The First

by Glen Kenner

  Sarah shakes her head.

  -We’re ringing the doorbell.

  -Yeah, but I’m gonna get all up in that doorbell’s bid-ness.

  We walk down the long driveway and I tell myself this is going to work. This Barry guy is going to listen or somehow be persuaded and he’ll shut down the software. The key is appealing to the safety of his adopted son. Tracking leads to abuse. It always has. He has to be a smart guy. He’ll understand that.

  As we step up on the porch, an overhead light comes on. There’s a security camera mounted above the door to the right and an intercom to the side of the door. Glen Ray shoots ahead and reaches the doorbell first and presses several times. He can be annoying even when ringing a doorbell.

  There’s sound in the foyer and then quiet and then the door opens. A tall guy stands there, maybe in his mid thirties, looking at all of us, smiling nervously.

  -Hi, Mr Levin. My name is John Smith. These are my friends. I’m sorry, you don’t know us but we have an acquaintance in common. Kingsley.

  -Ah, yes, sure. Mr Kingsley. Please, come in.

  Well that was easy. Huh. He opens the door wide into the large foyer. There’s a big, formal living room to the right but he opens a pocket door to the left and gestures us into a study.

  -Please, have a seat in the study. I was just in the middle of saying goodnight to the kids but I’ll wrap it up and grab some drinks and then you can, uh, fill me in on what brought you here tonight.

  He starts to leave the room and I move to get around him but he anticipated it and quickly stepped out.

  -I’ll be just a minute, John. Beer ok for everyone?

  Glen Ray says sure and Barry slides the door close.

  -Guys, this feels wrong. We shouldn’t have let him leave. He could call Kingsley. He could be getting a gun or calling the police. He might just be heading out the back door and driving away. Fuck. I’ll go after him.

  I turn to the door but Glen Ray calls my name and I look over. He’s at the corner of Barry’s big oak desk and he’s holding a tablet. He holds it up with the cover flipped back. It’s video of the front door. Just then the sliding door opens and Barry walks in and immediately looks to his desk and to Glen Ray. The tablet is back on the desk, the cover closed, and Glen Ray has one hand up to his mouth and the other in a bowl of candy on the desk.

  Glen Ray says sorry through a mouthful of Peanut M&Ms.

  -No, no. That’s what they’re there for.

  Barry looks at me and Sarah and back again. Sarah asks if he got our beers.

  -Oh. I, uh, I’ll get them in a minute.

  While he’s talking, something hits me in the back. I turn just my head as Glen Ray throws another Peanut M&M at me. It hits me in the butt. He has the tablet without the cover down at his side and he pulls it up fast and shows me the screen. It’s video of a small library and there’s five men standing inside behind a closed door, the four closest to the door are holding up rifles. The men are all covered in an opaque red glow. The fifth man is Kingsley.

  Barry sees Glen Ray and shouts.

  -Hey! Give me that now!

  We watch the men on the tablet’s screen throw open the door and disappear from the room, Kingsley in the rear, at the same time as we hear footsteps running into the foyer and then filing into our room just behind Barry. The four give off a buzz, though we already knew they were Firsts. They have their rifles drawn and pointed at our chests. Two on me and one each on Sarah and Glen Ray. Sarah says to me quickly that the guns are AA-12s. Auto shotguns.

  Fuck. I wanted an automatic shotgun.

  They also have handguns in holsters at their sides. They look ready for a major firefight. I’ve faced worse odds. They part just enough for Kingsley to walk through them. Kingsley pulls a pistol from behind his back, sits down at the big desk, and tells Barry to have a seat on the couch across the room in front of the huge picture window. That window might be our way out of here-

  -Jonathan.

  Kingsley is looking at me and shaking his head.

  -Forget about the window. You’d be dead before you get halfway across the room.

  I shrug and he laughs for a few seconds and then abruptly stops.

  -I can’t say that I’m surprised to find you here, Jonathan. But I’m disappointed. We all know you’re an incredibly talented survivor but you have let the last hundred years pass you by. You thought you would waltz into Alokin Denshi and just delete the software?

  -That’s a stupid name, by the way.

  -I know it’s stupid.

  Kingsley can’t hide the irritation in his voice. I have to keep pushing him. He’ll make a mistake.

  -But I didn’t name the company. I just bought it. So you and your obese sidekick and this lovely young lady walk in and find out that life is not a Mission Impossible movie. We watched the whole thing from this room. It was hilarious. Wasn’t it hilarious, everyone?

  Barry and the Firsts all laugh. It sounds like genuine laughter. Shit. That’s more than a little embarrassing.

  -The three of you running around outside and this one…

  He points to Glen Ray.

  -...bouncing off that outside door! I thought I was going to hit Second Death from laughter! Anton here…

  He nods his head at the First standing nearest to him.

  -...Anton actually wet himself! And then all of the running around inside and then, the fat one again, nearly kills the cleaning lady. And then he spends five minutes in the breakroom eating an employee’s pizza! I’m tempted to put the whole thing on YouTube. I really am.

