SHORT FAT STUBBY FINGER STORIES PRESENTS:  THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

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EPISODE 98

Suddenly something snapped in Joseph’s head.  An image of Arkerious reappeared in his mind.  It was not a new visit from his mentor, but the previous one repeated.  Once again, in total clarity he heard Arkerious telling him how many people on the planet had his d.n.a.  Once again, he clearly heard Arkerious telling him his d.n.a contained B2e+.  And once again Joseph found himself mulling over this information, and wondering why Arkerious had told him no more; wondering why he had disappeared straight after giving him the information.  ‘Why, Arkerious, why?’ he asked in a loud, frustrated voice in the privacy of his mind, ‘It is not like Rangor could have heard what you were saying.  Not when you are talking to me inside my own mind. What is B2e+ anyway?’  It sounds like a pop group.”  Joseph asked.  He found himself becoming panic stricken at the time it was taking him to work out when the move was going to be made.  He knew it seemed that Rangor was having some difficulty is seeing them; sensing where everybody was, but he knew that they were all there, and it was only a matter of time before he lost interest in seeing them killed.  He would suddenly simply destroy the entire room, regardless of the consequences. And he was running out of time; the rubies were fast becoming a thick, foamy, blobby mess. Another minute or two and they would be useless to them.  There would be no way possible, even now, to hand them over to the two men, never mind them being able to throw them … they would be as stuck to their hands, as they were to his … in fact, even now they would be useless, Joseph decided.  He looked hard at his hands; the thick gooey, glowing, green, red, and yellow mess reminded him of soft fried eggs that had burst and the yolk had run over the egg white.  He absently began to stir the vulgar mix with the middle finger of his clean hand and had to snap his mind out of the need to jump and scream at the sensation that ran up his arm and into his entire body in case he was heard by Rangor.  Suddenly Joseph realised he could feel a strange sensation taking over his entire body; a feeling of overriding power and strength surged through his body and into his mind.  And, as coloured and black and white lights began flashing before his eyes, Joseph nearly collapsed on the spot when he realised the spontaneous movement had caused him to write B2e+ in the gooey mess on his hand, and, to his surprise, he found he had the answer to his problem.  Bacteria 2 plus; Rangor is allergic to it.  Oh, grouse,’ he thought to himself with complete disbelief.  ‘This can’t be the answer.  Surely I will die almost immediately.’  Words, thoughts, disbelief, ran amok through Joseph’s mind and body.  One part of his mind went ballistic with joy as he realised the answer to their problem was within his understanding … the other part of his mind felt he was verging on the brink of madness, for the solution was teetering on suicide.

  “Change of plans, everybody.”  He called out in a loud whisper, “Nobody else move.  Sergeant, throw down just one cannonball, but aim it at the middle of the wall that runs down the right-hand side.  Now!”

  The cannonball crashed loudly into the wall in the otherwise silent room and the wall itself was parted in half by the instant reply from the creature.

  “Ah, Joseph, you are back,  Rangor called out excitedly,  “Where are you.  I want to get this over rather quickly, you understand.  I am rather a bit peckish, I am afraid, old chap.  If you could be so kind as to give me a bit of an idea where you are …”

  “Now, listen to me carefully, and don’t argue.”  Joseph continued, still ignoring Rangor’s irritating rantings, “We haven’t got the time to argue.  I want you to keep up a slow barrage of attacks anywhere along the back wall and whatever is left of the right-hand wall, you can even throw it at the ceiling, however, whatever you do, don’t throw anything too close to this end on my left or at the face. We don’t want to be accidently in the creature’s firing line, and most definitely do not throw anything at the creature, because I am going to be out there.  Grab whatever you can pick up from the tables and throw them at random, not too close together, or too far apart. Oh, and make sure they alternate as much as possible. They are meant to distract Rangor while I get close enough to destroy him.”
  Not a word was spoken by Joseph’s friends, but the frozen look of disbelief on their faces in the continuing black and white light show in the room created by the lack of power was enough to make him realise he had to convince them quickly.  “I know how to destroy him, but I need you all to distract him while I get close enough to do it.  Do not call out to me no matter what you are thinking, he will sense my presence and kill me – then he will kill all of you. Now start throwing things – starting with you, Hervey”

  For but a split second nobody moved, then a cannonball zipped out of Harvey’s hand to the rear half of the room, and a huge ball of power smashed into the same area, but within a second two more cannonballs were smashed against the wall in two different sides of the room.  This time there was hesitation from the creature, and no reaction took place.  Joseph waited out the silence, then climbed over the timber frame that remained intact. From that point on, he carefully moved forward with each blast the creature made as it tried to find the source of the nois,e until he finally arrived at the side of the creature.  There he waited his opportunity to pounce.

  “What game are you playing, Joseph?”  The creature unexpectedly roared out in the mocking psychedelic light that made the room look like a late sixties dance club.  The volume so loud Joseph almost cried out in fright.  “You know that you cannot defeat me with such puny weapons.  Reveal yourself to me and I will be merciful.” 

