In general, I am a writer, which of course means, I know how to tell you anything and everything about people and places from other worlds and other times, well enough to make you believe you were old friends with them, and visited there for vacation, but, however, I have no idea at all how to tell you anything about myself.
As such, although many authors say in their blogs that they live and breath and talk about nothing but writing all the time, and would like to leave their blog as a place to do anything but, I am someone that can not figure out how that makes any sense at all. I live and breath and bask in my many, many worlds, and in all the many lives of their occupants... I honestly couldn't have a blog talk about anything else even if I wanted to. So, this blog will contain many things that are writing. Some of it will be me babbling about the my attempts at hammering together a book, others will be free short-stories to lose yourselves with.
And so, that is me... ... ...
So, ‘Natural Selection’ is done, and all that remains of it is the past posts that you can read and re-read ‘til your foot gets stuck from kicking yourself in the ass for not pushing for me to continue the project. But don’t fear, as a bonus for you, I shall provide you here with the DVD Extras. These are bits that I wrote in ‘Elimination’ that ended up getting changed for one reason or another, some of the bits got recycled, in what you got, while the rest was simply left in the scrap file (I’m sure I had to of mentioned this before, and if I haven’t, I am now: never delete large amounts of writing no matter how bad you think it is, always put it in a scrap file. There will always be bits in it that you’ll find useful that you would have lost otherwise—plus, it gives you something to put on your website to appeal to the fans—I’m going to have those some day)
This is the original version of how it started just after Bahb hit the button. I tried writing Father with a cliché Southern-draw, so trying to figure out his dialog was always interesting, making this speech fun to write, but in the end, it was just too much “blah, blah, blah” with nothing happening and was killing the pace. So, I pushed back the zombies (the fight with them was going to start in this story, but then decided it was more dramatic to end it with them coming), I put Bahb’s guards back because I couldn’t figure out any way to get him a weapon that wouldn’t just leave him hiding behind the aliens for most of the story (even though most of his efforts of fighting were useless, I needed to keep the concept of him not backing down—since that’s the direction that kept getting chosen, so I wanted to keep that reflected as such):
What is that—Oh-dear-god—“
There was a slight pause, and a popping sound that came from the other PA speakers, and Fathers voice came over all of them at once, “Attention, my children, this is your father. It would seem that Hell has opened its floodgates and we are in the direct path of its fury. You are the greatest of a whole new species of mankind—now is the time that you must prove yourselves! Now is the time you must fight for the survival of this species! Defend our children, defend our families—“
A load groaning sound came across the speakers, followed by the sounds of multiple gunshots, and them the speakers suddenly cut out.
The room was flooded with a red strobe and a blaring alarm, and the capsules containing Soo and the other alien began to drain of their fluid.
“They’re waking up now…” the unknown voice announced in Bahb’s mind.
The glass chambers started rising up in sync and the two grotesque creatures slumped over and dropped to the flood with a wet slosh, and with tentacles splayed about randomly. They lay limp and seemly lifeless in pools of excess liquid. Just as Bahb began to work up the courage to try to check them for signs of life, the being he knew as Soo began to move a tentacle, and then another, and then started to push herself upright. Shortly after, the other began to do the same.
Bahb went over to Soo and crouched to her level, “Are you ok?”
Soo looked at Bahb with a slit eye at the end of a long stalk, and directed the other towards her companion. Bahb looked between them, and notice they had their stares locked on each other.
“Am I missin’ something?” Bahb asked.
“They’re talking… I can hear them…” The voice stated, “Would you like to hear them too?”
“That would be—“ A piercing pain shot through Bahb’s mind, with him clasping his head with his arms, barely managing to stay on his feet. He suddenly heard the sound of thousands of voices, frantic and screaming. Slowly the voices began to calm, and filter down to fewer and fewer, until Bahb heard a conversation between only two.
“…they tried to hide him from us… the experiment is ordered to be brought to an end… all results so far must be cleansed…”
“Everything?”
“We are to retrieve the evidence of their violation… otherwise, everything must be subjected to elimination…”
“And so it must be… no one can escape the Selection!”
“What the hell is the damned ‘Selection’?” Bahb blurted out, “Everybody that has anything to do with this damn crazy cult keeps going on about ‘there’s no escaping the Selection’ or some crap—what the hell—“
A sudden sound like a surprised gasp sounded through Bahb’s mind from the two creatures. The one that was Soo suddenly began to melt into an abstract of itself, a multi-colored blob, phasing into a shade of skin, and sprouting arms and legs, and becoming the woman that Bahb had come to recognize as Soo—also naked again.
Soo examined Bahb with her infinitely dark eyes, “Bahb, were you able to hear us just now?”
“Um… yes…” Bahb answered with uncertainty.
With Bahb’s single word, he was alerted to the metallic sound of an unsheathing blade behind him. He turned and saw a man with long black hair, darkly tanned skinned, and narrowed black eyes, standing with his right armed formed into a long blade directed at Bahb’s temple.
Bahb narrowed his eyes to match that of the alien, “Is there a problem?”
“Who is this? He is not one of them…” Bahb heard in his mind.
“He was useful in getting in here… he may continue to be…” Soo’s mind responded, and then out loud to Bahb, “Bahb, how were you capable of hearing us communicating before?”
“Present tense—I still can,” Bahb responded, “And I really don’t know the how of it. There’s another voice that I’ve been hearing since I got here, aside from Scarlet’s and yers. I assumed it was me losing my mind, but then the crazy started becoming a bit more functional that is probably normal for crazy.”
“The other entity I detected earlier,” Soo announced in her mind.
“Is it the evidence?” The other asked.
“If you and yer naked friend here are just gonna stand here mind zapping each other, I’m gonna go back to finding Scarlet now,” Bahb interjected.
Bahb walked to the doorway leading to the outer lab, while grabbing a couple of lab coats and tossing them in the direction of the aliens, “If you don’t mind, you two are make it feel drafty in here.”
Bahb went to the main door. He glanced out the window noticing that his two guards seemed to no longer be anywhere in sight, “They must have been pulled away by whatever that commotion over the PA was…”
“Commotion?” Soo asked walking up behind him.
“Damn’it, is that thing still on—am I gonna be permanently incapable of a private thought?” Bahb said and continue, “When Father was speaking earlier, something was responded to with gunfire.”
“Kyriakos’Dionysodoros’Eli’Mongkut’Jorje,” Soo’s mind blurted out.
“Gesundheit…” Bahb responded, “Ok, that joke is weirder when it’s in my head. You mean that Jorje guy from the cemetery? What about ‘im?”
“Jorje guy?” The other alien responded out loud for the first time.
“They should have been here at least a month ago…” Soo said, “The hibernation must have weakened the signal… I am not sure what they were doing between time… no matter, the elimination has begun, and we must complete the mission now…”
Soo’s counter part crossed his bladed limb through the door and it fell to fragments before him.
“Not to sound like I’m criticizing the quality of yer handy work, there, but it was actually locked from the inside—where we presently are,” Bahb pointed out, “You happen to have a name?”
“Irfan’Ramachandra’Arjuna’Tafadzwa’Gaun” The alien responded while walking over the destroyed door and into the corridor.
“Ok…. Gaun… what’s the plan? If you two are gonna start escaping, that’s fine, but I still gotta find Scarlet before I go anywhere—with or without the either of you,” Bahb paused, “But, I’m not gonna lie, I’d rather have at least one of you incase I come up against another Evo along the way.”
“I believe the ‘Evos’ will be indisposed,” Soo responded, “However, I will accompany you, while… Gaun… continues our mission.”
“Why are—“ Gaun started in his mind.
“Silence! Follow my command!” Soo responded with Gaun simply giving a subservient nod and began making his way down the corridor at an unreal pace.
And this is the alternate final fight between Bahb and Soo. Originally, Bahb actually got Father’s pistol-cannon, because I just completely loved the idea behind that gun, but after re-reading what I wrote, I declared that the fact that I just juiced Bahb up like a Super-Evo wasn’t really being sold the way it needed to be. So, I took away the gun, pointed out the healing, the reflexes, the strength, and just hand-to-hand stuff:
Bahb gripped the pistol-cannon and became one with it, turning on his heels; he aimed at the charging Soo, and fired an explosion of thunder, sending its giant bolt through her chest, and being followed by another being sent through her right shoulder, completely removing her bladed limb. He then went to his feet and moving toward her, fired again, and again.
When he reached her, and stood over her switching body, it was phased between her human and original state in a fit of chaotic confusion. Bahb crouched down, and threw his fist through the grotesque thing that was Soo’s face until he felt soil behind it.
Father was awoken by a screeching scream, “Violation!” No other words, but a sensation of searing in the back of his mind, like a blazing path leading from him to the cause of the disruption.
He sat-up in his bed with the burning in his mind, while still dazed between wake and dream. The sensation bared the essence of his daughter, Kk’rin, and something else… something—“Oh, god, Kk’rin… what have you done now?”
He threw back the bed sheets, and walked quickly to the intercom, commanding that a carriage and retrieval party be assembled. Then he opened his wardrobe and began readying himself as best he could.
— — —
Kk’vin’s sister’s screams could be heard almost a full mile before the carriage carrying her even reached the compound’s gate.
“You can’t do this! You can’t keep me here!”
Kk’vin stood above the wall watching as it approached, and gave a slight wave to the men below to open the gate and allow the wagon through.
“Father, are you listening? I’ll get out at the first chance I get, you can’t keep me here!”
Kk’vin just shook his head as he listened to her pleas with even more energy than last time they brought her back. If it was anyone else, Father would have simply used his gaze and kept her from even opening her mouth, but with her, he just let her go as if punishing himself for some personal sin.
Kk’vin began climbing down the wall as the gate closed. He walked passed the farming zone where a group of children laughed as they played a game chasing each other through the corn field. He took in the sights of his family in the Church of the Evolution hard at work, allowing the compound to flow seamlessly. Father was only gone a short while retrieving Kk’rin, but Kk’vin hoped that the time of him being in charge would make his Father proud.
Kk’rin’s screams died out as a couple of his brethren carried her into the medical complex. Father wasn’t very clear about the conditions that spurred the urgency to retrieve her this time, so he had at least hoped that the stop at the complex was just an overly precautious Father giving his daughter a routine check-up.
Kk’vin approached the wagon and Father just now began to get out. The look on his face was filled with concern, and regret.
“You didn’t allow her words to get to you, did you, Father?” Kk’vin asked.
Father looked up at him with eyes that looked ancient and tired, “No, my son. Your sister has a right powerful set of lungs in her, and a tongue sharp enough to stab straight through her Father’s tender heart with precision, however…” he paused in a pained search for words, “I fear that she may have done something I simply do not know how to fix.”
— — —
Father left his son by the wagon to finish whatever chores he had left, and walked towards the sterilized room where his daughter was being prepared for her induction. The message glowing in his mind had shifted, “Elimination!” with the blazing path glowing like a sun.
What am I supposed to do now? He asked himself as he stared through the observation window at his struggling daughter.
He opened the door to the sterile smell and Kk’rin’s screams that were silenced as he forced his power upon her, an act he always regretted doing to any of his children.
Men in pure white that almost blended with the walls came in, and he nodded to them to begin. They went straight to work as Kk’rin groaned incoherently.
“You can’t… you can’t do this…” she managed to get out as the building pain in her gave her surges passed his hold over her.
My child, he thought as he looked away from the source of his own pain, I wish there was another choice.
“Please!” her scream echoed in his mind.
— — —
Kk’vin sat outside, anxiously waiting for any news of his sister as the door to the sterilized room finally opened up. One of his brethren came out dressed in pure white, randomly blotched with red, carrying what looked like a bundle of blankets. Kk’vin would have concluded that he was simply disposing of a pile of soiled linen, if the bundle didn’t suddenly begin to scream with a screeching wail.
As he started to creep a peek into the bundle, Father came out of the room.
