by P. S. Power
“Oh, sure, we were told how that works. The first team does publicity and gets in trouble, mainly small scandals that have to be covered up, like Prime raping his daughter, only he didn't, if the story is right, but everyone thought that he did and kicked his behind over it. Second team goes and kills Infected people most of the time. Team Three...” The girl hesitated and finally tilted her head at Denis.
“That is kind of a mystery. No one talks much about them, except Proxy. He kills people too. Like a mass murderer. But I guess he's too scary for anyone to do anything about? It's on the news a lot though, almost every day people are found dead because of him. He just shows up at random and no one can stop him at all.” The girl shivered a little at the name and it wasn't fake.
The others all nodded as if this was their understanding too. Denis thought it sounded about right, but Hobbs shook his head and smiled.
“Do not be misunderstanding Advocate Yi, the one you call Proxy. He kills, aye, but he saves as many, often more. He is a good man, and one you can trust without question. When the darkness seeks your heart you may trust that he, if it be within his power to heed your call, will stand there in your stead to face it true. That's what an advocate does, and his calling to it is the most honest I've seen.”
Denis tilted his head and smiled.
“Thus ends the first meeting of the Brian Yi fan club. Hobbs is right though. Proxy is a good guy. Saved my life more than once and really, if anyone in the world has a reason to wish me dead... Well, neither here nor there for now. But if anything happens to Hobbs or I, go to him and tell him... everything. He'll help. We need to leave soon and then figure out what the plan is. What...” This part of things made him feel low and a part of him didn't want to even say the words. “What... evidence do you have?”
No one spoke for a while, until finally Ginger tightened her face and stepped forward.
“Genetic data. Some video of the monster torturing some of the younger kids that we couldn't get free. Mindy went back in once. It's enough to ruin him if the press would notice it, but when we tried to go to them no one would even listen to us past the first few sentences. Everyone is too afraid of Hooper and...”
Right.
“Genetic data? What kind?” It didn't really make sense to him. Having a lot of kids wasn't illegal. Then he got it when Ginger smirked at him darkly.
“Well, Uncle-brother-Denny, it's like this...” She didn't get to finish.
“Fuck... I see. Well, if you're willing to talk to the press, I know a woman that can help us out. She hates me, but then a lot of people do, so that's no surprise really. She also hates Hooper so much I think she'd off the man herself if she could. Also, some of the IPB have already suggested killing Prophet Darren, because of what he did to you. Illegally murder him. Before we knew he was Infected. You have more supporters than you think. So... I know it's asking a lot, but, um, road trip anyone? We have to get back to the main base if we're really going to do this.”
He had to explain the whole thing, several times and in the end Ginger decided to be the one to go public first.
“Not much happened to me, I was too little for more than beatings and electroshock when we all left. It would be harder for the others. I can talk about it. I'm not afraid and it's not my shame, but his.”
Mindy laughed darkly, “all right. Just don't mess it up. We can all go public if we have to. We've lived in fear and disgrace before, doing it again won't stop us.”
Bethy had to go, since she was Ginger's mom. Mindy wanted to, if only to catch up with her brother, but Hobbs thought she'd be better off spending her time on the upcoming “protest” in San Francisco. Having an organization with strong ties to the hate community would be an incredible asset he assured her. Probably worth as much or more than taking down Jones, or even Hooper. After a few moments she just agreed.
“As long as he dies, I don't care what else you do.” There was no doubt which he was meant.
The bitterness fairly sang in her words. Who could blame her though? The monster deserved to die as much, or more, than anyone else in the world. That didn't even bear arguing. For a second Denis wondered if Hobbs would, but the man didn't bat an eyelash at the idea, just bowing to her and then walking toward the front of the warehouse slowly, waiting for everyone else to catch up near the door. To let the little family reunion play out without his interference?
It didn't take that long.
Really Denis should have expected that, he realized as soon as Mindy walked away from him about five minutes later. What were they going to do, go over all the good times at Faithhome? Talk about the “wonderful” time he had living on the streets when he'd run away? No, instead the woman just hugged him again and told him to make sure they took the monster down. She said it several times and then left, her shoulders set with anger and a harshness that left Denis more than a little sad. His memory of her was different than this. Gentler. Sweeter.
In the end he realized something. As messed up as the IPB was, they were more his family than his blood relations were. At least some of them. The special riot team was, except maybe Clark and even then he didn't want the man dead. Mark, Brian, Warren and Kerry. Even, of all people, Scott and little Bridget. Peggy and Rachel...
To a small extent the Director and Jan from the restaurant. Lancaster... Hobbs and as freakish as it sounded, even Carl.
They were his people. His friends. It shocked him to realize how many of them there were.
It was too deep for the moment, so he decided to not think about it and work on the problem at hand. Getting back. He could call in for emergency transport, or even just funds, but the lower key they kept the whole thing, the better, right? He didn't exactly have training in this area, but it made sense in the moment.
They ended up taking Ginger's car, a very humble jalopy that looked barely road legal, which she assured them would get them there if anyone could help pay for gas.
