Chapter Ten
BlitzKrueger
Butch walked through the doors of the Space Bunnies Gentleman's Club. He looked around the dark club, heard loud music with heavy bass, saw strobing lights, and a large stage. A woman was dancing upside down on a pole, her legs wrapped around it while several men around the stage threw money at her or pointed their cred-scanners and tipped her account automatically by instant transfer from their own. The club was packed. He looked around the large room and saw every chair was taken. Topless women served drinks and danced at tables. A long bar was erected to his right and a clean cut man stood behind it cleaning a glass. He appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties with blondish hair and a big nose. He was around six foot tall and wore a nice suit that seemed to shine, the red and green motif making it seem out of place. He looked at Butch and winked. Butch couldn't remember going there and felt he needed to be somewhere else but couldn't give it further thought as a voice cut through the loud music.
"Oh Butchy, where ya been? Ya like leaving a girl hanging?" said a voice to his right and he felt an arm wrap around his. He looked to see a slender topless human female, wearing nothing but a candy apple red g-string, red high heels, and glitter, her purple hair at shoulder length and double d's on full display. Butch judged by what she displayed currently that she must be very cold.
Another topless beauty came up to Butch's left side and took his arm in hers. She was dressed about the same as the first but wore a bright pink g-string and pink high heels and her hair was green. Butch ascertained she was very cold as well. "Yeah, Butchie, we were beginning to think you didn't like us anymore!"
"Wait, no, I'm supposed to be doing something, I'm not supposed to be here…..I'm supposed to be on the…." Butch was saying as he struggled with his thoughts but his mind was cloudy and he couldn't quite remember what he was supposed to be doing but he knew it wasn't visiting a strip club.
"Ladies! Ladies! Ya didn't tell me Mr. V.I.P was here!" A man's voice came from behind Butch as he felt a strong hand rest on his shoulder. Butch turned his head to see the bartender smiling at him as he continued to speak. "See anything you like tonight, Mr. Stockard? Our selection has grown since the last time you were here! And of course as always everything is on the house!" The bartender said patting Butch on the back a little too hard.
"Wait, I think I know you," Butch said as his mind tried to clear and the bartender's face began to register with him. He remembered a control panel, a screen, something about old earth and—
Butch's thoughts were cut off again as the bartender responded.
"Ya thank ya know me?! Ya hear this guy ladies, Butch acting like he's new or something. Always the joker! Of course ya know me, Mr. VIP!" the bartender laughed, turning to go back to the bar. As he walked away he laughed again and said to himself, "He thinks he knows me."
"Come on, Butchie! We got a surprise for you tonight!" the first woman crooned.
"Alright ladies, show Mr. Stockard the time of his life," the bartender called from behind his bar as the two women pulled Butch through the floor of the club and through a beaded doorway that read "VIP LOUNGE" in flashing neon red and green letters.
They pulled Butch to a large comfy sofa and pushed him down onto it and climbed on top of him, each lady straddling one of his thighs. They rubbed the side of his face, kissed his neck. Butch tried to again remember what he was supposed to be doing but then the green haired girl blew into his ear and Colin "Butch" Stockard decided the distraction was just too nice and he decided to go with the moment and enjoy it.
"We got something we know you're gonna like Butchy," the purple haired lady whispered into his ear as a new bumping bass song began to play in the club. The two ladies caressed the side of Butch's face, ran their fingers to his chin, softly took hold of it, and turned his attention to the beaded doorway. A tall yet beautiful Noc'Tralian female also covered in glitter and wearing a blue g'string, blue high heels, and skimpy blue bra sauntered into the VIP room.
The blue of her small amount of clothing blended almost perfectly with the blue hue of her slightly ridged skin, giving the illusion of nudity. She stared longingly with her three eyes deep into Butch's eyes. Butch was breathless, he had never seen a Noc'tralian female this beautiful and wearing such little clothing. His eyes fell down her slender blue neck to the full cleavage of her very large blue breasts. He felt his heart rate rise slightly. His eyes continued downwards to her muscular abdomen and he saw she had no belly button. It was strange but Butch also thought it was sexy. The two human females slowly got off the couch as she reached them and began leaving the room.
"Don't do anything we wouldn't do, Butchy," one of them teased as they left the room.
"H…h…hi," Butch breathed out, his excitement paramount.
"Hello big boy. The boss says anything you want tonight…..you get," The noc'tralian replied.
"Oh…yeah?" Butch said taking a deep breath. He noticed he was slightly shaking. This Noc'Tralian was the most beautiful thing he had seen in his entire life.
"Yessssss," the Noc'Tralian whispered in his ear as she straddled him. "What do you want?" she asked as she began rubbing her body against his, rocking back and forth, pushing her weight into Butch's lap as she did so.
"I…..I…Oh, my god…..this…..this is good," he managed to squeak out.
