“He’s so cute!”
John smiled as Salem poked her fingers through the chain-link fence. A small Beagle on the other side eagerly licked her hand, tail wagging.
“Not a very good guard dog.”
“He’s too cute to be a guard dog,” she murmured through duck lips before making kissy noises.
The dog responded with a happy bark before continuing to lick her hands.
“Do you want a dog?”
She looked up at him excitedly.
“Do you?”
“I’d like a dog, it’d be good practice for a kid.”
She was about to say something, but her mouth slowly closed and the excitement in her eyes dulled.
“But we live in an apartment with a no pet policy.”
“What if we moved?”
She sighed and pulled her hand back. The dog barked happily and started running back and forth along the fence. Salem and John resumed their walk through the neighborhood and he saw her look longingly at the dog before meeting his gaze.
“We can’t afford it, not while I’m in college.”
“After you graduate then, you haven’t had to take on any student loans because of my job. We’ll probably move anyway so you can find work, what if we make our first place a home?”
“Do you not want to go to college?”
He tilted his head a moment in thought.
“I make good money with what I’m doing and I enjoy it.”
“Would you want to start your own business one day?”
He shrugged.
“Maybe, but honestly I’m happy where I am.”
John squinted at her.
“What’s this about?”
She smiled and patted his shoulder.
“I just want to make sure you’re happy with what you’re doing and not doing it because we need the money. If you wanted to be an astronaut or a hedge fund manager or something I want you to pursue it.”
Kissing her on the top of her head he hugged her back.
“I don’t mind what I do, it’s enough to provide for us, and we can save for the future. That’s all I need right now.”
They held each other for a moment before breaking away and holding hands. They walked silently for a few yards before John chuckled looking over at her.
“Hedge fund manager?”
She giggled.
“You know what I mean.”
“To be honest I hadn’t thought about starting my own pest control business. It’s not a bad idea.”
He could tell by the way she looked at him that she was carefully gauging his reaction to the idea. She was trying her best to mask her excitement and he loved her for it. He knew one of the reasons she married him was his calm and down to earth nature that she had no intention of changing, but she also wanted to encourage him to be the best version of himself.
It was the main reason he asked her to marry him.
“It’s definitely something to think about, but after we have a little financial security. I couldn’t imagine starting anything any time soon.”
She nodded.
“That makes sense, but if you start thinking about it again and feel ready, talk to me and we’ll look into it.”
“In the meantime, let’s get you graduated, buy a house, and then we’ll get a dog.”
“Agreed.”
#
John gritted his teeth as he wedged his body between two crates. The wood scraped his naked torso and he was paranoid they would fall and crush him. But that sniffing worried him more.
He could hear some things jostling nearby and wondered if it was Nel or one of the others trying to free themselves. Neither he nor Nel had made a sound since the sniffing started and he hoped Sasha and Dimitri wouldn’t start calling out.
Based on Dimitri’s reaction earlier it was likely he had seen what was making the sound. His reaction also told John it would be a bad idea to stick around and let that thing find them.
Wincing he forced his body all the way through the opening he was struggling with. He took a second to breath and evaluated his next moves. It was like crawling through a pillow fort that had collapsed, except all of the materials in its construction were wood, nails, and twisted metal. Each place he put his body had to be carefully examined to make sure nothing would stab, slice, or impale him in any way.
Reaching out with a hand he tested a section of metal shelving to his left. It groaned loudly and several crates shifted towards him. Jerking his hand away he looked around and found what looked like a small printer. He carefully placed it under the shelving and hoped it would prevent it from collapsing further or at least slow it down.
Something gave a wet bark in the distance and he froze. He’d never heard a dog make a sound like that and his mind conjured up images of something resembling a dog but far more disturbing. For a brief moment he tried to remember what the Dog-Spider sounded like, but he couldn’t remember.
After a few seconds the sniffing sound returned and John was confident it was closer.
Acting with a little less caution he probed his surroundings for a way out. Finding a section of broken shelving that didn’t move under his hand he squeezed himself underneath that.
Slowly he worked his way around the items, slithering and crawling in a desperate attempt to find a way out as the sniffing sound grew ever closer.
Suddenly something moved under his hand and he bit back a yelp as he jerked backward and slammed his head into a crate. Everything creaked above him, but fortunately nothing moved. Peering into the refuse beneath him he tried to identify what had moved.
A spot in the shadows seemed to shift a little.
“Hello,” John whispered out.
“John?”
Recognizing Sasha’s voice John heaved a sigh of relief before studying the darkness.
“Yeah it’s me, are you alright?”
“Something’s-.”
John shushed her quietly.
“What is it,” she asked in a whisper.
“Something out there is sniffing around. I think it’s looking for us.”
“Can you see it?”
“No, but I can hear it getting closer.”
