Relic: Shield

by Ben Zackheim

  “You okay?” Rebel whispered from behind me.

  “Yeah, you?”

  “I think so. Feel bad for the homeowner. I don’t think Vampire stench is covered by insurance.”

  “We need to get going or there won’t be any such thing as home insurance. Hm. That doesn’t sound so bad, actually.”

  She didn’t have a snappy comeback. An awkward silence grew between us.

  “Cannon,” I said.

  “Dead man.”

  “Let’s go make sure of that.”

  Chapter 40

  The neighborhood was eerily quiet.

  The sky wasn’t red anymore. The wandering people all walked in the same direction.

  Toward Zozobra.

  “We need to get to the giant.” Rebel said. “If Polk is right, we have ten minutes until Ley Lines give up the ghost.”

  “Looks like they’re headed there, too,” I said, pointing to the mob.

  “Shit. If the humans fight us we won’t be able to pull our punches.”

  “I know. Just think about the alternative. If we don’t get the shield back in Baldr’s hands, we’ll all be like them.”

  We snuck through the yards of the houses. Some people spotted us but they didn’t raise the alarm. The pupils of their eyes were large, making them almost black. One man walked while clapping his hands in front of his face. He let out a whimper with each clap. For some reason I knew what he was doing. Some part of him wanted to ground himself back here, in our reality, where things made some sense. The clapping was his last defense against disappearing into the madness that the surging, broken Ley Lines wreaked on his senses.

  As we reached the burning grounds, Zozobra was an impressive sight. Old Man Gloom loomed over us, looking down on the quiet masses. The pained grin on his face made him look triumphant. Like he’d waited for hundreds of years to burn the people who cheered while he burned. And his time for revenge had come.

  We hid behind a wall and scoped out the area.

  “Looks like the whole town showed up,” Rebel said.

  But we’d been so focused on the park where Zozobra stood that we were late to notice the real danger.

  On the hills above the field where the town was gathered were hundreds of Blues.

  They made a line of shadows against the night sky but there was no mistaking their uneasy calm. It was the way they always acted when ordered to stay still and wait for the order to feed.

  A man appeared on the hill below the giant puppet. He was dressed in a red robe, his fat stomach pushed at the cloth and made him look like a rubber ball.

  Cannon.

  He walked among the people, weaving around them and touching them on the shoulders.

  Then he pulled a blade from him belt and he slit a woman’s throat in one smooth movement.

  She fell to the grass.

  “Motherfucker,” Rebel whispered.

  Cannon stopped and screamed. His head bent forward. His shoulders shook.

  He was crying.

  He bent down and rummaged through the woman’s purse.

  He stumbled to the hill and turned to face the masses. I’d never heard a place with so many people so quiet before. They all faced the same direction, toward him, but they didn’t stay still. They felt their faces, pulled at their hair.

  “Why?” he yelled. His face was almost as red as his robe. “Why did I do that?” He checked the card in his hand. “Why did I kill Sarah Gomez of Santa Fe, New Mexico?” He paused. He sat on the grass and said, just loud enough for us to hear, “Because I could.”

  “Let me kill him,” Rebel whispered.

  “Not yet,” I said.

  “Because your lives are the burden I must bear,” Cannon said. “If I can’t take Sarah’s life, then how can I make the decisions that will guide us through our nightmare? I don’t know how long we will need to suffer, but it will test me. It will be difficult to have humanity in my hands. I will do my best, I promise.”

  He stood and regained some of his arrogant composure. He took in a deep breath and held his arms to his side.

  “Ladies and gentlemen!” Cannon shouted. “If you could hear what I was saying, you still wouldn’t understand a word. This is the day when old ideas return. Ideas that are too profound in their simplicity. But I need you all to know that I love you. Your existence, your purpose, your potential. What’s there not to love?” He posed the question to his army of Blues who stood on the hills behind him. I could see his twisted smile all the way from my hiding place.

