The Minnesota Candidate

by Nicholas Antinozzi

  Tom found Senator Levitz sitting alone in the dining room, reading a journal. The house was silent. After a quick glance to the living room, Tom walked in and out of the kitchen. “Where are Sam and Chona?” he asked.

  “Alice wanted to talk with them, privately.”

  Tom thought about that. “I don’t know if I like that,” he said.

  “How do you think I felt?”

  Tom sat down and scratched a mosquito bite on his ear. “Who do you think is trying to kill you?” he asked, trying to make conversation.

  Levitz shrugged. “Who isn’t trying to kill me? That might be a better question. I don’t know who to trust. Anyone of us could be chipped.”

  “Yeah, but none of us have denounced our religion. I think we’re safe.”

  “Shari never converted to Islam, did she?”

  Tom shook his head. “No she didn’t, but if she had, that would be the least of her problems. Why do you suppose they did that to people? What purpose would it serve?”

  Levitz sat back in his chair and folded his hands. “I’ve been giving that a lot of thought. My guess is that it’s all about control. Think about it; right off the bat you control half of the population. You can take women right out of the equation. The powerbrokers want a one world government. To make it happen, they need everyone to get everyone in the same boat. What better way to do that than by using religion?”

  “Why do they want a one world government?”

  “Tom, you need to understand something. The United States is broke. Do you have any idea how much of our GDP goes to entitlement programs? This country is running on smoke and mirrors. When we fall, there will be a domino effect. The people with all the money can’t allow this to happen. That’s why they’ve upped their ante. Once they take control, they can cull the herd. That’s what this is about. This planet can’t support more than a billion people, at least not for long. We’re way over that number and have been for a long time.”

  “That’s just sick. Who are they to decide who should live or die?”

  “Tom, you’re preaching to the choir.”

  Tom pointed upstairs and lowered his voice. “How does this Naamah fit into things?”

  Levitz leaned forward. “Because this is the End of Days,” he whispered. “The push for a one world government is Satan’s signal that his time is near. He’s just deploying his troops.”

  “And we’re supposed to stop him?”

  “We’re not supposed to do anything, Tom. We have to stop him. We’re humanity’s last hope.”

  “So, we’re going to stop the devil with a ray gun, is that it?”

  Levitz nodded his head. “That pretty much sums it up.”

  “Excuse me, but that sounds pretty farfetched. Actually, that sounds crazy.”

  “Maybe, but not as crazy as you might think; technology got us into this mess and our only hope is to use that same technology to get us out.”

  Tom sighed and sunk back into his chair. He pointed to the stack of journals. “You’re the Chosen One,” he said. “Have you found out what that means, yet?”

  Levitz shook his head and smiled. “Not yet, but the Jewish people have always been considered the chosen ones. I expect it has something to do with me leading them.”

  Tom was about to say something, the words were right on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them down. “I guess,” he whispered. “Shouldn’t you call your wife? She has to be worried sick about you.”

  “I’m not calling anyone until I get my hands on that ray gun. Once I have that, it’ll be clear sailing all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue. I’ll be a hero and a lock to win the election. I have big plans, Tom, big plans.”

  “I don’t care what you do with that thing, as long as we shoot Shari, first. Do we have a deal?”

  Levitz reached his small hand across the table and the two shook. “Deal,” he said.

  There was the sound of a bedroom door opening and of footsteps in the hallway. Sam and Chona appeared, followed by Alice. “Are we ready?” asked Chona.

  “I guess,” said Tom. “As ready as we’re ever going to be. What were you guys talking about?”

  “I was teaching class,” said Alice. “You shouldn’t have skipped it.”

  “Maybe someone could have told me about it.”

  “Do you know how many times I’ve heard students use that same excuse? Tommy, I guess I expected a little more from you.”

  “How come I wasn’t invited?” asked Levitz. “I was sitting right here.”

