Atom Town Book 2: Hands of the Swamp!

by Jason Scott Nebel

  There wasn't time to discuss. As soon as the pins had reset, the ball had rolled back up in the ball return, and it had a passenger.

  Left crawled off of the ball towards Eve.

  "Looks like you just made it angrier," said the Sheriff.

  "Wait!" shouted Adam. "There is but one way to settle this!"

  Adam paused, seemingly waiting for a response.

  "Fine," surrendered Eve. "How?"

  "We bowl!" announced Adam. "To the DEATH!"

  21

  Bowl of Death

  "So let me get this straight,” said the Sheriff. "You and the hand are gonna' have a bowl off?" asked the Sheriff

  "Exactly!" smiled Adam. "Two men. One frame. Loser dies!"

  "In what world does any of that make sense?" asked Eve.

  "This isn't any world, it's man's world!" shouted Adam, opening his arms to the bowling alley.

  "Now the bowling alley is 'Man's World'?" asked Eve, with a clear distaste for any part of any world being exclusive to men.

  "Sh," hushed Adam. "The men are talking."

  Eve looked at Adam, then to the little hand waiting to kill him, and at this point, she was willing to let him. Otherwise she might just kill the Doctor herself.

  Lefty's fingers thumped on the bowling ball, patiently waiting for Eve to make the call.

  "Fine," said Eve. "Let me know when it's the grown up's turn to talk."

  "So let me get this straight," asked the Sheriff. "You lose, the little hand gits to kill ya'?"

  "Yup."

  The Sheriff smiled wide. "I'll keep score," he said, excitedly sitting down and filling out a score sheet.

  "Lefty goes first," said Adam.

  Lefty knocked a ball onto the ground, rolled it to the first set of markers on the hardwood, cracked all of his knuckles, and then set his fingers into the bowling ball.

  With a hop and a flip the arm rolled the ball towards the lane, but as he released it, his thumb got stuck! With a crunch and a pop, the ball rolled lopsided down the lane with a piece of Lefty's thumb still stuck in one hole.

  Adam laughed as only one pin fell.

  "What was that?" mocked Adam. "You bowling left-handed?"

  "What are you doing?" whispered Eve.

  "Trying to get in his head," said Adam. He sized up his competition. "Or in his hand. You know, wherever his brain thingy is."

  "And where do you keep yours?" asked Eve.

  "Sh," said Adam, ignoring her insult. "He's up."

  Lefty pulled his thumb tip out of the ball and flicked it aside. This time he didn't go for form. Instead he picked up the ball and let his arm fold backwards.

  Eve could see the rocks on the back of his hand growing slightly.

  Then like a catapult, he flung the bowl down the lane. It flew like it had been shot out of a cannon, knocking down the remaining pins!

  Lefty popped up and down, then hopped up and slapped Adam's face in celebration.

  "That shouldn't count," pouted Adam.

  "And why the heck not?" asked the Sheriff.

  "He wasn't wearing regulation shoes," smiled Adam, hoping he'd found a loophole.

  "I'm countin' it," insisted the Sheriff. He grinned at Adam, then dropped his gaze to Lefty who had climbed up to watch the scorekeeping.

  "Fine!" said Adam. "An ‘Atomic Strike’ ought to put an end to this! Pete, toss me my ball!"

  "But Doc, your arm…" said Pete.

  "Ball!" ordered Adam.

  The cabbie pulled Adam's bowling ball from the medical kit and tossed it to him.

  The ball hit Adam's injured right arm which continued to dangle limply. Without a hand outstretched to catch it, the ball plummeted to the ground and smashed Adam's foot.

  "Ow!" said Adam. “Right, reflexes are a little slowed, but once I get the ball in my hand, there'll be no stopping me!”

  Adam picked up the ball, swinging his right arm limply up to the ball, supporting it with his left as his fingers found the holes.

  “Watch this!” said Adam as he started his approach, but as soon as he let go with his left, his right arm dropped, taking the rest of his body to the floor!

  Eve picked the ball back up, extended his left hand then placed the bowling ball in it.

  "Can you bowl left handed?" she asked.

  "No."

  "You do now," she smiled.

  Adam backed up, switched his feet from front to back. He began his approach, dropped his left arm, and then swung it wildly forward, launching the ball down the lane. His right arm swung up and smacked him in the face.

  Lefty seemed to be watching intensely as the ball landed by the gutter and slid half the way down the alley until a spin kicked in and it cut across the boards in a sharp angle!

  Eight pins flew in every direction! The seven pin stood solid, the six still wobbling. Adam held his breath.

  "I can’t watch," said Adam as he turned away.

  Then the glorious sound of a lone pin falling spun him back around… The six had fallen and tapped the seven. The last of the pins fell, Adam had won!

  "I never doubted," smiled Adam, boasting to the crowd.

  Lefty ripped the scorecard from the Sheriff and crumpled it up in his fist.

  “Clearly the better man won," Adam bragged to the crawling arm.