“I'm even insured! Have my license and everything, mom insisted. I plan to fix her up when I get some more money coming in. Might as well. No way I'm getting a boyfriend now.” She sounded bitter about it too.
“Oh? Why not?” Hobbs said serenely.
“Oh, let's see... My father is also my grandfather and my mother is my sister? Add to that announcing it to the public and looking like this and I doubt a lot of men will be fighting to date me.”
The girl snorted at the strange man and gestured down her body. It wasn't something out of a centerfold, but Denis realized that the girl looked cute enough once he got passed the highly related part of things. Not great through the face, but at least as good looking as say Kerry from the base. Same nose, cheekbones and everything... Ah.
Oh. “Ah ha” for certain.
The looks were just too close by far, now that he knew to think about it. No wonder the girl had always reminded him of his sisters. Well... fudge, how had he missed that?
“Kerry from Team Two, and Mark's show...” Denis looked at Hobbs who understood even without a preamble. Ginger blinked, froze and then shook her head.
“I hope you don't plan on fixing me up with her, I like guys, at least I think I do...” She dead panned this so well that he nearly bought it. Hobbs didn't though.
“Nay, tis only that you bear a familial resemblance to the woman. A teammate of mine own. It was not known to me that she was related to Denis here however. I can see it now that it is pointed out. Amazing woman. A true bastion of good in this world.”
“Not known to me either. I... How did I miss that? I mean really... She must be twenty-five or so... Who's child is she? Who's her mother I mean.” He got the father part of it. It made him shudder, but he understood the relationships involved.
Walking over, the weight of the world on her shoulders, Bethy spoke softly.
“She's mine. I... He got me pregnant when I was twelve and we passed her off as Rachel's daughter so that no one would know that I'd given birth if the state ever checked on us. Ten years ago,
when Mindy led us out, I grabbed her and made her come with us. She was fifteen.”
Oh. Well fuck then. So... one of the wives when she left? Damn. Not something he'd have ever wished for her at all. Not for anything.
They pooled the money they had left, about three hundred dollars once Bethy pitched in too and drove nearly straight through. It wasn't hard, since three of them could drive. Hobbs could too, in an emergency, but he didn't have a license yet. Cars in his world worked the same way, he assured them, though they ran on Elcampayn energy, not petroleum. He explained that the hand and foot pedals were similar though.
“Elcampayn is one of the seven families. The smallest of them and once the most influential. They are often left off the list though now, since there are only a scant few left. Their bodies produce tremendous energies, but some years ago a process was discovered which allowed the members of that family to be held against their will, their flesh pushed into vast overloads, until they die. Decades of servitude, pure slavery and pain. It isn't a good thing. The Westers say that when the last Elcampayn dies, so does our civilization. If only the governments of the world would see it that way. We are tied to them far more surely than this world is to oil.”
Then Hobbs had to explain everything he'd just said. It took a while. A long while. The world he came from was just that different. His job description sounded like he was half monk, half warrior and almost exactly like Proxy, except that he had to show up at court dates to fight for people's lives. Like a really bad-ass lawyer. Most things were just settled by judges, which they quite sensibly called “Judges”, men and women trained from childhood to be free of bias, so they could make fair and clean rulings. They didn't have juries though. Or actual lawyers. Advocates only came into play when a person claimed innocence and a Judge found against them.
It was their last chance at an appeal.
Depending on the crime and how strongly all involved felt, an advocate might have to fight as many as twenty people at a time, sometimes unarmed, against a mind boggling array of weapons.
No wonder Hobbs was so freaking amazing. He had to be just to make it through his average work week.
The story made for an interesting tale to keep them all awake, how Hobbs had come to protect a charge, a person or persons he wouldn't name even to his friends, lest it be uncovered, from his own home, another world altogether. Denis just accepted that part. The guy was either from a far off place or insane and since he could kick Marcia's butt, Denis really didn't want to challenge the man on his basic beliefs. Besides, everyone else at the base who knew believed him. Good enough for Denis really. If Christian Poures could trust the man, so could he. Besides, they were friends. Kind of. As much as some crazy man that led you through painful and annoying exercises could be.
Ginger asked questions as if a test would be coming on this alternate reality, probing and looking for mistakes or lies probably. After a while she summed it all up pretty nicely. Her voice didn't lilt, it sounded matter of fact and straightforward really. Logical.
“So, the families... Elcampayn makes energy, like generators though, not to shoot out or use as a weapon. Wester is really smart, but like, scary smart? Three hundred IQ's or...”
Hobbs interrupted.
“Closer to six hundred if I understand the system of measurement correctly.”
“OK... Then you have Doyle, all of whom are like super strong and fast? Carlie, the healers and Timberland who see all of the future, whatever that means. But there are seven, who am I missing? That's only five.”
The man in the back seat, wedged slightly into the corner spoke carefully, as if alerted to something about the girl next to him. Denis felt this more than anything. Not simple attraction either, a dark sense or maybe something portentous rose from behind him. Bethy had the passenger seat in the front of the little wood paneled looking vehicle. They were all bundled up in layers, since the weather had gone cold suddenly. They could have made the trip in one day except that they had to make a big detour toward the south to avoid going over the Rockies with the snow coming.