“Help me out.”
“Do you have a light? My headset broke in the commotion.”
There was a pause before a small light flickered on. It kept blinking as if it was broken, but between the flashes he was able to see where Sasha was. She was trapped beneath a piece of shelving that had her pinned. The only things she seemed able to move were her left hand and her left foot, everything else was stuck.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Can you move the crate by my head?”
Finding the crate he scooted over and placed both hands on it. Moving carefully he tried pushing it to the side. It moved a few inches before it became stuck. Exerting a little more effort he found that even with all of his strength it would go no further.
“It’s stuck.”
“Ok,” she said slowly, “I need you to cut me out.”
“How do I do that?”
“There’s a cutting torch on my chest rig.”
“There is?”
She sighed.
“Would you just grab it?”
“Where on your chest rig?”
“Just under my left breast.”
John frowned and carefully slid his hand under the shelving to where she had indicated.
“Don’t get fresh.”
“Shut up,” said John as he felt around with his fingers.
“That’s it.”
Grabbing the item below his hand he carefully felt around and found a fastener holding it down. He was about to tug it free when he frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
“This is going to make a lot of noise.”
“The torch will make even more noise, just hurry.”
Taking a deep breath he yanked the fastener back with a loud rip. He cringed as the ever-present sniffing in the distance paused. There was another wet bark, followed by silence, and then the sniffing returned.
Letting his breath go he gently tugged the device free of her chest rig and out from under the shelving. Holding it in his hands he tried to find the mechanism for starting the flame but quickly realized he wasn’t even sure which part was the handle.
“Put it in my hand.”
John put it in her hand, she fumbled with it for a second before holding it tightly in her fist.
“Hold it like this and as you squeeze this latch it’ll emit a flame.”
“Got it.”
“Don’t burn me when you start cutting,” she commented as he took it from her.
“I’ll just singe your hair a little, don’t worry.”
She said something under her breath and John had the feeling he didn’t want her to repeat it. Holding the device loosely in his hand he double checked that it was the same way she had handled it. When he was sure he squeezed the object.
A blue flame burst out of the front and John was grateful that it wasn’t as loud as he imagined, but the hissing of the flame wasn’t quiet either. In fact, the sniffing disappeared and panic began to set in when it didn’t return.
“Hurry John.”
Aiming the device at the shelving he slowly set about cutting her body free. Very quickly he realized that he couldn’t cut the parts directly above her body without turning the flame on her so he cut around her as best as he could. When he was done he let the flame die and tugged on the shelving with a hand experimentally.
It refused to budge.
“Shit.”
Sasha was silent as she watched him tug on the metal.
“You have to cut the whole thing.”
“But your body is underneath those parts.”
“My uniform will protect me from most of it.”
“Most of it?”
She closed her eyes and when she opened them John saw fear.
“Do it.”
Taking another breath, he kicked the device on and before he could talk himself out of it ran the torch along the section pinning her right leg down.
Sasha groaned and balled her hands into fists as the torch cut through the metal and licked against her leg. John tried to ignore what smelled like burning plastic and then burning meat.
He repeated the process on the spot pinning her right arm and Sasha’s groaning’s turned to whimpers. In the blue light of the torch he could see tears running down her face and a few drops of blood started trickling from her closed fists.
Finishing the last section he released his death grip on the torch and let out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. Sasha’s eyes were squeezed shut and she whimpered behind her gritted teeth in an effort to avoid making any noise. John marveled at her willpower.
“Get this damn thing off me,” she growled.
This time the metal shelving pulled free and he was able to jam it into a space off to their right. Sasha pulled herself out into a half sitting position and panted heavily.
“What can I do?”
“There’s a canteen in my backpack.”
John gently tilted her forward and pulled the backpack off of her. Opening it he didn’t see anything that resembled a canteen.
“Here,” she growled taking the bag from him and fished out a small cannister that had been tucked in the bottom before handing it to him.
Screwing the lid off John waited for Sasha to put out her arm and winced at the pink flesh on her wrist. Tilting the canteen over he splashed a decent amount of water on the burns. Sasha gasped as it hit the wounds.
John waited a moment for her to recover then motioned to her leg.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to move the cloth.”
“Agreed,” she said weakly, “just dump the water on it.”
He tilted the canteen on her leg and she gasped again, closing her eyes. Satisfied the area was soaked he screwed the cap back on.
“How’s that?”
“A little better,” she mumbled, “now let’s figure out a way to get out of here.”
“Do you have any healing gel?”
She shook her head and started looking around so John set the canteen back in the backpack and placed it on his own back. Sasha was about to say something but instead gave him a weak smile and started prodding their surroundings looking for a way out.
John started looking around when he heard something creak behind him. Turning around he raised his arms, preparing to brace them against the stuff he was sure was falling towards them.
