Red Waters

by Charles Rye

"Let me castrate the fucker already, please!" Soraf exclaimed, waving her dagger around.

  The man's eyes darted at Soraf, blowing air out of his nose.

  "Something you want to say?" Caliphar questioned removing the barrel of his gun from the man's mouth.

  "Die and go to Hell you bitch!"

  Caliphar shoved his gun barrel back into the man's mouth and pulled the trigger, blasting a hole through the back of the man's skull.

  A Wanted Man

  The haunting chorus of howls and whimpers filled the silent desert, echoing down into the underground shelter.

  Mordren was using this shelter as a secondary hideout, since his home had been destroyed by the blast from the meteorite.

  "Been several years since that damned meteorite hit down and there are still coyotes roaming around outside," He muttered to himself as he sipped his brandy.

  The howls sounded as if they were coming from inside the shelter with Mordren. The thought chilled him to the bone.

  "Not exactly the kind of company I'd prefer, but it's better than nothing. I guess." He sighed as he stepped up to the wall of monitors on the opposite side of the shelter.

  "Let's take a look at what's out there," He picked up the monitor remote from the table beside his armchair and pressed a button.

  One of the screens woke up to give him the perfect view of the entrance, surrounded by an array of booby traps.

  The monitor's heat sensor began to beep as a red light above the monitor blinked, alerting Mordren of detected movement just beyond the booby traps.

  The monitor, however, displayed nothing.

  "Stupid thing must be broken, there's nothing out there," He huffed at the monitor, annoyed by the incessant beeping.

  With another sigh he plopped himself down into his armchair.

  He kept an eye on the monitor as he finished his brandy.

  Something blurred across the screen all of a sudden, vanishing before the sensor could pick up a direct signal on whatever it was.

  Mordren jumped up from his chair, coming to stand before the monitor.

  He watched the screen intently, waiting for the blur to show again.

  The thing blurred across the screen again, vanishing as quickly as it had before.

  The sensor continued to beep.

  "What the heck is going on out there?" Mordren wondered to himself as he watched the monitor.

  Something with an elongated jaw and dead eyes appeared on the monitor, taking up half the screen as it stared directly into the camera hidden outside the booby traps.

  Mordren stared in shock at the creature, unable to look away from it. A sense of dread filled his gut.

  The creature stared at Mordren with its dead eyes a moment longer before vanishing from the screen.

  "What?"

  "Where'd it go?" He blurted out.

  He scanned the other monitors for any sign of the creature, hoping one of the other heat sensors would pick it up before it moved out of range.

  A second later, the creature reappeared, its cold dead eyes staring intently at Mordren through the monitor screen as if the thing knew he was there.

  It opened its jaw- revealing large, sharp fangs- before letting out an eerie howl.

  Mordren felt a chill run down his spine.

  "What is that thing doing?" He wondered, watching the screen intently.

  A second, much larger creature appeared on the screen; Mordren noticed it had a faded scar that ran down from its left eye to its cheek.

  "Playing with your prey, are you? Clever things, whatever the hell you are," He muttered.

  The ground beneath him began to rumble and the ceiling started to shake.

  Dust and dirt rained down on him.

  The monitor to the farthest right displayed his various booby-traps exploding without cause, sending dirt flying into the air.

  "That's impossible!" He exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

  He slowly sat back down. "If something set those off traps off, it's definitely dead now,"

  After the dirt settled and cleared, he could see a formation of men wearing identical uniforms, their faces covered by gas masks.

  "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Mordren exclaimed angrily, grabbing a gun from the wall beside him.

  "Bring it on, fuckers!" He kept an eye on the monitor, watching as the group of men marched forward through the now destroyed minefield.

  Something buried beneath the dirt burrowed on ahead of the men.

  He would never have known, except whatever it was gave on an intense heat signal that made the sensors go berserk.

  Upon reaching the entrance to his shelter, the burrowing creatures came bursting out from under the ground.

  They were revealed to be the same kind of creatures from before an entire pack of them.

  They came crashing through the doors and quickly surrounded Mordren, snarling and snapping their jaws at him.

  "Stand down!" a man's gruff voice ordered.

  The creatures slowly backed away from Mordren, obeying the command.

  A burly man came to stand in front of Mordren; the one that commanded the creatures back down.

  "State your name!" he demanded, his voice distorted by the gas mask.

  "State yours first," Mordren replied curtly.

  "You and your lot are trespassing, far as I'm concerned,"

  "Contain him!" the man snapped.

  Two others approached Mordren and each grabbed him by an arm.

  "Let go of me, you bastards!" Mordren shouted struggling to get free, the men tightening their grip on his arms.

