“Where would he have gone?” Eiliesh asked Tod.

  “Do you think he went to deal with a target alone?” Tod asked.

  “That seems like the best place to start.”

  Tod handed Eiliesh the list from his pocket.

  “The third target isn’t on this planet; we need to find a way to get to that one.”

  Tod brought them to a ship rental place, they bought a ship with coordinate tracking and soared off to the planet Target Three was on. They landed in the center of a small ghost town.

  “Okay the coordinates should be over here,” Eiliesh said as she began walking deeper into the town.

  They arrived at a tavern, Eiliesh unholstered her gun and began pushing the door open. All each push resulted in was a large crack coming from the side of the door. They rounded the building and found another entrance already open with a bloody handprint on the door. Eiliesh went in first pointing her pistol around looking for the target. A trail of blood led behind the bar counter that she followed back.

  “Eiliesh, are you sure you should go in there ahead?” Tod asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

  She peeked around the corner behind the bar and saw a pool of blood with bloody footprints leading to the other exit from the backroom, she spun around, and Tod was gone. She peeked out from behind the wall and saw Tod being held with a knife on his neck with Target Three behind him. Eiliesh pointed up her gun at Target Three’s head.

  “Let him go or I’ll shoot.”

  Target Three chuckled from behind Tod.

  “I’m not joking, let him go.”

  Target Three pushed Tod away and onto the ground. The whole room went silent, Target Three still holding her knife, Eiliesh still aiming directly at her. Target Three suddenly dashed towards Eiliesh swinging her knife up into the air. Eiliesh quickly changed her aim and fired at Target Three’s hand, sending the knife flying towards Tod. Target Three paused her sprint and turned back, letting out a shriek, but before she could do anything Eiliesh fired a shot into her head, sending her onto the floor. Target Three wriggled on the floor, Eiliesh sat on her stomach and plunged the back of the gun into Target Three’s head.

  Eiliesh stood up with her face coated in blood sprayed out from Target Three’s head. She put out her hand for Tod which he grappled onto, and she lifted him up. He held Target Three’s knife in his hand as he handed it to Eiliesh.

  “Why did you aim for her hand instead?” Tod asked.

  “She was laughing when I aimed at her head and seemed fearless. So, if headshots didn’t affect her, it would be knife versus gun, and me not knowing how to kill her. Alternately, if I shot at the knife either way its her, defenseless, versus me and my gun.” Eiliesh answered boastfully.

  Eiliesh’s moment of victory was interrupted by a loud creak coming from the other end of the tavern. She and Tod spun around to find Target Three’s body missing.

  “We have the target, we need to just go now, something isn’t right about her,” Tod said.

  Tod busted open the door that previously tried to use but was blocked from the inside. They then made a run for the ship. Eiliesh climbed inside and Tod followed closely behind as they shut the door. Tod ran to the controls and booted up the ship. It began to soar up into the sky when Eiliesh noticed a strange sound coming from the back area. She went into the room behind and saw a window broken open. She ran for the main cabin where Tod was but as she made her way to the door an arm grabbed her leg and dragged her deeper in.

  The nails of the hand dug through her pants and into her legs, a second arm reached up a gashed her stomach. She kicked into the darkness and made the arms let go, giving her the chance to run up and bang the door before Target Three grabbed her and swung her back yet again. The Target stuck three fingers on each hand into Eiliesh’s mouth and began tugging on the skin of her cheeks, beginning to tear back the flesh. Suddenly, Tod burst through and fired five shots at the Target.

  “Grab onto something,” Tod said calmly.

  As Eiliesh grabbed onto a support beam the cargo door swung open, sending all the boxes off into the sky as well as Target Three. Upon closer inspection she was hanging onto the edge and began pulling herself up. But before she could Tod swung the door closed, catching her upper arms and pulling both of them into the closing door. Her arms were completely separated from the body once the door closed and Eiliesh climbed back to her feet and looked at Tod. She waddled over and sat down in the passenger seat and Tod took over the controls again.

  * * *

  Vincent’s eyes creaked open and he immediately saw a white light beaming into his eyes, causing him to immediately shoot up. A hand rested on his chest to ease him back down.

  “Hey, you’ve been out for a while, our scouts found you.”

