“Benzodiazepine. Forty—no, make it fifty milligrams.”
“You sure?”
“Of course I’m sure, just get the thing—”
SCHHRIIIPPP.
Nathan tore three Trank bags off the wall and slotted them into the grip on the T-Gun.
“Okay,” Nathan said. “We’re ready. Standby.”
Julie ran her finger over the metal shackle on Jelly’s hind leg.
“Is she properly secured?” Jaykay asked.
“Yes, the gurney is bolted to the floor. Don’t worry, she can’t go anywhere.”
Jaykay peered under the gurney and saw that Julie was right. He lifted his head and opened his mouth, “How can you be sure it’s Jelly Anderson—?”
SHWUNT.
Jelly’s knees darted upwards, forcing the gurney forward.
SHUNT — SHUNT — CLANG.
Her hind legs pushed across the mattress, digging her heels at the metal rail at the foot of the bed.
Julie took a step back and looked at Jonas, who slipped around the side of the E-MRI, “What are you doing, Jonas? Where are you going?”
“Julie?”
“What?”
“If that thing tries to kill me, you kill me first.”
Julie folded her arms and snorted, “Who? Jelly Anderson—?”
WHUMP — SCHTANG.
Jelly’s ears flicked back, registering their voices.
“Wait,” Nathan said. “Say it again.”
“Say what again?” Julie asked.
“Her name. She seems to be responding to her name.”
Julie licked her top lip and realized her colleague was right. She hoped moving over to Jelly’s face and testing the theory a fourth time wouldn’t prove to be her gravest mistake.
The loud hum from the defibrillator crept across the linoleum, sending a constant mini shock wave up the metal of the trolley legs.
“We could be forever waiting around for her to wake up of her own accord, you know,” Nathan said.
Jonas gripped the edge of the E-MRI unit and panted, catching Nathan’s attention.
“Hey, Jonas. Call yourself a medician?”
“Nah, this is s-screwed up,” Jonas stammered. “I d-don’t trust her as far as I can throw her.”
“Which isn’t very far, considering her size, you pussy,” Nathan snapped.
“I’m not a pussy,” Jonas yelped and pointed at the gurney. “That thing is no pussy, either. Not anymore. Whatever happened up there, it—it changed her into a freak.”
KER-CHLUCK.
Jaykay armed his rifle and aimed the barrel at Jelly’s chest.
“One dead ex-pussy if she makes a wrong move.”
Julie held out her palm at Jaykay.
“Shh. Wait. I’m going to call her name again.”
“It’s your funeral, Jool,” he said. “We’re just here to prevent it from happening as best we can.”
Julie’s face hovered over the sleeping tiger’s forehead. Her breathing fogged up the inside of her breathing apparatus.
“Hey,” Julie whispered as quietly as possible, “J-Jelly?”
No response, save for a thunderous snore sound coming from under the mask.
Jelly’s whiskers shuddered with each breath. She was very much alive.
Everyone in the room knew it.
“Look at you,” Julie continued, taking in the bizarre visual laying before her, “So big. So beautiful.”
Jaykay and his mercenaries watched Julie lower her head and take in the creature’s scent.
Sniff-sniff.
“It’s been a while since you’ve bathed, hasn’t it?”
“For God’s sake, lady,” Jaykay barked. “Are you two going to kiss? Or are you going to try and wake her up?”
Julie kept her hand held at Jaykay and clenched all but her middle finger into a fist.
“Pfft. Charming.”
“Don’t pay any attention to the nasty men,” Julie whispered to the creature as she tilted her head to Jaykay and smiled, “They don’t know who you are. They don’t know you’re a winner. That you’re one in a million. That you became a Star Cat. Jelly Anderson.”
Jaykay lowered his gun, near-satisfied that the beast had been placated.
WHUP — KERRRRAAAA — SPATCH.
Jelly’s elbows slammed into the mattress, sending Julie onto her ass.
Her eyes sprang open, revealing a pair of deathly yellow pyramid-shaped pupils.
“MEOW.”
