Realization Page 8

  "Nah, nuthin' like that. Jus' a couple twinges was all."

  Jansky followed the two of them out of the bedroom and into the front room. "Holy shit!" Marvin said, at the same time the hackles on Jansky's back stood straight up. The workbench monitor was displaying a steady rhythm of jagged pulses where the straight line had been earlier. "We've got company!"

  "How did they find me?"

  "Not sure, but my rig says they're close and headed this way."

  There was a strong surge in the pattern on the monitor.

  "Shit! I felt that again!" JB said.

  "They're pinging your nano-bots somehow, despite the Faraday cage shielding. Gotta be one hell of a strong signal!"

  "Jesus, Marvin. I gotta get outta here before they come. They'll kill y'all too!"

  "Let 'em try!" Marvin said. His voice was still weak, but the tone was confident. "I'm not unprotected here… Remember?"

  He shuffled over to the front window and pushed aside the window seat revealing a series of levers and a large, old-fashioned knife-switch. He rotated several of the levers and pulled the handle on the knife switch. As the metal blades of the switch made contact, there was a small blue electric arc accompanied by the smell of ozone.

  "I see 'em," JB said, peering through the front window.

  The two hunters approached cautiously. If the past failures had taught them anything, it was that the Abomination was not to be underestimated. They were leaving nothing to chance this time. Both hunters intended to strike at the same time. They were well equipped and carried weapons capable of neutralizing, and if necessary, destroying the Abomination. While retrieving a sample of the aberrant medical protocols was important to the mission, returning alive was more important, at least to the off-worlders that converged on Marvin's shack.

  The infiltrator had stayed out of sight near the road. It had positioned itself back far enough to be out of the way of the inevitable battle. Its job was done, now it was time for the others to do theirs.

  The aliens glided towards the structure on their undulating tentacles. Each of them keeping to opposite sides of the pathway that led towards the house. One of the hunter's appendages brushed over a portion of the pathway as it passed by, triggering the trap. A section of the ground to fell away; exposing the pit that JB had fallen into. However, by skirting the walkway along the edge, the hunter had avoided the same fate… Saved only by its lack of cultural conditioning to follow a designated course.

  Unfazed, it kept coming, rapidly advancing while the second alien, seeing the exposed pit, also avoided it, though both continued to approach more cautiously… A tactic which ironically almost proved fatal for one of them.

  The second alien veered off into a more direct approach to the house that led it through some bushes and a copse of trees. It was moving slowly, looking for danger, but it still missed spotting the camouflaged electric grid. As it passed over it, it became interposed between the metal grid beneath its tentacles and the unseen metal plate suspended from the pine tree overhead.

  A hot, blue electric arc flashed through the alien's body as it completed the circuit between the anode and cathode of the jury-rigged trap. It should have been electrocuted, burnt to a crisp from the inside out. But with a frantic move, it managed to extricate itself quickly off of the grid before it was damaged beyond the ability of its medical protocols to heal it. In less than thirty-seconds it would be ready to rejoin the fight.

  The other alien, ignoring the setback suffered by its comrade, had almost reached the front door. Swift and unexpected, the massive, pointed log swung down from the tree and caught the alien full in its upper torso, ripping through its body with savage efficiency.

  The second alien, now fully recovered, closed in rapidly, producing a slender metallic weapon in its tentacles and firing it straight at the building as it approached. JB spotted the move from the front window and yelled a warning. He jumped aside as Jansky leaped onto Marvin, pushing him out of the way as the blue-white energy blast blew by them piercing the front door. The shot left a smoldering hole in the back wall of the kitchen, taking out the recliner in the front room in the process.

  "Shit!" Marvin cursed feebly, still lying on the floor. The breath had been knocked out of him by the fall; still, he managed to huff, "That's it! We’re out of defenses!"

