The Loss Adjustors - a story in instalments.

[tom_hobbes]

The Loss Adjustors<br /><br />Copyright Jay Hurst.<br /><br /><br />“You wanna join our quest, you gotta lose your guest.”<br /><br />It was a curious phrase. I would have been hard pressed to explain the cold thrill of fear and excitement then. They turned out to be the last words I heard in my old life.<br /><br />After he’d finished speaking them, slouching his way around me, waving his slicer gripped negligently between fingers and thumb, the speaker insinuated himself in front of me and opened his mouth to continue his monologue. An uneasy murmuring had begun moments ago by the entrance. I’d been vaguely aware of it, but suddenly the murmer became a roar. Before I had time to look, the concussion hit me and several others, the speaker of the group was beheaded in the same instant.<br /><br />I remember realising that I couldn’t hear my laughter as I staggered between the bodies and wreckage, deafened by the blast. Beams of sunlight lanced through the dust choked air illuminating the head of the speaker perched on the shoulder of another body. Most of it’s lower jaw was gone, mouth still poised, eyes open but drooping and gathering dust. He looked about to sing. As I watched, shrieking with hilarity, the gore of it’s neck shifted under a layer of masonry dust, pooling fresh blood onto the pale grimy shirt of the body below. That was hilarious too. My head ached, feeling stuffed and swollen. I was Laughing so hard I expected it to explode.<br /><br />Cherry laser light began to cut swathes through the thick air. A cloud of drones flew in pinpointing targets. Then Co-Intel special forces boiled into the room, already aware by my identifier that I was the only friendly present. Muzzle flashes strobed the dark, those still alive and clawing through the mayhem were shot until nothing moved.<br /><br /><i>You okay?</i><br /><br />Someone pulled me up and was mouthing this silently into my face having already removed his mask. I gasped for breath, spitting blood as I tried to control t <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>