Hard Luck Hermit

The crudely scrawled trails of blood led to a rusted door, and ended there. Doprel stood outside it, waiting for the others to arrive. A quiet hum emerged from a gap between the battered door and the scuffed floor beneath it.

Part of him debated going in right away. He was the toughest of the crew, and would likely be first through the door anyway. He had the least to fear when it came to personal harm. The images of Loben’s murder still stuck in the back of his mind, and weighed down his steps. If the scene past that door was even half as gruesome…

Doprel’s deliberations were cut short by Kamak’s arrival. He whipped around the corner and came to a sudden halt right by Doprel’s side.

“This the end of the trail?”

Doprel nodded. Kamak looked at the door.

“You gone in yet?”

Doprel shook his head.

“Watch my back.”

Kamak grabbed his gun, went to the door, and braced his shoulder against it. After taking a moment to try and listen for anything suspicious on the other side of the door, Kamak heard only the faint whir of some unseen mechanism. He gave up, slammed the door open, and went in gun first.

Nothing shot at him, which he considered a positive development. The interior of the building looked empty and decrepit, likely abandoned long ago. He checked his corners and walked further in, as Doprel followed a few steps behind.

“You hear anything?”

“Just some machine,” Doprel said. His hearing range was slightly broader than the average species, so he occasionally heard things that Kamak didn’t. “There’s an engine, and...pumping. Liquid pumping.”

“Don’t like that,” Kamak mumbled. He decided to take the risk and raised his voice. “Quid?”

No answer.

“Quid!”

The quiet groan of distant machinery was joined by the quiet groan of nearby suffering. Kamak looked up, following a rusty metal walkway leading to an empty office structure above the manufacturing line. Kamak bolted up the stairs, while Doprel stayed behind. The rusted metal stairway didn’t look fit to hold his weight.

“I’m coming, Quid, just-”

Any other words that Kamak had planned to say got caught in a muted gurgle of disgust as he rounded the corner and gagged at the sight. Quid was alive. And just like Kamak had feared, being alive was worse.

The last victim had been cut open across the front -Quid had been cut open across the back. Kamak could see stretched portions of his flayed skin pinned to the same table Quid himself had been strapped to. That was only half the horror. The other half were the narrow tubes winding their way beneath the skin, into his exposed back, piping crimson blood out of his body, through a device in the same room, and then back in, like a macabre artificial heart. Kamak reeled in horror and stepped back until he hit the rusted railing of the stairway.

It got worse. Quid made eye contact. Kamak couldn’t muster words for a few seconds.

“Just- just hold on, Quid,” Kamak finally said. He wasn’t sure what ‘hold on’ meant in this context, he just needed to say something vaguely reassuring. “We’ll get you out of there, okay?”

Quid nodded. If anything, it made Kamak feel worse.

Thankfully for everyone involved, Dr. Theddis had been available. There were few physicians Kamak trusted, and even fewer he thought could stomach the sight of a man cut open like that. Theddis was both an experienced surgeon and a former bounty hunter himself, which meant he had a stronger tolerance for viscera than most. He was barely even nauseous when he stepped back out of the building.

“Your report, Doctor?”

Along with the rest of Kamak’s crew, To Vo La Su and another officer had flocked to the scene. The cop had introduced herself as Annin, and from the way she spoke, she seemed to assume she was in charge of the situation. Theddis glanced at Kamak, who shrugged. Whatever he was about to say, he might as well say to everyone.

“Portions of the victims circulatory system have been removed and replaced with a makeshift external pump,” Dr. Theddis said. “The work is extensive, and...irreparable.”

“Irreparable? There’s no way to get him out of that thing?”

“Not alive,” Theddis grunted.

“Quid’s still alive, there’s got to be something-”

“That device was not built to keep him alive, Kamak, it was built to kill him slowly,” Theddis said. He peeled off bloody gloves and discarded them into a biohazard bag. “If I had a team of the best surgeons in the universe I couldn’t get him out of that thing. I’m sorry.”

“Then what do we do?”

“I’ve given him something for the pain and called the clinic for a...kit,” Theddis said. The unspoken word hung heavy in the air. He withdrew a small card from the pocket of his coat and held it out to Officer Annin. “I’m fully licensed for all necessary procedures, ma’am, you can stand as witness if you want.”

It took a few seconds for Annin to realize exactly what he meant.

“That won’t be necessary,” she said. “However...this man is currently our only living witness in this ongoing case.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Kamak said.

“He should be relatively lucid for the near future,” Theddis said. “And it’ll take time for the necessary equipment to get here anyway. But when it does arrive, I’ll be ethically obligated to begin proceedings as soon as possible. Depending on Quid’s wishes…”

Kamak nodded, and gave Theddis a pat on the shoulder.

“I guess I’ve already seen this shit,” Kamak said. “Unless someone else would like to volunteer?”

Shockingly, no one did. Kamak bit his tongue and walked back into the rusted facility, up the ramshackle stairs. He was relieved to find Theddis had covered Quid in some kind of medical sheet, but the tubes pumping blood in and out of his body were still exposed. Kamak tried to ignore the crimson flow as he took a seat on a worn-down tabletop near the table.

“Quid. Can you hear me?”

Quid let out a groan that sounded vaguely affirmative, and tried to nod as best he could.

“Good. The doctor is...still considering his options,” Kamak said. He told himself he was just sparing Quid the bad news for a little while longer, and almost believed it. “In the meantime, I want to know about who did this to you. Can you describe them?”

Quid took several deep breaths to prepare himself for the effort of speaking.

“Female. Red. Tall.”

Kamak’s mind immediately flickered to Bevo.

“Was she strong? Broad shouldered? Did she have any scars?”

“Strong. Tall, but not big. No scars. Brown hair.”

That sounded a little less like Bevo. While she was strong and tall, she was also broad-shouldered, covered in scars, and she had a shaved head, or maybe was naturally bald.

“Is there anything else about her I should know?”

Quid took another deep breath, and his exhalation rattled in a way Kamak was unfortunately familiar with.

“She hated you. All of you. So much,” Quid gasped. “Don’t know why. Just...angry. Forever.”

“Fantastic,” Kamak mumbled. Quid took another rattling breath.

“She said something. Strange,” Quid said. “I asked her to stop. She said…‘don’t worry’…”

Quid’s dull eyes focused on something a million miles away, and then he managed to tilt his head towards Kamak to look him in the eyes.

“‘Through me, you will live forever’.”

It might have just been the death rattle in Quid’s voice, but something about that one sentence sent a shiver down Kamak’s spine. He’d heard that brand of insanity before. It never ended well. He tried to come up with another question, but couldn’t manage one.

“I’m sorry, Quid,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this.”

Kamak put his head in his hands.

“I’m sorry you ever met me.”

“Not your fault,” Quid said. “I asked. For the job.”

The machine he was attached to let out a quiet beep, and the blood flowing through it paused briefly before it beeped again and the flow resumed.

“My job was boring. I thought it’d be...exciting.”

That made Kamak more sick to his stomach than any of the gore had managed. He stepped away from Quid and gagged, trying not to vomit all over the rusty railings. When he finally regained his composure, he looked up to see Dr. Theddis waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

“If you need more time…”

“No,” Kamak said. “I’m done.”

He walked away, and did not look back.