Mama's Mafia

Space Battle

"Hey man, get your f*cking hands off my boy! Are you crazy?" Mark lashed out at a Death Row Infantry-man while standing up from kneeling in front of his son. "Touch my son again and I'm gonna break your f*cking hand! You need to back the f*ck up!" Mark shoved the soldier back while giving the man a murderous stare.

Lukas hugged his father in a tight embrace after watching him cuss at the soldier. The child wanted that warm moment back with his dad again and he didn't want to see his dad get upset. It comforted the little boy to feel his father's hand caressing through his hair. A soft resounding sentimental gasp came from the crowd of prisoners when Lukas hugged his dad. The sentimental gasping mostly came from women prisoners.

Irena became impatient while waiting for her selected prisoner to step into his robotic exoskeleton suit, which would help Mark fight against 2Pac. 2Pac was Princess Death Row's robot. She modeled the machine after the late rap star. Princess Death Row made her way over to Mark and his son with her long flowing dark dress dragging behind her.

"What's going on over here?" There was a dead gentleness in Irena's voice. She felt a slight breeze of affection come over her when she glanced down at Mark's son. She tried to reach down to touch Lukas' chin, but the little boy moved away from her hand. "I won't hurt you, baby," Irena told the child, giving him a smile.

"He knows your reputation, lady. He knows you're a killer," Mark spoke to Irena while looking the woman straight in her eyes.

Irena giggled while shaking her head, "I'm not a killer. I'm just a businesswoman."

"Yeah, a businesswoman who killed my son's mother. You fed her to those f*cking creatures and made me and my boy watch," Mark snapped back at Irena. He became annoyed by the amused smirk she was giving him.

"Listen honey, I know you're still angry about what happened to your wife two years ago, but there are things in life you have to move on from. You understand that I am giving you your freedom if you win this fight. You and your son will be free. You're not going to win this fight by getting mad at me. You need to focus," Irena spoke to Mark like a coach.

Mark wanted to do a few things to Irena, but the man kept his emotions in check. He rolled his eyes at her before putting his attention back on his son, giving the child a slight smile. Mark loved looking into his son's eyes because it gave him hope. He could also see his wife through his son's since his little boy shared his mother's eyes.

"I promise, your daddy is gonna win this fight for you." Mark whispered down to Lukas while stroking his hand down the side of his little boy's face.

"I love you daddy," Lukas uttered, wrapping his arms around his father after his father kneeled in front of him again. Lukas never looked up at Irena as he rested his chin on his father's shoulder and closed his eyes. The little boy tightened his arms around his father, hoping it would keep his father there with him.

It was an impactful embrace and Mark wanted to keep holding his son. He enjoyed the warmth of his son's head resting against his shoulder.

"Alright, I'm coming! Just let me have a moment with my boy!" Mark barked at Irena after she placed her petite hand on his shoulder.

Irena smiled while watching Mark stand up after holding his son for three minutes. She took Mark by the hand and guided him over to a robotic exoskeleton suit he needed to put on.

"You must wear this robotic suit to fight 2Pac," Irena told Mark. "The suit has a lot of unique features including ghost mode." Irena pointed at a silvery button on the side of the robotic suit's arm.

"What the f*ck is ghost mode?" Mark asked with a slight raspy irritation in his gravelly voice.

"Ghost mode is a feature that will allow you to become untouchable but only for five seconds," Irena explained. "After pressing the button, the suit sends out a magnetic pulse that will disrupt the electrical charges between the atoms in your body, making you a spirit for only a few seconds. You'll be able to walk through walls or walk through punches, but only for five seconds. And you'll only be able to use the ghost mode feature twice."

Mark listened to Irena explain the features while looking at the robotic suits' cutting-edge design. Mark thought the robotic exoskeleton suit looked like Robocop, only without the cop inside the suit.

The suit had a metallic black color with a helmet connected on top of it that covered half of the user's face. There was also a red light bar on the eye part of the helmet that gave the suit it's futuristic Robocop similarities.

"You have a vector high energy machine g*n that emerges from the suit's left arm. You also have a tectonic laser sword that retracts out of the right arm of the suit. It's kind of like a Star Wars lightsaber." Irena giggled while trying to explain most of the suit's features to Mark. Princess Death Row could see how Mark wasn't fascinated by the suit he was about to put on, but she didn't care.

"Is this sh*t already on or what?" Mark asked after stepping into the heavy armored suit and looking around for a power button. Mark's large muscular frame fitted into the dark metallic robotic suit easily. The man felt a little surprised that sitting inside the suit reminded him of sitting in the driver's seat of a classic 1986 Porsche 959 that he once owned.

"Just lean your head back into the helmet part of the suit and the suit will activate," Irena told Mark while folding her arms.

"Oh sh*t!" Mark shouted and his body flinched when he leaned his head back into the helmet of the suit and watched as the robotic suit embraced his body like a mechanical coat. The lower part of his face and his wide neck were his only exposed body parts. Mark felt like the Marvel Comics hero Iron Man, and he became startled when he heard a computerized female voice speaking through the suit.

"Hello my name is V. I am your personal assistant. You are now combat ready. I checked the integrity of the suit and there are no system corruptions. All of your weapons are online and ready for operation." The female robotic voice sounded natural.

Mark smirked a little as he walked around in the suit and admired how the heavy duty robotic armor molded well with his large frame. Wearing the suit made Mark feel powerful. It made him feel confident about winning the fight against 2Pac. Mark used to be a software engineer, so he understood a little about the operating system that controlled the suit. Mark had his doubts, but he tried not to show it. He'd been in fights before but not with a man that was a machine.

Mark had been in a lot of fights with guys at nightclubs and in jail when he was younger. But this was a different fighting experience for him. Even though Mark knew he was getting ready to fight a robotic 2Pac he still felt he could win. He had to win this fight for his son.

Mark and 2Pac were now face to face like two boxers in the ring. The robotic 2Pac and Mark were standing inside a room called a Virtual Materialization Simulator. The Virtual Materialization Simulator or VMS was a computer operated room. The room could produce a real simulated environment using tiny 3D printer lasers built into the room's ceiling and its four white walls.

A prisoner could choose what kind of environment they wanted to fight their robotic opponent in, and the room would produce that environment based on the prisoner's choice. Mark chose to fight 2Pac in a Miami nightclub setting. He watched as the tiny 3D laser printers inside the room's walls built the inside of a dark massive nightclub with emerald-green flashing strobe lights and holographic 3D people, who were dancing around Mark and 2Pac to the beat of EDM fused with Latin hip-hop.

"Hey, yo Pac, you ready to fight!?" Mark shouted across the way at the robotic 2Pac who stood motionless with his muscular titanium alloy plated arms folded in front of him. "I know you can hear me! We don't have to fight each other! Just because that lady built your a*s doesn't mean you have to always do what she tells you. You're an intelligent robot. I know you can override those system files inside that metal, bullet-resistant skull of yours!" Mark spoke to the robotic 2Pac, and he received no response from the armor skinned, bald-headed, cybernetic man, who was shirtless, wearing sagging blue jeans.

2Pac also had a nose piercing in his left metallic nostril and a glistening gold chain with a crucifix hanging around his neck. The machine was an exact replica of 2Pac. Princess Death Row copied every detail. Mark breathed slowly when the robotic 2Pac raised his hands and adjusted the black bandana around his head. This was a systematic pattern that 2Pac would perform every time he would get ready to fight someone. It was written into his programming.