  “While I do love you, you also disappoint me,” Cannon said. “We could all be so much more. But we’ve wandered, haven’t we? We’ve gone astray. It’s been a slow process, but it’s undeniable. We don’t see ourselves as part of something bigger. We only see what’s in front of our faces. Do you know what I want to do? I want to make us better. I want us to reach the potential we’ve had all along.”

  He stopped pacing and sat on the grass, grasping his knees to keep his balance.

  “This is the most twisted therapy session ever,” Rebel said.

  “More like a confession.”

  “Same thing.”

  He’d started up again. “…it means sacrifices. It means horrible sacrifices, actually. I’m ready to make those sacrifices and now, with the world on the verge of madness, we’ll all be ready.”

  “Oh shit,” I said as something dawned on me.

  “What is it?”

  “I wanted to march into the next era of humanity with eyes wide open,” Cannon shouted. His voice was breaking into a shriek. “Imagine a world where everyone knows that their sacrifices will keep us alive. Imagine all of our pettiness, our tribalism, our ambitions set on fire! Making way for a world without any of those diseases!”

  “Kane,” Rebel whispered. It was more like a hiss. “What is he up to?”

  I opened my mouth to explain, but Cannon did it for me.

  “From today onward we will know what it’s like to be number two on the food chain. But be assured, my people, we will rise again when we’re ready!”

  “Oh, shit,” she said, realizing what was happening.

  In Iceland, the Vampire emperor had been ready to crack the world in two with the hammer of Thor. He told us that Vampires would not hide anymore. That they’d rule the world and all of its inhabitants — humans, gods and supernaturals.

  When I asked the emperor what he was going to do for food if he broke the world into pieces, he said that enough of us would survive. And he said an ally would tend to the humans. Control them. Those who survived would be no threat to the new world order.

  I watched Rebel’s face transform as it dawned on her.

  “Cannon is the emperor’s ally,” she said. “He’s going to control the Vampire’s food supply.”

  Chapter 41

  “Okay, that’s it,” I said. “Let’s do this.”

  I pulled out the last of my ammo. One magazine of 17 explosive tips.

  Perfect.

  Once I set Zozobra on fire we’d have a distraction and Baldr would have his last chance to do his thing. I just hoped he was around somewhere.

  And I hoped he had an idea of what to do. Because I sure as hell didn’t.

  Rebel put her hand on my arm.

  “Wait,” she said. “Look.”

  I spotted two figures walking down the hill, led by Blues.

  Baldr and Fox were bound, arms behind their backs.

  “Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”

  “Shit,” she repeated.

  “Glad we’re on the same page.”

  “You still need to get that thing lit, Kane.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe Baldr has a plan.”

  “He didn’t before.”

  “He’s the key. If he’s tied up then how will he get to the shield?”

  “If you don’t set that fucker on fire now, then they may kill him.”

  “We wait until he’s in danger,” I said. “Then I shoot.”

  “Uh, that look
s like danger to me,” she said, jerking her head toward Cannon’s drama.

  “More. Danger.” I’d made up my mind. I had to stick with my instincts.

  Instincts that shifted in a split second.

  My thoughts jumped from one seemingly random idea to another. But I knew I was close to an answer.

  Baldr’s quest for a Viking afterlife.

  Odin’s curse.

  And Odin’s ego.

  Suddenly, it occurred to me that there was only one way to end this.

  I replaced an explosive magazine with standard ammunition.

  I aimed the Glock and squeezed the trigger before my humanity took over.

  Baldr’s head snapped back. Blood and brain splattered on Fox.

  “NO!” Rebel yelled.

  I swapped the magazine out and slapped in the explosives again. I fired at Zozobra.

  I was going to light that fucker up and see what happened. If my theory was correct there was about to be a lot of chaos in Santa Fe.

  Chaos of my creation.

  But nothing happened.

  My bullet didn’t hit the damn puppet.

  I had managed to get the attention of a few thousand hostiles, however.

  My plan was not going well.

