Chapter 36: Surprise After Surprise
The sounds of distant yelling, barks of alarm and screeches of fear soon began to trickle towards Paulie and Jakiikii in the hot wind that blew from the city. He longed to know what was happening, but from their position so far outside the main city there was virtually nothing they could do, and then another flash of light reached them. And then another and another. Like punches directly to the gut they were served with more of those blastwaves, the sounds of fear and panic coming from the distant city rising in pitch and intensity.
Thinking fast, he tried to raise Mack again, but found that his commie would not respond. Instead the screen displayed simple falling lines of green alien symbols, but even with his unfamiliarity with the language of the GGI he recognised the warning flashes and low insistent tone. It was some manner of automated emergency alert, but it was blocking him from making any calls.
He tapped his wrist and turned to Jakiikii, asking with desperation tinging his voice. “What do we do, we can’t contact anyone with these! Is there somewhere nearby we can get a call for help out?”
She looked around without moving her head, all six eyes a-flurry in activity. “No.. wait! Yes!” She pointed with two of her right arms towards the city, but off into the middle distance. “There is a checkpoint over that way, it is generally not manned, but with those explosions and the general mayhem there might be other adjudicator’s forces we can link up with there.”
It was the best idea he could think of as well and so he nodded, finding no argument.
Ducking in and around the brush, they made their way onto the lit footpath and scrambled in the direction of the city. Paulie threw caution to the wind and started taking larger and larger bounding leaps. His feet leaving the ground in the worldlet's lower gravity till he was all-but sailing through the sky at incredible speeds, he was forced to skid to a halt as he realised that Jakiikii, despite being much more nimble than most other alien races of the GGI, could not match his superhuman speed.
Without a word to her and ignoring her protests Paulie simply scooped the termaxxi up in his arms and took off again. This time bearing the weight of the alien woman as well. She clung to him as he ran with abandon towards the outskirts of the city in the direction she had gesticulated, if the unknown criminals had still been around he must certainly have outpaced them by now and within mere minutes he stumbled to a halt at the edge of a large highway. Panting and gasping for air but feeling better than he had in days. Letting loose tended to have that effect.
Jakiikii stood slowly and looked at him strangely, her eyes fixated on him in a manner he was unfamiliar with. Not fear or anger, but something else.
She opened her mouth to speak, but it was cut off as he waved a hand and forced himself to straighten with his hands in the small of his back, several of his vertebra crackling as he did so with audible pops.
In the time it took him to straighten she had gone back to her regular semi-annoyed stance. “You didn’t have to carry me like an infant, I would have caught up.”
Paulie smirked and gave her a playful slap on the shoulder that made her grunt as he replied, “And what makes you think I am letting you out of my sight with all this chaos going on.”
Her mottled skin flashed a darker shade of brown and then went pure white for a few seconds as she answered him flatly, “As if I could ever escape your sight..”
He wasn’t sure the meaning of that, not the way she had said it. It was neutral and so he elected not to respond to it, instead he pointed towards the city and asked her, “The checkpoint is on this road I assume. Let’s go!”
And with that declaration they were off, jogging at a much more reserved pace now that the need for ultimate haste was past. But Paulie smiled grimly as he recalled the rushing of wind through his hair. The feel of his booted feet pounding into the ground and the sound of his greatcoat as it flapped behind him. But most of all he recalled the weight of Jakiikii in his arms, the way she had clung to him as if he were a raft in a storm. Her rock.
She must have seen the goofy look on his face for even as he imagined it he felt her grip his arm strongly. She hunched slightly, slowing as she pointed towards the checkpoint ahead.
He looked and then skidded to a stop as well on the edge of the roadway. The checkpoint was there, lights on and guardpost lit, but that wasn’t what had so captured their interest. No, indeed the object of their newfound consternation was fast approaching. Through the chaos of the night arose the sound of growling engines and the wail of sirens. From around a corner further into the city a small convoy of vehicles had burst, screaming towards the checkpoint like a bat out of hell.
He felt a tinge of fear, he wanted to try and flee. Hide maybe, but given his current position in the middle of the open that would normally have been a problem. But it was made all the more hampering by the warring of his own mind. Suddenly his legs seemed to be made of lead, the muscles refusing to respond as if he were in some sort of waking dream.
Jakiikii tugged at his greatcoat’s sleeve, urging him to move. But immobile he stood, the influence of the parasite in his mind like an onrushing tidal wave that he had as much hope of stopping as the rising sun. He heard Jakiikii shouting at him now, and he moved his lips as if to speak. But the words lay dormant in his mind, strangled at the moment of their inception by the terrific mental fortitude of the jargon worm. It seemed cackle madly at his impotence, the pulsating waves of severe pleasure it seemed to derive from the act of restraining him in his own body threatened to overwhelm him with despair.
Then pain, his cheek growing hot as a slap from Jakiikii reset him to true wakefulness. With a desperate internal roar he tore himself from the grasp of the scheming alien worm and shouted as he collapsed to his knees. Shaking and gasping in pain and panic.
It took Paulie a few moments to regain full control of himself, all the while Jakiikii didn’t so much as take one step from his side. Instead she stood tall next to him as he slowly regained his footing, her hand on the sidearm she wore and a look of grim determination in her bright orange eyes. She glanced at him, the question apparent on her face and he nodded.
“I am fine.. thanks for the slap.” he said, only partially kidding.
She flashed a pale white for a moment, in love or apology he did not fathom. But they had larger problems to worry about than his reddening cheek. The vehicles were nearly upon them now, a large armoured APC and two adjudicator cruisers with their sirens screaming. There was no time to run, no chance of hiding. And so he stood his ground, partially hunched in preparation to take evasive action even as both his hands slid into the cover of his garments, gripping the handles of his weapons in preparation of violence.
