Hunted

Hunted

by Isiah Maisonet

The sun was beaming down onto earth. It was a hot day in the city of Dereon. The birds were chirping, the air smelled fresh and Brian, a.k.a. Whiplash, was sitting on a bench in the park enjoying the nice sun and getting cozy.

The sound of motorcycles approaching catches my attention, two tall large men start approaching me, one of them is wearing a leather jacket and a junky shirt and baggy pants that are ripped while the other man seems more fancy, wearing a nice dark suit and leather shoes.

“Are you Whiplash?” The fancy one asks.

I raise my head to him and gaze at him for a moment. “Yeah, what’s it to you?”

He sat next to me on the bench and pulled out a datapad to show me a picture of a man in a suit with greased hair that goes back.

“We heard that you were the best bounty hunter in this sector . . . So how much credits is it gonna be?” he asked.

I smile sinisterly. “How about 200,000 credits?” I reply selfishly.

His eyes widened. “What are you running a scam? You trying to rob me!” he says, looking frustrated.

I shrug in response. “Hey, business is business.”

He sighs and rubs his temples. “You’ll get the money when the job is done alright . . . I’ll send you the info once you’re ready.”

“Alright then,” I get up from the bench and stretch and take off to my apartment.

After dropping the coordinates in the datapad, Whiplash arrives at planet NZ2 within the hour. He starts his hunt. He is responsible for tracking down and killing his target only known as Lockdown. He looks around, checking every bit of the city of Planet NZ2 until he sees him roaming the streets going somewhere and hiding, but not very well. As a result, Whiplash follows him. Lockdown eventually walks into a building but to get in there is a code, Whiplash notices that the building is across the street from a hotel, perfect for an

assassination. Whiplash rented a room on the fifth floor and after making his rifle the spartan laser he goes to the window aiming down his sights, looking for Lockdown. He eventually sees him but sees something . . . Lockdown has a family. Whiplash thinks either to shoot or leave, he tries to pull the trigger but he is unable to. He doesn’t want to ruin this man’s family, so he decides to pack it up and leave but while he is leaving a sudden pain strikes him in the head. Whiplash falls to the ground, grabbing his head in pain.

“W-what is this pain,” he says in frustration.

Whiplash starts hearing a familiar voice but can’t remember who it is or what it is. He starts to remember something.

“So what do you think?” Whiplash says excitingly.

He is in someone’s living room. It’s very crowded with objects and trash everywhere and it stinks of weeks old garbage. He is sitting on the couch next to a man he can’t really see him that much, it’s really fuzzy.

“I don’t know man it seems kinda like a sucide mission . . . you sure we can go through with this bounty?’’ The man sounds very worried.

“Aw come on, this is a lot of credits, just think of what we can buy!” Whiplash sounds very confident.

The man sighs and smiles a bit. “Fine, I guess we can do it.”

Whiplash gets up from the floor confused from what he just remembered but still seems so familiar. As he gets up from the floor he spots the two men from earlier approaching him. Whiplash sweats a little and thinks to himself how this is going to go south real quick.

“So, did you do the job?” The baggy one says, with the leather jacket and dirty shirt with ripped jeans.

“Well . . . I-I couldn’t do it,” Whiplash nervously says.

Both of the men look at each other and laugh.

“Heh this is a joke right?” the fancy one says.

Whiplash shakes his head no and both of the men fall silent.

“Well, if that’s the case . . . ”

The fancy one punches Whiplash in the stomach, the pain rockets through his body and now he feels like he has to vomit. Then he is grabbed and thrown to the wall.

“Any last words?” the baggy one says while pulling out a gun.

“Yeah . . . I’ll see you on the other side,” Whiplash smiles.

Whiplash activates his augmentations and a pair of blades that look like mantis hands come out of his arm and he quickly stabs the man with the gun in the stomach and slicing it open his organs fall out. The man screams in pain walking his gun around in the air hitting his partner in the face. Whiplash then takes his chance and tackles the fancy one to the ground and starts punching him in the face multiple times, but the man is able to push Whiplash off him and takes out a holopad calling someone. Whiplash charges at the man but he dodges and starts yelling at the holopad.

“KILL WHIPLASH!” the man says.

Whiplash rushes the man once more, stabbing him multiple times until he falls to the ground slowly bleeding to death.

“W-we are going to come and find you, just remember that,” the man says softly before taking his last breath.

Whiplash starts hearing a beeping noise from one of the dead bodies and picks up a device from one of them and inspects it. There is a timer on the device that has twenty seconds on it, Whiplash suddenly realizes what it is and throws it to the ground, and presses a pad on his wrist that calls his ship to him. Whiplash begins to run to the hallway window as fast as he can and he hears a robotic voice counting down behind him.

