by Mark Eller
"Next time you can clean up your own mess," she complained to Kit.
"Sorry."
Chain swinging in knowing patterns, the big man moved in. Sarah moved so fast she became a blur. The chain went flying, and the man screeched while his wrist spewed blood. His hand dangled, hanging by skin and one uncut tendon. Grabbing his wrist, he stumbled back while blood shot between his fingers and fell to the floor.
Sarah watched him alertly, concentrating on his threat. Aaron saw her mistake, tried to yell, but he was too late. A swung chain caught her knife arm. The knife fell, and she yelped surprise.
Somebody else yelled. Head swimming, Aaron stumbled into the room, spastic hand clutched tightly to his chest, but he had one good hand, and he had one gun he could shoot with that hand.
"Oh shit," he heard Perk say.
Things got busy. All the noncombatants ran out the door before five more breaths could be exhaled. People yelled. Chairs crashed. Tables broke. Other patrons joined in the fight. Perk fought desperately against an opponent who not only had not suffered a broken back less than two weeks earlier; he seemed to know more about martial arts than she did.
Sarah took down a woman and a man before a blade cut into her oft abused collarbone. A four foot long brass chain caught her in the side. Staggering sideways, she grabbed the chain and pulled its wielder to her. Throwing a wild swing, her fist sent him stumbling back just as another chain caught her along the side of her head. She dropped to the floor and was pulled back upright, unable to fully use her speed because she was entangled.
A woman jumped Kit and slashed at her with a knife. Twisting, Kit trapped the knife-arm between her arm and her side. She jerked and fell; the knife-arm snapped. The woman screamed fury and clawed at Kit's eyes with her unbroken arm. The other woman slammed a kick into Kit's kidney. Kit's head spastically snapped back.
Panting, Perkins spun on staggering feet and sent a weak kick into her opponent. He swayed back and momentarily lost his balance. Perk used her opportunity well. One hand sliced at his throat. The other hammered into his temple. He dropped. She spun wearily toward the others and was knocked to the floor when a chair crashed into her back.
Off to the side, a leather clad woman had one foot pressed into Kit's back. Chains wrapped around Kit's neck, and the woman hauled up against them. Meanwhile, Perk struggled weakly to escape from the man holding her. Another man lunged forward, his knife extended, edge up, pointed for Sarah's belly.
Aaron aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. Gunshots echoing in the small room, the knifeman reeled back and fell into Sarah, his blade already sticking into the floor.
"FREEZE!"
Though Aaron leaned awkwardly against the restroom doorframe, his gun hand was steady. He felt cold and hard, like a machine running on automatic.
"Drop the weapons."
The woman pulling on Kit's neck sneered and jerked the chain. Cursing, Aaron fired again.
She dropped the chain and fell, blood spurting from her leg. Leaping forward, Perk clubbed on the back of his neck the man holding Sarah. Reaching, she grabbed his hair in an iron grip and wrenched his head over the top of Sarah's shoulder. She swung, flattening his nose, once, twice, three times with quick, trip hammer blows. Cursing through bloody lips, leaking red from his nose, he let go of Sarah and backed away, hands held protectively before him.
Sarah fell to her knees and shook her head weakly. Nobody else moved.
Aaron gestured to the man with the smashed nose. "You! See if your leader still lives. Tie up his arm. Perk, collect Kit and Sarah and get them to the taxi."
Choking, Kit held her hands to her bruised neck. Sarah stood uncertainly.
Aaron pointed at the woman with the broken arm. "There's only one way out of the restroom. That way is past me. There's a naked girl in there. You are going in. She is coming out. When she comes out she better be wearing clothes. Get in there.
The waitress slowly rose from behind the counter, eyes unbelieving as she looked around.
"Bastard," the broken armed woman hissed as she moved past him. Aaron was careful she did not get within reach.
