Prototype: The Lost and Forgotten Series

by Robert Gallagher

  The others nod in agreement, and we head farther into the room, back toward the ventilation duct that we used earlier. The upcoming descent troubles my mind, as I realize that Frank is going to have problems. As we start to climb up the container boxes, I slow down and hang back while Abs and the others make their way up higher.

  “Hey, Frank, you know that the ladder down to the engineering room is going to be hard for you?” I ask with concern.

  “Yeah, I heard what you told us about it earlier, so don’t sweat it. I’ll be fine,” Frank says with acceptance, looking up at the vent. Neil, overhearing our conversation, waits at the entrance to the shaft.

  We start to climb again but only a level higher, and Frank slips, cussing as he struggles for balance. The sound of the freakers sends him into a panic. Neil leans out of the vent and says, “Sam, Abs is calling for you. Don’t worry, I’ll help Frank.”

  Neil climbs down a level and reaches out a hand to Frank. “Sam, it’s okay. You go ahead,” Frank says, grabbing Neil’s hand.

  “Okay then,” I reply and head up the boxes, looking back once to see Neil help Frank up a level, and I head into the vent.

  Neil helps Frank up another level. Then, looking up at hearing the sound of the freakers getting louder, he decides to do what he had in mind when he saw Frank struggle up the boxes. He withdraws his hand and climbs up the remaining boxes and enters the vent before turning around and facing Frank. From his vantage point, he can now clearly see the onrushing freakers.

  “Neil, what the hell are you doing? I can’t get up there without your help,” Frank shouts up, looking concerned, and then looking back down at the freakers.

  “Sorry, Frank. You’re a nice guy, but it’s either I do this, or the freakers kill us all.” Neil lifts up one of the top-level heavy boxes and throws it down at Frank. It lands short but then tumbles down the steep slope, hitting Frank’s legs and causing him to lose his footing. He tumbles down the side of the boxes to the ground.

  Some of the other boxes crash down after Frank, causing a box landslide as several of them land painfully on him. Neil watches as several freakers swarm down upon Frank’s prone body. Unable to watch any longer, Neil turns away in shame.

  I arrive in engineering just as Abs moves another table into position. “What did you need?” I ask as I approach.

  “Pardon?” Abs replies, looking confused.

  “Neil said you were asking for me,” I reply, starting to feel a sick feeling rise in my stomach.

  “Not me. I thought you were helping Frank. Where is Frank?” Abs replies.

  “I left him with Neil. Neil said you asked for me. Fuck, I can’t believe I fell for that. I need to get back up there.”

  “You can’t, Sam. It’s too late for Frank. I’m sorry, but we need to look after ourselves, and you need to try and get the system to scan the room or something,” Abs replies as she looks toward the vent.

  The sudden clanging noise and the appearance of a pipe clattering to the ground just inside the ventilation shaft draw our attention, shortly followed by Neil, who is now bleeding from a nasty-looking head wound.

  “I’m sorry, guys. I tried to help Frank, but he slipped from my grasp, and then the freakers swarmed in, and I knew I could do nothing to save him,” Neil says as he crawls out of the vent into the room, the sound of pursuit echoing down the shaft.

  “Get going, both of you. Jake is waiting for your help in the main room,” Abs says again, motioning to the left doorway as she stabs the crude blade to the underside of the table in front of her.

  “Come on then, Neil, let’s get moving, but you and me are going to have a chat if we survive this.” Entering the other room, I quickly explain to Neil the main purpose of this section of the facility where the heavy lifting of the pods arriving and being dismantled happens.

  “Where’s Abs and Frank?” Jake asks, looking over my shoulder between the both of us.

  “Frank, sadly, did not make it, and Abs is doing what Abs does best,” I say, giving Neil the evil eye. Then I notice the remains of a pod being lifted from the room.

  “I think we need to stop that. At the very least, it should cause someone to be concerned about what’s happening down here,” I say, and I run up to the pod, which is now a few feet off of the floor, and jump onto the empty shell.

