Floxham Island ~ Sinclair V-Log AZ267/M (13 page)

“Okay guys,” I
hissed. “We won’t have the flying things to worry about, they’re
night workers but we will have all manner of others. Just one thing
by the way; those hunch backed things have shit eyesight so if they
corner you, keep still and shut up. They work off sound and
possibly smell too so if you keep quiet and don’t fart, they won’t
know you’re there. Just wait until they go away and save ammo. If
anyone wants to back out, now’s your last chance.”

“We need eyes
on each side and at the rear too,” Dex ordered. “Come on guys, make
a formation huh?” The plan of the island showed the lab to be right
on the opposite side of the roughly circular area on which the
facility was built, so we knew where we were going. We turned to
our left and set off to make our way around to the rear of the
Admin Block, trying not to look at the corpses that littered the
ground. In this hot sunshine they were getting extremely smelly and
a couple of the guys coughed as they breathed in. Some of them were
ones we removed in our hastily arranged clean up operation, but
many lay were they’d died. Not a single one was intact and there
were many single limbs and a couple of heads lying about. This was
the most horrific sight I had ever seen and I knew I’d be having
some sleepless nights over it. As we followed the path around the
gentle curve we saw a long low building, separated into five
different sections come into view to our right.

“That’s the
main storage facility and shopping sector,” Luggs hissed. “Right
next to it is the shuttle landing pad. If we get short of anything,
that’s where ya go guys.” It wasn’t until we got further around to
the rear of the cell wings that we noticed the huge rent in the
storage facility roof. A large flap of the metal roofing material
curved up and back and several broken pieces lay on the ground.
Several of the shop doors were smashed off their hinges and boxes
and cans lay strewn about as litter fluttered around in the gentle
breeze.

“Well it’s no
surprise that the stores are gonna be a target huh?” Carl hissed.
“Guess I’ll be making do with nutri vend after all.” Luggs snorted
and grinned as he nodded in response.

“Keep that
building in your sights at all times guys,” Dex ordered. “With all
that food stored inside there could be any number of creatures in
there at any time of day or night okay?” We continued around to the
rear of the cell wings and soon found ourselves looking at a large
square building; the sign that hung limply from the post at the
crossroad of three paths telling us this was the recreation centre.
Every window was smashed through and the double doors stood open,
propped there by a couple of chairs. It was surrounded on all sides
by large gardens in which trees swayed gracefully in the gentle
breeze. Short blue grass grew everywhere, lush from the generous
rainfall and the tender care of the island’s gardeners. Shrubs and
bushes afforded us a little cover as we made our way forwards and
we all noticed one of them had bright red flowers that smelled
divine. A large pond flanked the right hand side of the Recreation
Centre building with seats placed here and there around its
edge.

“Keep that
building to our left guys,” Flark said. “It’s the most direct route
to the lab which should be directly behind it.” There was just time
to think that his last comment was probably tempting fate when we
heard a loud roar from somewhere out of sight up ahead.

“Shit,” Luggs
hissed as he readied his laser rifle and snapped his head from side
to side. “Where the fuck is that coming from?” The roar came again,
definitely from somewhere up ahead.

“It’s in front
guys,” I said as Flark and Dex both nodded. “Somewhere up ahead.”
Ahead of us was the corner of the recreation centre building. We
ran to it and hugged the wall, thankful that there were no windows
on this side through which something with large teeth could grab at
us.

“It must be
around the corner up ahead,” Flark said, nodding towards where the
wall we were all hugging, ended a hundred yards or so ahead of us.
Before I could reply the roar came again, accompanied this time by
three similar roars.

“Oh shit,” I
sighed aloud. “It’s got friends.”

“Well we have
two choices,” Baz whispered. “We either wait it out here and make
them come to us, or we work our way to that corner and see what
happens.” I didn’t like either of those choices and judging by the
lack of response from the others, neither did they.

