by Mason Dakota
“If we hang out here too long, anyone in the train would have time to escape or the Sabols will arrive and we will be caught in the cross fire,” Thomas hissed next to me.
“Then I guess we better be good neighbors and go introduce ourselves,” I said, taking a step toward the doorway.
Gabriel grabbed my arm and yanked me backward. “You’re walking straight into a trap.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I asked as I yanked my arm free. “Relax. I know what I am doing. Just be ready to move.”
I walked toward the entrance to the subway train. I got to the small steps of cement blocks without anyone coming out to stop me, so naturally I picked up a cement block, planted my feet, twisted my body, and chucked the concrete chunk into the metal door of the subway train as I screamed, “Open sesame!”
Not my brightest idea. Sounded cooler in my head.
The ear-cracking sound of the cement block striking the metal door was expected. The way the cement block pushed open the door was expected. The way the cement block crumbled into smaller pieces upon impact was expected. The fire and explosion of the booby-trapped door was even somewhat expected. What was unexpected was just how big that fire would be.
The moment the cement block struck the door, flames burst into the tunnel like a flock of bats fleeing a cave. A lion’s magnified roar filled the tunnel and choked out my scream. Chunks of ceiling broke and flew through the air. An invisible fist of force and heat struck me long before the flames could, throwing me off my feet and on to my back. Red and orange flames swirled above my head and flooded my field of vision. Time stretched for an eternity and pain licked across my body as flames flew pass me.
Idiot!
The silence was my only clue to just how long the explosion was and that it was over. Its power temporarily ruptured my ear drum. My lungs screamed and a sense of drowning swallowed me with sickness. The fires above me vanished and I tasted dust and dirt on my lips as I struggled to come to my senses. Barely, as though he were shouting to me across a large canyon, I heard Gabriel say something in my stupor as he rushed past me with his silenced pistol drawn. Bounded forward, not bothering to check on my condition before moving through the burning doorway and into the subway train and out of my sight.
I felt a pair of hands seize me. They shook me and sent my world spinning. A ski mask appeared before me. Thomas. He was saying something, but I was only hearing bits and pieces. I shook my head—another bad idea—and nearly gagged. He repeated himself and this time I managed to understand the words, “Griffon! Griffon, can you hear me?”
I gave him a weak thumbs up and giggled like a middle school boy.
Thomas shook his head. “You moron! You could have gotten yourself killed. You’re all right…not even bleeding. Come on. We’ve got to catch them before they get away!”
He grabbed my forearm and hoisted me up to my feet. I stumbled and fought through my stupor to follow Thomas and Gabriel. It felt like my ears were filled with cotton balls and someone shouted to me over ocean waves far away. My legs moved like jelly and were filled with lead. The world spun around me and nausea gripped my throat. Thomas tried to support me as he pulled me along. Up ahead, Gabriel darted in and out of train seats, popping off shots with his silenced pistol.
Suddenly, Thomas shouted in my ear and shoved me to the ground. Bullets sprayed across the metal frame behind where I stood seconds before. Someone down the train fired a machine gun and filled the end of the train with a hail of bullets. I crawled forward, hid behind a seat, and drew my gun. It was a revolver, an ancient, crude and unwieldy weapon by the day’s standard blasters. Even Gabriel’s silenced pistol was archaic compared to modern military weaponry.
My stupor drifted away and left my senses screaming in reality. My ears ached with the roar of gunfire as bullets struck all around us. My nostrils filled with the smells of rust and gunpowder. The fog over my eyes lifted and the feeling of nausea dropped back into my stomach. I could feel my fingers again, dirt and bits of blood coating my hands.
I leapt from behind my subway seat and aimed my revolver down the train. Gabriel moved through the cars with extreme guile as he chased after two men. He floated like a spider, gliding from cover to cover, skirting around seats or flying over them as he fired off rounds.
