by RJ Johnson
A hole opened from within the cavern. A hand popped out. It was Alex.
“Mind getting me out of here?” Alex dryly asked, “I hate these cramped spaces. I’ve had more room in coach.”
Scott and Emily laughed in relief; Alex was OK. They cut the rock and managed to get Alex out. Pulling himself out of the caved-in mine, he dusted himself off.
“Where’s Kline?” Alex asked, his voice all business.
Scott pointed. “Over there.”
Alex walked over to the unconscious man. For the first time since Kline had shot his father, Alex took a good look at him. The man who held so much power in this world was crumpled at his feet.
“What are you gonna do, Alex?” Scott asked softly beside him.
Alex didn’t respond at first. The question was so simple. The answer wasn’t.
He could turn Kline into the authorities, tell them his story and see how quickly they were all committed or whisked off to some government facility. Maybe he should just end it, here and now. Siobhan had told him that his stone gave him the ability to control life. He had already raised people from the dead more than once; it was more than possible he could send them to the afterlife with no more than a gesture.
Alex swallowed. He wasn’t sure he wanted that kind of power. To help people live, yes, that was a noble and just pursuit, but to kill without consequence? That was something else. Somehow, Alex thought, that misses the point of this whole thing.
“We leave him. With four stones on our side, I’ll bet we can more than hold our own against him.” Alex said, deciding quickly. “Christina, reach into his pocket, look for the stone he got from here.”
Christina approached Kline, but Emily stopped her and shook her head. “I don’t know what’ll happen if she touches it. Kline was pretty specific that I was the only one who was worthy.”
“Em?” Alex asked, surprised.
“Yeah, turns out, I have a destiny. Or at least that's what he was saying.” She swallowed and walked over to Kline. Reaching into his pocket, she removed the stone. It vibrated in her hands; the feeling was pleasant, as a warm calming buzz surrounded her body. She felt as she had in the lighted cavern, a sense of complete peace.
“Feels cool, huh?” Alex asked, watching Emily’s reaction as she picked up the stone.
“It tingles,” Emily replied, staring into the green abyss. “I don’t even know what it does.”
“I have an idea, but we’ll cross that bridge later.” Alex replied, finding it hard not to smile at his former lover. It was really good to see her again.
“Alex!” Scott called over frantically, “Siobhan’s hurt real bad.”
Alex rushed over to Siobhan’s still body. She wasn’t moving. The thrown boulder had done terrible damage. Alex reached down and held Siobhan’s cold hand. The familiar blue light was nowhere to be seen.
“She’s gone, Alex.” Scott whispered. “She was here for so long, and then suddenly, now, she’s gone.”
Alex picked up the dull purple stone that had hung from the beautiful girl’s ear for all those centuries.
“Touching, Mr. McCray.” Kline sneered as he got back up. This group packed a punch; he’d give them that much.
“Scott,” Alex said firmly, and Scott nodded flicking a switch on his MISAMP. The magnets inside began a high-pitched whine as they spun within the chamber. “You’ve got two seconds to remove that stone of yours and give it to me.”
Kline smirked back at him and reached into his pocket for the second stone.
“Looking for this?” Alex asked. Emily raised her hand, holding the green stone in the palm of her hand. “You’re up against three stones to one. Wanna try it still?”
Kline’s smile dropped from his face. He nodded to himself.
“All right,” Kline replied softly. “What are your terms?”
“Relinquish your stone and you can continue being Mr. Playboy Billionaire.” Alex said quietly. “You never come after me, my friends, or any other stones again. Are we clear?”
Kline nodded thoughtfully.
“I have a counter offer.” Kline said. Reaching out from behind his back, he grabbed his PDA and touched a button on it.
A blinding flash of light was all Alex saw for a moment. The cavern exploded violently once again, chucking rubble, rock and fire. Alex stepped in front of the blast, grabbing Emily to protect her.
Emily screamed as she dropped the precious stone in her hand, the world appearing to fly apart around her for the second time that evening.