  "Temper, temper," the burly man reprimanded, gazing at Mordren.

  "Seize all his weapons and gag him,"

  One of the men holding onto Mordren shoved something into his mouth to silence him.

  Mordren managed to growl something along the lines of "fuck you" around the gag.

  "Mutter and moan all you want. Eventually, you won't be able to talk at all," the man said with an evil smirk, patting one of the creatures on its head.

  Mordren rolled his eyes at the man, blowing air out his nose in annoyance.

  Meanwhile, the other men began to collect all the artillery from the wall, carelessly tossing them into a large burlap bag.

  Spitting out the gag, Mordren shouted at the men.

  "Have some fucking respect, you assholes!"

  "This one's definitely going to be a fighter. Sedate him," ordered the burly man.

  By then Mordren had deduced that he was the commanding officer.

  "Yes sir," replied on of the men restraining Mordren, retrieving a syringe from one of the various pockets on his uniform pants.

  He jabbed the needle into Mordren's arm, which caused him to cry out in surprise.

  A moment later, he was out cold.

  "I hate it when they talk," the commanding officer muttered.

  "We have all of the guns, sir," the men said in unison, both looking up at the commanding officer.

  "Good, let's get the fuck out of here." They began to march back outside.

  The two dragging Mordren were the last ones through the doors.

  They headed back to the cargo Jeep parked beyond the rocks and tossed the bag full of guns into the back.

  The duo at the rear lifted Mordren, now completely limp, up into the back seat before climbing up to sit on either side of him.

  The rest of the men took their seats as well, and their commanding officer sped off through the desert the pack of Destroyer running alongside the Jeep.

  They had reached a marker that told them they were half way from the base when Mordren began to stir, blinking his eyes open to see the two men who had restrained him sitting on either side of him.

  Quickly jumping up he managed to take the soldiers by surprise, butting the man to his right in the chin with his head causing him to fall out of his seat and out of the Jeep.

  Before the other man could make a grab for Mordren, he easily climbed over the side of the Jeep and rolled down the
side of a sand dune.

  "Apprehend him! We mustn't let him get away," their commanding officer ordered, suddenly stopping the Jeep as four of his men quickly obeyed and ran down the dune to catch Mordren before he could get up.

  "Fucking assholes!" Mordren shouted as loudly as possible as several of the Destroyers approached him, growling and drooling like starving, rabid mongrels.

  Pushing himself up onto his feet, he silently cursed the fact his hands had been tied behind his back as he kicked one of the Destroyers in the jaw before it could bite him.

  "I want him alive!" barked their commanding officer as the men approached Mordren, their guns trained on him as the Destroyers backed away.

  Mordren stared down the men surrounding him, chuckling like a lunatic as he noticed they were obviously apprehensive to get any closer even if he couldn't see their faces behind their masks.

  "Clearly I am going to have to show you lot I'm more than capable of fighting you with my hands tied behind my back, since that seems to be the case," He grinned darkly.

  "Come get me, you motherfuckers," Mordren taunted, simply standing still before the soldiers.

  The soldier closest to him suddenly moved toward him, making an attempt to strike him with the butt of his gun only to be stopped short as Mordren swung his leg upwards, knocking the gun into the sand.

  Before the man could react, he was hit in the side of the neck by Mordren' boot and knocked flat onto his back, looking up in time to see Mordren standing over him as he pressed his boot hard as possible against the man's throat until he heard a satisfying cracking sound.

  "That the best you pussies got?" He remarked looking up from the dead soldier at the others still surrounding him.

  "You call yourselves soldiers‚"

  Their commanding officer shoved past the small grouping to Mordren and stared down at him, he removed his mask to reveal a pale complexion, dark hazy green eyes, grayish brown hair and several scars across his cheeks.

  "Man‚ you should keep the mask on, you're one ugly ass motherfucker," Mordren remarked smugly to the commanding officer.

  "Stop being a smart ass, Mordren Marshall," the commanding officer spoke gruffly, eyeing Mordren.

  "How the Hell do you know my name?" Mordren blurted.

  "Come with us and I'll tell you everything I know about you,"

  "Or you could tell me right now and I won't kill you," Mordren retorted, blowing air out his nose.

  "I hate playing games, especially with criminals,"

  "Sedate him for good this time," the commanding officer ordered.

  "Yes sir!"

  A soldier stepped towards Mordren, a syringe in his hand.

  He jabbed the needle deep into Mordren' neck, causing him to go completely limp as two soldiers lifted him up by his arms and legs before carrying him back to the Jeep.

