Normally Roger was a red-brown color but At the moment he was a light grey fleshy tone with a few big purple patches that had to be bruises. His numerous limbs were restrained by being taped together into bundles, but by the way he was hanging limp in the man’s hand, I think he must have been unconscious.
“OK here’s the plan girl.” The masked man started; I am pretty sure this same guy from Monday as his build was about right. “We don’t know if we can secure you without you prematurely dying, so instead I am asking you to come quietly so this guy-“ He shook Roger. “Doesn’t get a bullet somewhere lethal.”
I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing, but that’s Roger, he’s nice! He’s got a kid!
Fuck!
“Fine.” I said furious at whatever this was about.
“Drop the bag, toss your wallet, keys, phone, whatever.”
I slipped my backpack off and indicated the lack of pockets on this skirt.
“Get in.”
There were a couple of other guys in the back of the van, and as soon as I was in reach, they strapped a few heavy nylon straps around my limbs to prevent movement and put duct tape over my mouth. I was then told to lie on the floor at the back of the van, a few moments later Roger was roughly tossed beside me.
As the van bounced and thrummed its way along, existence stretched into an eternity. I had nothing to do but stare at Roger hoping he would wake up or do something to prove he wasn’t dead, for all I knew beating him unconscious had caused a brain hemorrhage or something. I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing or not from this angle.
Eventually, he moved a bit, then groaned.
Thank fuck, he’s alive.
The van kept rolling on, I don’t really know how long we were driving total. I didn’t burn too much fuel so it can’t have been that long despite how it felt, maybe an hour at most. We must have been deep into the countryside as the road sound had changed to the steady crunch of gravel very early on. Suddenly we slowed and swung into a sharp right and the gravel sounds were replaced with tarmac as the vehicle slowed to a halt.
After a moment or two, the rear doors opened before roger was just dragged out and I was yanked onto a cart. I got a chance to glance around as they wheeled the cart along, but I couldn’t really say too much about where we were. There were trees, farmland, and then a building that could have been a garage or warehouse with a pair of large doors to one side, one of which was open. There were a handful of cars parked next to the building in a variety of states of disrepair.
Before I could see anything else the cart went through the open garage door. As we entered the building I saw a U-Haul moving van sitting in the space behind the other door with a series of thick cables running out the open back door and a ramp up from the ground. I didn’t see much more besides a handful of guys with rifles standing expectantly around the base of the ramp as the cart turned into the deeper part of the building.
After a brief view of a hallway wall, we stopped at a door. One of the guys pushing the cart left it to swing it open, revealing an empty closet before they unceremoniously shoved the cart in and slammed the door.
I guess I’m saved for later, whatever that means.
Thankfully they clearly don’t know much about my capabilities because I do have some options, for example, a small crew of repair buddies without restrained limbs. I asked Lilly they could cut through the straps, with barely any delay I heard them scuttle around and make some buzzing sounds. Lilly then walked in front of my face to give a little thumbs up with one three-fingered hand, the other having been replaced with a small saw.
OK, so do I risk doing something stupid and maybe get Roger and myself killed, or do I just sit here, and we might die anyway. I am pretty sure they don’t really have long-term survival for us in mind given they didn’t really try to hide anything on the way from the van, hell, only the balaclava guy was hiding his face.
Plus, that whole thing about ‘prematurely dying’ earlier, I don’t think you say that to someone you plan on leaving alive.
Fuck it. Lilly and Rose, can you get my arms free? Iris and Crocus get my legs.
They seemed to be making good progress through the straps when the screaming started. Fuck I am pretty sure that’s Roger, it’s pretty warble-y.
Faster friends!
I felt the straps on my arms loosen and yanked them off, then helped tear through the last of the others off my legs.
I sat up and looked around the room.
Nothing, not a broom, all I had was the cart I was on. Fuck, I don’t have anything to use as a weapon and I don’t think I have thrown a proper punch in my life.
Plus, the door is probably locked.
The screaming got louder.
Fucking, fuck.
Maybe I can kick the lock open? I’m pretty strong and fast, so if I get out I can just body-check them or something.
Having some sort of a plan seemed to kick off my body into action, I can feel my burners open up far beyond what I thought they could, extra flues open wide, and then my turbine begin to spin up. Certain they could hear how noisy I had gotten, I tried to maintain whatever surprise I had left by running up and kicking the door as hard as I could.
It few off the hinges almost bent in half.
