Deadeye- Episode II Read online

  Midian Entertainment Presents:

  The BREED

  by David Rex Bonnewell

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and events are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book or cover can be used without express written permission of Midian Entertainment, Midian Publishing, the artist or author.

  Cover Art by Carlos Villas

  © Midian Entertainment LLC 2019

  © Midian Publishing 2019

  Artwork © Carlos Villas 2019

  To Contact the Author

  By email:

  [email protected]

  For news, updates, and more, please go to:

  www.daverex.blogspot.com

  www.facebook.com/daverexbonnewell

  www.twitter.com/wickedlywritten

  To

  Linda Susan Bahnsen,

  who for so long kept me sane and healthy in an insane and unhealthy world;

  and to

  Heather Noel,

  who warmed the cold spaghetti that was my life, helped me see what I was oblivious to and gave me the wings to soar into a brighter future.

  ~ D.R.B.

  “...diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness – its opposite – never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes”

  ~ Miguel de Cervantes

  PROLOGUE

  H ello. My name is Daverex Newell. I'm very pleased to meet you. I'd like to take a few minutes to explain some things while the narrator is on the toilet dropping the kids off at the pool. Pinching a loaf. Dropping a deuce. Taking a dump. Whatever euphemism floats your boat. I'm the main character of the story you're about to read. I'm also a level 1 Tech'er. You probably read about Tech'ers on the Breed Wiki. If you haven't, you should definitely do it now. Go to http://thebreed.wikia.com/wiki/Techers. Go ahead. I'll wait. Just save all the other good stuff there about the Breed for after this story, okay? Thanks!

  …..

  …..

  …..

  Are you back? Great! Let's continue. So, you wouldn't believe the hell I've been through to find this thing called The Sphere of The Fallen. It's kind of like an indestructible snow globe, but it's supposed to bring about the destruction of worlds or something. Yeah, I don't get it either. I only care about getting it back to my boss, Ms. Talma Greene, to save my ass. The upside of my daunting experience is that along the way I discovered I'm able to briefly slow time (which is way cool) whenever my life is in imminent danger (which is way too often).

  Ms. Greene is going to see to it that my head goes on the chopping block, so to speak, if I don't invent a bunch of offensive weapons in the next few months. Well, that just ain't gonna happen, cap'n. Luckily, my old friend Gaston Melchor hatched a plan for me to retrieve The Sphere of The Fallen and claim it as my own invention, saying it'd probably be enough to even get me a promotion! I soon found out that easy solutions can come with a heavy price.

  I dealt with some truly bizarre and dangerous enemies along the way, like giant birds that look and act like they're dead in order to trick prey. I call them pseudocarrions. Don't give me that look! It's a good name. And there's the huge monsters that look like a heinous mix of ogre and werewolf with sharp, curved bony protrusions along their back. I call them razorbacks. There's that look again. Stop it! Anyway, I also made some friends like 'Dan The Man' Danival. He's rough around the edges, but obliging. Then there's Brother Harvest. He was kind of uptight at first, but he came around. Oh, and Benny, of course. Technically, it's BeN-E, but that's boring. He's a medic robot who also happens to be pretty good with a pair of laser weapons. He's also my indispensable sidekick on this crazy little adventure. Then there's Gaston Melchor, a brilliant inventor who was my best friend until he turned on me for some reason at the worst possible moment. He threatened to blow me up if I didn't give him The Sphere of The Fallen! I know, right? I was like, Gassy, what's your major malfunction, bud?

  I also fell in love. Yeah, I know. It's predictably corny, but what can I say? I'm quite the ladies man. Yup. Her name is Sister Tillage, though she asked me to call her Tilly. WE HAD SEX! Man, that felt good...the sex part and the saying it part. Sister Tillage is Brother Harvest's actual sister. They're identical twins, no less, and they even share a powerful psychic bond! How cool is that? Tilly makes me feel all warm and tingly inside, like the feeling I get whenever I get into combat, but without all the messy carnage. She's beautiful and smart and just incredible with kids! We're not serious yet, but it could happen. Did I mention we had sex? Boo-yah! Go Daverex. It's your birthday.