Mark had never seen technology so advanced and lifelike. He tried not to be impressed by 2Pac, but it was hard. It was hard not to be amazed by a metal man made in the image of a dead rap star that Mark admired growing up. He could see how the robotic 2Pac was much bigger and bulkier than the real 2Pac. He thought the robot looked like a chrome statue of the rap star

2Pac's eyes reminded Mark of Bi-xenon headlights on the front of a luxury car.

A robotic 2Pac was something Mark thought he'd never see in his lifetime. He never thought he'd have to battle a shirtless metal man who had tattoos engraved into his body. To Mark, 2Pac looked like a bad boy version of C-3PO from the Star Wars films.

Mark heard the cybernetic 2Pac talk for the first time. He knew it was time to fight when 2Pac opened his mouth and said to Mark through an eerie whispering digitized voice of the rapper, "It's go time motherf*cka." This was another system protocol written into 2Pac's program files.

Mark brought up his robotic suit's ammunition blockers, which were two triangular shaped energy blast proof shields. The two shields activated themselves and they arose out of both of the robotic suit's arms. Mark tried to block the gunfire coming from two 3D printed handguns that 2Pac pulled out of two mechanized pockets that projected out of his abdomen.

The battle began as a gunfight, and so far Mark held his own against 2Pac. He activated his nuclear-powered energy sub-machine g*n and fired away at 2Pac.

The blast from the machine g*n knocked 2Pac off his feet, but only for a moment. 2Pac's body had minimal damage and his upgraded flexible nanobot armored skin held its integrity well.

Mark kept shooting even when 2Pac took off toward him at full speed and tackled him. Mark felt like a car hit him, but the robotic suit absorbed most of the inertia from the impact.  

Now on his back, Mark had to put the armored suit to work and he used it to block the reinforced flexible titanium that covered 2Pac's four knuckles. Mark tried to block every punch that the 2Pac attempted to bring down on his half exposed face. One punch from 2Pac slipped through. The metal man's fist contacted the top part of the robotic suit's hyperalloy helmet. Mark had to get 2Pac off of him and he knew if the robot punched him in the face, he would break every bone in his jaw.

"Come on Pac, I know you can hit me harder than that! You hit like a p***y!" Mark trash talked the robot as he struggled to use his suit's mechanical strength to block 2Pac's hammering blows. Mark got 2Pac off of him when he blasted the cybernetic man in the face with his machine g*n.

Sparks flew from 2Pac's face and chest from the hot white energy emerging from the machine g*n. Mark returned the favor by running toward 2Pac and tackling him.

He used all the thrust power in his suit to tackle 2Pac. Both him and the metal man went through a concrete wall that led to another section of the simulated nightclub. Mark threw down his fist on the 2Pac's metal jawline after the dust cleared from going through the concrete wall.

"You think you're the only one who can throw down punches!?" Mark roared down at 2Pac while nailing his opponent repeatedly in the face. At first Mark had the advantage, but things went downhill when 2Pac clamped a small hexagon-shaped device on the arm of his suit.

Mark saw numbers counting down on the device and he knew it was an explosive. He averted all his focus on the nano-bomb that he didn't see 2Pac's punch. Mark went flying backward after his helmet got damaged by 2Pac's powerful left hook.

"F*ck me," Mark whispered under his breath in a panic. He struggled to remove the tiny hexagon explosive from the arm of his suit. He saw death staring him in the face when he couldn't remove the nano-bomb that 2Pac clipped to a hydraulic joint within the suit's arm. Within six seconds Mark freed the explosive from his suit. He hurled the bomb across the nightclub. The face of death disappeared after Mark got the bomb out of his hands before it could detonate.

The hexagon-shaped bomb detonated in mid-air, sending a mighty shockwave back toward Mark. Mark went airborne, landing hard on the nightclub's LED, light emitting dance floor, which had pulsating light that moved to the rhythm of the club's EDM hip-hop dance fusion.

Fortunately for Mark, his suit absorbed most of the energy from the blast. The unfortunate part was that the blast damaged the optical receptors in Mark's helmet.

Mark had to remove the helmet so he could see again. The heat from the blast singed his left eyebrow. Mark's mouth fell open as he stared at the fiery explosion. A fireball hung in the air and it moved in slow motion because of the strange oxygen level that the nano-bomb produced inside the simulated 3D printed nightclub. Mark knew he didn't have time to be fascinated by anything, but he'd never seen fire breeze through the air in slow motion. He tried to figure out what kind of high-tech explosive had the ability to move in slow motion after detonating.

What also amazed Mark was that the computer simulated holographic people in the nightclub were dancing through the mist of the slow moving flames. Mark's eyes locked on to a computer generated topless young woman who was dancing and gyrating through the fire. The young woman looked undoubtedly realistic even for a simulated avatar. Her black Pocahontas hair and her mocha brown skin look real and flawless.

Mark became entranced by the sexy CGI woman. Even the sweat on her skin looked authentic. The high-octane fire had no effect on the simulated young woman. She moved and grooved with her hands on her shapely hips. The fire kissed her gyrating hips and her slender tattooed waistline.

It was amazing to see a young woman with supermodel looks dancing through the mist of an explosion. Mark became a little excited when the simulated young woman caught his eyes on her. She blew a kiss at Mark as the golden fire surrounded her dancing, curvaceous body. Mark snapped out of his trance when he saw the robotic 2Pac approaching him.

2Pac glided through the flames and it seemed like he was walking in slow motion. The metal man's eyes still shined brightly like high beams on a Ferrari. Mark's skin became chilled when he saw how 2Pac didn't have a scratch on his gleaming, armored body. The fire had no effect on 2Pac's shirtless metal physique. The blast didn't even affect the light diodes in his high resolution eyes. This was not good since the explosion compromised the integrity in Mark's exoskeleton suit.

2Pac's stride the fire looked so effortless that he didn't look like a robot. He looked like a shirtless guy covered in metal with a black bandana tied around his bald head. The only thing that reminded Mark that he was looking at a robot was 2Pac's gunmetal silver skin and his artificial glowing eyes.

It was time to fight again, and Mark waited for the right time to press the ghost mode button on his suit, which would turn his body into a phantom for a few seconds using a quantum magnetic pulse. Mark waited for the right time to activate the ghost mode feature. His nerves misfired a little, but he tried to keep thinking about his son and how he was fighting for him.

Mark also thought about his dead wife, Natalie. He saw his wife watching him from heaven. He saw her screaming down at him and telling him to fight for their child's life. Mark couldn't lose this fight. He knew that if he lost, his little boy would pay for his failure. Out of the doubt in Mark's heart was a shimmer of hope. A strong possibility of death haunted Mark, but he disregarded his doubts and fears. The father tried to believe God would help him win the fight for the sake of his little boy. One thing Mark didn't like doing was breaking a promise.

Mark promised his son he would win, and he used his promise as strength to keep himself going. Mark's situation seemed surreal.

Every few seconds Mark would have a flashes of surrealism come over him. He tried to snap his mind back in place and remind himself of his reality. Mark had to tell himself that the punch 2Pac was about to throw at him was real. He had to tell himself that he was out in the deepness of space brawling with a robotic bad boy.

Mark laughed a little on the inside, thinking how his fight with 2Pac made him feel trapped in one of his son's PlayStation video games. He thought back on how he would play Fallout: g******e, Mortal Kombat: Wrath Of The Gods and Assassin's Creed 11, with his son. Mark felt like he was inside a real life video game trying to fight for his boy and hoping to God not to die in the process.