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,” it says.

Whiplash jumps out the window, glass falling around him as he falls to the ground. There is an explosion on the hotel floor he was just in, the shockwave sends him out further but his ship catches him landing right into the cockpit of the ship.

“W-wow now that was a close one,” he nervously chuckles.

Whiplash takes control of the ship and heads out to orbit when his head starts to hurt again. He starts to remember something again.

Whiplash is now in a gunfight with the man he saw earlier. It looks like they are in a warehouse with boxes as cover, the lights are very dim and he can’t see much except for the man and constant bullets being shot at them. It seems that this mysterious man is his partner. He is wearing a leather jacket with some dark pants and his hair is a mohawk.

“I knew this would happen,” the mysterious man says.

“Yeah you were right for this one Alex,” Whiplash says, agreeing.

So that’s what his name is. Alex and Whiplash shoot back at people shooting at them.

“So, how are we gonna get out of here?” Alex says.

“I don’t kn—” Whiplash is cut off by a grenade being thrown at them. It lands right between them and both take cover and then BOOM!

Whiplash opens his eyes slowly, his whole body in pain and his head feels like someone is just kicking it over and over. Whiplash slowly regains his vision to see his partner Alex missing a leg and bleeding out.

“W-Whiplash help me p-please man,” Alex says weakly.

Whiplash begins to sweat and looks around and sees an exit but also notices that the people who they were fighting are closing in on them. He then turns to his partner and his friend. Then he looks back at the exit, he doesn’t know what to do, he’s scared.

“C-come on hurry up.” Alex says. Whiplash turns to Alex.

“I-I’m sorry,” Whiplash says while tearing up. Whiplash quickly runs to the exit, leaving Alex behind. He can hear him screaming his name.

Whiplash awakens with tears streaming down his face, now he remembers what he did and regrets it. He checks until how long he can get to his home planet and he is close. There is a beeping sound and Whiplash checks his radar, it shows five ships behind him, he quickly panics and moves the ship off course but then the ships behind start firing at him. Whiplash tries his best to avoid getting hit, but gets hit a little. His ship isn’t a battleship, Whiplash keeps dodging until a laser cannon hits him causing major damage to his ship and forcing him to go to the nearby planet to crash land. He enters the planet’s atmosphere, pulling up so he doesn’t die in the process, and then he crashes into the ground.

Whiplash regains consciousness and feels horrible as if a cat just hit him. He has a huge wound on his leg which is bleeding a lot and he thinks some of his ribs are broken but nonetheless he needs to get up and leave. Whiplash limps to get a medkit, traps, and his trusty spartan laser rifle. He then crawls out of one of the holes from his damaged ship buried into the ground. Whiplash doesn’t know what planet he is on, but everything is sand and nothing. It’s very hot. Whiplash notices an abandoned building and limps to it. When inside he bandages up his wound and then begins to put some traps down, knowing that his attackers will be here to finish the job. After waiting for almost an hour his attackers finally arrive leaving their ships about thirty of them come out. They seem to be a different species. They look like hogs, but with green and purple skin. They all seem to be wearing

biker gang outfits, Whiplash is by a window, aiming down his sights.

“CHECK THE SHIP FOR HIS BODY,” one of them yells.

They start checking Whiplash’s ship until one of them spots his footprints leading into the bundling where he is. Whiplash wants to shoot but he waits for them to come inside because he’s got a surprise for them. Whiplash starts counting in his head. 3 ,2, 1!

There is an explosion down stairs and Whiplash begins firing on them one by one. He smiles confidently as he hears another explosion downstairs. Whiplash reloads his gun but doesn’t hear the third explosion go off, so he turns around and the last thing he sees is a fist.

Whiplash awakens in a somewhat dark room, it’s very dim and he is tied to a chair with rope. He looks around confused and in pain his ribs still hurt from that crash. His head feels horrible.

“Well well well, look who decided to wake up from his little nap,” someone says from the dark corner of the room.

“Show yourself, coward!” Whiplash growls.

“Awww don’t be like that . . . especially from an old friend!” the person says excitedly.

“Old friend?” Whiplash says, confused.

A shirtless man with tattoos all over his body steps out of the darkness. He has one robotic arm making up for the missing one. Whiplash inspects him until he sees his face. His jaw drops.

“A-Alex?” Whiplash says, surprised.

“In the flesh,” Alex begins to laugh.

“But how are you alive? I-I thought you were dead,” Whiplash sounds confused.

“Let’s just say I made a deal and took over,” Alex said as he moved up closer to Whiplash.

“Now just stay here. I’ve got big plans for you and don’t even try to use your augmentations, I turned them off,” Alex laughs and walks out the room. He locks the door.

