Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 01:04:50 +0000
From: Michael Offutt <kavrik@hotmail.com>
Subject: Wraith Chapter Nine - Gay Science Fiction
Author Information:
Website: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html
Email: kavrik@hotmail.com
Twitter: @MichaelOffutt
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slipstream/164452693676933
Author's Note: On my website, I have included a picture of Jordan in the
gif image. Please validate me if you agree that he's cute :). You'll also
find a link to a blog post I wrote on Kolin and killsuits right under the
blurb for the novel. That blog post contains a picture of Kolin modeling in
his armor and looking rather sexy.
"Wraith" uses the main characters featured in the science-fiction novel
"Slipstream", but is its own story to be featured entirely on Nifty. Both
of these tales are based on the events established in the short story, "The
Insanity of Zero".
*****
Chapter Nine
Undead.
Monsters.
Horrors.
They were all of these things. Of this, Jordan was certain. But he
also suspected that they could not change shape. He decided right when he
saw them that whatever had caused their transformation from human to
monster had also left them misshapen and permanently deformed.
Of course, he conceded that he could always be wrong.
Jordan's blood froze in his veins when the vile creature stared in
his direction. He held his breath and hoped that they did not see in
infrared. When its head turned away from him, he felt a trickle of sweat
slide between nervous shoulder blades, and his nostrils flared.
The doors on the truck swung open at the same time, and two women
clothed in camouflage fatigues exited the vehicle. They carried rifles.
The one on the passenger side walked along the length of the truck bed and
when she got to the back, pulled the pin from the tailgate to make it drop.
The other reached inside and pulled a scared woman out of the hold and
tossed her to the ground. The four beasts turned their heads cautiously to
each other; naked obsidian skin glistened coolly in the moon's surreal
glow.
Protruding veins crisscrossed their flesh. They glowed incandescent
in the darkness, illuminating their gross frames to such a degree that he
found it unsettling. They possessed too many ghastly lumps in places that
should be without them. A few seconds later, the pungent mixture of
unwashed body and bat guano finally reached Jordan's nose. He vomited into
his mouth and with control, managed to swallow it.
These had to be the camazotz as Kolin had named them.
Jordan observed everything he could.
They varied in height. The largest one launched itself forward on
its haunches and grasped the woman on the top of the head. Horrified, the
twins watched from the seclusion of their hiding space as the monster broke
her neck. It snapped her whole skull back with such force that a loud
audible crack reverberated off the pavement. The cervical bones of her
upper spine shattered like dry kindling. The skin along her throat
caved-in and ripped, sending forth a fountain of blood. It bit down onto
her flesh while the other three cackled like hyenas. From inside the
truck, Jordan heard screams. The captives could see the fate that awaited
them. All hope of life had ended.
When the body had no blood remaining, the camazotz released the
corpse to the earth. Then it reached forth and dropped something into her
open mouth that looked like a larva. To Jordan's disgust, the body
twitched and jerked as if wracked by spasms. It rose to its feet, dangling
a head by a sheaf of skin. The walking corpse fell-in beside the monster,
moaning in its freshly born state, eyes rolled back into the skull, and
lips pulled back from the teeth in a horrible grimace of death.
The two women with rifles took one step forward, brandishing their
firearms.
"That one was free," the guard on the left said, "The rest will cost
you the usual payment. And by usual payment, I mean that we want spare
parts for our vehicles, radiation serum from Kilvarough City, and any
organic food that you've managed to pillage--all in the agreed upon
amounts. For this, we will give you a truckload of fresh food, and the
supply will keep coming. But we have something else, something your master
is going to want to take a look at."
One of the camazotz opened its mouth in a wide yawn and a foot long
tongue hung loosely there amidst a mouthful of sharpened teeth. Blood
dribbled from its maw. When it hit the pavement, Jordan saw little
tendrils of smoke waft upward.
"How would you know what Wraith is interested in?" the monster asked.
The other guard temporarily holstered her rifle by swinging it onto
her back using a shoulder strap. She reached inside the truck to pull
Kolin out onto the ground. Jordan saw that Kolin's face and hair had
become a grisly mess. The Brit's blond locks lay matted to his skull in
what could only be blood. It had hardened into a sticky consistency that
reminded Jordan of thick honey. Additionally, someone had bound his feet
and arms. His legs had been immobilized across the knees, so tightly in
fact that he probably lost all circulation in his limbs.
Blood streaked down the front of Kolin's killsuit and drew a trail
across his chest, abdomen, and to his groin. It dripped from the end of
his codpiece, making a black line down one leg and onto his size ten metal
boots.
Jordan wanted to run to his side and protect him, but he restrained
the impulse and choked on his growing anger. Kolin briefly struggled
against his bonds. It didn't end up well. However, he managed to turn his
head and open startling blue eyes to stare in silent terror at the monster
that drooled at his feet.
"He has a bounty on his head--a big bounty. We're not stupid. The
amount of money being offered with credit sticks for this bastard means he
did something pretty awful. On top of that though...he's a man. Blood
breeding can only be done to males, right?" the guard on the left asked.
"His flesh could host many larva once eggs are laid inside him. Males are
so rare in The Waste that he should be worth twice what's being offered.
We want to negotiate a deal."
The four Camazotz hissed and stepped backward. They cautiously eyed
Kolin as he lay motionless at their feet, a thing barely conscious, and
looking quite small and piteous.
Next to Jordan, Kathy covered her own mouth to stifle a scream.
Jordan knew that he couldn't save Kolin right now. Their enemies
outnumbered them, and they'd just get caught along with Kolin and
accomplish nothing. Jordan didn't know exactly how blood breeding occurred
and truthfully, he didn't want to know. His imagination told him that it
could involve being raped by one of those things as a means to get eggs
inside the body cavity.
The thought terrified Jordan and made him sick to the stomach.
One of the monsters spoke in a chilling voice. "You'll drive into
the city to the slave market at the Millennium Hotel. Unload the food and
put the boy on ice. We'll carry your message to Wraith. It'll be up to
him if he wishes to renegotiate the bounty for this assassin."
The two women easily hoisted Kolin between them. They placed him in
the back of the truck, still bound and curled into a fetal position. Then
they closed the tailgate, locked it with a lynch pin, and drew closed the
canvas curtain. They walked forward, got into the truck, and drove off,
leaving a black cloud of diesel smoke hovering in the middle of the road.
The four monsters spread their arms, and Jordan saw a thin membrane
of skin that stretched along the line of their bodies. It formed makeshift
wings similar to those of a bat. They moved their powerful, heavily
muscled arms and lifted up into the air. Then, they sailed away into the
black sky.
Jordan turned his gaze back to the red tail lights quickly receding
into the distance. They drove slowly to avoid the wreckage of cars and
trucks that had been left on the road where they had come to rest decades
ago.
On the hour when the Big Death had struck.
In the hour that had changed the world.
Without further hesitation, Jordan took off on foot, racing after the
truck at breakneck speed. Kathy followed him into the night.
*****
Chapter Ten coming soon.