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AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you check my website link below, I now have TWO full color drawings of Jordan. One is in the gif image so that you can see how I visualize his appearance in this story. The other is from the sequel to "Slipstream" called "Oculus" in which he is eighteen and a freshman in college. You'll also find a link to a blog post I wrote on Kolin and killsuits embedded about halfway down the page. This blog post includes a sexy full color drawing of Kolin modeling in his armor. :) I drew both the pictures of Jordan and Kolin myself.
"Wraith" uses the main characters featured in the science-fiction novel "Slipstream," but is its own story that I will post in its entirety on Nifty. Both of these tales are based on the events established in the short story, "The Insanity of Zero" (also on the Nifty Archive). If you like Jordan, Kathy, and Kolin, please consider giving "Slipstream" a read.
If you are a reviewer for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Fictionwise, or would just like to talk about my stories on your blog, please contact me for a complimentary e-copy of "Slipstream" in .pdf format.
Here is my author information: Website: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html Email: kavrik@hotmail.com Twitter: @MichaelOffutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slipstream/164452693676933
Chapter Sixteen
Despite his injuries, Kolin insisted on going first.
"At least take this," Jordan said, handing him the pistol. "It has a couple of bullets in it. I assume your suit doesn't work without the helmet, right?"
Kolin nodded. "The helmet controls everything. I can't even eject my cibrian wrist knives with it gone."
Jordan unslung the rifle from his shoulder, and held it in front of himself like he'd seen soldiers do on television. He did it with a little melodrama, and it made Kathy roll her eyes.
Kolin climbed the stairs and moved over to the door. He opened it up a crack and peered through.
"See anything?" Jordan asked.
Kolin moved out of the way so Jordan could look. Kolin's face drained of color, and he had his mouth partially open, as if to say something, but unable to find the words.
"Not good, eh?" Jordan asked.
He took a peek and saw a room filled with huge glass vats--dozens of them. All filled to the top with bubbling clear water. Inside each, misshapen human men floated naked in suspension. The deformities ranged from cleft palates to the truly grotesque. A couple grew inside gestation sacks that resembled oversized placentas crawling with opaque blood veins the size of Jordan's pinky finger. One of these 'fetuses' possessed the shrunken limbs of a child's sprouting from a fully grown, adult chest.
"Whoa. That's frickin' cool. Kolin has brothers," Jordan said with a snicker.
Kolin reprimanded him with a gentle slap to the back of the head.
"Ow," Jordan quipped.
He decided not to wait on Kolin, opened the door wider, and stepped out front. That only lasted a second as Kolin grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him back.
"I go first," he mouthed.
"Fine," Jordan stated. He stuck his tongue out at Kolin behind his back.
"Jordy, stop it," Kathy said with a disapproving stare. "He's got way more experience than you in murdering things. Isn't that the first rule of Dungeons and Dragons? Let the assassin go first? You taught me that more than once."
Jordan shook his head as if to say, you're supposed to be on my side. "I took out that guard back at the hotel...you know...when we rescued Kolin. I did that okay, didn't I?"
"Yes, but one kill doesn't make you a hero."
Kolin paused in his tracks and mouthed to him. "You killed someone? To rescue me?"
Jordan nodded. "Yeah. And I-I'd do it again. You're my friend." Then he playfully punched him in the arm.
Without warning, Kolin hugged him. The sudden affection made Jordan's toes curl in pleasure inside his filthy sneakers. "It's okay buddy. Umm...how's about you get moving? Like that way? Let's see what's at the end of this aisle."
Kolin grinned, tousled Jordan's hair, and let him go. Then he started moving cautiously down the walkway. Beneath them, steel grating comprised the floor. Jordan saw aluminum pipes covered in frost and heard pumps working. They obviously supplied water to the large vats. Red, blue, and green buttons illuminated the fronts of these tanks. A green panel displayed vital signs for the majority of them, however, some had flat lined.
He paused and stared through the glass at the lifeless corpse. He couldn't help but feel a little sad at all the mad science going on in front of his eyes. Then, from somewhere above, Jordan heard a whirring noise.
As he watched, a mechanical arm moved across the ceiling and unscrewed the lid to the vat in front of him. When the top popped off, water ran down the sides of the container. It smelled foul, like some kind of birthing fluid. It almost made Jordan gag.
The mechanical arm reached in and grabbed hold of the cadaver within. It pulled it out and then transferred the meat to a large metal container that turned on with a thunderous roar. A moment later, he heard the grinding of blades and what sounded like meat and bone being torn asunder. A glass tube filled with what looked like hamburger, and it flowed into some of the tanks through an access pipe in the bottom.
"Okay, that's disgusting," Kathy said. "They're feeding the dead ones to the live ones."
"It's free protein," Jordan remarked, unable to take his eyes off the plastic tubes that served as nutrition conduits.
"W-wait? You admire that?" Kathy asked him, stunned.
He shrugged. "I think it's kind of cool. At least you have to admit, given resources out here, that it's efficient."
