ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter 47: Overt Operations

I flung my left hand backwards with as much force as I could muster. The guard was at least twice my weight when she was fully armored, but she was still unbalanced in the fraction of a second after she had tried to wrest her gun away. Once her feet were pulled out from under her, it was all downhill.

She crashed to the ground with a crunching thud that echoed down the narrow corridor. As her back struck the floor she let out a loud gasp, and began sucking in deep, frantic breaths. She had forgotten the grip on her rifle and held both hands to her throat.

I looked down at her and realized that I was enjoying the violence way too much. Tears had filled her eyes, while I was standing over her with a terrifying grin on my face. My smile faded, and I focused on keeping a neutral expression.

It was much more difficult than I was comfortable with.

"Don't move," I placed a foot on her chest.

I tried not to use too much weight, as I had no idea what injuries she had sustained. She probably only had the wind knocked out of her, but I was hardly an expert on alien biology. If she was dead Sebbit was likely to be a lot more difficult to handle.

I released the half of the chain I still held and let it wrap around her torso. It pinned her arms to her chest while her hands still grasped uselessly at her throat.

I kept my foot on her chest and her own rifle trained on her head as I turned to look for her partner.

Clumsy was lying face down on the floor. Her black armor looked almost grey under a thick cover of dust and metal debris. The slow rise and fall of her chest told me she was at least still breathing; which didn't rule out that she might be faking.

I looked down at the Peacekeeper under my foot and waved the barrel of the gun slightly. It was unlikely she spoke English, so I was hoping she would understand the motion as the universal sign for, "move and I will fucking shoot you." If she failed to understand I wasn't entirely sure I could shoot her in cold blood.

I was also terrified that I could.

I took a step towards the possibly unconscious guard, but quickly realized that it didn't matter if she was awake or not. I just needed her to stay still for a moment. I created another chain and she was quickly bound in the same manner as her friend. I have to say – if she was acting she gave one hell of a performance.

"Now, you girls be good." Clumsy showed no reaction while Gun Girl glared at me murderously. I'd never really given bondage much thought, but it seemed a handy skillset.

I turned to look at the steel hatch. It was little more than a grey, oval door made of thick metal. The bottom of the door was raised about four inches above the floor and a ring of metal clamps held it shut. A spinning handle had been built into its center.

I reached out and grasped the handle and spun it counter-clockwise. The hatch began to spin, but quickly met resistance. I turned it the other direction but ran into the same problem. Of course, it was locked. Things were never that easy in real life.

I looked down at the two guards. I was already trying to figure out a way to communicate with them. They might have translators, and I could probably mime out what a key was. Even if they understood, I was sure they would try to play dumb and stall as much as possible.

I would just have to search them and hope I found something useful.

Before I could do so the entire world shifted. My vision blurred and the chains I had constructed loosened for a fraction of a second. The feeling quickly passed, and the guards gave no indication they had noticed.

"Shit, titty fucking Crist," I yelled. The dome had come down and Telvy would be flying back to the Yorktown at that very moment. I turned back towards the hatch and began gathering every ounce of energy I could into each of my legs. It was much like what I had done during my battle with the King Behemoth, but on a much larger scale.

It was dangerous, incredibly so, but I had no more time.

I kicked forward and watched as the door was ripped from its hinges with the earsplitting sound of twisting metal followed by an explosive bang as it hit the far wall. Hopefully no one was standing behind that.

"Well, that might have been a little too much." I looked down at Gun Girl and smiled. "Sorry about the cleanup. Sebbit's got the bill."

She stared up at me with wide eyes, and I couldn't help but blink in response when her inner eyelids closed. It was just unnatural looking, like the shutter of a camera spiraling closed in slow motion.

She used my momentary distraction to kick upwards with her bound feet. It was an impressive performance of speed, athleticism, and flexibility, but she couldn't have known that I didn't need my eyes to see the chain that still bound her limbs.

I leaned backwards and turned my body to the side, narrowly avoiding her attack. At the same time, I reached forward with my right hand and grasped the chain that was wound tightly around the back of her legs.

I spun around like an Olympic discus thrower. Gun Girl's head bounced off both walls before I finally released her to land limply next to her partner.

I ignored her. If she attacked again I'd just have to deal with it. I was past the point of doing things carefully. I'd have to do this the same way I'd done most of the best things in my life – loud, messy, and over too quickly.

I stepped through the empty cavity that had once been a door. The room behind it was much like my jail cell had been, but slightly larger and the floor was tiled in an unsightly shade of lime green. It was either the color, or the room's inhabitant but I found myself holding back a mouthful of bile.

"Gah. What the fuck is that?"

The creature looked like a person had been half swallowed by a blob of rancid, grey flesh. The stench was unbearable, and the way it moved made my skin crawl. It flowed across the room bonelessly, it's body rippling and undulating as it slowly inched forward like a monstrous slug.

The human half of the creature was covered in ruptured pustules and scale-like scabs. It hung off the back of the boneless ooze of flesh and remained unmoving as it was dragged behind like a useless clump.

I raised the rifle and aimed it at the creature's head. It seemed unlikely that this would kill it, but I had no idea what to do. As I looked down the barrel of my stolen gun a face came into my sights.

One eye was milky white, and the face was almost completely covered in scales and boils. Its scalp was mostly bare, save for large liver spots and a few sparse clumps of grey, brittle hair. It was a face that would have been unrecognizable if it hadn't been for one green eye that gazed at me with unblinking focus. I could sense intelligence, and something familiar, behind that unblemished eye.

"What have they done to you?" I rushed forward and took the face in my hands. I ignored the danger around me even as the rancid flesh continued to circle me.

"Troy, can you hear me? Are you still in there?"

A single eye stared at me. His mouth moved but no sound came out. Half his face was split open, but the half of his lips that remained seemed to be silently mouthing the same two words. They repeated over and over, but his eye eventually closed, and his face fell deathly still. Whatever hell he had been trapped in he had seen the hope of salvation when I had appeared. I wouldn't let my friend down in his final moments, even if he had once betrayed me.

His last words were, "kill me." It was a request I fulfilled.