“I guess so,” he said. “It’s not like I’m doing that on purpose.”
“Well do that,” Denise said. “Do it on purpose.”
“I don’t know how I do that,” he said. “I’m usually messed up.”
Cordelia touched his arm. “We’ll figure it out,” she said. “I’ll help. But what will you do while we distract them?”
“We’ll sneak around the back and get to the grail,” Denise said.
“That’s not much of a plan,” Cordelia said. “Don’t you think that’s what they’re expecting you to do?”
* * *
Cordelia and Petro walked to the front gate as Dew parked. Petro started emanating his spark, and somehow that triggered Cordelia. She had been nauseous the last time, but this time she channeled the sickness, so it radiated outward rather than inward.
Dozens of the old timers came over to greet them when they arrived at the gate. Being so close to so many relatives, it felt familiar, it felt like home.
For one moment, she thought of telling her relatives the true purpose of her return to the ranch. Did she really love Denny that much to risk everything?
She didn’t have to think about it. She did love him, loved him for what he could have become if it wasn’t for all of this. She also remembered that she hated home. Hated her father, hated what he did to Denny. Hated what he did to her. Hated what all these people did to her and would do to the earth.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Petro said. He took her hand.
Cordelia thought of Denny one more time. She did love him. This might be the last best chance to save him.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Cordelia agreed.
Whatever they did attracted the Colonel’s attention, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. She stared at them.
“Welcome home,” Colonel Herring shouted to Cordelia and Petro, clearly suspicious. She was hanging back by the grail. “Why are you here?”
Petro laughed. “Just here to do my part. Rally and regroup for the Shakespeare crew.”
While the Groundlings gathered around Cordelia and Petro, the colonel stayed put and kept glancing around everywhere like her own radar. She gestured to the sheriff to stay alert.
“Why now?” the colonel asked. “And you still haven’t answered me why are you here, Cordelia. You know you can’t go home again ever since…”
“Ever since I hooked up with Denny,” she said.
Before the colonel could reply, that damn drone appeared in the sky and the grail started to glow…
“There it is!” Sheriff Diamond shouted, adjusting his glasses. “Look up there over the water tower! Look sharp everyone, it’s happening again!”
Cordelia suddenly felt a whole new part of her brain being accessed and she wasn’t sure that she liked it. Still, it was all starting to make sense… She realized that all of them were in very great danger. The nausea returned, and for one brief moment, she shifted out of reality into a void and then back again.
The colonel reached for her sidearm. The object in the air was like nothing they’d ever seen before. It must have come from even deeper under the water tower.
Cordelia grew even more apprehensive this time. What would this new drone or UFO or whatever it was do to Denny?
The sheriff had a rifle, he wasn’t going to delegate this time. Earl the dog had appeared out of nowhere and stood by his master’s side.
While they might have distracted the Groundlings, the Colonel and the sheriff were ready to stand their ground, take out the twins and feed the roadkill to Earl.
Cordelia looked at Petro. She would have to choose a side. “We’re not going anywhere,” he said.
“We’re not going anywhere,” she replied. She couldn’t help but look around her. Where were Denny and Denise?
Chapter 65
After they dropped off Cordelia and Petro, Dew and Sahar stayed in the car by the park and stationed themselves behind the old tank as if its rusty turret could protect them. Meanwhile, Denise and Denny walked up the hill to the cylindrical water tower to do some recon. Sneaking a peek around the curve of the cylinder, Denny pointed to Petro and Cordelia as they made it to the front gate down below.
His prediction was correct, Petro and Cordelia caused some kind of electrical disruption, and their opponents were momentarily distracted. Well, except for the Colonel and sheriff who were still on high alert.
Denny pointed to the break in the fence on the other side of the ranch. “We can go around this way and under that fence. We’ve got to do it now.”
Was it too late? Denise heard rumbling from down below, and the sound of water rushing above their heads. That damn drone suddenly appeared in the sky over the cylindrical water tower. This drone was even bigger, more intimidating. Had it materialized out of the air or from another dimension? Denise figured that they had maybe thirty seconds, a minute max, to make it to the other side of the ranch, use her staff to part the wires and then touch the grail.
“It’s happening again!” Denny said.
Down below, the grail emitted pulses of energy, waves that hit them directly. Denny started to close his eyes as if he was being possessed again. Denise felt the urge to vomit.
Denise tried to settle her upset stomach by sheer force of will. “Take my hand,” grabbing his hand in hers. That gave her strength.
Denny opened his eyes. She could see the conflict inside him as he struggled to maintain control.
“We’re not going anywhere,” she said. She squeezed his hand tighter and felt her spark combine with his. He blinked his eyes struggling to keep them up.
“Denny, stay with me.”
There were a few more blinks and then Denny kept his eyes wide open. “We’re not going anywhere,” he agreed.
Still holding hands, they hurried around the outskirts of the ranch, hugging the fence, and made it to the arroyo. Above, the drone hovered, waiting for directions from the other side of the galaxy. The presence of the Groundlings, the Colonel and the sheriff combined with the newcomers all created a perfect storm. There was too much psychic energy, too much electricity, for anyone, for any entity to control.
