This story is protected under international and Pan-American copyright conventions.
Author's Note: On my website, I have included a picture of Jordan in the gif image. Please validate me with an email if you agree that he's cute :). You'll also find a link to a blog post I wrote on Kolin and killsuits right under the blurb. This blog post includes a sexy picture of Kolin modeling in his armor. :)
"Wraith" uses the main characters featured in the science-fiction novel "Slipstream", but is its own story that I will post in its entirety on Nifty. Both of these tales are based on the events established in the short story, "The Insanity of Zero." If you like Jordan, Kathy, and Kolin, please consider giving "Slipstream" a read. I promise, the plot is a whole lot better than "Wraith." If you are a reviewer for Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Fictionwise, or would just like to talk about my stories on your blog, please contact me for a complimentary e-copy of "Slipstream" in .pdf format.
Here is my author information: Website: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html Email: kavrik@hotmail.com Twitter: @MichaelOffutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slipstream/164452693676933
Chapter Eleven
He strode into a hotel kitchen as austere as the hall they'd just abandoned.
Fluorescent lights pumped color draining illumination onto every surface. A quick glance around the room revealed two deep stainless steel sinks, some wooden cabinets against the north wall, and a floor comprised mostly of finished concrete marred by unseemly stains.
Blood.
They traced a path to a drain under a worktable complete with a gleaming stainless steel top. A mechanical whir sounded from an operational lift on the southern end of the room, probably used by the serving staff of the hotel. Kathy stood motionless waiting for him. Directly across from her was a huge Sub-Zero freezer with a digital LCD panel on the left. It displayed minus two degrees Celsius.
Jordan walked over to the freezer, unlocked it, and yanked on the chrome handle. Heavy mist and cold air spilled into the room.
Dense frost covered everything inside the freezer. The three walls held steel shelves with boxes, canisters, and jugs, some of which contained human body parts.
"I think I'm going to throw up," Kathy said when she discovered a severed head.
Jordan looked around in the fog.
The ice seemed to have taken on a life of its own much like kudzu did in the South. It flowed over shelves and along the floor like an obnoxious white vine. Then he spotted Kolin. The Brit lay in the middle of the floor, still bound and tied, and curled into a ball in an attempt to stay warm.
Jordan felt his heart leap into his throat as he stared at his friend's completely motionless body. The visible skin of Kolin's face and neck had turned white as new snow, and the pallor made Jordan think that he'd arrived too late to save him. Bracing for the worst, he walked over to him, crouched and gently rolled his head in his hands. Kolin's face and hair was covered in dried blood and his eyes remained closed, but he still breathed. Ice had just started to form in his hair. Kolin had not been here for more than a couple of minutes.
"Thank you," Jordan said, turning his eyes to heaven.
"Oh my God, Jordy...this is ice cream."
"You're thinking about food?" He asked, looking back at her.
Kathy busied herself by knocking ice off of the tops of cartons. "Rocky Road, Vanilla Bean, Chocolate," she said reading the labels. Then she looked back at him. "Yes, I am. Somebody has to. In case you're not up on current events, the three of us are starving."
Jordan turned his attention back to Kolin and carefully slid his hands under the young Brit's back, cradling him so that his head had support against his chest. After sliding him thus, he surmised that Kolin probably weighed in the 180-pound range with his body armor on. He could carry this easily.
While he was occupied, his sister looked around and found a nylon bag under a table next to the sinks. She threw in a couple of utensils she found in a drawer labeled "silverware," and then went back into the freezer and tossed in a few pints of ice cream, some frozen vegetables, and a couple of loaves of frozen bread.
"I'm leaving the meat. No telling what it is," Kathy said.
Jordan gripped Kolin under the knees with his left arm, held his neck on his right, and scooped him up.
"Do you need help?" Kathy asked him.
"No. He's pretty light actually."
Kathy led the way. She popped open the service door to have a look outside. She held up her right hand, "We've got company. Ten cars have pulled up. The occupants are mostly women," she stated flatly. "Let me revise that. Some are women, others...not so much. Ugh."
