by Jason Keizer
Inara and Mercy walk past a desk of equipment until they get to the table and see the Arctic strapped to it. Probes stick out of its chest and head. There are also a bunch of sensors on its skin all over its body. “Anything new?” asks Inara.
One of the scientists looks up from his clipboard and says, “From what we can tell so far, brain function is slow except for small bursts here and there. Our guess is that from the extreme cold temperatures, the brain shuts off parts that aren't essential. They seem to be able to sense pain but only for a couple of seconds. Some of the readings are difficult to gather due to the short bursts.
“Cutting into the skin to get the probes in was interesting. All of the layers of the skin have joined together to create a very strong insulator for their cold temp and are somewhat shell-like, for strength. No responses to hearing from what I can tell, but sight, smell, and pain seem to be working just fine.”
Mercy looks down at the Arctic and says, “I don't know who I hate more, them or the Skullniks.”
Inara puts a hand on Mercy's shoulder and says, “Either way, they are both monsters.” She looks at the scientist and says, “Thank you, have reports sent to the other sector capitals when you get the chance. The more we can learn and share what we know, the better our chances of survival.”
Inara takes one last look at the Arctic. A small shiver travels down her spine as she stares at its hand, reminding her of that dreadful print on James’ chest. She puts her head down and walks out of the lab and walks out of the office.
As she steps into the hallway, she pulls out the phone from her pocket. She opens up an app, and an aerial video feed appears. She zooms in and sees two trucks driving on train tracks. After a few seconds, the feed starts to get some static, so she puts it away. Mercy steps out into the hallway and joins her. “Checking in on the team?” she asks.
“Yeah. They look like they are getting off to a good start with little interruption. Hopefully, it will stay that way.”
Mercy starts walking to the elevator, followed by Inara. Turning her head slightly to the right, Mercy says, “Don't worry. Between the three of them, I'm pretty sure they could take down an army and not break a sweat.”
Inara puts on her slight smile that she wears so often, and replies, “That's true. Now, what is next for the day's schedule?”
Mercy presses the up button on the elevator and answers, “Free for the rest of the morning, after lunch there are a few new laws that the judiciary department wants you to look at before the council votes on them.” They step into the elevator and take it back up to Inara's office.
A few hours later, when she gets home, Inara eats a small dinner. While she is eating, the phone rings. It's Mercy again. She answers it. “Inara, I just wanted to let you know that the team made it to Odessa in Sector 13 without any incidents.”
Inara fills with relief and says, “That is great. Thank you for the update. I'll see you in a little bit at Flynn's.”
“Ok, see you soon, bye,” the other says before hanging up. Inara walks over to her computer and turns on the satellite feed.
She sees the men walk into a small garage or shed. After a few minutes, she can make out lights turning on. “Always the helping heroes where ever you go, huh?” she asks softly to herself.
Next to her computer is a blue wristband that James gave it to her on their first date. As he handed it to her, he said she was his only light after coming from the darkness before Serra. She grabs the band and rubs it gently in her hand. It reminds her of when she first met James.
14 months ago:
Inara is walking down a long corridor of New Washington Hospital. As she walks down the hall, a nurse comes out of a room four doors down from her and wakes up a man sleeping on a chair. As Inara walks up to them, the nurse is talking to a man with glasses that is sitting in a chair. The man stands up when Inara gets to them. Inara looks to the nurse and says, “I need to go in there.”
The nurse replies, “Doctor, I don’t think that is such a good idea. This man was captured in a raid on the defectors. It took six of our guys just to get him to the ground.”
Inara looks through the small opening of the slightly ajar door. She replies, “Yes, I know. I have been looking for this man for quite some time now. From the reports, he didn’t hurt any of our people. He only went after the defectors.”
“That is correct, but from the stories of the men that rescued him, I don't even want to go in there.”
Inara abruptly says, “I'll be fine.” She turns to the man standing in front of a small chair and asks, “I am guessing that you are Mr. Crowley?”