  “What the fuck have you done, Kane?” Rebel screamed at me.

  I wanted to tell her. I wanted to explain. But I wasn’t sure anymore. I didn’t know if I’d done the right thing.

  The Blues came at us with a rush of hisses and spits.

  Rebel looked at me in a way that I never thought I’d see. Dismissive, distant.

  “Nice knowing you,” Rebel said.

  “Yeah, you too, dammit.”

  I took out the closest bundle of Blues with a single shot. My explosive tips are different than most other explosive tips. When I say explosive I mean explosive. As in fire everywhere. A dozen Vampires stumbled from the flame, burning. The Blues behind them floated up and over or went around the inferno.

  Then the humans started to sprint at us.

  “Run!” I yelled.

  But I didn’t run away.

  I ran toward the humans. They could slow us down. They could hurt us. But they were just human after all is said and done so, all things considered, they were our best escape hatch.

  Rebel and I shoved through them. I did my best to spot smaller people, kids mostly. I ran over them, doing my best to not hurt anyone. Rebel tried too, but I’m sure she had a few run-ins that she’d rather forget too. I don’t think I hurt anyone too badly, but I’ll never know.

  Cannon saw us running at him and I swear he smiled.

  Sick motherfucker.

  No amount of chaos could freak him out. The more mayhem, the better.

  I knew that if I took him out, a sea of evil would wash from the surface of the earth. All of his plans, all of his machinations on the future of humanity would pour out and, at least temporarily, lose its power over our fate.

  Sure, some other motherfucker would come along to mess everything up. But I could deal with them later.

  I wanted to kill him. I wanted it more than anything in the world.

  I aimed at his neck as I ran and I pulled the trigger like it would be the last shot I’d ever take.

  I missed.

  No way.

  I had him pegged.

  He must have been pulling off a spell to keep him and Zozobra safe. But what was the spell? How could I shoot past it?

  I kept running, twisting, and shoving my way through people. The Blues were on our tails.

  “Look!” Rebel shouted from behind me. She pointed ahead of us. I didn’t see anything new.

  She elbowed a Blue in the nose and lit up her hands with a Light Spell.

  The glow shot from her hands and illuminated a single shiny bullet, stuck mid-air, just ahead of me – like it was trapped in time.

  One hell of a spell, Cannon.

  We started running again as the Blues blinked the light spots from their eyes.

  “Light it up with a Fire Spell,” I said.

  I could feel the heat building next to me. We were twenty yards away from Cannon. He seemed confident. He wasn’t worried about how close we were. He had something planned for us, but we had no choice but to try something. Anything.

  I felt the fireballs soar past my right ear, giving me a flaming haircut that I tamped out with my sleeves.

  Rebel and I watched her fireballs approach Zozobra.

  It was like time stood still.

  The fire got a few yards away from the puppet’s chest and evaporated.

  One small ember fell to the grass at the feet of its target. Cannon finally moved with some urgency. He stomped on the tiny orange dot and frowned at us.

  He waved his hand like he was erasing a chalkboard.

  Rebel and I stopped in our tracks. I couldn’t move.

  Whatever spell the bullets were under was mine to contend with now.

  Cannon walked down the hill toward us.

  He wiped the blade on his cloak and smiled.

  Chapter 42

  Bonehead’s motorcycle busted through Zozobra’s head before anyone knew what the fuck was going on.

  He’d used the hill above Zozobra as a ramp.

  I could angle my eyes just high enough to see him drop a flaming object down the puppet’s neck.

  If I could have smiled, I would have, but my face muscles were as frozen as the rest of me.

  But my non-smile became a non-frown as the flame in the puppet’s torso froze in time as well. The colorful plume looked like a psychedelic, Technicolor cauliflower.

  And to top things off, Bonehead’s landing was perfectly on course to flatten me.

  Luckily, he was frozen too.

  The front wheel of his bike hovered a foot from my face.

  “Maybe now would be a good time to finish my speech,” Cannon said. He placed himself close to us so we could see him as he masterfully condescended.

