ROAD TRIP THROUGH THE APOCALYPSE (The Hoshoku Chronicles Book 2)

by Vincent Fields

  For the next five minutes Tak told Sarah the abbreviated version of the nature of his abilities and how the gods first gave them to his ancestor Yukitaka Takamura. He explained how all of his senses became greatly amplified when he concentrated hard and how he could only do it for a few moments at a time before his mind needed to rest. Finally he looked at her and stopped talking, letting it sink it. He didn’t know how she’d react to the news. Her face was neutral and Tak couldn’t read it, “OK… show me.” Tak thought about it for a moment, realizing that she had the power in this interaction and he’d have to do what she wanted if he wanted to get himself and his friends out of here. He stood up, “OK, watch carefully. All you’ll see is a blur.” Then he walked to the back of the room, a good 15 feet away from the cell door. “Are you ready?” She watched closely, “Ya, just do it.” Suddenly, not even in the length of time it would have taken her to blink, his face appeared directly in the food slot in front of her. She yelped and jumped back instinctively, but she was quiet and her eyes were wide open in amazement. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. He spoke from the slot, “OK, keep watching.” Suddenly there was a blur and he was standing at the rear of the cell again, as if he’d teleported there. She couldn’t hide her excitement, and didn’t try to. “Oh my God, that was fucking amazing! That’s unbelievable!” A huge smile came over her face, coupled by a sense of relief. “I was starting to think I’d imagined it all or that I was going crazy, or hell, I don’t know… but… there you are.” Tak walked back up to the food slot, “Well you’ve seen it with your own eyes. You are one of very few people on this planet who know about this secret. Will you let me go now?” Sarah looked at him incredulously and then began to laugh. “Oh honey, I didn’t go through all this trouble just to see your little trick. You don’t understand. You think I followed you all this way just to watch you perform? No no no… I want it for myself. If you want out of here you’re going to give me your power… your ability to move the way that you do. There must be some way you can do that, especially if you want you and your friends to live.”

  Tak sensed that he was trouble. He looked at her seriously and spoke calmly, “Know that I am speaking the truth to you… there is no way I can give this power to you or anyone else. It is in my DNA and, as I’ve already explained, it only runs in the Takamura lineage. If you had had a son from one with my abilities they would pass on to your son, but…” She interrupted before he got to the crucial part about how the mother always dies in childbirth, “Well that’s just fucking great. Just great! So you’re basically useless to me.” She turned around and began to pace in a small circle. Tak could see the cell door keys half stuck in her right front shorts pocket, just out of his reach. He could sense her slipping away. “Listen, just because I can’t give you this ability doesn’t mean that I am of no use to you. If you were to save my friends and I we’d owe you a great debt of gratitude. You said you are a drifter? Well you can change that. We are going down to pick up my girlfriend’s parents and little sister near St Petersburg Florida and then we will put together a survival community. We’ve talked a lot about this over the last few days and I’ve decided to start a small community of like-minded, hard-working, good people. Times are getting tougher by the day and the only way to make it in this new world is to group up in a community where everyone chips in. You will have a place with us there… you can join us.” Sarah immediately scoffed at his suggestion.

  Just then she heard footsteps in the hallway behind her. Someone was walking in their direction. They both quieted and listened carefully. Just before reaching the door to this cell, whoever it was turned and entered the bathroom. She turned back to Tak and spoke in an angry whisper. “You don’t understand… I don’t want to be your fucking buddy. If you can’t give me your power then the least you can do is serve me. You will do my bidding without question. You will be my fucking slave until such a time that I see fit to release you. Either that or you and your friends die here, very soon. That’s the deal man, take it or leave it. It may seem harsh, but at least ya’ll get to live, and your friends can go free.” Tak considered her offer, “Well, that doesn’t leave me much wiggle room does it. I would give up my life for my friends. But, does your offer have a time limit? How long do you expect me to be your slave? You should know that I can’t do things that violate my conscious. I don’t mind working off a debt to you, but I can’t simply pledge unquestioning obedience.”