  Moments later Neil jumps onto the pod next to me, just as the chassis starts to climb into the air, the pod starting to swing as we start to climb slowly up within the inside.

  I find the climb gets harder the higher I get, and I consider throwing my spear for a second. Then, with no other choice, I begin to climb up the rest from the outside. After a few more moments, I take a poor choice of a grip and almost fall, but Neil grabs my arm at the last second, giving me enough time to grab onto an external part of the frame.

  Finally we manage to climb onto the top, and we’re now able to see where the lifting arm is attached to the top of the chassis via a grabbing claw. All Jake is able to do from the floor is stare up at us.

  Climbing onto the grab claw, I start to kick down upon the pod, trying to dislodge it. Neil follows suit, and we both continue to stamp down on the pod, but it quickly becomes apparent that it’s not having any effect at all and that it’s not going to work, even after I try to use the spear as leverage.

  Looking up at the arm’s progression, I realize that the pod is almost at the ejection port of the facility. A few more meters, and we will both be at the ejection port and then jettisoned into the black hole. Somehow this must also be how the pod was launched earlier for the escape attempt.

  We’re running out of time fast and becoming desperate. I notice the arm is slowing down for the alignment of the pod to its destination, and I try to start the arm swinging. Neil, unsure of what I have in mind, just hangs on and watches. “Try and swing it,” I say. “Try and make it bump into the ejection port.” Neil nods and joins in.

  The machinery seems to detect the arm’s alignment issue and starts to compensate, the port now only a few feet away, but it’s not swinging nearly enough. “More!” I shout, and we both shove hard, trying to swing it to the left or right of the port. The arm adjusts as it slows the pod for its remaining few feet. We try again, doing the best we can to swing the pod out of alignment, but the system keeps readjusting for the movement. Then, knowing that this too will not work, I become desperate and place my spear against one side of the pod, lining up the other side with a section of the approaching ejection port. The spear slides into a groove along a metal rail and starts to make a horrible scraping sound as the pod pushes the spear into the alignment bar until it suddenly jams, sending a joint into the pod, and with a bang, the chassis shudders to a stop.

  A light above starts to flash, and then a freaker comes running from the other room into this one, covered in blood and wielding a blood-stained knife gripped tightly within his grasp. Seeing Jake alone and unaware, he rushes toward him as the lights begin to blink and flash again.

  Frank lands badly as the freakers rush in, four heads coming directly toward him with gnashing teeth, whooping and laughing. As they descend upon him, Frank’s terrified expression evaporates. His fears vanish like distant, horrifying memories from a waking nightmare. As his eyes glaze over, a calm claims him, and his resolve to live reasserts itself. His remaining hand grabs the closest freaker’s wrist as he falls upon Frank.

  Somehow Frank manages to twist the blade around within the grasp of the freaker’s hand, and, unable to stop his momentum and prevent the inevitable, the freaker lands on his own blade, screaming obscenities as blood erupts from his mouth. The other three freakers then descend upon Frank, and two of them begin to stab him, Frank’s legs thrashing about trying to dislodge them as his third attacker concentrates on biting down on his cheek. Frank screams in pain and reacts by pulling the third freaker down closer using his free arm, allowing him to bite down on the freaker’s throat. Frank is rewarded with a painful squeal and a gush of blood as the freaker pulls a
way, spraying blood from his throat over Frank’s body. The remaining two freakers, continuing their deadly assault on Frank, are suddenly grabbed and pulled away from him. His exertion has already cost him dearly, and as his strength fails, he tries to see who his rescuer is, but he can see nothing other than a dark profile as he quickly loses consciousness.

  Abs watches Sam leave, but her attention snaps back to the ventilation shaft as the first of the howling freakers crawls out and, recognizing Abs, leers at her and waits for his fellow freakers to arrive. Watching the freakers slowly emerge, she slows her breathing. When three of the freakers have emerged, they wait no longer and charge at once, while others continue to crawl through. The three charging freakers leap at the same time onto the table, and at that very moment, Abs flips the table forward onto the side, causing all three to topple forward off balance.