"You know you can touch to. You're a VIP," she whispered in his ear.
Butch's hands awkwardly made their way to her hips. He ran his fingertips up her back and held her slender frame. His large hands wrapped around her ribs, his fingers on her back, his thumbs sliding on the sides of her belly. He pushed his hands up, his thumbs rubbing against the side of her Noc'Tralian breasts. She then reached in and took his hands and pushed them down to her waist and buttocks. Butch squeezed. He had never been so excited in his life. His heart rate was faster than he had ever felt before and his excitement was growing to a crescendo as she rubbed and rocked against him. The excitement only grew more. Butch squeezed hard into the Noc'Tralian's hips.
As she began pushing down even more Butch squeezed her hips again, his fingers digging into her blue skin but this time he felt them break the skin and felt something wet pour onto his hands. The Noc'Tralian continued as if nothing happened. Butch looked down at his hands and realized he had ripped open the skin of the Noc'Tralian at the hips where the legs begin and as she continued to writhe back and forth he watched in shock and horror as the skin ripped more until there was a perfect circle of blood pouring from the very top of her legs, his hands were covered in a deep crimson that looked almost black in the dark lighting and strobing lights. Butch tried to stand up.
"OH, MY GOD! Your LEGS!" he shouted.
The Noc'Tralian only writhed harder. The sensation was no longer enjoyable. It was beginning to hurt and Butch was alarmed as the blue skin of her legs began to wrinkle as her motions caused it to push down her legs as if it were stockings she was wearing. What he saw underneath in the strobing lights looked like severe burn tissue. He put his hands on her hips again and began trying to push her off him as he finally remembered where he was supposed to be.
He was asleep on the Beowulf and the bartender was that creep from the screen in the nano lab, Freddy Krueger. Freddy had died in a fire. As the revelations hit him he looked on in terror as the blue skin of the Noc'Tralians legs fell to her ankles revealing fully burnt legs covered in wet puss and blood. The dancer was blowing into his ear but then Butch screamed in pain as he felt a white hot fire erupt in his earlobe. The bitch was biting him. The Noc'Tralian jerked her head backwards and Butch felt a stinging, burning, ripping sensation and threw his hand to his ear and felt nothing but wet gore. His ear was gone.
Butch tried to grab the alien and forcefully throw her off of him, but it was as if she weighed a ton. He jerked his head to look up and face her and saw his ear still in her teeth, a huge grin growing on her face. It was unnatural, didn't match her features. The blue skin on her face was beginning to wrinkle like the leg skin did. The Noc'Tralian spit out the ear and reached up with a hand to rip the skin from her face and throw it behind.
The Noc'Tralian was gone. The face Butch looked up at was the face of the bartender, the face of Freddy Krueger, now covered in horrible burns. His eyes, now only two of them, were yellow with red vessels running at the sides. He smiled and his teeth were yellowed and black at the tops. Below his neck he still had the body of the Noc'Tralian female except rom the waist down the burnt legs still shown. Butch struggled again but the two human females from earlier suddenly were at his sides again. They took his arms and held them in vice like grips. No matter how hard he struggled he couldn't break free.
"What's the matter Butchie?" Freddy asked. "Am I not your type?" he cackled.
"This is just a dream, this is impossible," Butch shouted. "All that old earth bullshit just bouncing around in my subconscious, trying to make sense of everything, my ear is hurting from I don't know, the medication."
"Oh, then you won't mind if I do this?" Freddy asked as he lifted one of his still blue Noc'Tralian hands and Butch saw it wore the artifact they had secured earlier, the bladed glove. The thing still sitting on him extended one finger of the glove and drug it down Butch's chest from collar bone to belly button. Fresh blood oozed from the gash. Butch grimaced in pain. "Don't worry, Butchy. It's all old earth bullshit remember? HAHAHAHAHA!" Freddy laughed.
"What the fuck?! WHAT THE FUCK!?" Butch began asking, not understanding how he actually felt the pain stinging in the wound that ran down his chest to his stomach or the extreme pain where his ear once was.
"Aww, sorry Butchie no fuck for you tonight….just a good old fashioned YOU'RE FUCKED!" Freddy growled as he extended his full glove and raised it above his head and brought it down over and over again, slashing across Butch's face, neck, chest. All the while the women on Butch's sides giggled like school girls.
Butch screamed with each strike from Freddy's glove, but after a few more slashes Butch wasn't screaming anymore.
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Talos sat at the control panel in the nano-med lab and continued attempting to find some way to bypass whatever Freddy was doing to block him from connecting to the crew's neural implants but to no avail. He had thought he had found a backdoor but Freddy appeared on his screen wagging a finger saying 'nuh uh uh…you didn't say the magic word.' The supernatural was apparently real. Talos found it very intriguing that something he had viewed as an absolute impossibility was indeed possible. What else was he wrong about? He had been watching over the Emergency Alarms of Donella, Nyquilio, and Butch for hours now.