Oliver stands up, extends out a hand and, replies, “Yes Doctor. My name is Oliver Crowley. James is like a brother to me. When I heard that he was found, I came here right away. Do you mind if I ask how you know who I am?”
Inara turns her head to the nurse. “Could you leave us alone, please.”
The nurse gives a small nod. “I will be back shortly.”
After the nurse takes a few steps, Inara quietly says, “I have known James for quite some time now. Though, I am sad to say this is the first time we are able to meet in person.”
“Ah, so you must be Inara then. I’ve had the chance to talk to him once or twice on comms, but not much. He did tell me about you a bit when we did talk. From what I hear, he is supposed to help with your revolution. I would like to offer my services in his stead.”
Inara gives a nod of her head and replies, “Yes, but we can talk about that all later. I need to see him. Can you please make sure no one comes in, for any reason? Not even you. Not until I leave. And I mean for any reason.”
Oliver drops back down in his chair. “Sure thing Doc.”
Inara opens the door and steps into a small hospital room. A bed sits across the door, with a large window behind it. To the left is a small doorway to a bathroom. On the right, there is a large mirror with cords plugged in under it. The wires run to two machines. One is for monitoring vitals. The other has needles sticking out of it. They are rapidly moving up and down, recording his brain activity. Slowly, she walks to the side of the bed.
James is lying with a blanket covering him. Leather straps wrap around his wrists, keeping him constrained to the bed. A needle connected to an IV sticks into his arm, just above a blue hospital band. Bandages are taped around parts of his arms and one on his bruised left cheek. As Inara moves closer to him, her face fills with pity and sorrow.
Why couldn’t they have gone out and tried to free those people sooner? She bends down and puts her face near his. I’m so sorry James. This is all my fault. I should have never asked you to come here. As she stares at him, his eyes fly open. Inara jumps back and lets out a small gasp. What is wrong with him? With his eyes?
James tries to move his arms and legs. He tries to break free of the bindings with a couple quick pulls of his arms, but can’t. He stops for a second after figuring out he can’t break free and looks around the room. His eyes scan across from the right to the left, right over Inara, as if he wasn’t even there, and to the other side of the room until he stops at a mirror.
He stares at his reflection in the mirror, his eyes burning into it. Inara takes a small step towards him and shakily asks, “James… Are you there?”
James starts violently tugging on the bindings holding him down. As he struggles to break free, the blanket falls from his chest, showing nothing but a large, bloodied bandage wrapped around it.
Inara quickly moves to the bed and puts a knee on it. She grabs James by the shoulders and attempts to push him down, to no avail. She jumps onto the bed and puts her body weight on his right side. She removes her right hand from his shoulder and grabs James by the chin. As she pulls his face away from looking at the mirror, he turns to her and stares into her eyes.
Those fiery eyes burning through her, searing themselves into her brain, she freezes for a second. While they stay locked in each other’s gaze, Inara shakes off the trembling fear and says, “J
ames, it's me, Inara.”
James stops struggling and tilts his head as he looks her up and down. He quickly shuts his eyes and turns his face away. Inara puts her hand under his chin again and pulls his face back to hers. Tears slowly roll down his face as he keeps his eyes shut. She slides her hand up his face to caress his cheek. She asks, “Do you recognize my voice, James?”
James slowly opens his eyes back up and silently stares at Inara. Inara’s face relaxes as a small smile curves her lips. She says, “It is you, isn’t it? Don’t be afraid. I am here and nothing is ever going to hurt you again.”
Her other hand slowly moves up until she starts to slide her fingers through his hair. James drops his head back onto the bed. As his red eyes slowly fade back to brown, he whispers, “Inara,” and falls back to sleep.
FIVE
Ring Ring. Inara wakes up and reaches for her phone. It’s Mercy again. She answers it, “Mercy, it's only six, I thought we were going to meet up at eight.”