Nathan ran into the mercenaries path and hooked his finger around the trigger of the T-Gun.
Jelly kicked her feet and forced the gurney back and forth in its floor locks. Her wild roar muffled through her mask.
“Damn cat,” Nathan roared as he tried to insert the three-pronged syringe into the side of her neck.
“Stop moving.”
“Get out of the damn way,” Jaykay said.
Nathan took a step back from Jelly’s head as it bounced back and forth against the pillow, “No, don’t shoot her—”
SCHTANG — SCHTANG — SCHTANG.
The gurney groaned under Jelly’s sheer size and weight. The side railings bulged and bent back. In just a matter of seconds, the beast would break free and escape.
“Damn it.”
Julie picked herself up off the floor and darted over to the E-MRI.
Biddip-beep-beeeeeep-beeeeeeeeep.
“Nathan?”
“I’m trying,” he said as Jelly whipped her tail out from under her vast waist. It hooked around the railing and shunted it across the floor.
“LET—ME—OUT,” Jelly wailed from under her mask.
She continued to fight the metal cage surrounding her body. Her voice dipped even lower, sounding like a fiery pit of hell infused with the guttural growl of a tiger.
“NOOOOOW.”
Jaykay yelled over his shoulder, “Team. Hold your fire.”
He returned to the sight on his rifle. The end lifted up and down as he tried to keep up with Jelly’s head shifting around.
“If you can’t calm her down I’ll put one right between her damn eyes,” he yelled.
“No,” Julie squealed. “Don’t do that—”
STACHAAAAANG.
Jelly’s elbows smashed through the mattress and broke the gurney in two. The top half of the gurney flew back and crashed into the E-MRI machine, taking her wrists with.
“Jesus Christ. Get that damn tranquilizer in her,” Julie screamed at Nathan.
“I’m trying, What the hell do you think I’m doing?” he screamed back, “Taking a vacation?”
Jelly’s ass slammed to the ground, putting several dents into the linoleum floor. She kicked the battered bottom half of the gurney away from her shackled ankles.
WHOOSH — SCHWUNT.
The chain snapped taut and lifted the lower half of the gurney into the air. It crashed back down around her feet and broke into hundreds of pieces.
Jaykay marched up to the grizzly creature and swung the barrel of his gun right between her eyes.
“Here, kitty-kitty-kitty,” he yelled. “See this hole at the end of my gun? It’s gonna get bigger, you dumb rodent.”
GROOWWWWLLLLLL.
Jelly’s whirlwind of a roar nearly blew the man off his feet.
FWIP — SLAMMM.
Jelly threw her fist forward and swung the top half of the gurney at Jaykay like a giant whip. The chain stretched out and tugged it back in her direction before it smashed to the floor.
“Calm down, Jelly,” Jaykay said. “Let the nice medicians here help you with that.”
GRUNT.
Jelly fumed under her breathing apparatus and smashed the floor with her fists.
Julie snapped at Nathan, “Do it.”
SCHWUNT.
Nathan buried the T-Gun syringe in Jelly’s neck and yanked on the trigger.
SWEEESSHHHH.
The solution piped through the metal and into Jelly’s vein.
“My God,” Nathan
panted, “Never again. Never again.”
Jelly’s muscles went limp. Her body folded and knocked her head forward, facing her knees.
A strange gurgling sound occurred through her significantly slowed breathing. Saliva rolled out from under the neck rubber and collected up on her thighs.
Nathan watched Jonas emerge, shaken, from behind the broken E-MRI machine.
“What happens now?”
Julie stared at the battered tiger sitting against the wall.
“She won’t stay down for long,” Julie said.
Jonas brushed himself down and surveyed the fallout from the commotion, “Daaaaamn,” he fumed, “If this is what she’s like when she’s just woken up, then I don’t wanna be around when she’s angry.”
Julie ran her hands through her hair, “She knows, I’m telling you. She knows.”
“Knows what?” Nathan asked.
“She knows what’s going on. The moment she came-to, she knew. I could feel it. I think she thought she recognized me.”
