The Search for Ball Zero

by Tony Dormanesh

  This time slower and longer the Captain asked,”Weeelll?”

  The supervisor touched the shoulder of a crew member in front of him, who moved a few windows on his screen.

  The warstore sat in an open field in the quiet night. It was about a quarter mile away from Mosh Tree. Four sets of red eyes scurried along the ground between the warstore and Mosh Tree. Suddenly the warstores machine guns lit up the night with rapid fire. It had 4 sets of front facing machine guns, they ripped into Mosh Tree.

  It was the end of their last song, the crowd was giving a standing ovation. It was very loud in Mosh Tree. Axl was holding up the mic, pointing to the crowd. They all began seeing little scattered dots, the dots became little pops. A monkey dropped from the ceiling, limp. A lot of people started looking around. The mic got knocked out of Axl’s hand. He looked left and right like, “What the fuck?” Then his face got ripped apart as a wave of bullets crossed his head. One second Axl was on top of the world, the next his face looked like a red abstract painting. His body fell backwards, instantly dead. The place panicked.

  30

  THE BATTLE AT MOSH TREE

  Some of them hit the floor, most ran for the exit. There was only one exit, Mosh Tree had a lot of fire hazards, and only one door being the entrance and exit was a pretty bad one.

  Luckily for the Humans, being in a panicking crowd with Monkeys and

  Primates, they can panic and run up the walls, not everyone was running on the ground. But there was a bad traffic jam at the door. Tony, L and Perry hit the ground. Tony looked up to try and see what was shooting, but saw nothing.

  “We need to get the fuck outta here!” Perry yelled.

  Back in the warstore cockpit, they watched on the main screen as Mosh Tree was ripped with the machine guns. They started to see a few bodies escaping from inside and crawling on the outside of Mosh Tree.

  The Captain was getting bored,”Enough playing around. Use the big gun. Nuke

  that shit hole.”

  Primates and Monkeys scattered in Mosh Tree. The ground was now littered

  with dozens of dead bodies and injured.

  Jimi ignored the chaos, he walked across the stage,”Man.” He leaned over Axl’s body, looked to the sky, and with his miniature high voice yelled,”Noooo!”

  The 3 humans scurried for the door in a sea of chimps and gorillas.

  In the dark night, King hit the ground like a superhero. He was one of the first

  out of Mosh Tree, and he wasn’t running for his life. He was on his way to solve the problem. He was The Silverback of this tribe after all. King looked out into the dark and charged in the direction of the warstore. An 800 pound gorilla charging a million ton war machine.

  King’s attention quickly changed to the four sets of red eyes in the darkness, two

  sliding along the ground, the other two sets bounding next to them. He roared and changed direction toward them. The eyes’ vectors altered to match his.

  He stopped and jumped in the air, slamming the ground as hard as he could when he landed. The eyes approached, King only saw the redness of their eyes, he had no idea what they actually were. He pounded the ground with his massive arms and roared again, to a Human, he would’ve looked like King Kong.

  The small robot charged, seeming like it hit a bump again, it jumped into the air

  and wooshed as it launched a volley three taser darts. King dodged the volley like Neo and snatched the small robot out of the air. He began crushing it in his grip. He felt metal bending in his rage filled grip. “Machine”, King thought. Just as he crushed the life out of the lifeless machine it spurted three more taser darts into King’s chest. He shook with electricity and dropped the dead machine as he fell backwards. The other three sets of eyes closed in on his stunned body.

  Just as the bounding red eyes turned into a dark silhouette right on top of King,

  two gorillas slid in between them. It was Big Flea and Les. They roared in unison, like two King Kongs. The tall robot stepped at them confidently, it’s long spikey tipped legs sticking in the dirt with each step. The other pair of Tall and Short were closing in fast. Big Flea did a short charge, like gorillas do to test their opponent, he was seeing if he could scare the robot even though he knew he couldn’t. He was still a gorilla after all. Big Flea looked back at King, he was still down, King shook his head trying shake out the cobwebs.

