Derelict: Chapter 4
#12 of Scrap Book
Derelict: Chapter 4
I regained consciousness at the sound to arguing voices, both of them were high pitched and nearly identical. I only guessed that it was two due to the arguing, but it could have just been one insane person.
"Should we kill it?"
"No, doctor said he wanted this one alive."
I didn't move from my position on the floor and kept my eyes closed. They weren't aware that I had woken and frankly I wished I hadn't either. My whole body hurt and I could not only taste blood in my mouth, but feel a congealed mass of it as well.
"He has some sort of weapon. I haven't seen it before."
"Maybe he built it?"
"That would make him an engineer."
"An engineer?"
"Doctor said to kill engineers."
"Can't kill him."
"Why not?"
"Doctor said he wanted this one alive."
"But doctor said he wanted to kill engineers."
"He wants him alive and we don't know if he's an engineer."
The level of intelligence wasn't very high. I didn't know who this doctor was or why he wanted me alive, but he should have sent smarter lackeys. I began to get the idea that if I surprised them, then I would have the immediate upper hand. A weight at my side told me that I still have my torch which would make for a viable weapon.
"But he has that thing on his belt."
"He could have taken it."
"I guess so."
"So we take him to the doctor."
"Yeah."
I heard them take a step towards me now that they had finally decided to do something. I had already planned that they wouldn't take me.
I rolled away from the sound of their voice and pulled the torch from my belt in one smooth motion that seemed to manage to hit all of the bruises that must have been forming on my body. I rolled into a crouch position, nearly falling over when I overcompensated. I raised up the torch, using both hands to steady my aim and looked at the two who were now shocked, but not nearly shocked as me.
Before me stood bipedal Dobermans in grey coveralls. They looked back at me with big brown eyes. One had his hand outstretched, reaching for where I just was.
"You woke it up." The one to my right slapped the other on the head.
"What do you mean I woke it up?" He slapped back, but the other anticipated it and swatted the hand away from his head.
"You got to close and it heard you."
"S'cuse me?" The dog put its hand on his hips, evoking an image of diva in my head. The two were ridiculous, they squabbled like an old married couple that was on the verge of a divorce.
"You heard me." They had completely forgotten about me. I was willing to bet that I would have been able to stand up and walk away even in my injured state, but I didn't. Instead I spat out he ball of blood from my mouth which splattered on the floor. That got their attention and they turned to look at me.
"We still need to get it." He leaned over and whispered into the other's ear even though I heard it. "Let's go on three."
"Why do you get to decide?" Another slap to the head answered his question, but he decided to lunge at me right then and there. It was a poor choice for the dog.
I jumped off to the side, avoiding its grubby little paws that had claws outstretched. I pulled the trigger of the torch and brilliant red and orange beam shot out, hitting the Doberman. My aim wasn't good since I had to act fast, but I saw several small digits scatter across the room, their ends sizzling and smoking like miniature missiles.
The Doberman landed on face and began screaming. "Oh lordy. The son'a bitch got me. He got me." He held the hand that had been cleanly sliced. Three of the dog's fingers were gone and a small portion of the hand as well, only black char from the super-heated plasma remained.
"You damn idjit." I wasn't sure of the other Doberman was talking to me or the other.
"Get back!" I yelled and the unharmed god raised up both hands and did as I said. The other one was whimpering and kneeling over its half of a hand. I wasn't concerned with that one at the moment so I let it be.
With a bit of a breather, I let go with one hand and ran it across my face, but pulled back at the intense pain that shot across my cheek. My face was mangled pretty bad, that much was for certain. The rest of my body seemed fine other than being sore. My suit had taken the brunt of the explosion, stopping most of the glass and metal shards from turning my into swiss cheese.
"Who are you?" I yelled at both of them and they looked at each other before the unharmed one spoke up.
"I'm B-4, that one." He pointed at the other. "He's B-5."
"B-4, B-5?" What strange names, sounded more like designations.
"No." The injured Doberman cried out. "The doctor gave us real names. I'm Benny and you're Bob."
"I thought you were Bob and I was Benny."
"You sure?" Just like that, I was forgotten again, lost amidst their arguing.
"I think so." The dog scratched his chin and gazed thoughtfully at the other who no longer cared so much about his hand.
"Shut up!" I couldn't stand it anymore. How could they argue like this at this time? There were goldfish with attention spans longer than them.
"That's not very polite."
"Shut it Benny." I nearly pulled to trigger again to finish off the wounded dog.
"I'm Bob." He whispered and looked down at the floor with his ears folded down.