Jonas dismissed her statement outright, “Lessense. You two had never met. Not until now.”
“You’re right. We haven’t,” Julie said. “But she’s met my sister.”
An awkward silence hung in the air as Julie stared at the monstrosity sitting before her. A million questions ran through her mind. What had happened to Jelly Anderson? How did she get back? Why did she even bother returning?
“Uh, Julie?” Nathan said.
“Yeah?”
“The cat on the floor. It’s, like, twenty foot long? And it’s going to wake up again soon?”
Julie snapped out of her daydream.
“I have an idea.”
Jaykay, Jonas, and Nathan waited patiently for her recommendation.
“What is it?” Jonas asked.
Julie smiled and ran through the door.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Perimeter Zee”
Interstate 10, Junction 20
(One mile south of Port D’Souza)
The mack truck traveled along a slip road by the freeway and disappeared under a flyover.
“We’re here,” Rana said from the driver’s compartment.
She twisted the lens in her binocle. A blue contour crept around the image of the pillars upholding the freeway in her right eye.
“Good,” Sierra turned to Roman, “See that over there?”
She pointed to a devastated waste ground sheltered by the width of the freeway that ran several dozens of feet above.
Discarded items of furniture littered the ground. The building underneath had crumbled beyond recognition.
A depressing vision of what was once a vibrant living community, now vacated.
“Yes, I see,” Roman said as he lifted his forearm to his mouth, “What happened to this place?”
Sierra fastened her jacket and tucked the ends of her blue hair under her headgear.
“Perimeter Zee. A few years ago the entire area was due to be demolished to make way for USARIC’s expansion.”
“It didn’t happen?”
“No,” Siyam interjected. “They forced everyone out. Took their time relocating the citizens elsewhere. The place is a breeding ground for all sorts of trouble.”
“Yeah,” Sierra said. “And if it’s trouble they want, it’s trouble they’ve got.”
Roman raised his forearm to his mouth, “Suttle? This is Roman. Come in. Transmission oh-one-seven.”
Suttle drove the commandeered blue van along Interstate Ten, trailing behind Amelia’s gray vehicle.
“—Do you read me, Suttle?” Roman’s voice came through the speakers.
Suttle looked up and smiled.
“Yes, I hear you. We’re approaching J-Twenty, now.”
“Good. Is Amelia still with you?”
“She’s ahead of me.”
Roman’s excitement flowed through his voice, which pleased Suttle, “Listen, we’re at Perimeter Zee. It’s just to the left when you turn off the junction. You can’t miss it. It’s a real hell hole.”
“We’ll be there in five minutes.”
Suttle looked over his shoulder and saw Lydia making a fuss over Bobbie in the first passenger seat.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m just a bit tired.”
“Keep your energy up, young lady. I have a surprise for you.”
“Really? What is it?”
“Ha. All in good time, Lydia.”
Suttle followed the gray van as it veered to the right and exited the freeway at Junction Twenty.
“Suttle. This is Amelia. Hit the gas. We’ll have IRI-Two follow us to the meet point.”
“Understood.”
VROOOOOM.
Suttle hit the gas and traveled alongside Amelia’s van as they traversed along the junction exit.
BLAAARRRREEEEE.
He hit the horn as his van ran alongside IRI-Two and waved at Joseph, the driver.
Suttle lifted his head and spoke into the microphone at the side of the dashboard.
“IRI-Two. Do you read me?”
“Yes,” Joseph said, “I can see you, too.”
“Don’t get smart with me, dickhead,” Suttle said. “My friends and I will escort you to the extraction point. Next turn-off before the underpass.”
Shane, one of six kidnapped border guards, watched the waste ground loom into view through the windshield. A giant shadow formed from the interconnecting freeway roads several feet above it.
“Perimeter Zee?” he gasped. “Oh, no.”
“What?” his colleague asked.
“That’s five miles from R&D,” he said. “What are they planning?”
“There’s nothing we can do about it now, Shane,” his colleague said. “Sit back down before someone sees you.”