“Kk’vin,” he said with such a commanding tone, that Kk’vin couldn’t help but bring himself to attention, “I need you to find this man, and cleanse him of his sins against the Church of the Evolution,” as Father spoke, his mind projected an image into Kk’vin’s head—A gunslinger, by the name of Bahb.
“Yes, Father”
— — —
Kk’rin lay on a cot attached to the wall of a cell she had been in many times before as her version of a “time-out.” They were still examining, poking, and prodding and every other kind of test they could think of, on her neonate son in a complex just a building over. She could feel every sensation running through the child’s mild in wonder of all the new sights so clearly, they almost felt like her own. It was an odd feeling of displacement—a growing consciousness for nine months inside of you, blind to anything beyond you, but now a building over and seeing everything.
She forced her mind away from her child for the moment, and focused on the mind of Father, “Now that you have me here, what do you plan to do to keep me this time?”
She found him in the lab with the creature. He watched as the tentacled thing hibernated in its tube. She could hear single words being transmitted, “Violation,” “Elimination,” and “Retrieval!”
Her mind was suddenly struck with the destruction of her son’s screaming, and then images started flashing. The images made little sense, but the last image she saw was that of Bahb dieing, and a black haired woman she never saw before.
She quickly sought out the mind of Bahb, and, though it was much further away, she was able to find it almost instantly, as it was a mind she looked for many times before and knew it well. So far, he was alive and well, riding into a town towards a saloon—but the sensation of another well known mind wasn’t far behind him—Kk’vin. His purpose wasn’t difficult to determine, as his mind was flooded with determination to find his target and make his Father proud.
She immediately got to her feet and examined the cell. She escaped many times before, but it only gave Father more things to redesign after and make more complicated for her.
“Complicated… but never impossible.”
Part 2:
Process of Elimination
The Walking Dead (Photo credit: andres musta)
Kk’vin watched as the tube filled and the odd liquid surrounded the other creature. Father looked over at Kk’vin and he awaited his disappointment. He failed his mission to dispose of Bahb as he was told, and lead him to their home.
“Something is not quite right…”
“Yes, I know Father,” Kk’vin began to plead, “I’m sorry, I’ve failed you—“
“Failed me?” Father interrupted, “You mean the Bahb fella not being dead? Don’t you worry yourself about that, my boy, you went up against the scorn of your sister to get to him, and you would have definitely been a much better man than I if you had succeeded through that. Besides, after examining the child, I have some interesting ideas that could make Bahb worth having around.”
“What do you mean, Father?”
“It’s gonna take me a bit of preparation to work out the kinks, but based on what happened with his and Kk’rin’s child, injecting Bahb with a pure form of our enhanced blood may make him quite powerful.
Kk’vin looked at him Father and wondered if his scientific curiosity was getting the better of his sanity, “Father—as interesting as that would be—why would we want to do that? Wouldn’t that just make him a threat to us?”
“My boy, I believe that is a risk we would have to take, for I have a feeling that this one,” Father gestured towards the newly hibernating creature, “may have set a trap for of that something completely insane may be the only option left.
“I need you to go out with your best men, and back track their path here. I need to know exactly what’s coming for us.”
“Yes, Father” Kk’vin acknowledged and began making his way outside the complex.
He gathered five of his brethren, and they prepped and mounted their horses. They directed towards the gate, and started heading towards the west where the Church of the Evolution’s attackers came from. It wasn’t too difficult for Kk’vin to pickup on their trail, with the burning of psychic energy from both of them there was the think odor of a thunderstorm deep in his own mind.
They followed the trail for almost a full day before Kk’vin’s horse suddenly reared up without warning and tossed him to the ground hard, slamming him to his back with a thud that made him gasps for breath. He stood with a fist angrily directed for the horse, “What in the hell is yer problem, ya damn beast—“
He stopped himself short, as he saw, all around him and his companions, thousands, upon thousands of bodies. Some were rather fresh, while others were at many different stages of decay to the point of barely holding together.
They seemed to go back further than his keen eyes could see. Some just lay in the open trails, while some were propped up by rocks and vegetation as if they were puppets that just dropped from having their strings cut.
Leaving their horses, they continued to follow the path of corpses to trace where they came from, and the bodies simply continued seemly forever.
Eventually they came to an area surround with an iron fence, with only the destroyed headstones scattered about to inform them that it was a cemetery—at least, it was prior to its residence vacating their resting places.
“Setup camp,” He commanded to one of his men, “I want to know what the intention was here before we go on.”
Almost a month passed of Kk’vin sending reports back from the Death Camp to Father back at the compound, which mostly informed him that an ocean of dead bodies isn’t as excite as one might initially think.
Kk’vin had just finished writing yet another uneventful report and was about to send a rider with it, when a sudden surge of an unfamiliar sensation struck his mind. He braced his head in his hands as if to hold his skull together, and out of the corner of his eyes, he saw movement—movement that he knew should not have existed.
The bodies that surround him, that have surround him for weeks that he grew accustomed to as piles of rocks, and just as mobile, suddenly started rising. First, it was slow and sluggish, like a man getting out of bed after a long sleep, but they slowly increased from staggering shambles, to a pace of determined destination.
“Stop them!” Kk’vin ordered to his men who already had pistol-blades drawn only in wait for the order.
Heated bolts flew through heads, and blades slashed through limbs and necks. Their efforts brought every target made to an end, but there were more targets than bolts between any of them.
As Kk’vin had one by the neck and stabbing his blade though its skulls with a squeeze of his trigger for good measure, he heard the screams of one of his men as one of the corpse had lunged on top of him and began to devour his face until it looked like bloodied hamburger. Kk’vin directed his weapon and blasted the abomination until it stopped moving.
“We need to get back to the compound! We need to warn them!” Kk’vin yelled at anyone still living and capable of following his orders.
He began a sprint eastward, slashing and firing continuously at targets as he went.
Blazing a trail of re-dead bodies through a field of still determined bodies, with the rest of his party lost to join the piles, Kk’vin was able to reach the compound gate. Sounds of battle came from the other side, and he had feared that he was some how too late. He grabbed his pistol-blade by the hilts and stabbed them into the wall, using them to pull his way upward. As he reached the top, he saw the entire Church in the thralls of battle against one of the creatures, and mostly losing.
Passed the mass of battle, Kk’vin saw a form dressed in his usual black splayed out in the middle of the compound—Father… no.
His need to grieve for his Father was immediately interrupted by the sound of screeching, like a thousand newborns scream at once in his mind. He looked towards Kk’rin’s dorm where her and her child were being kept, and the other alien stood in the doorway, holding the familiar bundle.
Kk’vin launched himself from the gate, and charged towards the creature, “Stop!” He shot a bolt through her shoulder hoping it’d be enough to lose her grip, “You can’t take him from us!”
The creature simply gave an arrogant smile and leapt passed him and the blazing battle.
Kk’vin reached the doorway, Bahb lay writhing in pain from the screams he didn’t know how to control, and Kk’rin lay with her limb and skull sliced in half in perfect section, “Kk’rin! No!”
Part 3:
Selective Memory
The Gunslinger (Photo credit: Drewdlecam)
Silhouetted all around Gaun coming towards the compound seemed to be thousands of staggering corpses. Bahb’s eyes grew, as he remembered the odd moment with Soo in the cemetery.
They came at the gate in a full charge, with Bahb having no idea what else to do; he jumped back down and took position to prepare for the oncoming battle.
What am I supposed to do now? Father’s pistol-cannon is still over there—should I get that? What about the blood, I don’t have Kk’vin’s anymore, but what if I used Scarlet’s, or any of these other dead Evos? Why do I have this odd sensation that I should be steampunk? What am I supposed to do?
This question simply continued to echo in Bahb’s mind as the gate creaked and cracked, and eventually collapsed beneath the horde of the dead. The remaining living Evos screamed, and fought, as Bahb saw a dead claw come across his face.
— — —
I awoke in my bed in a cold sweat. I got up from my bed and walked out to the living area. Uncle Gaun was there plucking at a data pad.
Uncle Gaun looked up at me, “You had that dream again?”
I nodded, “Same one mostly, I see through my father’s mind, but he keeps making these weird choices, and eventually, he just can’t make a choice at all anymore, and it kills him.”
“Interesting,” is all my Uncle said, which is as much elaboration as I normally got from him, “Your training is in about 30 minutes, you should prepare.”
“Yes, Uncle.”
I went out the front door and took in the view of the clear golden sky, over the valley of red desert, and made my way to the training facility to train for leadership of the invasion force.
When we last left Bahb in ‘Natural Selection: Elimination,’ he had just escaped imprisonment in the compound for the Church of the Evolution, released two shape-shifting telepathic aliens, and dove into a battle against the entire crazy cult.
A battle against the head of the Church, Father, was brought to an end by Bahb’s bolt, and Bahb’s Evo lover, Scarlet, was sliced in half by the shape-shifter, Soo’s unveiling of their deception—which gave further reveal of their true target, the new-born son of Bahb and Scarlet—believed to be even stronger than the typical Evo.
The Evo, Kk’vin, put aside their differences and sacrificed his life to give his power to Bahb, to grant him the temporary strength of a Super-Evo.
A final battle between Bahb and Soo unleashed, ending in Bahb’s victory, only to have the other alien, Gaun, escape after absorbing the essence of Father, and taking Bahb’s son just as Bahb’s evo-charge faded away.
With most of the Church of the Evolution slaughtered, and Gaun walking into the setting sun, a herd of alien-charged zombies are staggering towards the compound, killing everything in their path.
How will it continue? You must now choose the path… … …
What should Bahb’s son be named?
I seriously have no ideas for this one, so just post your ideas in comment and I’ll make another poll for this one some other time. Try to keep it within the name scheme I’m using so far—Kk’rin, Kk’vin, Bahb, Soo, Gaun, Jorje, etc. (it’s more fun).
And I was going to have you vote on whether or not I should keep POV changing as an option, but I’ve decided to just drop it myself, since all the times I’ve tried putting POV changing up, it got knocked down anyway. So, I’ll just accept that you’re all jerks, and I’m stuck in Bahb forever…
Ok, my brain is tired, so I’m going to cover my weekly post as my break, though, due to said cerebral fatigue, I’m going to keep the topic to the less thought out. I apologize in advance.
As mentioned, we are nearing the anniversary of the blog, and as such, the anniversary of ‘Natural Selection’—it was technically born on FB about a month earlier, but I’ll consider that the gestation period—it was born here, July 31, 2012. So the subject matter will be what to do about the continuation of ‘Natural Selection.’ I am really open to any ideas right now.
As it is, I still have the background story that I mentioned I wanted to do for it on the burner, but have done pretty much nothing with it (but it won’t really affect the way things continue anyway, it will just add depth and personal amusement—it will be taking on POVs of all the other characters I wanted to play with but voters wouldn’t let me, and since all those characters are now dead… well, it clearly won’t affect things). That will be done at some point, if I have to bum rush it out, I will (that seems to be in proper tradition of the rest of the story anyway), but I would really like to get it spewed by the anniversary date.
Now, what to do to continue the story—as mentioned, I’m very open to ideas. Should I continue pretty much the way it has so far, should I establish rules for me and/or voters?
Incase you’re new here, and you for some reason haven’t checked already, to bring yourself up to speed, please read ‘Natural Selection’ and see what I’m babbling about.
Another thing that’s been bugging me since near the end of the first one, should I do something different with title? ‘Natural Selection’ was a title that I came up with a couple parts in because it was simply a great play on words that worked for everything… story, concept, etc. But… the story is slightly shifted, most of the Church of the Evolution has been killed, though the Selection is still a thing. The final part got a subtitle of “Elimination’ a slight word play, that was actually one of the titles I was also considering, but decided it fit better there.
So, those are the questions. What if anything should be changed about ‘Natural Selection’ for the second volume?
Bahb walked over to the console. His fingertips brushed over the glass shield over the release button in contemplation.
