dissatisfaction at being talked to like that.

  "Thank you," Kyle pressed out and hurried in that direction, ignoring the questions that followed him. He didn't have time to deal with them right now.

  He barely made it back to the scrapheap - after taking two wrong turns and cursing his at times poor sense of direction - before he heard the first sounds of a fight. Rounding the last corner, he skittered to a stop. One of the moron twins - he didn't know which one and didn't care either - was on the ground in a puddle of his own blood, while Vinnie was having an honest-to-god fistfight with the remaining twin. It was like watching two rhinos fight over territory and Kyle was rooted to the spot for a moment, watching in morbid fascination until the remaining twin got in a good blow and knocked Vinnie off his feet. Kyle circumvented the downed twin and grabbed a pipe from the outskirts of the scrapheap before turning back to face the fight. Only then did he realize that something had gone terribly wrong. The remaining twin stood over Vinnie and the big guy's head was lying at an odd angle. "What the fuck?" he muttered. It felt like he was suddenly in a vacuum where sound didn't carry.

  The remaining twin stood there and stared at him. "You want some too?" he snarled.

  Kyle eyed him and weighed his chances of getting away with attacking him, then figured that this guy needed to be put in his place. He was big and could do real damage unless Kyle used all his talents and kept his wits about him. "Show me what you've got, big boy," he countered and took up a fighting stance he had learned years ago when his father had insisted he learn martial arts.

  "I'm going to fucking pulverize you. And once I'm done pounding you, I'm gonna pound you," the remaining twin leered.

  Kyle arched an eyebrow. "You and what army?" he taunted.

  They circled each other while Kyle tried his damnedest to stop thinking about what had just happened to Vinnie. Instead he kept in mind what this bastard wanted to do to Daniel - and obviously to him as well - and that kept his adrenaline flowing and allowed him to ignore the potential danger in this situation.

  "You're a nimble little thing, aren't you?" the twin leered. "I bet you're a virgin."

  "When it comes to having my ass torn apart by a big dumb dick like you, yeah," Kyle agreed and gave the guy an easy but cold smile. "Not that you'll ever get the chance," he added and swung the piece of pipe threateningly.

  "You think that little piece of scrap metal is gonna have any effect on me?" the twin demanded, but his eyes betrayed him. He was getting slightly nervous now. Kyle had found that bravado and indifference always pushed guys like this off balance. Of course, back on Earth - being who he was - all he had to do was call for help and the cops would have been there to protect him. In this situation, he was on his own, but he couldn't allow himself to think that way right now.

  "I think if I shove this into your eye socket and drive it home, yeah, it'll have the desired impact. Although you may respond like a chicken with its head cut off and run around for a bit before you realize you're actually dead," Kyle kept taunting him, keeping his tone jovial. He could deal with the ramifications of Vinnie's demise later. Right now, he needed to bring this gorilla down; the sooner the better.

  The twin eyed him and sneered. "You ain't nothing to me," he spat.

  "You are," Kyle corrected him with a smirk. "Dumb and illiterate. That's what I have to work with?" He sighed dramatically. "Assholes like you ... you should have been spaced when you crawled out of your mother."

  "Don't you say nothing about my ma!" the twin hollered and hurtled forward.

  Kyle had expected this reaction and was quick to avoid the seemingly unavoidable confrontation. The martial arts lessons from his teenage years turned out to be money and time well spent. He didn't get so much as a graze when the twin hurtled past him, too bulky to stop in time, and at the same time Kyle brought up the pipe in a tight arc and jammed it into the other man's eye, as promised.

  He slipped out of his fighting stance and turned to watch the giant brute thoughtfully.

  The twin turned his head, still functioning, but now without even the limited cognitive abilities he'd had before. His right hand came up and clawed ineffectively at the piece of metal sticking out of his eye socket. His mouth worked as if he was trying to speak but couldn't quite find the words. Lumbering like the brain-dead troll he now was, he turned halfway toward Kyle, his remaining eye rolling around in its socket as if he was trying to follow the path of a fly. Then he roared inarticulately and took a wavering step toward Kyle before losing his balance and slamming face-first into the floor. The impact drove the pipe all the way through the back of his skull, spattering the surrounding area with blood and gore. The massive body twitched once and then lay still.

