Andrew Mackay - Pink Symphony

“No, no… please .”

The beast roared, spraying pink spittle into the air. Some of it hit Bonnie’s face as she trailed back by her elbows, “No!”

SWIPE!

Bonnie kicked her titanium foot at the beast in an attempt to fend it off. It had the opposite effect, enraging the beast even more.

Her leg detached from the ball and joint socket in her hip, the dislodged appendage firmly in the beast’s razor-sharp claws.

“Nooo,” Bonnie flipped onto her front and scrambled for her Rez-9. She grabbed at it but her fingertips couldn’t quite get there.

Just three inches separated her from death and freedom. “Please, please…”

WHUMP!

The beast roared once again and stabbed at Bonnie, spearing its front-left limb into the ground.

“Gah! Cute little thing, aren’t ya?”

Bonnie scrunched her face and planted the sole of her right boot on the creature’s front limb. The beast howled as she kicked herself back.

She rolled onto her side, swiped her Rez-9 in her right hand and swung the barrel at the center of the monstrosity.

“Hey, you!” She flicked the latch on the side of the chamber, arming the gun, “Look at me, you disgusting knuckle-headed bag of puke.”

All twelve of the creature’s limbs tightened up, throwing its body onto its haunches.

“Go to hell,” she pulled the trigger and covered her face.

The hole at the end of the barrel focused into the creature’s view, followed by a smothering of white light. It’s mouth opened up and screamed in her face. “Shantaaaaaaa—”

KA-SCHPPLLAAATTT!!!

The creature exploded into a zillion, gloopy pieces. It’s stuck front limb stood upright like a tent peg as the rest of it splattered across the ground, coating the sand a wet shade of pink and red.

Bonnie held her position – and her breath – wanting confirmation that the thing had been obliterated.

Her titanium leg slumped to the middle of the gore-strewn sand a few feet away from her.

She took a deep breath and pressed the back of her head against the sand, thankful she hadn’t been killed.

As the harsh, radioactive light from the three suns cooked her face, she realized she didn’t have to worry about sunburn. She was an Androgyne unit, after all, despite her memories suggesting the contrary.

Bonnie moved her head to the side. The waves crashed against the shore.

The tree was there a few moments ago but had disappeared during the fight. Its absence brought Bonnie back into action.

Where had Jelly gone?

A thousand bubbles raced up Jelly’s arms as she waded through the clear, blue water.

“Blug-blug-blug,” came out of her mouth instead of a meow. Her lungs expelled the oxygen into the never-ending depths of the ocean.

Her whiskers lit up a neon yellow and fizzed at the tips. Her infinity claws acted the same way as she forced herself to keep her eyes open.

She’d experienced water before. Outside of actually needing to drink it, she’d fallen into Jamie’s paddling pool in the garden area outside his apartment. It was a torturous affair for her.

But this was no paddling pool. It stretched out in all directions. The surface was only a few feet from her head.

She learned to swim right there and then. A movement of both arms seemed to do the trick. She waded as hard as she could, trying to reach the surface.

It was no use.

Time and oxygen were running out. A feeling of suffocation began to pervade her body and mind. The ensuing panic afforded her that vital few seconds she’d need if she was to ever reach the surface.

Bwup, bwup, bwup…

Jelly felt her whiskers direct her away from the surface – the opposite direction to her she felt she needed to go.

A dolphin echo from way, way down pierced through the water. Before long, a second and third siren beamed through the density of the ocean.

Her claws opened out and sparked again, pointing toward the ocean bed. It was too far down to be seen with her eyes. It was clear to her that her whiskers were pointing her to the ocean bed.

Jelly had no concept of drowning. She knew she needed to breathe, though, that much was clear. How long could she hold on for without any air?

Whump .

A ripple of bubbles spread apart as she waded downward, in her infinite wisdom, hoping she’s find a second surface. With no concept of drowning came little concept of how physics worked. She was a cat, after all, trying to figure out everything on her own terms.

The pervading tail-end of the whump noise rumbling through the water crashed against her, firing up her internal engine. She clawed at the bubbles, hoping one of them might release so much-needed respite.

No such luck.

The other bubbles chuckled away, laughing at her, as she tried to kill them. They were too fast.

Whump …

It was easy enough for her to recoil and tumble head-over-tail in the weightlessness of the ocean. A feeling she’d experienced once or twice during zero gravity training. At least she had that going for her.

That second whump sound came from somewhere down below. Jelly pressed her paws to her face and stopped moving. Her tail drifted up between her fanned-out legs as she tried to block out the fury she felt.

“Bleooowwulp…” she squealed, expending most of what little oxygen remained in her body.

Then… that dawning realization set in. No more air. That was her last breath floating in a warbled, glinting cloud dead in front of her face.

Her whiskers buzzed to life once again, sending a tingling sensation down her spine.

Jelly barreled over and plummeted toward the sea bed as fast as she could. On the way, she spotted a school of fish swimming around. The same fish that would go on to beach themselves and turn into those creatures.

She wished she could trade places with them.

Biddum-biddum-biddum…

Her heart-rate quickened. The water felt like it was heating up. Nothing to do with her proximity within the water, rather, her rising body temperature and fear that death was looming.

Death was on the cards if a way out didn’t present itself soon.

“Blowaarggh…” Jelly let out the last gasp of oxygen she had in her lungs. The closer to the ocean bed she swam, the more her whiskers lit up and fizzed.

Her infinity claws pushed push the water away, almost intuitively. She breast-stroked deeper and deeper toward the ocean bed.

A pink hue burst through the water from below like a discarded floodlight. The strips of light bounced around, offering her a challenge.

Swipe right, fail to catch.

Swipe left, bound forward – still no success.

The light couldn’t be caught. The closer she swam to the source the more her whiskers seemed to guide her.

Way, way up above, an unintelligible voice shouted something at someone. Then, the sound of a holy thud creaked across the ocean’s surface.

A deathly howl followed.

The blackened branches of the tree bulleted through the water, narrowly missing Jelly as she continued to swim…

And swim…

Her whiskers danced a glorious light show as the source of the pink beams made itself visually available.

A gelatinous blob of pink throbbed near the root of the tree, surrounded by a sliver of gold haze.

“Glub… glub,” Jelly’s mouth opened out. Her eyes widened at the view of the spectacular foreign entity calling her down.

Consciousness was about to become a thing of the past…

“Jelly?”

“Meow.”

“I know you’re not a dog. But I have this ball if you wanna play with it?”