He wasn't sure how their bodies could withstand such high heart rate and blood pressure for such a long time. Had Talos been a human he may had already let frustration push him to giving up on finding a way back into his crew mate's dreams to assist them but he was an android and had almost perfect patience. But this Freddy was definitely testing that patience. He was extremely worried for his friend and creator Lubdan. He knew Lubdan was not a fighter and he hoped that Lubdan had listened to him and was running and not looking back. Talos tried another program he had created and was greeted by a flashing red and green screen again that read 'nice try, tin man.'
Talos cleared the screen and began another attempt at getting in when suddenly Butch's Alarms shot to maximum levels. Talos waived his hand over the control panel and brought up the security feed from the Cryo-Chamber room and zoomed in on Butch's chamber. To Talos' fascination he witnessed Butch's left ear burst into flames and disappear leaving behind a bloody hole on the side of his head. Moments later Butch began screaming in his sleep as one long gash appeared down his chest, a slash that ripped through his thin white tank top from collar bone to his stomach. Blood began soaking through. A few seconds later several gashes appeared from thin air all over Butch's face, neck and chest. Blood poured and oozed from the countless wounds and moments later Butch had joined Candilynn and Christina on the list of the recently deceased employees of Hawkins Salvage and Recovery. Talos felt something akin to sadness and anger. He felt he was failing his friends. He waived his hand over his control panel and got back to work trying to find a way in.
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Nyquilio opened his three eyes and found he was lying on a very uncomfortable hard surface. He sat up and turned, letting his feet touch the floor. He found he was sitting on a metal slab, a sort of make shift bed but with no mattress or pillow. He looked around, clearing the cobwebs from his head, and realized with confusion he was in a dank dark small jail cell of some kind. It had a small window on the wall of the back of the cell and bars ran across the front of the cell with a green and red energy pulsating through them. The floor was a gray concrete surface. He rose out of bed and glanced down at his clothing. He was wearing a bright orange jump suit with no markings other than a series of letters and numbers that were printed on the top left chest of his jumpsuit that read RE1984. A prisoner number he was certain, but why was he a prisoner? Where was he exactly?
Nyquilio walked to the small window at the back of his cell. It was a solid glass window, several inches thick, and the view he saw through it took his breath away. He was in orbit above Earth-2. Realization hit him quickly as he remembered there was only one prison that orbited Earth-2 and it was for the worst of the worst criminals and local and intergalactic terrorists. He was imprisoned on Alcatraz-E2. He knew it had to be a mistake. He had been on the Beowulf, working with a perfectly nice crew of Earth-2 humans, getting to visit dead planets and collect artifacts. There had to be some kind of mix up. He couldn't remember how he had gone from the Beowulf to being in a jail cell and at the moment his thoughts were cloudy. He felt as if he had some small version of amnesia. Nyquilio walked to the bars of his cell making sure not to touch them as the energy that pulsed through them did not look inviting.
"HEY! GUARD!? SOMEBODY?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" he called out.
As he looked out of his cell he noticed there was an aisle that ran between two sides of cells just like his, he was in the middle of the set of cells on one side of the room and across from him was another set of cells that ran the length of the long room. Strangely though, there were no other prisoners in any of the cells. Nyquilio heard a door at the far end of the room open and shut, the noise echoing through the mostly empty cell block. He heard booted foot falls approaching and looked to his left to see a burly black guard in a full black uniform approaching him. The man was tall, probably 250lbs, 6'3, jacked, and had an intimidating face with a finely manicured black goatee and short dark hair with white peppered throughout. The guard arrived at Nyquilio's cell and stopped and turned to face his prisoner.
"What do you want, alien?" the man said with disdain dripping from his tongue.
"What am I doing here? I'm not supposed to be here. What happened?" Nyquilio asked.
"As if you don't know alien! No point trying to claim amnesia or insanity, they've already made their decision about you!" the guard answered.
"Decision?" Nyquilio spat. "What are you talking about? Please, sir, tell me! I really don't know!"
"Don't you sir me, you monster! You don't get to kill an entire crew of humans in such a disgusting, depraved display of evil and then talk to me like you're not a piece of alien scum!"
"No! I didn't kill anyone! I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know how I got here! PLEASE YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME!" Nyquilio said.
In his fear and anxiety he momentarily neglected the energy pulsing in the bars. He reached forward and grabbed hold of them with his hands. Immediately the energy shot into this hands and up his arms, knocking him to the floor with an electric sting. Nyquilio rubbed his hands and got back to his feet.