Hobbs smiled gently, “Wyrdcraft, who bend space and time to their will, it was with the aid of one of their kind that I arrived here, and Diapolos. They... Really there's no good way to describe what they do. They bend living creatures and make them into new things. I've long wondered if all the families did not start with those of that line, making the rest in turn. If so, they do not do so openly now, or admit to such.”
Amazingly, beaten up ticket trap or not, no one tried to pull them over for the whole trip. No police came and subtly threatened to shoot any of them out behind the tree , and in fact, they barely saw a police presence at all. The joys of anonymity. The next time they went on a road trip, the little riot group had to take something without government plates, he decided. Even if they had to take up a collection to buy something.
They hit snow the morning of the second day and had to drive incredibly slow for the last two hundred miles, barely hitting thirty most of the time. Ginger had insurance, but couldn't afford studded tires or chains and everything they had went to food and gas.
They pulled up to the front gate at about seven at night, with him driving and Hobbs in the passenger seat. Of course the dapper red-head next to him didn't look like Hobbs, he looked like a respectable, but very fit, business man and Denis didn't look like himself either, he looked like a church pastor from Indiana.
He had his ID though. Hobbs didn't, but it was enough to get them all let in. Thankfully as paranoid as they were here now, the gate guards hadn't turned into Nazis yet. Standing around arguing with them for hours would have sucked. Plus, they really needed Bethany and Ginger to take them seriously. Being hassled at their own front gate wouldn't inspire a lot of confidence. They drove to the new parking lot on the right side of the main building away from the air strip. There was about eight inches of snow on the ground, early for here, but not impossible at all. Climate change and all that.
It was funny to listen to the right wing try to claim that global warming either wasn't happening at all, was all due to the sun, or on alternate Fridays, was all a plot by a few scientists to pad their resumes, pocket books or maybe get big cars and that the whole thing was a scam. After all, he'd heard it argued, if it was cold this week here, how could the world be warmer anywhere?
Denis was kind of surprised they hadn't found a way to blame the Infected for it yet. Some fire spreading person out melting the North Pole or something? He'd have used that to make fun of them, the losers that couldn't see that their own habits were ripping the world apart, but didn't. It would be too easy for them to take that up and run with it.
Funny, wasn't it, that the people that feared the Infected most also denied that the climate had shifted? Then again a lot of them still believed the world was flat most likely. Morons weren't hard to control and big oil had their hooks in pretty tight. Plus there had been studies that showed that conservatives became that way because they were highly fear reactive as a rule. Worse, most of them didn't get that they were doing what they were just because they were cowards. That figured though. If they were too afraid to deal with any one part of reality, it made sense for them to do the same in all other areas too. It was consistent.
Denis and Hobbs took all the bags, since the others were guests if nothing else. Besides, the odds of anyone attacking right now were marginal. They'd at least wait for them all to get inside, where it was decently warm before beating them down. Denis didn't want to complain, but his scrotum had apparently decided to move in next to his spleen for warmth.
“Fuck, what is it, five degrees out here?” Denis looked at Hobbs who merely focused on his task it seemed. Right. Focus and don't be a little whiner. He gave it a try, which didn't make it warmer, but did shut him up, so maybe it was worth doing?
They walked carefully, the drive had been plowed, but the snow between them and the door was still as it had fallen, broken only by two lonely pairs of footprints. Very large f
ootprints. Huge really. At the front door they found who's. Hobbs smiled up at her.
“Lauren girl! Good to see you! Is all well here?” Hobbs sounded genuinely happy to see the giant armored form that stood in the snow. She'd been there long enough it had collected on the broad black space that made up her shoulders, leaving a frosting of white, some of it melting and running down her chest and probably back. There was no blinking, her eyes huge and black, like sunglasses sitting in a blank mask.
If it weren't for the fact that she was pretty nice as far as Denis could tell, she'd make a great character for one of those horror movies where the evil Infected monster wantonly killed dozens of teenagers in the woods. Usually because they were jealous about all the sex they weren't getting. That or their first modes just made them want to slaughter people. It was the lack of visible emotion. No matter how hard you looked, nothing showed. No anger or fear, just a steady sameness. Until she spoke. Then you could hear the pain in her voice.
“I'm fine.” She said, sounding so sad and lonely that it was pretty darn clear she simply wasn't doing well at all. Not really. “It's just a first mode thing. Loneliness is a bitch. I'll be all right. I was just watching the snow and realized that I had no one to share it with and never will now. Same old same old, you know the drill.”
Oddly Denis kind of did. Not from his first mode, but the months of endless isolation, not knowing if it would ever end. Wondering if the only way out would be death. Hoping but not trusting in anything. The only difference being that Level, Lauren here, knew for a fact it wouldn't end. That it would always be just like this. A feeling so deep and constant that nothing could save her from it. Not even being with other people. Crud. Greed wasn't that hard to take compared to that.
“Oh...” Denis said, not knowing if what came to mind would be a good idea or not. He could ask though, right? The few times he'd kicked greed's ass had really made him feel better after all.