"Why's that?"
"Well for one, they all have a distended belly, as if pregnant, but they look sickly and diseased. One woman has open sores on her arms. If I didn't know any better, I'd think she was dead. They have some human men with them. Not many though. Maybe one for every two cars. They don't look like they're prisoners-maybe they're Wraith's men."
"They're probably the fathers of those babies. I get the impression that men supply a necessary component in the monster's breeding program out here in the Waste."
Kathy shook her head. "Jordy, that's just disgusting." She pinched her eyes shut. "Boys are so pretty-now you've seared some unpleasant images on my mind. They shouldn't be used like that."
"I agree that some boys are pretty," Jordan said, hanging his head to one side.
She combed Kolin's hair with her fingers and looked at her brother. "Yeah."
"The women, they must be the Cihuateteo. The voices earlier indicated that they'd be showing up very soon. I've no idea what the name means but it sounds Mesoamerican."
Kathy ground her teeth together in thought and then looked past the door and along the receiving dock. "If we go out this way we're going to get caught."
"Where are they all going?"
"Difficult to say. They actually aren't coming toward this entrance but heading into the front of the hotel where the lobby is."
Jordan heard faint screams on the wind.
"Okay, that was bloodcurdling," she stated.
"Is anyone looking this way?"
Kathy moved her eyes over the small crowd outside. "No. Not at present at least. We also have some cover from the truck. We could walk across the dock here and over to another pair of doors. There's a sign on the left and I think it says that if we go that way, we'll end up in the Millennium Spa." She paused a moment to point out her plan to him. "It looks like there's some kind of electronic key entry there. She turned back to him, "Do you think you could get the code?"
Jordan looked at her not knowing exactly how to answer that question. "All I can do is try, right?"
She nodded and then swung the door open carefully and stepped out, holding it open for him. Jordan walked out with Kolin in his arms and tried to keep to the shadows. There were more and more vehicles showing up all the time and in the distance, beyond the buildings, he could hear barking and howling, and the cacophony of clattering steel. It was shocking to see a crowd standing about in front of the entrance to the hotel where macabre screams could be heard filtering out into the night. That is, until you realized that the crowd was the monsters. Once at the door, Jordan focused on the keypad and tried to summon the slipstream.
Surprisingly, it came easy. His power erupted from inside like it always did, and it spread along the line of his body, filling him with a cool prickly feeling not unlike the tingle one feels when a limb falls asleep. He narrowed his vision, staring at the keypad. The ambient light on the lock grew brighter and dimmer depending on what time of day it was, and he paged back through time.
A moment later, he saw fingers touching numbers--the last person to use the electronic lock. He squeezed his eyes shut and the slipstream dissipated leaving him drained. A sudden, burning pain seared him behind the retinas, and he almost cried out. He struggled to hold Kolin who suddenly seemed twice as heavy as he'd been a moment before. Jordan's legs wobbled, and he dropped down to one knee and cracked his kneecap against the concrete. Fresh blood welled from his nose.
"What did you see Jordan?" Kathy pressed him. "And please hurry, there's one of those pregnant monsters coming this way. I think it smells your blood."
Jordan shook his head, trying to think, trying to remember the numbers. "Press 4-2-3-8- 7," he stated. "Then hit the green button."
Kathy keyed in the combination and the door unlocked. She pulled it open and motioned for him to enter. "Quickly," she emphasized.
Though he'd been weakened by the ordeal, he focused on what needed to be done and hopped to his feet. He carried Kolin across the threshold. Behind him, Kathy quietly shut the door, sealing them inside a hallway. Not a moment too soon, the electronic lock turned and snapped shut.
Something tugged at the door from the other side.
Jordan looked down at the unconscious Englishman. His vision blurred and his head pounded as it usually did after he used the slipstream. He gently set Kolin down and waited for his eyes to clear. After a few minutes, Jordan saw that he'd left a smattering of blood droplets on the concrete. It drew a trail under the outside door from which they'd just come and he heard pawing and sniffing from the other side.
Chapter Twelve coming soon