"HA! Serves ya right, shit head!" barked the guard as he spat at Nyquilio's feet. "Don't play dumb with me. Save your begging and pleading for Dr. K! I got no sympathy for you after the way you shot that poor girl into open space from the airlock and used an old earth artifact to slash and stab your entire crew to death in their sleep! Including a teenage girl! You make me sick, you blue fuck! Just shut up! I'm glad they didn't give you back to Somnium-5 when they demanded you be set free! I don't care that it started a fucking war! I never liked you blue freaks breathing our air to begin with! The rest of your kind may have got off Earth-2 before we got a chance to round them up but you, you will be giving us all the information we need! Dr. K is gonna dissect you like a classroom frog. We're gonna know what makes you blue pieces of shit tick!"
"No! I swear, I didn't do it! I wouldn't do that!" Nyquilio pleaded. He was terrified and confused. He wracked his brain but couldn't remember how he had gotten to the cell, had only a few fleeting memories from the Beowulf and the crew. The thought he might be suffering from space madness crossed his mind and he shivered. Had he done something to his shipmates? He shook his head and shot that thought down. He knew he wasn't capable of doing the things the guard said. He just needed to remember, he felt if he could just remember he could explain it all. Something was off about the whole situation, it couldn't be true.
Nyquilio's thoughts were cut off by a com on the guard's wrist lighting up and beeping. The guard touched a small strap around his wrist and a voice called out from it. "Dr. K is ready for the prisoner."
"Roger that!" the guard called back, tapping the strap and ending the communication. "As much as I enjoy watching you squirm like a little bitch, it's time to meet Dr. K. Who knows, maybe he'll take mercy on ya and make it quick! But I'm betting he'll want to take it nice and slow. He loves his work. Hell, you might even like him. He may be as sick and twisted as you!"
Nyquilio closed his eyes, panic running through his body. When he opened his eyes a mere second later he was no longer standing in his cell. Now he was laying on a hard bed in a bright white room. He turned his head and saw a silver tray table next to the bed he lay on and it was topped with arcane surgical tools, saws, rib spreaders and more.
Nyquilio tried to sit up but found he was tied down to the table. He jerked his arms but they were strapped down as well. He could not move a muscle. He tried lifting his head and realized a strap had been placed around his neck as well. That's when he noticed the large mirror hanging on the ceiling above him. He could now see the straps around his ankles, waist, wrists, and neck. He was naked except for the boxer briefs he still wore.
"Help! SOMEBODY!" he called out in desperation.
Two large white doors a few feet from the foot of the table swung open and a man around six foot tall wearing red and green pin striped scrubs, a surgical mask and cap walked into the room and stood next to Nyquilio. The man lifted a pair of white rubber gloves off the tray table and put them on. He stood over Nyquilio and stared down at him. Nyquilio could see the man's eyes were yellowed and severely blood shot, and the skin around his eyes and the bridge of his nose that wasn't covered by the mask or hair cover was covered in wet burn tissue.
"What the hell?! Why is this happening? I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! WHO ARE YOU!" Nyquilio screamed out his questions in a heated panic.
"I'm Dr. K, I'll be doing the procedure. Don't worry I have a great bed side manner," the doctor said with a chuckle.
"You can't do this! I am innocent! I have to be! And what the fuck is wrong with your face?!" Nyquilio asked again seeing the burns.
"HEY, YOU GOT NO ROOM TO TALK THREE EYES!" the doctor growled. "Don't worry, it'll come to you soon enough."
Nyquilio's head began to pound and suddenly the fog that had covered his brain blew away and everything started to come back to him. He hadn't killed his crew, in fact the last thing he remembered was going into cryo-sleep with the crew. It finally clicked and he remembered it all. The glove, the model house, the research, the child killer, the diary, Freddy Krueger, the stories about him haunting people in their dreams.
"Freddy!" Nyquilio said with contempt.
"BINGO! GET THIS BOY A PRIZE!" Freddy laughed.
"This is impossible. It's got to be just a dream. You can't be real!" Nyquilio said.
"Ya know, I was thinking the same thing when I saw you the first time. I got to say I went back and forth on how to even handle your nightmare. At first, I thought maybe I'll make myself look like Gargamel and chase you with a large net but thought, na he's too big to be a smurf." Nyquilio looked confused as Freddy spoke. "Then I considered not even killing you at all. I assumed if I did kill you then you'd just wake up wherever your Avatar bed is, hop back in your wheelchair, and call it a day."
"What the fuck are you talking about!?" Nyquilio demanded.
"Yeah, sorry, my references are a little dated. But that's okay Yondu! We gotta keep moving forward," Freddy said with his eyes smiling. "Guess I don't need these," he continued as he took off his surgical mask and cap. "I don't think we need to worry about you getting that last second infection! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Let me go! Come on! Come at me like a warrior! Take these straps off and let's see what you're really made of! I'm not some vulnerable kid, Krueger!" Nyquilio shouted.
Freddy ignored Nyquilio's demands as he looked at the tray table. He began lifting surgical instruments and then shaking his head and throwing them over his shoulder to clink to the floor.
