SHORT FAT STUBBY FINGER STORIES PRESENTS:  THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

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Episode 93

“Keep your mouths shut!”  Joseph spoke in a commanding voice that grabbed everybody’s attention immediately.  “It’s time to get out of here,” Joseph gave the closest of the men a gentle shove with his hand resting firmly in the middle of their individual back, but instead of releasing his hand, Joseph continued prompting them towards the door, and the others automatically followed suit.  And as they all moved forward in a close group Joseph spoke softly, but loud enough for all to hear.  “Do not talk … listen!  What you are seeing is the proxy.  I believe Rangor is low on power at the moment, which is why it is only the head being presented to us.  Mind you, it is still arriving, which is the only reason why it hasn’t already blasted us to smithereens. But it is only minutes away from being here with us. We need to get downstairs and into the street… no, wait. Head for the cars.”  Joseph ordered, “We need to get out of the village.  Without the rubies he won’t be able to find us.”  

  In panic, fear guiding their decisions, the small group began running towards the stairs ten metres away, however, before they could take but three steps, a massive shock of thunder struck the building; the entire structure shook and a loud cracking noise that send frozen shivers down their collective backs brought them to a halt. Whether it was luck, or fate, is immaterial, it was enough to make them stop dead in their tracks with barely enough time to look upwards.  And what they saw caused them to make the collective decision to move back into the safety of the hallway at the long side of the office as fast as they could; an irrefutable decision as a huge beam streaked down from the third floor and completely demolished the stairs they had been about to use to escape; the weight of the falling beam forcing the entire row of steps to be thrashed beyond use as they made contact with their cousins on the floor below.        
  Now forced, totally unprotected, to stand in the hallway, they could see the Punjaniti at work through the relevant safety of the timber and glass wall that enclosed the office on two sides.  Rangor unexpectedly released a barrage of power hits in no particular direction.  The room suddenly lit up so bright it was as if the roof had been blown off and the sun had full reign over them.  Without any apparent reason Joseph suddenly called out a warning, advising them to get to the floor and cover their heads and faces.  Fortunately for all, everybody did what they were told to do with no reservation or delay, as, without warning, a bolt of power smashed through the glass partition beside them, shattering it into a million pieces.  

  As the six men dived to the floor, they rolled up hard against the knee-high wooden panel that resided below the damaged glass frame, trying to avoid the slivers of glass that smashed into whatever they landed in.  As he rolled, Joseph suddenly realised he was still gripping the rubies tightly in his hand and he wondered why he was not dead.  He should have died instantly, perhaps even saving the life of everybody else because he had been holding all of the rubies.
  And then he noticed that nobody was dead, frightened yes, but nobody had been harmed so far.  The creature seemed perplexed. The energy he was dispersing was not making sense; the charges were far and few between, and seemingly aimed without rhyme or reason.  It was almost like the creature was blind.  Joseph was also perplexed; the situation seemed ridiculous, but it couldn’t keep going on this way.  Eventually somebody would be harmed, or more than likely killed, because the creature would end up killing them all even if it was by accident.  He had all the power, and at the moment, they had nothing … not even a plan.  Then unexpectedly Arkerious appeared in his mind and their minds momentarily melded.  Joseph had no idea what he was talking about when Arkerious advised him that he had B2e+ in his d.n.a., nor did he understand the figure of fifteen hundred humanoids that shared the B2e+ component of his d,n,a., but there was something that Arkerious said that did inspire him to take action.  Something that was understood by Joseph, or, at least, he thought he did … and a plan began to hatch. 
  “No matter what happens during the next moment or two,” He called in a voice just loud enough for all of them to hear his order, “Do not move an inch.  I am about to do something and it is important that you do not show yourselves and get yourself in the crossfire.  You will most likely die, should you do that.  The same goes for making loud noises, they will bring you to his attention, and his fire power; he will know where you are, and he will kill you.  I think Rangor is blind at the moment, so he will not be able to see you, but he will most likely react to any sound you make and aim all of his hardware in that direction; so, nobody move … I mean it.  Everybody’s life depends on every one of you doing what you are told.  So here I go!” And without a second’s hesitation, Joseph jumped up, his hands clenched tightly and immediately began to taunt his nemesis.

 “Hey, Rangor are you going blind?  Can’t you see me?”  The creature spun his head in every direction trying to determine where the voice was coming from, but Joseph had allowed for the surprise of his voice to throw Rangor off balance momentarily so he would not be ready to use his senses immediately to trace the voice to where Joseph was standing. 

  The seconds ticked by in silence while Joseph bent down to carefully pick up several items off the display table and placed them carefully at his feet in a position that would stop them from rolling, but still give him easy access to them.  And while he was moving, he squeezed hard on his left hand and could feel the rubies becoming a bit squishy; the heat in the room was increasing due to the random power shots Rangor had made and it was making Joseph sweat even more than the fear of Rangor had been, and as result it was quickly being absorbed by the rubies.  Arkerious had been right.