  “Because,” said Alice with an exasperated sigh, “you’re the Chosen One. There was no need for you to attend class.”

  Levitz grinned and nodded his head. “It’s good to be king,” he said.

  Tom caught Chona and Sam exchanging a worried look. He wondered about that and decided to ask them about it, later. Sam walked into the kitchen and returned with Shari’s blue cooler. “We got plenty of chow,” he said.

  Alice looked upstairs and she managed a smile. “Shari must be sleeping,” she said, “the poor girl. Chona, you take the journals. You’re going to need them. Follow the map and find that ray gun. And for God’s sake, Tom, get your mother and Marie out of there. They had better not gum this thing up.”

  Tom picked up Shari’s keys and he stuffed them into his pocket. He then led the way out of the house. He walked into the garage and scooped up the heavy duffel bag. They stood by the Ford and stared up at the big house. The sky was just turning pink with the day’s last light. Alice gave them each a hug. She then waved and sent them on their way. Every hundred feet or so, Tom would turn his head and see the old schoolteacher was still waving. He wondered why old people did that.

  They climbed the marble staircase and walked across the veranda to the big door. Tom tried several keys before he found the one that fit the padlock. Sam grabbed the chain and pulled it free from the door handle. “I think we should take this,” he said. “It might come in handy.”

  Tom nodded as he tried keys in the door lock. Finally, there was a satisfying click as one of the keys sank home. The same key worked on the deadbolt. Slowly, Tom pushed open the door. They stood in the doorway and stared down into the open pit. “There’s something you don’t see every day,” said Levitz.

  “We’re going to have to use that ladder to bridge the gap,” said Tom.

  From somewhere deep inside the house, a hideous laughter erupted. To Tom, it sounded as if a thousand voices were laughing at the same time. “I wonder what’s so funny?” he asked.

  Chapter 28

  Blindly, Doris and Marie continued descending the never-ending staircase. Behind them was the laughter, but they did their best to ignore it. “If you listen to it,” said Marie, “it sounds just like the laugh track from Seinfeld.”

  “I thought it sounded familiar,” said Doris, except she didn’t remember hearing this type of laughter in any episode of the popular television program. The laughter actually reminded her of the ghoulish skeleton from Tales from the Crypt. She was thinking this as she caught the faintest glow of light. “I can see something!” she shouted.

  “I can see it, too!” replied Marie.

  They quickened their pace and the greenish light grew brighter with every step they took. Finally, they hit the bottom of the stairwell. They came to a hallway that disappeared into a thick green fog. “I don’t like the look of this,” said Doris.

  “Quit acting like a baby,” said Marie. “We can see, can’t we? Come on, keep moving.”

  Doris felt wetness on her shoes, but she did her best to ignore it. She moved into the green mist, seeing no further than the toes of her shoes. Marie followed behind her, poking her with fat fingers, prodding her along. “Stop that,” she said.

  “Stop what?” asked Marie.

  Marie’s voice seemed further away than Doris had been expecting. She spun around and saw Marie was nowhere to be seen. “Stop poking me,” she said.

  “I’m not poking you.”

  The st
range laughter erupted from all around them. It echoed off of the walls and threatened to burst their eardrums. What began as high pitched, giddy laughter, ended in voices so low, and so menacing, that it sent both women scrambling. With Doris leading the way, they rumbled down the corridor, their sodden footfalls echoing off the stone walls. The wicked laughter had stopped, but they continued to run. Doris thought she was about to die when she saw the white light. Up ahead, the end of the tunnel glowed with a light as white as new fallen snow. She had always heard it would be like this. She slowed to a trot, terrified, yet somewhat excited to see where this next journey took her.

  “Go into… the light!” gasped Marie.

  Doris thought about replying with a snappy answer, but she found that she didn’t have the strength. I must have had a heart attack, she thought to herself, and it didn’t even hurt. Doris wondered about that. She had always heard that heart attacks hurt like hell, but she hadn’t felt a thing. The white light was much brighter now and Doris held her hands up in front of her eyes.

