Episode 20 - Derrick's Escape

The trader and his minion continued shoving me forward down the conduit. I was getting fed up with being pushed around but I knew that this was not the time to try and protest. The head trader was at least eight feet tall and probably at least four hundred pounds. Combine his stature with the weapons around his belt and the sharpness of his fangs and I was certainly at a slight disadvantage. I knew in order to escape I'd have to find or create a moment but this was not it, not yet.

"Stalling is making me angered. Show me chip now or die to death."

As if their foul breathe and pushing wasn't bad enough, their blatant butchering of the English language was grating on my nerves. 

I scanned the area ahead of me, continuing to count the steps we took in my head. It was four hundred feet between emergency beacons and I was nearly at the next one. Through the darkness, dragging my feet, I came up on the next beacon. I pretending to trip again, and as I fell to the ground I initiated the next one. 

"What you do? What that light?" I heard over my shoulder as a mammoth foot came crashing down on my back. The weight of the blow knocked the air out of my lungs. I regained my senses and turned over; "It's a marker I placed to show me the way to the chip I hid." It was a blatant bluff, but it was all I could come up with at the minute. The head trader leaned down over me, his vile breathe making me nauseous. He seethed over me for several moments before he acquiesced. 

"You get up now and find chip, or you find your head under foot next time."

I got to my feet and continued to stumble forward. All I could do was pray that somewhere, someone was monitoring the feed from the emergency beacons and was alerted to the distress signal, because I was certainly in plenty of distress.

Another four hundred feet forward and I was able to convince the traders to allow me to initiate another beacon. A flimsy plan at best, but it was working, and it was all I had to go on, until...

"Fogweet find another one, see; there are many, many lights for Fogweet to play with" I heard approaching from behind us. There was a small glimmer of light approaching from where we had come from. The two traders turned towards the voice and my moment had arrived.

The light from my plasma blade illuminated the entire conduit in a blink of an eye. There was a loud howl as the thick muscular arm of the trader in front of me came off with almost no effort. He spun around and clubbed me with his armored hand in my chest. I was lifted off my feet and fell backward onto my back. I tried to recover from the fall and find the blade which had slipped from my hand, but suddenly I had several hundred pounds of beast on top of me. I threw my forearm up over my face and could feel the sharp fangs of the trader pressing into my flesh. I wailed in pain, feeling his teeth against my bone. 

I was briefly blinded by the sudden light of Fogweet's large head as he jumped on the trader's back and sank his own sharp teeth into his neck. Again the beast wailed out in pain, but in the process he released my arm from his jaws and lifted his weight off of my body. Adrenaline drove me backward toward my blade and with all the energy in my body I ran forward plunging the blade into the abdomen of the trader. The smell of searing flesh wafted throughout the air; "Mmmm, smell like dinner" Fogweet said as he unclamped  his teeth from the neck of the dead villain.

"Fogweet! Fogweet! Where the hell did you go Big Head?" I heard approaching from the far end of the conduit. 

"Sgt. Thomas? Oh my God, it is you!" 

I could make out the voice of officer Marshall, and as he came over and placed an arm around my waist to help me up I could see his face. 

"If I may say so, you look like shit sir..." he said, lifting me off the ground. 

"You don't look too hot yourself Marshall, you must be jonesing right about now, huh?" The look in his eyes and the smell of rubbing alcohol on his breathe confirmed my suspicions.


"What happened to the head trader? Did you guys take him out?"


"Head who? We didn't see anyone else besides this dismembered thing you killed over here, phew, what a stench by the way..."


The reality that the main trader had somehow escaped the conduit and was still out there searching for the chip was troubling, but I was bleeding and did not have the energy to go in pursuit right this minute. He would have to wait, for now...

Another familiar voice addressed me; "Well, I never thought I'd say this but it's good to see you again Derrick."

"Yeah, the feeling is mutual doc. What the fuck took you so long anyway?"

