Creature From Within

By Big Boss Pugh

The most important rule to remember: Do Not Look At It.

In the year 2060, humanity has manage to colonize a planet not too far from the solar system. Everything was fine and safe for ten years until 2071 brought about a change. People are taking sides, secrets are coming to the light, and Marvin Breningham (You) have choices to make if you don't want to end up dead.

The dream is peaceful with colorful images that have piqued you. Your arm reaches out to them, but you can't grasp anything since a terrible noise is being made; it is ringing and screeching all through your ears. You wake up to the sound of the alarm clock buzzing, and you silence the noise. Well, it reads 06:00am for Friday morning and that means it is time to get the day started. Ugh, this day will just be more paperwork and more time to deal with the regular issues a space cop goes through. Heh, space cop is a funny word to describe you, but you are sticking with it. Ever since that crazy man called you a space cop, the name is a running joke among your team and your department. Time to get up and get yourself moving. It is time to stretch those legs, work those arms, brush those teeth, wash your face, and mouthwash that funky breath away. No way are you going to go into work with your breath smelling like ass unless you want John to keep his jokes going all day about it. You also take a quick shower to make sure you smell nice. Your name is Marvin Breningham.

Great, now that the teeth are clean and the breath smells nice, time to get out that space cop uniform. Wait, who the hell is knocking at your door? Oh God, it is too early for that knocking. You walk to the door and open it up. There he is. God damn it, John Hopkins is in your doorway and smiling. Of course, he comes on in without even asking for your permission because he just has to be an early bird joker about what happen yesterday. Not to mention, it is ok since you need to be alert.

John says, "Oh and good morning to you too, Marvin. Thank God you cleaned up that smell of vomit. It was beyond bad when that man threw up on you."

You ignore his crack at you, but it is time to ask him the obvious questions.

You ask John, "Why are you here so early? Why are you smiling so hard?"

John answers, "Well, I came over today to let you know that today is the day. I hope you are ready for it; I know I am ready. Let's hope Clark, Sherry, and Claire will keep up too. They should be up by now. I was going to invite them..."

In walks Sherry Dotson and she includes, "You were going to invite us over before you two try and get the jump on us. Typical John, you are a real class act."

John replies, "Oh come come now, we were about to come over to see you guys and make sure you can make it. The gun contest is giving us all the chance to prove how good we are and how smart we are. I mean we are the top shooters on the whole planet. Like I said before, dome one has the best and the rest are not at the best."

You finish brewing some coffee to perk up the senses. You pour yourself a cup and take a few sips. John and Sherry continue to laugh and joke for a while. Now, here comes Claire Baker to join ya'll. Your home must be the place to just meet up and do nothing but bullshit around. Oh well, at least the day is starting off good minus how tired you were from yesterday. Maybe that will change today.

Claire comes over with a dry attitude, "Ok, what did I miss? I hope John doesn't have any jokes for this morning."

John tries to get one started, but Claire begs him not to go there. She comes to you for a cup of coffee. You happily serve her some and here comes John again.

He says, "Ok, you two drinking all the coffee is a no go. You can share it, right?"

Sherry says, "Oh please, John. Last time you had coffee, you were wired all day and going non-stop. No one didn't understand why until you crashed that same day and slept until midnight."

Now here comes Clark Anders. The dream team is complete; Clark is the team leader, John tells everyone the bad jokes, Sherry is slightly nervous at times, and Claire keeps the team alert when things are unusual. Clark makes his coffee and takes a huge swallow of it. He is ready to talk in his usual manner.

Clask says, "Well, yesterday was quitehilarious for us. You got the worse of it when the man threw up on you. I hope you got the smell out. And I brought the report here for your own personal records, ha ha."

John adds, "Yes, I am sure the smell is gone. You got any more of it on you, and your day would be done. I mean done with a capitol D for Dynamite Done!"

Sherry and Claire sigh at John's poor humor, and Clark reads the report out loud.