His targets were two men of equal if not better physical caliber. One had muscles like thick twisted cords beneath his dark skin, with hair cut into a short mohawk. Tribal tattoos like black tentacles covered his exposed skin. He moved like a mixture of bear and snake, graceful and powerful as he fled Gabriel’s pursuit. He wore an ancient Roman gladius at his side and he fired a barrage of bullets from a submachine gun at Gabriel.
Tempest Raven.
I couldn’t identify the other man farther down the train. I only saw a dark green coat, a coyote brown cap, and the flash of pale skin. But just the sight of him froze me and I was caught like a deer in the headlights as I watched him run. Despite the distance between us, both in time and in space, I knew to the core of my being that I was staring at my father for the first time in over twenty years. And all I could do was stand there like a fool and watch as he turned, drew what looked like some sort of strange hairdryer with a glowing red tip and pull what must have been a trigger.
“Get down!” Gabriel screamed as he dove for cover.
My father fired his blaster pistol and a red bolt of superheated electricity shot through the air straight at me. I dove to the ground as the bolt ripped through the three seats in front of me, leaving football sized holes in the vinyl, before striking the wall right behind me. Smoke and tiny flames carved a trail back to the shot’s source.
I lay there panting, imagining what a blaster does to unarmored flesh. Something tapped my shoulder and I turned to see Thomas lying on the ground next to me. His hands were shaking, but he wasn’t looking toward Raven and my father. His attention was directed behind us out of the train from where we entered. My mouth went dry when I saw what terrified him.
Men carrying guns and torches headed our way. The Sabols had arrived.
“Sabols to the rear!” I screamed. Thomas leapt like a cat and took off sprinting down the train away from the Sabols. I followed, running as quickly as I could. Twice more my father fired at us, blaster bolts flying so close they singed the edge of my coat. We didn’t stop. The gunfire behind us was enough motivation to keep running from one danger and into the arms of another. Sabols poured into the train, firing wildly behind us.
We followed my father and Raven at a breakneck speed as we awkwardly fled the army chasing us. I didn’t even bother returning fire at the Sabols, who pumped hot lead through the air around us. We dashed out of one train car into another and then another and another until I lost count.
I looked back once to measure my distance from the Sabols. Suddenly the floor disappeared beneath me. I crashed into Thomas and we flew out the open door at the end of the train. We dropped several feet to the tunnel floor and landed painfully on the concrete and rails. Gabriel leapt over us like a gazelle and continued sprinting down the tunnel after Raven and my father.
Something laughed far behind us and I heard the unmistakably pumping of a shotgun. “A joy to find you tonight, Shaman!”
Rigs.
Gulp.
Coughing up dirt and scrambling to get my bearings, I slapped Thomas on the back and yanked him back up. “Come on! We have to keep moving! They’re right behind us!” Caught between an angry mob and dangerous killers I could not imagine our situation getting worse.
“Well isn’t this a surprise?” said a calm female voice.
Oh no…
Alexandra Carline stood before us with her own army pointing guns down at us.
Yeah…it can get worse.
Twenty-Nine
Real terror froze me in place. Slowly, despite the army of violent anarchists approaching, I lifted my head up to the platform a few feet above me to look Mayor and mob queen Alexandra Carline in the eye.
Alexandra alone was a force to be reckoned with. I had seen her in action once before and it was enough to terrorize any man with a brain. She was a demon on the battlefield and a tidal wave with an armed force at her back.
Gabriel and our adversaries were long gone. We stood alone, frozen by a great fear. Alexandra opened her mouth to gloat when suddenly the Sabol army poured out of the train exit like water from a fire hydrant.
All hell broke loose.
And we stood right in the middle.
The mobsters shouted and fired into the crowd. The Sabols fired back. Muzzle flashes blinded in the dark tunnel. Bullets flew through the air like a swarm of bees. People screamed and howled. Bodies on both sides dropped in a bloody mess.
I yanked Thomas to the side out of the firing line. I heard Alexandra direct her men to target us. But Rigs was louder as he barked orders like a general to his men and drew the attention away from us. Thomas and I ran twenty yards down the tunnel to a service door, dodging bullets left and right. I threw open the door and pushed Thomas through. I jumped through after him and slammed the door shut behind me.
Something solid struck my back and pumped electric currents through my spine. My leather duster absorbed most of the impact. I gasped in pain as my muscles seized. I spun from the blow and slid across the wall away from my attacker.
Evelyn Chambers. She came for her bounty as promised.
Thomas made a move to draw his tranquilizer gun. Thomas has a quick draw, but wasn’t quick enough. Evelyn fired her stun gun and several tiny needles trailed by electrical wiring shot into Thomas's chest. Electricity coursed through his body as she squeezed the trigger. Thomas dropped to the floor and convulsed with the electricity.
“Evelyn!” I shouted as I lunged forward. I hit her at the waist and propelled us into a wall. I had hoped that would have been enough to take her out but Evelyn whipped her stun baton up over her shoulder and stabbed it into my chest. Once more the leather took the majority of the electricity, but the bolts struck hard enough to set my teeth clenching in pain. I was lucky not to bite off my tongue. I screamed behind my teeth and pushed away from her.
She spun around and brandished her stun baton before her like a sword and said, “I told you not to put that mask on again.”
The gunfire drew closer outside the door. It wouldn’t be long before they found us. “This isn’t the time, Evelyn!”
“This is your fault, not mine!” She lunged forward with the tip of her stun baton aimed at my chest. I dodged and the stun baton grazed past me, its current charging the air around us. She twisted her lunge and came in with a side swipe toward my gut. As I dodged her baton, I drew my bo staff, still retracted to the size of a rod. I deflected her next swing. Spinning away from her, I brought the rod around to swing downward at her.
Evelyn quickness brought the stun baton up and around to catch my strike above her. Using my size and strength, I forced her own weapon back on her. The electrical tip rotated and came straight back at Evelyn’s cheek. She dug in her heels and squirmed to hold the sparking end of her weapon inches away from herself as I continued to press the weapon back on her.
“If we continue this game we will all be killed,” I growled.
“Then take off the mask!” she said.
“I can’t!”
“Then I’ll just have to make you!”
“You can’t beat me, Evelyn.”
She smiled mischievously. “Only if I choose to fight fair.”
She squeezed the stun gun in her off hand. Its wires were still hanging out and attached to the needles still in Thomas's chest. Still slumped against the floor, Thomas jerked and shook as electricity shot once again through his body. A groan escaped his lips and he rolled over to his side as his body convulsed and spasmed. In my shock I let up the pressure and Evelyn slammed her boot into my groin. My stomach rose into my chest as a world of pain exploded in my body.
“Cheater,” I wheezed.
Evelyn slipped out from underneath me and swung her stun baton in a vicious combo. Experience allowed me to weakly deflect the first and second strikes as I overcame my pain, but she pressed and pushed me back against the wall, preventing me from regaining control of the fight. I deflected another blow, but her fourth slipped past my guard. She mercilessly drove the tip of the stun baton into my chest.
My muscles locked up in painful spasms. I couldn’t move as pain surged through my nervous system. She pulled back and stabbed again. My ears crackled and my teeth chattered. I felt my knees hit concrete. Evelyn stood before me. She looked both determined and frustrated.
“I’m sorry. This isn’t how I wanted things to go between us.” She jerked back her baton, readying for another thrust, when the door opened and a bleeding mobster stepped through.
His eyes grew wide when he saw Thomas, Evelyn, and me there. He raised his weapon to shoot. In a single beautiful movement, Evelyn twisted her body and threw the baton like a spear straight into the mobster. The stun baton struck the man in the neck and electricity crackled and rushed into the mobster.
The mobster convulsed and collapsed to his knees. Evelyn lunged forward and rammed her knee into the mobster’s face to knock him out. Unfortunately the mobster wasn’t the only threat heading into the service tunnel. Someone kicked the metal door open. It smacked Evelyn and threw her backward. She landed hard on her side.