(TTiS is an interactive Episodic Saga, from the minds of: J. Naomi Ay & Ahmad Taylor. Follow the whole tale here and the individual stories at: J. Naomi Ay & Ahmad Darkside Musings)

Episode 12 - Derrick

I can't believe I'm being dragged up by this Martian freak with his weird extendable arms. This was exactly the last thing I imagined would be happening at this point in the day when I woke up this morning.

Fogwat finally hauled us up into the conduit and I asked doc to pull out his torch so we could gain our bearings. 

Suddenly I heard some voices; "Hey shut that damn thing off now! Turn it off!" I whispered intently, slapping Jerry's hand down to try and get the light out.

"Wait, what? What the hell..." he began, but I quickly threw my hand over his mouth.

"Shhhh. Shut the hell up Jerry. Just be quiet, please!" I looked over to the Big Head, "Hey, dim that dome of yours right now, and keep your trap shut!"

Fogwat looked confused, but Jerry gave him a nod to obey, and the glow from his huge head went out.

"You two stay right here, and don't make a sound" I commanded as I began crawling along the conduit toward the noises I heard. 

The upper conduit to the tube was dark and even more wet and smelly than the actual tube. I forced myself to hold in my disgust as I tried to decipher the voices I was approaching. I could make out at least three voices, but was not certain if there were any more than that.

I approached the bend in the conduit and leaned my head out slightly to try and listen in better.

"You find them... You find them now and get that damn micrometer chip before I lose my patience with you!" a voice demanded. The other two voices made sounds of compliance and began moving in different directions.

I was unfamiliar with the main voice, but I had to assume it was the trader the head Big Head had told us about. I knew having the trader and his minions after us was sure trouble, so I tried to slowly back up down the conduit, back to Jerry and our Martian companion.

"Ow! Ow! Fogwat here, you step on Fogwat foot Derrick, say sorry."

I turned around to see the freakin' Martian standing right behind me. "You jack ass, I told you to stay put and shut the hell..." was all I could muster before I was tackled from behind. 

My head slammed against the wall of the conduit and then into Fogwat who then fell over backward crying.

I cleared my head, and spun around the face my attacker who had me firmly pinned down to the ground. My arms were trapped at my side under his enormous weight. I could smell his vile breathe and could see a dim orange glare in his eyes. Whatever this thing was, it was big, and strong, and pretty ferocious. 

I could feel its weight shift and I quickly swung my head to the side just in time to escape his lunging attack with his mouth. I screamed as I felt several sharp teeth sink into my shoulder. The creature clamped down on my shoulder with such an amazing bite force that I thought I would black out from the pain. I tried to wriggle my way lose from its jaws but it was locked in tight and the more I writhed the more the pain set in. 

I bucked upward and was able to bring my left leg up against what I hoped was the groin of the thing. It made a strange moan and released its bite on my shoulder. I tried to move but was still firmly pinned and now had an open wound which was bleeding pretty good. What the hell was I going to do?

My attacker leaned in close to my face and muttered; "Fuck you human!" in garbled English, and I could tell it was coming in for another bite. 

With all my strength I bucked my hips again and brought my knee up again. This gave me a brief window of opportunity as the creature rolled to the side a bit. My left hand gained some movement and I reacted as quickly as I could. With a quick flick I popped the release on my belt and slid the handle into my hand. 

As I slid the safety off and powered it on, the white glow from my plasma blade was a welcome sight for me. The nauseating stench of his flesh stung my nostrils, but I was relieved to be released from his grasp.

I wiggled my way from under my deceased attacker and scurried along the conduit as fast as I could move with my wounds. I barely noticed running into Fogwat and shoved him forward ahead of me. I could hear the mumbled voices of the trader and his other minion behind me and I knew we had but moments to escape. 

As I approached the Martian and the doctor something caught hold of my ankle and stopped me dead in my tracks. The only thing I could do was yell; "Run Jerry! Get the fuck out of here now! Run!"

Check back for Jerry's tale - Coming Soon!