He wanted to scream a warning, but it was too late.
Chapter 8
THE DOOR RAISED to waist height, revealing stocky legs covered in dark gray rubber trousers with a meshed appearance. Shiny, black gloved fingers, curled around the bottom edge and pulled upward.
Ben decided to help. He gripped the bottom left of the door and heaved. It quickly rumbled upwards and banged fully open.
Blinding light filled the room, surrounding the silhouette of a person outside.
Ben squinted away, eyes in pain. “We’re from the Operations Compartment. We’ve been ordered down for stasis preservation duties.”
A single pair of footsteps entered.
Erika’s nails dug into Ben’s arm. Her grip sprang free. She screamed, dropping to the ground, head slamming against the dirty metal floor.
Ben looked down; two arms ripped the prone Erika out of the room by her legs.
He cupped his eyes, trying to get used to the light. Images started to become clearer.
Maria screamed next. “Oh my god. Ben.”
Outside, a large platform came into focus. A vehicle stood on the right side. It looked like a futuristic motorcycle apart from the lack of wheels. In the middle, a large man in a gray suit, adorned with various pieces of body armor around the chest, shoulders, upper arms and thighs. He pulled Erika to her feet by her hair.
Ben could see blue sky, trees in the background on one side, the edge of a forest stretching as far as the eye could see.
Ethan shook his shoulder. “Have we crash landed? Ben, what’s happening?”
Ben brushed off his hand and stepped toward the exit. “What the fuck are you doing?” he shouted.
The man on the platform ignored him and grabbed a handle protruding from a long thin pocket on his thigh with his spare hand, and slid out a glinting blade with a serrated edge on one side. Circular holes ran along the middle.
“Help me. For God’s sake, help…” Erika flailed her arms, thumping against his unmoving sturdy frame.
Ben rushed out.
The man’s head twisted around toward him, his reflective helmet visor shone with a blue sheen and glinted in the light. Ben froze a few yards short. Two tubes ran from his helmet to a square backpack. Metal spikes ran along the back of his boots.
He thrust Erika into the air by her ponytail, as if lifting a trophy. She frantically kicked her legs to little effect.
“Get off her,” Ben said as he stepped forward. “Now.”
Erika’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth. The man plunged the blade into her chest three times in rapid succession before Ben could act.
“No,” Ethan said.
“What do we do? What do we do?” Maria said from behind him.
The man threw Erika off the side of the platform without ceremony. He continued to face Ben, wiping the blade clean with his gloved hand.
“Holy shit,” Ben said. For a moment he seemed glued to the spot. “Quick. Round the side of that vehicle. To the edge of the platform.”
“Where are we?” Ethan said.
“Save the questions,” Ben said. “We need to find something, anything.”
He darted behind the vehicle, skidding to a halt at the right ledge. The drop below appeared at least sixty feet. He frantically tried to process events.
Maria crouched next to him, quivering. Ethan panted behind. The man circled the blade above his head, stalking around them in a wide arc.
The area to the right looked like plowed farmland. Uniformed brown lines reached into the horizon. To his left, forest. Behind the ship, a deep gouge furrowed through the earth, running from the back of the ship into the far distance.
He wondered if they had crash-landed… but how could he breathe?
Black smoke belched from the ship into the clear blue sky. He heard the noise of an engine straining and stopping, straining and stopping. The platform was around thirty feet long and twenty wide.
He scanned the platform for a makeshift weapon. The surface was clear apart from the bike, a pool of blood, and the man approaching with a raised blade. As the man closed in around one end of the bike, the three of them all scuttled to the other. They faced off, nine feet apart, separated by machinery.
“Why are you doing this? We’re part of the crew,” Maria said.
Ben detected a low clicking sound coming from helmet. “Who are you?”
The man sprang up onto the seat, landing into a hunch, then raising to a towering position above them. He raised the blade over his head and then pointed it at them.
Ethan gasped. “We’re gonna die.”
Ben ducked to one side as the blade swung down. It whistled past his ear and clanked against the metal chassis. He staggered back, dropping to the platform to avoid momentum taking him over the side.
The man’s focus seemed to zero in on Ben. He leapt off the seat and advanced toward him, sheathing the blade and reaching for a hip holster. He pulled a black angular looking weapon out and aimed with a straight arm, head tilting to one side.
Ben closed his eyes, thinking his time was up.
Two loud cracks, seconds apart, split the air.
Maria screamed.
“Ben,” Ethan shouted.
Something hit the platform, two items clattering with a thud. Ben opened his eyes.
The man was on both knees, clutching his throat, weapon on the platform beside him. Another crack rang out.
The man sprawled back, his blue visor splintered with a small hole in the middle. He slumped against the vehicle, motionless.
Ben jumped to his feet and grabbed the black pistol-like weapon. It was smooth and black with just a trigger and a button on the side. No insignia.
He held his finger on the trigger and trained it on the armored man. Hopefully the threat would be enough—if the man was even still alive.
Ben had never seen a real weapon. The closest he got was a wooden toy in the orphan compartment. It felt heavy and solid in his hand. Deadly.
“Get behind me,” Ben said. Maria cautiously approached the body. “Stay away. He might get up.”
She ignored him and reached out. Fumbling with the handle on the thigh, sliding out the long blade, still smeared with blood. “If another comes along.”
“Who the hell was that?” Ethan said. “Where are we?”
“I’ve no idea… we’ll figure it out eventually, let’s just get safe first,” Ben said.
Ben glanced over the edge of the platform. Something moved in the trees below. A threat perhaps? More of these armored people?
“Down there, movement. Do you see it?” Ben said.
Three dark shapes cut through the trees, alongside the ship.
Maria pointed. “Oh my God, Ben, look, someone’s coming.”
He followed Maria’s direction to the gouge behind the ship. Erika lay directly below, face down in the mud. Thirty feet along, another man lay flat on his back, dressed in the same uniform.
Jimmy.
From what Ben could see, his former colleague suffered a similar fate. Jimmy’s twisted figure was deathly still, mouth open, face reddened with blood. His friend of over thirteen years, butchered at the moment of retirement. He took a deep breath, trying to remain focused on immediate events.
Ethan sunk to his knees and started to sob. “It’s over. We’ve failed.”
“Pull yourself together. We need to find a way back into the ship. Get somewhere safe, warn the crew,” Ben said.
He searched between the trees for signs of movement.
“How do we get back?” Maria said.
Two figures covered in foliage, along with a dog, broke from underneath the canopy cover. Two weapons aimed upwards toward them.
“Shit! Back to the airlock,” Ben said.
He grabbed Ethan by the epaulette and dragged him back. Ethan stumbled to his feet and quickly overtook Ben. To the immediate right of the door was a circular charred indent; the ship appeared to have taken a considerable blast from something.