Mission: Harbeasts of Mars Read online

  “Mr. Astor! So glad you could join us,” he called out.

  “Can't say the same.”

  “Oh, come. Don't be a grump. We all knew how it had to end. If you die, I've got enough of you to engineer all sorts of new life forms. You will live forever. But I'm betting you'll come out of this the winner. It may end well for you after all. I've never taken you for a genius, but I'm betting that you're far tougher than you look! Make me proud! I've got a few million riding on the possibility that you will win these battles.” Battles? As in plural? His smile grew even wider.

  “Is that all? Chump change,” I shot back. He laughed.

  “We'll see if we have a winner or a chump standing before us,” said one of his friends, a sniveling thin, hump-backed, monkey-faced jackass who was draped all over a woman, his paid girlfriend, no doubt. They had known and taken my secret weapon away. But I still had a trick up my sleeve. Find the guns, Bob! They're here somewhere!

  It looked like things had come full circle. I would be facing the harbeasts once again and this time there was nowhere to run. I wouldn't escape them. I almost welcomed those powerful jaws, full of sharp teeth and fangs and the wicked claws, instead of what might await me upon Lafayette's whims.

  “Oh! And I wanted to let you know that your little assignation with Patrick was a big no-no. Patrick's been a bad boy!” He said, his voice booming and rising to fill the space. He pulled out a remote controller device and wiggled it in his hand, making a tsking sound, sneering at me. I felt something drop within my soul.

  The arena floor where I stood was divided into two halves, separated by metal columns in the middle. These bars had an electrical charge. A panel door in the back wall was raised and a slight figure was pushed out into the sand. He fell down. It was Patrick. I turned to give Dr. Lafayette a venomous look. How I wanted to rip him limb from limb!

  “Patience, patience, Robert. You'll face your beast soon enough. Appa! Bring Appa out!” He commanded loudly. Terror struck me as I heard the beast's name called. The door lifted again from the wall in the arena half across from me. She came prowling out, her sharp fangs dripping with saliva. She emitted a low and powerful growl that I could feel in the soles of my feet as soon as she saw her prey. I had to do something, even if it was the last thing I did. That terrifying beast, that looked like a nightmarish mix of a black wolf and a panther circled her prey lazily, her eyes gleaming with the hunger for an easy kill.

  “Patrick! Patrick, take my spear! You need it! Patrick!” I shouted and I ran and flung the spear between the columns to his side of the arena where it sank its point in the sand.

  “Patrick! Don't be a fool! Take it!” I called out desperately. But he was shaking in terror, immobile from fright. He didn't hear me. This was my fault and I was now feeling the weight of my relentless desire to escape crushing down on me. Someone had to die, all because of me. I felt a burning pain surge through my entire body, emanating from my collar. It was so sudden and powerful that it lifted me at least a foot in the air and made me collapse down in a crumpled heap. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth against the pain.

  “Uh-uh-uh, Mr. Astor. Now that's cheating!” I heard Lafayette scold and then there was the laughter of the many spectators. I slowly rose back to my feet.

  “And now he's got no weapon!” Called out someone from the audience. “What a fool!”

  “Well, this won't be much fun!” Pouted a woman.

  What followed was swift and brutal. Appa wasted no time in her attack. She went from a lazy prowl coming out of the door to suddenly all teeth and claws, her eyes blazing. She sprang upon her victim. I turned my head and tried to cover my ears to block out the awful screams, but that was of no use. It seemed after only one minute the high pitched screams of Patrick died suddenly in the air and I turned to see her, fangs sunk deep into his neck. She was shaking his body and it flailed like a limp rag. It was over. Blood streamed on the sand beneath her as she got ready to settle down and feast. I felt hot rage along with terror well up in me again. I could only but look at the spectators and my tormentor in impotent rage. They watched with all the lazy and easy ferocity of people used to watching and enjoying blood-letting violence by proxy, having never been on the end of it themselves. It got their blood rushing, it excited them. Soon my life would be over as well. I heard bones crunching as the beast gnawed at the rib cage, ignoring the limbs to go for the vitals. There erupted peals of laughter and applause from this crowd of debased people. I was thoroughly demoralized and crushed for my would-be friend. And it then occurred to me that the games that were being played out here were largely not to capture or toy with me but to catch out who Lafayette may have discovered were enemies within his own camp. I began to worry for Dr. Fairchild.