Mark battled 2Pac, but there was also a battle inside of Mark. He tried to fight the doubts inside himself. The fear in Mark's heart told him he would lose. It told him he would die and cause his child to be executed by Princess Death Row. It told Mark he had no chance of winning against a machine. Mark told the fear in his heart to shut up.

Mark nailed his fear as he nailed 2Pac in the face using both fists. He fought out of his mind and he tried to body slam his doubts and fears on the inside.

There was cruelty in that Mark did double work in his fighting. Being human meant that Mark had to fight against a range of negative thoughts and emotions while battling 2Pac.

2Pac didn't have to deal with what Mark was going through. The metal man couldn't feel pain, sorrow or fear. He didn't have to worry about negative thoughts corrupting the neural net processor in his head. He didn't have to worry about negative emotions arising inside his robust 2 ton hyperalloy body. He didn't have to worry about feeling pain. 2Pac had the luxury of gliding his metallic muscular frame through fire without getting injured. There was an advantage to being a war machine.

Mark watched as the flames rolled off 2Pac's broad shoulders and his gold necklace.

Mark's nerves misfired again, but for five seconds he felt immortal when he activated ghost mode. A quantum magnetic pulse passed through Mark's body, making him feel invincible. He chuckled as he watched his body morph into a spirit. Mark chuckled, watching as 2Pac tried to nail him in his face.

Mark felt like he was in a higher dimension. He watched as 2Pac's fist passed straight through his body. Mark's body had become ghostlike. For a moment, he felt like he was God.

While the robotic 2Pac was trying to land a punch on Mark's body, Mark activated the laser sword feature on his suit. When the hot energy sword emerged out of the suit, it looked like a bright hot lava red medieval double-edged sword.

Mark brought the laser sword down on 2Pac's head. When 2Pac's arm came up to block the sword, sparks flew. Some of the sparks flew in Mark's face.

Mark ignored the slight pain of getting burned on his chin and nose and he kept swinging his flaming laser sword at 2Pac. 2Pac blocked every blow from the sword, and with every block there were sparks shooting up. The hot energy erupted every time it made contact with the metallic skin on 2Pac's arms.

Mark tried to swing the laser sword even faster at 2Pac and he gritted his teeth when 2Pac blocked every single blow with either his elbow, his wrist, or just the side of his hand.

It was as if 2Pac could predict Mark's every move. Mark had to do something that would damage the metal man's body and he knew that his time was running out. While swinging his nuclear-powered sword at 2Pac, Mark had a strange brief memory arise in his head. It was a memory of something that Mark experienced, and yet he couldn't explain it. Mark knew he had never experienced this memory he was having, but it felt like he did.

For some odd reason, Mark felt like he had died already. He had a memory of him, his wife and his son being killed. Mark shook off the strange memory that flashed in his mind. He thought that maybe he was having some kind of brief mental relapse caused by stress. Whatever was going on, Mark tried to stay focused on the fight.

A spark of hope recharged Mark when he knocked 2Pac off his feet a little. When Mark could see that 2Pac was off balance, he lifted his foot, driving it into the metal man's chest. The kick knocked 2Pac backwards, but it didn't knock him to the ground.

After kicking the 2Pac, Mark had that surreal feeling again. The man went from feeling like he was inside one of his son's video games.

The robotic suit helped Mark with his fighting techniques to a certain point. The suit made him fast with his punches and kicks, but 2Pac was faster with his automated fighting skills. What made fighting 2Pac unnerving for Mark was that it seemed like the robot could predict what move he was about to make next. It was as if 2Pac could see five seconds into the future.

Mark knew the robotic suit was keeping him alive and keeping him able to still hold his own against 2Pac's strength. At first he was thinking about not wearing the suit. Mark was glad he ignored the thought of not wearing the suit when 2Pac grabbed his sword while body slamming him down on the nightclub's dance floor.

Once 2Pac had Mark on his back, he attempted to bring his heavy foot down on Mark's exposed head. When Mark saw the heel of 2Pac's metallic foot getting ready to come down on his head, he brought up both of the shields in his arms.

Mark blocked 2Pac's foot using the suit's sturdy shields. Mark cried out in anger and he pumped up the strength level in his suit while pushing against 2Pac's foot. Mark kept the shields up in front of his face and he generated enough power in his suit to flip 2Pac's body into the air. When 2Pac tried to come down with his foot, Mark rammed his shields into the bottom of the robot's foot with tremendous force. He caused the metal man to do an involuntary backflip through the air.

It was the first time Mark knocked 2Pac off his feet. The robot landed on his back, producing a loud metal thud against the floor. Mark leaped up from the floor, running toward 2Pac like a madman.

After kicking 2Pac in his face, Mark reached down and grabbed the metal man with both hands. He roared out to release his frustration as he lifted 2Pac's two ton body into the air. Mark felt unstoppable. He couldn't believe he was holding 2Pac's heavy body up in the air. Mark finally felt like he was as strong as the machine he was fighting.

He had the upper hand. Mark threw 2Pac's body around the nightclub.

He threw the cybernetic man through a wall and he body slammed 2Pac with every chance he got. It seemed like the fight had gone from being difficult to extraordinarily easy. It seemed like 2Pac wasn't even trying to fight back.

Mark could see his wife in heaven dancing and cheering him on like a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, telling him to fight for their son. He could hear his dead wife yelling at him and telling him he better not lose the fight and get her baby killed.

Mark knew his wife was watching him from heaven and he gave it his all to show her he would protect their son like he promised he would. He had to win the fight.

"What's the matter, Pac!? You didn't know I could throw down like this, did you!?" Mark shouted at the metal man after hurling him through another concrete wall. Mark enjoyed pummeling 2Pac. He enjoyed pinning the cybernetic man down on the nightclub's floor.

There was a sinister reason behind why 2Pac wasn't fighting back. He was scanning Mark's exoskeleton suit to see if he could find any integrity violations. The metal soldier went through his database of past prisoners he executed and he searched for the cleanest and most efficient way to kill Mark.

2Pac recorded all of his past prisoner executions and he kept them stored inside a cloud connected to his neural network database. He also connected his mind to the internet to see if he could find what were the most vital and vulnerable parts of the human body.

While Mark was hammering 2Pac in the face, 2Pac downloaded internet files into his metallic bald head. It only took 2Pac a few seconds to act on the information he had downloaded from the web. He did something that Mark didn't expect.

When Mark tried to bring his fist down on 2Pac's face, 2Pac caught the blow in the palm of his hand. At the same time, he activated the laser sword on Mark's suit. 2Pac unscrewed the bolts that connected the sword's projector to Mark's suit. He beheaded Mark with the sword so quickly that Mark didn't feel it.

When the red hot blade sliced through Mark's wide neck, it cauterized the torn flesh around his severed neck which prevented him from bleeding out. 2Pac decapitated Mark in the cleanest way and the hot energy sword acted like a sealant around Mark's throat, making the wound so hot and dry that not a single ounce of blood dripped. The slice through was so precise and smooth that Mark's head remained on his neck after the hot blade severed his throat.

It took a few minutes for Mark's head to slide off of his neck. His headless body remained upright as it sat on 2Pac's chest. The fight was over and 2Pac won. Mark had a lightning fast death and he never knew what hit him.

This was how 2Pac killed most of his victims. He would do it in the most efficient and clean way so that the prisoner's wouldn't suffer. The fighting tournaments were actually planned elaborate executions and 2Pac was Princess Death Row's executioner. Disguising an execution as a fighting tournament gave a lot of prisoners false hope, thinking they could fight their way to freedom. Mark was one of many. Out of all the deaths, Mark's death was the cleanest. After executing Mark, the 2Pac recorded the decapitation and stored it in his memory cloud database. He kept other recordings of sinister executions in his database.

