Falling again.
This time Brendan was prepared. He caught hold of the thin ledge of concrete on the other side of the gate. Donnie had a loose grip on his arm but couldn’t hold on as he fell. Brendan heard Tina scream somewhere just below him and call his name.
The demolished admin building of the ruined world was lit by starlight and a rising moon. Below him was darkness.
“I’m just below you,” Tina said. He heard her move on the loose debris but she was gasping.
From somewhere further below in the darkness Donnie groaned. Brendan looked down in his direction. The man must have fallen at least twenty feet to a section of floor that remained intact. A small flash and a loud pop erupted. Something smacked the concrete just underneath Brendan as the report thundered around him.
“Get cover,” Brendan hissed. “He’s got another gun.”
Three more shots followed. Brendan didn’t have much real estate to work with. He crouched low on the beam.
“I see you up there,” Donnie called.
Brendan tried not to move. He had seen the man shoot. With the moon up, there was the possibility of being silhouetted. The air felt heavy. The adrenaline rush was quickly being replaced by the sense that his limbs weighed more, and even breathing took effort.
From below came the shifting sound of stone against stone. Donnie groaned. “That’s a hell of a first step.”
“Tina,” Brendan hissed. “Come around to the back side of the beam, and I’ll pull you up.”
Tina didn’t answer. Then he heard her breathing hard as if she were exerting herself. She let out a suppressed moan.
“My leg,” she whispered. “It’s busted.”
Brendan moved to climb down and Donnie fired again. Brendan dropped down blindly in Tina’s direction. He landed directly on her, and she howled.
“Sorry, sorry. Let me pick you up. Grab hold.”
“No, it hurts too much. Just wait.”
“We have to go now. We can get back through and close it up.”
“I know. I get it. But you can barely keep standing. I feel it too. The food and water, it’s worn off.” She panted a few times and caught her breath. “Go back up and get yourself through.”
“That’s stupid. I’m not leaving you.” He tried to get his arms around her. Seeing her in the dark was difficult. She pulled away and gasped.
“Oh god,” she screamed. “Stop, just stop.”
He took his hands off her. “I’m sorry.”
“Just get out of here. There’s nothing to be done.”
“Ain’t this just sweet?” Donnie said from somewhere nearby.
Brendan scanned the darkness and tried to force his eyes to adjust. But he could see nothing.
“Freyda’s going to be pissed that you broke her slave. She’ll probably take it out on me. That means I’m going to have to save you for her so she can get nasty with you instead.”
A small avalanche of dust descended down the pillar. Brendan wondered how long any of it would remain standing. He moved to the fragmented wall and climbed up to the remains of the fifth floor. The gate caught enough of the moonlight that it appeared to ripple like a black pond. A shadow appeared clawing up from the lower level. It was Donnie and he would be in reach of Tina in moments.
Tina let out a short gasp of a laugh. “Brendan, you better promise me something before you go.”
Brendan stood up in front of the gate, knowing that he would be visible. He held up his ring hand as if saluting. The gate closed.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said as he leaped down in Donnie’s direction.
17. Dog Eat Dog World
The silver pistol in Donnie’s hand was a tiny thing, smaller than the palm of the man’s hand. It shined in the moonlight. Time seemed to slow down as Brendan fell towards the man. Donnie adjusted his aim, but Brendan could do little but continue his trajectory. The weapon clicked, and then Brendan collided full force into Donnie. They tumbled and rolled down the uneven slope, jagged pieces of concrete and steel pummeling Brendan as they went.
They both stopped hard at a broken wall. Donnie groaned. Brendan fought to get up and move away from the man but Donnie took hold of the back of his pants. Brendan kicked into his face, and Donnie released him. The pistol lay nearby. Brendan picked it up, turned and pulled the trigger. It clicked again.
Donnie laughed. “That’s all the little girl has in her.”
Brendan threw the pistol, and it struck Donnie in the forehead. Donnie scrambled forward but Brendan moved away to where the wall had collapsed out into open space. A slope below descended to the ground.