  As much as I hated Furat, he was an addict and a man suffering under delusions presented to him by his own society. But he believed in something from his own heart and soul, and he had both, dark as they were. He worked from some sort of principle, even if it was a wrong one. But this sadistic psycho had none that. He enjoyed killing and torture and maiming for its own sake. It was all a big game to him.

  “Next!” Cried Lafayette. Patrick had survived for so long on a knife's edge at this place and I'd come along and ended that. He had died trying to help me. And it was all for nothing.

  Except it might not be. The guns! My eyes quickly searched the floor again, looking for that “x” mark in the sand that Fairchild said he'd left for me. Could he have been wrong? Was this some evil trick? It couldn't be. Fairchild wouldn't trick me. I had to find them. Suddenly, I felt a breeze at my back. I jumped and turned around only to see a panel door slowly lift. I went to pick up my spear, feeling the sweat on my palms, and sweat running down my face, stinging my eyes. I did have some idea how to use the weapon and then realized that I had rashly thrown it away thinking to help Patrick. Shadows crept toward me and then out of the doorway came two enormous harbeasts shouldering out of the passageway toward me.

  14

  The first one, the slightly smaller one, circled round me with the casual grace of a prowling lioness, self-possessed and fearless, her tongue lolling out, her large, orange eyes wide and gleaming. Then she stopped and stood, regarding me quietly, as if trying to determine where to sink her teeth in first. Someone in the audience shouted out something obscene to roars of laughter. The harbeast's slender ears twitched slightly at the rising noise, but she kept her eyes trained on me. I felt my knees knocking together.

  The second one bared his huge glistening fangs, immediately ready for the kill. Here, it was to all end for me, in rended blood and flesh. Mine, that is. I dropped down on my belly and curled up into a tight ball covering my head and neck as best I could, though I know this was futile. I felt the weight of one of the beasts shift on top of me and I screamed out, expecting to be eaten alive. The weight of the creature was great. It's armor-like lichenified belly scales felt like steel plate, its fur felt like a bed of quills, but I didn't feel any slashing, ripping claws or teeth. I heard ferocious growling and roaring and felt a great deal of shuffling above me and I was forcefully shifted and thrown around the sandy floor. Sand made its way into my eyes, dust particles tickled my throat. I rolled inadvertently onto my back only to see that the female harbeast was standing over me and baring her great teeth at the male. He reared up and she slapped a large, scaly paw across his muzzle, drawing blood, and refused to back off even when he lunged and bit her on the head. Finally, he backed away and then gazed at her as if assessing the situation. Then he sat down on his haunches, to my great joy!

  This development however greatly displeased the audience, especially Lafayette. I could hear jeers and boos and I thought I heard shots from above from the guard tower high above, trying to goad the creatures into fighting and bloodshed. I finally realized that this was the same female harbeast who had been hunting me out in the desert before I was kidnapped by Furat, and her mate was standing before us, who began licking and grooming her as she protect
ed me as she might one of her own cubs. I had taken a dangerous piece of bladed rock from her paw, something that caused her great pain and might have become badly infected, causing her and her cubs ruin, had I not taken it out. That was the only guess I could muster as to why she hadn't torn me apart, nor allowed her mate to do so. Had she the ability to feel compassion for a puny human? A rubber pellet sang past us and she winced. The male deftly dodged it and snarled in rage at the guard towers. I had to do something to help them now. And then I finally saw them! The hidden guns in the sand! I could see the butt of my rifle peeking out from a small mound under the male beast's tail. But I was still huddled under the harbeast and I wondered if she would allow me to move? I recalled the code word to unlock the arena doors and gates. Just then I heard an angry shout.