  “Where… where am I?” Vincent said.

  “You’re at the closest Diamond Council branch to where you were before.”

  “So that’d be… Branch 76m?”

  “Uh… Yeah, so you really are as smart as everyone says,” the nurse replied.

  “Where’s Kane?” Vincent said, ignoring their statement.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Where is he?”

  “Did you… forget...?” The nurse said confused.

  “No, I didn’t forget anything, where is Kane?”

  “One moment, I’ll be right back,” the nurse said before he exited the room for roughly five minutes before returning. “Yeah, he’s been notified of your meeting request and he’s on his way.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “Good, I need to talk to him,” Vincent said.

  “Okay, he’ll be here in roughly ten minutes, I’ll leave you here, if you need anything just press that red button right there,” the nurse said while pointing to his left, Vincent didn’t even bother looking.

  Vincent turned his head to watch the clock tick over exactly nine minutes. He sat up and turned his whole body to the right to stand up. He looked down and saw his entire torso was coated in bloodied bandages. He winced as he climbed to his feet, he crept out of the room and made his way into the main room. The room was very modern with windows overlooking the planet Vincent was just on, out of the room were tunnels of varying length leading to more rooms, similar to an ant farm. People in suits were in the room, doing various tasks in their cubicles.

  Vincent turned his attention to the front door that had a bulb suddenly glow above it, the door to the airlock was opened. A blonde, tall man stepped through the front door.

  “Vincent!” He shouted as he approached Vincent with his arms open. Vincent backed away from Kane’s attempt at a greeting.

  “We need to talk in your office,” Vincent said seriously.

  “Alrighty then,” Kane said as he made his way to his office.

  Kane took a seat at his desk, “It’s been quite a while, can I get you a cup of tea?”

  Vincent took a seat facing Kane’s desk, “No it’s fine I just-”

  “Right, what was I thinking, you’re more of a coffee man yourself, eh?” Kane said as he pressed a button on his desk, “So, what can I help you with?”

  “Alright, lets start with the first thing, since when were you alive?”

  “Ah, well I was brought back a few weeks ago, I just wanted to do a fun thing to surprise you with my resurrection!”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I got the Void King to contact you and then at the end I was going to surprise you, Target Eight wasn’t completely lying when he said this was all for you.”

  Vincent went quiet for a moment, taking note of this information, “So that’s why you chose me, to kill two birds with one stone, surprise me, and get your items back.”

  “Yes, exactly, and you need to understand- oh wait, there’s your coffee.” Kane stood up, walked across the room, opened the door, and handed Vincent his coffee, Vincent knew this was just going to be a waste of time.

  “YES, where was I?” Kane said as he sat back down, “These items were only ever held in one branch, the 01a Branch, they’re forged of a very rare material. Many millennia ago, we had our workers collect every fragment in the universe and they forged it into weapons. Only after they were forged into their most powerful form did we find out what they do to the body.”

  “Yeah, what’s that all about, if they use it we need to kill them, why?”

  “These tools are like a drug, the moment you use them you become obsessed with them, you’ll do anything to get your hands on them if they leave your grasp. And the moment they’re used for their purpose, as weapons, it activates a bond. But killing them is merely stalling them”

  “Pardon me?”

  “Vincent, they become, for lack of a better word, zombies. They will hunt down their weapons, killing anyone who stands in their way.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” Vincent said, slightly alarmed.

  “We don’t know yet, you need to collect all of these as fast as possible and bring them to the ship before they find you.”

  “You realize how stupid that is? You made me and my son go out and basically put ourselves up against unkillable monsters for… what, a surprise?!”

  “I wouldn’t have made you do this if I didn’t know you’d be fine, we’ll figure something out.” Kane said affirmatively.

  Vincent paused for a moment, sipping his coffee, ““Sword fell from the sky” said a sign at a target’s coordinates, is that what happened to Branch 01a?”

  “Yeah, the Belvods blew it up after the invasion, sending everything flying out into space, which is why you’re on a so called “fetch-quest”.” Kane answered.

  “So, you were shot in the head, and then exploded, how are you alive again?”

  “I… I don’t know, my men found some sort of ancient spell, I don’t know any specifics, but the important thing is I’m back, and I’m here to help.”