  JB ran at the front door and nearly tore it off its hinges as he barreled through it and took a powerful leap at the approaching off-worlder just as it reached the front porch and grabbed for its weapon. Initially surprised by JB's aggressive attack, the alien nevertheless recovered quickly and tangled JB up in its tentacles, working to turn its weapon on him. Even with his Sawbonite enhanced strength, JB could see this was quickly becoming a losing proposition. He knew he was only seconds away from death, and watched helplessly as the alien's many tentacles moved with adept precision; handing the weapon from one to another, getting it into position to fire. Protruding from the front of the device was the same projectile that had stopped his Sawbonites from working during the last attempt on his life. Despite his valiant, but ineffective struggle to free himself, It would all be over in a heartbeat.

  JB heard Jansky growl from somewhere behind him and caught a blur of black fur as the big dog jumped directly at the tentacles holding the weapon. With a vicious snarl, it tore at the fleshy appendages, shredding them with his teeth, causing the weapon to fly free and clatter on the ground nearby.

  Still pinned under a mass of tentacles, JB concentrated hard on what he needed to do next and kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner. Responding to his thought, his Sawbonites modified his hands into sharp, shovel-like spades. He used them to relentlessly hack and slice his way free of the mass of appendages that still ensnared him. Then, he struck hard at the alien's small triangular head with the point of his sharpened fist. The alien had no neck, but it managed to rotate its head so that JB's blow glanced away without doing the damage he intended. The alien weapon was lying the on the ground within reach of his adversary's tentacles, but JB kicked it further away, even as the off-worlder made a last ditch-effort to secure it. Jansky leaped in again, and snapped at the slender stalks on the top of the alien's head, savaging them in his jaws. The alien, in reaction, released a foul odor, a pheromone conveying its extreme distress. Still, it struck out blindly, flailing its remaining tentacles with as much force as it could muster.

  JB struggled to his feet in time to see that the other alien, while still impaled on the massive log, had recovered enough to bring its weapon into play. Anticipating the move, JB seized the thrashing, blinded alien at his feet, lifting it up between him and the alien shooter as it fired. Simultaneously, his Sawbonites sheathed him in a dull, copper-colored armor that flowed and coalesced out of every pore of his body, covering him from head to toe. The blast pierced the hapless alien JB was using as a shield in the center of its torso, cutting completely through it and nicking a large slice out of JB's side, despite his Sawbonite armor. He ignored the searing, but momentary pain as his Sawbonites intercepted the affected nerves, and without any hesitation, tossed the mangled alien aside to rush the shooter. He ducked under a second blast from the weapon, but it still carved a furrow out his armor on the top of his head, leaving a rut of cauterized flesh and burnt hair. Before the alien could fire again, JB slammed into the end of the log, jamming it further into the alien's body. He pushed down hard on the end of the log, pivoting it forcefully upwards from where it hung from the chain, using the impromptu fulcrum to rip the neckless head from its torso. It burst free from the alien's body with an explosion of purple gore and made a floppy landing, bouncing several times before it came to rest.

  The other alien was still alive, but just barely. Its Sawbonites were working hard to save it despite its extensive injuries. Given enough time they might have succeeded, but JB wasn't about to let that happen. Still armored, he modified one foot into a solid cube and stomped the off-worlder's head into a flattened, featureless pulp.

  On
ly after he was satisfied that both his attackers were dead, JB willed his Sawbonite armor to recede into his body. The injuries to his side and head had already healed. He stood, impassively watching as the first alien's body began to dissolve away. The vaporous cloud of its fleeing medical protocols joined those of the second alien as its body evaporated away also. The dead alien's Sawbonites, drawn to JB as they always were, converged into a single iridescent cloud that found and enveloped him, quickly vanishing between the molecules of his skin. He saw that Jansky was sitting nearby, panting hard, tongue hanging out, taking it all in with what JB thought was surely the canine equivalent of a smile.

  "Damn," he said to the big black Lab, "Y'all are one tough, alien-fightin' Dude!" He didn't expect the dog to reply, but to his surprise, it snorted in acknowledgment before turning to slowly walk back to the front porch.

  "Mother o' mercy, that was too close!" JB exclaimed as he followed Jansky. "Way too close."

