6.11  ·  Like A Hole in the Head

Kasyr leaned towards Sherri, inspecting her vacant eye socket, before focusing her gaze on the remaining eye. She wore a look of vicious satisfaction as she appraised her work.

“All healed,” she announced, wiping a piece of gauze over the former wound to collect any remaining viscera. “Feel better now?”

Sherri scowled at the sadistic woman. “I hope you choke on it.”

“That has happened before.” Amusement played on Kasyr’s lips. “And it was entertaining for us all. Such weak men deserve their fate.”

She crossed to a sink and washed the gore from her hands, as John moved into her field of view, looking perhaps more disturbed than Sherri felt.

“Hey,” he said weakly. Sherri smiled at him.

“This isn’t your fault,” she murmured.

“I know you’re talking to someone,” Kasyr’s voice piped up from beyond where Sherri could see. “I keep feeling like someone’s behind me. Who are you communicating with and how?”

“The spirits of my ancestors,” Sherri said, narrowing her eye.

Kasyr’s face popped in front of her. “Don’t play dumb. You have some kind of communications device. Where is it?”

“Okay,” said Sherri, suppressing the urge to chuckle. “I’ll tell you, but you might need some specialised equipment to find it.”

“I swear, if this is another bluff, I–”

“You can find it lodged about twelve inches up my ass.” Sherri grinned as Kasyr let out a frustrated groan.

“Sherri, you shouldn’t provoke her like this,” John pleaded. “She’s gonna hurt you again.”

I know.

Kasyr stormed to her stash of tools, which Sherri couldn’t see, and the sounds of rummaging through metallic objects could be heard. John was watching her nervously, his eyes haunted as he was still evidently processing the eye removal.

Kasyr finally returned to Sherri’s front, with a curious smile.

“I can only assume that whatever device you’re using has a neural component. An implant, perhaps, that allows you to see what I can’t.” She tilted her head. “I could do a scan, but maybe some exploratory surgery would be a fun way to spend the afternoon.”

She slammed her hand on a button by Sherri’s slab, and it started rotating forward.

She looked at John with alarm, and he looked back a moment before frantically tapping at his handlink.

“Buy as much time as you can. I don’t mean to abandon you, Sherri, but like I said, help is coming and…” He gave her an intense look. “They might need me.”

Sherri forced a strained smile at him.

“Go,” she mouthed, and he gave a tense nod before blinking away. The slab continued to turn, leaving her hanging prone from the underside, about three feet from the floor. She felt a hand on her neck, brushing her hair aside.

“I’ll check your brain stem first,” she said casually. “Deary, I certainly hope my hand doesn’t slip and paralyse you. Or worse.”

“It’s not in my brain, you’re wasting your time!” Sherri cried.

“Well then you’d better tell me where it is, because my scalpel is hungry. I don’t think I can keep it away from your neck.”

Improvise. Tell her something believable.

She wished John could feed her some line of technobabble, but she was all alone.

“It’s all done remotely,” she said truthfully, “It’s targeted only to my specific configuration of brain waves. I’m merely used as a conduit. There’s no implants in me.”

She knew there must have been much more to how the technology worked, but she figured her vagueness was to her benefit anyway.

“Fascinating,” Kasyr said, before laughing. “There may be no implant now, but by the time I’m finished, perhaps there will be.”

“What?!”

Kasyr crouched, moving her face into Sherri’s view.

“That way we can record your brain waves, trace the signal, and find that friend you’re talking to.” She grinned, her pointed teeth bared. “John, was it? With a top hat?”

I’ve given too much away. I really screwed up.

Kasyr stood, and Sherri felt the woman’s hand caressing her neck. Then, the sound of buzzing, and cold metal on her head. Sherri’s heart jumped, until she realised Kasyr was shaving her hair off.

She watched clumps of hair flop onto the floor around her, and tried to control her nerves.

I see matted brown hair. I taste blood. I hear the hum of hair clippers. I smell my own sweat. I feel the cold, vibrating clippers shearing over my scalp against my will.

It occurred to her that her usual CBT tricks to calm herself were not particularly effective when she was in mortal danger.

Next came the cold, wet sensation of an antiseptic solution being rubbed onto her head.

This is it, she’s gonna start cutting next.

Then everything went black.

It took a moment for Sherri to realise the darkness was actually the lights in the room cutting out, but as Kasyr let out an exasperated grunt, her hope began to return.

Kasyr fumbled her way to the light switch, and tested it a couple of times before thumping a fist against the wall, and opening the door to the similarly dark corridor. Sherri did not see any of this, but pieced it together based on what she heard.

As Kasyr stepped out of the room, Sherri heard a series of thuds. As she hung, head still secured in place, she heard footsteps shuffle into the room, and then John’s voice could be heard.

“Oh, thank god she didn’t make any incisions yet,” he said, flattening himself on the floor and looking up at her with a broad smile. “Told you they were coming.”

“Who?”

A loud crash came from behind her, and the electrical haze throughout the room that Sherri hadn’t even realised she had been enduring came to an abrupt and merciful end.

“What was that?” Sherri asked.

“That was the machine that was messing with your aura,” came a voice that wasn’t John. “Wasn’t a nice feeling, huh?”

Sherri’s suspicions of the voice belonging to Nexus Quinn seemed confirmed when he peeked under the slab and smiled at her.

Sherri looked down at John, who was still lying on the floor.

“How’d you get him to help?”

Across the room, another sound came; that of a series of levers being pulled.

“Brace yourself,” said Quinn, as the shackles around her arms, legs, torso, and head, all began to release, and she dropped to the floor on her face, which intersected with John’s holographic face.

“Ow,” she said, climbing to all fours and rubbing her nose. She crawled out from under the slab, and paused as she saw Quinn and Tim standing before her.

“I never expected to see you guys again,” she said, with one wide eye. “How did you even find me?”

John climbed to his feet, and clasped his hands together as his eyes moved between Sherri and Quinn. “Oh, I can’t wait to see what happens.”

See what?

Quinn extended a hand. She took it, and a strange sensation passed over her. Sherri blinked a few times as the face of Quinn transformed into another very familiar face, pulling her to her feet.

“John?!”

“What?” he laughed. “No, no. It’s me! Uncle Sam!”

Sherri found herself speechless.

How did Uncle Sam get here?

“Awesome, right?” John said, grinning ear to ear.

Sherri’s shock turned to elation as she threw her arms around her Uncle.

“You have a lot of explaining to do,” was all she could think to say.

“You’re not wrong,” he agreed, “but right now we need to move.”

He hesitated a moment, regarding her empty eye socket. “I’m… I’m sorry we didn’t get here before they did that.”

Sherri shook her head. “Forget it, let’s go.”

Tim stepped forward, and held out one of the Kromagg blasters.

“Here, you’re the best shot around, right?”

Sherri accepted the weapon, frowning. “Well, that remains to be seen, now.”

Sam, hurried to the doorway, before pausing, and looking pointedly at a surprised John. “Thanks for pointing us in the right direction.”

“You can see John?” Sherri’s jaw dropped as Sam gave her a nod.

“Only since I took your hand, but yes. Now let’s go already!”

Sherri grasped the gun, stepped into the corridor where Kasyr’s moaning, semi-conscious form lay. With a swift, decisive shot, she blasted a hole through the commander’s head.

“How’s that for exploratory surgery, you sadistic bitch?”