Donnie rose to his one good foot. One finger on his right hand twisted at an oblique angle. The dim blue light revealed dark streaks of blood on his face.
“This is getting less fun,” Donnie said. “You thought you could kick me through to this world and leave me high and dry?”
“We’re all stuck here now.”
Donnie hesitated. “Is that so? What’s to stop me from breaking your face, stomping your girlfriend’s guts, and heading back to the old Ponderosa?”
“The gate’s closed. The machine isn’t here, but on the other side. Unless you do as I say, you’re stuck here forever.”
The man took a step forward. “I may be dumb, but I’m not an idiot. You have a way back. I just need to find the right kind of pressure to make you talk.”
“You’ll have to catch me first.”
Brendan snatched up a chunk of busted concrete and threw it. It struck Donnie on the shoulder. Donnie shouted and charged as Brendan stepped over the edge. He landed hard on a bundle of rebar and tumbled and rolled down in a barely controlled fall, finally sliding to a stop. His legs felt wobbly beneath him, and something had popped in his right knee.
Donnie was following him down.
The gamble was working. Donnie wasn’t thinking about Tina, at least not yet. Donnie climbed down more deliberately, his broken foot hindering him. Brendan picked up a few more chunks of debris and threw them, realizing that each feeble throw was draining him of what little reserve of strength he had mustered. But Donnie wouldn’t have the vitality he had on Charlotte’s Earth. Here he was closer to home, his normal. Perhaps the ruined world was home.
Brendan backed away from the admin building. Donnie made it to the ground and hopped forward. He held a piece of rebar in his hands and was using it as a rudimentary crutch. Brendan held his arms out and waved Donnie forward.
Donnie let out a laugh. “Amigo, you’ve overstepped your bounds. This is now a serious infraction.”
When Brendan bent down to scoop up another rock, his head spun. The world turned upside down, and his stomach lurched. He vomited. He almost fell and went down on a knee. Donnie was getting closer. Brendan shut his eyes and took three deep breaths.
“Maybe it’s something you ate,” Donnie said.
He tried to jab Brendan with the piece of steel. Brendan rolled away and scrambled to his feet. The broken streets tilted around him. The vertigo doubled down, and he gripped a mailbox. Donnie hopped forward and swung the rebar like a bat. Brendan ducked and the steel struck the box with a resounding thwang.
Brendan ran, setting a weaving course between the dark mountains of rubble that used to be a school. He stumbled often and ignored the throbbing in his knee, and kept his eyes focused on what was straight ahead of him.
“What, am I supposed to chase you?” Donnie shouted.
Brendan paused at an intact planter box. He turned and looked behind him. Donnie wasn’t coming. Which meant Donnie might be going back to where the gate had been. Tina was still there, but Brendan knew he was in no condition to help. He needed food from this world to even the odds, and he needed it fast.
He went searching.
***
What had once been the Bean still stood, but here the mostly collapsed storefront had a sign out front that advertised tailoring services and alterations. A birdcage and a broken sewing machine were the onl
y identifiable objects in the wreckage.
He looked inside dumpsters and recycling bins. The moldering refuse held nothing of interest. He knew he could head downtown to city hall. The intact snack machine still had some food in it. But he wasn’t sure if he could make the journey without long rest stops, and the dogs might find him again and make another attempt at taking him down. He and Tina had barely survived.
Now he was alone and sick.
The pet food store was as it had been on his own world. The front and sides of the structure had fallen in. The building looked like a shoebox that had been stomped on at one end. He picked his way through broken stucco and framing and climbed the slope of what had once been the roof. A skylight had cracked and broken, and enough of the plexiglass was gone so he could crawl through. An interior wall supported much of the remains of the building. It was dark below.
He thought about other options that didn’t involve dropping down into a wrecked store where he might become trapped or crushed by shifting debris. But if this world had had any survivors for any amount of time, the pickings elsewhere would be slim. The pet food store didn’t have any visible entrances that remained accessible.