He says, "The report you, Marvin, provided states: On September, 4th, 2070 at 19:23pm Thursday, a man comes running into you and starts vomitting on you after claiming he saw something in the last dome he came from. He appeared to be in a state of shock before you took him to the hospital. His tag shows he is from dome five, but he was visiting dome four."

You ask, "What is the state of mind he is in? Did any reports come from the doctors? Was any drugs invovled or taken?"

Sherry answers, "Based on what the doctors found out when they told me, the man was not intoxicated, no drugs in his system, and no trama to his head. He was as healthy as an ox."

Claire scratches her hair, "You think he did sse something? Which dome had the problem? Was it dome four or dome five?"

John happily smiles, "Yeah, he saw something. He saw his wife getting pounded on and couldn't take it."

Everyone but Clark laughs at the pitiful joke; however, they still take the matter as serious as anything else. It is now 06:39am. It is time to get going to the gun show in dome two. With coffee in everyone's stomach and caffeine pumping through them, the dream team is now ready to show off their skills. They exit the cottage and climb aboard the jeep marked 1248. Clark is driving with Sherry in the front passenger seat; John and Claire are in the seats behind them. You have to ride in the far back on the gunner seat. John is pumping up everyone for the gun show that they will win.

You take this moment to think how life on this new planet is for you and how humanity colonized back in the early 2060s. Most of it is or was rock, dirt, and some plants; the only good thing about it was setting up the domes and tolerating the oxygen level before using a suit at times. Despite there are only five domes on the planet, it was an achievement for humanity. The number one statement made by the president stated: "We've reached the stars. Now we can go further than this." After thirty minutes of driving, the dream team arrives at Dome two where most of the people live at or want to be at. The dome houses over one-hundred and fifty thousand people, and they spare no expense to make everything fun, exciting, and amazing.

The lights are flashing, the people are shouting, and the food is great. The sun is shinning over the horizon, and now it is show time. The host comes to the floor with the microphone in his hand and gets the people anxious. As fast as the show gets started, the dream team of yourself, Clark, Sherry, John, & Claire easily puts everyone to shame. The targeting show was easy for John to win, though he could've done it better with less show-boating. Sherry aces the knowledge area from knowing what type of rock is safe for touching to knowing about the wild plants. Claire and Clark perform nicely in the tag-team matches; however, the greatest win of all is when you blazed through the course of handling innocent and hostile targets. From switching to the handgun and using your shock baton, Clark was beyond impressed with your skills.

The gun show ends with your team, as always, being dubbed the winner. Everyone calls you all: The Dream Team. Everyone goes to the food carts, gift carts, and weapon display carts. Dome two has no end of excitement for those who know where to find it. The dream team is happy with their victory, and Clark is treating them to some heavy drinks. With John, Sherry, and Claire havng a good time, Clark and you step away for the moment to discuss some private details on a 'sensitive' subject. You both step outside and make sure the area is clear.

Clark turns to you, "You did good on the single course event, but that is not why we are talking. I wanted you to be the first to know about this. At 00:00am, I received an update from dome four about an incident. Since then, there hasn't been anything else. I manage to get our tech guys to recover any video or recording from dome four's police station. It may be nothing, but let's play the audio to hear what was said."

He pulls out a small recorder and plays the audio. It plays: "This is Officer Sarah Harper on audio at 23:00pm for Wednesday night. There is a murderer on the loose. So far, we had one death, but no one can confirm who did it. All we know is the killer has mutilated the victim's face. For now, the high officials of dome four are aware of this problem; they are entrusting us to handle the situation, but I think something else is going on. For now, I'll send this audio off to some of my close friends and hope they take the matter serious. Some murderer is out here with us, trying to kill as they wish. Also, we have received reports from locals about some dangerous animal that keeps making random appearances around the dome at night, yet no one has seen it. I think both are one in the same. This may be me talking crazy, but I hope my old friends will back me up on it."

The name 'Sarah Harper' rings in your ears. You didn't think that Sarah would have any trouble in her own dome.

You ask, "Is there really someone running around out there killing people? And, what is with this unknown, hostile animal? How can it have anything to do with the murderer?"