“Now, Bahb—can I call you Bahb?” Father’s voice came through the PA speaker, “I feel as though we may not have gotten off on quite the right foot. Just walk on over and unlatch that door for me, and we can perhaps try starting over—have ourselves a nice little sit down and a chat about everything. We’re both civilized gentlemen, aren’t we now?”
Bahb’s fingers did a subtle dance over the glass, as he spoke into the air, “You had me hunted down—you dragged me into whatever this is. And then you took Scarlet—you hurt her.”
“Who—oh, yes, Kk’rin. She was using other names, wasn’t she? Well, I promise you, ‘Scarlet’ is just fine, she’s simply being detained at the moment—you see, she can be quite the handful when she’s emotional—“
“Bahb, where are you?” Scarlet’s words rang with a searing spike through Bahb’s mind.
“You lying piece of—“ Bahb flipped the panel up and slammed his fist down on the big red button marked “Capsule Release.”
“No!” Father’s voice broke through the PA with feedback, “What have you done, you fool?”
The room was flooded with a red strobe and a blaring alarm, and the capsules containing Soo and the other alien began to drain of their fluid.
“They’re waking up now…” the unknown voice announced in Bahb’s mind.
The glass chambers started rising up in sync and the two grotesque creatures slumped over and dropped to the floor with a wet slosh, and with tentacles splayed about randomly. They lay limp and seemly lifeless in pools of excess liquid. Just as Bahb began to work up the courage to try to check them for signs of life, the being he knew as Soo began to move a tentacle, and then another, and then started to push herself upright. Shortly after, the other began to do the same.
Bahb went over to Soo and crouched to her level, “Are you ok?”
The creature that was Soo suddenly began to melt into an abstract of itself, a multi-colored blob, phasing into a shade of skin, sprouting arms and legs, and becoming the woman that Bahb had come to recognize as Soo—also naked again.
Soo examined Bahb with her infinitely dark eyes that widened at the metallic sound of an unsheathing blade behind him. He turned and saw a man with long black hair, darkly tanned skin, and narrowed black eyes, standing with his right armed formed into a long blade directed at Bahb’s temple.
“Stop!” Bahb heard Soo’s reverberated voice command in his mind, “He isn’t one of them.”
“As you command,” The reverberated voice of what Bahb assumed was the other creature responded along with the lowering of his blade, “What are our orders?”
“Retrieval and elimination… the experiment has been ended due to a potentially dangerous violation of parameters…”
Soo’s counter part simply gave a subservient nod in response.
“Are you going to save us now?” the still unknown voice asked in Bahb’s mind. Bahb looked at the two and noticed they didn’t react to the voice, “They never hear me…”
“Thatdoesn’t help assure my state of sanity much…” Bahb responded, which got a silent glance from Soo. Bahb looked between the two aliens, “If you and yer naked friend here are just gonna stand here mind zapping each other, I’m gonna go back to finding Scarlet now.”
Bahb walked to the doorway leading to the outer lab, while grabbing a couple of lab coats and tossing them in the direction of the aliens, “And if you don’t mind, you two are making it feel drafty in here.”
The two draped the coats around themselves and followed Bahb to the main lab. As soon as they came into view of the large window by the door, Bahb’s two guards quickly un-holstered a set of pistol-blades. Wish I saw those earlier, would have been a lot more useful than a paper-blade.
Soo and the other moved in front of Bahb with a fluid motion that resembled large serpents with limbs forming into long thin blades. With terrified expressions Bahb had never before seen on the face of any Evo, the blades sliced through the door and window-wall like they were air, skewering into the heads of the guards. Not one got a single shot off from even a reflexed reaction before the lights left their eyes. The two retrieved their blades and the guards dropped to the corridor floor like giant puppets with their strings severed.
Soo’s counter part crossed his bladed limbs through the door and it fell to fragments before him.
“Not to sound like I’m criticizing the quality of yer handy work, there, but it was actually locked from the inside—where we presently are,” Bahb pointed out, “You happen to have a name?”
“Irfan’Ramachandra’Arjuna’Tafadzwa’Gaun” The alien responded while walking over the destroyed door and into the corridor.
“Ok…. Gaun… what’s the plan? If you two are gonna start escaping, that’s fine, but I still gotta find Scarlet before I go anywhere,” Bahb stated while retrieving his guards’ holster-belts and pistol-blades, and strapping them to himself.
“Bahb! Where are you!” Scarlet’s voice suddenly screamed through his mind with its same refrain, but with an added jolt that sent a writhing pain that brought Bahb instantly to his knees, only to hear his own screaming like a distant thunder.
Soo approached Bahb and placed her fingertips to his temples and the pain seeped away like a tide, “You are still tethered. Why would their Father not have—“ Soo stopped in mid-sentence as if her line of question also drew her to an answer, “We will come with you to find… Scarlet.”
“Why are—“ Gaun started in his mind.
“Silence! Follow my command!” Soo snapped with Gaun simply giving a subservient nod.
Bahb looked at the two with suspicion, but seeing that he seemed to still need Soo to keep his head from exploding, he simply shrugged and gave in. So he began following the tether in his mind towards its source just like he did not so long ago, but this time the feeling was somehow different, Bahb assumed it was just because of how much closer he was.
They made their way down corridors, and a flight of stairs and coming across Evos along the way that were effortlessly dispatched by a Bahb’s escorts, with lightning fast movements of blades to vital organs, and clean across necks littering the hallways with rolling heads. Bahb got a few shots of his own off with his pistol-blades, only to just barely graze a few by almost pure luck against their heightened reflexes.
After following the tether through the maze of a construct that seemed to be a prison, a laboratory, and a dormitory all in one, they found an exit. They stood outside the building and Bahb took a moment to gain his bearings. Several yards ahead, he could see the gate had been reconstructed after Soo’s handy work.
The tether seemed to direct towards another building that looked like a smaller version of the one they just left. Bahb directed a fist armed with a pistol-blade towards the destination and began to relay to his companions the heading, but was stopped short as a herd of Evos came at them with pistol-blades of their own. Bahb opened fire with both hands, as Soo and Gaun did their dances of bladed destruction against the unending wall of Evos.
Bodies piled, and blood pooled to form rivers of death. Bahb was already losing track of how many times he reloaded; still only barely grazing anyone with each shot he hopelessly let out.
Bahb was spun and knocked to the ground hard, with a burning bite through his left shoulder that was shortly followed by another through his right calf. Soo turned in response to his pained yells, and placed her hands on him, sending shooting pain through the rest of his being, and instantly repairing his injuries as if the limbs never knew damage in their existence.
“Stay here and keep them back… I am going with him…” Soo commanded to Gaun.
“As you command…” Gaun responded, never breaking his rhythm of destruction.
Bahb made his way to his feet and started towards the building the tether lead towards.
“Stop! Damn you, boy, stop!” Bahb heard the voice of Father commanded over the commotion of his “children’s” dieing screams.
Bahb instantly turned and pointed the barrel of a pistol-blade between Father’s eyes, “Let’s bring this to a stop, then!” Bahb squeezed a bolt that grazed Father’s temple with a wet line of red marking its trail.
Father brought up a hand and gazed at Bahb with extreme focus, and Bahb could feel a tinge of pain creeping through his nerves and muscle, only a slight tickle of before.
“If that’s the only trick in yer book, yer gonna be out of luck. I’m a bit more prepared this time,” Bahb said as he let out another round.
“I will take care of him,” Soo said before launching herself at Father, with bladed limbs cocked back and directed.
Father responded pulling a weapon from a back holster Bahb had never seen before. It had a barrel not much different than that of his pistol-blade, but below it, instead of the blade, another barrel was mounted with a much larger caliber than the top. Father squeezed off a round that announced itself with exploding thunder, sending a missile of a bolt through the chest of a surprised Soo.
Soo let out a screeching cry that sounded like nothing of this world, as thick, dark ooze seeped from the gaping hole tunneled through her.
Bahb started firing off series after series of bolts towards Father in a furry, “You bastard! What have you done?”
Father dodged each round with a finesse that Bahb had only seen rivaled by that of Kk’vin. He fired a round from the smaller of his pistol’s two chambers, quickly followed by another, and struck with a direct hit down the barrels of Bahb’s own pistol-blades, bringing Bahb’s charge to a hault.
Soo’s was putting herself back to her feet at her wound began repairing itself like black threads being quickly drawn across by an army of unseen spiders. Father turned with his pistol-cannon taking aim towards her and Bahb drew the two other pistol-blades he had strapped to him. Bahb sent the bolts to a course, with one at Father’s head, the other at his chest. Father reacted to the sound of Bahb’s thunder, but only just too late, as the round to his head only blew-off his brimmed black hat, but the other made home where his heart lived.
Father let out a gasp, as his feet staggered and danced for control below him. He fell to his knees as he continued to struggle against his failing body. Bahb knew from his experience with Kk’vin that despite Father’s injury that would have been mortal to anyone else, he would recover, so Bahb sent another bolt between his eyes, snapping his head back, and knocking him hard to the ground, splayed like a frail broken thing with a lake of blood forming beneath.
“No!” the echoing cry came from the building where the tether lead.
Bahb took an adrenaline induced sprint in the direction of the plea. With Gaun still holding back the horde, he covered the ground between with nothing standing in his way. He made it to a door that seemed to practically throb as his tether drew him to it.
“Scarlet! I’m here!” Bahb said as he quickly shot at the lock, jolting the door to ajar.
Entering, Bahb saw simply an empty cell that appeared to be almost like his own, accept with better view, “Scar—“
A heavy jolt came down across Bahb’s back, knocking him instantly to the ground, forcing the wind out of him, and sending stars across his vision. Through the ringing in his head, Bahb heard a familiar gasp, “Oh’my—Bahb!” Scarlet send in surprise as she dropped the torn off sink she made into her weapon, “I am so sorry—are you ok? What the hell are you doing here?”
“What am I… what the hell do you mean what am I doing here? You put a damned beacon in my brain telling me to come or face my exploding grey-matter!”
Scarlet looked at Bahb with a puzzled look that started to concern him, and flood him with more confusion than he could give voice to.
Without warning, Scarlet grasped her hands around Bahb’s head, “Bahb, look in my eyes.”
Bahb did as she requested, and her eyes did their strange dance through the full spectrum of colors. His head swirled as her eyes strobed, but despite the sensation of dizziness that strongly requested throwing up, he remained conscious this time.
“No…” Scarlet said with a concerned gasp as she lowered her hands, “I’m so sorry, Bahb… it was my fault… I… I just didn’t know.”
Bahb stared at her searching for words, and desperately searching for understanding, “Scarlet, you really need to elaborate a bit. What the hell’d you do?”
“I didn’t put anything new in your mind, Bahb, I only turned on a connection that was already there. I didn’t know, Bahb… you’re the first. No one could have known, that’s what made you so dangerous… that’s why—“ Her word broke off as a shadow was cast over them from the doorway, “You!” She yelled, as she suddenly picked up Bahb’s pistol-blade from the ground and fired off several rounds.
Bahb took up his other pistol-blade and turned, expecting to see Kk’vin’s behemoth frame, only to have his barrel staring down Soo’s tattered body. Before Bahb could get a word of explanation out, Soo immediately extended a bladed limb through the barrel of Scarlet’s pistol-blade, continuing to slice through her hand, and on through her shoulder, bring the blade up and back, slicing Scarlet’s skull in a diagonal half.
Bahb stared at what remained of Scarlet’s body as it dropped. His mind raced ‘til it was numb, searching for explanation, trying to convince him that what he was seeing wasn’t real.
He looked back at Soo with a face filled with a furry he had never seen from her usual cold expressionless demeanor, “Where is it?” She asked with a growling yell that didn’t even resemble human, “Tell me—“
As Bahb was about to command his gripped pistol-blade to send a bolt to Soo’s head, a scream of pain shot through his mind, like the sound of a thousand newborns crying at once, echoing, and screeching, shattering his mind like glass.
“Thank you, Bahb,” Soo said, “You made this a lot easier for me.”