  The middle freaker falls hard and bites through a segment of his tongue as his chin impacts the edge of the table. Abs, with her knife in hand, stabs it into the middle freaker’s head as she sidesteps and, yanking it free with a fluid motion, slashes the second freaker across his throat.

  The third recovers faster than expected and lunges at her with his own knife, slicing only air as Abs ducks under his lunge and counters with a slash across his stomach, opening him up and causing the freaker to stagger to his knees. Stepping around him with menace and determination, she places her left arm around his upper chest and drags him backward as her left knee is brought up into the small of his back, shortly followed by a crunching sound.

  Abs then pushes that freaker to the ground as two more freakers rush her. She’s slightly off step, and the first of the newcomers slashes and draws blood from her left upper arm. Abs reacts by thrusting the blade deep into the freaker’s forehead. Her own blade is now starting to cut into her hand due to the crude handle; her subdermal protection reduces the harm, but it is still painful enough to distract her as the second freaker rushes her, driving Abs to the ground and making her lose her grip on the blade.

  Smiling and laughing, the freaker licks her face. “I’m going to enjoy eating you,” he cackles. As he leans down to take a bite, Abs reaches up with both hands, takes a firm hold of the freaker’s head, and twists sharply to the left, resulting in an audible crack. She then pushes the freaker’s lifeless body off of her.

  She retrieves her blade as two more freakers emerge from the vent, both holding nasty-looking knives. They stare at Abs as she slowly stands. The floor now being covered in blood and other dead freakers makes this simple act difficult. Then from behind, a third freaker climbs out of the vent, this one much bigger and taller than the others. The leader of the freakers straightens up and grins, holding a crude, spiky club.

  “I was hoping I would see you again. You have something that belongs to a friend of mine, and I think it’s time I took it back,” the leader sneers as Abs removes her shoes and carefully takes a step backward among the blood and bodies. The two newly arrived freakers begin maneuvering to outflank her, in doing so opening a path for their leader, who hangs back waiting, understanding that his foe knows violence and respecting at least the danger before him. His subordinates, not so mindful of such things, will most surely rush to their deaths. At their chosen angle of attack, they are now pretty much facing each other with Abs in between. They rush in as they attack simultaneously.

  Abs waits for the last possible moment before taking another step backward and to her right, slashing at her closest attacker’s throat. The floor proves as treacherous as it looked and makes it impossible for him to stop. He slips and crashes into the pile of bodies, adding himself to the mess. Blood is already gushing from his wound as he attempts to press the flaps of his ruined flesh back in place and fails.

  The second freaker, already understanding his mistake, somehow manages to remain standing but is perilously unstable. Abs takes full advantage, already half sliding in for her attack with a leg sweep that takes the freaker down. Using her own momentum, she falls with the freaker, stabbing her blade deep into his chest, piercing his heart.

  The leader of the freakers circles around the pile of bodies, choosing his route carefully as the second freaker screams out in agony. Abs looks up to see the downswing of the leader’s club aiming for her head. She drives away, releasing her grip upon her blade. Withdrawing it now would be too slow, so she opts to grab a small knife the fallen freaker had dropped.

  The leader’s club hits only the fallen and already dying freaker, who sprays out another lungful of blood from the crushing club. Following relentlessly as his target scrambles through the slippery mess, the leader swings down again, this time almost slipping as the weighted club pulls him forward—and this time the spiked head finds flesh to rip as Abs’s retreating left leg is hit, causing a dreadful wound, but her subdermal skin prevents more severe damage.

  Another swing, this one just barely missing her upper thigh as the freaker gets closer into the thick of the bodies. Abs retrieves the second knife and manages to scramble far enough away to find her own feet again to stand and face her pursuer.