Down he went.
What started as a careful climb became a free fall when the framing that held the skylight broke under his weight. He crashed onto a tipped rack of shelves. A load of roof gravel and other debris dumped on top of him. He took a moment to catch his breath. When he shifted, the shelving shifted more. The cascade of junk from above finally stopped falling. He tried to sit up and then the shelving gave way, dropping him down into further darkness.
He landed on something soft. Lots of somethings. Pieces of metal and stucco littered the stack of pet beds he now lay upon, and the shelves had fallen around him, penning him in. He allowed his eyes to adjust but it was still unbearably dark. A cloud of newly stirred dust began choking him. He tried not to breathe it in but was soon coughing.
Enough moonlight came down that he could make out his immediate surroundings. Ceiling material had filled much of the area around what had once been the store’s showroom. He pushed one wall of shelves away and felt his way forward. The remaining space between ceiling and floor forced him to crouch as he moved. He found a collapsed display that marked what had once been the end of an aisle of products.
He dug.
A large tile card read “Cat Treats, Cat Toys.”
He could go no further forward. The other aisles were under tons of debris. Any hope of finding a breakroom vanished. He moved a few armloads of wreckage as carefully as possible, knowing at any moment it all could come down. He reached into the darkness of a revealed space and felt around. He felt plastic packaging and grabbed at what he could.
He found cat chew toys and round green balls with strings and bells. He reached further down and came up with a bag of cat treats. Chicken flavor. He tore off the top of the bag and took a whiff. It smelled nothing like chicken.
He thought of Tina and ate.
He was truly surprised that his stomach hadn’t revolted. Perhaps at this point his digestive system was throwing in the towel and surrendering to the abuse Brendan was putting it through. The cat treats had tasted like salty wood pulp. Now he was mad with thirst. A few further recesses of the store appeared accessible but he would be taking too great of a risk trying to reach them. He began climbing out. A quarter moon shined right above him, providing enough light for him to find sufficient handholds. He made it to the skylight and stopped to rest.
He looked up. Did the menagerie of celestial objects in the sky all have infinite duplicates, too? He wanted to go home.
A baying in the distance cut through the silence of the night. It was answered soon enough by a second call. The dogs or coyotes making the sound were far off. They were the masters of their world now. He made a silent promise never to return.
Whether the cat food in his belly was doing anything, he didn’t know. He had to deliberately force each limb to move. The dryness in his mouth had only intensified. Surely a water heater or toilet tank had survived somewhere where he could take even the smallest sip of water to quench it. But there was no time.
Donnie had to be dealt with, and Tina needed help.
He shuffled back onto campus. He heard and saw nothing. Surely the warlord grunt, or whatever Donnie’s position was in the invaders’ organizational chart, would be lying in wait. Brendan limped his way to the base of the ruined admin building. The blanket of shadows that crept up the building meant Donnie could be anywhere. The moonlight illuminated Brendan as perfectly as if he were in a spotlight. A chill was setting in. Even the thought of the climb was overwhelming. He turned and looked back at the rest of the rubble-strewn school.
“I’m right here, Donnie. Let’s get this over with.”
No answer came. Brendan entertained his worst fear: the warlord had climbed up to where Tina lay and would use her to get Brendan to open the gate again.
“Not a lot of options out there, amigo.” Donnie came hobbling out of the shadow of a wall. He held what looked like a yellow metal brick. “I would have taken your head off with this, but then I remembered you did some hocus pocus and I might not be able to get back home. That would be stupid, wouldn’t it?”
Brendan began to climb.
“Hey! We’re talking.”
Some of the debris shifted. Brendan found it quickest to be on all fours, and he scrambled up the pile of concrete. Then something struck him in the back. It felt like a sledgehammer. He collapsed on the slope and tried to catch his breath. Pain radiated out up his neck and down to his tailbone. It took a moment before he was able to move. He finally rolled over and saw Donnie climbing up after him. At Brendan’s feet was the object that Donnie had thrown. Brendan picked up a brass paperweight in the shape of a train.
