Star Cat Forever: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Adventure (The Star Cat Series - Book 6)

by Andrew Mackay

  “It’s gonna kill us,” screamed another as he ran past Maar.

  A creature wailed from within the building.

  SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE.

  Sierra’s drone whizzed over to Maar, “What the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know.”

  KERRAAACCKKK - WHUMP.

  The Research entrance doors exploded, showering the escaping medicians in glass.

  Maar, Brayn, Arden, and Santiago raced towards the building, weaving in and out of the exodus of medicians yelling for their lives.

  Maar yelled as he ran into the building, “Brayn, get in there and kill something.”

  “Hey,” Sierra’s drone yelled. “Get back here.”

  Scores of USARIC mercenaries s aimed their guns at Sierra’s drone.

  “Stop the detonators,” one of them barked, as the employees raced around in a frenzied panic.

  ***

  Back at Perimeter Zee, Sierra watched the live feed from her drone hover in the palm of her hand.

  A mercenary swung the barrel at the lens.

  “Hey, get back here,” she spat as the others watched, anxiously. “Goddamn it.”

  “You’re not gonna blow the van, are you?” Siyam asked.

  “IT’S NOT A THINLY VEILED THREAT,” she screamed into the air and pointed at Suttle in the blue van.

  “You.”

  “What?”

  “Press the button. Do it.”

  Remy punched the air with excitement, “Yeah, do it. Blow the bastards up.”

  “What if Jelly and Hughes are in the training facility, though?” Siyam asked. “You’re not seriously contemplating calling Sheck’s bluff, are you?”

  Sierra lowered her hand and sighed at the top of her lungs.

  “I don’t think it is worth the risk,” Roman suggested.

  “Think, damn it, think,” Sierra muttered. “If they were genuinely in the building, would Maar risk the van going off? Would he?”

  “Probably. He’s a madman,” Remy said.

  Suttle ran his finger over the button and made eyes at Sierra, “We have twenty seconds left to prove we’re not fooling around.”

  Sierra faced a peculiar dilemma.

  Her eyes ran to the live footage in her palm. The Research Center’s walls shattered amid dozens of USARIC mercenaries firing at the entrance.

  The alarms and commotion funneling out of her wrist from the scene were hard to ignore

  “We need to move, and fast,” Siyam said. “We can’t not blow the place up and then do nothing. God knows what they’ll do to Anderson and Hughes. We have no choice.”

  “We have no choice,” Sierra repeated under her breath. “We have no choice. We’ve gone past the point of no return.”

  Suttle waved his gloved hand around to get Sierra’s attention. The blinking button begged to be pressed.

  “It’s now or never, Sierra?”

  Sierra took a lungful of air and thumped the side of the blue van, “Damn it. Damn it. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. We could have just taken her and Hughes and drove off. Do these assholes want war, or what?”

  “That’s a dangerous questions to ask,” Suttle said. “Five seconds.”

  She turned her attention to Lydia in the back of the blue van. The girl’s eyes looked deeply troubled.

  Suttle slid his finger over the button on his glove, “Three seconds. Two, one—”

  “—No, wait. Don’t press it,” Sierra said. “Christ, I’m gonna regret this.”

  She ran between the mack truck and Amelia’s gray van and held out her arms.

  “Listen up, everyone. Change of plan. We can’t blow the van. We can’t take the risk.”

  The Misfits in the back of Amelia’s van groaned with disappointment, as did Remy.

  “Ugh, cowardly yanks,” the boy snorted.

  Sierra ignored his remark and continued, “Plan B is worse. We’re going in and taking her ourselves.”

  “Woohooo!” everyone yelled.

  “Are you ready to die for what you believe in?”

  “YEAH,” came the response from the troops inside.

  Suttle lowered his hand and didn’t join in the merriment.

  Amelia screamed and thumped the steering wheel, “Let’s do it.”

  Suttle and Amelia fired up their vans’ engines.

  VROOOOOOOOOM — VROOOOOOOOOM.

  “Hold tight, Lydia,” Suttle said. “Things are about to get—”

  “—No, for God’s sake. What do you think you’re doing?” Sierra yelled.

