Max Collins - Skin Game

The sounds of the others screaming — whether from pain or fear, he couldn’t tell — invaded the privacy of his skull. When it came to blending in with people, one of the secrets to success was empathy — and Kelpy had it; now he just wished he could turn it off.

The wails from the other cells felt like an army of demons inside his body trying to rip his soul to shreds. He curled into a fetal ball, trying to make himself as small as possible, and covered his ears with his body as best he could... but the screams still pierced, and the pain became unbearable.

Kelpy was about to start beating his skull on the plastic floor of his cage when the heavy metal door to his cell swung slowly open.

Sitting up, Kelpy searched for the sight of a guard or Joshua or someone... but no one came, and the screams suddenly shifted in volume. The door was only open a few inches, less than a foot — a smidgen provided by the release of the magnetic lock — but through that slit, Kelpy could make out motion.

He hoped someone was coming for him, either to kill him or release him. He really didn’t care which, and was afraid to admit to himself which was his real preference.

No one stopped, though, the motion through the slit almost continuous now, and finally Kelpy realized that the others were free. They were running down the hall to freedom while he was still locked in the Plexiglas cage within his cell.

Suddenly it struck him that he really didn’t want to die.

Struggling to his feet, Kelpy yelled; but he had a small voice, one that didn’t stand out or draw attention, one that most certainly couldn’t be heard above the cacophony in the hall. He shouted over and over, but he knew they didn’t hear, couldn’t hear. They were all running for their lives and didn’t have time for him.

Tears ran hot down his cheeks and Kelpy resigned himself to burning to death, alone, his oven... and then his tomb... to be a plastic one, and eventually his remains would blend in with the mound of melted goo.

Then she came through the door!

Kelpy was so overcome, he simply stood still as she swept in.

How beautiful she was! Long black hair, luminous dark eyes, bee-stung red lips, and skin the color of the sugary caramels he was given at Christmas, all wrapped up in the black package of her attire.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “Everybody’s getting out.”

He watched silently as she ripped a leg off the steel bunk against the wall.

Stepping up to the cage, she said, “Stand back.”

Kelpy backed up against the rear wall.

Raising the busted-off bunk leg, she crashed it down on the lock, and the plastic around the metal mechanism seemed to vaporize.

The door opened, she reached in and helped him out onto the floor of the cell. She spun him and — from behind — he heard a rip as she tore the straitjacket to shreds, as if he too were a present and she was unwrapping him.

For the first time in days, Kelpy’s arms swung free.

“Down the hall to the right,” she said, her voice calm. “Follow the crowd, stay close to someone, and we’ll all get out of here.”

He nodded, struck dumb by her dazzling beauty, her commanding presence.

“Can you talk?”

He managed to say, “Yes.”

“Good — you can help. Keep people moving, follow the crowd. Got it?”

He nodded again.

She smiled at him, and, for the first time in his very strange life, Kelpy was in love.

Before he could say anything else to her, she turned and sprinted out the door, off to help anyone who needed it.

Stripping off the remnants of the straitjacket, Kelpy in his prison gray immediately blended in with the gray walls of the cell. He knew that if anyone came in now — though he wouldn’t be invisible exactly — he would be nearly impossible to see. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest... whether this physiological response derived from fear or the appearance of the black-haired goddess, he didn’t know, and he didn’t care. Either way, his adrenaline level was high enough that he blended in easily. He stripped out of his gray prisoner’s uniform...

Stepping out into the hall, the naked Kelpy kept to the sides, out of the way, and moved slowly among fleeing transgenics. While the rest ran pell-mell for their lives, Kelpy calmly searched for the dark-haired woman.

Of course, like the others, he did continue to move toward the exit; but he glanced into every cell, knowing she would be rescuing others, knowing too that — just as no one noticed him — his goddess would stick out in any crowd... let alone this one, where she was the only one who didn’t resemble some sort of animal and the only one not dressed in gray.

Four cells from his, he found her, helping someone else; and he fell in behind her. She never knew he was right there, but he was close enough to smell her sweat and he knew no perfume would ever match her own scent. As she continued toward the exit, shooing some, cajoling others, checking cells for stragglers, Kelpy stayed as near to her as he could.

Finally — with nearly everyone out and the fire encroaching rapidly — Joshua shouted, “Max, come on! We’ve got to go!”

Max — so the goddess had a name, and her name was Max.

She took off running, practically dragging two transgenics as she went. He stayed right on her, her unseen shadow, protecting her without her even knowing he was there. She got the other transgenics outside, then headed back inside, Kelpy on her tail, hugging the wall. She sprinted down the hall and entered the control room... with Kelpy trailing.

The guard standing immediately inside the door caught a foot in the face from Max and went down in a heap. Amazed by her prowess, Kelpy watched from a corner as Max came up silently behind the seated blonde woman in a lab coat; the woman seemed to be in charge.

“Where’s 452?” the woman, positioned before banks of monitors, demanded into a mike. “I’m not leaving without her!”

Grabbing the woman from behind, by the hair, Max said, “Good — ’cause I’m not leaving without you, Sunshine.”

Hammerlocking the woman, Max led her down the hall. All around them the fire greedily consumed the Manticore facility; but Max didn’t seem to care — she apparently had something else on her mind.

Following the two women, Kelpy looked on, his curiosity growing as he watched Max ignoring the danger of the burning building and leading the other woman down the hall, then through some doors into some kind of lab.

“Where’s the antigen?” Max demanded.

“I don’t know,” the blonde shrieked. “We’ve got to get out of here now , 452!”

Standing off to one side, Kelpy looked at the walls full of vials and small bottles of various colored liquids. Remaining against the one solid wall in the room, he blended in and remained virtually invisible.

Swinging the blonde by the arm, Max slung her into the steel door. The woman landed with a metallic thump, then Max spun her around and slammed her into the door once more. “My name is Max! Now... where is it?”

Max dragged the blonde around the room, bumping into this and that, until finally the woman began screaming, “Okay, okay, okay!”

The pair of females came to a stop, and the blonde jerked a small bottle of amber liquid off a glass shelf.

Max wrenched it from her hand.

A guard in black beret and fatigues burst into the room and raised his M-16 in the goddess’ direction.

Kelpy took one step, but was too late.

The guard fired, but — amazingly! — the blonde swept Max out of the way and two slugs ripped into the woman as she went down.

Max came up fast, kicked a cart full of bottles, which struck the guard, knocking the gun out of his hands. As the cart caught the guard, Kelpy blended back into the wall, but was ready to strike, should the guard make another move.