Free Time & Space (Short Fiction Collection Vol. 2) by Gord Rollo, Gene O'Neill, Everette Bell Page B

sure,” the golden man said in a gravely, yet perfectly decipherable voice.
    Carson was too stunned to speak. Was this really happening? Maybe he was still unconscious and simply dreaming this craziness. Finally he built up his courage and asked, “Who are you? I mean… what are you?”
    “I am exactly what you see, a fully functioning man, who’s all that you are… and more. I’ve simply evolved differently than you. Obviously, what with our similar features, we must have paddled around together in the same primordial soup back when the world was young. But from there we chose our own paths.”
    “But that’s…” Carson was about to say impossible, but the last thing he wanted to do was piss this creature off by ridiculously denying its obvious existence.
    “Enough of this pointless talk, it’s time for you to die,” the golden man said, walking over to the wall on his left where he casually began turning a rusty handle. To Carson’s horror, the cage he sat within, slowly began lowering toward the molten metal below.
    “No! Wait . I’ll make you a deal,” Carson pleaded. “Let me go and I’ll make sure no one ever bothers you again. I’ll kill Stein and Bishop myself if you want. They’re only interested in the gold and all the–”
    “Gold? What gold is that?”
    Carson thought he was kidding. “The lake, of course.”
    “This… lake, as you call it, isn’t made of gold,” he said incredulously. “It has similar properties, but believe me, it’s not gold.”
    “What is it, then?”
    “Actually, it’s my people… my family, if you will.”
    “Your what! ” Carson asked, shocked to the core.
    “It’s hard to explain. Why don’t I show you?”
    The golden man raised his hands to his mouth and blew a short high note, which echoed within the confined room. Almost immediately, a head popped out of the molten liquid, quickly followed by dozens of others. Soon people were walking out of the lake to stand near their leader. With every new body, the level of the lake dropped a few more inches. With mounting amazement, Carson realized that these people weren’t coming out from being in the golden liquid – they were the liquid. It took ten minutes, but eventually every ounce was used up, and the cavern was filled to capacity with gleaming people.
    “Now do you understand?” their leader asked. “We live as one entity within the lake, but can separate and solidify at will. We’ve lived countless millennia within this planet’s molten core. It wasn’t until a massive underground tremor caused a shifting in the tectonic plates that a gateway opened between our subterranean world and yours. Even after we learned of your existence, we still only sought to be left alone, to live in peace, but things seem destined to change for us.
    “Unfortunately, violence is the only thing you humans understand, so we thought if we killed a few of the men who trespassed in our cave, we’d be left alone. Those two idiots who sent you just won’t go away though.”
    “Release me and I’ll kill them right now. They’ll never bother you again.”
    “Easy, friend. I don’t want them killed. If I did, I’d have killed them myself long ago. We have a new plan.”
    He paused to make that high-pitched echoing sound again. The multitude of golden people began to melt back down to join with one another again. Soon, the original golden man stood alone again beside the molten lake. He slowly started turning the rusty handle again; continuing Carson’s decent. He ignored Carson’s screams, revealing their master plan as he cranked.
    “We need those idiots to keep bringing us more people. How else can we build our army? You see… we’ve decided to expand our horizons and take over your surface world. We’ve learned that your race is powerless to defend against us. You can’t shoot us… the bullet passes through us as it would through water. Bend, break, or explode us apart… we flow back together whole