Alexandra Carline stood in the doorway.
And I fired my revolver.
The small gun roared like a lion in that tight metal tunnel. I took no time to aim. I fired purely on instinct in Alexandra’s direction. My shot missed, but Alexandra dove back out of the doorway. Thomas, still lying on the ground, kicked the door and slammed it shut.
“We got to go!” I screamed.
Evelyn jumped to her feet and rushed to help Thomas. “Sorry about shooting you…twice,” she said as she yanked the needles out of his chest and helped him to his feet.
Thomas, trying to put one leg in front of the other as he ambled down the passageway, mumbled, “Lady, it wasn’t personal.”
Meanwhile, I stood and fired two more rounds into the metal door, encouraging anyone on the other side to keep it shut. “I believe we were having a private conversation, Alex! Maybe you should come back later!”
Even through the metal door and all the gunfire, I heard her laugh and say, “You know we ladies love good gossip and hate to miss the fun.” The door flew open and Alexandra and two other mobsters charged into the service tunnel. I dove around a corner just as the mobsters opened fire. Bullets rippled into the back wall.
“Seal this door! Rigs can’t get in here! Then bring me Shaman’s head!” Alexandra demanded.
I caught Evelyn’s eye and she whispered, “None of this would be happening if you had just listened to me.”
“And we wouldn’t be in this mess if you had listened to me instead of attacking us!” I said back.
“We don’t have time to fight!” barked Thomas. “We need to get out of here.”
“I know a way to the surface. Follow me!” Evelyn said as she sprinted into the darkness. Thomas and I hobbled along after her.
Alexandra Carline was coming to kill us.
Thirty
The service tunnels that branched off the main tunnels were a labyrinth of corridors. Why anyone would design such a maze and expect it to be a good idea was beyond me. We took turn after turn and still felt no closer to freedom. I wasn’t sure if Evelyn knew he way, but I knew I certainly didn’t so we trusted her.
Somewhere out there Alexandra and her mobsters hunted us.
“That wouldn’t happen to be the famous bounty hunter, Evelyn Chambers, would it?” It was Alexandra. Her voice echoed off the walls. I couldn’t pin point if it came from behind us or before us in the passageways.
; “What’s it to you?” called out Evelyn. Her voice also bounced and echoed.
Stupid Evelyn!
I glared at her, which was pointless because she couldn’t see my eyes beneath my mask. I think Evelyn got the idea of how I felt from the rest of my body language.
“I have no desire to kill you, Ms. Chambers.”
“Oh really? Could’ve fooled me by the way your men were firing at us,” said Evelyn. I wanted to scream at Evelyn to shut up, but that would be pointless knowing Evelyn.
“I’m only after Shaman, dearie.” Alexandra’s voice sounded so close I got goosebumps. We slipped around another corner in an attempt to escape her voice.
“That makes two of us.”
“Your orders are to bring him into the local authority. That would be me.”
“Sorry, I answer to a higher authority.”
“Then let me hire you.”
“You can’t afford me, sister.”
“I will double your price if you give Shaman over to me right now. In exchange you’ll be free to walk out of here.”
Evelyn gave me a look that convinced me the temptation crossed her mind. Then she smiled, winked at me and said, “Nah…I think I’ll pass. He’s cute and I’m growing a bit fond of his company.”
Alexandra didn’t reply and I imagined her pinching the bridge of her nose when she gets frustrated.
Between the three of us, we had my revolver, Thomas's two tranquilizers, and Evelyn’s tiny pistol and spent stun gun. Alexandra’s mobsters carried automatic weapons. We were horribly outgunned. Getting into a shooting match would only get one of us killed and I really didn’t want anyone to die, not even Alexandra. She was cruel and ruthless, and worst of all my boss, but that didn’t mean I wanted to kill her. Alexandra had done a lot of good for Chicago since the EMP blast and was largely responsible for keeping Chicago from tearing itself apart…completely. Without her Chicago would devour itself and I wasn’t going to be responsible for that.