Ganked In Space

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Sector 12 Transgalactic Station

The cacophony of noise was like standing inside of a kettle drum. The skittering grew to rapid-fire canon bursts that echoed inside the alcove. The Notches struggled to stay focused on the approaching threat and not the mind-punching pain in their skulls.

The twisted expression on Cody’s face suddenly became stone when the first bug emerged from the dark at the end of the tunnel. It wasn’t the size of an average bug, more like that of a small dog.

Joel and Reggie forgot their pain and steadied their chem guns. Cody yelled something that they couldn’t hear, but, judging by his face and history in similar situations (at least in virtual reality video game situations), it was probably something like, ‘holy f*****g s**t!’

Reggie yelled to Cody, but his voice was lost in the echo. He tried to tell him to wait for the ShimVens to enter the alcove so they could cut off the bugs’ retreat and mow them all down, but Cody raised his gun and let loose a stream of glowing green liquid.

The chemical was strictly only available on the black market, a fact that Cody had decided to withhold from Reggie, who would have undoubtedly found the source disgusting. Even if he’d heard the amazingly awesome name—Killmaximus Plus—Reggie probably would have insisted that the chemical be returned and replaced by something from a more reputable vendor. The stink of it alone should have been enough to kill.

The second the pests entered the alcove, Reggie and Joel unleashed their own attack. Some of the bugs were small, the size of a mouse, and others, the size of a large cat. The ShimVens screeched as they were bathed in Killmaximus, but they kept coming. The combined smell of three streams of Killmaximus made the Notches’ all lightheaded. Joel fell against the wall; the fear of brain worms the only thing keeping him from passing out.

The ShimVens were nightmarish. They had long, segmented bodies that wiggled as they crawled. Six legs, three on each side of their body, and they had a set of pincers that could snap bone on their disgusting heads. These were the kind of things that crawled through every child’s worst dreams, waking the child screaming, swatting at their arms, trying to shoo the creatures away, only to sink back with relief when they realized the bugs weren’t real.

But ShimVens were real. And one of them was trying to stick his egg sac in Cody’s ear.

“Don’t move!” Joel yelled, though he wasn’t sure Cody could hear him.

He took aim and sniped the nasty fucker off the side of Cody’s head. A drop of Killmaximus landed on Cody’s cheek, and he screamed and brushed it away as he stumbled backward, off the bait pile.

The bugs fell in heaps as they entered the alcove. The first wave slid across the floor on a slip-and-slide of Killmaximus. The successive waves slithered atop the bodies of their friends. The growing pile of bodies forced Joel and Reggie out of their positions by the entrance. They moved toward the center of the room, never faltering in their aim.

Their hearts sank once they reached Cody’s side and got a full view of the hallway and the wall of ShimVens still coming at them. There was no end in sight. No daylight between bugs. A solid mass of death barreled toward them. At this rate, they’d drown in bug corpses before they killed the swarm.

As if that wasn’t disheartening enough, something began tugging at Joel’s leg. He looked down to see one of the bugs, covered in thick, green Killmaximus, trying to take his leg off with its pincers. Joel stomped its head until it shattered into goo, and then noticed movement across the alcove floor. Not just pockets of movement—the entire floor.

“These things aren’t dead!”

Cody and Reggie both screamed as they looked down and noticed bugs just inches from devouring their feet. The men began a slick, gooey jig, dancing on the bugs’ bodies, turning several ShimVens to paste.

“This kill zone just became a death trap,” Reggie said. “We need to exfil asap.”

Joel closed his eyes for a second, tuning out the chaos and death swarm, focusing on the schematics. He tuned into any useful bit of data he could find…and there it was.

“Cover me,” Joel shouted to the other Notches.

“You got a way out?” Reggie asked.

“The only way out is through,” Joel answered as he ran to the control panel at the back of the alcove.

This panel controlled airflow for the entire floor, which meant all the air circulated through this point. He ripped the panel off the wall to reveal a column of tubes, each one pumping pure oxygen. He yanked his knife from the sheath on the side of his boot and sliced one of the tubes free. He pulled the open end out, hauled the tube to the entrance of the alcove, and aimed it at the swarm.

“You’re going to treat their asthma?” Cody said. “That’s your plan?”

“Give me your flare,” Joel ordered.

Cody’s face turned an even paler shade of white. “I’d rather you treat their asthma.”

“Just give it to me,” Joel snapped. “And run like hell once the path is clear, because it won’t stay like that for long.”

Cody handed his flare to Joel, never taking his finger off the trigger.

“On three,” Joel said, oxygen pumping into the hallway. “One, two, three!”

He popped the flare and put the glowing hot end to the open side of the tube. With a rush of heat and noise, it erupted. A colossal torch scorched a dozen ShimVens immediately. The wave behind them slid on the Killmaximus, unable to stop themselves from reaching their fiery end. The rest in the hall fell over themselves trying to scurry out of the way. They climbed up the walls, gnawed their way into the crevices between wall panels, clawed through each other to escape the flames.

This left a narrow path down the center to freedom.

“Go!” Reggie shouted. He ducked beneath the inferno and ran into the swarm. But he had no better luck getting a foothold than the ShimVens. He got five feet before slipping on the Killmaximus and falling onto his stomach.

Without a second thought, Cody ran and leapt forward, going full Superman. He landed on Reggie’s back and propelled him forward, riding him like a boat to safety. Joel tossed the air tube back into the alcove and followed Cody’s example, diving forward and sliding across the floor until Cody and Reggie hoisted him to his feet.

They had little time to celebrate. With the flames off them, the ShimVens began skittering back down from the ceiling. The alcove quickly filled with bugs again, and now they were pissed.