"No, No, No! These aren't right!" Freddy said irritated, and then he looked somewhere behind the table past Nyquilio's head and his eyes lit up and he smiled. "Ah! There it is! My one and only!"
Freddy walked past Nyquilio and then returned a moment later and Nyquilio watched in panicked terror as Freddy slid on the four bladed glove from the Beowulf. Nyquilio hoped it was all just a dream, a side effect from the cryo-sleep medication but deep in his gut he knew it wasn't. His time was almost up.
"Let's see, do we go old school?" Freddy asked and lifted his gloved hand in front of his face and flicked it open spreading his fingers out and as he did the blades instantly turned into surgical scalpels. Freddy began shaking his head. "No, No, that won't do. I already showed my age with my dated references…I think it's best if Freddy finally gets with the times," he continued and flourished his blades again and as he flicked them Nyquilio could hear a sound like an energy weapon powering on and watched as the four scalpels on the bladed glove turned into small red & green glowing energy lasers.
"Now, let's see what you're made of!" Freddy snarled, all humor gone from his voice and eyes.
Freddy lifted his glove into the air and held it over Nyquilio. Nyquilio did not speak, he did not beg, just glared at Freddy defiantly. Freddy gave a slight smile with the corner of his mouth and lowered his glove over Nyquilio's chest. The Noc'Tralian did his best to not give Freddy the satisfaction of showing fear or pain. And as the lasers cut into his chest he succeeded, but as Freddy began digging deeper Nyquilio began moaning and when Freddy then lifted his hand to the Noc'Tralian's face and traced one of the lasers around Nyquilio's middle eye he couldn't hold back anymore and began screaming as Freddy pulled the eye from it's socket and held it in front of Nyquilio's face.
"Here's looking at you, kid!"
Nyquilio continued screaming as Freddy moved back to the alien's torso and drove the lasers of his glove into his stomach but the screaming and his breathing stopped soon after as Nyquilio began going into shock. He stared up at the mirror over the table, stared in horror with his two remaining eyes as Freddy began pulling his insides out while laughing maniacally.
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Nyquilio's maximum level alarm jolted Talos from his work and he quickly pulled up the security feed. A new sensation hit Talos in that moment as his AI continued to evolve. He was feeling what he perceived to be anxiety and dread as at first four gashes formed on the Noc'Tralian's chest and then his middle eye was gone, replaced by a gaping bleeding hole. His belly came next, splitting open like an over ripe melon and spilling his insides out all over the cryochamber.
Nyquilio's vital alarms stopped sounding and Talos watched helplessly as another crew member fell to the dream demon. Talos had an idea strike him, even if he did get into the dreams of the remaining crewmates there was only so much he could do. But with the right information maybe he could bring something more to the fight. Talos waived his hands and pulled up the scans of the diary that had been brought onto the ship. The physical diary was indeed gone but the scans were still stored in their system. Talos began absorbing all the data from the scans.
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Donella's eyes shot open as she felt the Beowulf rock from an impact. She heard a scream behind her and turned to see the entire crew strapped into chairs, her daughter seated directly behind her. Donella glanced to her left and saw Warlock strapped into the pilot's seat, deep concern etched on his grizzled features and sweat beaded on his brow. Donella looked down and realized she was strapped into the co-pilot's seat but couldn't remember how she had gotten there. She looked up and out the front glass of the cockpit and saw they were flying through an asteroid field.
"Alright worms, hold on to your dicks! Its about to get dicey!" Warlock yelled.
"What the fuck is going on?! How did you not see this coming when you mapped out our course?" Donella demanded. "Why can't I remember getting here? What the hell is going on?! SHIT WATCH OUT!" Donnella continued before noticing a large asteroid was about to hit their left side and she stopped her questioning to scream at her pilot.
Warlock jerked his controls to the right and barely avoided an impact.
Donella turned to her crew behind her, "Somebody tell me what is going on? Who buckled me in? The last thing I remember was we..." Donella tried hard to recall exactly what was the last thing she remembered but before she could the Beowulf rocked harder than ever and sparks flew out of the control panels of the cockpit.
"Shit, we took a hit! One more like that and we are toast!" Warlock shouted as he tried to correct their course.
"Get us out of here and I'll give you a fucking raise Rollins! Chrissy, honey! You hold on it's going to be ok!" she said as she gripped her hand rest, her knuckles turning white as a ghost. She no longer cared how she got there she just wanted to survive their current predicament.
Warlock grunted and cussed as he flew through four other near misses but then the entire crew gasped collectively when they saw a massive asteroid in their path. It was at least five times larger than the Beowulf. Warlock looked like he was going to pass out from not breathing but he went to work immediately trying his best to pull out of the path.
"Try decreasing our speed!" Lubdan called out from behind him.
"MOM, I'M SCARED!" Christina screamed over the chaos.