  As Sarah hadn’t been trying to hide her true colors with Tak, she made no effort to hide her increasing anger. She stepped forward and grabbed his face with her right hand; her fingers on each side of his chin and aggressively tilting his head up towards her face. “You are a damn idiot… I give you the chance to save your life and you respond with this garbage about your conscious?! Fine, you’ve made your choice… you and your friends will die in here. You can’t say I didn’t try. Dumb ass.” With that she spun to leave, abandoning both Tak and her hopes of ever getting either his power or him to serve her. Oh well; she had confirmed the truth of the matter, and she found some comfort in that. There would always be more fools she could manipulate and live off of. Fuck this one and his damn conscious.

  chapter 28: escape

  A s Sarah released her grasp from Tak’s face and began to turn around, a blur moved around her, accompanied by a brief noise that sounded like a lock being opened. She flew through the air faster than she could comprehend and was suddenly up against the outer cell door. Out of nowhere Tak was free from his cell and in her face, the keys in his hands and the inner cell door wide open. He spoke in a whisper, just inches from her. “I’m sorry; I can’t agree to your terms, but my offer still stands. You are welcome to come join us and help us build a community. It’s the least I could do. You don’t have to wander around alone anymore.” Her eyes burned with rage as she gave her simple reply. “Fuck you.” Tak nodded his head in resignation. He moved to open the outer cell door but then stopped and looked to her again. “I’m going to get my friends out of here now and we’re leaving. If you make as much as a peep to alert anyone I’ll have to silence you, and you won’t like that. Do you understand?” She knew he was telling the truth. The fact that he was a good man and most likely always told the truth greatly upset her, for some reason she didn’t quite understand. She nodded and spoke as venom dripped with her words, “I’ll be quiet; I’m leaving too.”

  Tak nodded, unlocked the door and entered the hallway. He went to next door to the right, “HOLDING 1”, where his friends were. Sarah quietly went down the hallway behind and past him, towards Griffin’s room to get her guitar. Tak knew he didn’t have time to waste. He opened the outer door, unlatched the food slot on the inner cell door and flipped the lights on; there were his friends lying on the concrete floor with Ringo between them. Nathan and Amy stood and shielded the light from their eyes while Ringo gave out a bark. Tak unlocked their cell door and swung it open, “Let’s get out of here!” Ringo jumped up on him, happier than Tak had seen him in the whole short time he’d known him. Amy ran up and hugged him, “How did you get out?!” He grabbed her hand and turned towards the door, “I’ll explain later. We have to get out of here right now.” He led her out and Nathan was right behind, holding Ringo’s leash.

  They crept down the hallway, first coming to a room labeled “LIEUTENANT- GRIFFIN” on their left and “ROAD CAPTAIN- DOUG” on their right. Sarah had unlocked Griffin’s room, gone in and retrieved her guitar and was quickly walking out towards the main clubhouse area. Tak walked up to that door and began to open it. Amy squeezed his arm and whispered, “What are you doing? Let’s get out of here.” He turned the knob as he spoke, “I’m not going anywhere without my sword. You all can go to the RV if you’d like.” Naff whispered, “No way buddy; were all going together.” Tak nodded as he pushed the door open, “OK, let’s find my sword and get the hell out of here.” As he walked in he saw Griffin; the big hairy biker lying face down on a blood soaked bed. A large pool of blood was con
gealing on the floor directly under the head of the bed. Tak gave a quick search of the room; the closet, footlocker, under the couch; no sword. He moved out of the room and went across the hallway to Doug’s room and fiddled with the keys to open that door. Nathan was to his left in the hallway, facing back towards the main clubhouse room.