Kline moved quicker than most humans had a right to, using his second explosion of the night as the distraction he needed to grab the green stone as it fell in midair. Snatching it, he raced up and over the top of the lip of the mine and ran towards his helicopter, the only remaining means of escape.
Alex and Emily got up, shaken by the explosion, fire and debris strewn around them, with a loud ringing in all their ears. Alex turned and looked to see Scott and Christina exiting from behind a large boulder, which had protected them from the blast.
“You guys OK?” Alex shouted over the ringing in his ears. Scott and Christina nodded. Alex waved to Scott. “Scott, come with me.”
The two jogged towards the top of Mesa in hot pursuit of the billionaire Kline. There, the black corporate helicopter that had brought Kline into Alex’s life was spinning up, the blades thundering in the quiet desert night. A figure in the distance was running towards a trailer hooked up to an eighteen wheeler.
Kline dashed into his trailer, frantically pushing buttons on his PDA as he ran inside.
Outside, explosive bolts blew the connection between the trailer and the semi-truck trailer. Kline looked up and saw his company’s helicopter hovering overhead as ordered.
“Just in time,” Kline muttered happily.
A cable descended from the hovering craft, dangling towards the trailer below.
A few hundred feet away, Scott tapped Alex on the shoulder, pointing into the night sky. “Look!”
Alex glanced up; the helicopter was attaching a cable to the top of Kline’s trailer. Alex tossed Scott the MP4 and yelled.
“I’ll be back. Do what you can to get Emily and Christina out of here!”
Alex put on an extra burst of speed. Suddenly, he found himself running faster than he’d ever imagined. Without his realizing it, the purple stone he had taken from Siobhan began to glow, and suddenly in a flash of purple light, his jeans, jacket and shirt hung loosely from his frame. He sped through the brush, as he now realized he had four paws and incredibly powerful haunches. He had shapeshifted into the world’s fastest land animal with hardly a thought. The joy spread through his chest as he raced after Kline, certain he would deliver justice.
The helicopter whined as the cable attached to the trailer and began to lift it off its foundation. Kline smiled broadly. He would get away.
Alex leaped through the glass of his office, shifting back into his human form when he landed. He turned and crouched into position, ready to take Kline on.
Kline didn’t blink. He raised a pistol off his desk and shot Alex, hitting him several times in the face and chest. The stone, glowing as it did, repaired his injuries quickly. Alex just grinned at Kline. It was time for his reckoning.
“Whatcha gonna do, Kline?” Alex sneered. “I’ve got no way to be hurt. Your strength isn’t gonna do you a lot of good against me in such close quarters.”
Kline nodded, “You know, you’re right. We should open things up in here, shouldn’t we?”
With that, Kline punched a hole through the trailer wall and used his incredible strength to rip the walls apart. The metal screeched in protest, and the cable that Alex’s side was supporting snapped. The bottom of the trailer fell out from under him. Alex lost his footing. The side of the trailer hit the semi truck it had been attached to, and the remaining chunk of Kline’s exquisitely appointed office began to spin violently on the remaining cable connected to the helicopter.
The helic
opter’s engine whined furiously as it struggled to find enough power to regain control. Like a pregnant hippo dancing in the sky, the trailer was making it difficult to maneuver while it was spun in midair.
The pilot cursed and thought about cutting the cables and dumping the trailer. But Kline was still on it, and that wasn’t an option. He pushed the throttle as hard as it would go and pitched the nose of the helicopter forward. The trailer below swung on a pendulum, and the bottom half, torn by Kline, was beginning to fall away.
“Good luck in the desert, Mr. McCray!” Kline shouted towards the bottom half of the trailer, which was just barely hanging on. Alex pushed his body back, shifted his fingernails into claws, and began scaling up towards Kline.
Kline’s smile faded from his face. He decided enough was enough. It was time for a strategic retreat.
He turned, grabbed the side of the torn trailer, and began inching his way up the side. He reached the top of the trailer’s roof and grabbed the steel cable. He inched his way up, heading towards the cockpit.
Alex saw what Kline was doing and doubled his efforts. He moved, scaling the rest of the trailer with ease. Kline looked down at his pursuer and simply grimaced. He reached the side of the helicopter and stood on the rails.