"Pull up! PULL UP!" Nero shouted.
"TO THE LEFT! WE CAN CLEAR IT ON THE LEFT!" Nyquilio chimed in with his own loud demand.
"We're not gonna clear it, Warlock! DO SOMETHING!" Donella shrieked as the cockpit window was suddenly filled with the vision of the giant asteroid's surface and nothing more. All anyone could see now was death coming right for them.
"SHIT! WE DON'T HAVE TIME! WE'RE GONNA HIT IT, THERE'S NOTHING I CA-" Warlock began to yell. But it was too late, a second large piece of an asteroid collided with their cockpit as Warlock tried to dodge the giant asteroid that was also seconds from colliding with the ship.
Donella screamed and braced herself, as the cockpit window exploded and alarms blared. The air being sucked out of the ship was like being inside a tornado and she watched in horror as, one after another, her crew began flying past her head as they were sucked out the broken cockpit window. She saw their silent screaming faces as they passed by, reaching for their boss in the vain hope she would save them from cold inimical death. The last person to be pulled from the Beowulf by the vacuum of space was Christina. She reached her hand out and Donella was able to take hold. She stared at her daughter with determination, her eyes telling her daughter everything was going to be okay, and then a beam from the ceiling of the cockpit snapped and penetrated directly into Christina's sternum. Her eyes projected pain and fear as she was knocked loose of her mother's grasp. Donella reached out in vain.
Then her own seat began to shake. She looked over at her pilot and almost vomited when she saw a large piece of broken cockpit window had driven into his chest and neck. Warlock was very dead. Blood poured from his wounds and immediately became small beads of red that were sucked out into space. Donella was beginning to feel light headed as she turned her attention back to the broken cockpit window just as the Beowulf collided with the large Asteroid. Donella felt it all, the collision, the whiplash and then the crumpled metal that drove into her torso severing her body into two pieces and then fire engulfed her world and everything went black.
Donella opened her eyes sometime later stared around in confusion. She wasn't in the Beowulf and she wasn't a red splotch on the side of an asteroid. No, Donella Hawkins was dressed in a very nice pant suit and sitting in an extremely comfortable chair, probably the most comfortable chair she had ever sat upon. She was sitting before a beautiful polished antique wooden desk in a bright white room. The room was empty save for her, her chair, and the desk before her. A poster on the wall to her left showed a kitten gripping a tree limb with its front paws as it's back legs dangled over a large pit with fire coming out of it with the words 'HANG IN THERE CHRISSY' at the top of it. Donella blinked her eyes to see if she read it correctly and when she finished blinking she saw the poster now read 'HANG IN THERE KITTY.'
A large black leather office chair sat behind the desk, its back facing her. Donella opened her mouth to speak and the chair gave a slight squeak as it slowly spun around. A man sat watching her. He seemed to be in his late twenties or early thirties but it was hard to tell. His face was youngish but his blondish hair was beginning to recede and he sported a slightly larger nose than most men. A pair of expensive looking glasses rested on the tip of his nose as he looked down at an open folder held in both hands. He was dressed in a fine dress shirt, a green tie and red suspenders. A suit jacket hung on the wall near the desk.
"Hmmmmm," he began as he continued to read whatever was in the folder. "Donella Hawkins, right?"
"Yes..." Donella said with a thousand questions on her face.
"I'm sure you have a thousand questions," he chimed in as if reading her mind.
Yeah, like where the hell am I? Donella thought.
"The biggest of which I am sure is just where the hell are you, am I right?" The man said, again as if he was in Donella's head.
"Yes, I was just on my ship with my crew and...wait, we had a collision…" She said as she begin to remember the crash. She looked up at him.
How did I survive that?
"Yes, a deadly collision indeed. Well, take a breath, this is going to be hard to hear. You didn't survive it," the man said, answering the question she had been thinking. She felt very creeped out by the man, not just for how he kept reading her mind but his appearance. She had seen this man somewhere before but she couldn't put her finger on it. And she had so much running through her confused mind at the moment it didn't seem as important as finding out what he meant and where exactly she was.
"What do you mean, I didn't survive?" Donella asked
"What I mean is, you died. You, your crew...all very, very dead. You are currently in processing," he said very matter of factly and professionally.
"Processing? What is Processing?" she demanded, as if not hearing the part where he said she had died.
"Pushy, pushy aren't we. Have some patience dear, time is literally ALL you have now," the man said with a small bite. "You are being processed to go north or south. Ya know, going on vacation and either hitting those slopes or going on an endless hike through the desert, haha."
"I don't know what ya mean and I'm obviously not dead. I don't know what this all about but I'm not going to sit here and take it! I need to find my daughter! Where is she?!" Donella barked as she stood up and began looking for a door. She spun in a circle and froze. There wasn't one.
"What is the meaning of this? Let me out of here!"