Several people became busy tying up bleeding limbs. Aaron moved carefully to the front entrance after Perk left with the two women. Five minutes later the restroom door opened, and Mary stumbled out, pushed forcefully from behind. She looked around in bewilderment, stared at the waitress.
"Mama?" she asked tentatively.
"Get the hell out of here!" the waitress screamed. "Look what you caused. My new place is ruined. I got no insurance, you damned whore."
Mary held out a dollar in a shaking hand. "I ha' yer money, mama."
"I ain't your mama! Get the hell out of my life!"
"Mary," Aaron called gently, "Come with us."
"Dollar?" Mary asked hopefully.
"Even more. Come on."
Leading her outside, he helped her into the back of the taxi while Perk held the gun in a ready hand.
"I hope this is one of those areas where nobody calls the police," Perk said once she started the car. "It's kind of hard to hide in a beat up, broke down taxi that comes from a completely different city. Oh, and Aaron, you better take the gun back. I don't know how it works."
They drove in silence for several miles. Utilizing her retrieved knife, Sarah sliced off the bottom of her shirt and used the material to cover the cut on her shoulder. A purple black bruise was already forming on the right side of her face, and Kit had a raw welt across her neck. More than twenty minutes passed before Kit could breathe without a harsh rasp. Mary sat between her and Aaron, not speaking, reeking of stale urine and old sex. The stench was almost unbearable even with all the windows rolled down.
"My teachers always told me," Perk finally said, "that you never believe the holos. You never go against superior numbers or people with weapons unless you are desperate or insane. Would you care to tell me which category you people fall into? I don't care how good you two think you are. What you did was stupid." Her face was battered. A small cut bled under her right eye.
"Have you seen what they did to this girl?" Kit demanded. "What else were we to do?"
"A. Take the girl and leave. B. Get even. Come out quietly and tell me what is going on. We take out three or four of them when we attack without warning, and then we back up to where Aaron is with his superior weapon. He calmly shoots anyone who protests. Then you pay the woman for the damages."
"I wasn't thinking," Sarah admitted. "I was so angry I couldn't think. I really do know better."
"She called the waitress her mother," Aaron said in a subdued voice. "The woman was pimping out her own daughter."
Kit groaned. "And I gave her the last of my money."
"Pimping, maybe," Sarah agreed. "But not her daughter."
Perk drove in silence for a few more minutes. When they reached a red light she stopped and waited until it turned green. She did not go. Instead she swiveled around to look into the back seat.
"Hey, Turner."
"Yeah?"
"The next damn time you feel hungry we get take out."
* * *
Since Aaron was the only person who was both lucid and not bloody, he was chosen to rent the motel room. With a resigned sigh because he really did not like putting his deformities on display, Aaron got out of the taxi, struggled to open the motel's office door, and paid the clerk after filling out the registration. Of course, it cost extra for a cot. The clerk brought out a cot for him, which meant that he had to then struggle back through the door while dragging the cot behind him.
Sometimes, it sucked to be Aaron Turner.
Once in their room the women took Mary into the bathroom and cleaned her and themselves in the shower. After they exited the bathroom, dressed in nothing but towels, they wrapped themselves in blankets from the two beds. Since he felt gritty and was tired of his own stench, Aaron wasted no time hopping into the bathroom so he could shower. Unfortunately there were no unused towels so he reused the driest
one he could find and hoped it wasn't Mary's because he was not sure how much wildlife she had crawling over her. At least she smelled like soap now. That was a definite improvement, though a certain fragrance of residual B.O. still hung around her.
They stayed in the room the entire next day. Aaron left only to pay another day's rent, exchange towels and order pizza delivery.
In the morning Mary grew lucid briefly, and then she became agitated and violent and started screaming. Five minutes later she was bound and gagged and thrashing on the cot while Aaron and Perk taught the other two how to play cards. After several hours Sarah used her knife to cut the blankets into strips that could cover the women more comfortably, but first she sent Aaron outside to pace around the motel until they were decent. The dirty, bloodstained clothing had been deposited in the tub by the time Aaron was permitted back in.