  Well, I just heard the toilet flush. That means I have to go now and act out this next episode of the story. Thanks for hanging out with me a little while. I like you. You're pretty cool. Okay narrator, it's your show now. Take it away...

  CHAPTER ONE

  D averex back tracked and made a wide circle around the buried landmines while his new found friend, Brother Harvest, made a circle of his own and started the climb down from the cliff. Daverex eventually got to The Sphere of The Fallen and the explosives trigger and picked them both up. He looked over at his robot companion, BeN-E (Bio-enhancer and Neurocomputer-Class E), and said, “Are you still with me, Benny? What's your status?”

  “Analyzing...basic functions fully operational. All external sensory input remains offline. Battery at a nominal twenty-two percent.”

  “And your programming? Is it still overridden by Gaston's protocol?”

  “Negative. Protocol seven-seven-e-five-one is a timed response limited to ten minutes and must be resumed via Gaston Melchor's voice command.”

  “Just the same, I'm going to manually disable your laser weapons for now. We need to get your battery recharged too. How does that sound?”

  “That would be agreeable.”

  Daverex removed the wires that allowed BeN-E to fire his twin lasers. “You do have at least enough power to get back home, don't you?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Good. Just to be safe, don't make any movements beyond getting home and don't speak until you're recharging. Understood?”

  BeN-E nodded his head.

  Brother Harvest came striding toward Daverex and BeN-E, still covered in pseudocarrion grease to protect him from the planet's toxic environment and with a bolt-action rifle slung over his shoulder. “Everything okay here now?” he said.

  Daverex turned to face Brother Harvest and said, “I am glad to see you! That was a hell of a thing you did scaring off Gaston like that. You saved my life!”

  Brother Harvest waved dismissively at Daverex. “And you rescued me from a life of slavery. I felt like an animal in a zoo! Let us consider all debts paid in full,” he said with a smile. “That reminds me, did you ever hear the one about the man who walks into a zoo?”

  “I don't think so.”

  “He travels the entire breadth and width of the zoo, but can find only one animal in the entire place, an adorable little dog...”

  “That's odd.”

  “Yes. It is a Shih Tzu.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Shih Tzu. You see?”

  “No. I don't.”

  Brother Harvest made gestures with his hands, which didn't help at all. “Shih Tzu. It sounds like Shit Zoo. The zoo is shit because it has only the one animal, which is an adorable little breed of doggie.”

  Daverex shook his head in shame. “A joke isn't funny if you have to explain it, Brother Harvest.”

  Brother Harvest looked pitifully annoyed. Daverex decided it was time to cheer him up. He showed Brother Harvest The Sphere of The Fallen.

  “Blessed be
the Grower! You have recovered The Grower's Orb! But what is that decorated stick of metal poking its insides?”

  “That's what is going to blow your mind!” Daverex said, feeling the same excitement Brother Harvest was feeling at that moment. “It is a key. If you turn it clockwise, music should play. I haven't tried it yet. I'd like to give that honor to you”. He handed the artifact over to Brother Harvest.

  Brother Harvest took it into his hands with a slight bow of reverence and a look of awe on his face.

  “Go ahead,” said Daverex. “Turn the key clockwise. Just be sure to take the key out before the music ends. It would be very bad if you did not.”

  Brother Harvest slowly turned the key with delighted anticipation. A moment later, music played from within the orb and he was tapping his bare feet on the hard earth to the gentle rhythm. The music was unrecognizable, but beautiful and almost hypnotic.

  Daverex was so taken with the music that he had to remind himself of the danger of not removing the key. “Okay, that's enough,” he said. “You should take the key out now.”

  Brother Harvest made to remove the key, but then pulled his hand away and shimmied his shoulder until the rifle he had slung over it came down his arm. He caught it in his right hand and then aimed it at Daverex, his finger on the trigger and the barrel resting on his left arm. “Kindly, and slowly, raise your hands up into the air where I can see them.”