  Joseph now only feet away from Rangor’s head almost collapsed at the nearness of the vile breath the creature exuded, and had to place his clean hand over his mouth for a moment in order to not cough.  Finally catching his breath and calming his overtly beating heart, Joseph turned to face his friends, raised his fingers to indicate five, then indicated they should each thrown a weapon simultaneously across the width and breadth of the room, which they did.  The cannonballs, the axe, the sword and the body armour all made loud and distinctive noises in a wonderfully round surround sound circle as Joseph had hoped for, but it was the creature’s reaction that made Joseph smile.  The first burst of power demolished a part of a wall on the far side of the room, thick dust and bricks being scattered in all directions.  The second was nowhere as loud, and the destruction was mild in comparison.  The third and fourth bursts were nought but pops of smoke, and the fifth failed to do anything physical whatsoever.  Joseph’s instincts had been proven to be correct; not only had the creature not been able to see them because the rubies were melting in his hand rather than providing the image Rangor needed to see where they were in order to kill them, the creature had run out of power.  

  Joseph wondered if the chance to kill him was more important to Rangor, than his quest to invade Earth.  But, it mattered not, the proxy, the connection had to be terminated … now, because Joseph feared Rangor would suddenly terminate his connection with the proxy and leave while he could:  Little did Joseph know how angry Rangor was at this  precise moment; or how he was about to vent his anger.
  Taking a huge chance that he was safe, Joseph stepped out in front of Rangor’s face, both amazed and offended by the vile, evil, ugliness, that confronted him, almost hypnotised him with the aid of the black and white light show that the storm was putting on, and now his senses began to feel offended by the obnoxious odour that emitted through its mouth.  It was certainly a fearsome site to behold, and an even harder repugnancy to tolerate, yet Joseph was not scared, and he was surprised by this.  So surprised it gave him the courage to risk his life in what he was about to do.

  “Hello, Rangor,” Joseph said softly, quietly, as he rubbed his hands together, lathering up the completely melted, glowing, rubies as he attempted to distribute it equally on each hand, “Goodbye, Rangor,”

  “Joseph!” Rangor began in total disbelief, but before he could say any more, Joseph began pushing his fingers between the proxy’s lips, pushing them down hard against the rejecting, choking throat until he could travel inwards no more, but continued with the side by side, up and down, massaging he had commenced the instant his finger-tips had parted the proxy’s lips.”

 The proxy seemed to be unable to writhe or twist within the frame of the wall, however, Joseph could not help but hear the gurgling the choking creature was making, feel the tension, the spasms, the sheer pain and terror the creature was undergoing, and retaliating with the rankest odour Joseph had ever inhaled, but Joseph was not relenting.  He knew that it would be unwise to show the creature any leeway what so ever.  To Joseph it was as if the creature’s head was bobbing up and down, it was screaming out of pure terror and pain and begging him to be released.  For a second Joseph almost fell for the trap when he saw Mary in his mind and she was lost in the weeds and being attacked by the creature. but he rejected it as fast as it came into his mind, then he saw Rosetta’s beautiful face lying peacefully in her man-made coma, and again he pushed the distraction out of the way, and this time he fought back as he began to imagine exactly what he was doing right this moment … and now he could feel Rangor’sanger … and it was building.  He wondered if he was going to survive.  Suddenly the boot was on the other foot and he could feel his own power subsiding.  ‘My god, I can’t let this happen; not after all we have been through.’  Joseph struggled to regain control, and as he did a flash of his time in the cradle in the forest appeared in his mind. He let his mind drift back to that strange wonderful night when he looked upwards, towards the endless universe; when he saw the stars in the heavens.  Billions of them, millions of colours, all suddenly blacked out by the appearance of his saviour.” 

Well, I don’t know who you are, young fellow, but you are certainly here for a reason.  I would have been frozen to death if you had of been me,” the figure had said as it moved away and allowed the stars back into Joseph’s childish eyes.

  ‘And he is right.’  Joseph acknowledged.  He suddenly began rubbing the inside of the creature’s chest as hard and fast as he could.  Rangor released a roar so loud that the young constable felt his legs become warm again, while Constable Hobson again began to pray, and Chief inspector O’Reilly finally faced acceptance that Joseph had been telling the truth.

  Joseph, however, had no time to reflect on anything other than the fact that he was sweating profusely. He retracted his hands, saw that the goo that once were the rubies was completely gone them and without hesitation, he whisked off his coat and shirt, ran his hand over his chest, then rammed his wet, open hands straight back into Rangor’s still open mouth and received instant gratification for his effort: Steam blew back out of the creature’s mouth, as did another scream.  Joseph knew he probably only had one more chance.  He reached down to his trouser pocket and extracted a handkerchief which he immediately ran over his chest, his neck and his saturated hair, then wrapped his hand around it and pushed it hard into Rangor’s throat, squeezing it as hard as he possibly could.  Instantly he could hear sizzling and agonising coughing coming out of Rangor’s mouth, then an explosion of pure energy threw Joseph backwards for several yards as it took out the wall where the head had resided during the battle, before the bizarre screech of a final death scream … followed by total darkness in the room.

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