He got to his feet and took a moment to get his balance.
“Don’t even think about it,” Donnie said.
Brendan threw the paperweight. The projectile nailed Donnie in the side of the head. The man tumbled backward and fell. Brendan paused for a moment, surprised his throw had actually hit him with such power.
Donnie roared. He got himself up and grabbed a chunk of rock. He threw it. It barely missed Brendan, but another piece sailed past in moments. The force with which the rocks came was astounding and possibly lethal.
Brendan climbed as fast as he could manage to get into the shadows. Donnie kept throwing, but now Brendan had some cover. The ruined support beams and remaining walls were hit repeatedly with the resounding thunks of concrete missiles.
“You’ve really chapped my hide,” Donnie said. “Prepare to have yours chapped. I’m sending you back to the minors.”
A ladder of rebar, exposed in the moonlight, was the most direct way up. Donnie was getting closer, no longer throwing anything but using his hands to drag himself up to the top of the slope. Brendan had nothing at hand to throw back. Much of the floor beneath his section of the building had given way.
“So that’s how the ring works, amigo? Just wave my hand around like a magic wand? Open sez me and the gate opens? You’ll squeal and tell me. Or maybe I’ll even figure it out on my own with the help of your girlfriend. Hate to say it, but the boss was right. We probably only need one of you.”
As Donnie climbed, his rebar walking stick clanked on the concrete. He was now on the same floor as Brendan. “Time to step back up to the batter’s box. You’re up.”
A rock came sailing from up high and struck Donnie. Another followed. A continuous volley of missiles flew at him, most hitting him square on, causing him to duck and shield himself.
“Brendan, hurry!” Tina shouted.
Brendan broke cover and climbed the rebar.
Donnie saw him and hurried forward, trying to weather the hail of debris. Another rock hit his face. He crouched down and threw a chunk of concrete that exploded when it hit the rebar cage in front of Brendan’s face. Brendan felt the force of the impact through the metal, and
dust and pebbles abraded him. He kept pulling himself higher even as Donnie made it to the base of the column of steel bars.
“Can you climb any slower?” Tina asked.
Brendan tried to focus on one limb at a time. Foothold. Grab. Pull up. He felt himself climbing faster. Perhaps the cat treats were working their magic. Maybe some last ounce of adrenaline was trickling through his bloodstream.
At the top of the column he saw Tina had maneuvered herself just below the gate. She sat with her legs out to her side, covered in perspiration. He couldn’t tell which one was broken. She just looked incredibly uncomfortable. Only a few handy rocks remained near her.
“Can you get up to the gate?” he asked.
“Just moving a few feet to here took me over an hour. You’re going to have to help me.”
Brendan looked over the edge of broken floor. Donnie was halfway to them. Brendan picked up the largest rock he could find. He hurled it with all his strength. The rock overshot the target. Brendan also missed with the next two throws. Donnie was about to reach the top.
“Stop messing around,” Tina said.
Brendan had been overlooking a chunk of wall half his size. He tried to grip it but could find no purchase. He pushed. The slab moved reluctantly, making a grinding sound. Donnie’s hand was visible and now he pulled himself halfway up and saw what was coming.
“Amigo, not cool.”
Brendan gave it everything he had. He shoved the giant rock straight into Donnie, and the rock and warlord both vanished into the dark. Brendan dropped to his knees and caught his breath. He wanted nothing more than to collapse and sleep.
“You’re not going to crap out on me here, are you?” Tina asked. “This is the part where I remind you that I’m in excruciating pain.”
Brendan confirmed the ring was still on his finger. With a wave, the door back to Not-Earth opened up. Tina screamed as he helped her up. She had to cling to his neck as he climbed to the ledge. A distant howl was the last thing he heard before stepping through.
The Supervillain High Boxed Set: Books One - Three of the Supervillain High Series Page 58
