by Bob Williams
“Clear the stage. We’ll stage our offensive from here,” We said.
“Got it!”
We turned to Shields. She looked at me, the tears fresh on her face. “We’re going to make it aren’t we?”
“Yes.”
I put my hand over her gunshot wound and willed the bullet to exit her body and fall into my hand. Her wound, as well as any internal damage, was healed. “What do you need me to do?” asked Shields
Can we do what I’m thinking about wanting to do?
You can.
I reached back over my shoulder, produced a beam of pure light, and held it in my hand. I closed my grip and thought about what I wanted to be there when I opened it. I handed her a steel katana, whose blade was so sharp it could have easily defeated Vizzini in a battle of wits.
“Find Ortiz. I need you to cut one of the heads off this two headed monster.”
“With pleasure!” And she was off.
Prescott, turn around, he’s getting up!
I spun around. “Oh, hey. There you are. I just sent Shields after your boy, Ortiz. Sooo, he’s fucking dead.”
Language.
Really?
Yes.
YOU...WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU...YOU ARE HEALED?”
“Dude, are you OK? You sound perplexed. I’ve never heard a master demon from another plain of existence sound confused. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Kade sent a plant into the Murfreesboro Safe Zone. He failed. You want to know how I’m healed? The Network.”
“NO!” Chaos charged at me, and I returned the favor. We crashed into one another and proceeded to brawl, like you know, back in the day. In the schoolyard. Except he was a demon with foot long blades for fingernails, and I had an angel inside of me.
Can we defeat him? Or Do I have a false sense security?
I don’t know.
Good enough for me.
Chaos swung his crazy blade hands in a double slashing move that I was barely able to avoid by diving out of the way. As I jumped up I heard a “whump, whump, whump” noise coming from the sky. Chaos looked up, and I took advantage of his being distracted by kicking him in the stomach and drilling him on the side of the head.
“MSZ! This is Jay Rives of the Normal, Illinois, Safe Zone. Your call for assistance has been received. Take immediate cover!
It was a helicopter! Jay had a helicopter! Where the hell did he get a helicopter? A massive searchlight shone down on the stage, followed by a barrage of bullets. I dove out of the way and scurried out of the line of fire.
Some friend you have there, Prescott. He arrived just in time to save you and kill you!
Sounds about right.
Chaos turned to me and glared.
“ANOTHER TIME, PRESCOTT! THIS IS FAR FROM OVER! And just like that the red-light eyes were gone.
I think I can take this from here. Thank you Malcolm.
It wasn’t for you, Prescott.
Ok. Well, thanks, anyway.
And just as Chaos disappeared from Kade, Malcolm was no longer with me. Kade and I stood face to face. Bullets were flying and Freaks were dying and we just looked at each other. It was the realization that this fight was just going to be him and me. I didn’t care that he was a Freak, or whatever he was. I’d never actually been sure. I knew he was going down, though. It was time to cancel his order. ‘Take it back’ starts right now.
Jay laid waste to a section of Broadway with the large Gatling gun that extended from the side of his helicopter, and brought that baby down. Before he stepped out of the bird, he bellowed into the loudspeaker, “IF YOU ARE NOT A FREAK, RAISE YOUR HAND!” Not a hand was raised. Jay and three associates formed a cross and walked in all four directions away from the helicopter. They proceeded to annihilate the remaining Freak contingency with an assortment of automatic weapons fire, frag grenades, and hatchets.
***
Shields, katana in hand, made her way through the mayhem that was going on around her. Prescott’s friend, Jay, had come through as guaranteed, and the tide had turned massively. She felt like she had options. It was obvious, at least to her, at this moment, that she had survived. She could slip away from this mess and start over somewhere. She also almost immediately understood she could not do that. She wanted to know Cole was OK, that he’d made it. She needed to get back to Prescott. Although her feelings were untouched by the notion of romance, she didn’t think, after what she had just witnessed, that she would ever leave his side again. He was...important.