But the creaking wasn’t coming from their vicinity, it was something further away. Along with the creaks he heard small thuds that were steadily growing louder.
A shadow passed over them and John flinched away from it as his eyes darted around. Sasha drew a sidearm from her good leg and held it ready as she too scanned the area. Lacking his own weapon John searched around, grabbed a section of copper piping, and held it aloft as much as he could.
The shadow passed over them a few more times and with it was the sniffing he’d been hearing. It sounded like some large monstrous beast was rooting around in the debris. What disturbed him most was that the shadow began to pass over their spot more and more until it remained.
The low growl that came from above them made the hair on John’s neck stand on end. Sasha aimed her gun at the source of the shadow. There wasn’t anything to shoot at given the debris, but part of John wanted her to fire a shot to try and scare the thing away.
“Did you find something boy?”
John frowned when he heard the old man speak and he saw Sasha lower her gun slightly.
“Is anyone down there?”
John looked over at Sasha and she met his gaze shaking her head.
“If you’re an employee here I mean you no harm, but if you’re one of those-.”
John’s eyebrows raised as the man launched into a series of expletives. The corner of Sasha’s mouth twitched slightly as the list grew longer.
“-damned Order terrorists then let me know and I’ll make sure to pile more crates on you.”
Glancing over at Sasha again he saw her shake her head no, but a quick glance at her burned wrist and leg told him they couldn’t stay there forever and the man had them pinned down.
“What if I’m neither?”
There was a pause and he heard that same low growl in response to his voice.
“Neither? How the hell could you be neither?”
“I’m not with the Order and I’m not an employee, I was brought here against my will.”
The silence was a little longer this time.
“Brought here by the Order?”
“Darkshield brought me here, I woke up in a hospital gown.”
“Did you encounter an Anomaly?”
“No, some of the employees here think I was brought in to help test the Anomalies.”
“Like a scientist?”
“Like a guinea pig.”
He heard the man mutter something to himself.
“Are you alone?”
John glanced over at Sasha who was shooting him daggers.
“No, I’m here with three others. But I was only able to find one of them.”
“Were they brought here against their will?”
“They’re employees.”
“Security,” asked the man interestedly.
“Offworld.”
“Why aren’t they saying anything?”
“One was badly burned and I think the other two might be injured as well…or worse.”
“Well let’s get you two out of there and then we’ll find the others.”
John heard the creaking and he hollered at the man in a panic.
“Whoa, easy! Thing’s aren’t exactly stable here.”
“I know, just trust me.”
There was a loud buzz and suddenly the objects above them started glowing a light blue color. John watched as this strange glow slowly grew down until it encompassed the objects immediately above them.
“Are you in the energy field?”
“You mean these glowing objects?”
“Yeah, are you glowing?”
“No, just the stuff above us.”
“If it suddenly moves upward will it harm either of you?”
John blinked at the question.
“No…”
The buzzing became a whine and suddenly everything above them rocketed up to the ceiling. John marveled as it hung above them on one of the panels with the little nubs he’d seen earlier. Once it hit the ceiling it slowly coasted down the aisle a ways before it dropped everything with a tremendous crash.
An old man suddenly appeared above them holding a device in one hand and a revolver in the other. He studied them a moment before lowering the revolver.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t point that at me.”
John glanced over and saw Sasha had aimed her weapon at the man. Giving her a steady look she flashed him a glare before lowering the gun.
“Can you climb out of there?”
John rose to his feet and leaned over to offer a hand to Sasha. She batted it away and rose to her own feet unsteadily, wincing as she put weight on her burned leg. Slowly they climbed across the debris and made their way towards the old man.
“Sorry about the mess, that was sorta my fault.”
“What happened,” asked John as he glanced warily at the man’s gun.
“I was stacking boxes in the aisles when Patches starting growling at something, I’m guessing one of you. I turned to look and I accidently brought the zero crane with me.”
He gestured at the mountain of items around them.
“Once one shelf went down the rest of them followed.”
“Who’s Patches?”
The old man looked around and grunted.
“Oh he’s my…dog we’ll say. I think he must’ve found your friends because he’s growling at something over there.”
As John drew closer the man looked him up and down before frowning.
“What happened to your clothes son?”
“It’s a long story,” John said looking down and noticing the scrapes and cuts on his torso.
“We’ll let’s get your friends and we can talk about it,” he looked past him at Sasha and whistled, “damn that looks right nasty.”
“It’s fine,” she said coldly.
“Well I have a few first aid kits in my office, I’m sure we could dig up some ointment or something.”
Sasha studied him for a moment before sighing and holstering her sidearm.
“That would be nice, thank you.”
“Good, let’s go see what Patches found.”