  “But, you said to—”

  “—She’s not coming with us. Lydia, get out and join Rana in the truck, please. Where you’re safe.”

  Roman nodded approvingly at Sierra.

  “Okay?”

  “Okay,” he said as he approached the doors to the blue van.

  Lydia jumped out of the vehicle with the purring Bobbie in her arms.

  “What am I doing?”

  Roman crouched before her and held her face in his hand, “Daddy has to go and fight.”

  “Can I come with you?”

  “No, sweetie. It’s much too dangerous.”

  The thick smog coughed out of van’s tailpipe and rushed across the ground.

  “Lydia?” Sierra asked. “Go and sit with Rana in the truck. You’ll be safe with her. She’s my very special friend.”

  Lydia processed the news and blinked at her father.

  “But will you be safe, Daddy?” the girl asked. “If you go?”

  “Meow,” Bobbie added.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Can you promise?”

  He looked his daughter in the eyes and hoped his next line would turn out to be the truth.

  “Of course. I promise.”

  She seemed satisfied with the answer and tried for a smile, “Okay.”

  “For your mother. Okay?”

  “Yes. For mom.”

  He pecked her on the forehead.

  “You have to protect little Bobbie, here. Okay? Make sure she’s safe.”

  The cat stretched her limbs and relaxed in the crook of Lydia’s elbow.

  “Meow.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay,” Roman smiled. “Off you go.”

  WHUMP — WHUMP.

  Sierra knocked on the driver’s side of the truck, “Rana?”

  “Yeah? You want me to take care of the girl?”

  “That’s right. Look, wait here. Keep your Viddy Media open. Back the truck under the underpass and wait for my signal.”

  “Okay,” Rana said as she watched Roman help Lydia up the giant steps and into the front compartment.

  Bobbie hopped onto the seat and rubbed her head against Rana’s thigh.

  “Hey, girl.”

  “Rana?” Sierra asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “If we’re not out of there in twenty minutes then assume it’s all over. Just, you know, get as far away from this hell hole as you can and head north.”

  “And if you’re out in twenty minutes?”

  Sierra knew she and her team were about to die and found Rana’s blind optimism quite humorous.

  “Ha. Well, if we’re not all dead, then prepare to take a Jelly Anderson-and-Alex-Hughes-shaped consignment in the back.”

  “I’ll be here, ready and waiting for exactly that. Don’t let me down,” Rana lied, upholding the pretense that this suicidal endeavor had any chance of success.

  Sierra closed her palm, cutting off the live feed from her drone.

  Rana fought the urge to cry, “I love you. I hope you know that.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Sierra couldn’t look her friend in the face. She ran up to the blue van, climbed in and bopped Suttle on the shoulder.

  “Right, let’s go. RAISE HELL.”

  VROOOM — VROOOM — VROOOOOOOOMMM.

  Both the blue and gray van full of Misfits and the rebels bolted out from the Perimeter Zee grounds and darted towards the US
ARIC Research & Development entrance.

  Rana perched her elbow on the driver’s door frame of the mack truck and watched her friends shrink into the horizon, towards certain death.

  Sierra’s voice flew out from the dashboard, “Rana? Do you read me?”

  “Yes, sweetie. I read you.”

  “ETA thirty seconds, and we’re busting right through the gates and taking what’s ours,” she said over the sound of the roaring van engine.

  “Good luck.”

  Lydia licked her lips and stroked Bobbie’s arms, “They are going to be okay, aren’t they?”

  Rana sighed and turned the lens on her binocle as she watched the two vehicles storm into the horizon.

  “Yes, sweetie. Of course they are,” she lied through her teeth.

  — Bay 70 —

  The iron shackles securing Jelly’s wrists together had tightened. They pinched at her fur, causing a prolonged and continued irritation.

  She felt her eyelids get heavier as her head hung over her shackled wrists.

  “Feeling tired, Jelly?”

  Julie scanned the E-MRI unit and secured the wires attached to Jelly’s chest.

  Her nostrils flared as she grunted, “Yes. Tired.”

  “What’s the matter, honey? Feeling dizzy? Like your head’s about to fall off?” she joked.

