Hutchison strained his eyes, trying to see into the darkness, all the while the straps that were keeping him firmly in the chair were starting to make his arms ache.
“Because you killed them,” Hutchison said, his breath feeling hot as it left his lungs.
Another belly laugh came from the shadows, then some more clanging, followed by some footsteps. The footsteps were getting closer. Hutchison’s eyes darted down toward the floor and he could see the outline of the man’s feet. He then raised his head, glimpsing at the outline of the man’s thick legs, then stopping dead on the midriff of the bulky man.
Wrapped around his waist was a tool belt, and on the belt were various cutting implements. It was then that the man stepped closer. He came out of the shadows like ash from burning flames, seemingly floating in the air as Hutchison tried to pinpoint him, but then the ash settled and the man smiled. His face hacked and torn by years of physical abuse. In his hands was a lead pipe. Wrapped around the pipe were nails. The sharp end of the nails were pointing outwards. The man grinned, showing a mouth missing around twenty teeth, the rest of them coated in black rot.
“I did kill them. And I will kill you. It’s my job. A job I look forward to. But before that, I thought it would be only right to introduce myself. They call me The Interviewer. And I’m here to get some answers to some questions, questions that I’m certain you are privy to. So before we start the whole back and forth thing where you say you don’t know squat, and then I rip an eye out to reinforce my line of questioning, let’s just skip all of it and get to the meat and potatoes of this. We’re both busy men. I have a boat load of traitors to deal with after this, and I’m sure you just want to die in peace. So, how about it? You ready to talk?”
Hutchison sat there, staring at the man and the crude pipe within his hands. His heart raced as he thought about the torturous pain that he was about to feel. But then another thought popped into his head. It was pride. Pride in who he was and what he was trying to accomplish. And he’d be a damn fool if he let this guy take that away from him, for he had nothing left.
No man wants to die with nothing to his name.
“I ain’t going to ask you twice, Captain…You ready to talk, or am I going to have to MAKE you talk?”
Hutchison smiled.
“Go fuck yourself,” he said, staring directly at the disfigured brute in front of him. To Hutchison’s dismay, the man nodded calmly, smiled, reached into his jeans, pulled out a cigarette, lit it and flicked the lighter back shut. He then took one more step toward Hutchison in the chair, who could now smell the smoke and bent forward.
“Who doesn’t enjoy a good fuck?” he said, flicking the lit cigarette onto Hutchison’s crotch, stepping back, raising the nail pipe in the air and crashing it down onto Hutchison’s left leg. The nails entered his skin, ripped at his flesh and Hutchison let out a scream that rattled the walls around him.
But nobody would hear his cries for help.
Chapter Four
“Holy heck, is that real?” Somebody behind Gustoff said, as the other members of the colony came to a stop. They’d jogged down the path on the right and were now back at the ship. This was the first time that the others had seen the massive hulking spaceship hidden within a crevice in the rocks, but Gustoff and Timson were more preoccupied with the fact that the two elderman that they’d fought earlier were now missing.
“Where the hell are they?” Timson said, pushing past a few of the colony members as they stood meters from the ship, staring intently at it, mouths gaped open.
“Where the hell’s who?” April asked, sidling up beside Timson and Randy as they looked at the floor.
“The elderman that followed us in here. They confronted us about the ship and said that we were not to speak of it to you guys, or else. Then they wouldn’t let us pass, so we had to get physical with them,” Timson said.
April frowned.
“They knew about all of this? Where did it come from?” She asked.
Timson shrugged.
“Well, to be honest, that’s what I was going to ask them once we got back, but they’re fucking gone!” He said.
It was obvious to the Earth Man that April wasn’t used to such language, but it was the heat of the moment, and he wasn’t feeling diplomatic. By now, Gustoff was looking up at the opening above the ship. It was big enough for the ship to exit, but far too high for anybody to climb. Solid rock formations surrounded the ship and encased the colony members in a tomb, so he found it improbable that the two elderman would have scaled the rocks and escaped through the opening above.
“You reckon they’re inside the ship?” Gustoff asked. But he needn’t have bothered, Timson was already scanning the ship for any signs of life.
“Everybody stand back, I don’t want any false positives here,” he said, holding a PDA in his hand and pointing it directly at the ship in front of him. The PDA didn’t pick up any life signs, which just annoyed Timson even more.
“Where the hell did they go? They couldn’t have just upped and disappeared into thin air!” he snarled, putting the PDA back in his jacket pocket and turning to April and Gustoff who looked concerned.
“You think they could have slipped past us?” April said.
Timson shook his head.
“Impossible! We would have seen them! There’s no way that they could have done so. Something is going on here, something rotten, and I want to find out where the hell they went!” Timson said.
April looked at Gustoff who was staring at the ship in front of them. The others were doing the same. She was just as boggled as Timson. He was right, this certainly didn’t make any sense, and she also wanted to know where they went. But she couldn’t help but feel a little happy at the same time. After all, there was a spaceship standing meters from her, and it could be their ticket off the planet. She looked up at the sky and saw how clear it was. Maybe the fallout from the beam wasn’t that bad. But that didn’t mean that she wasn’t interested in leaving this planet and reuniting with Earth. She’d dreamt of this day for many years, and now that it was finally happening, she had a smile on her face.