After 2Pac killed Mark, the simulated people and the nightclub setting inside the stadium sized room shut down like a smartphone screen being turned off. The Virtual Materialization Simulator's four massive white walls returned, and the millions of tiny 3D printer lasers retracted back into the walls like a power antenna on an old 1980s Cadillac.

A horrified silence echoed from the crowd of prisoners. They were forced to watch the battle between Mark and 2Pac on a movie theater sized holographic screen. Every prisoner in the arena witnessed Mark's death, including his son, Lukas.

Lukas stood between two Death Row Infantry-men. The child's eyes were locked on 2Pac who walked out of the VMS room carrying his father's headless body over his shoulder. Lukas tried to go to another place in his mind and he tried to be strong like his father told him, but being strong was something that would be difficult for Lukas to do.

"Wow! That was amazing!" Irena shouted to the crowd with a sickening bubbly enthusiasm. "It's sad to say none of my prisoners has beaten 2Pac," Irena spoke with a slight pridefulness in her voice.

Lukas swallowed hard when he saw Irena approaching him. The child tried to run but the two Death Row Infantry-men he stood between quickly grabbed his little body.

"I'm so sorry that you had to watch your father get killed," Irena spoke down to Lukas through a dry tone of voice.

"Daddy!" Lukas screamed out when he looked past Princess Death Row to see 2Pac handing his father's body to a disposal unit. The little boy cursed himself for breaking down in tears in front of Irena. He told his father he would be strong, but failed.

"Take him to the facility and prepare his body for conversion," Irena told the male and female Death Row Infantry-men who were both holding Lukas by his arms. "Make sure that you convert his body thoroughly. I want no unprocessed remains of his body left over." After Irena gave her orders to the soldiers she looked back down at Lukas. "I'm sorry about your father, baby. You shouldn't cry because you'll see him again." Irena thought she said something comforting to Lukas. She smirked a little when Lukas moved away from her hand. Irena rolled her eyes at the child before telling her soldiers to take him away. The CEO turned her back on the little boy, forcing the tentacles on her gothic flowing black dress to follow behind her.

Lukas swallowed hard when he felt a trimmer in his stomach. Before the little boy could stop himself he hurled on one of the Death Row Infantry-man's boots. 

"You little sh*t!" The male Death Row Infantry-man growled down at Lukas while raising his hand to strike the child across his face.

"Don't hit him!" The female Death Row Infantry-man snapped at her partner while grabbing his hand before it could come down on Lukas.

"The little bastard just vomited on my boot!" The male Death Row Infantry-man was still grumbling and mumbling from behind his dark visor helmet.

"The kid just lost his father, so take it easy. Besides you have a million of those sh*tty looking boots at home," The female soldier said through a slight irritated inflection in her voice.

Lukas kept his eyes closed as he felt the two soldiers grabbing him by the back of his small arms and leading him away toward the arena's exit. Lucas tried not to think about his body conversion process, or the creature that would eat him. Instead while being guided out of the arena, the child tried to think about how his mom would sing to him every night before he would go to sleep.

***

Lukas kept thinking about his mother's lullaby. He swallowed again when saw a huge steel cage and could hear something massive violently stomping around inside of it. The boy felt another trimmer in his stomach when a squawking roar that didn't sound human emerged from the metal cage. The cage's windows were smoked out but Lukas knew what was inside.

Lukas remembered the squawking roar he heard the night his mother was executed. He felt the ground tremble beneath his feet from the creature walking.

Lukas remembered the clicking sounds and the crunching. Lukas was standing five feet away from the huge steel cage but he could hear the orchestra of all the familiar sounds of death. He could tell when someone was being eaten, because their screaming would get cut off and replaced by the sounds of slurping, squawking, clicking and crunching.

These were the sounds he heard after his mother's screams were snuffed out.

Lukas had nightmares involving his mother's screams for help. In his nightmare he would be standing in front of a tall metal cage listening to his mother cry out to him from inside. His mother would scream out, "Lukas, save me, honey! It ate your mommy's legs and I can't come to you! Lukas would wake up when an inhuman clawed hand would break through the cage's glass, overshadowing him and grabbing his face. The child at least had his father to comfort him and hold him. Now since Lukas' father was dead, he had no one. The thought of being inside the cage made Lukas panic. He had a short outer body experience when he felt a man's hand dragging him toward the cage.

Lukas flipped. He threw a fist at the Death Row Infantry-man when the soldier grabbed him and tried to lead him closer toward the cage. The little boy remembered what his father told him about being strong. This was Lukas' moment and fought for his life. The child fought like hell to prevent the Death Row Infantry-man from dragging him closer to the dark steel cage.

"Let me go!" Lukas screamed up at the soldier before biting the man's hand.

"You little f*ck! Goddamnit!" The Death Row Infantry-man roared at Lukas as he tried to free his hand from the boy's toothy grip. After freeing his hand from the child's mouth, the soldier struck Lukas across the head while reaching for his handgun. The man had it set in his mind to shoot the child on the spot.

Lukas released a short scream while covering his face. The child thought he was about to get shot in his head. But when he peeked through his fingers, he saw the Death Row Infantry-man getting his g*n knocked out of his hand by his female partner.

Lukas watched as the Death Row Infantry-woman knocked the g*n out of her partner's hand before ramming her knife as hard as she could into the man's torso. The little boy flinched when the Death Row Infantry-man dropped to his knees while coughing up blood.

After the Death Row Infantry-woman gutted her partner with a utility knife, she quickly removed the man's helmet, pulled out her g*n, and blew him away.

A few drops of the Infantry-man's blood splattered on Lukas' face. The little boy had never seen someone get shot in the face in real life. He only saw people getting shot in movies.

Lukas still shielded himself from the Death Row Infantry-woman even though she saved his life. The little boy put his hands up to protect himself when the Infantry-woman kneeled in front of him and tried to touch him.

"Hey, it's all right. I'm gonna hurt you," The Infantry-woman whispered to Lukas before taking off her visor helmet. The soldier removed her helmet, revealing her dainty girl-like face that complemented her curly almond blonde hair. The young woman had an unusual beauty

She looked Arab and beneath her girlish quality was a mature badass edginess, like a pretty tattoo artist you didn't want to piss off. "My name is Olivia Patel, and I already know what your name is." Olivia giggled while reaching out to touch Lukas' low cut dark hair.

"You're not gonna kill me?" Lukas asked Olivia, wanting to trust the woman. The little boy wanted to believe Olivia didn't mean him any arm, but seeing her in a Death Row Infantry-man uniform made him feel skeptical.

Olivia gave Lukas an earnest and affectionate smile. "No, I'm not gonna kill you. I'm gonna get you outta here," Olivia continued to whisper while stroking her soft fingers through the little boy's hair. She could see that even though she saved Lukas' life, the boy still had an untrusting glaze in his eyes. Olivia knew Death Row Infantry-men had abused him and his father for years during their captivity. She knew Lukas saw her as being a very unusual Death Row Infantry-man, because she wasn't trying to hurt him or kill him.

"You stopped that man from shooting me, so I guess you're not gonna kill me." Lukas mumbled out his words while using the back of his hand to wipe away a half dried tear that fell against his nose.

"I promise, Cookie, I'm not gonna hurt you. Do you mind if I call you Cookie? I used to call my daughter Cookie," Olivia giggled a little while gazing at Lukas and watching as a subtle smile developed on the child's face.  

"Yeah, you can call me, Cookie." Lukas mumbled while rubbing his nose and looking down at the dead body of the male Death Row Infantry-man.