  Marvin had sat himself down on the couch, looking paler than ever, his breathing was rapid and shallow. The encounter had plainly taken a toll on him, one he could ill afford.

  “Marvin, I think y'all should lie down a bit. Y’all look like you could use a little rest."

  The old man nodded in agreement and shuffled back into his bedroom with Jansky following closely behind. JB wasn't sure it was a good idea to remain here, but he was equally unsure about leaving the old man alone right now. Despite Marvin’s confidence that he'd be safe enough, JB wasn't convinced. He knew his pursuers weren't about to quit, and there’d be others coming, especially now that they knew how to find him. That was something else he had to worry about.

  He was sure that in the short space of time since he had flatlined his Sawbonites' broadcast, his alien enemies had instituted a new tactic. As Marvin described it, they were “pinging” his Sawbonites with a signal that caused his sub-molecular robots to respond. The simultaneous blip on the monitor screen and the strange twinge he felt were proof enough. However, if there was a bright side to that, the next time it happened he'd be warned that danger was close at hand. Even so, there was little comfort in that, considering how fast they could move in on him.

  At this moment though, JB's overriding concern was Marvin’s safety. He couldn’t abide to have another death on his conscience. The time had come for him to leave, for everyone's sake. He decided to chance a walk down into town to see about reclaiming his truck.

  Unaware of the battle's outcome, the infiltrator had remained back near the road as it had no interest in risking its life. While it had been initially confident that the hunters would be successful in destroying the Abomination, it was becoming apprehensive. More than enough time had passed for the hunters to have completed their mission, but it had received no confirmation of the kill via its implant. It had only begun contemplating its options when it got the shock of its life. Not only was the Abomination apparently intact, but it was also approaching rapidly on foot.

  JB saw the tall, frumpy looking woman standing below the junction of the paved road and the long gravel path that led to Marvin’s shack. There was something strange about her appearance, though he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what made him feel that way. He chalked it up to being still on edge from the recent battle.

  “Mornin’,” he casually said as he drew closer to her. No reason not to be friendly, he thought, despite his well-earned sense of paranoia.

  The infiltrator panicked at that moment, sure that its identity was compromised. It was only lightly armed, but in its desperation and panic, it reached for its weapon, producing a slender silver tube from its “purse”. JB saw the woman make the move, and he was already in motion even before he recognized the object for the weapon it was. The infiltrator fired in haste, and the pencil-thin burst of energy went harmlessly over JB's head as he engaged his adversary before it could take another shot.

  The infiltrator had very little training as a fighter. Its job was to blend in, acquire intelligence and relay that information back so that others could act on it. It was completely unprepared for the Sawbonite enhanced speed of JB’s attack. It steeled itself, expecting the Abomination to deliver a killing blow, but instead, JB disarmed it with one hand and grabbed it roughly by the neck with his other.

  “Mercy!” the infiltrator squawked in a voice that sounded nothing like the plump, middle-aged woman it was physically projecting.

  “So, y’all can talk?”

  “Yes,” the infiltrator croaked softly, JB’s hand was wrapped tightly around the woman's neck, holding it in an iron grip.

  “I’m figurin’ y’all is Har-Kankar, an’ I’ve been wantin’ to have a conversation for the longest time.”

  The infiltrator struggled with all its considerable strength and tried to activate the device on its wrist to teleport out of danger. But JB was stronger still. He grabbed the wrist with the device and wrenched it up to his eye level.

  “Don’t think this here’s a watch,” He said, his voice calm and even. “An’ in fact, I'm thinkin' it’ll look better on me.” He modified the hand holding the infiltrator’s wrist, elongating a finger and hooking it securely around the strap. With a single, forceful yank he pulled it off.

  In addition to powering its communication implant, the device had been sustaining the holographic projector that had allowed it to shape-shift. In the instant that JB removed it, the infiltrator’s female image flickered like a broken fluorescent light before fading away completely. At that moment, the tall, slightly overweight, middle-aged woman was replaced by a far different form.