  Barry looks at Sarah with a sincere look on his face.

  -Thanks though for saving Mamie. She’s my parents’ next door neighbor and she used to babysit me and my sister and I really do appreciate-

  -Enough Barry.

  Kingsley’s no longer laughing. He points at Glen Ray.

  -You, sidekick, you are an embarrassment. Is this the future of our people? How can you possibly be so fat?

  -I’m only like thirty pounds overweight. Why does everyone-

  -You’re disgusting, is what you are. What did your mother look like? Don’t tell me The Father had relations with a ugly, fat-

  Glen Ray charges forward. Kingsley shoots him in the thigh and he slams backwards against the wall.

  Glen Ray screams out.

  -Oh Jesus! I’m shot! I’m going to die! Oh fuck fuck fuck! John! I’m going to die!

  Kingsley’s men are howling with laughter and the one named Anton is holding his crotch and Kingsley shouts out over Glen Ray’s wailing and yells at him to shut up.

  -You’re not going to die. Not yet. If you die from a gunshot to the thigh, you don’t deserve to be a First!

  Glen Ray looks at me. He looks like he’s close to going into shock. I tell him in a calm voice he’s going to be ok.

  -You’re not going to die. Stay still, take deep breaths, and put pressure on your thigh above the wound.

  Sarah tells him he’ll be ok.

  -We’ll get the bullet out in a bit.

  Kingsley laughs at that, the fucker, and then turns to Sarah.

  -I know it’s a cliche, but as I live and breathe, I didn’t know that I would ever really see the prophecy fulfilled. I’m intelligent enough to know to be prepared, of course, but to see it come true! You know, Ms Abe, I’ve been a very fortunate man from the day I met Jonathan. Life was a nightmare before that day, but when I came out of First Death and Jonathan was there, literally everything turned around. And just when I wondered how could life get any better, look what else he delivers to me. You! The female First of the prophecy. And now, I will become the most famous First of all time as the one who saves The Father and all of my First brothers, even if a few of them won’t get to enjoy it for very long. And all I have to do is kill you.

  With my right foot pressed against the wall, I push off and leap right over the desk at Kingsley. I hear an impossibly loud noise and then see only darkness.

  24 - Hello Dark Pla
ce, My Old Friend

  The dark place is perfectly silent. No sound from above, no buzz anywhere. But there she is in front of me, the weak beam of sunlight between us, dust dancing in and out of the pale yellow column to music I can’t hear. The Second. My Second. She’s wearing a strapless red dress and she looks at me with those big black eyes and starts to lift her dress up, higher, past her pink panties, higher… And then she steps backward into the darkness. And she’s gone. Then for a moment claws drag tenderly across the back of my neck; a familiar, loving caress that slices open my skin like a cold razor, come and gone so quickly, leaving only warm wetness from the blood dripping down my back. Now vibrations. Shaking. I’m knocked back, thrown over, the cave’s ceiling and walls are crashing in, blinding light flooding in-

  25 - I’m Not Dead

  -John! I got you fam! I got you! Fuck fuck fuck.

  I’m upside down, staring at the top of Glen Ray’s ass crack smacking me in the face. Gunfire completely surrounds us and also the sounds of breaking glass, splintering wood, metal on metal. I crane my neck around and see the study behind us, Kingsley’s men firing through a large hole in the wall that used to be the picture window. Then we’re in the foyer and there’s a ragged hole where the front door was and there are men with guns outside firing in. Glen Ray turns the upper half of his body toward the foyer and we knock into a wall and bounce off. He yells out in pain and then starts chanting fuck fuck fuck with every step as he speeds up. Then we’re at the end of the hallway and in the kitchen and he lifts me up and throws me down in the corner.

  -Hold on, bossman. Hold on. I’m gonna get you some meat.

  I’m sitting upright on the floor of the kitchen. It’s half the size of my entire house. The hallway is more than twenty feet away across the kitchen and to the left. Someone’s yelling and it’s getting louder. I try to stand up to get ready to fight but my legs don’t respond. Then Barry comes in as fast as he can, scrunched over, his arms covering his head. He stumbles as he tries to stop and falls at my outstretched legs. He screams shit and then looks me in the face and his eyes go wide.

  -You’re not dead? How are you not dead?

  I ignore him and grab for Glen Ray and start shouting.

  -Where’s Sarah? Glen Ray! Where’s Sarah!

  He’s trying to calm me down.

  -Deep breaths, boss. Deep breaths.

  Then he turns to Barry and raises his voice.

  -You got any meat?

  -What?

  -Meat!

  -What?

  -Meat!

  -W-w-what?

  -Say what again. Say what again! I dare you! I double dare you, motherfucker!

  Everyone wants to be Samuel L Jackson.

  Barry finally yells out yes.

  -There’s meat in the fridge! In the meat drawer. Ground chuck. I don’t know. Steak maybe.

  My chest is a mess of dried blood and chunks and flaps of loose flesh. Everything feels loose in my torso. The spot on my shirt where Willie Nelson was is completely gone, blown away. And my shoes are gone. Damnit. I lost another pair of Vans. Glen Ray puts a handful of ground beef in my mouth and tells me to chew and swallow.