She shook her head. "I swear. I'll never understand boys."
Kolin almost laughed. Jordan smiled because he liked seeing Kolin happy, even if it was only for a moment.
They reached the end of the aisle and found more stairs that led to a central, circular chamber. Banks of computer terminals lined one wall. Jordan counted ten metallic doors, some flat panel glass screens that showed different views of the complex, and what looked like a glittering supercomputer situated in the center of the room above a dais made from glowing white panels.
Sparkling green light descended from a box mounted over the supercomputer. Jordan likened it to the same effect produced by hovering motes of dust caught in sunlight. Kolin tucked the pistol into the belt at his waist and slid down the metallic rails of a staircase that descended to the floor of the central chamber.
Jordan followed suit, hopping up onto one of the rails and sliding down on his jeans.
Kathy took the stairs one at a time, shaking her head.
When all three of them reached the bottom, an iris valve opened in the floor.
Kolin quickly withdrew the gun again and pushed Jordan behind him.
From out of the door, a robot appeared. A twenty-foot long serpent's tail sprung from its waist. The robot had a silver head, crystal orbs for eyes, and two slits in its face for a nose.
"Hello," it said. Lights flickered red and yellow along a ribbed steel throat when it spoke. "I am Wraith." Laser light extended from its eyes and played along Kolin's features. "You are not Dr. Fischer. Have you killed him?"
Kolin looked to Jordan who spoke up, "No. He's dead, but we didn't kill him. We found his corpse in a parking garage."
Wraith looked at Jordan and steepled its fingers in contemplation. Each hand had four of them and no thumb. "My my my," it said. "And who are you?"
"I'm Jordan. This is my sister, Kathy."
Kathy did her best to curtsey. When Jordan raised a questioning eyebrow, she slapped him on the arm and said, "What else am I supposed to do?"
"We mean you no harm," Jordan said. "In fact, we came here hoping you could help us. Kolin--"
"Who?" Wraith interrupted.
Kolin pointed a finger at his own chest. Wraith looked at him.
"Kolin," Jordan continued, "needs medical attention. Someone cut him across the throat, and I'm worried it may grow infected. Plus, we were on the run from people who work with the monsters."
"You refer to the Camazotz and their mates who are culled from the ranks of women. They are called Cihuateteo because it is their responsibility to feed the Camazotz. And the Camazotz's favorite food is liquid life. But they indulge in other things. Human flesh for one. You say you were running from them and managed to escape from their clutches here in old St. Louis? If this is true, you have accomplished the impossible." The glass orbs that made Wraith's eyes suddenly narrowed. They peered at Jordan. Wraith scanned him from head to foot with a red light, and it made Jordan visibly nervous.
"What are you doing?" Jordan asked.
"I'm seeing if you're lying."
"I'm not lying. And it's not impossible. We can travel by day, and we discovered that the monsters are mostly nocturnal. We arrived here by accident. Someone shot out our tire while being chased by rabid dogs. Kolin pointed the way for us. He said to turn down a road and that we'd be safe here."
Kathy spoke up then. "I heard a voice back at the hotel. They spoke in the kitchen and said that Wraith would look over female prisoners and choose some for himself and for the Cihuateteo. Are you that same Wraith?"
"Partially," Wraith answered her. "The leader of the monsters is a man named Dr. Pestilence. He officially uses my name to conduct business out of St. Louis. But make no mistake; he is the one that the monsters fear. Not I. He and I communicate through a mirror that he hangs on the wall from which he can view anything that I choose to send him via one of my camera feeds or by standing in front of it directly. By the words 'looking them over' what they really means is, I'm choosing ones that are suitable to help me in the lab--ones that aren't badly damaged. Then it's up to me to bargain for them with the resources that I have. Yesterday was the first of many such promising exchanges. They agreed to set aside four women to join five others that I, as yet, have not purchased. But they made no mention of killing Dr. Fischer. However, I don't trust him all that much. Dr. Pestilence wants more than I can give and grows bolder with each day. It's possible that he killed Dr. Fischer to test me...to see if I retaliate. I don't like this news you've brought me. It puts me in a peculiar position. See, I need many things from him, including a guarantee that my compound is sacrosanct to those who follow him. I may have to buy only one helper, and use what I have as a bargaining chip for other services."
"What is Dr. Pestilence asking for?"
"Many things. He likes pretty virgin teenaged boys--a thing rarer in this world than compassion. The only two he has had in the last thirty years didn't survive long in his care. And their suffering would have made the demons in Hell cringe. In the absence of that commodity, he requests a solution to an age old problem. The Cihuateteo cannot have children of their own. Their solution is to surgically transplant the reproductive organs from living men and attach them to male Camazotz who then breed with regular human women. The offspring always kills the mother and if it lives, is a Cihuateteo. The Camazotz seek a way to breed with the Cihuateteo directly as they are always female, but thus far, this kind of breeding only results in the Cihuateteo becoming permanently pregnant, as the womb is turned to calcified stone. So Dr. Pestilence wants a scientist who will genetically engineer a mutation to finally allow the Cihuateteo to birth a brood of monsters. This is something that I'm truthfully, loathe to do. But I think I know how it can be done." Wraith shook his metallic head. "That's just what we need, more of them. And these ones would be able to walk in daylight as well as have other, more formidable powers. There's only one reason for this request. They want to attack the Wall."