The man grinned, winked, and snapped his fingers and instantly Donella found herself go from standing to sitting back in the chair.
"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" she yelled and made a run for a wall. The man let out a sigh and snapped his fingers again and instantly Donella was back in the chair.
"We can do this all day or you can let me get through this," he said. "Your daughter is quite safe and sound and she has never been happier I assure you."
"What do you know about Chrissy?"
The man flipped a few pages in the folder and smiled, "Ah, yes, Christina Hawkins! I had her here before you. She lived a righteous life and her processing was done in seconds. She took the express elevator right to the top! Come on! Smile! She's in heaven, mom!"
The reality of her situation finally began to set in. Her daughter had died in the crash along with herself and the rest of the Beowulf 's crew. She was in some sort of afterlife processing and, as miffed as Donella was over her daughter actually being correct about her beliefs, at least she knew Chrissy was in a good place.
"Okay, FINE! I understand. When can I see her?" Donella asked.
The man turned a couple pages and a look of disappointment came over his face. "Oof! That's not good. Says here you teased your daughter's beliefs constantly. Poked fun at god and all things holy? Oh wow and not long before you died you chose greed over your daughter's comfort and happiness. Oh, wow, this is not good. I never like separating families but there is no point to even try to make an appeal here." He clicked his tongue and hit a small button on his desk and a large platform came out of the floor next to Donella's chair. A large handle about the size of a pool stick stuck out of the platform.
"Wait, what?! What do you mean separate us? I loved her! I always put her first! Just wait!" she begged as the man stood up and slowly walked to the lever. He took hold of it, looked at Donella for a moment, his expression solemn, and then he broke out in a huge smile and laughed.
"KEEP YOUR HANDS AND FEET INSIDE THE RIDE AT ALL TIMES!" he called out as he pulled the lever. A circular hole opened under Donella's feet and her chair tipped forward dropping her down the hole. She landed on a large slide and began sliding down fast. Far too fast. At first she just saw white walls all around her as she went down the spiraling slide. She was going faster, the slide twisting and turning in sharp spirals that made her gorge rise. The white walls gave way to red and green striped walls and the smell a putrid burning things filled her nostrils. The scent changed again, became the odor of rotten eggs. The red and green striped walls became hypnotic as if the lines were swirling together into a spinning vortex.
Now clowns with sharp teeth cavorted on the walls, blood flowing from their mouths. Then she saw old earth images of dead soldiers piled in mass graves and cadavers having their organs removed. Her speed was so fast now smoke was rising from underneath her, her skin burning as it slid down the surface at impossible speed. The hypnotic walls showed Candilynn exploding in her cryochamber, Nyquilio's guts tumbling from his eviscerated stomach, bloody slashes appearing on Butch's face, chest, and neck.
Her descent grew even faster as smoke billowed from her clothes and skin as she slid in the sharp spirals. Her speed was making a cartoonish noise like a missle dropping to earth. She suddenly saw a burned man wearing a red and green sweater on the walls but then the wall changed to show her Christina being nailed to a crucifix and Christina screaming, and then it showed her in a cryochamber as four bloody holes appeared on her chest and blood oozed out as her body went limp. Donella's stomach threatened to shoot from her mouth. She darted her eyes down and in horror saw her legs were engulfed in flames but she couldn't feel a thing. The images of her crew dying in their cryo-chambers, seeing her own daughter crucified and dying in cryosleep, should have cleared up the fog in her brain and reminded her of the fact she was just asleep but it didn't click at the moment as the speed, the smell, and the fear had her mind otherwise distracted. Then suddenly, when she thought she must be going at warpspeed, everything went black and the noise stopped.
Donella began hearing crackling noises in the black void around her and then she saw a line of flame shoot to her left, her right, and in front of her. The flames exploded into life that banished the darkness. She had no injuries, her legs and back were untouched. She was now standing in what appeared to be a large cave. There was fire everywhere. She could hear people screaming. People pleading to be put out of their misery. The chorus of screams sounded to Donella like thousands upon thousands. The ground began to shake beneath her feet and she turned to run but a new wall of flames erupted behind her. She was completely surrounded by a giant wall of fire on all sides. There was perhaps ten feet between her and the flames no matter which way she looked.
The shaking of the ground got harder and she heard a roar as a creature stepped through the flames in front of her. It stood at least twenty feet tall with red and green leathery skin and two enormous wings. It almost looked like a dragon from fantasy stories but also greatly resembled a goat. It was almost a perfect amalgamation of a dragon and a goat, with large dark wings, huge arms and legs. Both of it's massive hands were affixed with large silvery talons. It's feet were hooves, it's knees bent backwards. It stepped forward and the flames parted before it and did not burn it.
Donella looked up in disbelief as the creature slowly approached her. She had nowhere to go. She had done this to herself. She was in hell and now she feared Lucifer himself was about to make an introduction, up close and personal.