The drone darted in one direction, and then another. It spun on its axis and wobbled overhead, and wild lightning emerged in all directions.
In the confusion, Denny and Denise made it around back without being detected. Denise parted the fence wires with her staff, and the two ducked under.
They were now only a few feet from the grail. That must have triggered the drone. The lightning coalesced into a single spotlight and that spotlight shined directly upon them. The Groundlings turned around and spotted them. “Over there!”
“Get them!” the colonel yelled.
The Groundlings now marched toward Denny and Denise, Fally was in the lead. Hotspur the cemetery guard held his taser at the ready. Caliban hefted his boomerang.
Caliban threw it at them, but the boomerang came back right at him. Denise and Denny wondered if they had done that with the force of their will or whether Caliban had thrown it incorrectly.
The Colonel took out her gun that looked like it was a laser. She aimed, but the drone was now hovering over the grail. The light was so bright she had trouble making out the twins.
“We’ve got to keep going,” Denny said. Denise took hold of Denny’s hand and stepped up to the grail, but hesitated.
“Are you ready for this?” Denise asked.
“I guess so,” Denny said. “Oh shit, look at Cordelia!”
Cordelia was walking in lockstep with the rest of the group. With Fally in the lead, they were only yards away and closing. Petro was caught up in it too and fell in behind the others. Was the drone directing the action with instructions from across the galaxy?
The colonel was still blinded by the light and the reflection off the grail. Th
at didn’t bother the sheriff. He had been waiting for this for months. Time to take Denny down for good. He played with his dark glasses as if giving a salute. “I can take them!”
“They’re mine,” the colonel said. “That’s an order, sheriff. That little asshole knocked up my daughter! Once I can see again.”
“We gotta do this now!” Denise said.
“I’m ready,” Denny replied.
The colonel retreated a few feet away. Now that she had reached a better vantage point, she was ready.
“Good to go,” she said. “I got this!” She fired.
Despite being at almost point-blank range, she missed. The shot was somehow absorbed into the grail.
“The grail’s got a mind of its own,” the colonel said.
Denise smiled, held Denny’s hand tighter. “We got this,” she told him.
“I got it colonel,” the sheriff said. Denny and Denise were reaching for the grail as he fired his Glock with a few inches to spare.
“Concentrate!” Denise shouted at Denny.
“I am,” he said.
Somehow the bullets also disappeared into the grail. Denny’s and Denise’s combined spark—somehow augmented by the presence of the drone and grail—had protected them. They wouldn’t be able to keep that up forever.
The colonel fiddled with her weapon again. “Just need to adjust the setting.”
“Cordelia!” Denny shouted. “I love you!”
And yet time had slowed. While they were only a few inches from the grail, and reaching towards it, Denny and Denise couldn’t make the final contact. It was like they were reaching into the void.
If Cordelia was under the control of the colonel, Denny’s shouting must have broken the spell. Cordelia had broken away from the group and was bearing down on Big Red and the sheriff. “Don’t fuck with my boyfriend,” she said. “Or his sister.”
The sheriff aimed the rifle. He wouldn’t miss again.
Cordelia tackled the sheriff before he could fire. “This is my land, asshole.”
The colonel now looked ready to take one last shot, but she was frozen as well. She looked to Petro for help.
“Petro, help me,” the colonel yelled. “We’re family.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Petro said, and he blocked the Colonel’s line of vision from the twins.
“We’re family too, bitch,” Denise said.
“We are!” Denny said.
The colonel was surprised that someone wasn’t following her orders. In that moment of distraction, Denny and Denise gave one last push and touched the grail at the same time.
Denise felt a wave of energy pass through her, but it was different than before, more intense. Both of them fell to their knees.
And yet somehow, they both still held onto the grail. Denise was getting a vision of someone, something, beyond their consciousness.
The experiment is a success.
Who said that? It wasn’t a voice; it was more of a feeling that was wired directly into their brains.
The Groundlings vanished one by one. First the purple man, then Fally, then Hotspur, Caliban and the others, and finally the sheriff himself.
Colonel Herring remained, but she looked like she was vibrating between two planes of existence. The colonel aimed her weapon at Denise and Denny one more time, but before she could fire, her hand disappeared, then her arm, until only her face remained…
“You will see me again!” she said, before her face vanished in a flash of light. “And my family.”
Some metal objects had fallen to the ground where the colonel had stood. “Where’s Cordelia?” Denny asked the heavens.
“Help!” It was Cordelia, she was lying on the ground. Petro next to her.
Cordelia and Petro oscillated one more time and then they too vanished.
“They were half-breeds.” Denny said. “I hoped that they wouldn’t be affected. I hoped that she wouldn’t be affected.”
“Are they dead?” Denise asked
“No, they’ve been transferred to another dimension,” Denny said. “They’ll be back like the colonel said.”
“When?”