And then it was back to cards.
Kit liked Hearts. Once she learned that gambling was involved she liked poker even better although she moaned and griped about having no money to bet. She made Aaron promise to bring lots of cards over with him when they returned, and then they ordered another pizza delivery even though the women universally agreed that they hated it.
Eventually, Mary stopped fighting and grew quiet so they untied her. Upon examination, her breathing seemed shallow; her skin dry and hot, but there was nothing they could do to help her.
Evening rolled around, and Aaron was finally sure that the injections had worn off. From some source deep inside his soul he knew that he had regained his skill.
And so he sent Sarah, Kit and Mary back to the other side without a hitch. Sarah gave him a kiss and the last of her money. Twenty-three hundred dollars and change.
Before he and Perk left the motel Aaron placed two hundred dollars on the night table. The women had taken the blankets with them and left a bloody mess of clothing in the tub, so he owed the motel and its cleaning crew extra.
After driving two and a half hours in a beat up taxi, they ended up at his apartment. Aaron gathered everything that was loose, put it in the room with the liquor, sent the entire load over to the Isabella side, and went to bed for the night. Perk slept on the couch.
In the morning, he and Perk disassembled every piece of furniture that could be broken down. They shoved all the furniture Aaron owned into the bedroom, tossing a couple chairs on top of the pile. Aaron sent that to the dining hall of the Manor. Presents for Kit.
And then they went shopping. Playing cards sold for a nickel a pack. Aaron bought a thousand.
Columbia City boasted three Universities. Aaron's money ran out at the bookstore of the first one. When he was finished buying at that store he owned complete manuals for every technical course the University offered. He also had fifty paperbacks for trash reading. Though the bundle came to a lot of books, Aaron griped that it was not enough.
At which point Perk convinced him to take money from her. After all, she said, he was the one who had given her most of it. She stopped at a branch of her bank, withdrew her money, and then they exchanged the last of his gold coins for more. Feeling loaded, they visited the two other colleges and three bookstores, buying every volume that might in some way be useful or entertaining. Perk had to stop at his apartment twelve more times so he could unload and make more room in the taxi. They made two very serious liquor runs.
Inside, Aaron felt hollow.
After Perk cooked him dinner and they watched the holovision news together. War was breaking out in the Mid East. A hurricane was heading for the East Coast. Dr. Wise announced from the Mercy Bend institute of Science and Technology a tremendous breakthrough in nano technology. The government confirmed that the bodies recovered on the Hilness Farm were indeed those of the two murderers who had rampaged through Columbia City, Gains and other nearby areas. Despite an intensive search, no sign of their mysterious weapons were discovered. It was confirmed that the combined death toll for the two was now standing at eighty-three. Coming up, an interview with the family of one of the victims.
Aaron grieved. A swath of innocent lives had fallen due to his mistakes. Countless more lives were emotionally maimed. If he had never crossed back, if he had allowed Beech to kill the three of them, more than eighty people would not be dead and hundreds of others would not be left grieving.
Perk shushed him as the news changed to a report on three missing people, two women and a man. Aaron did not see his picture displayed, and Perk did not point it out to him.
Changing the channel, she found other news of interest. Outside the city of Gains, Intelligence had raided an Everlasting Life Militia compound, known locally as Field's Militia. Illegal weapons and explosives were taken, as well as over half a million in cash. Plans for the disruption and eventual takeover of the government were discovered. Charges had been filed--thanks to the efforts of Captain Grant Hill--medals would be presented--retire after this last--
"Yes," Perk said, "they died, but they did not die by your hand. They died because two others were evil. Those two are now dead. Other people are dying out there too, Aaron. Children are hungry. Women die in birth. Make a difference, Aaron. All you can do to make amends is to make a difference. Here you can't make much of a difference but over there--"
She left, and when she returned she was dressed for bed. Taking his hand, she pulled him after her, pulled him down into the bed, and she comforted him.