Olivia never took her eyes off of Lukas' face. "Don't worry, he can't hurt you." Olivia told Lukas. She never looked down at the soldier and she kept her gaze on Lukas. She breezed her fingers across Lukas' small face. Olivia had an utter disgust for Death Row Infantry-men and she hated disguising herself as one to make her prison escape. Watching her daughter get killed by another Death Row Infantry-woman haunted her every night.

"You're pretty like my mommy." Lukas said.

Olivia wanted to cry when Lukas told her she was pretty like his mom. "You think I'm pretty?" Olivia giggled out her question while bringing Lukas closer to her.

"Yeah, you're pretty like my mommy," Lukas repeated while running his miniature fingers across Olivia's chin. Lukas wanted his father back, but looking at Olivia and touching her chin comforted him at the moment.

Olivia felt comforted while gazing at Lukas. She couldn't tell Lukas that she was a prisoner who killed a Death Row Infantry-woman and was wearing her uniform. The Death Row Infantry-woman Olivia killed was the soldier who killed her daughter right in front of her inside her prison cell. After the Death Row Infantry-woman beat Olivia and killed her four-year-old daughter, that's when Olivia planned her revenge against the Infantry-woman.

Olivia thought about how good it felt strangling the Death Row Infantry-woman. It felt good to snap the woman's neck inside a bathroom stall. After Olivia strangled the woman soldier to death, she put on the soldier's uniform and was surprised at how the uniform was a perfect fit on her attractive but malnourished physique. It made it even more easy for Olivia to pose as the Death Row Infantry-woman because of the visor helmet concealing her identity.

"My daughter thought I was pretty. She was a few years younger than you," Olivia whispered to Lukas while looking down and taking hold of both of his hands. "I would hold her in my arms a lot. She loved when I tickled her." Olivia took a deep breath after bringing up her daughter.

Lukas rubbed his eyes. He embraced Olivia when he felt tears fighting to escape from his eyes. The sight of seeing his father getting decapitated kept arising. 

"Oh baby, I'm gonna get you outta here." Olivia whispered in the little boy's ear while cascading her hands down his little back. The young woman slowly rose to her feet while also lifting Lukas up into her arms. Olivia held Lukas while listening to the sounds of crunching and low-pitched squawking coming from the steel cage.

The sounds coming from the cage sent prickly chills through Olivia's spine. She had to get Lukas away from the clicking noises.

"I'm gonna get you outta here," Olivia whispered again in Lukas' ear before kissing the child on the side of his head. Olivia was a brave and tough young woman, but she was a little nervous over the fact that her and Lukas were inside a space station facility that only contained cages full of Boneseeker Men. 

Even a baby Boneseeker Man was deadly and was about the size of a sub-compact sedan. A baby could project a poisonous mist from its nostrils. The poisonous mist contained flesh-eating bacteria.

Once a Boneseeker Man reaches adulthood the eight hormone sacks inside its legs takes the poisonous mist it was producing as a baby and transforms it into a black corrosive acid that can melt steel. A female Boneseeker Man's womb was in her throat and that's where she produced her eggs. Before a female Boneseeker Man gives birth, a white rotten smelling substance exits from her mouth.

A baby Boneseeker Man can emerge out of its mother's womb fully grown and ready to kill. Sometimes a female Boneseeker Man will eat her offspring immediately after giving birth to it, depending on how she feels. A creature that eats its own baby should not be encountered.

Olivia and Lukas were the only living people at a space station facility that was built to keep and maintain Boneseeker Men.

Janitor robots tended to the Boneseeker Men facilities and their duties were to clean out their cages and remove bones. Some janitor robots would end up getting destroyed by a Boneseeker Man, and repairing a janitor robot was a little costly.

Olivia knew how deadly a Boneseeker Man was because she once came in contact with one. Princess Death Row forced her to watch a friend of hers get eaten alive by a Boneseeker Man. When she panicked and tried to run into the cage to save her friend, she lost a piece of her leg. Princess Death Row decided to keep Olivia alive after she was injured.

It was a miracle that Olivia was still alive till this day, but the young woman didn't want to keep on living after losing her daughter and her best friend. There were nights where Olivia contemplated suicide inside her prison cell. After a few weeks passed, Olivia's desires of wanting to kill herself morphed into wanting to avenge the death of her daughter.

Olivia planned her prison escape for weeks. She started her escape and her revenge by killing the Death Row Infantry-woman tending to her cell. The Death Row Infantry-woman killed her daughter because the child wouldn't stop crying after watching her mother get beat up.

After Olivia killed the Death Row Infantry-woman and made her prison escape, she was still unhappy and was still contemplating her suicide, even though she had gained her freedom. Olivia was still unhappy until she met Lukas. After watching Lukas' father get killed, Olivia realized that she now had something to live for. Olivia knew she had to become a mom all over again and protect Lukas.

Olivia tried to think of something to say to Lukas who was whimpering with his tear soaked face buried in her shoulder.

"I can fly?" Olivia whispered in Lukas' ear and she giggled when the little boy slowly raised his head from her shoulder and gave her a puzzled and wondrous gaze.

Lukas sniffed while rubbing a tear away from his eye. "You can fly?" The little boy mumbled, not sure if he heard Olivia correctly.

"Yeah, I can fly. You want to know how?" Olivia brought a smile back to Lukas' face while touching his nose with the tip of her finger. The young woman giggled while watching the little boy nod his head with urgency. "I jumped off of a mountain one time and I could fly, because I was wearing a wingsuit. A wingsuit is like a jumpsuit with wings attached to it and it allows you to glide through the air."

Lukas' eyes widened. "You glided through the air?" The little boy became fascinated with Olivia.

"Yeah, It's like you're a superhero flying over trees. You know how Superman flies? I felt like Superman, or Supergirl." Olivia snickered. She enjoyed seeing the amazed twinkle in Lukas' bright eyes.

"Did you fly past birds?" Lukas' mouth came open when Olivia nodded her head to his question.

"I flew past a lot of birds. I flew past a flock of geese and they were flying in a V formation. One goose actually turned and waved at me. He was the leader, and instead of saying hi to me like people do when they greet you, he waved at me and quacked." Olivia made Lukas giggle with his fingers up to his mouth when she imitated the sound of a goose while waving her hand.

"A goose can't wave!" Lukas blurted out through his giggling.

"This one waved at me and he quacked at me. He was saying hi to me in his quacking." Olivia couldn't keep a straight face while watching Lukas giggle uncontrollably. "I swear, as soon as I flew past him he looked over at me, raised up his left wing and went quack! Wait a minute, it was more like a honking sound, so instead he waved at me and went honk!"

Lukas hadn't laughed in a long time, and his little body went from feeling weak to having an energizing joy that overwhelmed him.

"Do that again!" Lukas wanted Olivia to do her geese imitation a second time.

"Honk! Honk! Honk!" Olivia did her goose imitation perfectly while causing Lukas to laugh so hard that almost fell out of her arms. Olivia wanted to keep making Lukas laugh, but a soft beeping noise pulsated out of an inside pocket on her Death Row Infantry-man uniform. The beeping sound reminded Olivia of the noise that her phone makes when it has a low battery. Olivia struggled to find the beeping device.

Even though there was a lighting system inside the space station, the darkness inside the station still dominated. It was a type of darkness that seemed alive. Olivia used to be afraid of the dark when she was a little girl, and she felt that same healthy fear returning to her at the age of twenty-nine.

The young woman walked fast After scooping Lukas into her arms, she had left an installment that held a steel cage.