  “You’re fucking with me,” Vincent said suddenly.

  “Pardon?”

  “This is all so stupid, is this all you could come up with?”

  “Vincent… I don’t… What are you-”

  “A surprise? You’re lying.”

  “Vincent, I don’t-”

  “I’m done, I’m leaving, I’m gonna get the job done, I’m gonna get my money, and then I’m never going to hear from you again.”

  Kane went silent. Vincent slid the cup of coffee off the desk and onto the carpet. He stood up and let himself out as Kane sighed. Vincent patted his pockets and felt his keys as he entered the airlock. Vincent crept out onto a metal plate serving as a driveway for ships. A gravity modifier on the ship kept his feet stuck to the artificial ground, yet didn’t provide him with any oxygen. He took out his keys and pressed a button, a few moments later his ship arrived, and he climbed inside.

  Vincent landed back at his house and made his way inside. He sat down on the couch and stared out the window waiting for Tod and Eiliesh to come back. After about thirty minutes of sitting and waiting Vincent saw a figure approaching far down the road. He squinted and quickly walked into his room, grabbing a pistol, he was paranoid after what Kane had told him. Returning to the window he noticed the figure was gone, Vincent held his spot at the window waiting for any other signs of movement, the silence was interrupted by a loud consistent banging coming from farther inside the house.

  He opened the storage room door, that also had a back entrance, as he opened it the banging stopped, and the back door was wide open. Vincent aimed his gun inside as he stepped in, each step more dread overtook his mind. Until he was about halfway in the room, he was pulled back onto the ground by something behind him. A foot rocketed towards his head, but he rolled out of the way in time. He grabbed the leg that’d just attempted to cave his head in and yanked it as hard as he could, causing the creature’s legs to split.

  He fired his gun into the side of the creature’s head, making it fall onto the floor. Vincent stood up as fast as he could and was about to leave the room when it grabbed his leg with such force it separated his ankle from his leg, causing him to scream in pain. The creature climbed on top of Vincent and slammed its fists into his back. He threw his elbow back and stumbled to his feet. He limped out the front door as fast as he could, each step completely engulfing his leg in pain. He fired at the figure behind him, it fell to the ground again.

  He saw the jeep approaching the house, he waved his arms as he tried his best to run. Eiliesh was in the back seat, she bust out the back window and commanded Tod to open the trunk. She leaned around and grabbed the Tommy gun; she leaned out the side and began firing at the creature chasing Vincent. Tod stopped the car when Vincent was at the door, he climbed in, and Tod sped towards the creature. He hit it head on, sending it under the car, Eiliesh fired her gun behind them as Tod continued towards the house.

  Tod parked the car right by the front door, he opened his door and rushed over to Vincent. He helped Vincent to his bed.

  “Just… Just rest here for the night, we’ll get you some help in the morning,” Tod said.

  “Tod…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank you,” Vincent said.

  “Oh… uh… well you’re welcome, I mean it was mostly a team effort, Eiliesh did-”

  “I mean… everything.”

  “Oh... well” before Tod could respond Vincent was already out cold. “Shoot, Eiliesh.”

  Tod rushed out and saw Eiliesh crouched over the body. He sprinted towards her.

  “This is him,” Eiliesh said, puzzled.

  “Who?” Tod asked.

  “That tattoo on his shoulder, that outfit, that build, he was the person I killed for our first mission.”

  “What? How?”

  “I don’t know, his head is basically mush now, no coming back from that.”

  “What do we do?” Tod asked.

  “I say we sleep on it,” said Eiliesh.

  “Just leave him here?!”

  “Yeah, so what, he comes back, we leave in the middle of the night, just make sure the alarm system is armed.”

  “Okay…” Tod said.

  They made their way back to the house and went to sleep, there wasn’t any disturbance that night.

  * * *

  “Sir, you have an incoming transmission.”

  “Send it through,” Kane said.

  The screen in front of Kane lit up, “Earlier this morning Vincent ordered us to keep an eye on his son, while we were doing that… well… we have something.”

  Kane sat up, “Did you find a body?”

  “Yes sir, we already have it tied up and on its way to the closest branch, 73c.”

  “I’m on my way.”