She sliced and cut her way through Freak after Freak, looking intently for Ortiz. And there he was, running towards Robert’s Western Wear. She really felt that Prescott and Malcolm had created this katana just for her. It felt so natural. It felt like it was hers. Like it had been hers before. Not the one that had been taken from her when they arrived. No, not like that at all. Like in another life? That’s just crazy! No, it really isn’t. Not anymore. She swung the door open and ran into the long-since defunct cowboy shop. She saw him rifling through old boxes, a smashed out display case, and finally he disappeared behind a counter.
“There really isn’t anywhere for you to go, asshole.” It’s time to meet your...whatever the hell. Look, I’ll even put down the sword. I want to kick your ass with my bare hands.” She tossed the katana aside. Once the sword clattered to the floor, Ortiz stood up and moved around from behind the counter. He was wearing a smile so sinister, it gave Shields the chills.
“Let’s dance,” he said.
“Gladly.”
***
When I entered The 88 three days ago I saw smoke rising into the Chicago night from what turned out to be a looted, run-down grocery store. Now, as I stood on this stage, facing down Kade, the smoke was thick and pungent. Jay’s helicopter had fanned the dying flames from my rocket blast on the Big River, and had reset the blaze. It was totally apropos.
“I don’t need Chaos’ help to kill you, Prescott. I’ve been raping and killing since long before The Descent. Ha! That just made it OK,” said Kade
“I pinned a lot of hate on your chest that didn’t belong to you,” I admitted. “I thought coming to Nashville, and cutting your cord, would somehow make up for for the wrongs that had been done to me by people you don’t know. But it turns out I was wrong. I mean, I do believe that I was supposed to come here, but not for the misguided reasons I first thought. I’m here because an intervention occurred on a level that someday I’ll fully grasp, that had me in Normal, Illinois, to hear a radio broadcast. And ever since then, each person I’ve met along the way has convinced me that we don’t have to live this way.” I shifted onto the balls of my feet.
“The Descent happened. Assholes like you and the Freaks were the result. The Dreamers? They took the easy way out. The rest of us sufferred. But not anymore. My friends and I are not content with just survival. We intend to fight for our world. It starts now! It turns out I don’t need any other reason to kill you than that you deserve to die.”
I threw a right-left combination of punches that he blocked with his forearms. He then threw a roundhouse kick that hit me right in the hip. Damn! I grimaced and backed away a bit before re-engaging. He threw another kick that missed, then he rocked me with a punch to the side of my head. This wasn’t going how I planned. Kade came at me with a right hook that I blocked, but he then hit me with a left in the ribs. When I cringed from that, he came back with right to my jaw. Down I went.
“Some hero, Prescott. You’re not even going to make it out of the first round.”
“Wanna bet?” I said. I hopped up, shook off the cobwebs, and repositioned. I had an idea. I yanked off my tie and wrapped a little bit of each end around each hand, and gripped tight. Kade looked puzzled and made a “whatever” gesture.
Kade feinted to the outside but quickly shifted to the inside with a punch. I saw it in time, blocked it, and sent a jarring elbow to the bridge of his nose. Perfect! Kade stumbled back while the blood flowed freely from his nose.
“Dammi
t!” Kade screamed. He was pissed. I had him right where I wanted him. I hoped.
He charged me with a guttural roar that was actually pretty frightening, but I stayed in there. I waited till the last possible moment. He grabbed for my throat with both of his hands. I kicked him square in the balls. When he doubled over, I brought my knee up square into his jaw. It was a sickening crunch that saw him spit all sorts of blood from his ruined mouth. He was down.
“Kendrick Kade! Your reign of terror ends today!” I walked behind him yoked him with my tie. I took a couple more wraps of the tie-turned-garrote, threw myself backwards and pulled with all of my might. The result was my knees between his shoulder blades, while I choked the life of him with the tie. He fought for his life, and he gargled, and he kicked. But he died. I dropped the ends of the tie and he dropped to the stage. I looked out over Broadway. Fires raged, punctuated by the occasional triple urps of automatic gunfire. But what I didn’t actually see anywhere was a Freak. I closed my eyes, and allowed myself a little smile. I knelt down, picked up Kades body and walked it to the edge of the stage. I threw it off. No fanfare. Just symbolic. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a figure emerging from the smoke. I instinctively went for my Glocks, but of course they weren’t there. I was resigning myself to another brawl when I realized the figure was Jay. It was Jay!
