by Ian Woodhead
Desmond had asked whether any of his pals had families and wouldn’t any of them want to go back to be reunited. His new pal didn’t understand the question. He then thought of his mum who ignored Desmond. His siblings and cousins who used to beat on him. Desmond then remembered his own dad telling his young son that he was a mistake, and if he had his way, he would have drowned the little fucker in the hospital toilets before they even had chance to come back home.
“Apart from three technicians who will be monitoring and perhaps attempting to repair some of the systems damaged in the explosion, the rest of the crew will be on this level of the vermin-built hive.”
“It’s called a shopping mall.” Desmond almost called his new pal a feathered fuckwit but managed to bite his tongue. He was sure Zinik-Tow wouldn’t understand the reference, but he’d certainly understand the implication. “So, this is your timeship?” he murmured, so wanting to run his fingers down the smooth contours of its shell. His new pal had brought him up to the second floor in the large department store. They’d walked straight past three other feathered fuckwits and four humans. It made Desmond’s day when the humans, despite their predicament, shrank back as he and Zinik-Tow marched past them. His new pal had used that gizmo on Desmond, so he now looked just like a feathered fuckwit as well.
Desmond had wondered what was going to happen to the four humans and why the feathered fuckwits had made them all stand on the roof of that car. In the end, he realised that he didn’t really care. One of the men was Mr. Dillon. He was the manager of the Happy Mex, a taco-themed restaurant next to the mall cinema. He once threatened this poor janitor to throw him out of the window if he ever caught Desmond rifling through the bins behind the shop.
Their timeship was nestled between the store’s cafe and the cookshop. Right beside Desmond’s hand was half a kettle and a quarter of a sandwich maker. Their ship had sliced a large crescent through the entire shelf. Zinik-Tow had explained to Desmond about what had happened to the rest of the stuff now occupied by their fancy time machine, but Desmond’s brain went for a hike when the feathered fuckwit came out with words like displacement physics and quantum compression.
“Are you sure it’s safe to go in? I mean, there won’t be any cameras or some kind of laser guns embedded into the walls?”
Zinik-Tow didn’t even bother to reply. He slid his claws into five recessed holes in the oval doorway. He then uttered a combination of growls and hisses. Desmond guessed that he was hearing how they spoke to each other. Unreal. To him, it sounded like sausages sizzling in a frying pan. A thick grey membrane split in two and rolled back, revealing a dark interior. His new pal then fastened his claws over Desmond’s arm and dragged him inside the ship.
His new pal took his claws off Desmond once the membrane had rolled back. It took a great deal of effort to stop him from spinning around and sinking his nails into that grey stuff that looked like skin. He wanted to rip his way out of here and into proper sanitised white light instead of all this dirty-green glow, which seeped out from the numerous slits in the curved wall.
“I don’t want to be in here.” Desmond stopped beside a transparent panel, which moved. It looked like it was breathing. “Oh fuck, I’m in hell.” He would have tried to escape if his new pal hadn’t reached out and grabbed him again.
“Come. We must hurry. The power for my image resonator will not sustain the increased outage for a finite period.”
Desmond groaned aloud and did as he was told. He could do that. He’d been following orders, which he hated, for most of his life. He passed more breathing panels, organic tubes, bright blue cubes made from what looked like crystal, and dozens more membrane doors. As they moved in a straight line, it dawned of Desmond that they should have run out of weird, disturbing corridors ages ago. How was that even possible? By now, they should be out of the mall and in the middle of the city centre.
He kept quiet about this, but Desmond couldn’t stop himself from asking one question that his new pal had repeatedly refused to answer ever since leaving the chamber. “Are you going to tell me now what we’re supposed to be doing in here?” He thought the feathered fuckwit was going to ignore him again until he stopped and turned to face Desmond.
“Desmond. It has been my observation that even for a hairless vermin, your mental facility is not that advanced. Would you not just prefer to obey my commands without me having explain myself?”
He shook his head. “Please?” Desmond jumped away from one of the blue crystal cubes when it began to oscillate.
“It is very simple. Back home, we use pacifiers to ensure the herds do not deviate from their trails. It is a perfectly acceptable method to control the lower lifeforms.” Zinik-Tow performed a very passable version of a human grin. “It does not surprise me that something we use on brainless sauropods works just as well on you hairless vermin.”
“Okay, so we’re a lower lifeform. I get that. You still haven’t told me anything.” That blue cube had now returned to its previous state. “Why are we here, Zinik-Tow?”
“I am constantly surprised at how your species was able to climb down from the tree without assistance. Desmond. I turn off the field. The hairless vermin do what all herds do in this situation. They panic and stampede. Giving us the diversion in order to leave this hive.”
A thin line appeared down the middle of the breathing panel behind the blue cube. The panel split and rolled back, revealing another chamber. Bright blue light spilled out and showed Desmond the first truly beautiful sight he’d seen since entering this hellish place. “Oh God! That’s the hot chick from the nail bar. What’s she doing in here?” He ran through the opening into the next room. Desmond moved past the two men, both fastened to long slabs with ropes of black shiny material. He stopped by Sandy and dug his fingers into the stuff tying the woman to the bed and tried to pull it away.