Wraith studied the Brit who shrugged his shoulders and put away the pistol. The steel machine that was half man and half snake rose up on its tail to regard them from above, as if a new perspective would somehow give it insight into something that eluded it. "I'm glad to see you put away your weapon. You could not harm me with it, unless you knew what to damage." It reached out to Kolin's collar with its hand. "Do not move," it said, lowering itself upon its coils. Then a flash momentarily blinded Jordan, and the collar broke in half. A second later, it fell on the floor with a clang. Jordan blinked and saw the gaping, infected wound on Kolin's throat.
He immediately forgot the horror of Wraith's tale. Jordan only thought for the well- being of his friend.
"I will attend to this at once." Wraith took a look at both Jordan and Kathy. "I have been an ungracious host. You two are no doubt, exhausted and eager to wash your bodies. Thank you for informing me of Dr. Fischer's fate. I am in your debt." Wraith turned and gestured. Two of the doors in the walls opened. They revealed chambers beyond lit in amber hue. "Kathy may take the left. Jordan...you may have the chamber on the right. Inside you will find beds and showers. You will find all the normal human hygiene products inside. They were previously used by my staff. Please refresh yourselves for I will need time to tend to your friend. I'm sure you'll be able to find clothes in your sizes in the closets. Please use them when you've washed up. The ones you're wearing are tripping my bio-hazard alarm probably because of their stench. I'll have them collected and sterilized."
Jordan raised his left arm and sniffed at his pit. "Do I smell that bad?"
Kathy shook her head and didn't answer him. Jordan frowned and stayed quiet. "Showers?" Kathy asked, blinking. "With hot water in them?" For the first time in days, a smile showed on her face.
"Yes," Wraith said. "Make yourself comfortable. I'll have shoes brought for the both of you. They belonged to some boys and girls who were sons and daughters of the scientists that worked here prior to their deaths. After you shower, I'll see about rummaging up food for you to eat."
"Prior to their deaths?" Kathy asked. "Like...what happened to them?"
"The Waste is a dangerous place," Wraith said. He offered no further elaboration.
"What's going to happen with Kolin?" Jordan asked.
Kolin nodded. "What should I do?" he echoed as best he could. Pain tore through the expression on his face.
Wraith turned to him. "I will tend to your injury while they clean up. Follow me to the lab. Later, I will give you all a tour of the factory. This is where Dr. Fischer and others before him helped me in the Eugenics project. We sought to create a perfect human."
"Are there any others?" Kathy asked.
"No," Wraith said. Despite being a machine, Jordan heard melancholy in its voice. "I am the last there is. But as I said, all of this can wait until after dinner. Your friend is in need of medical attention. Unless you want to jeopardize his health, I suggest that you allow me to treat him soon."
Jordan nodded. Kathy shrugged and took his hand in hers. "He'll be all right. If he wanted to attack us, there's not much stopping him from doing that right now."
Jordan agreed. Wraith turned and slithered toward a door that opened in the wall. Kolin shrugged and followed along behind him. The twins looked at each other and went into their rooms to clean up. Jordan couldn't help but have a bad feeling about all of this. Somehow, it seemed too easy.
But when he spotted the shower facility and imagined the steam coming from the head, he decided that maybe this was the break they deserved. Everything since they had come to Avalon had been difficult, and he had put his life on the line more than once.
This is going to feel so good, Jordan thought.
He wasted no time and tore off his dirty clothes, kicked off his shoes, and strode into the bathroom. When he finally figured out how to work the shower, warm water poured down over him and washed the dirt down the drain. He used liberal amounts of soap, and made sure every corner of his smooth muscular body got cleaned. After about thirty minutes, he grabbed a towel and dried himself off.
He stopped a moment to regard his reflection in the mirror. He frowned at how much weight he'd lost. He looked so thin; he felt he could double as an anatomical study for a room of pre-med students. He didn't like this "ripped" appearance, any more than he liked the way lightweight body builders looked during competition. He thought men crawling with visible veins beneath the skin looked odd. And that's how he felt now. Odd. And wished the veins on his torso and arms didn't stick out so much.
Jordan searched around for his clothes but they had disappeared. And the closet that Wraith had promised would be full of clothes...contained nothing.
"What the fuck?" he said, under his breath. Then panic gripped him.
Jordan walked over to the door and found he'd been locked inside. A moment later, he heard a noise that sounded a lot like a gas leak. Desperately, Jordan kicked and punched at the metal door, but he only hurt his hand. Dizziness soon overtook him, and he fell unconscious at the foot of the bed.
Chapter Seventeen this weekend.