The space station facility contained two levels. Each level held a row of massive chambers. Inside each chamber stood a steel cage containing a Boneseeker Man. Olivia had left one chamber, and she was now walking down the space station facility's long dark tunnel. Dim red guiding lights slightly illuminated the tunnel's walls.

Olivia thought the lights weren't bright enough. They looked like red traffic lights. Olivia was still rummaging through the deep pocket on the Death Row Infantry uniform trying to find the beeping device.

"What is that?" Lukas' curiosity zeroed in on this small tablet-shaped device that Olivia pulled out of her pocket.

"I've seen these before. I've seen a lot of Death Row Infantry-men carrying these. I think it's a warning device." Olivia explained. She looked down at the device's blue illuminated screen. On the screen were white digital letters that said, Warning: System Failure Gate 39.

It took Olivia a few minutes to realize what the device was telling her and why it was beeping. Olivia knew the word, Gate, was referring to a Boneseeker Man's cage door. The device alerted Olivia, telling her that a Boneseeker Man's cage door was malfunctioning somewhere in the facility. This meant that a Boneseeker Man broke out of his cage and was somewhere inside the facility freely roaming around in the smothering darkness.

"I know what this message means. We gotta get out of here." Olivia spoke to Lukas through a breathless whisper, but she tried to stay calm, not wanting to alarm Lukas.

"What's wrong?" Lukas was a smart little boy and he could see that Olivia was distressed about something.

"Nothing Cookie, everything's okay. I'm just wanna get us out of here." Olivia felt guilty for lying to Lukas. She didn't have the heart to tell the little boy they were in danger.

Olivia hated walking down the space station's long dark tunnel that looked like the giant dark throat of a creature. Olivia tried to reach an elevator called a leveler that moved up and down the facility on magnetic gliders. The leveler led down to a parking ramp inside the space station where a space transporter vehicle called a pulse car was parked near a charging port.

Olivia had to make it to the pulse car because it was the only way to escape from the facility. The pulse car was how Olivia, Lukas and the Death Row Infantry-man she killed got to the space station. Walking down a dark space station tunnel that seemed like it would never end had a haunting effect. Olivia felt like she was walking the length of a football field.

Lukas looked around the dark tunnel remembering how scared he would get whenever a power outage would occur at his home. The child remembered experiencing a power outage when a group of Death Row Infantry-men broke into his home and abducted him, his father and mother.

There was something unnatural about the darkness in the tunnel. It was a darkness that looked like it wanted to reach out and grab you. Olivia felt like the darkness was watching her and Lukas.

"F*ck this," Olivia murmured under her breath while reaching for a foldable flashlight attached to her uniform. Grabbing the flashlight reminded Olivia of a pair of flashlight earrings that were a birthday gift from her husband Jared. Olivia thought the earrings were hideous and she told her husband which broke his heart. Now since her husband was dead, Olivia regretted making fun of her birthday gift. If she could have that moment back she would've kissed her husband and told him how beautiful her gift was.

After Olivia removed the foldable flashlight from her belt and turned it on, it relieved her to see light swallowing fragments of darkness in front of her. The flashlight helped Olivia see the glistening steel door on the leveler in the distance.

Lukas felt a calm come over his body after watching Olivia turn on the flashlight. The light helped the little boy see the creepy vastness of the space station.

"What's your favorite ice cream flavor?" Olivia asked Lukas. She wanted to bring a smile back on Lukas' face when she saw nervousness rising on the little boy's face.

Lukas showed his small teeth. "I like chocolate chip ice cream. My mommy would always buy me chocolate chip ice cream at the store."

Olivia smiled. "When we get out of here, I'm gonna see where I can get you some chocolate chip ice cream." Olivia stroked her finger across Lukas' lips. Her giggling came back to her as she gazed at the brightness in Lukas' eyes.

"There's one problem though. We're out in space. Where are we gonna find chocolate chip ice cream out in space?" Lukas' smile faded a little through his question.

Olivia stopped walking while still giggling. "We're not gonna be out in space forever. We're going back home. You know where home is, don't you, Cookie? I know we haven't been there in a while."

"Yeah, home is Earth," Lukas answered with a cheerful squeak in his voice.

Olivia opened her mouth to say something else to Lukas, but the young woman's lips froze when she heard a sound coming from a distance behind her.

A distant squawking noise traveled down the tunnel and it emerged out of the darkness behind Olivia like a snake emerging from the ground. The squawking noise echoed out of the darkness and tapped Olivia on her shoulder. Even though the squawking noise sounded far away, it was good to hear the noise, regardless of distance.

Olivia became well acquainted with the squawking noise, and she went back to walking swiftly down the tunnel. She thought back on how she would jog through the park every morning while pushing her daughter in her baby stroller. Olivia thought about jogging with Lukas in her arms, but she feared that jogging down the long dark tunnel would produce too much noise.

There was a Boneseeker Man running free somewhere in the facility and she didn't want her and Lukas to encounter it.

"H-h-h-help m-m-meeeee." Olivia whirled around with her flashlight when she heard those stuttering whispering words coming from a man's weak voice. The voice sounded much closer to her than the squawking.

"Who's there!?" Olivia didn't want to shout, but her voice arose involuntarily. When Olivia whirled around with her flashlight, she expected to see someone standing behind her, but no one was there.

Olivia's skin became frigid, because she knew that she heard a man's voice. Lukas heard the man's voice too. Him and Olivia looked at each other.

"I heard a man's voice," Lukas uttered.

"I heard a man's voice too, Cookie." Olivia agreed through a whisper. She swung her flashlight around to see if someone was hiding in the corner of one chamber built into the tunnel's grungy brown steel walls. Olivia turned back around at rapid speed and instead of walking down the tunnel, she jogged down the tunnel.

Everything seemed to be okay at first while Olivia was jogging. She felt hopeful that her and Lukas would make it to the leveler. Olivia believed the voice was wind noise until her and Lukas heard the man's voice again. This time his voice was unmistakably audible. The man's trembling voice ran up to Olivia

"Miss, p-p-pleeease h-h-help me!" It was a man's voice, but the voice sounded distorted.

Olivia stopped and turned to see what was chasing her. It was a big mistake. When Olivia turned around she almost dropped her flashlight. Lukas let out a short scream when he saw the man running toward him and Olivia.

The man was n***d, dirty and covered in blood. But what caught Olivia's eye was the n***d man's damaged skull and upper body. A large fragment of his skull was missing.

Olivia spun back around, taking out running at full speed. She didn't care if the n***d man was human or if he was something else. All Olivia cared about was protecting Lukas and making it to the leveler before the man could catch her.

Lukas held on tight to Olivia. He never took his eyes off the shadowy distant outline of the n***d man. The man chased after them, moving like a toddler learning how to run.

"Please help meeeee!" The man's distorted voice moaned through his words like a night wind. "Pleeease!"

Olivia outran her shadow. She didn't believe in ghosts, but that's what she thought this n***d man was.

There was no possible way that a person could survive with half a skull. Olivia couldn't believe that the man chasing her was human, but what else could he be. He was either a ghost or something else.

Olivia ran and never looked back. The man kept calling out to Olivia with his arms out as if he wanted to hug her. Olivia made it to the leveler. The good part was that Olivia and Lukas were now inside the leveler. The bad part was that Olivia couldn't close the leveler's gate door because it was jammed.

"Come on, f*cking move!" Olivia screamed. She held Lukas in one arm while struggling to pull the gate door shut. She could hear and see through the darkness the n***d man getting closer. The man waddled out of the darkness with his arm outstretched toward the leveler.  