"DONELLA HAWKINS," a guttural voice called from the beast. "Your judgement is nigh."
"PLEASE! I WAS WRONG! I'M SORRY! GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE! LET ME SEE CHRISSY! PLEASE!" Donella fell to her knees with tears in her eyes, begging the monstrous thing and in that moment something clicked in Donella's brain and she suddenly remembered everything.
She didn't die in a crash on the Beowulf. She was in cryo-sleep. That man, the processor? He was the creepo Fredrick Charles Krueger from those old earth files. Candilynn had been telling the truth and they had all dismissed her. She'd told them everything about the diary, about Freddy coming for people in their dreams. She gave them his description, told them about the red and green sweater. Donella stood to her feet and stared up at the beast.
"You're not real! This is just a nightmare! I remember, I'm just asleep," Donella began.
The large beast thrust his head down and fire shot from his nostrils and struck Donella's arm. She screamed in pain as her arm was engulfed in the fire and her skin began to burn and bubble. She used her other hand to quickly put out the fire. The palm of her free hand was also in extreme pain from the flames.
"Just a dream? Try again, sir!" the beast said in the voice of Freddy Krueger.
"No, it can't be real! I don't understand!" Donella said, gritting her teeth through the pain.
"Is this real enough for you?" Freddy asked. "Mom, please just get rid of the artifacts, it's not worth it!" the beast's mouth moved but Christina's voice came out instead of Freddy's.
"CHRISSY! I'm so sorry, Chrissy! I was wrong. Oh god, what have you done with her?!" Donella asked.
"God indeed," the beast snarled. It lifted his hand in the air in a closed fist and then tossed something down to Donella. The item landed at Donella's feet. She looked down and screamed when she saw Christina's head laying at her feet. Blood dripped from where it had been lopped from it's body and the head was adorned with a thorny wreath. "I made her a promise after I destroyed her faith and took her soul. I told her I'd reunite her with her mom very soon. It's time to make good on that promise!"
Donella fell to her knees, defeated. She looked into the eyes of her daughter and then up at the Beast.
"MOM!" the head of Christina shrieked. Donella looked down at her daughter's decapitated head in horror. Christina's eyes darted to the side looking towards her mother's hand. "Your finger is bleeding again!" Christina said with a laugh.
Donella looked to her finger that had been cut by Freddy's bladed glove back on Earth-1, the finger that had been healed twice now, and saw it was indeed bleeding again, but it wasn't a slow dribbling of blood like before. Now it was pouring out of the cut. Donella's eyes grew wide as she could see the cut itself opening and growing in length down her finger then to the side of her hand. Her daughter's decapitated head began laughing hysterically. Donella stood up and instinctively dropped the head as she watched the cut that started on her finger continue to grow in length now up the side of her arm to her elbow. Blood began shooting out of the wound like a geyser. Donella felt herself growing weak from blood loss. She fell to her knees again and heard the monster above her laughing in unison with the decapitated head of Christina who was still laughing as well.
Then The beast took a massive step forward to stand over Donella. It reared it's head back and then thrust it forward and down as it sprayed fire onto Donella. The owner of Hawkins Salvage and Recovery screamed for a moment and then fell dead to the ground as her body continued to burn. The beast laughed as it morphed into Freddy himself. He looked down at Donella and spoke, "Five down, four to go."
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Talos wasn't letting the blaring vital alarms of the crew distract him anymore. There was no point. Every living crew member's alarms had started chiming in unison mere minutes ago. They were not at emergency levels yet, except of course Donella's, which was blaring at maximum levels now. But Talos couldn't concentrate on them at that moment even if he wanted to as he watched in helpless defeat as Donella's finger began to bleed and then he saw the cut that the blood came from stretch and grow like somebody was using an invisible pair of scissors to cut her skin in a perfect line up the side of her hand and then her arm up to the elbow and blood began pouring out of the wound, moments later Talos saw Donella Hawkins burst into flames inside her cryo-chamber and moments later her alarms ceased to blare.
He wasn't going to be able to get the information he pulled from the diary to his friends after all, and what he discovered in the scans of that diary could be a game changer. Freddy had made sure he couldn't get into the neural implants of his living friends and enter their sleeping consciousness like he had with Lubdan. Talos was sure of that now. He had tried everything, there wasn't an idea he hadn't tried or a backdoor he hadn't attempted to go through. Freddy Krueger had made sure his work would not be interrupted. Talos had to face that grim reality. Then something stirred in the android, a new plan was taking shape, something he had just thought stuck out to him.
"He won't let me into any living crew member's consciousness," Talos spoke aloud. "Maybe there is indeed a way I can get in afterall."
Talos pulled up the neural implant activity of all crew member's living and deceased and saw exactly what he was hoping he would see. "I am on my way friends," he said with a smile.
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll