Storymania - The Fighter by Ian Goodall

The Fighter
Ian Goodall

Yes it was a fine day or night out in the vast luminous glow of what we call space. The people stood in awe as the sun rose from behind a nearby planet.
“Yeah this is quite spectacular isn’t it?” a bearded man, standing at the back of the crowd, said.
“Perhaps,” said a voice in a higher tone than the response the bearded man wanted to get.
Startled he turned to see a beautiful woman standing before him with hair of gold and eyes you could stare at for hours and not get bored.
“H…Hello young la…”
She interrupted him.
“No hermit I wish not to talk to you but to the man standing beside you,” She said gracefully.
The man who was standing in the position she described suddenly turned and asked a question that had been on his mind for about three minutes.
“Why are you late?”
“Why not,” said the woman now looking irritated.
“Because I said so!” the man shouted then pulled the woman away from the crowd to a more private place.
“If you want to meet him you have to be on time!” grumbled the man.
“Meet who?”
The man stared at her with no expression,
“Meet the legendary Fighter,” he explained.
“Listen you; I have a full booking so hurry up unless you want your money to be wasted!” said the woman, looking quite pale.
The man looked at her and said one word and that word was,
“Sorry.”
The woman turned and stormed off, she got customers like that all the time with her house cleaning business. Usually the person would say where they lived but not this man he just told her to meet him at the show. She was so angry and when she reached her van she slammed it shut and speeded off.

It had been two weeks and he had not competed in one fight, his coach was disappointed. He might be losing his touch the coach always thought. But Gary new he wasn’t. The only reason was the war that threatened this dome and everybody in it.

There were eight domes numbered in that order. They were huge space stations where a lot of people lived nowadays. Two months ago a rogue robot army took over dome three and began to invade all the other domes. The dome Gary was in was number six and he knew that any minute the robots could try to take over this one. There was a defence force but they were not strong enough to defend the other domes so they were probably not strong enough to save this dome either. The coach disagreed. He was particularly bias towards the dome anyway. Gary couldn’t go on like this, he wanted to run away to another dome and continue his boxing career there.
“Poor old me” he thought and sulked all day.
Night came quickly, Gary was still sulking when his girlfriend entered the room.
“What’s wrong Hon?” she asked.
“Nothing babe.”
“Are you sure?”
Gary turned towards her.
“When I say I am fine, I am!” He bellowed.
His girlfriend flinched in surprise and ran out of the door.

The coach was sitting in a huge apartment about the size of a two storey house. He was watching the local news report on the attacks on dome five by the Entric Droid faction. It was all a mistake, thought the coach. People fight all the time and besides, the droids would not attack dome six anyway.
“And why is that?” asked a mysterious voice.
The coach jumped in fright and turned to see his daughter, Elena, standing over him.
“I forgot you could read my mind” he said.
“No of course not, you have mail that says we are safe from the droids and I just thought out aloud that’s all”
The coach smiled, “Of course.” he said cheerfully.

It had now been three weeks without a fight and Gary was very depressed. In fact, he had taken a liking to high amounts of beer on weekdays. His girlfriend had left him and he was a mess. The coach had given up on him and went to look for a new boxer to train.
“My life is stuffed now.” He thought sorrowfully.
Time was going to explode, and Greg was on the drink again.
The door bell rang.
“What!” He shouted.
“It’s the sector police. We are under attack and everyone needs to be evacuated” Replied the voice at the door.
Oh no, the droids are attacking. Everything Gary had presumed was happening.
“Alright!” he shouted. He ran to his room and put on last nights clothes, then opened the door. A tall man with dark hair and a goatee was standing at it. He appeared pale. There were two men behind him. The three rushed towards the next apartment as Gary scurried out of the door.
He was scared. Really scared. His life was in jeopardy and he knew it. There were several other officers in the hall helping the people evacuate and come to grips with the erupting situation.
“Were do I go?” asked Gary, trying not to panic.
“Down the stairs, out the door and into the van waiting in the street” explained a nearby officer.
He followed the signs that read ‘This way’ with an arrow pointing in the appropriate direction.
The building was not very tall so it did not take Gary long to reach the exit and run out into the night engulfed street.
Parked besides the building was a large vehicle that looked like a tissue box with a huge door that seemed to be made of steel at the back. It had windows that were darkly tinted. Gary ran towards the vehicle and was greeted by an armed officer,
“Right this way, Sir.” Said the officer, who looked as if he had seen several ghosts at the same time.
Greg stepped into the van and sat down on the nearest seat. It was roomier than it looked and the seats were very comfortable. Beside Gary was a man of forty.
“G, day mate. Scared of the attack,” the man asked.
“No, not really.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“If I say not really, then I mean it!”
Gary was as frustrated as ever and he wanted to rest. But he was scared; he just didn’t want to admit it. The man went quiet as more people entered the van.
When the van was filled, the two guards outside shut the doors and it began to move quite fast making Gary turn a shade of blue.
“It isn’t that bad.” Said an African-American, who was sitting across from him.
“I suppose it isn’t.” Replied Gary, who was now looking out of the window with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong?” asked the man beside Gary.
“Umm, it’s unusual because I thought we were under attack, but to me it seems as if we are not. There aren’t any Droids out there”
The man turned and looked out of the window. It looked like a normal city at night. There were no Droids to be found anywhere.
“Wait, I think I see a…”
He didn’t finish. A loud explosion cut him off and he had the sudden sensation of being flung through the air. It lasted forever, then he landed and pain seared the left side of his body. The world went black.

