Issue #114

Felicity looked at the signal fires in the valley below, and marveled at the naivete of these people. They were probably convincing each other that their fire would be seen by anyone who would want to help them. It seemed incomprehensible that it didn’t even occur to them to worry about the person who shot their craft down in the first place. She had watched the ship after she hit it with the focused EMP pulse, watched it lazily float down out of the sky, but apparently for the inhabitants of the craft, that experience had already vanished from their memory. Maybe they had thought themselves victims to a mundane failure of mechanics. It was doubtful that anyone could be that idiotic, but anything was possible.

Regardless of how much she resented how easy they were making this, she had a job, and that couldn’t be ignored. She moved out from behind the bushes, crouched down, and began snaking her way down the steep hillside, towards the campsite of the survivors. At some point, she would have to move on, and do something else with her life that didn’t make her feel like this, but for now, this was all there was. She was good at it, and her employer had sought her out.

The reasons were irrelevant. She couldn’t allow her head to become cluttered up with whatever justifications or rationalizations her employers might have had for sending her to conduct this final action. It wasn’t important.

Better to not ask questions.

Any person or persons who had the ability and willingness to carry out the execution of so many people would likely not respond well to repeated inquiries. And to make things worse, the neural chip planted just under the skin, behind her ear, would give them the ability to to eliminate her from thousands of miles away if they were unsatisfied. She was putting all of her faith in their willingness to hold up their end, and remove the chip upon completion of the assignment, as was agreed upon in the contract. It was the biggest of risks, but the higher price tag for her services if she agreed to use the chip was worth it.

It had rained most of the day so she had an easier time making her way silently towards the camp. Not that she needed to employ much in terms of stealth. The group around the fire had started to churn out drunken renditions of pretty much every campfire song she had ever heard. She imagined that if a bomb were to go off over their heads, they might not be aware of it if it weren’t for the flash.

She had hoped that everyone would die in the crash and had directed the EMP pulse just as the ship was hitting it’s zenith, passing over the deep gully, but whoever had been piloting the ship had been crafty enough to allow some of the crew to survive. That left her alone to deal with these remaining six people. Not that it would matter. Clearly, none of them had caught on to what had just happened, and were in no way prepared for what was coming. This would have to be a hard education, learned too late to be of any good.

The air around her started to feel more cool, despite the increasing proximity of the fire. The singing was getting louder now, more slurred as if from the effects of alcohol. Why anyone stranded out here in the outer reaches would choose to imbibe in alcohol was beyond her. Her skin was starting to stand on edge, making her uneasy, as if someone was watching her from afar. Could it have been the implant, sending off, or receiving some kind of signal? Had her employers gotten impatient and decided to cut her off, running the poison through her body so quickly, she would barely have enough time to acknowledge the effects?

It took several more seconds of moving forward in her crouched position before she realized that the voices had all abruptly stopped. Felicity looked up, half standing as she did so and saw that the fire had been extinguished, and all of the surviving crew members from the ship had disappeared. She swiveled around, first to her right and then left, but there was no sign of anyone near her. It didn’t make sense. They couldn’t have just vanished, and not a single one of those idiots were quick enough to be able to sneak away without her noticing. But she couldn’t deny what she saw in front of her. It was as if they had never existed.

She felt the slime of the arm snake around her neck before she picked up on the smell. Immediately, she let her body drop in an attempt to break free, but she already knew she wasn’t strong enough. The thing had sneaked up behind her. There must be a colony of the creatures nearby, and one of them had wandered out. Just her luck to stumble across one in the dark at the worst possible time. She had been hunting the survivors and all this time this thing had been hunting her.

Stars danced in front of her eyes when there was a sudden impact from behind. Felicity rocked forward as the thing fell limply off of her and to the ground. She looked down at the thing, it’s lizard skin glistening in the moonlight, and then up at the man, grinning as he was extending a hand down to her.

“Looked like you needed some help. Lucky we happened to be here. Our ship came down not too far from here and we’re just waiting for a pickup.”

Felicity shook her head as she stood up, looking around. The guy kept talking.

“Yeah, we heard the thing slithering around out here and so we doused our fire and got under cover before it got too close. Deb happened to see the thing go after you so…”

“How many of you are there?” Felicity asked, trying to re-assess, to take in this target who had just saved her life, more than likely.

“We’re over here, just beyond the grove.” The man pointed as he walked, passing Felicity as he began moving towards the rest of his group, who were now coming out with relieved grins on their faces.

It was messy, and it wasn’t how she liked to do things, but it wasn’t like she had a choice at this point. Not with that fucking implant.

Felicity stepped forward, placed the barrel of her gun behind the man’s ear and pulled the trigger.