I smiled the smile of a victor and ran to embrace my friend.
“You made it!”
“Yup! Wouldn’t miss it. Make ‘em think you’re weak when you’re strong. I knew nothing but good would come out of that CB.” Jay ripped off a very satisfying laugh. Where’s your crew?”
“Where, indeed,” I said. I turned and saw the microphone nestled comfortably in the stand, and went to it. “Michael Cole! Laura Shields! If you can hear this come to the stage.
“I heard you just fine,” said a voice from behind Jay and me. Again, another smoky entrance. It was Shields. In one hand was the katana Malcolm and I had given her, and in the in other was Ortiz’ head. She had a shiner under one eye, a slight nosebleed and was a little gimpy.
“What the hell happened to him?” said Jay.
“Who, our buddy Ortiz? Well, let’s just say he brought a knife to a swordfight.”
“Have you seen Cole?” I asked.
“No, I was busy.”
“OK, Let’s find him—and Jay, let’s round up your guys.”
There was a general chorus of “OK” and people started to break out towards the stairs down to the street.
“Wait! Wait a minute.” I walked back to the microphone. I tapped it with one finger and was greeted with that same resounding feedback. “Nashville, Tennessee! I repeat, Nashville, Tennessee! YOU. ARE. FREE! Regulars! That shit stops today! You are HUMAN BEINGS and this is YOUR city. It is time for the humans to emerge from the shadows and write Nashville’s new history. Page one starts today!” I dropped the mic and walked off stage.
Two hours later, we found Cole. Alive. He was in the kitchen of an old Honky Tonk called The Stage. We found him lying atop a rather large Freak with his knife buried to the hilt in the carcass. When I first shook him he didn’t move. Then I kicked him in the ass as hard as I could and that rousted him. He looked rough. Not in life threatening condition, but tired. Cole had killed about thirty or so—according to him—Freaks and mustered up about all he had left for the buddy we found him with, then passed out.
Shields and I helped Cole up and each of us took an arm over a shoulder. As we all were walking out of The Stage, Cole mumbled something barely audible.
“What?”
“We all made it?”
“Yes, Michael,” said Shields.
“Damn,” he said.
“What? You’re right. We all made it.”
“They’ll never make a movie, now.”
I shook my head and allowed myself one more of those little smiles.
THE NEW PROTECTORATE
When we emerged from The Stage, we saw Jay and his crew standing beside the helicopter. Cole took the opportunity to sit it the open doorway and take a rest. Jay reached inside, past Cole, produced a bottle of water, and handed it to him.
I extended my hand to my friend. He shook it. “Thank you, Jay.”
“You’re welcome. I’m not gonna lie. I didn’t put the CB in there for shits and giggles. I knew what you were coming here to do. I counted on your realizing that you couldn’t do it alone. I see you found some friends. You guys know he’s crazy, right?”
“Yes!” Cole said. “But I guess, in the end, that’s why you suit up with him. Sometimes crazy’s what you need.”
“Why, Michael Cole,” I put my hand to my chest. “I do declare! You have touched my heart,” I said with my pale attempt at a Southern drawl.
He smiled. “Shut up, Prescott.”
Jay said, “Well, I think it’s about time we head back to Normal. I’m sure Kevin is getting concerned. You know, he really wanted to come, Prescott. Sometime I’ll have to have him tell you his crazy-ass John Wilkes Booth story. Bring beer.”
“I’m not sure this world is ready for Kevin,” I said with a laugh. I embraced my friend. “Safe travels...Oh, and where the hell did you have a helicopter stashed at that place, anyway?
“Ha ha! Don’t you worry about it, Prescott. But seriously, if you ever need me, night or day, no distance too far, three-sixty-five, you call me.”
“Done.”