There was a meaty thump and a new source of screaming as it stopped across the hall.
Target no longer a threat
Fucking what.
OK, no time.
I rushed out of the room, my brain immediately identifying a guy a meter or two up the hall as having a rifle. I could see they were in the midst of turning towards me having heard the door impact his companion. Without any better options, I ran at him hoping to try to grab the gun before he could shoot me.
I accelerated far faster than I was expecting and fearing for what would happen to either of us if I hit him at this speed, I changed direction enough to graze him to the left instead. As I got close, I was able to my hand on the barrel of the rifle before he could aim at me, and I let my momentum pull it away from him. The gun bent as it did and, oh fuck, some of the guy’s fingers came with it.
Target no longer a threat
My brain let me know the guy had no other firearms, and without a clear next step, I continued forward still holding the bent rifle in my right hand. I was approaching the end of the hall and I could see the back half of the U-Haul from here, I don’t see the guys who had been at the base of the ramp anymore. In addition to those three, there should be at least two others including the balaclava guy.
There’s guy three, he was just coming around the corner into the hall bringing the gun in his hand up. I turned towards him and tried to duck low and really put a sprint in at him, aware of both the lethality of his gun and my momentum. Pretty sure this is way faster than the sprint Kat saw, and I had just yanked that guy’s fingers off so there’s a lot of energy involved.
I saw and heard the first gunshot go high over my head.
Taking it in a two-handed grip, for control if nothing else, I swung the bent gun back as a club aiming for the guy’s gun.
That’s when I felt the second shot skip over the top of my shoulder, the tang of it ricocheting off the metal panel under my skin, the sound loud next to my ear. Wait do I have armor then? Too late for that thought to go anywhere, the gun in my hand slammed up into his causing a spray of plastic and metal.
I’m pretty sure that the guy’s arms aren’t supposed to be asymmetrical like that, I think my club had brushed one of his arms shattering it and the other had been hit by his stock pivoting away from the impact.
Target no longer a threat
I was still running, but now my trajectory was going to take me out of the building through the open door which would take me away from Roger’s screams, so ditching the ruined club I grabbed the support for the ceiling in between the two bays to redirect my momentum. I realized as I was doing it that I might just injure myself doing it with the speed I had, but it was the support that bent as I whipped around it. Now I was running up parallel with the U-Haul truck towards the rear of it.
Then the Balaclava guy came into view around the back of the truck, one pistol up in a two-handed grip pointing at where I had been a few moments before I redirected my momentum. I had just enough time to realize that he wasn’t pretending to be in a John Woo film with only the one gun out, then I grabbed for it as I flew up beside him wrenching off the front of it along with crushing his finger in the trigger guard.
It was like squashing a tomato, except with a bonus finger.
I dug into the ground, shoes splitting as I came to a stop before I would hit the row of workbenches at the back of the room. Then remembering the guy had a second gun, I dashed back at him. With only a few steps to make, I grabbed for it from his other holster as he screamed at the scrap of metal in his hand and his missing pointer finger.
Now I have a gun, no clue if I can use it though. Glancing at it makes me believe it’s a Glock of some kind, I think they have trigger safeties so it will probably shoot if I pull the trigger. Balaclava guy seemed to be recovering and I guess was planning to try and fight me, so I kicked him in the leg. It bent in a wrong way and then he joined his compatriots in screaming on the ground.
Target no longer a threat
Looking for the other kidnappers I knew were around, my attention was drawn by the open back of the U-Haul. I can see into it now and there’s some kind of… portal, for lack of a better description, surrounded by an eerie blackness in a crude metal arch within it. Visible through the portal are two of the three who had been standing at the base of the ramp, they seemed to be pointing their rifles at… Rogers? Tentacled people anyway, wearing what looked like multi-level pleated skirts that started at the neck, I could see a few of them had tentacles coming out of upper levels of the skirt and were holding them over their heads. Either that gesture was more universal than I might have expected or the guys with guns had demonstrated it. Then I realized could see Roger himself on a black dais beside the metal arch restrained and screaming.
Before I could do anything to help Roger, I realized the remaining guy I hadn’t seen yet was coming around the truck. I uh may have thrown the pistol at him, but the screaming said it worked well enough.