  Lefty chucked the crumpled scoresheet at Adam, bouncing it off of his chin, then hopped down and crawled into the middle of the lane.

  "Do you really think it's a good idea to antagonize the possessed, undead creature that just shot you… twice?" asked Eve, knowing Lefty wouldn't go down without a fight.

  "Doctor Adam Townsend won fair and square," defended Adam. "Besides, we took his gun, what else can he do?

  Lefty arched his knuckles, his whole hand vibrating intensively. The rocks on the back of his hand began growing more than ever before until a dozen shards of black slate stood nearly a foot out of his flesh!

  The glass of the windows began crashing around them! The sounds of pins colliding filled every lane! Ceiling tiles gave way above them! Hundreds of living hands surrounded them and continued flooding in through every opening!

  Eve glared at Adam.

  "Oh," uttered a sheepish Doctor. "That."

  22

  Hand to Hand to Hand Combat

  Hands were crawling in windows, and piling out of the ceiling like a faucet of dismembered hands had been turned on at full blast!

  The pinsetters of each lane swept fallen pins away, then replaced them with arms, lowering them perfectly into position where the ten pins had been standing.

  “Right,” said Adam. “We’re going to need a lot more scoresheets!”

  “I don't think they've come to bowl, advised Eve as she readied for the worst.

  “Sure they are,” insisted Adam. “See, those two are picking up bowling balls now.”

  A bowling ball breezed by Adam as if hurled from a cannon, then crashed into the wall nearby, embedding itself deep in the concrete block!

  “Whoa!” chuckled Adam. “That was close!”

  A second ball smacked him in the side of the head, sending him back to a familiar spot on the hardwood!

  He popped back up slightly dazed.

  “That one… was a little closer,” he said wearily. “Sheriff, can you give me a hand?”

  A fist suddenly pounded Adam in the face, while another hand grabbed Adam by the shirt, but these weren’t the members of the dismembered army, it was the Sheriff!

  “First off, that was a fist, second off, new skin, I bruise easily,” explained Adam.

  The Sheriff punched Adam in the face again!

  Eve tried to pull him away, but as his face turned to glare at her, she recognized the flushed face and dark set eyes… he was being controlled!

  As she looked for Lefty, the Sheriff used Adam as a punching bag.

  Not on the legs, not on the neck, Lefty was nowhere around the Sheriff. She looked back to the ball return,
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  The nefarious arm was straining to maintain control from the middle of the bowling alley. Somehow the Shadow Rock growing out of him like some deranged crown, was giving him the power to control the Sheriff without contact!

  Eve grabbed a bowling ball and spun it hard, right towards the king of the crawling hands!

  Lefty sensed her plan and rolled to the right, dodging the ball! But Eve wasn’t giving up. Another ball quickly followed, grazing his rocky crown, breaking off a piece of the Shadow Rock.

  As Lefty began to charge, a third ball launched him backwards into a pile of his minions!

  Eve looked back to the Sheriff, still punching Adam. His eyes returned to normal, he was free! Of course, he continued punching Adam anyways.

  “Uh, Sheriff?” said Eve, grabbing his shoulder.

  His punches grew softer, then stopped. He let go of Adam and backed away, trying to get his bearings.

  “It’s okay, Sheriff,” smiled Adam, shaking the bells out of his head. “No need to apologize.”

  “Don’t worry,” said the old man, reaching for his gun. “Wasn’t gonna’”

  The Sheriff fired at several hands leaping towards them, knocking them back to the ground!

  Eve looked across the lanes as the hands crawled towards them.

  “Time to bowl,” she said, and began launching ball after ball, knocking the ranks back into the end of the lane.

  Her victory was short lived.

  “Miss Adams!” squawked Pete. He had managed to fend off several hands using a broom handle. He’d even impaled several, but his legs were covered with immobilizing hands!

  As she turned to help him, a fountain of hands poured down on the Sheriff, flopping like fish from a net, several punching him in the face.

  Seconds later the pile had completely consumed him!

  Eve approached the pile.

  “Sheriff?” she called to see if he was still conscious.

  His arm reached out for help and Eve grabbed his hand and pulled. But what came out of the pile wasn’t the Sheriff. The dark eyes, his pale face… Lefty was back in control! This time he was clutched to the back of his neck.

  Eve stepped back, but the hand she tried to help, now held her tight, refusing to let go. She didn’t want to hurt the Sheriff, and she couldn’t reveal she was anything more than a school teacher to him, but what had ahold of her was anything but.

  Eve grabbed his arm with both of hers, twisted back, and then spun her body over his arm, using the momentum to roll his weight towards the floor!

  The Sheriff’s grip was broken but he popped right back up, and Lefty aimed him straight back towards her. He drew his gun and honed it in her direction.

  Self-preservation was in control now. She couldn’t remember grabbing another bowling ball, but she felt it hurl out of her fingers straight towards the Sheriff’s head!

