Page 13 of Asmodel

Chapter Three

Asmodelneverexpectedcheeringcrowds or bands playing the first time he stepped on an alien planet. But for thelove of a motherless goat, he’d have given anything to avoid this hellhole. The smell alone was enough to make him want to run back into the spaceship and head straight to Earth. Taking a shallow breath, he narrowed his eyes and studied his surroundings.

“Holy shit, what a dump.” Arakiba scowled with his fists on his hips. “I bet this place didn’t look any better before it fell apart.”

“Agreed.” Asmodel humphed.

“This is not an appropriate place to remain,” JR13 whispered into Asmodel’s ear from his perch between the man’s neck and shoulder. “It may cause irreparable harm to your inferior organic systems the longer we remain.”

Blunt, but true. The air was thick with the acrid stench of burning synthetic materials and the putrid tang of decay that seeped into his very pores.

The closer he and his brothers got to the sprawling ghetto of a village, the more it reminded him of a festering wound clinging desperately to life. As they journeyed into the village, the collage of mismatched buildings became clearer. Their state of dilapidation might have once gleamed with the promise of a utopia, but now stood in ruins. Their facades crumbled, as if weeping for lost glory.

Narrow alleys snaked between these husks, choked with refuse and the desperate forms of its inhabitants. Those souls moved like shadows, their eyes hollow with defeat and their bodies draped in tatters, embodying the despair that hung over the place like a shroud.

Asmodel’s heart clenched at the sight, his psionic senses heavy with the unspoken stories of struggle and loss that emanated from the very buildings around him. It was a place abandoned by hope, where survival was a daily battle and the specter of despair an ever-present companion.

“Let’s hope we’re not here long.” Asmodel spoke low to JR13. “Let me know if you sense any threats coming our way.”

“Affirmative.” JR13 agreed.

“Do you think that’s where we should go?” Azazel pointed at a wide building with a massive doorway, its broken doors hanging lopsidedly on the edges.

“Yes,” JR13 told him. “I sense this was the key hub of this provincial community.”

Asmodel grunted and followed his brothers. Once he passed the threshold, the shadowed light made him pause to give himself a chance to get used to the dimness.

“By Tiamat’s titties! I wonder what these babies did when they were awake.” Arakiba chuckled, staring at a shocking-pink robot in obvious female form lying on the ground.

Various robots in obnoxious neon colors lined the path to the building’s entrance. They stood or lay on the ground, even inside, unmoving, as if someone switched them off.

“JR15 tells me they are called sexbots, from a dead gangster named Dread Pirate Maynwaring, who ran this disreputable planet with strict, oppressive control,” JR13 supplied. “He programmed these droids to give sexual pleasure to several humanoid species.” The tiny creature huffed. “Why advanced units like these androids would willingly provide organics with sexual pleasure is beyond me.”

Asmodel watched Abalim chastise Arakiba into leaving the prone sex-droid alone. “Who knows?” He wasn’t interested in getting into a lengthy discussion with his bot about the need for most organic beings to procreate. Now, or ever, if he was honest.

“Are you sure this is the place that the human Althea said they held her prisoner?” Azazel asked Abalim. He glanced around. “I can’t imagine them surviving in this sea of disarray.”

Asmodel had to agree. The room was bare except for smashed furniture and broken robots.

He eyed an open hallway to the right, then spied another on the left. “Which way?”

“You two go that way.” Abalim pointed to the right. “Azazel and I’ll go this way.” He thumbed over his left shoulder. “If you find anything, have your JR bots tell ours.”

Why would Abalim have the bots do that instead of using their shared psychic link? Oh well, maybe he just wanted to make the little guys feel useful.

Arakiba smiled at Asmodel. “Come on, bro. Let’s see what we can find.”

He frowned at Arakiba’s mischievous smile and glowered at his brother. “No funny stuff,bro.” He’d better keep an eye on his easily distracted brother to make sure he stayed focused on what they were there for. It’s not like they’d find anything useful. Looked like everything worth taking was already gone.

“You sense anyone here?” While his psionic abilities were strong enough to detect any living creature within these walls, he asked Arakiba, whose strength in other areas might pick up something different.

“Nah, just us and the two oldsters goin’ the other way.” Arakiba whistled and put one of his hands into the back pocket of the black jeans he wore. He sauntered ahead as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Asmodel glanced around the dark corridor and created a ball of light on his palm for illumination.

Arakiba chucked. “Sucka! How can we sneak around in the dark when you brightened everything up?”

Asmodel ignored his brother’s banter. “How about you, JR13?” He nodded to his companion on his right shoulder. “You picking up anything online?”

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