Target no longer a threat
I was not quite sure what to do about the two in the portal, who now seemed caught between keeping their guns on the people there or redirecting them to point at me. I decided to just try to save Roger by turning off the machine, I grabbed at one of the big power cables trailing into the truck and yanked.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
It ripped out of the machinery around the dais, resulting in a spray of sparks. The portal remained active long enough to see fear spread on the two kidnappers’ faces as they abandoned their hostages in a bid to get back through before it winked out of existence. The eerie black initially occupied the entire arch for a moment before reality suddenly asserted itself and I could see a mess of equipment through it instead.
Target no longer a threat
Target no longer a threat
Roger thankfully stopped screaming, instead he collapsed against the dais and lay there breathing heavily. There was still a lot of screaming though, probably all the people I just mutilated.
Fuck.
OK, priority one, how badly hurt is Roger those guys can wait.
I rushed up the ramp to him, he looks substantially worse than earlier. Desiccated, like there wasn’t enough of him to fill his now dry skin.
“Roger, can you hear me?” I asked, not sure what I could do for him.
“Water...” I barely heard him whisper.
Right ok, that’s something I can get. Probably.
Looking around the building I spot a set tub with hand scrubbing soap and stuff sitting in it. Rushing over to it I also find some gross coffee mugs littering its edges.
Ew.
Fuck it water is more important. Filling a couple of them, I rush back to Roger who eagerly drank both, and then the further two refills I brought.
“OK, I have no idea what else I can do for you, so I am going to try and find some help.” I said after he didn’t want any more water.
“Sounds good.” He whispered back, sounding a bit less haggard and cracking one eye open a touch. As he relaxed, I felt my burners return to normal rates of flow and my turbine wind down.
I walked out of the truck and started looking at what was there, besides the screaming or unconscious people. It looks like my initial guess of this being is a garage of some kind is correct judging by the tools and tires I could see. I then looked around the other side of the truck to the part of the building I hadn’t seen.
There appeared to be an office of some kind judging by the desk I could see, with luck the place has a landline I can use. As I entered it, I found something I hadn’t been expecting, there were five tentacled people tied up in the corner of the office each limb bound to the next with duct tape. They were looking at me with what I guessed was fear as they pulled into the corner away from me.
Fuck, I may have destroyed their way home. OK, get help first then crippling guilt later.
I approached them slowly with my hands up, they continued to pull back from me but ran out of space and just tried to stay as close to each other as they could. I got close enough that I could start then tore the tape to free their limbs, they started to relax as I worked my way through them, and even started to help. Once they were free, I stepped back to see that they weren’t looking as scared but they remained huddling in the corner.
With a sigh, I turned away from them to look at what else was there. I found a wireless house phone from a decade or two ago sitting in its cradle on the desk together with a computer of similar vintage open to a wallpaper of a landscape.
OK, now who do I call?
The cops?
I don’t know how that will go down but it’s an option.
Wait what about Summers?
I would like to get these people some help, and he should already know Roger’s unconventional biology and how to treat him. Plus, he could probably get the cops here faster than a direct call to them anyway with the connections he keeps demonstrating.
A quick Google later and I have his public number, let’s hope he picks up.
“Hello, Doctor Summers speaking.” He said in a clipped tone, a few moments later.
“Uh, hi Summers, it’s Sam.”
“Sam? This isn’t the number you gave me before, is something wrong?”
“Er, yeah actually. Uh, I think I got kidnapped and Roger needs help.”
“I’m sorry, kidnapped? Could you put them on the line then.” He said with a hard edge to his voice.
“Uh well, that isn’t the issue.”
“What do you mean it isn’t the issue?” A note of confusion in his voice now.
“Uh, I kinda dealt with them.” Not giving him time to respond I continued. “It’s more that Roger is injured, and I don’t know what I can do for him, and there are some other people like him here. Oh, uh and the kidnappers need medical attention too.”
There was silence on the line for a moment.
“Ok, leave this line open so we can track it. I will be there soon.”
I was becoming aware of how empty my bunkers were, and I realized if I was to be conscious for more than minutes, I would need something now.
“Um OK, I think I am going to steal their gas. Uh, see you.”
There was a sound of acknowledgment and then I could hear movement on the other side. Not really having time to waste, I put the phone back on its charging cradle as I wasn’t sure how good its battery was.
I knew there must have been fuel in the U-Haul or the panel van we got here in, so I knew there was something close to hand. I wasn’t quite sure the best way to get the gas out, but I ended up just pulling the cap off the truck’s tank and using a small pipe I found on a bench as a straw drank my fill. Blah, the tank was old and tainted the gas with rust or something, but it was food. Fortunately, there was at least clean water aplenty from the tap, so my feed water tanks were easily topped up too.
