Mana Pool Snippets - The Days After

Four

Terra Firma, the planet that fights over pointless reasons. A fitting tagline. Another good one. Victor Mathews, the CIA agent too dumb for his britches. Jaruka smiled.

Jaruka cracked his knuckles and neck as he paced toward the dropship. "Victor," he yelled, "come out so I can rearrange your spine!"

"Teal, no, this is ridiculous," Deryl said getting in front of the alien. "You really assume Victor did this?"

"It'll just take a sec." Jaruka placed his hand on Deryl's face and pushed him aside, nearly knocking him down. "Don't bother calling a medic."

Mathews disappeared from the windows as Jaruka got closer.

Jaruka cracked all eight knuckles again.

The only exit was the hatch, if Mathews ran he would have to sprint before Jaruka could grab him. If Katie could use her magic to stop him perhaps it would be easier, but she was new to it and Jaruka had less than great experience with newbie sorcerers.

"Victor, come on out and fight like—"

Someone screamed from the crowd.

"Oh, for Goddess sake," Jaruka said turning. "Can I ever talk without interruption today?"

Jaruka and Deryl spotted the screamer amongst a crowd of local hippies. People backed away from him fearing the worst. He was dressed in hand-me-down clothes from a thrift store with sandals, screaming and writhing with a major headache. "Ah, God, stop! Get out! Get out!" He repeated with every scream. Two humans asked the man what was wrong but the hippie did not respond and continued screaming.

Jaruka watched the humans curiously, momentarily he forgot about Mathews, what was happening in the crowd felt familiar.

The hippie fell to his knees, yelling at the sky. At first Jaruka thought that it was a ruse, but he looked at the man closer and realized what he was seeing.

The man's eyes were bloodshot.

"Can't be," he whispered. Jaruka pulled out his plasma pistol. He still had two shots left.

The hippie's neck and spine cracked by themselves, easily heard  over the people's screams. Jaruka pulled back the pistol's hammer.

The hippie dropped to his back.

Two humans ran to the body. "John! Oh, John, no!" Screamed the woman in tears. She must have been his girlfriend or wife from her similar rags. Some extremists in the crowd called it "demon magic" and tried blaming it on Jaruka.

"Close," he said.

Deryl walked up but not closer, Jaruka's face and his pistol out told him that he did not want to get too close.

The other man knelt beside the body, but screamed, "He's breathing! Thank God he's alive!"

The "dead" hippie opened his blood-gushing eyes and screamed the awful screech Jaruka knew too well.

The zombie grabbed the surprised man's arm and swung him over his head, colliding with the woman. Jaruka blinked. The zombie was on his feet and the two humans were still on the ground.

"John! Bro! Cut it out!" The man yelled.

"John who?" It growled, sending chills through Jaruka.

The zombie grabbed the man by the collar and the woman was too scared to pull him back. Within seconds, the zombie twisted the man's head around, then dug his hand into the man's mouth. Jaruka's stomach twisted as the zombie ripped out the man's lower jaw, holding the flesh in his hand.