“Don’t just stand there, help me get this off her.”
“Why?”
“Because, I want her. That’s why. You said I would be impregnating females. Well, I want to start with this one.” He screamed out in rage and hurt when he broke one of his nails in the black stuff. “Come on, help me here!”
“You are in no position to make any demands. By rights, you are my slave. Slaves should only obey without asking questions, without needing to understand, and without making demands.” He turned around. “Now come along, slave, or do I have to leave you here and find myself another one? As I do not think you are the only individual who wishes to live.”
“Oh for crying out loud, you feathered fuckwit. Just seeing it as doing me a favour. As for finding another one like me, good luck with that. See, most of these people around here have something which I don’t possess, they’re called principles, integrity, and empathy. They’ll see you and want to murder you. It’s that’s simple. They’ll do everything in their power to make sure you and your kind are exterminated.”
Zinik-Tow approached Desmond, and for the first time, he saw the size of those talons on the creature’s hands. It didn’t take much imagination to see how much damage they could do to Desmond’s soft flesh if this feathered fuckwit decided he wasn’t needed anymore. He wrapped his fingers tighter around the stuff holding her to the slab and tried not to shiver in fright as the creature leaned over his shoulder.
“Tell me again why you want me to unshackle this particular female.”
He jerked his head away from the creature’s hot breath, totally thrown by this turn of events. Was he playing with Desmond? He was painfully aware of just how close those talons were to his balls. Was Zinik-Tow going to castrate him as soon as he repeated his intentions as a punishment? Oh God, this situation was almost unbearable. He was so close to hanging his head in shame and apologising when the tips of his fingers found Sandy’s soft, warm skin and the thought of making love to this beautiful woman from now until the end of time drown out every other thought. It even stamped on Desmond’s well-tuned instinct for self-preservation.
&n
bsp; “I want this woman to be my mate, Zinik-Tow. I want to do things to her that would make a porn star blush. I want to—”
“Enough. You have said enough.” The creature pushed a claw into a hole in the slab underneath Sandy’s head. “I believe that we both have understood your intentions.”
He watched the black cord-like material untangle and retreat into the edge of the grey slab. The girl’s eyes flickered. Desmond sighed inwardly. He had never seen a more sightly woman. He felt like a prince awakening sleeping beauty. There were going to live happy ever after as well. Desmond wanted to turn around and thank Zinik-Tow for making his dream come true, but he dare not take his eyes from her. He couldn’t wait for her to thank him for saving her life.
Sandy snapped open her eyes. She must have seen the creature standing behind Desmond and assumed he was one of her captors. She let out a quiet sob before cringing back from Desmond’s hand.
“Keep away from me, you vile thing!”
Desmond blinked, momentarily confused. Was she talking to him?
“You fucking dirty old bastard!” she snapped. The woman jumped off the other side of the slab and ran into the corner of the room. “I wouldn’t be your mate if my life depended on it.”
“You don’t understand, you stupid bitch!” he shouted. “Your life does depend on it.” Desmond turned and glared at Zinik-Tow. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought she was going to be like all those bubble-headed idiots out there!”
“The field in nullified in here. I thought that would be obvious.” The creature then wrapped those claws around Desmond’s throat. “You are but a herd animal. You are livestock, nothing more. Do not forget your place again or the consequences will be unfortunate.” He picked him up and carried Desmond out of the room. He dropped him on the floor and sealed the door. “You can find your way to the chamber on your own, Desmond. If you are lucky, it is quite possible you will get there without anything eating you. Farewell.” He turned around and stormed down the corridor and disappeared through another membrane.
Desmond to his feet and raced after him, only to discover the membrane wouldn’t fold back. “Wait, come back! Don’t leave me in here. I don’t know the way back.” His calls went unanswered. Desmond walked back to that blue cube, now noticing that he could see into the other room. The girl saw him staring and gave Desmond the finger before she buried her head back in her arms.
“Yeah well, fuck you too,” he snarled before shuffling off in what he hoped was the right way to get out of this hellish place.
Chapter Nine
That old woman wearing an oversized brown coat had just spat at him. Her reaction took Steven White totally by surprise. He picked up the animal cruelty booklet which she had dropped in the gutter and folded it in half, idly wiping off some of the wet black slime that had just leaked out one of the seeping blisters on his index finger.
Maybe he should get over to the train station. It’ll be rush hour soon. There’ll be plenty of customers disembarking from the packed trains. Some of them are bound to take his remaining booklets. He really did want to go home and crawl into bed. Since meeting up with that very nice Mr. Smith inside the mall, he hadn’t been feeling that great. Steven had noticed how moist he was getting under these clothes as well. As if his skin was slipping around his muscles. It sure was a weird feeling.
Still, he had a promise to keep and that’s exactly what he was going to do. Steven White never backed out on a promise, that’s for sure. Besides, it wouldn’t take him that long to hand out the last of his booklets. Just another few more minutes, and he’d be able to go home and have a soak in a nice warm bath before crawling into bed.