When Gary awoke there were about six armed officers standing around him talking.
“He looks alive to me.” one of them said.
“Only survivor.” said another.
The cold realisation set over him. They had been ambushed. The droids had destroyed the van and only Gary had survived. He attempted to speak but nothing came out.
“Don’t try to speak.” said one of the guards.
They picked Gary up and began to walk back to their patrol car. It seemed like hours but they finally made it back to the car. It had been destroyed.
“Ah, that is not good!” shouted the leading guard.
The troop stopped and sighed. This was it, the only chance they had was in a burning heap. They were done for and Gary knew it.
The guards set up a camp inside a nearby building. During all this Gary had heard lots of noise, like gunshots. They didn’t appear far away.
“Are you alright mate?” asked a guard.
Gary attempted to speak and it worked,
“Yeah, I am fine. Could I have some water?”
“Well sure.” The guard poured Gary some water.
Hours later the men where still huddled up in the small building talking about their life stories, Gary thought it was interesting and since he could not move, he had to listen. He had been thinking about the situation for some time. The Droids had attacked the dome, so the coach was wrong. He had said the Entric Droids could not possibly attack the dome. Gary wondered what the coach was up too. The cold air was getting to him and sleep took over in a matter of minutes.

The coach was sitting in the freezing cold, surrounded by Droids. He knew that his life would end shortly. How this would happen, he did not know. He was sure that the security force was right about the Droids not being able to attack them. He looked up towards one of the Droids. It looked like a big toy. It was made of steel and had two huge machine guns held in each robotic hand.
“Ticknit mac fil.” the words that came out of the droids mouth were unusual but they where soon translated,
“Destroy the man.” was the translation.
“Please, don’t kill me.” pleaded the coach. His daughter had escaped because he had held the Droids off but now his life would end without any real achievements.
The Droid aimed its weapon at the coach’s head,
“My name is Phillip!” he shouted as he dove into the Droids. All but the leader fell. The Droid aimed and shot Phillip in the head. The brave coach, who coached Gary the boxer all his life, was dead…

When Gary awoke, the guards were gone. He arose out of his sleeping bag and stepped outside. A guard stood there peering down at the others lying on the ground.
“They are dead aren’t they?” stated Gary.
“Yes. It’s not fair that I had to live whilst my comrades had to fall.” Gary put his arm on the guards shoulder and sighed.
“Oh well, we can’t win all the time.”
“You are right, Gary.”
“You know my name?”
“Of course. You’re a famous boxer in this Dome and others. My name is Rick”
“Well hello. We had better leave this place now”
“Oh. Ok” said Rick.
The pair walked off towards the road, not daring to glance back at the bodies of their comrades. They walked for a while and saw nothing. They were beginning to get suspicious when they saw a large troop of Entric Droids coming towards them.
“I don’t think they have spotted us yet.” said Rick.
The pair ducked out of the way and watched the troop move by.
“Where are we going?” asked Gary.
“To the extraction point.”
“Where is the extraction point?”
“Not far, just up this road” they continued on towards the extraction point.

Not far away a small squad of D.D.F (Dome Defence Forces) landed in a small carrier known as a “Moth”. The men that stepped out of the “Moth” were of high rank. They had a high amount of weaponry on them and appeared to be ruthless.
“Get your ass in, and then get it out!” shouted the captain. They moved off in different directions.

Gary and Rick who he had met only hours before, had been walking for some time and apart from hearing the occasional explosion you would have thought the Dome was not under attack. The extraction point was near and Gary could taste safety, or so he thought. The area they were walking through was a dump, rubbish was pilled high and there were several cars that seemed to be used as homes. The noise settled and everything went quiet.
“I don’t like the sound of this, its too quiet” stated Rick
“I know what you mea…” finishing was not allowed for a large Droid appeared behind Rick and knocked him flying. His gun was broken in half. Not thinking Gary ran towards the Droid and punched it in the face, or what looked like the face. The Droid was not affected. It just knocked Gary out of the way and aimed at Rick. Suddenly Gary remembered that he had knuckle dusters in his pocket. He quickly took them out and put them on, then ran in and punched the Droid several times in the side. Sparks flew this way an that as Gary punched and he continued until the Droid turned. Gary gave a final punch using all his strength. The Droids head flew off and into the junk pile. The Droid fell down. Gary raced towards Rick who was getting up slowly.
“Thanks” he said.
“Hey don’t worry, I am a boxer remember?” Gary turned and saw a slightly large built man running towards him,
“Are you alright?” the man asked.
“I need medical attention!” called Rick. The man promptly took out a radio and called for medical assistance.
“You are going to be alright? Hey, aren’t you that famous boxer?” he looked at Gary, who began to speak,
“Yes I am”
“Well can I have an autograph? Sign it to Ark please.” The man handed Gary a note book and a pen and Gary signed it.
“There you go.” He handed it back.
“Thanks man. Hey I might be able to find you a job with the D.D.F, we have an open space. How would you like to be a trainer, you know teach the guys boxing?” Gary looked at the man and smiled.
“I would be delighted”
The three men turned and walked off towards the ship.
Gary left the dome with no regrets. Even the end of his boxing career would not worry him. Being a D.D.F trainer would be fun, or so he thought.
THE END