  Kyle stood there for a moment and stared at the downed hulk before letting out a slow breath. "That could have ended badly," he muttered to himself, then shifted his gaze to Vinnie. With a sad shake of the head, he stepped over his downed opponent and hunkered down next to his friend. "Man ... why couldn't you just have waited?" he asked quietly. "It's a damn shame, big guy, a damn shame."

  "Holy crap."

  That exclamation came from Jack who had followed him here and had stood on the sidelines watching the fight. Andy stood a little behind him to the left and Bark was there too. And all three of them stared at him as if he had just performed a miracle.

  "You killed them," Jack said, his voice a tad hoarse.

  "Only one of them. Vinnie had taken out the other one before I got here," Kyle said and rose again. "Thanks for the help, guys," he added sarcastically. "It's nice to know that there's backup if I need it."

  "Backup?" Jack kept staring at the twin with the pipe sticking out of his skull. "You don't need backup when you can do that."

  Kyle snorted. "Anybody can do that when you're up against an opponent as stupid as this one," he said and stepped closer to the three other men. "See, there's something I don't get about this whole thing. A good man has just died because you guys were too chicken-shit to stand up to these two. Two!" he continued and held up two fingers. "You see how easy it was to take this bastard out?" All three of them nodded mutely. "You assholes could have spared both Daniel and Billy a lot of agony and hardship if you'd put your foot down and done something about these two before. And now, thanks to you, Vinnie's dead. He didn't deserve that."

  They looked like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar. "Guys like that always have the upper hand," Jack tried.

  Kyle arched an eyebrow. "Do they? All it took was one angry guy to take one of them down. Unfortunately, the other one got the drop on Vinnie. This wouldn't have happened if we'd all been here, if we'd all stood up to them. I know guys like these. They're only dangerous if you allow them to be." He made a sweeping gesture toward the bodies. "You empowered them. You let them do this. By proxy, you're just as guilty as the twins. I hope you're proud of yourselves."

  Disgusted both with them and the blood staining his hands and clothes, Kyle pushed right through
them, shoving Andy out of the way when the other man wouldn't move on his own. Without looking back, he stalked back to the room he had claimed for himself to get a change of clothes before heading to the shower. He was still hopped up on adrenaline and the anger that surged through him was dangerous. He needed to calm down before he hurt someone else.

  ***

  By the time he returned to the 'mall' an hour later, the door was still open. He stepped inside and hurried toward the scanner at the other end, not really sure how Daniel would take the news of Vinnie's demise. But it had to matter that his tormentors were both dead.

  He had almost reached the scanner when he noted movement from the corner of one eye. Annoyed, he stopped short and squinted into the gloom of the storage room. This place wasn't all that well lit and anyone could be hiding in the shadows. "Who's there?" he asked tightly.

  "Don't shoot. It's only me," came a voice from the shadows. He recognized Billy, by the nervous jitter of every word.

  "Why the hell are you hiding in here?" Kyle demanded. "And why the hell would I shoot you? And with what?"

  Billy tittered nervously and slithered out of the shadows. "Didn't want to get caught," he admitted.

  "By whom?" Kyle wasn't really in the mood for this guessing game and couldn't keep the edge out of his voice.

  Billy's otherwise borderline amused attitude dwindled while he ducked his head. "Sorry. Didn't mean to bother you," he muttered and started pulling away.

  "Stop," Kyle snapped and Billy stopped moving instantly. He hadn't really had a chance to talk much to Billy. In his opinion, the kid was a crack-head and had the side effects to prove it. He didn't give much for people who couldn't handle their addictions, but had to admit that some lives had to be tough to handle without something to dull the pain. He drew a deep breath to calm himself down a little and lent his voice an easy tone. "Let's try this again, okay? Why are you hiding in here?"