  The infiltrator was tripedal, standing on three, long rope-like legs. It had six arms, three on each side of its slender torso. The upper ones appeared heavily muscled, ending in large, seven-fingered hands, while the remaining four were far smaller and hung down limply. The "neck" that JB was grasping was actually the bottom part of its hairless, oblong head, which was the only part of its body not covered in dull, yellow fur. Its three heavily lidded eyes were blinking in fear, and the two ragged gill-like slits on either side of its head were dilating and contracting as it gasped for air.

  “Holy shit! Y’all is one ugly Dude,” JB said, even though he had seen a similar being before that had masqueraded as a human.

  Now revealed, the alien knew that other than self-termination, it had only one desperate recourse. The unexpected, wallop from the infiltrator's ropy, muscular leg caught JB entirely by surprise. The impact fractured the large bone in his leg and caused him to loosen his grip on the alien. His Sawbonites knit the fracture in seconds, allowing him to recover quickly, but the infiltrator had already regained its weapon from the ground and was raising it directly at JB’s head. JB’s organic armor encapsulated him mere milliseconds before it fired, but that was fast enough to save him. The blast from the small weapon would have otherwise torn through his unprotected brain, but his armor deflected the energy beam, only partially melting away where it struck. The alien froze in shock at the JB’s unexpected transformation. In that brief instant, JB ignoring the minor damage to his forehead, took advantage of the other’s hesitation and his own Sawbonite enhanced strength. With a single, fluid move he seized the arm that was holding the weapon and rotated it up and around, snapping whatever served it for bones in the process. It didn’t matter whether the infiltrator knew the weapon was now pointing towards it, or whether it fired accidentally, consciously, or reflexively. The result was the same. The energy beam struck it under its thin, bony chin and continued through its brain case and out the top of its head. It collapsed at JB’s feet, damaged far beyond the abilities of its medical protocols to repair.

  As the infiltrator’s body dissolved away, its medical protocols left it, flocking to JB in a repeat of the strange ritual that happened every time an alien melted away. Once again, the cloud of sub-molecular robots quickly became absorbed into his body. He couldn’t be sure of course, but he was coming to realize that Marvin was probably right. His own Sawbonites were compelling the a
lien’s nano-bots to join them in his body and then cannibalizing the newcomers for parts or energy. It was only a theory, but Marvin had confirmed the conclusion he had reached mostly by intuition.

  The objects the alien had been carrying remained behind. The devices that resembled a phone and a watch, and of course the weapon, were lying on the ground. Though JB knew from his past experience that any objects an alien left behind were useless after death, he still tested them for functionality. After some manipulation, and closer inspection he was satisfied that they were all nonoperative. He decided that it was safer to be sure that the metallic triangle was the only exception to that rule.

  The alien’s prop handbag also lay nearby. It was open, and JB could see it was empty. He gathered the useless devices into the handbag and stuffed it into Marvin’s nearby rural mailbox. He planned to pick them up later when he returned to say goodbye to Marvin.

  Warily, he resumed his walk down the hill, and after a fair amount of asking around in town, he finally found the impound lot. It was part of a local tow and wrecking yard, at about a half-hour walk from the waterfront. He had to wait for the mechanic on duty to finish changing a tire before he could pay the eighty dollar fee to reclaim his truck.

  Shortly after he was handed his keys, he was relieved to find that his duffel bag with a change of clothes and a few other personal items were still in the front seat of the cab. He checked the toolbox in the truck bed that contained his “space-junk” collection, and found it was still locked; a precaution he took the night that he left it parked a quarter mile or so away from the Trench Estate. His truck, "Ol' Blue," was the only remaining bridge between his old life and his new one, and he was happy to have it back.

  He decided he could safely return to Marvin's shack before heading off the Island, figuring he was safe from more alien attacks, at least in the near term. Also, he was confident he had killed the lookout, who undoubtedly had disguised itself as a human so it could find him and send the others in for the kill. He considered this development as a reassuring sign that he had successfully stopped his Sawbonites from continually transmitting their signature. It was also apparent that from now on, finding him would take a lot more work. For the first time, if the device Marvin was creating worked, he might have the opportunity to bring the fight to them.