The old man started making his way down the pile of trash and John followed behind him. The man was easily in his sixties but was surprisingly nimble as he made his way through the uneven terrain.
“What you got there boy?”
John looked past him to see something hunkered down in the pile of junk. When the old man spoke to it the thing pulled back and turned to face him. When John caught sight of Patches he nearly swallowed his tongue.
The best way he could describe Patches was a dog made out of parts of other dogs by someone who had never seen a dog in person and decided to get creative. Its head was turned sideways and had the top half of a second dog’s head serving as the lower jaw for the other. Two sets of spines that John realized where ribs jutting out of its body ran down it’s back with four muscular limbs holding the entire monstrosity up.
John watched in morbid fascination as three black eyes and a blue eye noticed him. It bared its mismatched teeth and gave a low wet growl.
“Be nice Patches, they’re with me.”
The dog studied John and Sasha again before turning around to focus on something in the pile of stuff.
“What the hell is that,” asked John in a higher pitch then he meant to.
“It’s a long story, but I promise you he won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt him.”
“John is that you,” cried Nel from within the pile.
The old man glanced over at John who called back to Nel, his eyes still on the dog.
“Yeah it’s me, are you alright?”
“I’m ok, who’s with you?”
“I found Sasha, she’s injured but she’ll be ok and this is…”
He turned to the old man.
“Clayton Sparks mam,” he responded loudly enough Nel could hear him.
Nel was silent for a moment.
“Did you find Dimitri?”
“No.”
“Well he was ahead of me so he must be around here somewhere.”
The old man whistled and Patches lumbered over towards him. John thought its gait resembled a bulldog whose legs were too far spread out.
“Keep looking boy.”
The dog licked the old man’s hand with the longest tongue John had ever seen and lumbered away again.
The old man set the revolver in a holster under his arm and started plugging away at the device he held. The strange nubbed panel returned and John saw several lights flash around the object. Below it some of the objects started glowing.
“Are you in the energy field?”
“Is this is a zero point energy field?”
John saw the man’s face brighten a bit.
“Yes it is.”
“No, but you need to lower it another four inches or so.”
The man tapped a few times at the device and hollered again.
“How’s that?”
“Perfect.”
He tapped the device again and a large cluster of items flew up to the panel and were carried further down the aisle behind them. John looked into the hole it created and saw Nel standing up and marveling at it.
“I have so many questions,” she said as she made her way towards them.
“I have a few of my own, but let’s get your friend. Any idea where he might be?”
Patches let out a wet bark followed by low growling.
“Never mind,” Clayton said with a chuckle, “looks like the mongrel beat us to it.”
Reaching the spot John saw Nel jerk back with alarm when Clayton whistled Patches over. Once the initial shock passed she quickly studied the beast with feverish eyes.
“What’s your friend’s name,” Clayton asked.
Rather than answer John quickly called out.
“Dimitri can you hear me?”
There wasn’t a response and it felt like a rock had formed in John’s stomach.
“You’re safe,” he said scanning the spot Patches had been, “let us know if you’re alright.”
When no response came Clayton scratched his stubbly chin.
“I’ll have to move the debris away piece by piece so I don’t hurt him. Watch that spot like a hawk and the second you see him holler. I don’t want him getting launched up with all that junk.”
The group had their eyes peeled as the man carefully grabbed items with the zero crane and quickly moved them away. After several seconds Sasha suddenly called out.
“Stop, I see him.”
Clayton had his finger poised on the controls as Nel quickly made her way to him.
“Lift this crate and then the transformer and he should be free.”
Once Clayton had moved the items Nel crouched down.
“How is he,” shouted Sasha.
“He’s unconscious, but he’s breathing,” there was a lengthy pause as her hands moved over his body, “I think he may have a broken arm and some cracked ribs.”
“I can lift him out with the zero crane and take him to my office. That way we won’t be jostling him.”
John glanced up at the panel above them and back at the old man. Clayton saw the look and shook his head.
“I can control how fast he’s lifted and how high up he goes. Don’t worry about that.”
“Let’s do it then,” said Nel hesitantly.
Clayton fiddled with the controls and Dimitri’s body began glowing. As the man moved his fingers across the controls Dimitri was lifted until he was a few feet off the ground and hovering. A few more controls were manipulated before Clayton lowered the device and wiped his brow.
“Alright let’s get him to my office.”
As the man started walking away Dimitri’s body followed, hovering over the piles of debris. Nel shook her head in amazement and followed closely behind his body, her eyes on Dimitri as much as they were on the zero crane above them.
“My office is clear on the other damn side of the room. So while we’re walking there how about you start telling me that long story of yours?”
John took a breath and started talking.
Author’s Note:
I hope you’re enjoying Darkshield: John’s Arc 2. A new chapter comes out free every week and next week’s chapter will be available on November 23, 2020.
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