  “Very funny,” Jelly snorted. “I’ll have to remember that.”

  “You sure told everyone watching what you thought, though,” Julie said. “I’m still not quite sure I believe what’s happened to you.”

  “I meant every word I said.”

  Julie pressed the final pad to Jelly’s right breast and looked at the results on her membrane.

  “It’s interesting. There’s no trace of whatever Hughes and your daughter are carrying. Jelly?”

  Julie glance at the cat’s hanging tongue which resembled the size of a small duvet.

  Bip-bip-bip.

  A sliver of light ran up the length of Jelly’s body, from the soles of her feet to the top of her head.

  Julie scanned the result on her membrane, “My God.”

  “What’s interesting?” Jelly asked, trying to stay awake.

  “Latest measurement has you clocking in at twenty-five feet and four inches.”

  Jelly kept her eyelids half over her eyes as she spotted the keys to her shackles hanging from the woman’s belt.

  GRUNT — SNORT.

  “You’re growing something like four inches per hour, Jelly—”

  “—Where are they keeping her?”

  The sudden question took Julie by surprise. She adjusted her glasses and cleared her throat, trying to stall the answer.

  “Keeping who, honey?”

  “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

  GRUNT.

  Jelly felt her patience climb out of her ear and run off out of the building, lost forever.

  “Where are they holding my daughter? I like you. I guess you’re technically my aunt. So, please, don’t make me ask you again.”

  “Oh, honey. I’m not allowed to tell—”

  Bip—Bip—Bip.

  The E-MRI indicated Jelly’s heart racing quicker and quicker.

  “Damn it, I gave them what they wanted. Now give me what I want—”

  “—No, honey, please. Don’t ask me—”

  “—DON’T YOU DARE CALL ME HONEY,” Jelly roared so violently that Julie’s hair lifted away from her shoulders, “Only one ar-Ban ever got to call me honey, and she’s dead.”

  “Oh m-my G-God,” Julie stammered, near to tears, “J-Jelly, b-but—”

  “—You’re making me ask again.”

  SHUNT — KERRAACKK.

  Jelly rammed her hands against the table and cracked the tabletop.

  Julie froze in shock, unable to speak. She felt around the wall for the security button, but her hand was nowhere near it.

  “I, uh—Jelly,” she stuttered with fear. “I gotta g-go get—”

  Jelly scowled at her face and licked her mouth, “You g-gotta g-go whu-whuh where?” she mocked.

  Julie’s hand reached the alarm button. “P-Please—”

  “—If you press the button I’ll kill you,” Jelly snapped. “Go on. Press it and see what I do.”

  Jelly lifted her wrists up and attempted to separate them.

  CLANG.

  The iron restraints groaned as they broke apart.

  “I’m getting too big for this bay, huh?” Jelly sneered.

  “Y-Yes. Th-that’s right.”

  “Maybe in a few minutes I’ll be too big for these damn cuffs, too.”

  Julie began to hyperventilate, “I guh, I guh—”

  “—What’s the matter, ar-Ban?” Jelly quipped in anger. “Feeling dizzy? Like your head’s about to fall off?”

  “Yuh-yuh,” she struggled and felt a weakness in her knees. The only thing holding her upright was her hand gripping the alarm, “I can’t—”

  “Untie me. Come here and give me the keys.”

  “N-Noooo—”

  RAAAAMM — CRACK.

  A wave of shattered table dust kicked into the air as Jelly’s knees collided with it.

  “GODDAMN IT, AR-BAN. UNTIE ME.”

  Julie struggled back to her feet and moved her hand off the alarm, “I c-can’t. They’ll k-kill me—”

  “—I’ll kill them,” Jelly shrieked. “Now, untie me.”

  Just as Julie reached into her belt, the building’s alarm sounded off.

  ARROOOOOGAAAHH.

  “Huh?” Julie looked up at the bright ceiling, “Wh-what’s that?”

  GRUNT.

  Jelly’s ears pricked up as she noticed the ground and walls rumble.

  “Attention, attention,” the exterior alarm speakers announced, “This is not a drill. The alarm has been triggered. Please make your way out of the building and convene at assembly point A.”