  Daverex blinked in disbelief at a second betrayal within the same hour. First his closest friend, and now his closest ally! A sudden sharp pain in his right leg – the result of a bullet wound he suffered while securing Brother Harvest's escape from a makeshift ore refinery – reminded him that the special prototype environmental suit he was wearing, the Obscura Alpha, could deflect just about everything except bullets. For that reason, he had to choose his next words and moves wisely. He reluctantly complied with his betrayer's request by slowly raising his hands into the air. “Brother Harvest, listen to me, please! Something truly horrible will happen if you do not take that key out before the song ends!”

  Brother Harvest shrugged. “What could be so horrible? I am curious to see what happens, as I am sure you too must be,” he said with a grin.

  “Damn it, man! This is no joke!”

  “You wish to hear another joke as we wait for the music to end? Okay. Why should you never fall in love with a pastry chef? Because she will desert you!” Brother Harvest laughed uproariously.

  Just then a realization came over Daverex. At the same instant, he thought about never seeing his new love, Tilly, again. This triggered his ability to slow time briefly. Before Brother Harvest had time to react, Daverex drew E.N.F.O.R.C.E.R – his specially made and easily concealed laser pistol – and fired a shot at Brother Harvest. The blast hit him in the arm in which he held the rifle.

  In slow motion, Brother Harvest howled in pain. He dropped the rifle and then dropped The Sphere of The Fallen so that he could clutch at the unexpected laser wound. The artifact tumbled slowly from his grasp, kicking up a cloud of dirt when it eventually hit the ground. Its music kept playing, with only moments left in the song.

  Daverex dove for The Sphere of The Fallen as it rolled away. Now lying in the dirt, he held the artifact firmly in one hand while nervously fumbling with the key with his other hand. He removed the key from the keyhole with only a single musical note left to play and breathed a long sigh of relief.

  Time resumed its normal flow. Brother Harvest recovered from his initial shock of pain and attempted to flee.

  “Oh no! You're not getting away like Gaston did, you son of bitch!” Daverex said as he grasped Brother Harvest by an ankle and pulled him down to the ground with him. Daverex shimmied towards the prone Brother Harvest until he was on top of him, pinning him in place. His eyes narrowing to menacing slits, Daverex held the laser pistol to Brother Harvest's head and said, “Who – or what – are you, really?”

  Beads of perspiration began to form on Brother Harvest's face and his color became a few shades paler. “Whatever do you mean? Why did you shoot me? We are friends.”

  “No,” Daverex said with rising anger, “Brother Harvest and I are friends. You are not him. The real Brother Harvest is not a joke teller.” Daverex pressed his laser pistol hard against Brother Harvest's temple and said, “Now, tell me who you really are and where the real Brother Harvest is or I'll splatter your brains all over the dirt.”

  “All right, I will explain. I am a Ha-ha-kjo'un Fnikk, or in your clumsy language a Hominid Hostage.”

  “Hominid Hostage? Seriously? That sounds horrible. Let's see...hmm...dead ringer sounds much better!”

  The dead ringer hissed. “Your petty labels do not matter to me, hominid. My kind transcends the time of your kind. We are the alpha, the beginning, of intelligent life on earth. We can easily assume the physical form of any hominid we so choose, as well as add their every memory to our own. Our hierarchy is based on our ability to trick your kind into giving us what we want. As to the whereabouts of Brother Harvest, he is being held where the Cave of Sorrows ends, which is on this very planet. I tell you this because you shall never survive what lies within. He is quite safe there, however. I assure you.”

  “How can you assure me of this?”

  “Because I placed him there.”

  Daverex grinned. “So you must know how to avoid the dangers within.”

  “You are not as naive as I first thought you to be.”

  Daverex had witnessed and experienced some exceptionally strange things since leaving the confines of his Tech'er complex home, but this dead ringer creature was a whole new kettle of funky fish sticks. “You will take me to him, once you have answered some questions.”