Steven bent over to scratch a particularly itchy spot under his socks, a little confused to find two more of his fingernails must have dropped off. No matter, he rolled up the booklet, pulled the sock down, and used the edge of the card instead.
He sighed loudly as the card scraped the jelly-like flesh away from his bone. Steven didn’t realise that his body was slowly dissolving, nor did he care. All that mattered was to deliver every single booklet and to touch as many people as possible. It’s what Mr. Smith had ordered him to do.
His girl, Lisa, would have a right fit if she saw the state of his socks. He had no idea how he’d managed to get all this weird goo all over them, but he knew she wouldn’t be happy if she saw them. Maybe Steven could take them off before he got home and drop them in the bin outside. She’d be none the wiser. He certainly did feel funny.
It took him a few seconds to realise what he was supposed to be doing. It wasn’t until he heard one of the trains pulling into the station, on the other side of the square, when he remembered. Steven grinned, spitting out three of his front teeth. That’s right, it was the rush hour. There were soon going to be hundreds of people about to brush past him.
It wasn’t just the prospect of all those people which gave him cause for happiness, oh no. He had made over three hundred pounds today as well. Gavin at the Animal Care Foundation was going to be over the moon with the amount of cash he was going to hand over. Oh, Gavin wasn’t going to get all of it, no chance. Steven intended to put away a hundred so he could buy himself a decent phone. Why not? It’s about time he bought something for himself for a change. Gavin wouldn’t mind, basically because he wasn’t going to tell him.
Who said being nosy didn’t pay dividends? Oh, that’s right, his girl said those exact words to him only this morning. That’s cool. It just meant she wouldn’t have half of the pizza he would be ordering once Steven climbed out of the bath. He took a couple of steps forward and stopped beside a low wall. It was no good, he would have to take a breather. He sat on the wall and looked back the way he came, watching a man over the road on his knees. It looked like he was coughing up blood. Simon was sure that he gave a booklet to that guy a few minutes ago.
Thanks to Steven’s nosiness, the phone that he’d clocked this morning would be in his pocket this time tomorrow. Moe’s Mobile Shop had a huge selection in their window. He passed the place every day, and it made him so annoyed to think that he’d never have enough money to afford one. He should also thank that rude boy too, the one who worked in that discount shop. After all, it’s him who got Steven inside, even if he wasn’t aware of it.
He had already been around the back of the mall a few minutes after the shutters came down unexpectedly, and it did come as a bit of a surprise to find another set of shutters over the entrance to the furniture shop. He was sure they weren’t there the last time he was around here. That was a couple of weeks, though, so he just guessed he’d been blind.
Steven got the shock of his life when the rude boy just seemingly passed straight through the metal. He wasn’t shocked enough to leave it alone, no chance of that. He crossed the distance between the corner of the mall and those pretend shutters in less than a minute. He waited for two girls to pass him before he investigated these mysterious shutters.
He could see the rude boy on the other side of them making his way further into the interior of the shop. Steven couldn’t see anybody else in there. He counted to five before closing his eyes and walking forward, expecting his nose to smash into the metal. Apart from a fleeting feeling of finding himself wanting to go back to work and the need to make friends, Steven’s nose surprisingly stayed intact.
His recollection became a little hazy once he had wandered into the furniture shop. Steven did recall seeing a couple of people, dressed up as dinosaurs, running from one shop into another. It was just a shame that there were no shoppers about to see the costumes; the detailing was fantastic. He guessed they must have either been in the eatery or in the restaurants on the next level. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. Had he blacked out or something? He did remember having to sit on the side of a bed. There was a guy in front of him, only it wasn’t a guy. Maybe it was another one of those festival people, only this one was dressed like some big yellow bird. Did this bird do something to him? Steven frowned, rememberi
ng some fragment of this bird pushing a needle into his left arm. No, that couldn’t have happened. The whole idea was just too ridiculous for words. He must have dozed off for a second. That bed was very comfy.
That nice Mr. Smith got Steven back on his feet again. Such a pleasant chap. His dress style was a little outlandish, though. He wasn’t sure why Smith thought looking like some nineteenth century gentleman, complete with top hat and cane, was a proper way to dress. Then again, who was he to criticise, considering his dreadlocks came halfway down the tattered US army coat that never came off his back? His girl had even threatened to burn the bloody thing on more than one occasion. Still, it was a little weird how the nice Mr. Smith looked exactly like the poster on the wall, coming down the stairs from the upper level.
Obviously, Smith had come from the horse races. It would explain the outfit and why he handed over so much money to a complete stranger.
As for the insistence of Steven to hand out every one of his booklets while making sure he touched every person, well, the guy was on a guilt trip, it stood to reason.
Steven eased himself off the wall, shedding some more of his liquefying flesh. There were a few more people across the square on their knees now. He shrugged to himself. There must be something going around. He wasn’t exactly feeling that great himself. The tip of his index finger snapped off when Steven scratched the top of his head.