Through barely slit eyes, Bahb saw Soo leap from the doorway to a room off to the side. A moment later, she leaped back carrying what looked like a bundle of blankets in her arms.
“Stop!” Bahb heard the roar of Kk’vin from outside, and a hole exploded through Soo’s left shoulder, “You can’t take him from us!”
Soo leaped out from the doorway and the light pour through and bathed over Bahb liked fire as the screaming continued. The fire lowered to a light searing as Kk’vin’s giant frame blotted out the sun, and Bahb could hear Kk’vin’s screams only barely over his own mind, “Kk’rin! No!”
Kk’vin paced the short distance like a caged beast a couple times muttering to himself, inaudibly against the destruction and tearing of Bahb’s mind. Bahb tried to get out words, any words at all, but nothing could form, nothing could be commanded to his limps beyond mindless groans.
He saw Kk’vin kneel down in front of him with his pistol-blade in hand. As he brought up the blade, Bahb thought—he hoped—Kk’vin was taking his vengeance on him and taking the chance to end his life—end the screaming. But as Bahb waited for the sensation of life being drawn out of him by Kk’vin’s blade, he saw him crouch down lower, his hot breath inches from Bahb’s ear, “Father told me that you are somehow special,” Kk’vin began, “I don’t know how much of this you can understand right now—assuming yer small mind ever could—but our blood, is a hybrid of theirs. We were created to be the new species, separate from you… we were their weapons—their defense against enemies they convinced us we had. Kk’rin… Scarlet… she was special too, she and I… we were Father’s true children. When she met you, things went wrong… she broke the rules.
“Our blood with yers, it created something powerful—something that made them fear their weapons—their tools. Bahb… it’s yer child—yer son.”
The words rang through his mind and through all the screaming and the pain, understanding seeped through. But what more can I do—I’m dieing.
Kk’vin continued, “I’m not strong enough to beat them, Bahb… but… I can make you strong enough. My blood… it’s not as pure enough to make it permanent, but it will make you like us—better than us—strong enough to beat them. You have to beat them, Bahb.”
Bahb wasn’t sure what Kk’vin was trying to say, until he saw him sit back up and drape his blade down the entirety of his arm, and then to the other, flowing blood from him like a stream directing its flow into Bahb’s groaning mouth. And with a final thrust, Kk’vin brought the blade across his neck, turning his body into a fountain, drenching Bahb as his body fell on him like a fallen mountain.
The weight of Kk’vin’s limp body crushed Bahb beneath, but as the thick, salty fluid made its way through him, he could feel Kk’vin becoming lighter. The screaming began to seep away like dieing embers. Bahb could feel power coursing through him, charging him until his muscles ripped with eagerness.
He threw Kk’vin off of him as if the mountain became a pebble. With a final enraged glance at Scarlet’s remains, Bahb took up his and Kk’vin’s pistol-blades to hand, and charge through the door, scanning the compound, seeking his prey. Gaun was in the center of everything still battling Evos, and off, standing by the gate, waiting as if she now possessed all the time in the world, was Soo, embracing the bundle that contained his son—the last essence of Scarlet.
Bahb charged toward her, stray bullets from the Gaun and Evo battle whistling past him, with him giving them only a flinching dodge with reflexes that seemed almost possessed. His heart thumped in his ears as he took aim towards Soo, firing both barrels to her chest and head, just as he assaulted Father not long ago. She just barely slithered out of the path before the bolts made home behind her. She placed his child to the ground and charged towards him.
“I’m coming for you, you bitch!” Bahb roared as he continued his charge, firing with precisioned sight, every round striking home in some portion of Soo’s body—all fazing her, but none stopping her.
She thrust her blade arms at Bahb. He ducked and dodged her left, only to be struck down by her right, slicing a gash down his back from his neck to his tailbone, going deeper as it went. The pain burned, but his body healed and repaired with a thick, pink scar before he even had time to react.
As he began to push himself back up, he saw Father’s body laying lifeless a few feet away, still intently gripping his pistol-cannon. Bahb leapt and shoulder-rolled the distance, grabbing hold by the barrel, and prying it from Father’s hand.
Father moaned, and Bahb jumped, almost sending a bolt through him before he just barely stopped himself, “…so arrogant… I failed them… I failed my children… I was so arrogant…”
“It will be ok, I’ll stop them,” Bahb said as reassuring as he could to a man he was certain was still racing towards death, guided by his hand.
“You… you… stop them… all… they’re coming… you have to… stop them…” Father got out before the lights finally left his eyes, and the hand gripping the hilt of his pistol-cannon opened and fell limp.
Before Bahb could gain a steady grip on the pistol-cannon, Soo sent a blade across Bahb’s wrist, severing his hand from it. Bahb yelled, more in alarm than pain, as the amputated limb barely had a chance to be exposed to air before it was already creating a new, fresh skinned hand. Bahb flexed his new fingers that were now better than ever.
He turned just in time to catch another of Soo’s blades aimed for his head. He dodged, and moved in, taking her by the neck. He squeezed his fingers around as she fought and flailed, screaming her displeasure.
Soo sent a blade through his gut. He could feel it all the way through, as it nicked intestines, pieced his stomach, and attempted to sever his spine on its way out through his back and making an exit slicing through his side. But his body continued to heal as quickly as the injuries formed.
Through Soo’s death-thralls, Bahb threw her down to the ground hard enough to leave an impression of her body indented beneath. Cocking back a tightly clenched fist and holding her with the other, he threw his fist through Soo’s face, and didn’t stop its charge until he felt the grit of dirt.
Her body started phasing between her human form and its original in a fit of chaotic confusion until it finally fell motionless. Bahb didn’t release his grip and he stared into the grotesque abstract in front of him, he wasn’t certain of her demise until the creature’s body suddenly began shriveling up into a dry, empty husk.
“No!” Gaun screamed through his mind.
“Oh, yeah… and yer next” Bahb responded as he set target on his new prey.
There were only a dozen or so Evos left as far as Bahb could see, and those remaining didn’t look like they were in much better shape than their fallen comrades—but they didn’t take them hits without serving up a significant amount to their enemy. Gaun was looking only slightly better than Soo presently did, but he was still stand and charge straight at Bahb.
Bahb stood his ground and waited for his prey to come to him. But Gaun didn’t come for him. Instead he broke off, and made his way towards Father.
Before the question could form in Bahb’s mind, Gaun was already answering as he seemed to adsorb the very existence of Father into his own, instantly repairing all the damage he had received. He continued taking in Father until even his very appearance became that of Father’s, and all that remained of the original body had become a pile of dust.
Despite Bahb’s continued expectations, Gaun still didn’t come at him; instead he leapt towards the gate, and picked up the bundle that contained his son. Bahb ran at him, but as he did, he could feel the surge in his body begin to fade away.
“Put down the child and face me!” Bahb commanded.
Gaun jumped to the top of the gate, and looked down at Bahb, “My mission of retrieval is completed… they can handle the elimination…” he said before jumping out and away.
Bahb jumped half-way up the gate and clawed his way to the rest. As he gazed over he saw Gaun walking back the way he had once come with Soo towards a giant setting sun. Silhouetted all around Gaun coming towards the compound seemed to be thousands of staggering corpses. Bahb’s eyes grew, as he remembered the odd moment with Soo in the cemetery.
Bahb heard Gaun in his mind, “Run or fight, no one can ever escape the Selection…”
Seemingly out of options, Bahb lay back on the cot and stared into the darkness, waiting for whatever fate awaited him to come. A slight ting burned in the back of his mind—a feeling he almost forgot from before coming across Soo—and without her, would apparently return.
I guess getting Scarlet to turn it off isn’t going to be much of an option anymore—allowing my brain to explode from her cries for help seems like a proper punishment for failure.
A pain shot through like a hot spike from the back of Bahb’s head to his eyes, “Bahb… where are you…?”
“I’m right here, woman! Now what? Yer a damn mutant and couldn’t stop these freaks, and you expected me to do better? What do you want from me?” Bahb heard his voice echo back at him as he continued to vent his frustrations, “I even had some damned alien along for the ride, and she was stopped as easily as anyone by yer daddy! Now, I’m sitting here waiting to rot—“
“Who are you?” Bahb was stopped in the middle of his rant from a completely new voice in his head. He couldn’t tell why, but the voice still seemed familiar to him, like something he once heard in a dream.
“Um… what?”
“Are you here to help us? Are you the one that was coming to save us?”
“I… I don’t recall an ‘us’ in this. Who are you?”
“I don’t know… I don’t think they gave me a name…”
Bahb sat up on the cot, trying figure out what to make of this new voice, and half wondered if it was actually just a sign of him losing his mind—if yer already hearing voices, how would you know which ones are just crazy voices? Maybe I’ve lost it—
“Bahb… Can you hear me?” A voice like an oddly reverberated version of Soo’s voice rang through his mind.
“Oh, for the love of—my head is not a switchboard!” Bahb grunted, “Since when could you speak through my brain anyway?”
“There is another entity within the vicinity that seems to be allowing me to find a connection with you. I am however uncertain as to how they are accomplishing it.”
“Ok, well, where are you? Can you get out?”
“I am being contained with no means of escape, and do not believe I will be able to maintain our connection for much longer… I do not fully understand what they are doing to me, but—“ Her voice cut off suddenly.
“Soo?” Bahb waited and listened to the silence.
Crap, two living weapons need me to save them now, surrounded by hundreds of other living weapons, while I’m trapped in this damn empty box without a damn thing—
“They’re coming…” the unknown voice announced.
Before Bahb could question the statement, a small slat under the door opened up and a tray with a plate and cup were slid under.
“Orders from Father,” a snarling voice from outside the door started “you have five minutes to eat, and drink, then you will slide the tray with everything on it back under—if you keep anything, Father will punish you…” that last part was punctuated with a slight chuckle as if they were hoping Bahb would try to keep something.
Bahb took the tray. The plate had a small piece of dry bread and a brown egg on it, and the cup contained water. Bahb picked up the egg, and noticed from the weight that it was raw.
He ate the bread, and the egg with shell and all, and downed the water. As he was returning the glass, he noticed there was a pile of small squares of paper beneath the plate, “Um, napkins?”
“Yeah, we really care about yer table manners,” the angry voice on the other side of the door responded sarcastically. He mumbled under his breath something about “How the hell did Kk’vin have so much trouble with him,” then continued towards Bahb, “That’s for yer ass, stupid, there’s a toilet in the rear of the cell with running sink for hygiene,” Bahb looked in the back corner where the light from the door-slat revealed a round metal toilet bolted to the wall, with a sink connected to it, “Father has plans for you, and doesn’t want you getting sick and dieing off before he’s had time to prepare. The minimum for which has been provided, ‘cause Kk’vin seems to really be paranoid about you getting anything in yer hands.”
“Why did I need water if I have running water?”
“Don’t drink the running water. It’s treated with bacteria killin’ stuff that Father created—good for cleanin’ the outsides real well, not so good for cleanin’ the insides.”
Bahb looked back at the sink, “And why do you think I should trust Father’s provisions?”
An annoyed grunt came from the other side of the door, “Father would never bother lying about anything—lying is for cowards, and cowards fear that which is above them—nothing is above Father!” He paused and continued with a recomposed tone, “but go ahead and drink the water, I would be just as grateful if you could prove that yer not worth the trouble while proving Kk’vin isn’t worth his rank.”
Bahb raised an eyebrow at that comment, “Showing a little doubt in yer Father’s decisions?”
The Evo voice growled and mumbled to himself, “Father ordered not to speak to him,” and then to Bahb, “Yer time’s up, return everything now! And please, be dumb enough to keep something…”
Bahb eyed the plate with just the notion to comply with his guard’s request.
“Don’t… he’ll punish you…” the voice in his head warned.
Bahb simply took the paper and slid the tray back through the slat, and the slat and the light was closed again.
Bahb felt the paper in his hands. It was rough and grainy and made him cringe and the thought of what it would do to his backside.
“You should eat that…” the voice suddenly said.