  “Let the other harbeasts loose to deal with these three! Let's have a blood feast!” It was Lafayette. The crowd was baying like hounds on a bloody trail and the doors behind me lifted open again. I could hear more of the beasts coming up the ramp, the echoes of their roars becoming louder as they approached, getting ready to converge on the arena. My collar began lighting up in a storm of painful pulses. Lafayette meant to make my last moments unbearable. I howled like a trapped, enraged animal but there was a part of my brain that hadn't yet succumbed to the throes of the pain being inflicted upon me. I felt a powerful surge of energy course through me and I screamed the release code to open all of the doors to the arena and the arena gates to the audience just as a great crowd of harbeasts had bounded up the ramp into the arena. Fairchild! Don't fail me now. . .

  And as soon as the crowd of harbeasts had arrived they saw an arena wide full of juicy prey to feast upon and like quicksilver they all dashed past me, out of the arena and into the audience, tearing and slashing and killing with hungry abandon. It was a terrible sight and fearsome in how quickly it all happened. One moment these people were baying for my blood and feasting and drinking, the next moment, they were the feast. The mate of my protector ran into the beastly melee. The speed, power and efficiency of the harbeasts was breathtaking. It also didn't help that most of those gathered to watch me and others die were drunk and couldn't move quickly enough.

  One harbeast lept onto the back of one man struggling to get away, lifted him up by the neck in its mouth and shook him as if he were a rabbit he'd caught in the bush, breaking his neck. My protector finally joined in, following her mate and they both went straight for Dr. Lafayette. He had made it up the steps, ready to escape, with a gun in his hand. I jumped up and grabbed my rifle. Shots rang out from above but there were so many harbeasts that they'd overwhelmed the audience. Lafayette had killed one of the beasts and turned to escape the arena. Most of the guards above had vanished after making a half-hearted attempt to attack from their lofty positions. They managed to kill several harbeasts, but more beasts were ascending into the arena and out the gates by the dozens, along with other predators such as tigers and lions.

  One of the braver goons in the guard tower looked as if he were trying to get a bead on me. With whip-shot quickness I fired on a light fixture above him and laser fire erupted in a fat streak, burning a hole in the plexiglass enclosing the tower room. The light fixture crashed down on top of him and the guard fell to the arena floor, his neck broken. One of the creatures immediately descended upon the body. The harbeasts had taken over the arena, fearing no one and they were feasting luxuriously on fresh, live meat. A Glia male stood up and tried to fly out. A harbeast lept and caught him in mid- air, tearing off one of his wings with a powerful paw.

  I aimed my rifle and shot Dr. Lafayette in the leg. He stumbled and fell, looking back. Terror twisted his face as the mated pair who had set off days earlier to make a meal of me, descended mercilessly upon him. Both of them worked together and while the female grabbed him by the head with both paws, her mouth closing around the crown, her mate got hold of his torso. Hearing his unnerving and nearly inhuman shrieks, I felt no pity for him whatsoever. He had it coming. Now you know what it's like to suffer, to experience the horrors you've inflicted upon so many other living beings.

  They pulled and wrenched and in three attempts pulled him apart and Lafayette's last, shattering screams died abruptly. The two beasts ran back down into the arena and through the ramp door where they'd come from, dragging his entrails which made a wide, bloody trail all the way through the sand.

  I guess when your time is up, your time is up. As he'd once said to me.

  The other beasts were either devouring, killing or had escaped out into the gardens beyond to wreak more havoc. I slipped out, following my two happenstance saviors as the other creatures at this point paid me no attention. I grabbed my dragon and ran down the walkway leading from the arena and found my way to the animal cells and cages unlocking the door that led through the secure walkway of the atrium, passing through the plexi-glass hall that cut through the atrium. The birds of paradise were squawking and raising a terrible din, probably sensing panic and confusion and wanting to escape their prison.