Clark replies, "I don't know what is going on, but we will deal with it if things get out of hand. For now, I can assure you that Sarah will find the bad guy. I just wanted you to hear it since you two do have a history. Maybe you should contact her one day regardless of your past with her. Anyway, let's get back to the party before they assume we left them hanging."

Clark and you return back inside the bar; you both see John being overly silly since he drank too much. Sherry is just laughing at how John can't keep himself together. Claire is off to the side recording. The day is going good, but there is still work to do after this. Clark, Claire and yourself agree to cover Sherry and John for the day. Sherry gets help to haul John back to his room in dome one. The rest of you drive to dome three where your job is waiting. You pile into your jeep and make the journey with work on your mind.

Claire says, "Well, I am glad I got all of that on camera. John is not going to remember any of that. Anyway, how much paperwork do you think we all have since they won't be in until later?"

Clark answers, "We shouldn't have much. Well, I don't, but that can change since John is going to sleep off his intoxication. Sherry will have it easy since all of the paperwork has been filed. All she has to do is make sure each incident is in the proper folder. You got it worse today, Marvin. I'm remember the last five reports are on your desk you didn't finish."

You reply, "It sounds like an easy afternoon for a regular Friday."

Claire asks, "So, do you think we will get any more excitement for the day? Maybe someone will rob a shop or a mugging will happen?"

Clark scoffs at the notion, "I doubt anyone will want to make trouble for today since many people know us. Any time they hear the number 1248 is enroute, the trouble makers get nervous and most of the issue dies down. I just want the day to be over with."

Claire turns to you and asks, "What do you think the day will be like?"

You answer, "There may be problems like before, but we will handle it. We are the best on the planet. The Dream Team is not one to be fucked with."

Clark agrees, "You damn right, we are the best. So, let's make this Friday an easy one."

With all three of you ready for work, the day would go by with no hassel. You arrive at dome three. It is the center of all government activity, official business, and local law enforcement. The moment you step inside the building, there is a plethora of work to do. From petty crimes to missing items, the three of the dream team would handle the issues for the day. Clark looks over cases that involve major problems from some corporate businesses; the details of Clark's investigation included company theft or missing shipment. Claire was stuck with missing items from various houses; each time she picks up a paper is the time she wants to put it back down. The filing paper work falls to you; it is easy and realxing. Most of the paperwork is filed before mid-day. The five reports you had are nothing but domestic problems, stolen items, and miscommunication. You, Clark, and Claire relax for the time being until Sherry and John arrive much later. Sherry smiles and shows much relief; John is happy, but he is recovering from his headache.

Once most of the officers are gone, it is just the dream team relaxing for now. At the head of the group, Clark is still looking over old cases. To his left, Sherry is making sure each problem is given to the next officer. To the right, John and Claire are being slightly silly since they have no work. You are just watching as the dream team makes the day better. As for your next five issues, they were easy to handle with a simple call and ticket. The only problem is what Clark played for your ears. Sarah Harper is one tough woman, and dating her was not easy. Now, she is running dome four's police team with her captain. Knowing that she can handle it, you try not to worry; however, some flames are not completely gone when it comes to caring. Clark calls to the team.

He says, "Well, looks like they need us to be ready for another public figure speech since a certain someone will be marching through town in dome two."

Claire groans, "Ugh, do we really have to do it? Last time, I had to use the smoke grenades to clear the crowd away."

John laughs, "Well, this time, it will be different. I'll yell really loud to scare them off."

Sherry sighs, "Great, we have a day of work to watch someone speak. I hope we finish before night time. I am ready to be back home."

The dream team of Clark Anders, John Hopkins, Sherry Dotson, Claire Baker, and Marvin Breningham (yourself) drive back to dome two to see the official that will give a daily speech for the masses. It would be an easy day, or the day will end on a painful note. The public figure is Kenny Wilco; he was performing his second year as acting leader for dome two. It was his time to let people know that everything will continue to run as it should when dome six is made.