“Maybe it’s not that important. As far as I’m concerned, those damn elderman were nothing but trouble. I understand your curiosity though, and wouldn’t hold it against you if you wanted to check the caves out and search for them, but I hold no allegiance to them, and neither do the colony. The way I see it, they abandoned us, so if we take off without them, we’d be repaying them the favor,” she said, still smiling.
Timson’s face softened a tad. April was talking sense. Since crashing on this planet, the elderman had been nothing but trouble. But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t curious about them or the ship in front of him. He wanted to know where the heck it came from and why the elderman were in possession of it. He didn’t like leaving any stone unturned. It was bad form, and Timson was all about form.
“Fine. But when we get back to Earth, I’m going to find out what the hell is going on. And when I find those elderman, I’m going to get answers!” Timson said.
April’s eyes widened.
“The ship works?” she said, her face flushing red with anxiety.
Timson nodded and turned to the others.
“Okay, people of the colony, whatever you want to call yourselves, I guess I have some good news. This ship here seems to be operation according to the scans I’ve done on it. Hypothetically, we could use it to fly you all back to planet Earth where you can experience a life like no other. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about the ship and will need to board it and do some checks. We could be here for a couple of hours waiting for diagnostics to clear and to check if we have enough fuel. It’s possible that those damn elderman will come back and try and get us off the ship, but I’m just forewarning you all that if they even as much as breathe next to me, I’m taking them out. I’m fed up of playing games here. Enough is enough. Time to get off this damn planet.”
The colony members started cheer
ing in unison. It was the first time that Gustoff had seen any of them smile. The elderman had always hung over the colony like a black cloud, and now they were gone, the sun was shining down on them, illuminating their lives and showing them the true beauty of light versus the despair of darkness.
But Randy sensed that there was a storm on the horizon, and he didn’t know if the ship would be able to weather it.
***
Commander Williams felt nervous as he sat in his chair, watching the dash as the Jump Gate took control of the ship. The power fluctuated as the ship slowly droned on toward an airlock on the side of the space station. Williams was sweating profusely. Something was definitely up and he knew that whatever was about to happen, it was probably in his best interest to keep the firearm that he’d picked up earlier safely concealed. He might need it to defend himself.
“What’s going on Williams? Do they know?” The Captain asked, pacing up and down the width of the bridge.
Williams looked at him, his eyes squinting as a bright light came shining through the portholes, casting ominous shadows across the deck. The Jump Gate had switched on their spotlights and they were blinding him. What had begun as an inkling of danger panging inside his gut had now manifested itself into an alarm bell, sounding off in his skull, rattling his brains, scrambling them into egg whites.
“I have no idea what’s going on, but I do know that this isn’t standard protocol. I think we’re going to be boarded,” Williams said, unintentionally unsettling the Captain even more.
He continued to stride from left to right, clenching his fists, sweat also dripping down his face. It had either gotten really hot in there all of a sudden, or the both of them were visibly freaking out, which wouldn’t really help their case if in fact they were boarded.
“You need to calm down, Captain. We’ve done nothing wrong. I was following orders, as were you. So we don’t have anything to worry about. We’re innocent in all of this,” Williams said, standing up and shifting his combat pants a little. The concealed weapon in his waistline was uncomfortable, but it would have to do if he was going to be able to hide it from whoever was about to enter the ship.
“We may be the innocent ones here Williams, but they’re not, and that’s what’s making me nervous,” the Captain said, still pacing about like a new father on the maternity ward waiting for his bundle of joy to enter this uncertain world.
But there was no joy to be had here, only fear, and Williams feared for his life very much. He feared for the Captain’s life as well. And above all, he feared for what he’d have to do if he was forced into a predicament.
“Whatever happens, Captain, I’ll have your back. I guarantee it,” he said, trying to smile at the Captain, but it didn’t seem to help matters. The Captain shrugged his shoulders, looked through the porthole and sighed.
“The ship’s about to dock,” he said, before the unmistakable yawn of contact echoed through the floating structure. Both men held their breath and turned to face the airlock doors on their left. A light above the door went red, followed by the sound of decompressing air escaping the lock.
Then the light flashed green.
“Here they come,” Williams said, his heart thumping in his chest.
The airlock doors opened and five heavily armed humans entered the deck holding machine guns, and wearing military fatigues.
“Commander Williams, you’re under arrest,” one of the men said, approaching the hapless Commander as he looked on in dismay. The man grabbed the Commander and put some cuffs on him. The Captain was also detained.
“The two of you will be taken back to Earth where you will face a jury of you peers,” the heavily armed man said, holding Williams by the shoulder, squeezing his bicep and escorting him through the airlock.
“What are our crimes?” The Captain said from behind Williams as he too was escorted through the airlock, the green light above him cascading a luminous shade on his face.
