Life Rage

by L. L. Soares

  Colleen was in the room she had shared with Jeremy; she had just finished packing, too.

  He looked in at Viv and knocked on the sliding glass door. She motioned for him to come inside.

  “So you finally got here,” she told him. “I was starting to wonder if you’d make it.”

  “I had a lot of things going on,” he said, standing beside the couch and looking at the television. “But I dropped them all for you.”

  “Nice to hear it,” Viv said. Then she called out, “Col, you ready yet? Grif’s here.”

  “Is she coming with us?” Grif asked.

  “Yeah. I tried to talk her out of it, but she won’t listen.”

  “I’m serious,” Grif said. “This sounds dangerous.”

  “I know,” Colleen said, coming down the hall behind him, carrying her suitcase. “But I want to help you guys catch the guy who killed Jeremy. Viv’s already explained to me how dangerous it is. I know all about it. Remember, I’ve seen him up close.”

  “She can detect him,” Viv said. “She can see this vision, kind of like an aura, I guess. Or so she says. I’m thinking that means she might help us find him quicker. And the sooner we stop this guy, the better.”

  “Yeah, I can pick him out of a crowd quicker than anyone.”

  “If you were so good at detecting him, how come you weren’t able to warn Jeremy?”

  “He came out of nowhere. There’s no way I could have warned him in time.”

  “Now look what you did,” Viv said. “And she finally stopped crying yesterday.”

  “I’m not crying,” Colleen said, holding back the tears.

  “I’m sorry,” Grif said. “I didn’t know the details. Look, let’s start over again. I really don’t want to fuck things up right off the bat. I mean, it wouldn’t be new for me, but I’d like to do things right this time. Can you forgive me, Colleen?”

  “Yeah, sure,” she said, but he could tell she was still trying to maintain her composure.

  “So you got a car this time?” Viv asked.

  “Yeah, if you want. It’s comfortable enough. What’s wrong with your car? It in the shop or something?”

  “There was an accident. There’s a horrible odor. I’d rather not use it for a long trip.”

  “Okay,” Grif said, not sure if he should ask further. He decided not to. “You want to head out now?”

  “Sure,” Viv said. “Maybe you can help us with our bags.”

  It was then that something on the television caught her eye. There was a riot on the other side of the country.

  “Well, looks like he’s on the move again,” Viv said. “Colleen, remember me saying it might take us awhile to find him? Well, it doesn’t look like it will be so tough after all.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  When he hit the water, instead of the life leaving him, it simply clicked up a notch. Whatever humanity Sam Wayne had left inside himself was pushed back into the hidden corners of his brain, and the other side of what he was came forward.

  He went underwater, but quickly clawed his way up to the top again and swam back toward the bridge. Then he began climbing up the metal structure as quickly as he could.

  There was a crowd of people above Sam, staring over the railing, as he climbed up toward them. He grabbed the closest ones and pulled them over the side, letting them fall to their deaths in his place. The others scattered, but they didn’t get far.

  The ones he didn’t chase after, began to act strangely and started fighting. Striking out. Hands turned into fists or fastened around throats.

  It was one big free-for-all.

  There was a television van on the corner, and people were filming the scene. Sam, or what had once been Sam, watched them for a moment, then the reporter was striking the cameraman repeatedly with his microphone, and then the cameraman lifted his camera high and brought it down hard on the reporter’s skull. The broadcast came to an abrupt end.

  Cars had stopped on the bridge, and people got out of their cars to shout at one another. The shouting degenerated into more bloodshed.

  And Sam was at the center of it all. His clothes still soaked from his brief dip in the river. His hands reached out for whoever he could grab.

  A helicopter buzzed overhead. Another camera to replace the smashed one below. Another watchful eye to transmit the carnage to the people at home.

  Sam stared up at the helicopter, wishing that his arms were long enough so that he could reach it and pull it down to the ground and crush the life out of its passengers. Even if he climbed up the sides of the bridge, he wouldn’t have gotten close enough to get a hold of it. And even then, there was no guarantee he could have done the damage he wanted to. Flesh and blood was one thing, but metal and whirling blades were another. Not that he was clear-minded enough at this point to think that out completely.

  Instead, he made his way across the bridge, grabbing people as he went quickly enough to smash their heads into railings, or into their cars. Or walking over people already dead or dying on the ground beneath him.

  Sam Wayne wasn’t really sure who he was, or what his destination should be. But he knew he wanted to get off the bridge. And he wanted to kill as many people as he could along the way.

  * * *

  The television screen showed an overhead shot from a helicopter of a bridge. Stopped cars and what appeared to be many bodies were on the bridge. Some people were fighting with each other. Several more appeared to be dead. Above it all, a man was walking across the tops of the vehicles.

  “It’s him,” Colleen said.

  “I have never seen anything like this,” the news reporter was saying. “I really have no idea what to make of this situation. Police are trying to get to the scene now, but are having trouble because of the backed up traffic, which includes many abandoned cars.”

  “How do we deal with this?” Grif asked, watching the screen with amazement. “Do you have any kind of plan?”