  Suddenly, I felt my jaw loosen up. Nothing else could move though. He wanted me to speak.

  The second my jaw was freed, the fire above me moved a little bit, slow as paint drying.

  And the wheel in front of my face started to spin, almost imperceptibly.

  Apparently, Cannon had to loosen his grip on the spell to allow me to talk.

  “Say your piece,” Cannon said. “This is one of those moments when you get your last chance to save the world and miraculously come up with a solution.” He took a look around. “But it doesn’t look good, does it? All of your allies are either dead or frozen in my spell. A specialty of mine that I learned from a demon.”

  His smile faded.

  He was annoyed by my silence.

  “Nothing to say? Not much time, Arkwright.”

  The bike tire was inching toward my face. I couldn’t even see my taunter anymore.

  “I ruined your curse, Odin!”

  “What?” Cannon asked, more annoyed than anything.

  But Cannon should have been scared, not annoyed. I was taunting a god, after all.

  I took my time answering his stupid question. Hey, maybe Odin was slow.

  “I. Ruined. Your. Curse. ODIN!”

  Cannon flicked his wrist and my jaw locked again.

  “Okay, done with you guys,” he said. He walked back up the hill and faced his throngs again.

  Then, in an instant, my body was my own again.

  One moment I was frozen in time. The next I had complete control. I wanted to jump for joy. I wanted to laugh and move my legs. I wanted to kill the fuck out of Cannon, the diseased little prick-nose.

  But I didn’t.

  The bike’s wheel was still again. The explosive plume of fire above us was like a photograph. I could see that Rebel was still frozen.

  Or she was faking it too.

  “Three minutes until the end times,” Cannon said. I think he was ruminating by that point, patting himself on the back for a fucked up job done well. “Three minutes until humanity has its s
econd chance. Three minutes until…”

  Cannon shut his trap. The sound of Blues hissing and metal rubbing against metal filled the sudden silence.

  I didn’t know what was going on, but we had an ally nearby. I needed to wait for him to make his move.

  I tilted my head just a little bit to peek around the tire in my face. A small man waddled down the hill from behind Zozobra. He held some kind of long chain weapon over his shoulder. The metal links dragged behind him like a long snake.

  And Blues dragged along with it.

  The chain was spiked and the Vampires struggled to rip themselves free. A couple dozen of them writhed around, hissing, unable to pry off of the sick device.

  The guy was the size of Skyler but he wore a fedora and a fine-cut black suit. He was like a Hollywood mobster, cigar and all.

  “Humans don’t get another chance, man-in-red-cloak,” he bellowed. He had a low, tough voice, haunted by cigars past. “You ran out of second chances years ago. You got the Great Flood to get your shit together. You got the Black Plague to figure things out. Bay of Pigs gave you a good, hard look at yourselves. I’d say that’s all the do-overs you get, you sanctimonious pile of turd pie.”

  I saw Cannon back up. It was time to make a move.

  I stepped out from behind the frozen motorcycle.

  I aimed at his left temple.

  This mission would end on the tip of a bullet.

  “Down, boy,” the small man said to me. My Glock flew from my hand, landed barrel-first in a Blue’s open mouth and blew its head off.

  The Glock flew back to me and hovered, waiting for me to take it back. “And watch your back next time,” the man said. “Not that there will be a next time.” He stood over Baldr’s almost headless body and then looked at me and smiled.

  “Clever kid,” he said, pointing at me. “Arkwright, right?” I nodded.

  “Who are you, midget?” Cannon asked. He put on his best macho mad-face but he knew he was in trouble. Anyone who could cancel out his spell had to be powerful.

  The little man laughed a big belly laugh. It was a jolly fucking thing. It made me smirk. I glanced over at Rebel, who could move too. But she looked at me like I’d eaten her puppy. She still didn’t understand why I’d killed Baldr.

  “You humans,” the stranger said. “So rude when in the presence of gods!”