Free Floxham Island ~ Sinclair V-Log AZ267/M by Merita King

plate
covered in blood and smacked his hand onto it. The cell block leapt
into view before us and we found ourselves staring at half a dozen
sleeping creatures as they hung from the ceiling. The sudden
explosion of light woke them up and we had just seconds to register
what was about to happen. Dex and his military training gained my
eternal admiration as he switched into autopilot, closely followed
by ex military Luggs and the two of them opened fire. The cell
block erupted into shrieks as the creatures found themselves under
fire and dropped from the ceiling and headed towards us. They were
basically bird like but their wings had skin stretched across
instead of feathers and their claws were easily six inches long.
Instead of a beak, they had a normal mouth with a pair of long
curved fangs hanging down over the bottom lip. Another matching
pair curved up from the bottom jaw and overlapped the top lip; the
two pairs interlocking and giving them the ability to rip and tear
rather than cut and slice. Their eyes were huge and I knew there
would be no way to hide from these night creatures with excellent
eyesight. Roughly the height of a grown man, they were a formidable
sight as they flew towards us, their jaws open much wider than one
would think normal.
    Fear brought me
to action and I raised my rifle, joining my fire to that of Dex and
Luggs. Within a few seconds I faintly registered a body squeezing
between me and Luggs; the pop, pop, pop that followed telling me
that Ronjo had found his mojo at last and was bravely standing with
us, his AB11 Rookie useless against these monsters. At the speed
they were flying, it would take no more than five or six seconds
for them to close the gap between us and we knew we had nowhere to
go to outrun them. We had no choice but to stand and fight, so we
stood our ground and gave them all we had. One by one they fell
until the last of them landed less than a foot from our boots. For
several seconds we stood unmoving; the sudden silence deafening. As
my mind began to calm I became aware of laboured breathing beside
me and turned to see Dex and Luggs, staring into space as I had no
doubt just been doing myself. Ronjo was shaking, his Rookie still
held out in front of him, ready to fire so I put a hand on his arm
and talked him out of his shock.
    “Ronjo, it’s
okay. You did fantastic buddy, well done and thank you. They’re all
done now, you can relax. That’s it, lower the gun. Good job,” I
encouraged and slowly he blinked and lowered the weapon. “Dex?
Luggs? You both okay guys?” Both sighed and blinked several times
as they came to their senses and nodded. “Well done guys, we have a
good team huh?”
    “The best,” Dex
nodded as he turned and grinned at me. “Okay let’s see what we have
inside.”
    Two hundred and
fifty cells on each side of the long corridor stretched out before
us and all were eerily silent. We crept forward, all of us now
needing no reminding to look up as well as all around and
approached the first of the cells.
    “Dex, Luggs,
you guys keep watch all around okay? Ronjo, you check the cells on
that side and I’ll check these ones. That sound okay?” Grunts
responded immediately and we continued on. My heart sank as we
reached the first of the cells and I saw the laser fences had gone
down. “Shit,” I hissed and everyone looked at me. “The cells use a
laser fence system which obviously runs off the same power grid as
the safety net that keeps the flying creatures out. With the
antenna down, the laser fences will have come down, letting the
inmates out and the creatures in.”
    “Dammit,” Dex
hissed with a loud sigh. “How much fucking worse can this get?”
    “Ronjo,” I
whispered. “You better prepare yourself buddy cos we’re undoubtedly
gonna be finding the remains of the inmates somewhere around.” His
eyes widened and his face paled. He gritted his jaw and nodded at
me. “I just thought you ought to be prepared okay? If you need