  I saw mayhem around me as people were running trying to get out. When they saw Dr. Lafayette torn to pieces and being devoured on the huge holo-screens stationed in the employee lounge atrium, it was over. Any attempt to bring some semblance of order was abandoned and everyone was looking for a way out. Few of those in the arena escaped unscathed. There were a few security guards, barely trained as professionals, who did take their jobs seriously.

  Thomas, one of the few that had treated me decently, I saw locked in one of the lab rooms with Dr. Fairchild, with his most trusted assistants. Thomas did his best to protect anyone left who had not scrambled out of the place. For the rest of the security goons there would be no more lavish paydays for their services and they didn't bother to stick around. I saw some of them stealing equipment, weapons and anything else of physical value, they carried these out with them into the vehicles outside.

  I came through the exit from the bird atrium, trying to make my way back to the cells where my friends were, to let them out and all the others who were capable of mobility, and then stay there until I thought about what to do next. As I entered the last hallway a dark shadow fell over my line of sight. I saw it crawl and slink along on the floor under me. I grabbed my rifle and turned around only to see the blazing eyes of Appa as she stalked me. I ran inside one of the lab rooms to the left, with her fast on my heels. She threw her weight against the door and trying to break it down. I shut it closed again and reached for the code panel to lock it, but she forced it open and barreled in. I raised my rifle to fire. A bolt of laser fire shot out but a split second before it did, she side stepped it and reached a paw out with extended claws and slapped the barrel away right before I fired gain, barely grazing her head. She yowled in predatory rage. I backed away and fell backward over a metal table. Eyes ablaze, she crashed against the table. It swung away, its feet squealing against the floor, slapping me farther back and against the ground. A cart near the table fell over, pinioning me there, but I had a firm hold on my dragon. Her right paw, claws outstretched raked, my left leg, drawing thin strips of flesh and blood, but I was so focused on shooting, adrenaline high, that I didn't feel the pain. The snagar sprang upon me with a blood-curdling snarl. I fired, fired and fired. The dragon went off in a powerful stream of laser fire that burned a hole the size of my fist into the snagar's silky black coat, through her belly and all the way through her back. She wailed in agony and rolled off me. I staggered up and tried to back away. She swiped a paw at me that knocked me off my feet and then she reared her head at me to take a bite of my leg. I fired again, this time between the beast's eyes, and even as she rose to attack, it was too late. Her jaws, opened, the fetid stench of her saliva dripped on the floor, went slack and her eyes began to roll around in her head. I finally stood up and went over to the animal. She seemed to gather herself again for a few seconds and her eyes flashed in rage. She made something of a short, barking growl, as if my presence, even in her dying hour was an a
ffront to her bestial majesty. And then the light finally went out in the creature's eyes. I looked around and listened to the scrimmaging and melee outside. Shouts and screams of fleeing people filled the air of the entire complex. I slumped down at the back of the small lab room, dumbfounded at my good fortune. Bob Astor, hero, saves the day, once again.

  Actually, I preferred to think of myself as Bob Astor, Bringer of Chaos and Confusion. Or, rather now that the harbeasts were involved, Bringer of Death and Destruction.

  In any case, my fiery trials at the Seventh Circle of Hell were at an end.

  15

  The facility was locked down again once we were sure that at least some of the animals were still locked in cages or in the atrium. Most of the harbeasts and the other big cats that had been strong enough to survive the experiments had eventually escaped and went back out into the Martian desert. Or would that now be the Martian wild? Who knew?

  Some had been killed in the scrimmaging. The non-carnivorous animals and the birds, however, were still secured in their cages or in the atrium. After viewing the grounds on the security cameras by the main guard tower for any dangerous animals roaming about the facility or the grounds, when he'd decided it was actually safe, Thomas gathered what remained of the few researchers and other employees left. There were ten of them. The majority had hightailed it for the desert, they too, stealing what they could, after having seen the security force rob and abandon the place.

  Kiernan and Giren helped us to move the other people in the cells to safer, more comfortable places within the center to begin healing, as soon as Thomas was able to secure the place. The animal specimens too sick or weak to be moved out of their cages were slowly being moved to the hospital ward.