I helped Cole up out of the doorway, and the three of us backed up several feet and watched them all climb into the helicopter. Jay, in the front passenger seat, put on his headset as the pilot did the same, and started flipping switches. I won’t pretend I know how to fly a helicopter. The blades slowly started to rotate, then picked up speed. The black helicopter lifted up and soon disappeared into the night.
Cole found his sea legs and Shields and I held to his pace as we started to walk back to the Jeep. Cole said, “When do we talk about the part where you had an angel inside you?”
“I don’t know.”
“I liked the part where you made a sword out of pure light,” said Shields.
“Oh, and thanks for fixing my ear, and Shields’ gunshot,” said Cole.
“That wasn’t me, guys. That was Malcolm. And you can’t possibly understand how close he cut it. He was not going to help us. I’m serious. We were as good as dead, until Chaos broke the plane and consumed Kade. He was cryptic. He said, “I have my orders.” The whole time I thought he meant his orders not to interfere. But now it feels like he was told to not interfere unless Chaos broke the plane, then his orders were to engage.”
“Prescott,” said Shields. “You suddenly look like bait. No. Maybe a better analogy is a pawn. You look like a pawn in a much bigger game.”
“Like between Heaven and Hell?” asked Cole.
“Yes,” I said.
“So, what are you going to do, Prescott?” asked Shields.
I thought about that for a minute. “This is what I’m going to do. Malcolm told me that I am what’s called a Point of Light. A Point of Light is a human that the angels have deemed needs to be protected because he inherently does good deeds. The angels call this world The Low Lying Lands. We are Low-Lyers. It’s my goal, starting right now, to form a new Protectorate. I hope you’ll join me in starting a new movement, where the Low-Lyers are free and the Freaks are on the run. I’m not stopping to until Chaos is dead and BH-2014 is completely eradicated.”
“Wow. I’m slightly aroused, commander!” said Cole, and he burst out laughing. “I’m in! Let’s do it!”
I was almost pissed off, but darn it if one of those little smiles didn’t creep across my face again. I turned, “Shields?”
“Sure,” she said. “Do I get to keep the sword?”
“Yes, you can keep the sword.”
We started walking towards the Jeep again when Cole, who was getting pretty good with questions, had one more. “Hey Prescott. Where is Malcolm? Is he going to be part of the band?”
“I hone
stly don’t know.”
My mind was on so many different topics as I approached the Jeep. Where was Malcolm? What are we getting ourselves into? Where did Chaos escape to? Where the Hell is our next meal going to come from?
I was exhausted. Emotionally and physically spent. We were about ten feet from the Jeep when in I saw the tips of her ears slowly start to rise up from the front seat. Then I saw her eyes, and her muzzle. Lexi. She saw me. I saw her. Our eyes met. I wept.
BeforeI had a chance to touch my hand to her beautiful head, the ground jerked under my feet.
“What in the world was that?” asked Cole.
“I’m not sure,” I said.
Shields said, “Maybe we should-”
The ground pitched again. I fell forward through the open driver’s side window and into Lexi’s lap. Cole and Shields both tumbled to the asphalt.
“Get in! Now!”
I politely but forcibly shoved Lexi into the passenger seat as Cole and Shields scrambled into the Comanche via both back doors. I jammed the keys in the starter and gunned it in reverse before whipping the Jeep around to face the way we had come. Buildings disintegrated into rubble on either side of us as I floored the accelerator, sending us right through the heart of downtown Nashville.
Large plumes of dust and smoke obstructed my view as I was doing my best to miss the glass and chunks of building, racing fast and scared back up Broadway. I glanced at the rear view mirror and saw Cole and Shields marveling in horror as their city was reduced to nothing. At Broadway and Eighth Avenues, I jerked a hard left, headed up and out of skyscraper territory, away from downtown. The rumbling stopped.
I continued up Eighth Avenue, which, heading away from downtown, ran along a moderately steep incline. We passed an old boat shop, one of the Habitat stores, and had just crested the top of the hill when Cole said, “Stop, Prescott!” I stopped.
I brought the Comanche to a stop horizontally, under a long defunct traffic light. Cole opened the door and stepped out. Shields followed suit from her side. From the driver’s side, I turned and looked.
Oh my God.