I tried to see if there was anything I could do for the kidnappers, but other than making sure they weren’t bleeding to death I didn’t really know what to do for them as my first aid course didn’t really cover these kinds of injuries. I pulled the ones who weren’t that badly injured together where I could keep an eye on them, although they seemed reluctant to try anything else and mostly cooperated.
I then scrubbed a couple of the mugs clean-ish and brought water to the people still huddling in the office, they accepted with a touch of hesitation still but one of them warbled a sound I guessed was thanks.
Without anything better to do, I looked around the outside of the building. Besides the sign calling itself ‘Al’s Automotive’ there wasn’t anything, but some worn-out cars and the white panel van out front.
When I looked up and down the adjacent road, I couldn’t even see a dust cloud as the implication of anyone. After awkwardly standing there a few moments, I decided to go back and sit with Roger and just wait for whoever was coming.
Lilly and Rose took the quiet as an opportunity to run around and patch the holes and scrapes in my skin that had accumulated, even pulling a few splinters of plastic from my face I hadn’t felt. While they worked, I surveyed the state of my clothing, prompting a sigh. My nice purple skirt had been torn in a few places from when it had caught on stuff in the fight, and the right shoulder of my sleeveless white button-up shirt had a ragged hole torn by the splinters of the bullet as it skipped off me.
I knew we must have been out in the sticks from how long the ride out felt, but it took over an hour before I could start to hear sirens on the way. I got up and went out to meet them in the dimming light, looking to the left as I assumed they would probably turn up from the same direction we had in the panel van.
Holy shit, Summers does not fuck around.
Leading a convoy of ambulances and Government of Canada marked vehicles were a couple of armed forces LAVs, their autocannons turning to cover the building as they arrived. When they ground to a halt, soldiers piled out to a series of shouts followed by Summers and a uniformed woman who seemed to be the one giving commands to them.
“Hello Sam, it’s good to see you.” He said, as if turning up at the head of an armed convoy was a normal thing to be doing.
----------------------------------------
I realized I had kinda forgotten to mention the portal device.
Summers was standing staring at it along with the blond-haired soldier I had seen before, who kept on glancing between me and the EMTs working on one of the kidnappers nearby. Without the chaos of the fight or worry about Roger to distract me from the details the device looked rather shoddy. The arch was just pieces of square steel with a collection of emitters of some type bolted on, and it was connected to the dais with thick bundles of wires just taped together. The dais looked like it might have been made in a factory or lab though, with its internals obscured by black painted panels. Past the business end of the portal were shelving units filled with an eclectic collection of electronics around a small central walking space.
“So, you said there was a different world on the other side?” Summers asked.
“As far as I could tell, it was a room with people like Roger on the other side. I kinda was more focused on making it stop though.”
“Well, that I can understand given his worsening condition at the time.” He said before adding. “Ah, to assuage your worries, he was extremely dehydrated but should recover given time to rest.”
I relaxed a bit at that, I had seen him being brought to an ambulance, but I wasn’t sure what they had found. I glanced towards the office where a man in t-shirt and jeans with a floating grey beach ball was talking with the other Tentacled people. Wait, was that Ivy?
“Sam, you said that there were two others from the kidnappers on the other side?” I dragged my attention back to Summers when he addressed me.
“Yeah, I should have gotten them back but I was more worried about Roger…” I said trailing off. “I guess I might have killed them with that choice.”
“Well, you can’t know for certain, and you couldn’t know if the wait might have killed Roger.” Summers said patting me on the head.
People keep doing that lately, I know I am short but come on!
“Martin, you still haven’t asked what happened here. Those guys didn’t exactly get injured on their own.” The soldier asked looking annoyed. I could read a tag on her uniform saying ‘Brant’ this time, I didn’t recognize the rank insignia though.
He sighed.
“Mary, I was getting to it.” He turned away from the device to look at me. “Sam, you would mind giving a rough description of the fight?“
I thought for a second.
“I mostly got the opportunity to take them individually and they were slower than I was. I kicked a door into the first guy and then the rest was basically just trying to disarm them before they could shoot me.” I said with a shrug after I couldn’t think of anything better to say.
Brant sighed and rubbed her eyes with a hand. “How did they not get a shot on you? It’s not a big building but they should have had time for at least a few shots.”
“One did get a hit on me, it skipped off though.” I stuck a finger through the hole in my shirt.