“Why would I do that?” Bahb asked into the darkness.
“You might be hungry… you should eat that…”
“So, should I take this as the official evidence, then? You are my crazy voice, aren’t you?”
“You make too much noise… he’s listening… he can’t hear me… he never hears me…”
Not talking seems like a good idea, Bahb concluded as he made his way towards the sink. He put his hand under the running water for a moment then placed it to his nose. It had a vague chemical smell—enough to suggest that not drinking it was accurate advice. I can’t think of anything I can do with chemicaled water with nothing else.
Bahb felt along the edges of the sink and toilet, and they both seemed to be melded seamlessly to the floor and wall. Not much chance of moving these out of the way and getting out through a drain any time soon.
Bahb sat on the floor, slouched back against the sink with the feelings of lost hope flooding his mind. With the paper still in his hand, he began unconsciously balling it in his frustration, feeling its grooves, and listening to the coarse sounds of it rubbing.
“Eat it…”
Without a thought, he tore of a wad of the paper and popped it in his mouth. He chewed and sucked, and exchanged every bit of moisture his mouth had between it. It had a dry woody taste—not the most appetizing of flavors.
“Why the hell am I doing this?” He questioned himself as he took out the wad and slapped it on the edge of the sink where it stuck.
“That’s sticky…” The voice stated.
“Thank you, crazy voice, that’s very—“ Bahb stopped in mid-thought. He took the wad from the sink, with a slight pry as it was already setting into its home. He wrapped a strip of the remaining paper around the wad a couple times, giving it a slightly lick as he did so, and ending the wrap with the remainder of the paper until it formed an obtuse triangle. Ending with dabs of water from the sink spread across it.
He felt around the obscure object, and just shook his head, “That’s just stupid…”
He simply placed his paper on the floor beneath the sink, and made his way back to the cot and closed his eyes, and allowed his mind to drift into sleep… … …
“Bahb!”
Bahb opened his eyes, and looked around the sun-streaked cabin.
“Bahb, where are you?”
He got up from his rocking-chair sitting by a dead fire, and headed towards the open door. Standing with the warm sun bathing his face, “I’m right here, Scar—“ He looked over to the clothes-line and saw only dust blowing by under the burning sun.
He looked across the yard, where the man in black stood silhouetted by the sun, grasping the small hand of a child. Bahb ran from the doorway after him as the man in black and the child continued walking into the giant setting sun… … …
“Stay away from him!” Bahb heard his voice echo off the cell walls as he suddenly propped himself upright.
“They’re coming…” the voice announced.
The slat under the door opened again, and the guard’s voice came, “Five minutes…” followed with the tray being slid under.
Bahb got up from the cot and started removing and consuming his meal as he took the new layer of paper. He slid the tray back under again, and he was returned to darkness.
He made his way to sink where he left his project, and picked it up. It was now stiffened, but still too thin to be useful.
“Do it again…” the voice said.
“But this would take forever.”
“You have time… he’s preparing… you have plenty of time…”
“That’s not as comforting as yer trying to make it sound.”
With little other options, Bahb complied, figuring if nothing else, it would at least give him something to pass the time. He continued this each day while leaving about a quarter of the stacks to the side for actual use for its original purpose.
Each night, the same dream repeated with him forever hopelessly running towards the burning sun after the man in black and the child. He’d wake up to his cold-sweat, and repeat his routine of meal and project.
Days went by, and it wasn’t long before he lost track of the number. From as best as he could determine, nearly a month had passed. His paper had thickened, with the original wad as a handle, and one edge thinned and filed sharp enough to draw blood when running a finger across it.
“They’re coming… it’s time… he’s ready…” The voice alerted.
“What does that mean?”
“They’re going to take you to him now… but you can’t let them… you must fight… you have to get away…”
Bahb took his paper-blade in hand and thought about his previous encounters with Kk’vin, remembering him dodging bullets, getting a bomb to the face, and a rifle to the chest and always coming back, “Well, I simply see no reason why this shouldn’t go perfectly.”
“You don’t need to stop them… only slow them down… you must get away…”
Bahb just shook his head, and slipped the paper into his beltline.
A slat in the center of the door opened.
“Put yer hands through the door,” He was commanded.
He did so, and on the other side he felt heavy bracelets being closed around his wrists, linked by an equally heavy chain. The door then made a loud clank sound, and was slid across, exposing his eyes to a piercing light as if they completely forgot what it was.
A set of hands from each side of him grabbed him by the arms and pulled him out, and started blindly guiding him down a hallway as his eyes very slowly adjusted.
“Fight… get away…” the voice beckoned.
“How?”
“Eyes!”
Bahb’s fingers found their way to the paper and without hesitation, brought the blade up and across the eyes of the guard on his right, and before the guard to his left could respond to the screams of his partner, Bahb did the same to him.
“Run!”
Bahb didn’t need a voice in his head to tell him that. Before he could bother to evaluate the effectiveness of his attacks, he started running, being motivated with only hopes of gaining distance before the guards recovered.
He ran passed many other doors that looked like they were more cells like his own. He thought after passing a few of the doors that he should stop and check if any contained Scarlet or Soo, but the voice kept screaming, “Keep running… you have to run!”
The voice directed him to turn down corridors until eventually Bahb came to a door with a large window next to it. He looked in and saw a series of machinery and tubes.
“There he is!” his guards announced while running toward him, both now recovered with pink scars across their eyes.
“Go in!” the voice commanded.
Bahb went through the metal door, and closed it behind him. Noticing a lever on the door that had the words “Release,” and “Lock” he switched it to lock and hoped it would be enough to stop them for now.
He looked around the room filled with things he could only guess at their purpose and assumed he would guess wrong on most of it.
“Now what?” He questioned as much to himself as to the voice that had been leading him.
He walked to the back of the room away from the pounding of the door, and went through another doorway that opened up to another room with a row of glass chambers. Moving closer to one of the chambers he noticed floating in a liquid, a figure contained within. The figure was hideous, with eyestalks, and tentacles. Bahb looked closer and remembered the first time he saw the creature from the glowing orb, and realized this strange being before him was Soo in her original form.
Bahb looked at the other chambers, most were empty, but across from Soo’s, was another figure that looked very similar to her, but different in ways that Bahb couldn’t quite place. Somehow, despite their alien appearance, this one didn’t seem as feminine as Soo.
“They’re sleeping… they want to wake up now…” the voice said.
A thump from an unseen speaker echoed, and Father’s voice came across, “Well, look at you. Let you out for barely a moment and you’re already making a complete nuisance of yourself, now aren’t you?”
“Um… sorry ‘bout that,” Bahb responded into the air, then suddenly noticed he was for some reason still mobile.
“They’re together now… even sleeping, they’re stronger than him…”
Father continued, “I’m afraid you are just completely interfering with the plans for my evening, however if you would be so kind as to go ahead and release the door over there, I promise not to take this little mishap personal.”
Bahb glanced at a control console in the center of the room. A button contained under a glass panel is labeled “Capsule Release.”
“They want to wake up now…”
{With both choices, the “shit will hit the fan,” but how it happens will be different, and one may end tragically, but which?}
Focusing on the transmission tether that would have Scarlet on the other side, Bahb decided that the path that would take them through the cemetery would be the more direct route. Though, Bahb wasn’t normally the superstitious type, the recent events of Evos and aliens has opened his mind to feeling at least a little paranoid as he directed the horse down the dark path.
“What is this place?” Soo asked in a tone that sounded vaguely like fear—considering her usual sterile tone, even this slight change was practically screaming by comparison, which only added to Bahb’s already growing paranoia.
“It’s a cemetery… it’s a place where people bury the dead to try to honor their memories.” Bahb explained.
Without warning, Soo suddenly slid off the back of the horse. The motion was so unexpected that Bahb wasn’t even sure if she actually jumped off or fell off, but as casual as nothing out of the usual had happened, Soo walked over to a headstone.
“Whoa, woman, what the hell are you doing?” Bahb said bringing the horse to a stop and sliding off himself.
Soo seemed to be transfixed by the stone in front of her. Bahb crouched down to try to make out the worn out carvings, but what one could only assume were once words, now only appeared as random lines and shapes. The stone itself was rather plain, just a basic rectangular base with a top that was most likely curved at one point, but was less so now. Bahb looked back up at Soo; her expression seemed to be studying the stone at a level that went beyond his own understanding, as if she somehow saw more than just the stone.
“Kyriakos’Dionysodoros’Eli’Mongkut’Jorje…” Soo blurted out.
“Um… gesundheit…”
Soo looked at Bahb as if just noticing he was there, “This marker possesses the essence of one of my people. His name is much older than my own, but I believe he was a scout that was long ago lost to us.”
“Well, that’s interesting…” Bahb uttered unsure of what else to make of the discovery, “I guess you can report this back to yer people as a bonus to yer mission—you’ll be in all the papers.”
Soo seemed to ignore Bahb’s comments as she crouched down at eye-level with the stone. She gently touched the tips of her fingers to the etchings, tracing their lines. It took Bahb a moment to process what he was seeing, but behind Soo’s movement a light glow started to form, as if her fingers were redefining the carvings. Bahb reached his own hand out towards the marker only to be held back by a field of electricity emanating off of it.
“What are you doing?” Bahb said trying to hold back the startled tone in his voice.
“Our people have our own ways of remembering those passed…” Soo said as if that should have explained everything. Soo’s motion stopped, and she rose up leaving the tombstone with a light electric glow and the smell of ozone, “We can continue on now, we have time…”
“Time? For what?” Bahb asked looking between Soo and the stone as he slowly stood, unsure what to make of anything that just happened. Soo simply turned and started back towards the horse, got back on and impatiently looked back at Bahb. “That wasn’t rhetorical, what the hell did you just do?”
“That will not be important to you if we stop delaying, now please, let us continue—or have you forgotten about your Kk’rin?” Soo replied with a stern tone that only added into the many other details of her odd behavior since entering the cemetery.
With the tether burning in Bahb’s brain, begging him to move forward, he had no choice but to agree, but that didn’t stop the question of what just happened from burning with almost as much strength. Defeated, Bahb shook his head, mumbling a “fine” and other expletives, mounted the horse and directed it back towards their path. As they reached the opposite gate, Bahb swore he heard the sound of groaning behind them that he tried desperately to pass off as just the wind.
Creeping in the horizon, a wall began to come into view. It was the most intimidating inanimate object Bahb had ever seen, and what made it worse, was the feeling in his mind was screaming on the other side.
“We must find a way in,” Soo said from behind him.
Bahb fought back the sick feeling growing in his gut, “I’d imagine going up to the front door and knocking wouldn’t be the best approach.”
“I do not perceive why we can not; they already know that we are here,” Soo stated pointing up towards a series of towers with look-out crannies in them.
“Yeah, that could be an issue…” Bahb said with his thoughts trailing off to calculate the best approach, “Well, we could just surrender, and let them take us in, or I have a rifle-ax, a pistol-blade, and whatever it is you do, so we could try fighting our way in and hope those towers don’t just pluck us off before I even draw.”
Just then, a voice started whispering in Bahb’s mind, “Bahb, where are you?”
“Turn it off? How do I get her to do that?” Bahb asked the continuously naked Soo.
Soo crouched over Bahb, and held her middle fingers firmly to his temples, while Bahb did his best to ignore how close her breasts were to his face, “It is uncomplicated, you simply need to follow the transmission tether that would lead to her,” she pointed towards the east, where Bahb still felt the uncontrollable urge to go, “she should be able to turn it off just as easily as she turned it on. I would of course be willing to accompany you along your way to help maintain control of the reception.”
Though Bahb was actually grateful for that suggestion, as opposed to risking having his head explode, he still couldn’t help feeling unavoidably suspicious, “Why would you do that? I don’t even know anything about you, other than you appeared along with that glowing thing over there, and that mind crap you’re pulling is also making you seem a lot like a Church member. None of this is adding up to why I should trust you—maybe I’d be better off letting my head scream me to death than make company with you.”