“Treason,” the man escorting Williams snapped, pushing the both of them into the space station hallway.
They didn’t hang about and no more questions were answered, not that Williams nor the Captain spoke again. They were rushed down a hallway and then to another airlock where they boarded another ship. It was a large ship. A military grade vessel, and onboard it there were hundreds of Marines pointing their weapons at the two men.
“Strap in, and shut your mouths. You’ll be back home before you know it,” the lead guy said, pushing the both of them into adjacent seats. He then strapped them in, tightening their restraints.
“We’re green, I repeat, we’re green,” the Marine said, signaling the skipper of this particular ship to start the disembarking procedure.
Before the Captain and Williams knew it, they’d left the station and entered the Jump Gate where they made haste toward Earth.
Toward their untoward fate.
***
“Please, I’m begging you! I don't know anything!” Hutchison screamed as The Interviewer swung his nail pipe once again, this time into Hutchison’s sternum.
The impact of the swing made Hutchison cough up a mouthful of blood, first gurgling in his throat, then spouting out of his mouth and nose like a faucet. Some of the splatter hit the shirtless Interviewer. He wasn’t impressed, wiping the residue of his victim off his face and snarling as Hutchison writhed in pain, squirming in the chair, eyes rolling into the back of his head.
“I hope that was an accident,” the big brutish man said, dropping the pipe on the floor, the sound of it clanging against the concrete echoed through the dark room. He then cocked his fist back and smashed Hutchison in the face, the point of his nose crushing against the ridged knuckles of the torturer.
“Please!” Hutchison screamed, blood pouring out of his now near lopsided nose. His nostrils flared and constricted as he tried to breathe, but the blood was blocking his airways as he gasped for air through his wide open mouth, his teeth covered in crimson red as blood dribbled out of his gob.
“There’s no pleasing the court here, my friend,” The Interviewer said, bending back down and grabbing the led pipe with nails embedded into it.
“Oh God, not again,” Hutchison cried, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. The Interviewer laughed, his belly jiggling as he chortled. He then took two steps back, swung the pipe again and landed a direct shot onto Hutchison’s face, shattering his teeth and cracking his jaw.
“Like popcorn,” The Interviewer said as he marveled at his work, Hutchison’s teeth falling out of his mouth and pinging as they hit the floor. It was a sick sight, but The Interviewer enjoyed it nonetheless. So much so in fact, that he was about to take another swing at Hutchison when the lights came on and the room around them was released from its previous darkness.
“I see that you have met our friend,” a voice said from the far end of the large empty room, near the doorway.
The voice belonged to a man that had no business in being in that squalid environment. He had a way about him, a way that suggested that he hadn’t worked a day in his life. His hands were soft and his nails were trim. He wore a suit and shiny shoes. He walked differently from the people that The Interviewer usually encountered. But this man was known to the big brute, and in his presence, he dropped the bat and stood to attention.
“Yes Sir, we’re best of friends,” The Interviewer said.
The man smiled, slowly making his way toward the shirtless savage and Hutchison who was too banged up to even know what was going on. The sound of the man’s shiny shoes tipped and tapped on the concrete, suddenly changing to a squelch when he stepped in some blood. The man looked down and frowned.
“Brilliant,” he said, flicking his shoe a little, trying to get rid of the mess.
But he soon turned his attention back to the savage next to him. He was still standing to attention, not daring to look the man in the eye. It was obvious that the man in the suit was important. The Interviewer didn’t usually have time for his fellow man, but for th
is particular man, he had all the time in the world.
“Is he speaking?” the man asked.
The Interviewer looked reluctant to answer the man’s question but he settled for shaking his head instead.
“That’s a shame,” the man in the suit said, looking at the brute in front of him and then at the pipe on the floor. “Looks like you’ve tried to start a dialogue though” he said.
The Interviewer nodded frantically like a dog when its owner asks it if it wants to go walkies.
“I’ve tried my best Sir, but this sonofabitch isn’t saying squat – pardon my language,” he said, looking down at the floor.
The man in the suit made an annoyed sound with his tongue and turned to face the prisoner in the chair. He surveyed the damage and smiled.
“You really took it to him. Well done. I was afraid that you’d hold back considering who he is and who he works for,” the man said.
The interviewer smiled.
“He doesn't work for anybody no more. He’s ours to do with as we please,” the big brute snarled.
The man in the suit nodded. He then bent down and got right in Hutchison’s face, gently placing his hand on his battered cheek and caressing it.
“You hear that, Hutch old pal? You don’t work for us anymore. You aren’t protected by The Company or its affiliates. You’re plain and simply fucked. So I suggest you start talking or face your punishment like a man,” the guy in the suit said.
Hutchison opened his eyes, stared at the man who held his face and grinned.
“I never worked for you,” he said, struggling to get the words out of his torn and ripped mouth. His eyes then closed back shut and he lost consciousness. The man let go of his face and stood back up, sighing at the blood on his pressed suit pants, the result of him kneeling on the floor.
Second Earth: The Complete First Novel (Second Earth Chronicles Book 1) Page 19