“That was quick.” Marcus said with some scepticism, completely avoiding the discomfort the others so clearly felt.
It took me a moment to realise what he was referring to, “Oh, the fight? Yeah, wasn’t that difficult once I knew how to hit him.”
“Really?” He said with both words and his raised eyebrow, “Because if I recall correctly, and I do, the last time you got into a one-on-one match with him you had to drop a building on him with a half a cubic shit-ton of C4, and even that didn’t stop him.”
I shrugged, “Guess I got lucky.”
Even the still semi-whacked-out Harry saw through my bullcrap, but no one was willing to press me and that’s all I cared about.
They’d know what happened soon enough.
“Hey John…” Harry said but seemed to immediately regret after.
“Yeah?” I asked as calmly and fuzzily as I could. I’m pretty sure I grimaced though.
He struggled for a moment but then said in almost one word, “Why aren’t we heading straight to the airport?”
“I need a break.” I said less fuzzily.
“But-”
“No Harry!” I growled and the tension started to peak in the increasingly claustrophobic space, “I… I’m sorry. I just…” I feigned an exhausted expression, “It really took it out of me. The stuff with… the guys… And the fight, I just need some time to go braindead.”
And boom goes the dynamite.
They bought it and I’m not too proud to say that I did a little academy award ceremony in my head for my performance.
The rest of the half-hour ride was dead quiet, Clara and Harry drifted off to sleep, Wolf and Kate were silent, and Mark and I enjoyed the sereneness of the moment. The stars had come out from behind the passing cloud and the sky was painted in a beautifully enchanting dark blue.
I’d missed those nights, the brief moments between my walk from work and draining whoever had made the mistake of being in my way, usually some misguided and very drunk soul trying to get his rocks off with some hapless girl. But there was always that one moment where I could look up into the night air and feel like I had an ally. You know, as opposed to that jack-arse Mr Sunshine who had a habit of making me breakout into blisters.
The final stretch of motorway that led to the house was just as barren as the first time I’d driven through. I guess I hadn’t really thought about it much, but the fact that almost everyone who was going to get turned had had it happen in the first hour had meant that barely anyone had gotten out of the areas which had been crop-dusted.
Hearing Neysor’s side of the story was a good thing too, knowing that a lot of what had happened was simply an accident, an incredibly efficient and disastrous accident mind you, had made me a bit more open to the idea of the invasion.
Sorry, ‘re-appropriation’.
Did hurt to discover that I was one of the sole reasons the human-race hadn’t already been cured because of me trying to save bitch-face.
Mr bitch-face pulled into the driveway and parked us in the undercover area where the van used to sit. While the two in the front stepped out and the others sleepily stumbled out the back. I grabbed the duffel, rubbing my hands all over it, trying to wipe off whatever the clear liquid was on them off.
“Want me to take that?” Mark asked as I dropped it onto the shifting gravel ground.
I shook my head and looked over to the half-staring Wolf, “Let him carry it for once.” I said, tossing it to him angrily, “They are getting the master bedroom. You know, cause they’re the happy couple and all.” I snarled condescendingly.
And that was it, everyone was done.
No one said a word as we broke into the house, Kate and Wolf disappearing up the stairs the second they could. Harry and Clara fell asleep again in their adorable way on the white shag rug in the middle of the lounge-room while Mark had taken to the couch.
Me? I slept on the cold kitchen lino without bothering to find a new shirt, I wanted to feel cold, I wanted to feel guilt or sadness or... something, anything that wasn’t just pure and utter impatience.
By the Sea
After twenty full minutes of tossing and turning I gave up on sleep and decided to go for a walk.
The tan gravel shifted underneath my bare feet as I walked around to the pool area to look over the crashing ocean. Loud, powerful and absolutely gorgeous, but she was just as deceptive as she was beautiful.
Metaphor? What metaphor? Shut up.
I couldn’t have hoped to be anywhere else that night, even with the knowledge of what was on its way.
I breathed in the sea air deeply while I enjoyed some time bathing in the pale moonlight. I knew how hard it was going to be to pull off, the worst part though was all the secrecy within my group.
Not just the stuff I wasn’t sharing, but everything with the others as well, like how did Mark and Harry know each other? How did they meet? When did they meet?
But all that stuff passed over me like the waves that crashed into the cliff-face, and much like the waves I knew it had to all come down eventually.
I didn’t care though, as far as I was concerned I’d won. It was a petty and childish victory, but one nonetheless.
I was the best liar of them all.
“John? What are you doing out here?” Wolf called out as he crossed over to me from the back door.
I felt a bit bad about him, after all he was just a man in love, but if I didn’t do as I promised it meant trouble for the rest of us, trouble that I couldn’t afford. “Just enjoying the night air, first place I’ve felt safe to do so that wasn’t on top of a sky-scraper. Why don’t you come over?” I asked genuinely without facing him.
He rustled some of the gravel around with his bare feet as he did, “You doing alright John? You’ve been a bit… distant since you got back. Are you sure everything’s sorted with Neysor?”
I nodded, “Sure as I can be.” I said trailing off my last few words as I realised I should probably say something to him, some kind of words that would make him feel more comfortable, “I think you should know. I turned you.”
Those were not comfort words for anyone, least of all Wolf, “What!?”
“I… I turned you. I felt like you should know that. I saw something in you and I still do. You’re a good man.”
He didn’t know what to say, fairly so. I couldn’t imagine what was going through his mind, but all he uttered was, “Alright then.” Before turning his attention to the night sky.