Soo looked at Bahb with her blank stare, “I am not choosing to assist you just for you; I am also going because what I seek is in the same direction. The ones you refer to as ‘the Church’ possesses something that does not belong to them—it is my mission to retrieve it.”
“Well, who am I to turn away favorable convenience—let’s go, then.” Bahb got to his feet and started towards the horse that had been patiently grazing at some brush in wait, “But, before we go anywhere,” Bahb searched through one of the horses saddle bags and pulled out a rough, wool blanket, “yer gonna need to cover yerself with somethin’.”
Moments and some crude cutting with Bahb’s pistol-blade, and a waist length rope later, Soo was outfitted with a poncho covering her enough to satisfy Bahb, and they began heading towards the east. Just barely beginning the journey in the direction, and the tension that Bahb was feeling had already started to ease itself away.
Bahb wasn’t much for riding with someone in a dead silence, it just felt awkward, but attempts at trying to start any form of conversation with Soo didn’t really get anywhere either. He attempted to at least pry out some information about her, about where she came from, how she healed him, or even what it was she was trying to get back from the Church, but she was less than forthcoming—and Bahb was unsure if she was purposely blocking the revealing of information, or if that was simply her typical disposition. By the time they entered into a town that Bahb never before heard of, he knew just about as much about Soo as he did before they started.
Bahb stopped the horse in front of a saloon with a pair of water and feed troths, and hitched it up to give it some time to refresh—and time for Bahb to make use of the saloon and refresh himself a bit as well.
Sliding off the horse and lending a hand out to Soo to help her off, she looked at him blankly, “Why are we here? The tether goes a significant distance further.”
“I’m well aware of that, I’m the one that has the damn thing pullin’ at my brain. But I don’t want to run the horse to death, plus I honestly don’t know when I’ve last eaten, and wouldn’t mind stoppin’ for a bite…” Bahb paused in thought for a moment, “You do eat, right?”
Soo slid off the horse, “Of course, everything eats, but I do not presently require sustenance. However, if you are in need of refueling, then let us do so quickly.”
“Okay, then, I’ll eat, and I’ll try to pretend that yer company. Maybe after, we can check out one of the town’s stores and see about getting you a more suitable outfit…”
“As long as we continue on with haste,” Soo responded.
“Gees, woman, quit bein’ so bossy—don’t need anybody gettin’ the idea that we’re married or nothin’.”
Bahb went in the saloon with Soo following behind. It was like many others that he’d walked into before, even much like the one he not long ago had his unforgettable first encounter with Kk’vin in. There was a guy playing piano at the back, with a table surrounded with men playing cards seated next to it. The bar was to the left of the entrance, with an assortment of men drinking from mugs of different sizes.
Bahb walked up to the bar and hailed the barkeep over, “You have any food in this place?”
The barkeep answered while compulsively wiping a pint glass, “Well, I got one the best batches of chili you’ll ever have in your lifetime stewing just now. Would you like a bowl for you and the miss, there?”
“Nah, I’ll take one just for me, but she’s too worried about watchin’ that figure of hers,” Bahb said with a wink that mostly got an uncomfortable chuckle from the barkeep.
The barkeep was gone and back with a bowl filled with meat and beans surrounded by a thick brown broth. Bahb took a spoon to the meal and tried as he could to ignore the dead, glaring eyes of Soo locked on him.
“Well, hello there, lil’ lady,” came the call of a man dressed in ragged clothing, and covered in enough dark grime that one could only assume that this was probably a mining town. He walked up to Soo and leaned an arm on the bar directly between her and Bahb, “Don’t you just look like the purdiest thing in that there dress. How’s about you an’ I have a lil’ dance?”
“I am sorry, but I am not seeking procreation. Please redirect your mating ritual elsewhere,” Soo responded with her cold tone that had Bahb just barely holding back a chuckle.
“Yer not what?” The man responded, which Bahb wasn’t sure if he was confused by the large words or was somehow not used to being shot down by a woman, he was assuming the former. The man reached out a hand to Soo’s semi exposed waist and started working his fingers inward, “Come’on now, don’t be like that—“
“Listen, friend,” Bahb spoke up with one hand gripping the hilt of his holstered pistol-blade, “the lady said—“
Just as the man looked like he was about to turn to Bahb with a typical ‘mind yer own business’ retort, Bahb just barely caught the lightning-speed motion of Soo’s hand as it looked like it smoothed together to almost a razor thin short-sword, and made a quick swipe to the man’s wrist, separating it from his wondering hand, sending it flopping and twitching to the floor. Just as quickly, her sword hand returned to normal, and before the man even had much chance to react to his missing appendage, Soo grabbed his shoulder with her other hand and was responded to with the man screaming in agony. Almost as instantly as the hand was severed, a new one, with completely fresh, scar and tan free skin, grew back. Soo let go of him and he fell back with a thud to the ground looking back up at her with the most terrified look Bahb had ever seen on any living thing.
Soo just looked at him with the same dead, cold eyes, “You were warned, the next time, I will not bother to replace anything. Now, depart from here.”
The man scurried himself to his feat like a scared rodent, “Oh’dear’god, yer one of them Evos. I’m so sorry, please don’t tell Father ‘bout any a’ this, I swear I didn’t know. They oughta put a warning on you people!” He said before plunging himself back out the swinging doors.
“Well, I can honestly say, I did not see any of that coming,” Bahb said as he went back to his bowl, “Remind me to make my New Year’s resolution to be to not bother helpin’ anymore women. You all seem to be doin’ a lot better off on yer own, than with me interfering.”
“Male or female, even the strongest of us need help sometimes,” Soo said, sounding more philosophical than Bahb would have expected from her, “The one known as Kk’rin has a very strong spirit, however she is very clearly calling you for help.”
“You can see that?” Bahb asked.
“I can only see the images in static fragments; I can detect more of the emotion—your species has a different brain structure, our connection isn’t fully compatible.”
“Well, that controllin’ thing yer doin’, it’s not gonna make my head explode or anything, is it?”
“No, the likeliness of that is only about forty-two percent; I should be fully capable of maintaining a stable enough control over your link, assuming increased proximity does not cause any unexpected feedback.”
Bahb looked at Soo, examining her blank expression as best as he could, “I’m gonna try really hard to pretend you were joking—I don’t have enough money on me to plan for a better last meal.”
“If that is what comforts you…”
“I’m gonna stop talkin’ to you now…” Bahb said, and went on to cleaning his bowl.
Due to earlier events, Bahb decided that they wouldn’t bother hanging around town long enough for clothes shopping. To avoid any further possible troubles, they unhitched the horse, and moved back towards the east, increasing the relief on the burn in the back of Bahb’s mind.
Bahb and Soo rode on in the silence that Bahb started to become accustomed to, until eventually they were faced with a fork in the road. The road to the left was a dark trail filled with thorn vines that seemed to cover almost everything at random, just barely leaving a trail at all, and the one on the right seemed to lead to a large and ancient looking cemetery. Bahb couldn’t help but think that the locations of these things was a bit odd, and mostly just seemed like set-ups for overly convenient plot-devices, but still, a decision to make remained.
{I mostly just needed to find a break for this part, but no matter which choice is made, the next part will result in them getting to the compound for the Church of the Evolution, but the choice made here will effect the possible direction of things later—I completely have ideas for both paths}
Bahb concentrated his pistol-blade between the naked woman’s eyes—and very purposely, nowhere else, “Who are you? An’ where the hell are yer clothes?”
An echoing tinge shot through the back of his mind like the sensation of burning outlined with the whispering of crying from a familiar voice. He forced himself to ignore it and focus on the possible threat before him.
The woman looked at Bahb with eyes almost as dark as her hair, staring with an empty expression, “I am sorry, I do not understand.”
“Which part, the name or the clothes?” Bahb responded short, fighting the throbbing in his head, “A name is what yer called, and clothes are what you wear over yer body. Now start answering!” Bahb punctuated with the cocking back of the pistol-blade’s hammer.
The woman eyed Bahb up and down and glanced at the bloodied rabbit in her hand, and her expression changed to a slight realization, “Ah, I believe I see now, you did not intend for this to be healed… you seem to wear them as elemental protection.” She held the rabbit up to her eye level, “Though, I do not see this one being able to cover much of you… Oh… perhaps it was intended for your young offspring.”
Bahb stared at the woman, while now concentrating the pistol-blade on the back of the dead rabbit, “What? I don’t have any offspring, I was gonna eat that—well, I was gonna eat it last night, I don’t know how good it is now, but—this is beside the point. Who the hell are you?”
The woman moved the rabbit from her face and stared at Bahb with confusion, “No offspring? Odd, when I repaired you, your mind was very convinced you had a young male… You also eat your coverings? That is very interesting… What I am called… I am designated as Zyanya’Antinanco’Soo…”
“Zya what? Ya’know what, I heard Soo, I’m calling ya Soo…”
The woman looked at Bahb as if digesting her new name, “Soo… if that will work better for you, then I will respond as Soo.”
“Good…” Bahb said with relief that they finally got past that overly painful part of the conversation, and was half thinking he should just forget about the part of her being naked.
“—Ah, yes, you are culturally uncomfortable with my continued lack of elemental coverings…” She stated as if responding to his thoughts—after having one woman already reading his mind recently, he chose to just move passed this detail for now. Looking at his would-be meal of a rabbit again and back at his clothing, and then at the rest of her surroundings of rocks and shrubs, “I am not certain of how to accommodate.”
The echoing in the back of Bahb’s mind suddenly went from a vague burning cinder to a blazing pyre, as the whispering cry turned into screams, buckling Bahb to his knees, grasping for his head. He could only vaguely hear his own screams as if it was a rolling distant thunder beneath the screaming in his mind. As he prayed for it to go away, he felt it gradually seep from his mind into a calm silence. He began to relax; basking in the relief, until he noticed Soo was now knelt over him with her hands lightly lain on either side of his head.
Bahb jumped back with his heals to his butt, knocking Soo’s hands away. He tried grabbing for his pistol-blade, only to notice that he must have dropped it while writhing. Bahb stared at Soo with suspicion translating into fearful anger, “What did you just do to me?”
Soo stared with her blank expression, “The one called Kk’rin has left a receiver in your mind, but you are not properly designed to control it… this was very irresponsible of her… I was attempting to repair you, but she seems to be very determined to have the reception remain… the best I may be able to do is act as your controller for you… at least until you can get her to turn it off herself…”
“Draw yer weapon,” Bahb heard the voice behind him growl, flooding his brain with fight-or-flight.
He does a quick scan of his surroundings—frightened bystanders all around; the bar to his right; an exit at the front, behind him and the other guy; there’s a doorway in the wall a few feet ahead, but not sure where it goes, could be a back exit, or a storage room.
{Should Bahb A: Stand and fight with risk to bystanders; B: Try to make his way to the front exit, lowering the risk to bystanders, but increasing risk to himself, or C: Try the door in the back saving bystanders, but possibly leaving him trapped???}
Bahb looked back with a side glance and saw a stone-faced man with a head closer to the sky than to the ground, and with the proportionate bulk to match. “I don’t believe we’ve met before, my friend, mind letting me know the name of the man who aims to have me in, perhaps even the why of the having in?”
The man spoke with a snarling tone, “Name’s Kk’vin, and—“
“—I’ll be sure to tell the masons when they carve yer headstone,” Bahb cross-drew his pistol-blade from his left hip, turning and firing with one motion, letting a bolt fly directly between Kk’vin’s eyes.
Kk’vin made a subtle tilt of his head to one side, allowing the bolt to just barely graze a strand of his hair before flying past and making home in the door frame behind him. “—And,” he continued as if he just dodged an annoying gnat, “I’m here to cleanse you of yer sins against the Church of the Evolution.”
“Oh…” Crap. The Church of the Evolution was a group started by some crazy scientist type; he believed it was the holy right of science to give the evolution of man a slight push. As a result, the leviathan that stood before Bahb wasn’t just suffering from a thyroid problem—he’s been augmented. Other than the obviously heightened reflexes, one could only guess what else had been done to him.