  “Almost there,” grunted Marie.

  Hearing Marie’s voice frightened Doris. She had always imagined that they would part ways at this juncture. Marie had turned her back on the Catholic Church, long ago. She never had a nice thing to say, nor did she possess an ounce of compassion for anything or anyone. Marie was going to hell, Doris was sure of it. Yet, here she was, following Doris into the light. It just didn’t seem fair. And then Doris thought of another possibility, what if this light led down to the other place? Doris slowed her pace to a crawl.

  “Move it!” shouted Marie.

  With the light blazing in front of her, Doris pressed her back against the cold stone wall. “Why don’t you lead the way?” she asked.

  Marie cursed as she passed Doris. In the light, Marie looked as if she had been dead for hours. Her filthy clothes were torn and ragged, covered in cobwebs. Her skin was pale and her hair was frazzled. To Doris, Marie looked like something out an old horror movie. She watched as Marie staggered out of the tunnel. A moment later, she turned left and disappeared from view.

  Doris said a Hail Mary as she caught her breath. The best she could, she brushed herself off and fixed her hair. She didn’t want to enter the next world, whichever one it was, looking like Marie had. She then took a deep breath and began to walk.

  Sam and Chona walked hand in hand, just like a pair of love-struck teenagers. This left Tom and Senator Levitz to walk together. Carrying their pathetic candles, they ventured ever deeper into the rancid house. “You know,” said Levitz, “this is the first time I’ve ever been in here. I had no idea... what a dump. Wait until the guys at the Country Club hear about this.”

  Tom felt a surge of embarrassment for Shari. “You won’t say a word about this to anyone,” he hissed.

  “What do you care about what I say to my friends? It’s not like you’re ever going to meet them.”

  “Shari is my wife and she has suffered enough. I won’t allow you to soil the memory of her parents.”

  Levitz shook his head and gave a little laugh. “Whatever,” he said.

  They continued searching for the stairway that led down into the laboratory. They slogged through rotting piles of garbage, scattering vermin of every size and shape. Every dozen steps, Senator Levitz would boast about being the Chosen One. By the time they had crossed to the opposite wall, Tom was ready to throw Levitz out the window. Behind them, the lovebirds were chatting away, ignoring Tom and his search buddy. Worse, Sam and Chona attached cutesy pet names to the end of every sentence. Even in the horrible stench, Tom could hear them stop to exchange a quick kiss. Tom loathed public displays of affection.

  At the wall, Levitz was busy throwing open doors. Chona pulled herself away from Sam. “You shouldn’t be doing that,” she said. “There could be a trap behind any of those doors. We need to consult the journals.”

  “We don’t have time for that,” said Levitz, ignoring Chona.

  “If Chona says we consult the journals, that’s what we do,” said Sam, angrily. “Knock it off!”

  Levitz gave Sam a smirk and opened yet another door. “Who are you to tell me what to do?” he asked, just before he was swallowed up by the floor. Levitz screamed as he fell down some kind of chute. Tom and the others rushed over to the edge, but the little man was gone. Levitz continued to scream until he ran out of breath. He then began a fresh scream from much deeper in the abyss. On his fourth scream, when his squealing voice was barely above a whisper, there was a muffled thud, followed by silence.

  “You tried to warn him,” said Tom.

  “I was waiting for that to happen,” said Chona. “It was in the journals.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Tom. “He was the Chosen One.”

  “Yeah,” said Sam, “but Alice never said that was a good thing. Know what I mean?”

  Tom covered his mouth with his free hand. “Do you think he’s dead?”

  Chona chuckled. “If he’s lucky,” she said, “but I doubt it.”

  “We’ve got to get down there,” said Sam. “Alice said that once we lost Levitz, things would move pretty fast.”