  Lefty tried to move his puppet out of the way, but it was too late! The ball struck the Sheriff hard in the head, knocking him backwards, feet flying in the air and Lefty flying back across the ball rack into the entryway.

  Eve rushed to the Sheriff’s side. He was out, but breathing.

  “Thank goodness for your hard head,” she said to her unconscious victim.

  Then she remembered the other bowlers.

  She scanned for Pete, but all she found was the broom. Even the pile of assailing arms had disappeared.

  Adam. Where had Adam gone?

  The floor was an ocean of crawling arms. She made her way, trying to avoid them, then started crushing them with her heels.

  “Mmpht!” cried the last arm she crushed.

  She moved her foot… it was Adam’s face!

  “Oh, Hi Eve,” he smiled.

  She started pulling arms off of the pile to free him.

  Glass shattered near the entrance to the Atomic Bowl, followed by metal on metal as something was clearly getting destroyed.

  Adam’s face turned white and he popped up out of the pile of hands with renewed strength, breaking their grip!

  “No!” he cried.

  Eve turned to see Lefty in the ‘Wall of Fame’ trophy case, smashing trophy after trophy, then a framed photo of Doctor Adam Townsend.”

  “Now that’s just cruel!” scolded Adam. He gasped and darted faster than Eve had ever seen him move.

  A hand dove at her back and without turning away from Adam, she punched the hand with the back of her fist!

  Adam grabbed a giant trophy with a large ‘1st’ cup at the top. Lefty was pulling it away, but Adam gritted his teeth and yanked it back.

  Lefty grew angry and the broken chunk of rock on his back began to grow again. Breaking it was what broke Lefty’s hold on the Sheriff. It grew when it needed to control Pete. It must be how he was controlling the other hands as well.

  Eve knew how to beat Lefty.

  “Adam!” she screamed. “The Shadow Rock! It’s what’s making him stronger! Destroy it! Hit the rock!”

  Adam held the trophy and looked around

  “With what?” Adam asked.

  Eve pointed at the trophy.

  Adam looked at the trophy, then to Lefty. He raised the trophy.

  “Don’t make me use this!” he shouted at Lefty.

  Adam lowered the trophy.

  “Seriously, don’t make me use this,” pleaded Adam. “It was for bowling a perfect game! ‘Course, I don’t need to remind you, you were there.”

  Lefty leaped from the ground and grabbed ahold of the trophy.

  “Mine!” Adam argued.

  Hands converged on Eve’s location. She was angrily ripping them one by one off of her arms and legs, but there were so many… she was losing!

  “Adam!” she screamed.

  Adam resigned.

  “This is going to hurt me a lot more than it’s going to hurt you!” said Adam, then he raised the trophy in the air and came crashing down, repeatedly bludgeoning lefty with his trophy.

  The cup shattered, and bits of metal flew in every direction, but so did bits of Shadow Rock.

  Soon Adam had destroyed every shard of rock protruding from the back of Lefty’s hand.

  The army of body parts fell lifeless.

  The battle had been won!

 

  23

  Hand in a Can

  Eve stepped out of a mound of dead arms. All across the bowling alley the arms were silent, unmoving. Lefty’s power was gone.

  Eve turned to see Lefty, fingers still twitching and Adam kneeling, wiping away a tear.

  “You ok?” she asked.

  “My last bowling trophy,” he sniffed. “The last wood and plastic bastion of my excellence, destroyed!”

  Eve had never seen him this vulnerable before. Perhaps he had actual human emotion after all?

  “Well,” he stood and smiled. “Good thing I have another on the fireplace at home!”

  “Wait, you have another one?” she asked, feeling a bit betrayed by false emotion.

  “Same one. Replica,” explained Adam. “A constant reminder of my greatness, as if my mirror wasn't enough! But I like to see it in the kitchen, the living room…”

  “You carry it with you?” asked Eve.

  “Don’t be silly,” scoffed Adam, “I had a replica made for each room. Getting spotlights installed in the closets wasn't cheap, but so worth it! Did I mention I get a bulk discount?”

  “Yes, you did,” said Eve, kicking herself for forgetting the trophies he’d brought into the Sheriff’s office that afternoon.

  A groan drew their attention. The Sheriff leaned up clutching his head. Eve rushed over to help him up.

  “Sheriff, are you alright?” she asked with genuine concern as she held his back while his equilibrium restored to normal.

  “I’m fine,” he said, waving Eve’s hands away. He squinted as the destroyed bowling alley dipped in and out of focus.

  “Why do I feel like I jes’ got hit in the head with a danged
bowling ball?” asked the old man, rubbing the side of his likely concussed cranium.

  “That hurt?” asked Adam.

  “Get me a ball and I’ll show ya’,” suggested the Sheriff in his usual annoyed tone.

  Eve stopped Adam as he tried to hand the Sheriff a ball.

  “Memory’s a little fuzzy,” started the Sheriff. “But judging from the mess, I can tell somehow you two were involved. Care to tell me what all this fuss was about?”