Bahb, like most people with any grasp on sanity and sense, had made it a point to steer clear of the Church, so he couldn’t imagine what he could have stumble into that might have crossed them the wrong way. What Bahb did know was that if he didn’t move quickly, he wouldn’t have much chance to concern himself over it.
He immediately drew his pistol-blade from his other hip, and began firing at the wall passing itself off as a man, and that man smacked away bolts with the side of his own blades, causing them to strike bystanders at random as they tried their best to get the hell out through the panic and chaos. As Bahb continued to lay down cover, he strafed his way to the bar, and did a jump and slide across it, to land on the other side squatted next to the trembling barkeep.
“Hey, is there a back way out of here?” Bahb whispered to his new companion.
The barkeep opened his mouth as if to respond, but with the sound of a ping in front of them, he was stopped with the sudden appearance of a gaping hole in his forehead.
{Should Bahb A: Surrender, and take his chances with Kk’vin; B: Fight past Kk’vin for the front exit; or C: Take his chances with the back door???}
Bahb crouch-walked his way towards the back, keeping his head down as he went.
“Stand and fight, heathen!”
Bahb glanced up at the bar mirror and could see Kk’vin practically foaming at the mouth as he cursed him. At that moment, their eyes met in the reflection—Kk’vin raised his pistol-blade, and at a slight angle, shot a bolt off a metal sign hanging on the wall, ricocheting the bolt back at Bahb, cutting through the sleeve of his left shoulder, just barely leaving a red mark in his flesh from the bolt’s heat.
“That was a warning shot; I have no problem plucking you off like a coward if you give me no other choice!”
Yeah, it’s time to go. Bahb made a last dash for the door at the back, and slammed it behind him, leaving him in darkness. Stumbling around what felt like a maze of crates and cleaning supplies, Bahb managed to find a string hanging down that clicked on a light.
Great, it was actually a storage room, with nothing but walls and supplies.
“Get out here!” Kk’vin snarled outside the closet, punctuating with a bolt being sent through the door, just missing from shooting Bahb in the ass, and continuing through the opposite wall.
Bahb looked at the hole left by Kk’vin’s bolt and noticed it being filled with daylight. The wall must not be too thick; maybe I can make my own exit. He thrust the heel of his boot at the wall with all his power only to bounce him back hobbling and shaking off a jarred knee. Ok, new plan…
He began looking around at the crates and supplies in the room. There were basic cleaning supplies: buckets, mops, rags, some fix-all tape. The crates were filled with random spirits, some marked with no more than a number of ‘Xs,’—meaning they were supplied by a “home-brewer,” and not all together legal… But, Bahb thought while picking up a bottle that somehow bared a brand of six ‘Xs,’ I bet they can make a nice “boom.”
{Should Bahb A: Try making a “boom” at the outer wall; B: Try making a “boom” at the augmented Kk’vin; or C: Screw it, see how high an ‘X’ he can drink before making a “boom” at his liver??? (I kinda ran out of choice ideas there)}
Bahb grabbed the fix-all tape and strapped together a cluster of four of the largest number of ‘Xs’ he could find—there’s no such thing as “over kill” when it comes to dealing with an Evo.
“Get out here, you cowardly heathen! You can’t run from the Selection!” Kk’vin continued in his provoking rants sending another round through the door.
“Oh, don’t worry, my friend, I’m not running,” Bahb responded as he began towards the door, “As a matter of fact, I was thinking maybe we could both just sit down like gentlemen and talk about this over some drinks—first round’s on me!” he threw the door open throwing the cluster just above Kk’vin’s surprised face, and sent a heated bolt through the bottles, instantly igniting them in a blasting fire ball that sent both Bahb and Kk’vin flying back.
Bahb recovered himself from the storage room floor in a slight daze with the heat of flames surrounding him. He looked around, but couldn’t see Kk’vin’s remains anywhere through the chaos of fire and the remaining bystanders trying to get out. A searing pain suddenly shot through him with such violence, his brain could barely process which part of his body it was coming from, but looking down at his right arm, and seeing from his hand to his elbow seemed to be shredded with hot glass shards, he was easily able to identify the source.
Getting himself to his feat, Bahb looked around for his pistol-blade, only to find it in pile of flame; he decided to leave it and start making his way towards the exit through a path of burning.
Fire shot from all around, and cracking timbers seemed to constantly manifest from nowhere just to feed it and block Bahb at almost every turn so he couldn’t seem to run a step without it being rewarded with the flames licking at him and smoke smothering him. He finally made his way to the exit and plunged his way through the flapping door, throwing himself to the ground in exhaustion.
“Bahb…!” He heard muffled from somewhere. He forced an eye half open to see a vague silhouette coming towards him. “You’re still alive…”
Am I…?
He could feel fingers prying themselves beneath him and his body being lifted from the ground with an odd sense of the world moving around him. His weight shifted as if the ground had just become solid again, but then the feel of motion returned.
Fading in and out of consciousness, Bahb could feel the world jostling him at random and see the sky running past him, becoming dimmer each time he saw it. And then the world went away.
His head began to fill with random images of violence, flashes of Kk’vin’s menacing snarl, and flames, only to be occasionally interrupted by the sounds of a soft voice. He could only barely make out the words, but he still felt that they were calming and peaceful.
The images began to fade away and Bahb slowly opened his eyes with a heavy clouded feeling in his head. He began looking around and saw that he was lying on a cot in a small room lit only by a fireplace. He tried to put himself upright, only to be quickly reminded of his injuries to his arm as pain threw him back down. He examined it, and it would seem that someone had skillfully dressed it with bandages that were clean except for the blood just now beginning to soak into them, most likely from his provoking.
Pushing himself up with more care to his arm, his head spun and the world shifted around him. Either I’m bleeding worse than I realize, I’m drugged, or both…
Just then, he heard a sound coming from outside a doorway to his left. He started forcing himself onto his feet, aiming towards the door with great effort.
“Don’t even try it.” A woman said as she came through the door carrying a tray in one hand, and shoving Bahb back down with the other with a surprising amount of strength.
Bahb looked at the woman as she prepared some concoction and new bandages, and searched his memory through his drugged haze. She was five-foot-six, give or take, with a farm girl’s shoulders, and dark red hair that went down to about the middle of her back, “Cherry…?”
She looked at him and smiled, “I’ve actually been going by Scarlet, lately,” She began snipping through Bahb’s used bandage and removing it, “but of course, that’s not exactly my real name either.” Cherry… or Scarlet, or whatever, was a “working girl” from a town Bahb commonly passed through, and usually made a habit of paying her a visit.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“This is my place. And it was either I brought you here, or left you to die either by your own wounds or by, Father only knows, what my brother would have done to you,” she said while smearing some toxic smelling ointment over Bahb’s stitched-up wounds and placing the new bandage back on with expert ease.
“Brother…” Bahb uttered confused, “That was yer—did you lift me up back there—son’of’a… yer an Evo?” Should of figured they weren’t real.
Scarlet slapped Bahb’s forehead bouncing his head into the bed, “They’re real enough, you pig.”
Wait… I’m pretty sure I thought that part—oh dear god, he truly is a mad man. What sane man would give a woman the ability to hear a man’s thoughts?
Scarlet slapped him again, “Yes, I can hear your thoughts. And be grateful, it’s what helped me find you—well, that and the pile of flames. I would have gotten to you sooner and tried to warn you, but they weren’t making it very easy for me to get out of the compound this time.”
“Warn me about what? What the hell did I do that would have had any of them going after me—I mean, other than what would have had them going after several other men?”
{Should Bahb A: Care what her answer is; B: Down the remainder of whatever she’s drugging him with and go back to bed; or C: Wonder what would have happened if he went with the other choices so far??? You don’t really need to vote for this one, but I just broke 1k and I’m just in need for a break, I’ll pick this back up and have real choices tomorrow}
“Well, about those ‘several other men’,” Scarlet looked down at nothing, “as it happens, you’re actually the only one…”
Bahb stared blankly at Scarlet for a moment trying to figure out if he understood her correctly, if she was completely screwing with him, or if she was crazy, “Um… I’m not exactly a professional in yer line of work, but I’m pretty sure if I was the only man, then you might not be doing something right.”
“There were other men that paid me; it was just that with them, I always just pushed thoughts and memories into their heads, made them believe something happened. But you were different—“ Scarlet stopped in mid-sentence and started looking around, “Oh’no, he found us—I don’t know how, but—“
Bahb heard a crash from outside the doorway, “Where is that heathen?” Kk’vin’s unmistakable snarl yelled from the next room.
Scarlet immediately stood up and went out of the room, “What are you doing here? He isn’t here, now go!”
“Don’t you try any of yer mind tricks on me, Kk’rin, you know that don’t work on me. I know yer hiding him; I can smell ‘im.”
Kk’rin? Kk’vin and Kk’rin? Screwy ass cults… Bahb struggled to get back to his feet with even more difficulty than before.
“Now hand over that infidel or—“
“—Or what? You know you’d never lay a hand on me, if only for fear of what Father would do to you after.”
Just then, what sounded like an explosion that practically shook the whole building rumbled from the other room.
{Should Bahb A: Force himself up to face Kk’vin in his drugged and injured state; B: Surrender, and take his chances with the screwy ass cult; C: Go back to bed and hope this was all just a drug-induced dream???}
The explosion flooded Bahb’s body with more than enough adrenaline to force himself passed his drugged and injured state and get to his staggering feet. He noticed, hanging at the foot of his cot, his belt with his remaining pistol-blade holstered in it and immediately grabbed for its so familiar grip.
With pistol-blade at the ready, Bahb stumbled out the door, hoping his need to use the doorframe as a brace didn’t show too much, and without delay pointed around the room in search for his target. First thing he saw was Scarlet, instead of looking like the female in distress he expected to be coming to rescue, held a long wide-mouthed rifle, fashion with a boarding ax, braced with a single hand. The barrel was smoking and pointed at the ready—at the business end, lying on the other end of the room, was Kk’vin.
The trim around the hole in Kk’vin’s shirt was still cindering, while the wound itself was quickly become a gaping bloodied mess, to a slightly pink scar, and then Kk’vin began slowly moving again, struggling to get up through the bits and pieces of the table set that he apparently flew into.
Bahb cocked back the hammer of his pistol-blade, aiming right between Kk’vin’s eyes and Kk’vin immediately locked eyes with him as he stood up. Sniffing the air, Kk’vin looked at Bahb and smiled knowingly, “Missing something…?”
“No, but you’ll be missing parts of yer brain soon.” Bahb squeezed the trigger waiting for the micro-seconds to pass for the bolt to pass through the barrel and was received with only and empty click—Crap, I was too out of it to notice the difference in weight.
Kk’vin, with an added amount of sinister joy, started charging towards Bahb only to be instantly halted by the cocking sound of Scarlet’s rifle-ax, “I assure you, dear brother, I am still fully loaded.”
Kk’vin looked down Scarlet’s barrel with a snarl, “How dare you? What do you think Father would do to you, if found out?”
“Do you honestly think I care what Father would do to me anymore, after everything else he’s already done?”
Raising his hand for attention, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to get in the middle of this family therapy session you have going here, but could either of you be bothered to let me in on what the hell any of this has to do with me?”
Kk’vin looked back at Bahb with a growl, “You dishonorable lying sack of—“
“No, Kk’vin, he really doesn’t know, he’s innocent, he knows nothing about what happened,” Scarlet interjected.
Kk’vin looked between them with fists clenched with enough furry to turn coal to diamond, “That doesn’t change the results, does it? Now the Selection must be resolved…”
“I don’t know what the hell this ‘Selection’ is, but I’m not going anywhere without a fight,” Bahb said pointing his pistol-blade at Kk’vin only to be reminded again by Kk’vin’s smirk that it was still empty. Bahb then flipped the pistol-blade back, gripping it at its hilt, and pushed himself from the door frame towards Kk’vin with the blade aimed across his throat.