"Heeelp!" The n***d man groaned out through the darkness.

"F*cking move! What's wrong with this stupid door!" Olivia screamed out her frustration. She had to put Lukas down on his feet and use both of her hands to pry the leveler's sliding gate door loose. The n***d man grew closer to the leveler. Olivia's heart choked her.

"Door please move!" Olivia fought like hell to get the leveler's door to move. She felt bad for cursing in front of Lukas, but her tattered nerves shook her to the core, causing her to release profanity. When the leveler's door finally moved, Olivia gasped so hard that the air crashed into her throat. She felt more grateful than a person in the desert discovering a pool of water. Olivia almost couldn't believe that she could shut the door and lock it. Olivia's disbelief caused her to have an outer body experience for a second. She saw herself closing the door and locking it seconds before the n***d man reached the leveler.

Olivia grabbed Lukas and she lifted the child back into her arms. She stepped away from the leveler's steel gate door, which was being rocked by the n***d man pounding his fist on it and ramming body into the leveler.

"Pleease help meee!" The n***d man pleaded, trying to stick his anorexic arm between the door's steel poles.

"I'm sorry," Olivia whispered out while stroking the back of Lukas' head and trying to keep Lukas from looking around at the man's body. "Please go away," Olivia felt guilty for telling the wounded man to go away. She knew that he was a prisoner and she still couldn't understand how he was standing with a fragmented skull.

The n***d man was frightened by something. Something was pursuing him, and Olivia knew what it was.

Lukas kept wanting to turn his head, but Olivia wouldn't allow him. The little boy could feel her hand trying to keep his head against her shoulder, and she also tried to use the side of her face to shield his eyes.

After four minutes of pleading, the n***d man stopped when something clicked and squawked behind him. The squawking no longer sounded distant. The creature stood five feet away from where the n***d man was standing.

Another gasp escaped from Olivia when the n***d man got sucked back into the darkness. It was as if he had sucked into a vortex. Olivia felt the turbulent wind come into the leveler after the jungle of darkness inhaled the n***d man.

Olivia heard the man's scream for a split second before the creature cut him off. Clicking and squawking replaced the scream in the darkness. The creature could see Olivia and Lukas. But Olivia and Lukas couldn't see the creature.

"Sh*t," Olivia mumbled under her breath. She wanted to start the leveler and get it moving. But her body locked up.

Lukas squeezed his little arms around Olivia with his face pressed against her cheekbone. The little boy knew that the squawking creature in the darkness was the same creature that killed his mom.

A few minutes passed before the Boneseeker Man finally stepped out of the darkness, revealing four of its pillar sized legs glistening from the slime that covered its reptilian armored skin. The next body part to emerge from the darkness was its serrated tail.

Olivia couldn't move a muscle while holding Lukas. She kept seeing the creature break through the leveler's door. Olivia could now see the Boneseeker Man's upper body, which looked like a man's decomposed skeletal frame.

The Boneseeker Man's protruding egg shaped head wobbled and pulsated every time he took a breath. The dim red lights in the tunnel reflected off its four black slanted eyes.

It was the tunnel's dim red ceiling lights that helped Olivia see the monster's pitch black eyes. Those eyes were peeking through the leveler's gated door focusing in on Olivia and Lukas. Olivia had a Beretta M12 submachine g*n strapped to her back, but her paralyzation wouldn't let her reach for the g*n. She could sense the creature's wrath, and she knew that shooting at it would only make it angrier.

Since Olivia decided not to shoot at the Boneseeker Man, she tried to think of something that would get her and Lukas far away from it. The only other option was to turn on the leveler and push the lever that controlled the leveler's speed all the way up. The leveler could travel close to 15 miles per hour. Olivia wondered if the leveler could outrun the Boneseeker Man, just in case the monster crawled down the shaft and chased after it.

Olivia had to find out what would happen, because she knew if she didn't do something, the Boneseeker Man would eventually break down the leveler's door and crawl inside, killing her and Lukas. Two seats were bolted into the leveler's wall. Inside those two passenger seats were harnesses, similar to roller-coaster harnesses. Olivia was about to put the seats to use.

"We're gonna go for a ride, okay Cookie?" Olivia whispered in Lukas' ear after sitting him down into one seat and fastening the harness over his chest and waist.

"Are we gonna make it?" Lukas whispered in front of Olivia's face. He peeked over her shoulder to see the Boneseeker Man lurking up to the leveler's door squawking and clicking.

Olivia rested her hand against Lukas' face. "We're gonna make it, Cookie. I promise. And then we're gonna go get some ice cream. Do you trust me?" Olivia smiled while watching Lukas nod his head.

After kissing Lukas on the side of his face, Olivia took a deep quiet breath before slowly easing her way over to the passenger seat beside Lukas. The young woman never took her eyes off the Boneseeker Man. She sat down in the seat like a grandmother who suffered from arthritis.

Olivia prayed while fastening herself into the seat. She didn't want anything bad to come out of the decision she was about to make. Olivia wanted to turn the leveler's motor on, but her hand froze right over the lever when the Boneseeker Man released a low ear piercing squawk. A series of clicks then followed the low squawking growl.

When the creature squawked and clicked at Olivia, She sensed that the creature knew that she was planning to escape and it didn't like it. Olivia swallowed her tongue while forcing herself to move her hand toward the lever again. Her heart still pounded in her throat.

Olivia felt like her heart was going to pop out of her chest. She thought the Boneseeker Man could hear her pounding heart and was probably annoyed by it. Thoughts in her head told to be perfectly still, while conflicting thoughts told her to make a move or get killed.

Lukas stared straight ahead at the Boneseeker Man. The child remembered his mother telling him about the Devil and how he was a hideous monster that feasted on souls. Lukas thought that he was seeing the Devil for the first time. The Boneseeker Man's eight legs looked like giant spiked tentacles.

Olivia's mind went blank when she watched the Boneseeker Man wrap its massive slimy claws around the steel bars on the leveler's door. Olivia could feel death waiting to come inside the leveler.

A wrenching noise echoed through the mystical darkness in the tunnel. The wrenching noise sounded like steel twisting and bending. Lukas lost his breath when he saw what the Boneseeker Man was doing to the leveler's steel door.

"F*ck, do something," Olivia whispered to herself while taking hold of Lukas' trembling hand. She knew that she had to make a move or her and Lukas would die. Olivia found it hard to breathe when she could see the steel bars on the leveler's door being pulled apart effortlessly by the Boneseeker Man. The leveler shook from the creature trying to pry the steel bars apart on the leveler.

The Boneseeker Man went from squawking to hissing. It sounded like a thousand snakes were inside the Boneseeker's mouth. Olivia watched as the steel bars on the leveler's door grew further apart like a rubber band being pulled.

The leveler's steel doors were being destroyed and soon there would be nothing to block the Boneseeker Man from crawling inside the leveler. The hungry Boneseeker Man twisted the steel frame while squawking and hissing at Olivia and Lukas

The Boneseeker Man could smell his food through the million tiny nostril vents attached to his large egg shaped head. The creature hissed from excitement.

Olivia's hand was an inch away from the lever and she still couldn't pull down the lever. Olivia tried to break free from her paralysis.

Thoughts flashed through Olivia's mind and it seemed like her thoughts were the only thing moving at the moment. The young woman couldn't even blink her eyes while staring at this slimy, extraterrestrial behemoth trying to stick one of his huge eight legs through the leveler's bent door.