  ‘Well,’ Joseph thought inwardly, ‘let’s get this show on the road.’  And with that he picked up the first of the small cannon balls he had removed from the display desk and threw it as hard as he could, aiming it at the far end of the glass panel that still remained intact on the entrance side of the office.  The glass exploded in an almighty explosion that caused the creature to spin around and send out half a dozen bursts of energy that took out most of the glass panel that had survived the cannon all, and scattered the relics from the past display on the entrance side of the office in all directions as the damaged panels that supported them began to collapse.  Then, things that had survived the initial burst stopped rocking and spinning and began falling into each other, or smashing down to the floor, as the maelstrom in that corner of the room began to subside. Joseph threw the next cannonball into the wooden wall behind the chief inspector’s desk.

  The creature’s face swung around so fast it made Joseph feel dizzy just watching him, but as the balls of death barely burst out of the creature’s mouth heading the wrong way for the beleaguered creature, Joseph let fly with a sword that hit the creature in the middle of the face before it fell harmlessly to the ground.  The action had been farcical as an attempt to actually kill the creature, as Joseph had known it would be, the creature not actually being a physical being, but he was satisfied that his plan was working and threw another ball at what was the last of the glass wall on the entrance side of the office which immediately drew a dozen or more blasts of power, only, this time, the barrage was straight along the wall, machine gun style … and when the barrage was finally finished, the wall was demolished, and so were most of the many relics that had been on display.  Then, Joseph threw the next cannonball at a spot on the floor where Rangor’s feet would have been should he have fully emerged from the wall, and the reaction on Rangor’s hideous face told Joseph his plan was indeed working.  Rangor roared with rage, then released a blast so strong it was a miracle that the room didn’t catch fire, but fortune was with Joseph, and nobody came near being injured.
  Rangor was furious at this act of defiance from his intended victims; he was already in a state of low power which is why he dared not allow the proxy to fully enter the room due to the increased energy he would be forced to use.  His priority was to locate the rubies, but something was now blocking them from his vision, and his eyesight would not return to normal until he, or, at least, the proxy, visually reconnected with the rubies, for that was how they worked.  For the moment the eyes of the proxy were locked into the time-line of the rubies, and his to the proxy.  He knew they were somewhere nearby, but something was interfering with every one of them, and he had no idea why, and until he did, he was blind.  For Rangor this was the equivalence of a human flying a drone from a hospital bed; all vision was provided by the drone’s camera, and at the moment the drone appeared to be flying through heavy fog, or a snow storm and he had to rely solely on the ruby’s g.s.p. for its vision.  This was a rare occurrence; he could only remember it happening on one occasion recently, and that also had involved Joseph … though he doubted Joseph had contributed anything to that event, other than not dying, that is.  Somehow, the computer on his desk took all of the punishment that was meant for him. But that was several days ago, and Rangor had not expected another irrational event to occur in a similar occasion, but he felt certain that this time Joseph was somehow involved in what was happening now, because it had been Rangor that had ordered Robinson to place the rubies on all witnesses other than Joseph and call the proxy up to kill them.  He knew he could destroy Joseph once he had been permanently stopped from using the power of protection that he drew from his friends, but, for the moment, he had to finish this cat and mouse game Joseph was playing with him.  And he had to do it fast.  Rangor needed to feed, then rest for at least twelve hours before the entry to Earth began.  He could risk a small meal at a planet near Kepler-22b in a nearby galaxy to give him the energy to get through the ordeal of entry, but he definitely needed power build up to survive it, and that would require a minimum of twelve hours rest, and even then, it would rely on the statue being completely set up and the volunteer’s body and the proxy to be waiting within the confines of the statue.  ‘Twelve hours and no less.’ Rangor thought, ‘No less, because I will still have to bleed power to the proxy while I am recharging.  If I suddenly lose connection with it before I enter the statue, all will be lost for this chance.  I am aware that I can try again, one more time within a month, before this phase of the moon would be gone for several years, however, I want to invade now.  This planet will be mine before the rising of the next full moon, but first I have to deal with Joseph, once and for all!’   

  “Where are you, Joseph,” Rangor called out in his loud guttural voice, “there is no use hiding. You will eventually make a mistake, then you and your friends will all be dead.  Give yourself up and I will make your death a pleasant one.  Soon you will be with your women, and the rest of your friends.  For once I have killed you, I will enter this world of yours and feed with such pleasure it will be like I have gone to your heaven, figuratively speaking, of course.  I am expecting this planet to be five-star gourmet class, and I am salivating simply at the thought of such a banquet.  I tell you, Joseph, I am anticipating the succulent meal you will provide so much, so I would really appreciate your co-operating in this matter and give yourself up so I can get on with my plans.  Do you hear me, Joseph, or are you already dead? 

  Well, that would be disappointing, having you dead all this time and not being able to see it happen.  How long should I wait to see if you are dead? 

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  Five minutes?

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  Five days?

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 I think you really are dead. 

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Then, if that is the case, I may as well leave.

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 Adieu, Joseph, you have been a worthy adversary, but nowhere good enough to defeat me.” 

  As the creature spoke, Joseph was not certain whether to believe Rangor, or not, but as the face began to slowly disappear from its resting place in the wall, Joseph knew he had no choice.  He picked up an ancient scotch bottle and threw it at the wall just below the face.  The creature roared with frustration knowing that it was impossible for him to trace the source of the noise under these conditions, and in that one moment of time, Rangor’s hatred and loathing of Joseph reached a new high. 

If hatred alone could kill, Joseph would have been struck dead that very instant.