“Dump the trailer!” Kline screamed. The pilot didn’t hesitate. He punched the cable cutters, releasing the trailer. The engines, relieved of all the extra weight, made the helicopter take off into the night sky quickly. Kline screamed at the pilot through the glass door.
“Let me in, you overpaid bus jockey!”
A bullet hit his windshield. He turned on his floodlights and saw a man, holding onto the front of his helicopter at three thousand feet. The naked man aimed a gun at him and smiled, waving it indicating that he should land. The pilot didn’t like his options. Deciding he wanted nothing more to do with Kline, the pilot lowered the collective. The decision was easy when you had a crazy person pointing a gun at you through your windshield at three thousand feet.
“I quit!” he called out happily towards Kline.
Kline was enraged. Tearing off the door to the cabin, Kline slithered in and grabbed the pilot by the throat.
“You can’t quit!” Kline yelled at the man. He reached into the Pilot’s seat and tore the seatbelts off his body. Dragging him out of the chair, Kline threw him out from the side of the helicopter. “You’re fired.”
Kline pointed the nose forward, regaining control of the aircraft as he looked at Alex. Alex looked back at Kline. This wasn’t over yet.
Alex dove towards the pilot, his body shifting as he did so.
The pilot fell screaming toward his death. He wasn’t a religious man, and didn’t have any idea what lay in store for him after he hit the ground.
The ground rushed up to his eyes. Squeezing them shut, he struggled to remember the Lord’s Prayer.
But then suddenly, he was flying, up, and moving. An enormous dragon had captured him in midair, and the pilot found himself hanging from the beast’s teeth. He shook his head, certain what he was seeing was wrong. The dragon flew effortlessly through the desert night, landed next to one of Kline’s remaining Suburbans, and dropped him carefully on the ground.
The pilot swallowed nervously, unsure what to say. He looked at the great dragon in front of him; the scaly beast was huge, the size of a school bus at least. The red plumage arranged on his back, and the wizened expression on his face, comforted the pilot somehow.
Suddenly, the dragon reared back his hindquarters and spat an enormous spout of flames and hellfire into the sky. The pilot shrieked in terror and began running down the road in a panic, forgetting that only moments before, the terrifying creature had saved his life.
The dragon shifted, and then after a bright purple flash, only Alex remained, stark naked with the exception of the blue stone around his neck and the purple one clutched tightly in his hand. He smiled and looked down at himself.
“Oh, man.” Alex muttered. He turned, walking back towards the Hypertruck parked only a few hundred feet away from the Mesa.
Scott, Christina and Emily were standing in front of the Hypertruck when Alex arrived. He covered his bits and pieces as Scott whistled loudly in approval.
“Nice,” Scott said to his naked friend. “Is this a new trend?”
“Shut it,” Alex replied. “It’s an unfortunate side effect of transforming yourself into something that size; all your clothes can’t fit.” He paused, thinking to himself, Well, maybe if I got something out of Rush Limbaugh's wardrobe.
They laughed as Alex retrieved more clothing from the truck. When he was finished, they turned and looked at the burning Mesa.
“What now, Alex?” Scott said somberly. “Kline’s got a second stone, and a pretty impressive army. What do we have?”
Alex looked at them. They were tired. Christina and Emily had just been through the most traumatic experience of their lives. Scott was tired, but he didn’t dare show it in front of his friend. Alex swallowed. He had a feeling that whatever he had stumbled into, his problems were just beginning. Then he smiled broadly.
“I’ve got a great idea.”
Chapter Forty-Two
When Geoffrey Tate came to, he was sitting in an upright position. He winced. The poison was easing somewhat, and he had managed to regain some feeling in his extremities. Unfortunately, it also meant it was accompanied by uncomfortable tingling as his limbs came back to life.
He found himself seated in a darkened room. He attempted to raise his arms, but found them restrained tightly to his chair. A few moments later, Geoffrey realized the story was the same with his legs.
A piece of gravel scuffed in the dark behind him. He snorted. The intimidation game was his baby; let’s see what you got! Geoffrey thought to himself smugly.