“Maybe they’re
not roaring at us,” Grelly offered with a shrug. “Maybe it’s just
saying hi to its pals. Maybe they’re fighting between themselves.
Maybe they’re fucking. We won’t know if we stand here scratching
our balls. We gotta move guys.” Even though we were all scared out
of our wits, we all knew he was talking sense. We couldn’t just
stand here; we needed to get beyond that corner to reach the lab
anyway. We had no choice but to move.

“For fuck’s
sake I’m sick and tired of all this shit,” Luggs said as he stepped
away from the wall and strode along the path towards the corner
with what was either the most hideously reckless abandon, or
extreme bravery. Dex shouldered his rifle and stepped after him,
followed by Baz, myself, Flark and then the six other inmates. We
stepped out from the relative safety of the wall and took in the
scene. In the large open parkland surrounded by the recreation
centre behind us, the hospital and forensic lab ahead, the
accommodation sector to the far left and the antenna and workshops
to our right, a standoff was taking place. Two groups of creatures
circled the prize that lay between them. Several corpses lay in a
heap, steaming and rotting in the hot sun; the stench bringing
tears to our eyes. One group were hairless, fat bodied things that
walked on all fours; each of their slightly too long legs sporting
one hoof and one vicious claw. At a rough guess they were about the
size of a grown man, although their fat bloated bodies looked way
out of proportion to the rest of them. A wide, blocky head sat atop
a short but fat neck; the long, narrow jaws opening wide to reveal
short curved teeth designed for ripping and tearing. Each had a
long, hairless whippy tail at the other end that thrashed
constantly. These were the source of the roars we could hear and we
all reckoned they would carry for miles on the air. Those roars
were aimed at the other group that faced them in this standoff and
as I looked at them, I gasped in shock and looked at Dex who stood
next to me, equally amazed.

The three of
them stood roughly eight feet high, bipedal and covered with long
sandy brown hair from head to toe with a darker stripe running down
the back from the top of the head to the base of the spine. Their
heads were slightly pointy on top and I could see very pronounced
brow ridges that made me momentarily think of Luggs. I shook the
thought away as I watched them facing the fat, bloated, roaring
things; silent and staring despite the cacophonous roaring.

“My god they’re
humanoid,” Baz remarked behind me and I just nodded in shock.
Suddenly, one of the fat, bloated things leapt across the no man’s
land between the two groups towards the hairy humanoids who still
stood silently waiting. The middle one then stepped forward and
caught the creature in mid air and, grabbing one of its front legs
in each hand, ripped its front legs clean off and dropped the rest
to the floor where it lay screeching in its death throes. Two of
the remaining fat creatures lunged forward as one towards the three
upright sentinels as the remaining one lost its nerve and turned on
its heels and ran off across the park towards the accommodation
sector. Within thirty seconds all was quiet; the roaring creatures
pulled limb from limb by the three strange humanoids who still
hadn’t uttered a sound. As they turned to leave, the smallest of
the three suddenly turned and looked right at us; holding our gaze
for long moments before rejoining his fellows and disappearing
behind the other side of the recreation centre building. What I saw
in those few moments will stay with me for the rest of my life and
will, no doubt, haunt my dreams from time to time. What I saw was
not wild survival driven by instinctive, animalistic urges. What I
saw was intelligence, understanding and comprehension. What I saw
was myself looking back at me. I was so shocked I couldn’t speak or
move and it wasn’t until I felt someone shaking my shoulder that I
shook my head and came to.

“Did you see
that?” I whispered. “Did you see what I saw?”

“Yeah, I saw it
Sam,” Dex replied, his eyes wide and as unbelieving as mine must’ve
been. “I saw it but I don’t believe it.”

“It knew,” a
small voice behind me said and I turned to find Boy with tears in
his eyes staring back at me. “It knows,” he repeated and we all
understood and nodded. “It knows what it is. It has understanding
of itself. They’re just like us.”

“It’s gonna
take me a long time to get my head around this shit,” I said as I
ran my fingers through my hair, “and I may never achieve that but
one thing I do know is that they never tried to kill us or harm us,
so I say we avoid killing them unless they directly attack us
okay?” Everyone nodded immediately.