"Bob, Benny. I don't care." My head was swirling around, trying to get a grip of the situation. They both looked the same and sounded the same so I fixed the situation more for my own sanity than anything else. "You're Stubby." I pointed at the dog with the bad hand. "And you're whatever the fuck you want to be." I looked at the other who was now panting excessively for no apparent reason.
"I want to be Benny." He yipped.
"Fine whatever." I waved the torch that was no more of a gun around in the air. "Now tell me what the hell is going on."
"The doctor wants to see you." Benny answered happily as if I was now his new best friend.
"Who is this doctor?"
"Doctor Morrison of course." Stubby barked. "He's great." His tail wagging in the air. It disturbed me how fast he disregarded his hand which was still smoldering a bit.
"We need to take you to him. He told us to take you to him." Benny insisted with a whine. "We can't go back unless you come with us." Both of them were insane as far as I was concerned.
"I have other plans." I told them much to their dismay. I needed to find Jerry or Manny. They needed to know that there were others here and that there were traps. I also needed to see how bad my face was. The constant burning and stinging wasn't a good sign and it was still bleeding. I don't think it was lethal, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Maybe doctor can help?" Benny jumped up. "He can help you, he's a nice man." Their persistence was admirable, but ultimately annoying enough that I began to walk away from them. I walked by what was left of the monitor that had blown up in my face. The glass screen and the key board were gone, but the rest was still intact. It was definitely rigged to maim and not kill, my guess was to deter people from trying to turn the reactor back on.
The looked at each other, signs of confusion and uncertainty etched onto their canine faces. Soon I found myself with two new traveling companions which was not what I wanted. They kept their distance which was nice since it meant that I would have time to get my torch out if they decided to jump me, but their constant yapping was as loud as ever.
I tried my comm, but a piece of metal from the monitor had embedded itself in the comm controls. My suit had been rendered completely useless by the blast, there was no point in keeping it on. I stripped out of it easily. There was just a few zippers that, when opened, let me peels off the arms, the legs and then the body without too much effort unlike getting into it in the first place.
The station was still dark with no power. If I was going to go out and explore, I needed some light. My helmet had a light on it, but I had hallucinated or something which left me in a state of confusion. Maybe I did need help. I just hoped I wasn't going to regret asking.
"So." I slowly turned around to face the two Dobermans who were prodding each other with their fingers. I didn't know why, and didn't want to know either. "How can this doctor help me?"
"He's a smart man." Stubby straightened up while Benny jabbed him in the ear with a pinky finger. "He knows a lot about this station."
"I guess that's a start." I mumbled more to myself, wondering how I even got in this situation. How had things turned so bizarre so fast?
"Does this mean you'll come with us?" Benny asked now. His prodding had gotten him the disgusting reward of a clump of earwax on his finger that he was trying to fling off but couldn't.
"Sure." I shrugged not really seeing any other way. I could wander mindlessly in the dark, but I reasoned that there could be more dogs out there, dogs that were more inclined on biting rather than barking. A hypothesis yes, but one that I would rather not test out and if we did run across something nasty, I was sure that the two Doberman's would bicker long enough for me to escape. I know that it's hardly admirable to leave the dim witted behind to die, but I didn't fancy dying myself.
They had lights stashed away in one of the many pockets their coveralls had. All I had in the pockets of the light undergarments I was wearing was my ID card that I always kept on my person out of habit. I don't know how far we walked, the endless corridors looked all the same. We passed row after row of hatches that would lead to other parts of the station that I bet had some interesting things in them. They had to if there were weird dog people on the station.
The only break from the monotonous corridors were the occasional signs of life or death in some cases. There was patches of dried blood here and there, bullet casings, but no bodies. When I asked about it, they just explained that bodies were cleaned up to stop what they called the ferals from coming. I didn't like the sound of that. It was just another question to ask this Doctor Morrison when I got to him. If he really could help, then great, if not, then I don't know. At least I was going somewhere at the moment. Whether it was for the better or worse was yet to be decided.
"We're close." Benny said to me over his shoulder. I could smell that we were getting close to something. There was the smell of unwashed bodies wafting through the air. Both Benny and Stubby had that smell, but with just the two of them, it was never a nuisance. This was something else, it was a thick smell that seemed to push against me as I walked through it. I did all I could to avoid spilling the grey crap that I had eaten earlier for breakfast.
I was led to a non-descript hatch. It differed from the others in only one way, it was had a handle welded to it that allowed Benny to open it up with some effort. The smell from inside was worse as it rushed out to great me.
"Doctor awaits." The two dogs said one after the other and walked in, not even noticing the smells.
"What have I gotten myself into?" I moaned and stepped inside.