You can hear him telling the guards to watch you.

Whiplash tries to move around but can’t, he thinks to himself and remembers that one of his fingers isn’t real and is holding a small knife so he pulls out the knife and begins to cut the rope with the small knife. After ten minutes the rope finally gives way and drops to the floor, he then yells to the guards.

“GUARDS, GUARDS!”

Whiplash quickly hides in one of the dark corners. one of the guards checks through the peephole and notices that and quickly opens the door and both of the guards rush in looking for him. Whiplash grabs the one guard and pulls him into the corner then slits his throat, killing him. The sound of the body dropping alerts the other guard and he turns around and Whiplash throws the knife to his face hitting him right in the eye killing him instantly. He takes the knife out from the eye of the dead guard and runs out into the hallway to see a door; he quickly opens it and stumbles into a cage and the door behind him locks. It’s dark until lights flash brightly around him and he sees a bunch of people in seats in rows cheering loudly. Whiplash looks around confused until he sees Alex laughing and cheering along with them until he walks into the cage. Alex is holding a mic in his hand and puts it near his mouth.

“Now, Whiplash, let’s make ourselves a deal,” he says into the mic. “We are gonna have a cage fight . . . If you win I’ll let you go BUT if I win I get to kill you!” Alex smiles.

“So what’s it gonna be?” Alex asks.

Whiplash clenches his jaw. “IT’S A DEAL!” he yells.

The crowd of people start cheering in excitement. Alex turns off the mic and gets into a battle stance and Whiplash gets into a fighter stance. Whiplash charges at Alex, but he jumps out the way and knees Whiplash in the stomach. Since Whiplash’s ribs are broken he feels the pain skyrocket through his body and he starts coughing up blood. Whiplash grabs his chest in pain and charges at Alex once more but gets punched in the face which sends him stumbling backwards. He grabs his face and opens his eyes just to see Alex unload punches on him and then gets uppercutted and is sent flying backwards. Those don’t feel like normal punches, each of those punches hold rage with them. Whiplash vomits up blood feeling weak. Alex walks up to him grinning madly, the crowd cheering out his name.

“Just give it up,” Alex says confidently.

Whiplash smiles. “I should say the same for you,” Whiplash says, laughing a little.

“Wha—” Alex is cut off.

Whiplash kicks Alex right in the junk. Alex grabs it, tearing up. Whiplash quickly gets up and starts walling punches onto Alex’s face, blood flying everywhere. He then kicks him right in the chest, sending

Alex backwards. Alex seems angry and charges right to Whiplash but Whiplash ducks under him, uppercutting, and then sends punches to his stomach. Alex falls to the ground and quickly gets back up, the crowd around him booing Whiplash.

“WHIPLASH!” Alex yells charging at Whiplash.

“ALEX!” Whiplash yells charging at Alex.

Both of them charge at each other getting ready for the final punch. Alex punches Whiplash but he is able to dodge. Whiplash puts all the power he can into this last punch and hits Alex right in the face sending him flying back to the ground. Whiplash pants in exhaustion and walks up to Alex.

“Time for your part of the deal,” Whiplash says. Alex’s nose is bleeding.

“Deals changed!” Alex says aggressively, pulling out a button and pressing it down.

There are explosions heard outside and the building begins to shake and crumbles. Parts of the ceiling begin to fall down and an alarm goes off. The crowd begins to scream and run to the exit, a piece of the ceilings falls onto the cage leaving an opening. Whiplash is about to book it until he realizes that Alex is behind him.

“No, I won’t let it happen again,” Whiplash says.

Whiplash runs up to Alex and knocks him out and then picks him up and runs for the exit. Whiplash is able to make it out of the building, spotting a ship and quickly running inside and taking off to his home planet.

6 Months Later

Whiplash is at a prison to visit someone, he walks to one of the hologram booths and sits down. Alex pops up, he is in orange prison clothes.

“So Alex how is prison holding you up?” Whiplash asks.

“I-it’s pretty alright I made a couple of friends,” Alex says, scratching the back of his head. Whiplash chuckles.

“How much longer until you get out?” Whiplash asks.

“Well, the judge said I’m doing six years sooooooooo yeah,” Alex sighs.

“I’ll be waiting for you until then and when you come out we can go to a bar together.”

Alex laughs. “Well that does sound good,” Alex says excitingly.

“And by the way, thanks for saving me back then,” Alex says.

Whiplash smiles. “Don’t mention it . . . Well, I gotta go bud. I’ll see you next time.”

“See ya,” Alex says back.

The holopad turns off and Whiplash gets up and walks out of the prison, feeling happy.