Lukas tried to think about how him and his dad would always kill the monsters in his video games. The little boy wished that the situation he was in was a video game that him and his dad were playing. He wished him and his dad could kill the Boneseeker Man that was getting ready to bring its twisted arachnid body into the leveler.

Lukas was trying to give into his fear, but the little boy grabbed Olivia's when he saw one of the Boneseeker Man's legs heading straight for his body. He also thought Olivia was about to get hit when she unfastened herself from her seat and jumped in front of Lukas trying to shield him.

Olivia threw her arms around Lukas. The Boneseeker Man's legs were much longer than its arms. The creature whipped his leg around the leveler but it wasn't close enough to reach the child. A sharp pointy tip on the end of its tentacle leg sliced the back of Olivia's shoulder when she jumped in front of Lukas. Olivia suffered a small cut across her shoulder but the Infantry suit she was wearing caught most of the damage. When the Boneseeker Man's sharp crablike claw came in contact with Olivia's uniform, it ripped the back of the armored uniform down to her waist, exposing her shoulder, her skull tattoo, and the cross straps on her light blue sports b*a.

By this time, Olivia felt scared to breathe. She had to protect Lukas and she didn't waste a second reaching for the sub-machine g*n strapped to her back. The young woman aimed the machine g*n at the monster. She watched as he struggled to squeeze his towering, hideous body through the steel door.

"Come in here and I will blow your f*cking a*s away," Olivia said under her breath while pointing her Beretta M12 at the Boneseeker Man's head with lethal precision. She waited to pull the trigger. Olivia knew the bullets would take time to penetrate the Boneseeker Man's thick armored skin, but it was worth a try.

It seemed like there was no way out. Olivia thought she missed her opportunity to escape and now she would have to activate her machine g*n to protect Lukas. Olivia saw something flash before her eyes while aiming her machine g*n at the furious Boneseeker Man. The young woman didn't understand this memory that flashed across her mind.

It was a vision of an experience that Olivia didn't remember experiencing. She didn't remember being r***d and killed, but that's what flashed in her head. Olivia didn't know if she was just losing her mind for a moment or if she was having a memory of a nightmare she had that seemed real.

Whatever it was, Olivia didn't understand the memory, and she didn't want to have the memory of a nightmare while confronting a real life nightmare that was hissing and squawking at her and Lukas.

Olivia could feel every slender muscle in her body tightening up and she could also feel every drop of sweat on her body. She could feel her throat getting dry and she could feel the pinch in her throat from trying to swallow. She had her body covering Lukas' like a sheet.

Lukas couldn't see anything anymore from Olivia's chest shielding his face. The child had his arms around Olivia's waist and felt a little comforted by her hand caressing the top of his head. Lukas didn't want to die, and he didn't want to see Olivia get hurt. He didn't want to lose his new mother before being killed himself.

Lukas could feel the leveler vibrating from trying to support the four-hundred pound weight of the Boneseeker Man's leg. It felt like the bottom of the leveler would collapse from not being able to withstand the extra weight.

Olivia felt like a statue with her machine g*n aimed at the face of the eight-legged predator. She never moved even when a drop of sweat touched the tip of her eyelid causing it to itch.

It felt like a stare down was going on between Olivia and the Boneseeker Man. It was two human eyes against four slanted, heat-seeking predatory eyes. The question was who would look away first?

The Boneseeker Man stretched open its mouth to project its black corrosive acid on Olivia and Lukas. But when the creature opened its bulging mouth showing its black lizard-like tongue, it hesitated when it sensed another alpha male approaching him from behind.

Olivia looked over the Boneseeker Man's towering dome shaped head to see another Boneseeker Man emerging from the darkness, crawling down the tunnel's ceiling. This Boneseeker Man seemed larger than the one trying to break into the leveler. It also had wings the size of a small private plane.

A war erupted when the second Boneseeker Man showed up and ruined the party. Lukas and Olivia watched as the two predators went at each other. The Boneseeker Men swung their pole shaped arms at each other while squawking and hissing. The larger winged Boneseeker Man fought so viciously that he swung his tail into the leveler's door, knocking the door completely off its hinges and exposing Olivia and Lukas to the outside violence.

Olivia and Lukas now had nothing between them and the battling Boneseeker Men. Olivia activated the leveler and got the machine moving. The Boneseeker Men were distracted and Olivia seized her opportunity. Olivia attached her hand to the lever, and she pulled it down with great force, causing the machine to move down the shaft on its magnetic gliders.

Olivia and Lukas were holding hands while feeling the forty foot drop go through their bodies from the leveler plummeting down at a high speed. Lukas felt like he was on a drop tower ride like the one he remembered going on with his mom and dad at Six Flags. The little boy felt more exhilarated than scared.

Olivia didn't like feeling her internal organs shifting upward from the leveler's freefall. She felt that the only good thing about falling down was that her and Lukas were getting farther away from the Boneseeker Men.

It only took eight seconds for the leveler to reach the space station's parking ramp, and for Olivia, it felt a lot longer than eight seconds. When the leveler came to a gravity defying stop, Olivia had to catch her breath before unfastening her seatbelt and reaching for Lukas.

"You okay, Cookie?" Olivia whispered after taking Lukas by his waist and helping him down out of the passenger seat. She smiled when Lukas grinned and nodded his head.

"It felt like the drop tower ride I went on with my mommy at Six Flags." Lukas watched as Olivia giggled from the enthusiasm in his voice.

"Maybe we can go on another ride like that one, but next time without the Boneseeker Men," Olivia spoke, out of breath while cradling Lukas in her arms and running toward the pulse car.

When Lukas saw the inside of the pulse car, its interior fascinated him. The pulse car's dashboard had no steering wheel, and one large screen stretched across the dashboard. The large dashboard had a GPS navigation system built into it. And the screen controlled all the car's system functions.

It amazed Lukas when he laid back in the pulse car's X-shaped, leather passenger seat and watched as a mechanized seat belt came across his waist and chest. When the automatic seatbelt locked itself over Lukas, there was a peaceful beeping sound.

Olivia didn't even have to press a button to close the pulse car's automatic driver's side door. Sensors and voice commands also controlled everything inside the pulse car. There wasn't a single button or gear shift built into the pulse car's interior. The vehicle was completely self automated and its pulsar-powered engine came on quietly when it heard Olivia's voice.

"Let's get out of here. You ready?" Olivia winked at Lukas while reaching over the center console to take his little hand.

Lukas gave Olivia a light smile while nodding. "Yeah," The little boy still had the sadness in his eyes while thinking about his dad.

Olivia could see the sadness even though he was smiling at her. She knew he was thinking about his father, and she knew it would take the little boy some time to recover.

"It's gonna be okay, Cookie. Once we get back to Earth, we won't remember any of this sh*t. Excuse me for cussing," Olivia paused for a second while raising her hand to her mouth and letting out a short guilty giggle. "We're gonna start a new life." Olivia caressed her hand across Lukas' forehead. "I know you miss your papa, just like I miss my little girl. But I feel like our life is about to get a hell of a lot happier."

Lukas looked down at his hands while listening to Olivia who was trying her best to comfort him. The little boy felt happy and sad. He felt happy to be with Olivia, but he wanted his daddy with him.

Olivia kissed the back of Lukas' hand. "I'm your new mommy now. A new mommy who's gonna get you some chocolate chip ice cream." Olivia raised her eyebrows and snickered after saying that. She laughed even harder when Lukas giggled, putting his fingers up to his lips.  

When the pulse car left the space station's parking ramp, Olivia and Lukas didn't even notice they were out in space. They never took their loving gaze away from each other as they held hands.