  Chona flipped open one of the journals to a bookmark and she studied the page in the candlelight. “Could you bring your candle over here, sugar-daddy?”

  “Anything you say, baby-doll.”

  “Stop it with the pet names,” said Tom, unable to tolerate it any longer. “You two sound like a couple of teenagers.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Chona, “what did you say?”

  “The pet names… could you two just knock it off?”

  “We’ll call each other whatever the hell we please,” she said. “And I won’t hear another word about it. Just mind your own damned business.”

  “You tell him, honey-pie,” said Sam.

  Tom spun around in anger. They were standing ankle-deep in putrid trash, yet Sam and Chona hardly seemed to care. Sam snuggled close to Chona, as if they were alone on a deserted beach. He nuzzled and nibbled at her neck while she studied the hand-drawn map. Tom stared at the two remaining doors and decided anyplace was better than where he was. He walked up to the first door and stood before it.

  “Don’t do it,” said Sam.

  “Hold on,” said Chona, “I can’t tell which one it is.”

  “You’ll figure it out, sweetie,” said Sam.

  Something inside Tom snapped and he grabbed the doorknob and gave it a savage twist. The door sprang open, revealing a sterile white stairway. Wordlessly, Tom reached down for the duffel bag and carrying his candle, he began descending the stairs.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” said Sam, from over Tom’s shoulder. “You could’ve been killed.”

  “Sam’s right,” said Chona. “We have to be careful.”

  Tom barely heard them. He took the stairs two at a time. From what he could see, the clean white stairs went on forever. Here, the stale air smelled faintly of disinfectant. Tom was happy for that. He set a blistering pace that kept Sam and Chona from talking. The stairwell spiraled deeper and deeper into the bowels of the house. Tom’s legs began to feel rubbery, but he continued his race to the bottom. He didn’t want to think about their return trip, should they survive.

  His arm and shoulder burned as the weight of the duffel bag threatened to dislocate them. Without breaking stride, Tom grabbed the heavy bag with his left hand and took the candle in his right. His breathing came in jagged gasps. Behind him, Sam and Chona struggled to keep up. Tom felt as if he were running from them, which wasn’t too far from the truth. He felt as if he would throw up if he heard another cheesy pet name. How many flights of stairs they had taken, Tom could only guess. He was just about ready to stop, when he saw the stairs end at a heavy steel door.

  Tom stood facing the door, catching his breath, when Sam and Chona caught up with him. He was shocked that neither appeared to be even the slightest bit winded. Chona held up her hand. “Don’t touch that door,” she ordered. “Let me
see what it says in the journals.”

  “Tommy, you okay?” asked Sam.

  “I’m… just out of… breath.”

  “You really got to go on a diet. You should start hittin’ the gym with me.”

  “You really should listen to him,” said Chona. “You’re a walking heart attack.”

  “Thanks… for saying so,” said Tom, “I feel… so much better now.”

  “Chona’s right, you don’t want to make Shari a widow. Once we get out of here, I’m gonna put you on a protein diet and we’re gonna start slingin’ some weights.”

  Chona pointed to the door. “Unless I’m wrong, this door leads to the main laboratory.”

  “And if you’re wrong?” asked Tom.

  “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

  Sam looked back up the stairwell. “Well, I say we open it up and take our chances. No way Tommy is gonna make it back up these stairs.”

  “Not without having a heart attack,” agreed Chona.

  Tom narrowed his eyes and glared at them both. He then handed Sam his candle and reached for the door handle. “Just leave me alone,” was all he could think to say. He grasped the door handle and pressed the thumb catch. There was a click and Tom shoved it open, praying it opened into the laboratory.

  White light blazed out of the open doorway, blinding Tom. He covered his eyes and continued walking. He heard the sound of shuffling feet and metallic clicks. He pulled his hand away from his eyes and waited for them to adjust to the bright light. Wherever they were, the smell of disinfectant was nearly overpowering.