She stared at me for a second, then continued. “OK, and do you have any kind of experience in a fight?”
“No?” I couldn’t remember anything which would count, maybe my attempts to get back at Kat punking me as a kid.
“We have the kidnappers in custody, and we can revisit the subject with Sam another time,” Summers interjected after giving her a look.
“Fine.” She said after frowning at him but dropping the subject anyway.
Ivy drifted over in my direction, having noticed the lull I imagine, the t-shirt guy following. I stepped away from the other two, who had started some quiet discussion that seemed to be about the portal.
“Hi, is that you Ivy? Sorry about not being able to hear you either way…” I said uncomfortably as they came to a stop.
“She says it’s fine, and that the uh. I can’t pronounce that, Ivy. The people over there appreciated your help.” He didn’t seem quite as used to being a relay as Luke had been. Then a look of realization crossed his face, and he offered a hand. “Oh, I’m Ed by the way.”
“Sam, I did kinda wreck their way back though…” I admitted with a grimace while taking it.
“They could hear the screaming and got a pretty good idea why you broke it, so they aren’t judging you. I don’t even need Ivy to tell me that bit.” He said patting me on the head.
Am I a dog or something?
“So, I take it Ivy was helping translate?” I asked trying to avoid letting my annoyance reach my voice.
“Yep! Best damn translator on this side of the planet. Yes, Ivy, you are. No, I know that guy is around but his method sucks. Yeah, because you aren’t the one, he has to stick it in!”
I am getting increasingly alarmed by this half of the conversation.
“OK, you try having someone ram cloves in your ear!”
Well, that makes it less alarming.
“So, uh what do you do then Ed?” I asked trying to bring it back to something I could hear both parts of.
“Xenolinguistics primarily!” He said then got excited. “This is the first time I’ve actually got to talk to someone not of earth! I’ve done lots of looking at random stuff from changed buildings or artifacts, but never an actual user of a language!”
“It sucks it wasn’t something they had any choice though, so that kinda ruins it as a first.” He finished with a grimace while scratching the back of his neck.
At this point, Summers walked over to join us, in a first, he was looking a bit sheepish.
“I hate to interrupt but it’s probably time we get Sam on the way back, I let her family know she was safe when we got here. But I did say I was only going to keep her a few minutes, and I have somewhat lost track of time I will admit.”
He bustled me off to one of the cars waiting nearby after I had said my goodbyes, apparently electing to drive me himself. As we buckled in, I had a stray thought which apparently showed on my face.
“Something wrong Sam?” He asked.
“I hadn’t even thought about how much of a pain replacing all the stuff they had me ditch will be, and I had only had those IDs for a day!” I grumbled.
He winced at that.
“Well, I did ask for some people to check the area where they grabbed you. With luck, they have found it already, it’s a quiet neighborhood so it’s not impossible it would have still been there. Worst case I can help get you replacements.”
“Really? Thank you!”
“Don’t worry about it.”
The following quiet stretched out for minutes, as I watched the occasional reflective sign go by in the darkness around us.
“So, people as… fuel for portals.” I said eventually voicing a thought that had been bugging me since I had seen the tentacle people in the office.
“Seems like it, the obvious guess is that you and Roger were to be used to collect victims to sustain later portals.” He paused. “Unfortunately, we won’t really know more of the plan unless we get it out of the kidnappers.”
“Hey, Roger was getting dehydrated by whatever was going on right?” I asked as a memory wiggled its way up.
“Yes, and I think I know where you are going.” He said with a sigh. “We now have a potential angle on those deaths in California.”
“Now I am going to suggest we try not to speculate too much, give my colleagues a chance to get solid data first. Don’t worry though, I don’t plan on keeping you in the dark!” He chuckled, before turning serious. “I will say it was lucky you were there and that they lacked understanding of your capabilities, without your admirable intervention Roger would almost certainly be dead. I will ask you a question though, I saw those kidnappers as well as Mary did, and well I am concerned about how you are doing after being forced to commit violence to save someone.”
I sighed, having anticipated this would come up.
“I don’t feel great about injuring them that much, I know some of it was because I don’t know how to fight at all but…” I trailed off hesitating at admitting the next bit, looking away from him out the window. “I think I am probably more concerned about how my friends and family will react rather than what I did. “
When he responded his tone was gentle. “Sam, this wasn’t wanton violence for the sake of it. They were killing Roger and you were almost certainly next; I am sure they will understand.”
“I hope so.”