On the other end of the phone, Mercy replies with an uneven voice, “Inara, you need to get to the tower now. Skullniks have been spotted near Odessa.” Inara quickly jumps up from her bed as she tosses the phone down.
“Inara. You still there?” comes from the phone’s speaker. Inara pays no attention as she runs to her closet. She rips open the doors and grabs the first pair of pants she sees.
“I'll be there in five,” Inara shouts to the phone as she pulls up the pants. She puts on a pair of socks, slides into a pair of sneakers, and runs out the door all the way to the tower.
In the tower, Inara runs to the elevator. As the doors open, Mercy pokes her head out from the elevator. “We need to get to the communications room now!” Mercy says as Inara steps through the doors. She presses the button for floor 18.
“What's the situation?” Inara asks as the elevator climbs.
“Roughly thirty Skullniks have been spotted going straight for the town. We have been trying to get in touch with the group, but no one has answered yet.”
As they wait for the elevator to get to the communications floor, Mercy looks at Inara with a cocked smile. Inara looks down and finally notices her long blue t-shirt, bearing a picture of two teenagers, from the 1980s, in front of a phone booth with the words, “Be excellent to each other,” in front of them.
Inara smiles back at Mercy. “It's James' shirt. I like to sleep in it when he is gone. I didn't even think of changing it I was in such a hurry.”
“Here. Don’t want people seeing you like this. Besides, I don’t think anyone here except me has seen you without a lab coat on. You gotta keep up your appearance,” Mercy says as she unbuttons her lab coat and hands it over.
Inara grabs the lab coat and puts it on. As she buttons it up, she says, “Thank you. I guess it is kind of hard to be looked at seriously wearing something like this.”
As she buttons the top button, she looks up and down at Mercy and starts to giggle. She says, “I think you might need it more than I do though.”
Mercy grabs her shirt at the waist and stretches it out in front of her. “What? There is nothing wrong with my shirt. Everybody loves Pikachu.” She pauses for a second as she turns to the elevator doors and adds, “Besides, it reminds me of a happier and more innocent time of the world and my life.” The elevator doors open into a large, open room.
The communications room sits on the top floor of Serra Tower. It has an open floor space with a few load bearing beams running through it. When the old government built this place, the first thing they did was stock the communications room. Rows of people manning computers and switchboards line two of the walls. Behind the elevator lies rows of servers and networking equipment. Large screens line the wall facing the elevator.
They show satellite images of teams outside the safe zone and of a few areas considered dangerous as a means to track enemies. On the main screen is a video feed of a small town. The town is quiet, with no indication of any danger. Just west of the town, about a mile out, are little dots moving towards it.
Inara walks towards the man at the console in front of the large screen. “You sure it's not Arctics? Can you zoom in any further?” she asks.
The man nods his head and explains, “We tried to zoom in, but communications with the satellite are in and out right now. But, they have been moving at a decent pace for more than a mile so far. Arctics can't run that far and don’t tend to be as slow when they do.”
Inara grabs a phone receiver sitting on the desk. “James. James... Anyone, can you hear me?”
No answer, only static as she stares at the screen. The dots slowly make their way towards the town until a large flash appears on the screen about thirty meters from the front gate.
SIX
BOOM!
An explosion goes off nearby. James jumps up from his sleep. He quickly looks around and gets out of his bed.
“SKULLNIKS!” someone yells from outside. James quickly throws on his clothes, grabs his pistol and assault rifle, and runs out the door. As James gets in the hallway, Oliver is already running towards the exit doors.
BOOM!
Another blast goes off, this one closer than the last. The sound of gunfire starts erupting from outside the hotel.
Henry's door flies open, and he spews out of it, still trying to get dressed. James and Oliver quickly move past him as he buckles his belt. As they reach the exit, Oliver lunges forward and swiftly kicks open the door.
He steps out and to the side, drops to a knee and aims his rifle towards the gate the trucks are facing. James runs out after him, taps him on the shoulder, and heads to his truck. Henry runs out the door, trying to tug his shirt down from around his neck, and taps Oliver on the shoulder.