The shade from the overhanging freeway slipped over the vehicle and blanketed everyone inside in near-darkness.
Shane freaked out. He didn’t know where to turn.
“Two IRI vans, one blue, one gray,” he counted in his mind, “One of them is crammed with pissed-off Russian scum. The hellhole is a comms black hole. No one will know they’re there. What are they planning—?”
“Sit down, Shane.”
“No.”
He ran up to the cage that barricaded Joseph, “Hey, you.”
“What?”
“Are they telling you to go to Perimeter Zee?”
“Yes. The guy just told me to follow—”
“—Don’t turn off,” Shane snapped. “Just head straight to the end of the junction and continue.”
“What, are you crazy?” Joseph barked.
The one and only opportunity to turn left and into the perimeter loomed in the distance. Joseph could follow Suttle’s instruction and turn off, or defy him and continue dead ahead - and risk death itself.
“If you turn off and go in they’ll execute us,” Shane said.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Joseph yelled. “If I don’t turn off that madman will press the button.”
“So we’re dead either way?”
Suttle steadied his speed alongside the van and clocked Shane standing behind the driver’s seat.
“Joseph?” Suttle’s voice blasted through the speakers, “What’s that asshole doing standing up?”
The driver began to sweat as the turning zoomed towards him, “Umm, I, uh, don’t—”
“—Goddamn it.”
Suttle lifted his glove and slammed it against the window for Joseph to see.
“You want me to hit the button?”
“No-no,” Joseph pleaded into his microphone, “Don’t—”
“—You’d better turn into the Perimeter as instructed, or I’ll hit the button. Do you understand me?”
VROOOOOOOM.
Suttle stepped on the gas and drove his van in front of IRI-Two.
“Turn left. I repeat, turn left now.”
Shane started to hyperventilate and gripped the back of Joseph’s seat, “Uh, uh, I—”
“—I’m turning left. We’re all dead if I don’t.”
Shane wiped his brow and whimpered, “They’re going to kill us. It’s the perfect place to get rid of our bodies, Oh God, oh God—”
“—Would you fricken calm down? You’re scaring me.”
Suttle’s blue van entered the slip road. In five seconds’ time, Joseph and IRI-Two would follow.
Or not.
“What do I do? What do I do?” Joseph squealed, his fingers shaking across the steering wheel.
Suttle bit his lip and finally came to his sense, “You’re right. We’re definitely dead if we don’t do it.”
“W-Why would they have us drive all this way through Manning state if they just wanted to kill us?” Joseph asked.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Shane whispered.
He turned to his petrified USARIC colleagues at the back of the van. They wanted to live, and seemed to beg Shane to allow Joseph to follow the instructions.
Shane turned to the windshield and took a deep breath.
“Okay, do it.”
Joseph steered the wheel to the left and joined the raggedy road that led to the battered Perimeter.
“Uhhhh,” Shane muttered. “I sure hope we made the right decision.”
***
Perimeter Zee - a smog-laden disaster zone tucked under a series of roads sealing it off from natural sunlight.
Burning oil cans and smashed items of furniture littered the stinking, blackened ground. An apocalyptic vision of a place that might have thrived in a better and more appreciative economy.
Joseph drove IRI-Two into the perimeter and slowed to a halt next to Rana’s truck.
Suttle’s threatening tone scared the occupants, “Wait inside your vehicle until you receive further instructions.”
Joseph watched Suttle and Amelia’s IRI vans park up in front of the truck through the driver’s window.
Roman, Saad, Sierra, Siyam, and a young child named Remy warmed themselves beside a burning trash can. They turned to see Suttle open his van door and waved him over.
“Okay, I understand,” Joseph said.
“Who the hell are they?” Shane asked, suddenly obsessed by the events taking place a few feet away from them.
Suttle opened his arms as he approached Roman and Saad, “Hah, haaaaah, there they are. Look at you, all dressed for war.”
Star Cat Forever: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Adventure (The Star Cat Series - Book 6) Page 10