The fear was unwarranted, for as the first vehicle slid to a screeching halt on its round omnidirectional wheels, a familiar serpentine figure slithered out of the passenger side to the roadway.
Jakiikii relaxed visibly, and Paulie loosened his grip on one of his guns before waving to the figure and giving what he hoped was a cheerful sounding greeting. “Ho-there Officer Sasfren!”
She moved towards them purposefully, the sliding sound of her reinforced scales on the duracrete of the roadway just loud enough to hear over the distant sounds of panic and disorder.
As she reached them she spoke quickly, her hissing accent heavy with worry and impatience. “Jakiikii, Paulie. I am glad I was able to find you, there has been an attack on the precinct. I need you both to come with me now.” He swallowed as he heard the confirmation of his fears. The manner she spoke allowed no room for argument, but he could not help asking her about Mack as they neared the armoured transport.
“Mack is fine, it was he who sent me to come and collect you.”
Now it was Jakiikii’s turn to speak. “But how did you find us? Communications are down and we could not get a signal to go through the comms..”
Paulie cocked his head as she was cut off, Officer Sasfren pointing to the small datapad hanging from her side. “Rozz informed us that you had a library dataslate. It has a tracking chip in case they go missing or are taken without permission. Rozz simply had us activate it and it took us right to you.” She hesitated as Paulie opened his mouth to speak. “Your personal communicators also have tracking capabilities. In a situation such as this they could be considered compromised. I recommend you remove them and place them in the electromagnetically shielded container at the front of the compartment.”
He looked at the maggastium’s own wrist, noticing the conspicuous lack of such a device. It seemed that she had already taken her own advice. He nodded to Jakiikii and climbed inside the rear of the heavy vehicle before taking off his commie and placing it alongside the others already situated in the faraday chest Sasfren had motioned to.
As the three of them settled inside, Officer Sasfren smacked the front of the compartment and a small armoured visor slid open. A trio of dark eyes looked back through it as she said, “We are fully loaded. Get us back to the precinct, don’t slow for anything. Ram a hole through if you need to, we will strap in.” the eyes nodded and the visor closed. The engines roared to life as the powerful electrical motors of the vehicle engaged, jolting them all sideways as they were put into a sharp turn at near full acceleration.
“Better strap in, this could get rough.” Sasfren shouted over the din, shuddering as the vehicle jolted over something with the sound of breaking wood. Paulie and Jakiikii obliged, cinching the heavy multi-species harnesses tight to avoid being shaken like a rat in the jaws of a terrier.
In this manner they traveled, the occasional blast of the horn or blare of sirens clearing what little obfuscation existed in their desperate path. Twice more the sound of the vehicle ramming its way through some obstacle reached them through its thick armoured hull, but they slowed only a little each time. Paulie looked towards Sasfren, the snake-like alien’s expression petals were flared wide. Dark red spots on a field of umber yellow, he wasn’t sure what it signified, but he got the distinct feeling that it wasn’t anything good.
Paulie had to grip one of the overhead handholds to keep secure even in his harness as the vehicle slewed to a violent stop. Officer Sasfren picked up the small communicator attached to the lapel of her uniform and hissed into it, “Driver, why are we stopped?”
The hatch at the front of the vehicle remained closed, but the alien’s voice issued from it. He did not understand the speech that issued from it, his jargon worm not being connected to the device. After a moment Sasfren swore.
“The lead cruiser has been hit. It’s a zalcing ambush!” She undid her harness and spoke into her radio again. “All units, dismount. Form a protective cordon, we are moving to the precinct. Expect hostiles in the area.”
Almost to punctuate her point there was a rattling against the hull and then the entire armoured vehicle was rocked under some manner of heavy impact. A split second later there was a tremendous noise and smoke started leaking from the closed hatch at the front of the compartment.
“Everyone out! Now!” Sasfren shouted, her mouth opened wide and her expression petals flaring a bright orange and yellow. Clearly rattled from the blast.
Paulie himself was seeing spots but he ripped himself from the harness with ease, the complicated straps no match for his apocalypser strength as he threw the rear hatch open with a clang. Jakiikii bounded out, followed closely by officer Sasfren. They hit the deck as the sound of automatic weapon fire split the night, the front cruiser was a burning wreck. It’s cabin alight with greasy red chemical fire and two shaken-looking adjudicators in heavy riot gear huddled behind it as close as they could stand to be with the heat of the fires.
Paulie wasted no time pulling his weapons from his uniform, he had a gun in each hand. Jakiikii was also holding her own sidearm, but she had not brought her electron rifle with them so he handed her his MDF pistol. She nodded her thanks and then scooted closer to Officer Sasfren.
He knew what she was going to say even before she said it, and he opened his mouth to speak.
“Paulie, I don’t want to hear it.” Jakiikii scolded, two of her six eyes having been watching for just such a reaction he surmised Officer Sasfren looked between them with mild confusion even as the din of battle caused them to duck their heads.
Paulie was nearly overwhelmed with a sense of love for Jakiikii. The only one who had stood up for him at first, she had literally saved his life before they had even met. Putting herself at considerable personal risk for a complete stranger she had never met, nor knew anything about. He selfishly wanted to protect her because of that, to be the strong arm that swept all dangers aside. Be he knew it was not to be, she was fully capable of handling herself with or without his help. And he knew that once again she had the perfect advantage for the situation.
And so it was with great personal effort that Paulie suppressed the urge to tell her not to put herself in danger once again for his sake. Jakiikii loved him just as fiercely in return, she had told him so and showed it on many occasions. So instead he smiled wide, a toothy grin that split his face wide from ear to ear as he nodded towards the direction of their ambushers.
“Go give ‘em hell.”