Later, when she offered her body, he raised his head. "What about your boyfriend?"
"That one is history. If you have to know, it was him what put the bruise on my cheek a while back. I'm never that clumsy in practice. The problem, Aaron, is that most men do not like women who are better than they are. So, do you want to do it?"
Aaron thought the matter over. Yes, he did want her. After all, his hormones were stirred, and his emotions were shredded, but no. He owed his loyalty to Sarah and Cathy. He was soiled, but he still held a few rags of honor, of integrity. It did not matter that those two did not expect fidelity from him. He expected it from himself, and on this matter he refused to yield.
Perk said she understood and rolled over to go to sleep. Watching her, Aaron figured she had not been all that enthused on the issue anyway. Most likely, she had not offered him her body because she was interested in him. Her offer had been one of compassion, not passion. She was only being a friend.
* * *
Perk woke him early the next morning when she gently moved his head off her shoulder. While he sleepily tried to blink morning crud from his eyes, she informed him that he was to stay in while she went out and made some purchases of her own. When he finally managed to pull himself from the bed she fed him breakfast and left. Having nothing else to do while she was gone, Aaron sent the massive amount of the previous day's purchases down to his cellar. The transferral added a good deal of space to the living room and kitchen. It was nice not to walk through narrow aisles.
Around noon, Perk returned with at least ten pounds of every type of garden seed she could find. Each seed package was carefully marked. After she told him that she was going back out, Aaron asked her to make some specific purchases for him. These, he decided, were going to be his last days on the world of his birth.
A few hours later he figured that enough time had passed for the women to have the items he had previously sent over stacked up against the cellar walls. Even if they didn't, it was a big cellar that covered more area than just under his store, and now was one of the prearranged times they had agreed to be out of the cellar entirely. The last thing he had wanted was to ship goods over and have those goods crush the women.
To be safe he only sent the seeds over. The surge of power drained him hardly at all, but that did not surprise him because he now knew the secrets of his Talent. He had done nothing but play with the least possibilities of it before.
Perk returned in the evening. She had bought the items he specifically requested, hundreds of other books that he had not purchased before, and a steel box holding what
he did not know. After pocketing one of his special items, he sent the others over in separate lead wrapped packages, each marked with a particular name. "Set these aside immediately," was written on their labels, along with "Do not open." Once the last of those packages were gone, the books followed.
He put the other items, also lead wrapped, in a large crate, locked it, sent the crate over and looked at what remained. Eyes narrowing suspiciously, he reached out and flipped open the lid of the steel box. Frowning, he looked towards Perk.
"That's all silver bars," he said nonsensically.
Perk nodded. "One hundred pounds of it. Can't see no reason to be broke when silver is so cheap."
"Take it back," Aaron said emphatically. "I'm already rich over there. More silver won't do me much good, and you need the money more than I do."
Perk lowered her brows. "You better believe I need money. That's why I borrowed everything I could lay my hands on to get all this silver. Right now my bank has my floating loan up to its limit, and you don't even want to see my credit cards. No sir, you are going to ship this stuff over there, and then you are going to take me with you, 'cause if you don't I'm going into bankruptcy. Before we go bye-bye you are taking me shopping because I want a new wardrobe."
Aaron felt cold. "Are you sure? Think about what you're doing. It's a whole other world. You won't fit in there. If you come with me the move is going to be permanent, Perk. I will never cross over again. I swear it. I won't."
Perk laughed bitterly and made an angry gesture. "Ohhh, I'm sure. I've thought this over for two days now, and I've wanted something like this for more than two years. Aaron, I want to go someplace where I can be more than a small bit in a computer file. I want to go someplace where I am not looked down on because I haven't finished high school, someplace where I can make myself over again. Okay, I'll admit I don't like all the girl-girl thing that apparently goes on over there, but I do like the idea that men are something of a rarity. So yes, Aaron, I want to go."