  Tall swung at Big Flea, part of the robots arm was now blade edge, or was it

  always? Big Flea leaned back and dodged it like a boxer. With the robot lurching at Big Flea, Les made his move and swung a massive 2 handed bash at the robot’s head, it connected. Les had fought many times, he knew that hit knocked out any living creature. This time it hurt Les’ hands more than his enemy. He did a gorilla shuffle backwards, slightly confused, trying to get out of the long robot’s reach. The tall robot swung one of its spiky legs at Les. He didn’t expect that, but his backwards shuffle saved him. They both noted their enemy can attack with its legs. The two massive gorillas and the tall robot danced, jockeying for position and looking for an opening. The robot’s allies would be there in a second.

  From behind the two, out of the darkness King charged through and tackled the

  tall robot like a linebacker sacking a QB. Les and Big Flea instantly moved in. The robot scrambled to get to its feet, but King laid his weight on it. Les grabbed one of the robots arms and pulled. There was a spark and some pieces came apart at the robot’s shoulder. Big Flea grabbed on the same arm and they both pulled. With a chunky ripping sound, the arm dislodged from its socket. Les pulled and ripped the arm completely off. Long wires pulled out like veins.

  Les had seen the incoming robots and swung the arm over his head in a downward motion at the small robot. The arm smashed into the ground on top of the small robot, crushing it into the dirt.

  The warstore main cannon fired, it resembled a battleship cannon. The

  projectile flew over the gorillas and robot fight with a cool sound, like out of a movie.

  Mosh Tree exploded from the inside out in a brilliant explosion that lit up the dark night.

  Primate and Monkey bodies flew in every direction with fire and debris.

  Les turned and saw his favorite place explode. For a short moment he thought

  of all the amazing times they had there, especially the show they just played. His mind came back to reality, ready to kick ass harder now, just in time to see the 2nd tall robot lunging at him blade first. The tall robots arm pierced Les’ body and went all the way through, blood following the blade out of Les’ back. The robot slid through Les’ body until it’s face was right next to Les’. Its face of strange red lights somehow grinned at Les. The robot reached one of its legs up and stuck the pointy tip in the bottom of Les’ body and ripped his body in half. He fell in the dirt in two separate 400 pound pieces, organs and intestines between the two parts.

  Big Flea and King were pounding the other tall robot into the dirt. It didn’t die

  like a living thing, it kept trying to get up, they had to resort to ripping it into pieces. Both arms and legs dismembered, the robot’s body jerked and the stumps that used to be limbs flailed helplessly.

  They looked to Les, it was too late, he was in pieces. They looked and didn’t

  see the tall robot. They both noticed more pairs of red eyes in the distance. As they scanned the area looking for the tall robot, there was a slicing sound and Big Flea’s head neatly separated from his body. Another slicing sound and King rolled, his honed reflexes saving his life by a millisecond. King rolled under Big Flea’s still standing body. He used this to his advantage, grabbed Big Flea’s body and charged the tall robot. Gore spewed out of Big Flea’s neck as his body was compressed between the King and the tall robot. It worked. The weight of two gorillas fell the robot. King knew this distraction would last only moments and jumped in the air, coming down with both feet on the robot’s head, letting out a roar that could be heard for miles. King
put all his weight and rage into the stomp. The robot’s head crunched into a flat pancake of metal.

  King saw the other red eyes speeding towards his tribe’s trees. He also saw the

  giant mountain-like silhouette of the warstore in his peripheral vision and put it on his kill list. He took off towards the red eyes. King looked up at what used to be Mosh Tree, now just a big burning tree trunk. The explosion was so big that debris was still falling from the sky. While running at full speed King thought of all his tribe members that must be dead and his anger shifted his running into another gear. He imagined stomping the heads of a million robots.

  Back inside the warstore cockpit the Captain had one of his slight smiles. “Fucking Shit Monkeys!”

  A supervisor approached him,”Sir, we’ve lost three pairs of Tall and Shorts.” “What?” The Captain asked. “How?” He thought.