Kk’vin just stood with his grin, and immediately grabbed Bahb’s weapon hand by the wrist, forcing away the pistol-blade, and lifted him to eye level. With his other hand placed around Bahb’s entire neck with enough pressure to make the frames of his vision to begin to blacken.
“No!” Scarlet screamed, “Kk’vin, don’t! Please, just let him go, and I’ll go back with you willingly—you know Father will consider me a better prize than him anyway.”
Kk’vin looked between Scarlet and Bahb and, with a snarl, just as everything was starting to fade out and Bahb could just barely acknowledge anything that was happening, he threw him down with a hard slam against a wall.
Bahb choked, struggling to bring air back into him, and with fists clenched, “You’ll be going nowhere with her!”
“Bahb,” he heard Scarlet say, “Look at me…”
Bahb glanced over at Scarlet, prying his lock from Kk’vin, “What?”
“What color are my eyes, Bahb?” Scarlet said in an odd tone.
“What color are yer…” Bahb looked at Scarlet’s eyes, and he couldn’t remember if he ever did before, they were a deep blue, but they seemed to gradually change, as they became a sort of green—or are they red—no, purple—yellow?—
{Slight difference in choices this time as I’m at a point where the story must now go only one direction without turning back or go somewhere else altogether. Basically, Bahb was just knocked out by Scarlet’s gaze, I can A: Carry this in the direction that will lead to the discovery of what the Church wants with Bahb (which says we’re nearing the end of this line); or B: Have Bahb wake up and say screw this Church crap and go elsewhere (and I do have other ideas—think Hex meets Cowboys and Aliens) (but if you choose A, B can’t be done later… at least not as I foresee it)}
Bahb walked into the town so familiar that it was where he considered his home to be, or at least the closest he ever came to having one. He walked into the tavern that he knew as his house, and as soon as he walked through its flapping doors, he looked up to the second floor balcony to be greeted by the smile so bright and real that even her eyes smiled as she looked back down at him. As her existence emanated in its spot, all else around seemed to exist as no more than walls and furniture—the medium sized red-haired woman who welcomed him up with embracing arms and guided him to their usual room.
The moment he walked through the door, she began removing his gun-belt and the layers of his clothing as if she were removing the weight of the world from his being. And she led him over to the bed with its icy cold sheets that are warmed only by her… … …
A sharp pain dug into Bahb’s back. He forced his eyes open only to be blinded by a searing pain from the sunlight through a window. He rolled to his side, grabbing behind him and recovered what appeared to be the remains of a broken table leg, with a corner that was position just perfectly targeting his spine. Throwing the leg to the side, Bahb, planted his hands to the floor, and forced himself up, grabbing for walls and whatever he could find for support.
He looked around in a hang-over level of a daze, “Good’lord, what happened…” Memories began to rush their way through his mind, of Kk’vin and Scarlet, of her offering herself to save him. He looked around the small cabin he was in and found himself alone. The table-set that should have been Kk’vin’s grave sat in its broken pile, Scarlet’s rifle-ax sat on the floor a few feet from him, and the air already seemed to taste stale, with dust settling in.
Bahb walked over to pick up the rifle-ax, and as soon as the tips of his fingers touched it, his mind was jolted with images… … …
The red-haired woman lay alone in her bed, and was forced awake by the sound of her door being instantly blasted and blown to pieces. She pulled a pistol-blade from her side table and pointed it at the gaping hole, waiting for a target.
In stepped a tall man dressed in a black three-piece suit, and a very round, black hat that all but hid his cold gaze. A pain came across the red-haired woman as the man’s gaze drilled into her, forcing her to helplessly lower her weapon, allowing the pain to seep away.
The man raised a hand and waived in three larger men that each had to duck to walk through the remaining doorway and walked towards her, grabbing her by her arms and feet as she struggled to free herself.
“No! You can’t do this!” The red-haired woman heard her words echo out of her.
The man looked at her as she was carried passed and through the door, “You knew this would happen. Run or fight, no one can ever escape the Selection…” … … …
Bahb stood staring at the cabin’s front door with a pain in the knuckles of his right hand. He looked down to notice he was gripping the hilt of the rifle-ax so tight he had reopen some of his wounds and was now staining the rifle-ax’s wood finish with streams of blood.
Bahb shook his head clear, turned towards the back room. He grabbed his gun-belt from the end of the bed and strapped it around him. Walked over to the tray of medical supplies and picked up the pair of scissors to begin redressing his bandage… … …
The red-haired woman lay strapped to a table in a room that was so well lit that its white walls seemed to give off their own glow. Covered with a white sheet, she couldn’t see passed her raised up knees, except for the momentary glimpses of men in fully white gowns and face-masks.
Her head was clouded, she wanted to scream, but couldn’t form words. She continued to look around for any hope of escape and saw the man in the black suite standing to the side—watching.
“You can’t… you can’t do this…” She heard herself force out.
The man looked away as if the sight of her pained him.
“Please!” As she lifted a hand, outstretched towards him, the red-haired woman’s whole being flooded with an indescribable pain… … …
Bahb sat on the cot staring into the remaining cinders of the fireplace. He shook his head and looked around confused. He had his wounded arm exposed and bloody, with the used bandages scattered to the side and the scissors still gripped through his fingers, with his knuckles turning white with tension.
He suddenly threw the scissors across the room as if they were somehow cursed, “What the hell is happening to me? What the hell did that woman put in my head?”
Bahb slapped the side of his head a couple times as if expecting to jar and dislodge away Scarlet’s voodoo. Unsure what to make of anything he was seeing, he just went back to cleaning and re-bandaging his arm as best he could with his non-dominate side—which didn’t look at all as good as when Scarlet did it, but it would have to do. He got his pistol-blade from the floor in the outer-room, loaded it from a box of ammo he found sitting on the mantel, and holstered it at his side.
He slung the rifle-ax to his back before opening the door, and exiting into a cool evening breeze. His sense of time is more than thrown, he has no idea how much time had passed since his first meeting with Kk’vin, or even how long he was out after this last one. For all he knew, he could have missed a day, or even a full month.
Bahb turned his head as he heard a horse-snort coming from a small barn just to the side of the cabin. He walked over and saw a horse drinking from a water-trough. Greeting the horse with a pat to its neck, Bahb glanced in the trough and noticed it was still almost full, “Well, either those Church freaks gotta hold of you and turned you into a horse that doesn’t drink much, or she hasn’t been gone very long yet—for some reason that first option seems more possible that I’d like.”
Bahb grabbed a saddle and began setting up the horse. All the while, he began running the images of his previous visions through his head, trying his best to sort out their meaning. Clearly, after I left her last, her Church family came and got her—which I guess is typical for most cults—but I’ve known her for at least a few years, why would they wait to get her now? Was she really that hard for them to find ‘til then, or did something happen that made her a bigger deal… “And what the hell does any of this have to do with me?”
Bahb mounted the horse and directed it out the barn, and wandered a few yards from the cabin before stopping to stare into his many possible directions. Where now? He stared east, and was flooded with a feeling of urgency and longing—he didn’t understand what it was, but he somehow knew there was something important in that direction that needed him.
So, he turned the horse pointed towards the east, and it didn’t trot more than a few steps before it stopped and reared up in alarm. Bahb managed to get the horse under control just in time to see the sky light up as if the whole thing had caught on fire and a blazing object came soaring passed him, behind him towards the west, ending with a giant explosion that gave the western horizon a radiating glow.
{Should Bahb A: Head east to discover the source of the feeling of urgency; or B: Head west to discover the source of the burning horizon; or Should I C: Change PoVs (I’m not saying to who, where, or when)???}
Bahb looked back to the east, where his very existence felt drawn to go, but then directed the horse in the opposite direction, towards the west, where the horizon burned. As he drew away from the east, with each trot, he felt a resistance, not like walking against the wind, but like being strapped to an elastic band, pulling him back to the urging east. But he continued forward.
Riding through the constant pull, it wasn’t long before Bahb lost track of distance, but from the changing angle of the sun, he determined he had ridden for at least half the day before he came across a stream, and chose to stop to water the horse. The glow a head still blazed bright enough to show through the setting sun, so he figured it’d still be there later. He slid off and guided the horse to the water, then decided to pass his time looking for small game.
A few minutes passed, and he managed to just catch a glimpse of a rabbit’s tail poking out from some brush. He slowly stalked towards it, drawing his pistol blade and looking for a clear shot. Looking down the barrel until it became one with his target, he squeezed the trigger… … …
The red-haired woman felt a blissful surge of endorphins as all the pain seemed to fade away, but fighting her mind passed the lull, she looked around in panic. She saw the men in white step out from hiding behind her bent knees, their gowns and gloves now covered with blotches of red. Some walked away with shiny and reddened steel tools, while one walked away with what looked like a bundle of blankets heading towards a door.
The red-haired woman looks back at the man in black with pleading eyes, as he continued to look away with only side-glances at the handy work of the men in white.
“Please!” She heard her voice echo off the white walls, “You can’t do this!” From outside the door, her attention was drawn by the sound of a squealing cry, “Please, Father!” … … …
Bahb felt a rock jabbing into his knee as he looked around in a daze. The sun was now set as low into the western sky as it could be and still be visible. He looked down at the sharp pain in his wounded hand and noticed he was clutching the bloodied body of the rabbit, now mixing with the blood of his re-open wounds.
Looking back towards the stream, he saw his horse grazing on a tuff of grass. He walked over to it, washed both his wound and the rabbit in the water, and then mounted, directing to continue west toward the blaze, against the unending pull of the east.
As he went, the glow gradually replaced the sun entirely as night set in. The sky became a blanket of glowing black, as whatever the object ahead was completely dimmed any signs of stars.
However, the bigger concern for Bahb was quickly redirecting to his wounds—they weren’t closing very well this time. The reins were becoming difficult to grip as they became increasingly slick with an unending river of his blood. He could feel his consciousness trying to pull away, as he willed himself to stay focused on his task.
With each trot of the horse, he had to keep readjusting his seat to keep from sliding off, until there was nothing he could do. His body seemed to give up listening to him, and just fell completely limp, and he watched the world fall away as he slid from the horse with a hard thud to the ground. He saw the horse trop a few steps further before it noticed it was alone and stopped, slowly trotting back towards him and helplessly nudging him with its nose.
He looked forward, and through a blurred vision he saw the object only a few yards away, glowing like a great bonfire. He stretched out his wounded hand and clawed it into the dirt ahead of him, and with exhausted muscles, he pulled himself forward, biting passed the pain, and then repeated with other hand, over and over. And with one last ounce of energy, he stretched his pained hand out to pull again, and touched a smooth, warm object. The warmth felt like tiny needles all over his beaten muscles, and comforted him like a soft blanket inviting him to sleep.
As his consciousness was about to leave him, through slit, and heavy eye-lids, he saw a moving silhouette. He tried to will his eyes open more to take in a fuller image of this thing that was coming toward him, what he only assumed were eyes, were splayed randomly on stalks on top a head that had no clear separation between its body, and a tooth filled beak on its face. The body was covered with arms that with both fingered and finned, but attached to the body, not with shoulders, but more like branches on a tree. The way it moved, it was difficult to tell where its joints could be, assuming it even had bones.
Through Bahb’s blurred vision, he saw the abomination move closer toward him as he fought to keep his eyes open, and his mind awake, and slowly, he saw the thing seem to begin to melt. Bahb almost felt afraid for it as he watched, despite his own fear of it. Its eye-stalks melted down, along with its beak, and formed an abstract of what it was, and its tentacles joined in the mix.
{Should I A: Continue along this path with Bahb; B: Change PoV to the alien; C: Change PoV to Scarlet???}
A child is like a butterfly in the wind. Some can fly higher than others, but each one flies the best it can. Why compare one against the other? Each one is different. Each one is special. Each one is beautiful.
Anthony Richer 