Y Saturday, September 12, 2009
12:09 am
"WHAT?"Ian snapped to a sitting position, unnaturally quick and robotic. He felt his head smash into something, or someone, but it didn't matter. As suddenly as he got up, but with much less fanfare, Ian's shoulders slumped and he exhaled strongly. He tried to attune himself to his surroundings, but nothing made sense.
Kate groaned and tasted copper. Ian's unholy awakening had caught her unaware, and she was rewarded with a cut lip.
"Hey the guy got up. Better say your thanks to him Pete." Daniel said dismissively, evidently more absorbed with eliminating the remaining traces of slime in parts of his body he never knew existed.
Pete grunted, his knee joints popping as he stood up and loomed over Ian.
"Ya alright, kid?"
"Where am I? What the hell's going on? Who are you?" Ian's misguided reply was laced with pain and more than a little confusion.
"Wait I'm not in court? Where's the judge?"
A deafening silence fell on the room. The gazes of the other four bore into Ian, but consciousness was not in his list of things working right. He put his palms to his face and kneaded it.
"Look I don't know what the hell happened to you, but you're pretty banged up. Pull your shit together or we're all gonna die." Pete was no master of subtlety, and he did little to mask his impatience.
"You're in the Old Changi Hospital now, and you saved my goddamned ass from an insane batshit monster that wanted to tear my fucking throat out, then proceeded to pass out. It's been three days." Pete paused and watched Ian's eyes focus, digesting the new information presented to him.
"We have all the supplies we need, medicine, food, water, whatever. But no ammo. Sooner or later those dead hunks of meat are gonna find us, so we have to move, and we can't afford deadweight around." Pete continued and swallowed, giving Ian just enough respite to savour their situation.
"Step one: We look for ammo. Step two: We find a means of transport off this sunny island. Step three, we live our lives and hope we never fucking see each other again."
"Alright. What about Plan B?" Ian croaked weakly. The least the bastard could do was realize he just saved his life, and had something gut him, and was in a coma for three days. No dice.
Pete cackled.
"Son, there is no Plan B."
Ian touched his side gingerly, and felt a smooth textile. It wasn't the burning pit of coals he remembered it to be, but the pain ebbed enough to serve as a reminder that the synapses in his brain still worked.
"Okay right? I do one."
Ian tuned his head slowly towards the familiar, chirpy voice and smiled. Kate was alright.
"Yeah. Yeah it's fine, thanks. Sorry about your lip."
She licked the traces of blood pooling on the crevasses of her lips, curling it slightly and shook her head gently, saying nothing.
A grunt blanketed the still air, and Pete sauntered back to Ian, clicking on the safety of a pistol.
"Hate to interrupt your little tete-a-tete, but I think this belongs to you. Solid firearm. Cleaned it out for ya, it's got a few rounds left. Keep it well, you're a pretty decent shot."
Pete stretched his arm and handed the pistol grip first to Ian. Ian welcomed the familiar sensation of cold steel and polymer in his hands.
"Ah yeah, I'm Pete. The guy with the stolen Armani suit dipped in slime's Daniel. That quiet guy there, he's Sean. Picked him up along with you two. Get some rest. We leave in an hour."
Pete returned to his corner of the basement and checked his backpack, while Kate poured Ian a glass of water and prepared some painkillers. Ian felt his wrist, and he froze as a chill streaked up his spine. Adrenaline spiked momentarily as he confirmed the impossible - his mother's watch. Looks like he wasn't done here after all.
Silence descended the basement once more, but not for long.
The unmistakable cacophony of screaming military aircraft sounded overhead, accompanied shortly by a thunderous symphony of military-grade bombs carpeting the ground in a deadly, fiery embrace.
Pete spun around and hardened his eyes.
"Almost forgot. US military's here. No idea why, but they're our ticket out."