For a long time we just stood there, admiring the stars in silence. And then we returned to the house, neither of us saying a thing as he disappeared up the stairs and I returned to my lino floor.
Wouldn’t be long now.
I actually managed to get some sleep, a solid hour or two, but then I heard Marcus talking to Harry.
“I’m just going to check on them, make sure they’re alright.” He whispered, undoubtedly thinking both myself and Clara were still fast asleep.
“Just leave ‘em alone!” Harry hissed back, “It’s quarter to ten and I sincerely doubt they require support!”
“Keep your voice down! Go back to sleep, I’ll be back in a minute.”
‘Wait… did he say quarter to ten?’ I was in a shit position now, reveal the plan prematurely or pretend to keep sleeping and risk losing Mark, who was bounding his way up the stairs.
My internal struggle was interrupted when I heard a crashing sound and shouting.
It was time.
I shot like a bullet from a gun, but not for the source of the screaming, no, I was blocking the way to the stairs, clearing the path as it were.
I burst into the room where Harry and Clara had just gotten up, “What’s going on?” I asked, distracting with faux-idiocy instead of suspiciously forcing them away.
“It’s coming from upstairs!” Harry shouted as he pushed past me and I bit my lip in frustration, hopefully the creatures were as efficient as they were terrifying.
I got out to the sta
irwell and saw that they were.
The black creatures were dragging the struggling and screaming bodies of the people I once called friends down while Harry stood bolt-upright in horror at the foot of the stairs. I just managed to push him out of the way in time to make it look like I was saving him, not unblocking the line.
“Stay back Clara!” I shouted as Harry laid unconscious, having hit his head at some point during the fall.
Turns out she didn’t need to be told, she was frozen in place and absolutely petrified.
Something about these things struck terror deep into human souls and refused to relent.
That was fine with me though.
I swear Wolf stared at me as he got dragged past, like he knew, but the guilt that was building in me vanished as Kate got dragged out through the door kicking and screaming.
Then I saw the stragglers as I rose to my feet, one with the wafting bag and three dragging a resisting Mark, “Let go of me ye feckin’ shits!” He barked between steps.
Save him and reveal that I knew it was going to happen, let him go and lose one of my few friends.
That choice was easier.
I waited until the exact moment that the creatures that had his hands were out the door before slamming it shut and punting the black fuzz-ball that was being dragged along by Marcus’ legs.
After that things got kind of swimmy.
I remember turning around and there being a lot of blood.
And Marcus was screaming.
The Missing Chapter
Neysor and I had taken to sitting cross legged on the cold floor. I’d given him my shirt so he could use it as a loin-cloth, primitive-ising him in a way while he tried his best to explain science that I’m sure even Mark would’ve barely been able to keep up with.
“So… You’re telling me you need me because of..?”
“Your DNA. My lead scientist has found a way to fix what you destroyed.”
“Hey! That’s not fair! You’re the twat-waffle that decided to gas an entire planet before testing the stuff!”
Neysor glared into my soul, clearly he wasn’t happy with being called a twat-waffle, “We didn’t gas the entire planet, only… most of it.” He said abashedly. Hope flushed through me despite his reticence, was there a safe haven?
“Where didn’t you gas?” I asked almost cheerfully.
“A small country, very fertile in the terms of… live-stock,” ‘humans then’ I figured, “have you ever heard of Wales?”
No safe haven then, “Wales? Wales!? Why in the sweet bumbledee-fuck did you spare Wales!?”
“What’s wrong with Wales?”
“What’s wrong with Wales!?”
I’m going to skip ahead by about two minutes.
“And that’s what’s wrong with Wales.” I said confidently, a look of almost horror painted on Neysor’s pale face.
“So these… Chavs you speak of-”
“Don’t get me started.”
I think I’d permanently scarred Neysor at that point, and he was more than eager to get back to the primary reason for our discussion, “Alright. Well, yes. We need your DNA, with it we’ll be able to not only save your pitif- plentiful race, but also ours.”
I felt like he was hiding something, and I really don’t like it when people hold back when talking about harvesting my DNA… It happens more often than you’d think, “But..?”
He bit his lip and sucked in for a moment before responding, “But… you won’t survive. We’ll need to harvest almost everything possible or else it won’t work.”
Silence hung in the air like a dead cat on a powerline, both of us too fearful to prod at it lest we join the thing.
Uncomfortable silences aren’t my thing though, “So you want me to go under your friend Lai’s knife on the off-chance that it may save a race that spent the majority of its time chasing me with cloves of garlic and fire? Yeah, no, I’m good.” I said as I stood.
Neysor followed me, his loin-cloth almost coming loose in the process, “You don’t understand. Yes, you will die, but with your life we will be able to save the entire male population of your world and mine, granted there’s only a few of us lef-”
I raised my hand to silence him, an evil plot working its way through my brain smothering the feelings of hurt and betrayal, “Stop me if I’m wrong, but you’re saying that with me you can save the blokes, yeah? And if you had-”
He nodded, “Yes, and if we had a female specimen we’d be able to save both, what’s your point?”
The smile that broke out on my face may have been a bit on the sinister side, “What if I told you I could get you a male and female specimen of my… our species? Get them in one place without any back-up and ensure that no one would go looking for them?”
Neysor reflected my smile. Things had really taken on a cartoon villain vibe, “Then I’d stop my pursuit of you, let you and your group be.”
I put my arm out for a handshake, “You get me a map, I’ll get you your specimens.”
END OF BOOK TWO
The Mulligan Planet 2 (The Mulligan Planet Trilogy) Page 19