  “Not yet,” Viv said. “But we have to confront him before he slaughters more.”

  “It looks like he’s doing just that.”

  “I know. That’s why we’ve got to stop him. The police won’t be able to do anything.”

  “This is the guy who killed Jeremy?”

  “And Turney,” Colleen said. “A friend of mine. But he’s killed a lot more than just them.”

  “I went up against him, Grif,” Viv said. “His name is Sam Wayne and I confronted him in his own house.”

  “He’s still standing?”

  “He’s not only still standing, but he was able to handle me pretty easily. We’re not dealing with a normal person here, Grif. Not by a long shot.”

  “I can see that.”

  “Remember when I told you Colleen could sense him, that she saw some kind of vision? She saw similar visions around us. Do you think there could be a link?”

  Grif stared at her, but did not answer.

  “We could fly there,” Colleen said. “Get there faster.”

  “Faster isn’t necessarily better. We don’t have a plan yet,” Grif said. “Besides, we have no idea how much more havoc this guy might be up to. He might put an airport at danger at some point. No, we should drive there and try to figure out a solid plan along the way.”

  “I agree,” Viv said. “In fact, that’s why I wanted you to join us. I really need another head to think this through.”

  “You ladies already packed or do you have to get ready for our trip?”

  “We’re packed,” Viv said, “and ready to go.”

  “My car’s out front. We better get started. It will probably take us a couple of days to get there, if we don’t make too many stops.”

  “You still coming, Col?” Viv asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Are you really sure we should bring her along?” Grif asked. “That will just increase the chances that someone might get hurt.”

  “I told you, she has the ability to detect him. It will come in handy when we get ther
e.”

  “I hope so.”

  “It will be tough leaving this place,” Colleen said, looking around the room.

  Viv shut off the television using the remote and stood up. “We’ll come back, eventually. We’re not going away forever.”

  “I hope not,” Grif said under his breath as he grabbed their suitcases.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  Sam stood in the middle of a green field. When he first arrived, a bunch of guys had been playing touch football, but now they were involved in a free-for-all, pounding on one another with their fists. Kicking each other. Two men already lay on the grass, bloody and unmoving. The others, caught up in the fire of the moment, didn’t seem to notice.

  At the other end of the field were some trees and a duck pond. He remembered seeing a mother there with her small child, feeding bread to the ducks. Now, the mother was trying to drown her own child, who was furiously trying to fight her off. She succeeded in holding him under long enough to fill his lungs. Even the ducks were attacking each other. Feathered bodies floated on the pond’s surface.

  He watched as people filled the park. Runners, bicyclists, families having picnics on the grass. It didn’t take long for them to get infected with the rage Sam spread like wildfire. Runners pushed a cyclist to the ground and stomped him to death before turning on each other. Families furiously tried to kill one another, staining picnic blankets red.

  And it was all because of him. He could feel the rage building inside of him. He could feel it surging out of him, every inch of his body throbbing as it pumped pure hatred into the world, infecting everyone it touched. He no longer had an identity, although he still wore the body of a man. Now, he was something different. A beacon of pure, unrestrained fury, sending out waves of negative energy. He could feel his influence expanding, the waves reaching further and further out.

  The rage seemed to feed on itself. As he infected others, he also fed off of them, creating a constant cycle that kept recycling itself, growing stronger all the time.

  Everyone in his vicinity was trying to kill whoever was nearest. Whoever they could grab and strike and stomp to death.

  Sam felt very good inside.

  * * *

  “The riots seem to be spreading. Incidences of looting and vandalism have run rampant. All actions by the police to squelch this madness seem to be failing, as police who come in contact with the rioters have been joining in the fray.”

  Viv looked at the car radio and then up at Grif behind the wheel. “It’s started,” she said. “I knew this would happen eventually.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He was a time bomb waiting to go off, and it’s finally happened. Colleen and I saw this guy in action. He had cops killing each other on the lawn in front of his house. I even felt it to some degree when I came in contact with him, although it didn’t take me over. It sounds like he’s only gotten more powerful since we last saw him.”

  “So you’ve seen this guy more than once and lived to tell about it,” Grif said to Colleen, who was in the back seat. He looked at her in the rear-view mirror.

  “Yeah,” Colleen said. “And every time was horrible.”

  “There’s no turning back, now,” Viv said.

  “Well, have you girls thought this through?” Grif said. “How the fuck are we supposed to stop this guy when he’s even making cops kill each other?”

  “I got close to him,” Viv said. “I wasn’t able to stop him, because I wasn’t prepared. I had no idea how strong he was. But if I got that close once, I can do it again.”

  “I got close to him, too,” Colleen said. “Twice. I saw him kill two people right in front of me, but I didn’t go crazy with rage, and he didn’t harm me.”

  “That’s right, isn’t it?” Viv asked her.

  “I don’t want Colleen getting close to him again,” Grif said. “I don’t want to risk something happening to her. We have to take care of this ourselves, Viv.”