  “I’m not sure?” The supervisor asked,”They must have guns, or something?”

  “Monkeys shooting guns?” Captain said softly but irritated. “Bring up the video.”

  One video showed King, Big Flea and Les fighting the 2 sets of Tall and Short. The Captain smiled when Les died and laughed out loud when Big Flea’s head got chopped off. Then came the end of that video, with the stomping of the last Tall’s head. The video ended, the last frame was a lot of static, and some of King’s foot, but also showed King’s face, full of rage.

  The Captain slowly got up and even more slowly walked towards the main

  screen, the video was still paused. He got up to the video and looked at King in the eyes. He pointed to King’s face on the screen and said,”Fuck you, you shit eating..” Then growled the last part,”Animal!!”

  “Next.” He then said calmly.

  The next video popped on screen. It was Short speeding through a crowd of Monkeys and Primates, unloading volleys of taser darts, tasing dozens of them. A gorilla then bounded into view and the screen cut out.

  The next video was from a Tall. He was running behind the Short, stepping on tased monkeys with his spiked feet. Bloody steps, killing one Monkey or Primate with each step.

  The Captain liked that,”Spiked feet. That was my idea.”

  On the video the Tall’s screen flickered and the screen got partially covered with

  what looked like dirt. The Tall robot stopped running, tried to shake the dirt off it’s face and looked up. From above the robot, hanging and standing on branches were a bunch of Monkeys and Chimpanzees, they were pooping in their hands and throwing at the Tall. The robot raised it’s long skinny arms to defend against the flying poop, but the screen was bombarded and went dark, covered in poop. A few seconds later there was a grunting noise and the screen went to static,

  “Each of those robots is ten billion dollars.” The Captain said. Without looking,

  he pointed at the supervisor behind him.”Kill him with his own shit.” His guards rushed and grabbed the supervisor, dragging him off kicking and screaming.

  “Captain!” A non-supervisor yelled out. The main screen flipped from the

  frozen video to a live shot in front of the warstore. With Mosh Tree burning in background, there was a wave of mostly gorillas charging at the warstore.

  King was leading the charge. A V formation followed behind him. King looked

  to his left and right,”Get inside!” He yelled, before letting out one of his infamous roars.

  The Captain looked scared for the first time since we’ve known him. He

  scuffled backwards, little scared clicks of his shoes. “Do something!” He yelled, looking back and forth. No one wanted to make eye contact with him. He was becoming Gorman from the scene in Aliens where he loses it in the APC. “Somebody do something. Lock the doors!” He looked back and forth again and ran over to who he thought was the pilot. “Run them over!” That crew member wasn’t the pilot, but no one said anything. The real pilot was a few crew members over, but he attempted to run them over anyways.

  The mountain of machine’s massive tank treads began moving the Earth below

  it and it heaved into motion. Gorillas swarmed the warstore, leaping onto it from every direction. Expertly navigating the massive tank tread’s rotating gears like they were climbing a tree. They were all over it like a swarm of ants taking a injured bee. All of the warstore’s instruments of war were rendered useless.

  “Kill em!” The Captain he said in his high pitched, spoiled brat voice. He could’ve yelled “Mommy.” with that voice.

  The tribe had broken into a warstore before, they knew what they were doing. King had two spider monkeys riding on him, sadly neither of them were Jimi. Another gorilla, Slash, had more spider monkeys. King and Slash climbed up to a spot they knew. King hung from a machine gun barrel and kicked at a vent, it crumbled easily and the spider monkeys disappeared into it.

  The Captain was standing in the cockpit, looking at chaos on the monitors all

  around him, “Return to base.” He was still scared shitless,”Hurry!”

  The warstore’s treads changed and the entire store shifted it’s weight, it began to

  turn. All the gorillas on the outside had to grab on, a few fell off. One gorilla fell passed the main screen, the Captain saw a straw and grasped at it.

  “Ha! Did you see that?!” He yelled to no one “Do that again! Shake them off!”