  "This time if he wakes up, knock his ass unconscious before he can get away," their commanding officer grunted, speeding away with the pack of Destroyers tailing the Jeep.

  Hostage

  Mordren shook his head as he slowly opened his eyes, his vision blurred for a moment before focusing on his surroundings.

  He had awoken in a circular concrete room but it was upside down from his point of view.

  Looking up at the ceiling, he noticed he had been strung up and chained by his legs on a rusty hook screwed into the concrete ceiling.

  "Son of a motherfucking bitch‚" He muttered angrily, folding his arms over his chest.

  The solid metal door that led into the enclosed room opened enough to allow a soldier through before closing and locking it behind him.

  The soldier stepped towards Mordren and gave him a satisfied smirk, his left arm behind his back to conceal his weapon.

  "Glad to see you're finally awake, we were afraid we might have killed you by accident with the injection," He spoke with a slight grin at the fact Mordren was within eye contact with the man's crotch.

  "Well we certainly couldn't have that, I wouldn't want your precious time and effort to take me as a captive go to waste," Mordren remarked sarcastically rolling his eyes at the soldier.

  Annoyed by Mordren' remark, the soldier quickly moved his left arm from behind his back, revealing his weapon to be a mere cattle prod and jabbed it against Mordren' arm, sending a sharp electric shock through his muscles.

  "You little cock sucking ass monkey!"

  "What the fuck was that for?" Mordren shouted, shaking his good arm trying to get rid of the pain.

  Mordren could hear the faint sound of growling coming from somewhere beyond the shadows of the room, it echoed around him as the sound bounced off the thick walls.

  "I'd be quiet if I were you, or you'll wake them up,"

  Mordren gave the soldier a curious look as the growling became slightly louder.

  "Wake what up?"

  "Them," the soldier replied nodding to the far end of the room behind Mordren.

  The growling proceeded to grow louder, followed by the sound of rattling chains against the concrete floor.

  Mordren began to laugh, the sound almost drowning out the growling.

  It was the soldier's turn to give Mordren a look of curiosity.

  "Are you crazy or something?" He questioned.

  "I've been called many things but crazy was never on my list,"

  "But you might be since you think a couple of chained up mutts is gonna scare me," Mordren chuckled, the movement causing his own chains to rattle.

  "I killed one of those fugly things before your commander brought me here, so here's what I'm thinking,"

  "Those mutts fear me far more than I fear them," He grinned smugly.

  "I was once one of the most feared professional hit-man before that stupid meteorite hit and caused such a damned mess,"

  "Why do you think we recruited you? We know all about you, Marshall," the soldier replied.

  "Recruited? What the fuck's that supposed to mean, recruited?"

  "You'll find that out soon enough, this room and those chains are the first step of‚ let's call it your initiation,"

  "Words are coming out of your mouth but it ain't making a lick of sense big guy," Mordren remarked.

  The soldier snapped his fingers and Mordren soon was surrounded by six Destroyers, all slobbering and growling staring at Mordren with their glossy white expressionless eyes.

  Mordren looked directly at the Destroyer closest to him, keeping eye contact as he spoke not caring whether the creature understood him or not.

  "I killed one of your little pack mates, his or her body being slowly picked over bit by bit by vultures,"

  "It was an effortless kill too, only had to break its jaw," Mordren said in a low voice, the Destroyer staring intently as if it understood his words.

  It growled at him, narrowing its eyes as it bared its long, sharp jagged teeth.

  "You understood me, didn't you?"

  The Destroyer blew air out of its nose in response, snarling at Mordren.

  "Your mutts aren't as stupid as I thought," He muttered at the soldier.

  The soldier didn't respond, instead he jabbed Mordren in the leg with the cattle prod sending a jolt of electricity through the muscles.

  "Motherfucking bitch!" Mordren shouted in anger.

  The soldier jabbed him in his other leg, sending another jolt of electricity through the muscles.

  "Such language, we're going to have to do something about that,"

  Another man walked into the room, slamming the door behind him with a loud metallic thud that echoed throughout the room.

  "You psychotic sons of bitches would cuss too if I jabbed you with one of those fucking cattle prods‚"

  The second soldier snapped his fingers and the Destroyer closest to Mordren snapped at him, its teeth leaving a jagged scar across his good arm as droplets of blood spilled onto the floor.

  "I've had just about enough from you pussy motherfuckers!" Mordren yelled, beginning to swing himself around violently in his chains,
punching the Destroyer that had bit him in the face.

  The creature whimpered and yelped in surprise when Mordren struck its face, causing it to snap at him again only to be stopped by Mordren' fist as he managed to hit the creature's jaw in an upward motion.