  SCHTAMM — SCHTAMMM.

  A deathly smashing sound rifled into the corridor, followed by a dampened wash of human squeals and howls.

  Julie opened the door and peered down the corridor, “What the hell is going on—”

  “Aarrgghhhhh,” Rowan screamed as he dropped to his knees in front of Bay Thirty-Three, “Help, help.”

  Jonas and Nathan scurried back.

  WHUMP.

  Julie pushed the door shut and held her breath.

  “What’s happening out there?” Jelly asked in haste. “Why the alarms—”

  “—Oh God, oh God,” Julie gasped. “Something’s happening—”

  She turned around and opened the door once again, hoping she’d misheard, mis-seen, and misread the situation.

  Further down the corridor, Jaykay aimed his gun at the creature in Bay Thirty-Three.

  “Arrgggghhhh.”

  A large tentacle-like limb swung into the corridor and wrapped around Jaykay’s neck.

  BLAM — BLAM — BLAM.

  His gun fired off as the limb rammed his body against the ceiling.

  SCREEEEEEEEEEE!

  Jelly’s ears pricked up - she recognized that sound.

  “Alex?”

  Julie kept the door open, not knowing where to turn. “Huh? How do you know that—”

  “—Close the door,” Jelly squealed. “It’s the Shanta.”

  “What’s a Shanta?”

  “Jesus Christ, woman, close the damn door—”

  SCHLAMM.

  Jelly stood out of her chair and took the broken second half of the table with her.

  “Oh my God,” Julie shrieked.

  The wires attached to Jelly’s body snapped off one by one as she marched over to the door and presented her shackled wrists to the woman.

  “Listen—”

  “—Okay, okay.”

  “The same thing that’s happening to Alex happened to your sister.”

  “Huh?”

  “The virus,” Jelly snapped and held up her wrists for Julie to untie. “It turns you into a—uh, I dunno what it is, but
it has twelve limbs and it kills. Now untie me.”

  Utterly convinced, Julie reached into her belt and took out her key, “You-you p-promise not to hurt me—”

  “—I promise to kill you before that thing kills you first, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Uh, yes. Please.”

  Jelly watched Julie’s shaking hands slip the key into the lock and twist it to the right.

  TCH—CLUCK.

  The metal opened out and dropped to the floor, allowing Jelly to stretch her forearms and roll her shoulders.

  “Ahh, that feels great. Freedom.”

  CRACK — CRUCK.

  She cracked the knuckles in both hands and readied herself for action.

  “Now, let’s kill us some bad guys.”

  WHUMP — CLANG — SCHLAMMM.

  The noise of death from the corridor flew into the room.

  “Get back,” Jelly quipped to Julie and pointed at the E-MRI machine, “Keep the door closed and hide behind the annoying white thing by the wall.”

  “Okay,” Julie stormed across the shards of broken table and made her way to the beeping machine.

  The infinity claw at the end of Jelly’s index finger on her left hand pressed against her mouth.

  “Shhhhhh.”

  Julie slipped behind the machine. Just before she disappeared entirely, Jelly grunted at her.

  “What?”

  “Which bay is my daughter in?”

  Julie paused and decided to act against her best interests, “Bay Sixty-Five.”

  Jelly grinned and winked at her, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Now, go and kill that thing.”

  Jelly gripped the door frame with her right, claw-less hand and glanced at the far end of the corridor.

  Most of the USARIC medicians had escaped.

  Some, like Rowan, hadn’t been as lucky. Their bodies littered the ground as the Shanta cartwheeled up the corridor, making its way to Jelly.

  “Come here you ugly son of a—”

  SCREEEEEEEEEE.

  Jelly ran into the corridor and prepared to swipe the oncoming beast with the infinity claws on her left hand.

  “Come and get some, you ugly mother—”

  SCREEEEEE.

  Jelly pressed herself on all fours and bolted towards the creature. She pounced off her hind feet, lifted her left hand and—

  SWIPE — KERRRAAAACKKK.

  She delivered a vicious sock to the monster’s midsection. Its slit opened up and bit at her wrist.