“I don’t know. I figure the planet they come from is fifty light years away, so maybe in like a hundred years. Maybe less.”
“You’re making that up,” she said.
“I am,” he said. “But it makes sense, kinda…”
It suddenly hit him. “She was the only one whoever loved me.” He nearly fainted from the shock as if it hit him all at once.
“I love you, Denny,” Denise said. “And I’ve got a feeling that Rita will love you too.”
They hugged and let it linger for a while. Both kept one of their hands on the grail.
But then it hit Denise. “What about Rayne and Rita? They might be gone too. We’ve got to get back to Cruces.”
Chapter 66
They hurried back to the Kia. Dew was sitting in the driver’s seat, petting her cat and playing with her phone. Sahar, her laser geisha toy blaster still in her mouth, nodded at them as if she understood exactly what had just happened.
She purred as if to say, the coast was clear.
Dew looked at Denise and the determined look on her face. “You drive,” she said. “Where’s Petro?”
“I’m sorry, Dew. I’m driving.” Denise shook her head and practically lifted Dew out of the driver’s seat. Once they were settled, Denise drove due east, directly into the sunrise.
The experiment is a success.
What did that mean? Were her and Denny the future of mankind or the end of the beginning?
She sure didn’t feel like a success. She was tired, she was hungry, and her eyes ached from squinting into the morning sun. Denise kept her foot down on the gas pedal and prayed she wouldn’t vomit into the windshield.
They made the one-hundred-twenty-mile drive in a little over an hour and a half. At least she still had her spark to avoid cop radar detection, or maybe it was something more. They were emitting so much of a spark that it was sending the radar right back at the detectors.
When they arrived at Centennial Hospital, Rita was waiting on a parking lot bench. “My mom is sick!” Rita said. “They took her to the emergency room and won’t let me stay with her.”
“Follow us,” Denny said. “I got a feeling that if we save my mom, we’ll save your mom too.”
That made sense to Rita and she nodded. Still holding onto the grail between them, and the thermos of lake water in her other hand, Denise and Denny entered the sliding doors of the hospital. Rita was in hot pursuit. Would Jen Song even be there?
It might not matter whether Jen was alive or not at the moment; they could see the shuttle with Susie inside pulling up to the entrance, so she wouldn’t be alive for long.
Piranha was waiting at the lobby entrance, ready to bite. For one brief moment, Denise worried that he was one of the Groundlings who had somehow developed immunity.
But one look at his snarl made her realize something. He was a small man who got to control this very small kingdom. He wasn’t an alien; he was just an asshole.
Denise noticed that the grail was emitting some kind of steam. Just breathing it in made her spark stronger. “We’ve got a right to be here.”
Piranha must have felt a wave of electricity pass right through him and he didn’t like it. He backed away and let them pass. Still, he picked up his phone and was clearly dialing for reinforcements.
They didn’t have much time before the cavalry came to the hospital. Unfortunately, there was a line of people in wheelchairs waiting at the elevator. Denise pointed to the stairs.
When they got to Jen’s room, they found the whole clan waiting in the hallway. Hurricane Luna and Aunt Selena were there with several people they didn’t recognize. The doctors were there as well, going through
the forms. “We still need Susie to come in person,” Dr. Schwartz said.
“What are you two doing?” Dr. Patel asked.
“Saving my mom,” Denise said.
“Saving our mom,” Denny added.
“Call security,” the doctor said.
Denise glanced down the hall. Piranha was striding toward them, and he had brought the rest of the pack, armed with tasers. Jen Song might be dead in a few minutes, but she wouldn’t be disturbed on his watch.
“Let’s do this.” Denise and Denny went inside Jen’s room and up to her bed. Denise opened the thermos and poured it into the grail. It bubbled for a second, then Denise poured it over her mom’s face. Hopefully, some of it would get into Jen’s mouth.
Denny and Denise grabbed their mother’s left hand. Time stood still. Had they ruptured the space-time continuum itself?
Jen opened her mouth, and some of the fluid flowed inside. She spit some out. Had they choked her? There was a burp, and then silence.
“Is she dead?” Denny asked.
“Did it work?” Denise asked.
Jen Song opened her eyes.
“Sorry we’re late, mom,” Denise said. “Traffic was a…”
“Denise!” Jen Song said as she recognized her daughter. “Where am I?”
It only took a second for Jen to look over at Denny. “Denny?” she asked.
At that moment, Susie Song entered the room like the angel of death in a gray business suit. “I have the notarized documentation to take Ms. Jen Song off life support,” she said.
Jen threw off the wires and tubing connecting her to the machines. “That’s fine by me,” she said.
There were some more moments of confusion when Rayne entered as well. Rita hugged her and then faced Jen. “You don’t know me, but I’m Rita, your granddaughter.”
“I have a granddaughter?” For one moment, it looked like the shock of all the excitement would kill Jen Song for real. The doctor and the rest of the family crowded into the room, with looks of shock and amazement on their faces.
The Shakespeare Incident Page 34