“Hey Terry Crews, put a shirt on. We have work to do,” Oliver yells to Henry.
James slides the last couple feet to the truck, almost slamming into it. He opens the driver door and tosses his rifle on the seat before he reaches under it. He pulls out the clothed item from under his seat and starts to unwrap it. As the cloth runs out, James drops it to the ground. He lowers his hand and exposes a long hatchet. Its curved handle is made of steel and is wrapped in blood-soaked rope. Its head, steel at the core, and dipped in silver reflects the light of the just rising sun.
“Both of you, take high ground and help with keeping them out. If any come through, they belong to me,” James yells at his teammates.
Oliver and Henry sprint off to take positions. Henry taps Oliver on the shoulder and says, “You go left, I’ll go right.”
Oliver stays on the left side of the road as Henry dashes across the street and starts running on the right side.
BOOM!
A third blast goes off, taking out one of the gate doors and the right guard tower. As Oliver and Henry move into position, James walks away from the trucks and towards the hole in the gate. His hatch slowly swings in his left hand while James starts to softly whistle to himself over the gunfire that surrounds him. His right hand reaches over to the left side of his hip and pulls out his Springfield Armory XDM 45 pistol.
James stops about fifteen meters from the hole in the gate and stops, waiting and still whistling for his enemies to push through. In front of the gate, he stares at the lifeless body of a guard that was hit in the last blast. The more he stares at the body, the more his blood begins to boil as he remembers the time he spent with the Skullniks.
All the men, women, and children that sat with him in cages, like animals. All of them beaten, branded, and used to fight for fun and training. Once the fights were over, they were hosed down just to sit in those damn cages again. For most of them, the only time they were allowed out was to fight or to train. He remembers the brutality of how they would kill people, and wonders if the man on the ground had it easy compared to what would have happened if he was taken as prisoner.
Slowly, three figures start to show through the smoke at the gate. James snaps out of his head and back to reality. He tightens his grip on his hatchet a
nd widens his stance. Putting his left leg behind him, and bending his knees. With his hatchet up and across his chest, his pistol still down to his side, he readies. Three men step over the rubble and push into the town.
Two of them have stained and ripped shorts on, the third has on shredded pants. Animal skins hang over one shoulder and fall across their chests like a sash. At the base of their necks, a skull hangs from a piece of frayed twine.
They stop when they see James standing a few meters in front of them. The one with pants turns to the others and says, “Look at his eyes. He is one of them.” The men take a small step back and then brace for a fight.
James lets the hatchet fall to his side as he instantly lunges toward them. He lifts his pistol up and shoots the one in shorts on the right in the chest. As he goes down, James raises his hatchet. The two men start to raise their weapons as well. The one in shorts that is still alive has a baseball bat with two long blades lining the sides of it. The one in pants has a small sledgehammer with a spike at the end.
Just before the three men meet, James jumps off the tracks to the right. The closest Skullnik swings his hammer at James’ head. Just before it hits him, like lightning, James ducks low, letting the hammer fly over him. He points his pistol down and shoots the Skullnik in the foot. As the Skullnik starts to yell in pain, James, still ducked down, starts to spin to the right.
While spinning, his hatchet catches the Skullnik in the gut. It slices the Skullnik with ease as it travels across his abdomen, letting out a spray of blood, which quickly starts to gush out. Once James spins far enough for his back to be facing the man, he kicks his foot back like a donkey. The kick lands just below the gash he just made. Blood and intestine start to fly out as the Skullnik is tossed backward, flying into the one behind him.
James turns back around and stands up. The Skullnik he just kicked is on the ground screaming in pain, trying desperately to collect his innards sprawled across his pants and the ground. The other one pushes his comrade off of him and starts to get back to his feet. Lifting his hatchet above his head, James jumps at the rising Skullnik. As his body begins to fall in the air, so does his hatchet with tremendous force and speed.