  The freaker grins, enjoying the prospect of a fight, as very few of his victims attempt to fight back. The pleasure of playing with his victims to torment them and to extinguish their lives slowly is wonderful, but only occasionally does he get this joy. It’s refreshing when one tries to fight back. This girl is no different from the other fighters, male or female; she has a strong spirit to snuff out of this world, and the thought of consuming her flesh and drinking her blood excites him. This alone encourages him to move faster.

  The strongest of the freakers stops just a few paces away from Abs, his club now swinging back and forth like a pendulum. “Okay, you sick fuck, come and get me!” Abs taunts. The freaker, waiting no longer, uses the momentum of his swing to throw the whole weight of the club over and around his head as he charges forward, timing his downward swing to slam hard to where Abs’s left shoulder would have been. Abs, having no desire to die this day or any day, in fact already started to dive forward onto her knees and slides the short distance to the freaker’s body, driving both of her knives deep into his abdomen and drawing them downward.

  This maneuver inflicts two deep vertical wounds down to his groin. The freaker bellows with agony as his wounds begin to gush with his own blood, and he drops his club as he crashes both elbows down upon Abs’s shoulders, the sheer force of the blows driving her backward and onto her back. With the force of the blow and her own strength, Abs brings her legs forward from under her and slams her feet into the chin of the freaker. She then rolls rapidly to her left, away from the pile of bodies as the leader of the freakers crashes down to the floor like a felled tree, only his arms preventing any serious harm from the sudden impact with the floor.

  Abs then springs upward and over onto his back and lands a flurry of slashing, stabbing strikes at his unprotected back and neck. His howls of pain and anger bellow out with fury. Leaning closer, Abs feels the freaker’s strength begin to waver. “How does that feel, you bastard?”

  Abs realizes her mistake as the freaker snaps his head backward with sudden force, connecting with her nose and shattering it with a loud crunch. The power of the blow knocks her backward, but Abs transforms the force to roll to the side and away as the lights of the room start to blink and flash. The flashing lights are not helping with Abs’s now-spinning head. She’s disorientated as the leader scrambles and scrapes his way back to the vent, pushing back through and vanishing from sight.

  Abs somehow finds her feet as blood streams down her face. Her vision becomes a blur as she staggers away out of the room, just catching sight of her next target, another freaker that somehow slipped past as she fought the leader.

  This last freaker is closing in on Jake as a warning shout comes from somewhere above. Jake turns, raising his hands in a defensive measure, the freaker now close enough to kill him. It grins at Jake with a look of madness and hunger with a blade in hand, ready to plunge it into Jake’s f
ace.

  But the freaker never gets the chance to act out his last desire, as Abs comes crashing into its back, slamming her knife in to the hilt. The point of the knife protrudes from his chest as the freaker looks down with widening eyes. His grip upon his own blade fails, and the blade clatters to the ground, Jake leaping backward in terror as the freaker drops to the floor dead.

  The lights in the room stop flickering and become brighter as the lifting arm of the claw slowly and carefully descends back to the floor, placing the pod down and allowing Sam and Neil to climb off.

  Jake gives Abs a relieved smile as he looks her up and down. “Thanks. I owe you my life. Are you injured?” he asks, seeing her caked in blood.

  “Think nothing of it, and no, I’m fine, surprisingly—all superficial,” Abs replies, tapping Jake on the back as a friendly gesture before she walks over to Sam. “Did you manage to get the system to recognize us?” she asks, but her question is answered before Sam can reply as a doorway opens at the side of the room and several trustees rush through holding stun batons, followed by a concerned-looking Alistair Brookes.

  Sam calmly walks over to Alistair. As the two make eye contact, Sam speeds up, closing the gap. He grabs hold of Alistair’s shoulders and pushes him up against the wall next to the doorway he just entered through.

  “What the hell is going on, Alistair? We almost got killed down here, and now I want answers…we want answers,” Sam corrects himself, and the others add their own angry concerns as the trustees raise their stun batons, but upon seeing Abs approach, their resolve seems to falter.

  Before Alistair can start to answer, Sam leans in and lowers his voice. “Are you controlling the freakers? They gave the impression that I was not to be harmed.”