  “Of course. Ask your questions. I have nothing to hide.”

  “You said 'We.' There are more of you?”

  “Oh yes. We are scattered throughout the multiverse. We are limitless. We are timeless. We are everywhere.”

  “For what purpose do you assume the forms of intelligent life?”

  “There are many, as we are for hire on occasion. Right now, it is for a game.”

  “A game? What game?”

  “Every year we compete amongst ourselves to determine who is to become our leader until the next competition the following year. It is quite fun and keeps us sharp. This year's competition is to see who among us can bring back that pretty little globe which you clutch so tightly in your hand.”

  Daverex lifted The Sphere of The Fallen so that it was level with his eyes and peered into its glass globe for the first time. He had been so fixed on his mission to get The Sphere of The Fallen to Ms. Greene that he never took the time to really study it. It was a thing of beauty. The way the four translucent shapes danced about the clear liquid within the globe was mesmerizing. So much so, that Daverex didn't even notice when or how the dead ringer managed to slip away from him. He followed the footprints left by the dead ringer, but soon found that the trail ended in front of a cliffside. He looked up along the cliff, but saw no further sign of his quarry. That bastard can climb like I can shoot, he thought to himself on his dejected return to BeN-E. He looked at his robot companion and regretted commanding him not to move beyond the direction of home, then he secured The Sphere of The Fallen inside BeN-E's rear storage compartment. “Let's go, Benny,” he said. “I'll have to figure out how to get you charged up without the help of either version of Gaston and then figure out where on this craptastic planet the Cave of Sorrows is.” He lowered his head and shook it, muttering, “What a day...what a day” as he led BeN-E to the location of the portal that would take them back to planet Earth. The portal flashed brilliantly and suddenly into existence when they got close enough to it. They walked through it and then it disappeared just as suddenly.

  CHAPTER TWO

  T he portal reappeared with a bright flash of light in a deeply wooded area on Earth and Daverex cautiously stepped through with Benny close behind him. When they both moved five feet away from the port
al, it disappeared, leaving behind no trace of ever having been there. Daverex had his small laser pistol drawn and ready to fire should any hostile surprises be awaiting his arrival. Lo and behold, two tall, muscular men and a much shorter, shapely woman between them, all dressed in matching black hooded jumpsuits, stood in a row several feet in front of Daverex.

  “What fresh hell is this?” Daverex said with a start as he waited for his time-slowing ability to kick in. Oddly, it did not. Neither did his danger sense. Could they be failing me?, he wondered.

  The woman in the group lowered her hood to reveal a stunningly beautiful face marred only by a deep scar along her left cheek. The two men likewise lowered their hoods, revealing almost identical strong, expressionless faces. The woman then smiled, raised her hands, stepped forward and said, “We mean you no harm. I am Shadow, leader of The Empyrean Prowlers, a guild of thieves camped not far from this very spot.” She nodded to her left and then her right. “These are my personal guards, and identical twins, Aegis and Fracas.” Each guard gave a quick nod of the head when their name was spoken. “But where are my manners?” Shadow slowly put out her left hand in anticipation of a handshake. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you face to face, Daverex Newell.”

  Daverex ignored the handshake offer and took careful aim at Shadow with his laser pistol, since she was apparently the most important person of the mysterious group. “How do you know my name and what is it you want?” Daverex suspected it might be The Sphere of The Fallen she was after, so he had no intention of leading on that BeN-E was in possession of the powerful artifact. Likewise, he had no intention of handing it over without a fight.

  Shadow's voice became much more soothing in its tone. “Honestly, there is no need for such extreme caution.”

  “I'll be the judge of that.” Daverex's eyes narrowed to slits. He wasn't about to let his guard down for anyone. He had come too far and risked too much to take any more chances. Getting The Sphere of The Fallen to Ms. Greene and BeN-E somehow recharged were his only immediate goals. “Now, answer my questions or I'll kill you where you stand before your two lackeys can do a damn thing about it!”