As Bridger walked down the corridor, he contemplated what Dewey meant when he called A 'Trevor'. He was also astounded that he didn't overpower Dewey as easily as he could have. The taser did little more than startle Bridger, but the stun gun that fired its projectile into his earlier wound caused the most damage.
The world became a blur, but he clearly saw the cloaked and hooded figure's captivating six-eyed mask. His eyes glowed, temporarily blinding Bridger in his last moments of consciousness. The man with the taser lifted A by the shoulders and the man wielding the stun gun took Bridger by the feet. The masked man was handed the briefcase of cash by Jeffers. He checked the status of the banknotes before marching down the hall with his prisoner.
• • •
When the men pulled the potato bag from Bridger's head, he was standing in the fourth or fifth row of a humungous crowd.
"Ulysseus says..." The amplified voice stated.
The man with the microphone stood above the crowd, on a pedestal, in front of an enormous metallic cube.
"The four-thousand, three hundred, twenty of you; are the best of the worst. Ulysseus' second in command needs replacing. One of you will be the man or woman who takes that role. You will enter the box in one hour. When you enter, you most likely will not leave. It is expected that one shall make it out, but there will be no surprise if nobody leaves the box. You may scout the facility and retrieve any equipment and/or supplies you wish before entering. Here are the ground rules! You try and force exit the box, you die. Commit battery against any of us, you die. You trie and escape, you die. You defy us, you die. You are the last man standing and refuse the position... Surprise, surprise! You die!" The announcer explained.
The box gates slid open and the crowd slowly migrated inside.
• • •
"Go Elmo! Go Elmo! go Elmo! go Elmo!" The cheerleading squad chanted as the giant mascot of the cyborg muppet began to break dance on the polished floor of the basketball court.
Soren peered through the bleachers when he saw the wasp approach Tana in the stairwell beside him.
"What the?" He asked himself, and decided that he was dead regardless.
"Well... Shit!" He mumbled, dumping Dewey's body under the bleacher and leaping over the seats and scrambling out onto the court. Gasps ignited around the arena as Soren scaled Elmo's back and clawed his way in under the beast's throat, yanking the occupant out and sliding him across the floor. Soren dropped into the canopy and sealed off Elmo's head. With a flick of one blue switch, the muppet turned to combat mode.
"I am here to root you!" The wasp said in a mechanical voice, aimed at Tana.
"What the fuck?!" Tana yelled at his adversary.
Elmo's faceplate extended into a red and grey metallic mask with bug eyes similar to the wasp. The torso grew cladding as did the arms and legs. A long hypodermic needle protruded from Elmo's tail. The red fur was all but concealed by the armour plating. The bulbous red highlights glowed, and the intense heat of the monster overheated the nearby fuse boxes, sending a shower of sparks from the ceiling lights down onto the crowd. Two metallic pulse cannons constructed themselves around Elmo's arms.
With a single strike, the needle struck Tana's chest-dent, injecting a membrane egg sack into his Trachea.once the wasp pulled out, Tana fell backward and rolled down the stairwell, and struck the bottom... Hard. The wasp slowly descended the flights of stairs and stood directly above Storm, jigsaws accelerating. Before the hammer-mechanisms could shred Tana's body, an ion charge sent the wasp flying into a nearby wall at full force.
With short circuiting systems, the wasp's eyes barely picked up Elmo approaching before the muppet's own needle jabbed at the wasp. The insect put up a fight, but not nearly enough to prevent the needle being plunged into its Andomen. Seconds after the removal of the stinger, the sack had already begun its opening. The wasp made many disturbing mechanical and organic crunching sounds before being consumed from the inside outward by millions of microscopic Elmo's.
When they finished the wasp, they converged and surrounded the metallic overlays of the mascot before retreating back into Elmo's concealed needle. When authorities arrived; no wasp, no evidence of cybertronics, no humans, just Elmo hunched in the corner.
Isra, Tana, and Soren made it into the saloon pod, Tana on Soren's back; and were greeted by their companions' weapons.
"Oh my god! We've... Who are you?" Garrett said, directed at Isra.
Soren layer Tana down on one of the makeshift beds and sat beside him.
"The hell is in my heart?!" Tana asked Soren, anxiously.
"Technically it's your trachea, and... Well...." Soren began.
Tana was stunned by Soren's detailed revelation.
Tana looked at Garrett again and explained with an uncharacteristicly arrogant expression upon his weathered face.
"A legion of psychopaths are building cities on asteroids, taking alpha males and females into space to rebuild the human race before stripping earth of its liveability five large cities at a time, leaving the surface intact but killing off its population millions at a time. Knowing there is no way to stop them, we gave in and were attacked by genetically engineered organic yellow jackets from Ceres... Cyborg wasps which have rooted me. I have a sack of eggs inside my chest which will hatch and send thousands of tiny yellow jackets consuming my muscles and circulatory systems, as well as my flesh, and least vital organs, leaving only my brain, heart, skeleton, spinal cord, and central nervous system. From there I will remain alive as they eat away at my brain, cell by cell until they finally consume my skeleton before finally ending my suffering by consuming my spinal cord from the tip up until the important part. This process takes up to eight months. That is my diagnosis. At least now I know that I have never been afraid before in my life..." Cameron explained.
"I'm sure you have..." Garrett said reassuringly.
"You're right, I probably have..." Tana sighed.
Finally reunited, the fellowship sat, eating their stolen consumables in the saloon pod, camoflauged with the landscape. The strips of one-way glass provided enough light.
Garrett Kooi, Cameron Montana, Dr Soren, Isra Qadir, Mike, Zoey Darmanin, Rachel Welker, Olivia, Caitlin, Dane Hanyn, and Gill were together again. The solace was shirt-lived, when Dane broke the silence.
"Where's Bridger?"
YOU ARE READING
A is for Ares
General Fiction[COMPLETE] A is a nameless man who goes by the first letter in the alphabet after a traumatic experience. He has found a cure to mental health - but he fails to realise his discovery's true nature. He doesn't know that he is a serial killer. Garrett...