“Come out, whoever you are,” he said in a bored tone. “I invented the ‘Is there someone here?’ game.”
Nothing.
“Hello?” he said, frustrated. “I heard you moving. I can hear you breathing. Show yourself!”
“Very well,” a dark and ominous voice announced.
It was then that for the first time in his life, Geoffrey Tate knew real fear. A face appeared out of the darkness, one formed from every horror show devised by man. The slimy tentacle face made him release his bladder. Screaming in terror, Geoffrey realized a stark truth: he had died, and now found himself in Hell for his transgressions. The time for judgment had arrived.
“You thought you could do whatever you wanted on the earthly plane and have no one to answer to!” The demonic face grinned horribly as it danced gleefully in front of him. “You’re all mine now!!” It screeched in horrifying laughter, the sound of a thousand lost and angry souls.
Geoffrey attempted to cover his ears, but it was no use; the laughter was something that could drive a man mad.
“I didn’t mean it!” Geoffrey sobbed. “I was following orders, falling in with a bad crowd!”
“Let me guess,” the deeply sinister voice sneered, “you wanted to be popular?”
Something slimy smacked the back of his head. “You think I haven’t heard it all already!?” the voice screeched. “You answer only to me now.” The laughter was maniacal. “There’s nothing you have that I want….unless…” The voice paused.
“Yes! Anything!” Geoffrey shouted. “Spare me the pain, and I will do anything you ask.”
“The stones.” The voice hissed. “Where did he get them?”
“I don’t know!” Geoffrey said panicked. “He didn’t tell me.”
“Where did he take them?”
“I don’t know!” Geoffrey cried out.
“LIAR!” The entire room lit up, a bright fiery red, and the sound came back, the moaning lost souls grating on Geoffrey’ nerves. He pleaded with the demon to stop.
“I swear it!” Geoffrey panted, exhausted. “But there was something…”
“Do tell…” The demon shoved his face into Geoffrey, purring as he spoke. Geoffrey
turned away in horror, smelling the foul creature’s putrid breath. The demon was taking a great deal of pleasure in Geoffrey’ fear, as it ran a thick yellow fingernail underneath Geoffrey’ chin.
“We had a setup in Los Angeles. A secret lab!” Geoffrey shouted. “Below the LA boardwalk. You can’t miss it…”
Suddenly, the demonic music stopped, and the lights turned on. The terrifying face began to melt away, replaced by that of the beautiful Emily Harper. Scott lowered his iPod and unplugged the speakers. Christina just stood in the back of the room, covering her face gamely and trying not to laugh.
“You…” Geoffrey said, unbelieving. “You’re…”
“Gah…give this man an adjective or something to help him complete a sentence,” Alex said, annoyed. “I once played Faust in a production at Stanford, and this lovely young lass over here tempted me as the Devil. It’s good to know she still has the chops.”
“That was…” Geoffrey still couldn’t quite get it out. He was alive?
“Amazing, I know. I’ll let the academy know your vote. Unfortunately, it looks like you’ll be locked up during the next awards season.”
Alex, Emily, Christina, and Scott all headed out the front door of the mine. Alex paused before leaving. “I’ll go ahead and turn the lights out here for ya.”
“Wait! No!” Geoffrey said, panicking, “You’re just gonna leave me here?”
“More likely, the police will find you. Don’t worry; I’ll call in an anonymous tip about your shenanigans up here. Perhaps, once the Sheriff is done with that massacre you left at the station, he might come out here looking for you.” Alex paused before flicking out the lights. “But then again…who knows?” Alex smiled and turned out the lights on the man who had helped kill his father.
“Nooo!” Geoffrey cried. Alex shut the heavy steel door and padlocked it shut. Scott glanced at Alex.
“It’s an abandoned mine. Some Boy Scouts could find it and get lost.” Alex said softly. Scott looked away from his friend and nodded. It was a problem solved. That was enough.
Christina turned and looked at Scott, her eyes dancing mischievously. “You’re pretty handy with that piece of hardware. Wanna show me how it works?”