  Just then big Bull opened the door of his room, heading towards the bathroom to take a middle-of-the-night piss, wearing only a pair of white boxer shorts. When he looked up and saw the group in the hallway, all seven feet and 500 pounds of him froze in place. “What the fu…” He was interrupted as Naff released Ringo’s leash and the dog shot towards Bull without any instruction. He jumped and flew through the air like a fired missile. Bull lifted his arms instinctively to block, but he raised them a bit too high. Ringo latched onto his groin and began shaking violently. Bull gave out a blood curdling yell that would surely wake anyone within earshot.

  Tak continued to work the keys in Doug’s door until he found the right one. He opened it, entered and flipped the lights on just as Doug was getting out of bed and grabbing a pistol from his nightstand. It was Tak’s little black XDS 45! At the same time Amy ran into Bull’s room to give it a quick search and Nathan ran up to help Ringo with Bull.

  Three quick steps brought Tak right up to Doug as he was swinging the pistol around in his direction. As Tak ran in two nude biker chicks screamed and backed up to the far end of the bed. Tak kicked the bottom of Doug’s right wrist with his left foot which caused the pistol to fire, whizzing a big 45 caliber round off to Tak’s right. The blast from the short barreled pistol roared in the small room. As Doug hadn’t fully stood up out of bed yet, his head was right at Tak’s waist level. Tak stepped down with his left foot and instantly threw a powerful right roundhouse Thai kick to Doug’s face. He was an expert striker and there wasn’t a man alive who could take one of his full power kicks square in the face. Even though he didn’t call upon his supernatural ability, his hips still spun around so fast they were a blur of motion, trailing his leg around like a snapped whip. Tak’s shin hit Doug with the loud whack of baseball bat smacking a ball out of the park. His nose exploded and drove back into his head as his face momentarily wrapped itself a few inches around Tak’s lower shin as both cheek and orbital bones shattered. He dropped the gun and his body fell back as the girls screamed again, unsure if he was unconscious or dead. It was likely the latter from the looks of the unnatural ditch now pressed into the center of his face. Tak picked up the pistol, checked the magazine and gave a quick look around. There was his sword, propped up in a corner. Tak noted a bit of blood on the scabbard and took a glance at Doug’s now motionless body, noting that he had two fingers wrapped in gauze. Tak figured he must have felt the blade to test its sharpness… an understandable mistake that anyone not familiar with the amazing blade would do. He threw the weapon over his shoulder and onto his back as he ran out of the room back to the hallway, leading the way with his pistol.

  As Tak left the room, the strong smell of freshly poured gasoline hit him. He ran towards the end of the hallway where Ringo ripped flesh from Bull’s groin as the huge man tried futilely to remove the vicious dog. Nathan hovered over Bull’s head, raining down big punches that surprisingly weren’t seeming to stun the giant. Behind them a handful of bikers were running up from inside the clubhouse to investigate. Amy stepped out of Bull’s room with a black semi-auto pistol and began firing at the approaching bikers.

  Buck’s door burst open and he led the way with his big 500 magnum. He was still fully clothed and wide awake due to the cocaine in his system. His barrel was aimed in on Naff’s midsection and he was already squeezing the trigger. Tak hoped he wasn’t too late as he focused on the matte black barrel and called forth his ancient power. As time slowed down around him Tak sprinted towards Buck, leading with his sword as the hammer dropped on the huge pistol. Tak leapt through the air, his sword extended in front of him. He strained his mind as hard as he ever had, focusing intensely as time seemed to slow down even more. Everything and everyone around him was barely moving at what seemed to be about half an inch per second… everything except the big 500 grain lead projectile that came out of Buck’s nine inch barrel. It was headed right towards Naff’s stomach, which would blast a basketball sized hole out of his back.

  Chapter 29: boom

  W Hile Tak and his friends fought for their lives in the hallway, Sarah had gone out to her car, stowed her guitar and quietly drove off about 50 yards down the long gravel driveway before stopping and parking. Then she retrieved an emergency flair from the trunk and ran back up to the gas tanker truck, which now sat unguarded in the dark. She lifted a nearby red five gallon gas can and shook it, making sure it was full before sitting it back down… she’d need it in a few moments. Then she removed the nozzle from the tanker and pulled it as far as it would go, which was about 25 feet to where it stopped, lying just inside the clubhouse door. She locked the nozzle open and laid it on the ground as it began spewing gas onto the floor around the pool tables and furniture. She then went and picked up the gas can and poured a trail from where the nozzle lay just inside the clubhouse back down the gravel road towards her car.