  The pilot tried to do as he said, he accelerated, then braked quickly. Everyone in

  the cockpit flew forward, including the Captain. He fell face first into a row of computers, smashing his nose. “Ohh!” He yelled, like a gay man in shock. He stumbled to his feet and blood came from his nose. He grabbed at his face, and saw blood on his hands. For a second he looked like Jim Carrey acting like he was going to faint, except the Captain almost did.

  The Captain turned and started clicking towards the door, motioning at his guards to come with him. Just as he almost was out of the cockpit, two spider monkeys flew by, running past the door.

  “Ohh!” He said imitating a shocked gay man again. “Did you see that?! Get

  them! Kill those little shit monkeys!” The guards ran into the hallway. By the time the guards turned the corner the monkeys were fiddling with the door at the end of the hallway about 50 feet away. The guards unleashed their guns, some sort of custom Elohssa assault rifle that resembled an M16. After the hail of bullets ended, one spider monkey laid dead on the ground. The other was half way up the door, hanging onto something, riddled with bloody holes.

  The Captain turned the corner, just as the second spider monkey’s body went

  lifeless “Ha!” He yelled.

  As the Captain yelled his little victory cheer, the second spider monkey’s body

  went lifeless. As his body slid and fell, his little arms finished their job and the door clicked. A sliver of dark surrounded the door as it opened slightly into the warstore.

  “Close it! Close it!” He pointed to the guards. They looked at each other for a

  second, but it seemed as though the Captain was pointing more at the one on the right so he went. The guard crept up towards the door, not trying to make noise. After a few seconds the Captain yelled,”Go you idiot! Faster!” The guard ran for the door.

  The guard grabbed the door and as he was closing it, he looked over his shoulder

  at the Captain like, “Look! I did it!”

  The door was hit with massive force from outside and swung in. It smashed the guard. The heavy weight of the door made a crunching sound as it crushed the guard’s equipment and bones. He fell dead. The silhouette of a gorilla filled the doorway. The guard fired into the doorway. The Captain walked backwards, almost falling, holding onto the walls as his safe reality escaped. He scrambled backwards passed the cockpit and motioned to all the crew members to get in the hallway. A few crew members did what he said, others hoped the Captain would die a torturous death.

  “Hurry!” the Captain yelled. He grabbed the last security guard by the collar, turned a corner and clambe
red down the hall with the guard in tow. The end of the hallway was his office. “You stay here!” He told the guard. Then took his gun and entered his office, locking the door behind him. The guard looked around and shook his head.

  King looked in the open doorway and stepped through. In front of him were 5 or 6 unarmed teenage crew members, looking at him in awe, probably only 1 had clean pants now. He walked towards them, they parted without words. Slash entered behind him, looking around. He found and took the M16 from the guard King killed with the door.

  King looked around the corner and saw the second guard, standing, looking confused, also unarmed in the hallway.

  Inside the Captains office, he was in his chair, back against the far wall. He was

  shaking and holding the M16 like an amatuer, pointing it at the closed door of his office.

  He was on speaker with Elohssa HQ, “Send reinforcements! NOW!”

  The speaker squawked with static. A low voice said something about using Tall and Short. The next warstore deployment was tomorrow.

  He bashed his fists on his desk, “Save me! NOW!”

  There was a knock on his office door. He unloaded at the door. Holding down the trigger yelling “FUCK YOU MONKEYS!!!” The door was littered with holes, blood seeped through a few holes. The Captain laughed. “HAHA. Yea, you want some more!?” Then gunfire ripped through the door from the other side. The Captain fell off his chair, scared and looking for cover behind his desk. He fired back.

  The door moved. Then the door was kicked. It was riddled with holes and barely on its hinges anymore. The Captain saw some fur through one of the bigger holes and unloaded his M16 again, blood sprayed from the fur. The Captain laughed again and his M16 clicked when he pulled the trigger. Out of ammo.

  The door slowly opened and the fur he thought he saw was actually hair on his guard’s head. The last guard dropped dead through the door as the door opened fully.