After I had gotten back up the ladder, I started back towards the bunk, looking for evidence that I'd just had an uncharacteristic, smelly, soggy sleepwalking dream, when I heard more sex noises coming from the game room.

  I looked back towards the game room, confused, but then heat surged in my head, making my scalp prickle as I heard Doctor Sharp's voice, "You like that?" And in response, "Stop...please...PLEASE!!" Love's voice, it sounded hoarse, like she'd been screaming.

  I sprinted towards the game room, hoping to god that I hadnt heard what I thought I was hearing, that this was all still some weird dream!

  Foot over foot, growing ever faster with every panicked step, slamming into the door and bursting it open with how fast I had been running.

  And there I saw them, Doctor Sharp, pants down, hat off, with Love's ankles on his shoulders while he held her wrists against the couch cushion behind her head.

  Suddenly we locked eyes, he grinned at me, licking his lips, and like that, I was a monster again.

  A wordless yell of rage and pain escaped my throat as I drew the sword and catapulted myself across the room towards him, fear struck his face as he threw himself to the side.

  I landed knees first into the TV, destroying it and Shattering glass everywhere. I wrenched myself free, Tearing myself bloodily from the hole I had made as he abandoned his pants to run down the hallway.

  No time to worry about injuries, I chased after him, barefoot, like he was, the new sword raised above my head as I easily overtook him, the adrenaline making me animal-like, tripping as he dipped out of the way of my initial swing, landing on one of my hands, I pivoted and swiped at him with my sword, slashing him across his right arm as he held it up to defend himself.

  "FUCK!!"

  He spun away from the blow and I grabbed his ankle, causing him to fall on his face, "We TRUSTED you!!" Green bellowed at him while all I could do was shed tears, "Why do all this if you're just...WHY make us feel safe!?" with a desperate grunt, Sharp kicked me in the face, the fear I saw on his face sped my footsteps as I vaulted off a nearby wall to stab him, the Sword passed through him like butter, shearing through his shoulder before he seemed to fall through the floor.

  I looked down at the hole he had fallen through, it was an octagonal hole with edges that seemed to fluctuate as I looked at them, he was standing on the floor below us, looking down at a device in his hands, aggressively hammering some of the buttons as I lept through, sword held at the ready.

  I slashed at him but he immediately fell through another hole that I again pursued him through, this time landing directly on top of him and pinning him to the floor, Green wordlessly hissed at him as we raised the sword again, only for both of us to fall through another octagonal hole into the now dark city square, once we hit ground, Sharp kicked me in the chest, sending me off him so he could get up and run.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "The fuck!?" I looked around for a split second and immediately scrambled after him, not heeding the fact that we had JUST been in the sub-levels of the facility but were now in the square my squad and I had been partying In, miles from the facility.

  He fell through another hole and I dived in again before it could close, I kicked at his knees mid-air and he fell beneath me once again, I had him, I had his ass.

  "PLEASE!! PLEASE!!" He shouted from under my bare glass-filled foot as I thrust my sword forward only to be tackled by two security guards.

  They held me down and kicked my sword away as I writhed under them, screaming, "LET ME GO!!" I was seeing red, kicking, and punching, they kept holding me as I looked the smug bastard dead in the eyes, "The JABs are beyond saving." He said to someone I couldn't see as he broke eye contact to look to his right, playing up the now bleeding stab wound, clutching at his arm as it hung limp, "violent and irresponsible...they stole my car last night and when I confronted them about it they-" that was when I heard a punch, Doctor Sharp fell to the floor with a bloody nose, dazed.

  "Let him up." I heard MAL's voice from behind the guards, they parted and let me get up but stopped me from advancing towards Sharp, "We know you're not at fault here." Said MAL, her silver eyes boring into mine, "Ever since you got this assignment, we've been waiting and watching, when Sharp sounded the alarm after he grabbed the space pincher, we got into the security tapes and saw-" I held up a hand as I staggered and sat down, noticing the glass in my feet for the first time since this chase began.

  A dull pain that slowly began to ramp up to unbearable as the adrenaline wore off.

  I blink hard as I start pulling glass shards from my foot, "where am I?"

  I look up at MAL, who winces as she watches me just pulling the glass out with my bare hands, digging in the wound to find any fragments, "Headquarters, where you were before we assigned you, Jesus."

  I nod and pull the rest of the glass out of my left foot, then move on to my right foot, everything felt hazy, like a dream, but I'm pretty sure that was just the trauma of what I had seen slowly squeezing my brain, "He made some sort of holes...that was how we got here...how do I do that?"

  I tried to stand but couldn't, My body was remembering just how tired I had been at the outset as my anger subsided and MAL explained about the weird "space pincher" device that Sharp used to get us here.

  What I gathered from it was that the machine used some form of localized gravity well to bring two points in space and time together in a single instant for what basically functions as a handheld portal device.

  When the explaining began to steer towards metaphysics I held up a hand.

  "MAL....I'm all torn up and Love is back at the facility, probably drugged...I need to go back there."

  MAL nodded, looking concerned as I squeezed the wounds on my feet to make sure there were no more foreign bodies, "you need a bandage?"

  I wave her away and she punches Sharp again as she takes his space pincher thing out of his jacket pocket, by now the guards had pulled him to his feet and cuffed him.

  He looked at me with a crooked smile, the same smile he always wore, with no variation, only now did I see that smile for what it was, it disgusted me, "How was your peace, kid? I hope you enjoyed it, because it's the last peace you'll see-" MAL turned to him and whispered something, his head slumped forward, then she turned to me.

  "I have the original coordinates plugged in, you kids are probably going to be there for another week."

  I pause as she starts activating the device, "Then what?'

  She didn't even look up from the device as she answered me, "Reassignment, probably to a mission that matches your skills more."

  Only then does she look up at me, her eyes widen momentarily at the rageful expression on my face.

  I don't say anything, I just look her dead in the eyes as the octagonal hole in the floor opens, wordlessly stepping down through it.