  Inside the clubhouse Tak thrust his sword in the path of Buck’s incoming 50 caliber bullet, which hit the blade with such force that it sent him spinning around to his left. If he hadn’t been tapped into his gift at that moment the blade surely would have been blasted from his hands, but he hung on tightly as the massive energy pushed him into a spin. The bullet deflected off the blade at an angle down towards the ground, where it entered right into the top of Bull’s huge head. The energy transfer was tremendous, causing at first the bullet to disappear into his skull and then a slow motion shock wave exploded the entire contents of his head, causing blood, brains and skull bones to splatter on everyone in the hall. Tak fell to his knees in a slide as he continued going forward while spinning to his left and then around backwards, angling his sword down through the floor to avoid cutting Naff’s legs off as he passed him and spun all the way back around in a complete 180. The meteorite-forged blade went through the floor like a hot knife through butter. Tak went with the bullet’s kinetic energy that had been transferred to the sword to help him complete his spin. He angled the blade back up as he came back around to the front, effortlessly slicing through Buck’s legs just above the knees as he relaxed his focus and allowed time to return back to normal around him. Buck fell forward off of his legs and landed on Bull’s remains, not understanding at all what had just happened. Nathan was only confused for an instant before realizing that Tak must have used his gift, so he quickly ripped the big 500 magnum from Buck’s hand, unclipped and removed the chest holster and threw it over his own shoulder. He’d need it to shoot his way out of here, not to mention it would make a nice souvenir if he did successfully escape. Buck was in such a state of shock that he didn’t offer any resistance as Nathan took it from him. His lower right leg was lying next to his head. A black leather strap wrapped around the motorcycle boot, which held a silver hoop in place on its right side. Buck looked at it curiously and was seemingly oblivious to the fact that his spurting stumps were covering the floor in an icky red. Naff could barely make out Buck’s final words as he mumbled, “Hey… this looks like… my boot.”

  Amy hadn’t seen the hallway mayhem behind her as she continued to lay down quick and well-aimed fire at several approaching Death Keepers who had come running to investigate Bull’s initial scream and the gunshot from Doug’s room. Three men dropped from her shots to their chests as another jumped over the bar seeking cover. As Amy fired at him several more armed bikers were about to emerge from the hallway on the far side of the room.

  Tak and Nathan ran out to the cover provided by a pool table a few feet in front of them. Three bikers ran towards a pool table on their side of the room. Tak popped his hands and eyes over his pool table and quickly aimed in with his small Springfield XDS pistol, dropping one with two shots to the chest as
Amy dropped another. The third stayed down behind his table; seemingly waiting for a clear opportunity. Nathan rose and knelt on his side of the table, rested his arms up on it, aimed the 500 magnum at the chest of the next man at the front of the line of bikers running out of the hallway and squeezed the trigger. The hand cannon’s concussion reverberated throughout the room as a foot-long jet of flame shot out of the barrel. Over an ounce of lead blasted a hole through the center of the biker coming out of the hallway as well as through two men behind him; who all fell like dominoes. Naff and Amy took off towards the door, sloshing through a growing pool of gasoline on the floor. As Tak began to follow while keeping his eyes to the rear, another biker emerged from down the hallway spraying full auto machinegun fire. Tak was forced to take cover back down behind the pool table as his friends dove out the door to avoid getting hit. Tak yelled over at them, “Go get the RV; I’ll be right behind you!” His friends complied; they wouldn’t abandon him, but they trusted in Tak’s abilities and knew more bikers would be coming to join the fight from the back rooms. They needed to get the RV started and backed out so they could all make a quick exit as soon as Tak joined them.