“It would be
like killing another person in cold blood,” Luggs remarked. “I
couldn’t do that, not after it looked at me that way. Shit that’s
gonna give me goose bumps for months.”

“Okay guys
let’s go,” I said. “The lab is just across the park, at the right
hand side of the hospital. The sooner we get there and check the
place out and make it safe, the better.” We set off towards the
lab, the wide open space all around us making us all nervous and
jumpy. Halfway across a voice from my right made us all stop dead
in our tracks.

“Hey guys,
we’ve got company at three o clock.” My heart fell as I snapped my
head around and saw the huge lumbering hunch backed thing stomping
towards us.

“Okay now quiet
guys,” I hissed. “Those guys are blind in daylight but they can
hear a butterfly farting three miles away so stand still and shut
up until it’s gone, and no farting either just in case it has a
great sense of smell too.” The smell of the pile of corpses must be
quite a draw and I suddenly wished we weren’t so close to the
source of that smell. It stomped towards us, head bobbing from side
to side so its ears and nose could guide it towards the heap. As
the seconds ticked by agonisingly slowly, it passed within a few
feet of us and I’ll go to my grave swearing on oath that not one of
us dared to breathe for several minutes. The ground shook as it
stomped past us and I slowly brought my head around and followed it
with my eyes as it headed right for the pile. Still not daring to
move, I watched as it circled, sniffing its way to the tastiest
morsel.

“When I say, we
move silently towards the lab. Okay guys?” I whispered. “Wait for
my word or we’re all dead.” As patiently as I could, I watched the
creature as it continued to circle the pile and then lady luck
smiled upon us. With its back to us, it dropped its head and began
to eat. “Now,” I hissed. Together, the twelve of us ran on tip toes
towards the lab building up ahead and even through the seriousness
of the situation, the sight of Dex, a large black man with a
military bearing tip toeing along like a ballet dancer, carrying a
laser rifle in one hand and an Incendipulse gun in the other, was
so hilarious I had to force myself to look away for fear of
bursting out laughing.

Right umm, I’m
gonna sign off now. I’m tired and need to take a shower and hit the
sack. I’ll pick you all up again in the morning after breakfast.
This is V-log reference AZ267/M, data log reference point
2458712/6543. Good night all.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Morning folks.
This is V-log reference AZ267/M, continuing report. Data log
reference point 2458712/6544.

Now where was
I? Oh yeah, the lab. Y’know, those hairy humanoid things really
shocked the wind out of me. I guess everyone knows a little about
evolution but we’re all used to being what we are today, right now
and I suppose it’s natural for us to believe we’re the only truly
sentient beings out there. It’s not until you’re faced with
something like those things we saw that you realise how far we’ve
come and y’know, there was just something completely unsettling
about looking into those eyes and seeing what we saw looking back
at us. The fact that it looked basically humanoid didn’t bother me
so much, or any of the other guys but the understanding in those
eyes, the awareness, that’s what did it. It was as if, in that
moment when it locked eyes with us, it spoke to us about ourselves
and unless I’m going completely crazy I swear I saw disappointment
in those eyes. In fact, Baz told me later that he reckoned it
looked at us accusingly, as if it was asking us what the fuck we
were doing and where we thought we’d gone wrong. Several minutes
later I realised it was shame that looked back from those eyes. Not
the self critical shame of someone who knows he’s said something
offensive and feels bad but too embarrassed to apologise but the
sort of shame when you look at someone and realise you’re not that
proud to be the same race or species.

Anyway, we ran
as silently as we could on tip toes across to the lab and made for
the far wall so the building would be between us and the dinner
party going on behind us. The main entrance was halfway down this
end wall, flanked by windows on either side.

“We’re nearly
there guys,” I hissed as I got my breath back. “Let’s check through
these windows before we make for the door though. We don’t want to
go bursting in there until we know what may be hiding or sleeping
in there.” Dex was at the front of our group so he edged forward
and peered in the first window, cupping a hand to block out the
light.