  “But don’t you see, maybe I’m immune to him,” Colleen said.

  “What does that matter, Col?” Viv asked. “If you can get close to him, how does that help anything? You can’t do anything to stop him.”

  “Maybe I could get some kind of bomb and get close.”

  “And blow the both of you up in the process,” Grif said. “Stupid idea.”

  “We have to do something to stop him. Look at all the people he’s killing.”

  “We’re not going to do anything that would put you at risk,” Viv said. “Grif and I already agreed about that. If you can help us find him, fine, but you are not confronting him.”

  “Why don’t we just drop her off somewhere now?” Grif said. “We don’t need her to find him. Hell, he’s the top news story in the country right now.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Colleen said. “I’m going with you.”

  “Sounds like it’s a good idea we didn’t fly out there, after all,” Viv said, turning up the radio. The violence had spread to the airports. It was pure bedlam.

  “How far do you think this will go?” Grif asked. “It just seems to be spreading more and more.”

  “I wish I had killed him when I had the chance,” Viv said.

  “It would have saved a lot of lives,” Grif said. “But you had no idea what you were in for. You were lucky you survived your encounter with him.”

  “At least she healed up real fast,” Colleen said. “I was worried that she was in real bad shape when I found her in that house.”

  “So we any closer to devising a plan?” Grif asked them. Then to Viv, “Or are you just going to go charging at him with a sword or something?”

  “Last time I brought a gun, and I could have sworn I shot him, but it didn’t stop him. Maybe I didn’t hit him at all. Maybe it has to be a headshot or something. I don’t know.”

  “Well, you have to get close enough to try,” Grif said. “That sounds like the tricky part. Even if you get past the madness that he’s surrounding himself with, there’s no guarantee he’ll let you get close enough to do anything.”

  “I have to at least try. Nobody else seems to have any solutions. We can’t just let him run wild like this, killing whoever he wants, can we?”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  Sam sat atop a rock formation at the city zoo. The bears had just finished killing each other off. Four bloody carcasses lay on the concrete beneath him. Their throats ripped out. Blood formed thick pools beneath them, which spread to the filthy wading pool.

  There was a time when it would have been suicide for him to be here, inside the cage. But now, it was lethal for the animals.

  He looked outside the bars. There were bodies everywhere. Dead families, dead zoo employees, dead lovers on dates. All the animals had torn each other to pieces from the elephants to the snakes.

  For as far as he could see, there was only death.

  Sam had shed his clothes by now. There was no more reason for such things as modesty. Besides, he was the only one alive for miles. He was no longer subject to the rules of man.

  There was the hum of a helicopter from above. Another camera crew no doubt, monitoring his progress. Sending back pictures to the waiting world of his latest carnage.

  He stared up at it, wondering how far the waves of rage traveled. Sure, he was able to send the emotions out, infecting people around him. But could the waves emanate upwards to the sky?

  Seemingly in answer, the helicopter began to waver a bit, as if it were losing control. Then it flew lower in the horizon, until it disappeared from view. There was a sound in the distance. Did it crash? He liked to think he had something to do with its descent, but he didn’t care enough to go see. It was too far away.

  He leapt down from the rock formation with its caves, that had once acted as a shelter for the bears. He passed the unmoving forms of the bears themselves and then grabbed onto the bars. They were just wide enough for a man to squeeze through. He slipped out and climbed the fence beyond.

 
There was such an overwhelming silence. This place had once been filled with sounds. People chattering, animals bellowing and roaring, hissing and cawing. And now, all of it was gone.

  Sam passed the cage where the wolves had lived. They were dead as well. All the animals were. Sam threw his head back and let out a long howl, just to break the silence. Just to let this place know that he was the dominant one. That he was the king of this jungle.

  * * *

  “I don’t know,” Viv said softly. “I’m really having second thoughts about bringing her along. There’s too much of a risk that she might get hurt.”

  “It was your idea to bring her,” Grif said. “We could have just left without her.”

  “She insisted, and convinced me that she could be of some help, but even then I had to struggle with the idea. Now, as we get closer and hear about the horrific things happening over there. I’m convinced I made the wrong decision.”

  “It’s not too late to change your mind,” Grif said. “We could leave her here. She’s asleep. We could go the rest of the way without her.”

  “No, she’d follow us somehow. I know she would, and then who knows what would happen to her? At least with us, we can keep an eye on her. Try to protect her.”

  “This is too much to handle,” Grif said. “Have you been hearing the news reports? How are we even going to get close enough to do anything? It sounds like the entire western seaboard has gone insane.”

  “I know. Maybe none of us should go any further. Maybe this is a suicide mission, and we’ll end up dead before we even get close enough to see him.”

  “Maybe.”

  “And I don’t know about you,” Viv said, “But I’m starting to feel pretty itchy. I really need to feed it.”

  “It’s like you read my mind.”

  “The closer we get, the stronger the craving. It’s actually kind of painful at this point.”

  “I know,” Grif said. “Only too well.”

  “We’ve got to do something about that. We’ve got to be strong when we confront him.”