  -I know how to eat! Where the fuck is Sarah?

  Barry and Glen Ray start talking at once and I put my hand over Barry’s mouth and shove him backward and look at Glen Ray.

  -You jumped over that desk and Kingsley and the dude next to him with the auto shotgun unloaded on you. Right in the chest. Two or three shots each. And then... And then the window exploded from outside and bullets started flying everywhere.

  -Where’s Sarah goddamnit!

  -John, I’m sorry, man. God I’m sorry. When the window exploded, Kingsley yelled out Kill Her! and all of his guys just… they have automatic shotguns, John. Goddamnit, John…

  His eyes are tearing up.

  -They just tore her to shreds before returning fire outside. I’m sorry. I’m really, really-

  -No. No, no, no! Where is she? Where is she!

  More yelling from down the hallway, higher pitched, coming in fast, it has to be-

  Kingsley comes in completely airborne, head first, face up, the top of the arc somewhere farther down the hallway. He slams into the wall oven and dents the door before falling in a slump on the tile just five feet away from me.

  Please be alive. Please, please...

  I reach over with my left hand, grab him by the neck and pull him to me. For once the gods favor me. He’s alive and conscious. I grab some ground beef from Glen Ray and shove it in Kingsley’s mouth.

  -Eat this, motherfucker! Eat it!

  He starts chewing and looking around, trying to focus his eyes. He’s been shot in the neck and the gut and there’s a dart buried in his chest.

  -I want you alive long enough to see me rip your heart out and force it down your own fucking throat, you motherfucking goddamn son of a whore! You killed Sarah! You killed the woman that I-

  -No.

  He’s choking on the meat and barely swallows it.

  -No. She’s alive.

  -You fucking liar! Be a man and face death, you goddamn-

  -She’s alive, Jonathan! She threw me down the hallway! She’s alive!

  Barry stands up and reaches for something on the counter and sits back down. He has another tablet. He says that he has them all over the house. He starts flipping through the screens, showing different rooms.

  -There’s the study, six bodies down, all of them shot up, one of them glowing. That one is still alive.

  He flips through more screens - the hallway, two bodies down, one missing a head, no glow. A blank screen that was the front door cam. Another screen of the front yard showing a black SUV on the lawn, maybe a dozen bodies strewn about, including three women, torn up from the auto shotguns, none of the bodies are glowing. One of the women’s head is lying a few feet from her body.

  -No Sarah! Where is she?

  I grab Kingsley and squeeze his neck.

  -She saved your life! Where is she!

  He starts to choke again but I don’t lessen my grip.

  -I- I don’t know! I thought she was dead. I was firing through the window and, and then I turned around and she was standing there. I thought she was going to snap my neck, but she picked me up and threw me down the hall. I don’t understand. She should have been dead.

  -You’re going to be dead, you piece of shit!

  Glen Ray stands up and calls out my name.

  -John, let’s go find her. She might be out in the yard or the street. We can give her some meat, if- if it’s not too late.

  He puts out his hand and I grab it and pull myself up. The searing white hot pain in my chest is now a dull, throbbing pain that makes me wince when I breath. I look down at Barry.

  -Whose side are you on, Barry?

  -What?

  Glen Ray starts to yell at him. I tell him not again with the Sam Jackson.

  -Whose side are you on? Ours or Kingsley’s?

  -Uh, yours?

  -You better the fuck be.

  I grab the biggest knife from a wood block on the counter and flip in down hard so that it stabs Kingsley deep in the thigh. Kingsley cries out.

  I point to the knife and lock in on Barry’s eyes.

  -Pull that out.

  He does so immediately.

  -If Kingsley tries anything, anything at all, tries to get up or tries to talk to you or just looks at you wrong, slice his neck to the bone. You got it?

  Barry nods his head.

  -You got it, Barry? What are you going to do?

  -Slice his neck to the bone.

  -You better. Because he’ll do the same to you without blinking an eye. But not before he makes you watch him do the same to your family.

  I grab a small chunk of hamburger meat from the tray Glen Ray is holding, stuff it in my mouth and say, let’s go.

  Glen Ray runs across the kitchen and down the hall and out of my sight.

  -I can’t run that fast!

&n
bsp; I leave the kitchen and half jog half stumble down the hallway. There are chunks of plaster missing from the walls this far back and blood splattered on the walls and floor. At the foyer, I stop and listen. Nothing from outside other than crickets. Life goes on. There’s a staircase and I take a step up and listen. Nothing. In the study I count six bodies. I recognize Kingsley’s four men and there are two I’ve never seen before. One of Kingsley’s guys is slumped in the corner and is still giving off a weak buzz. I step over a body, walk across the broken glass without giving a shit about the pain, bend down and snap the guy’s neck at a ninety degree angle. He doesn’t even make a sound. There’s no clip in his auto shotgun but he still has a pistol holstered at his side. Fuck. It’s not for me, I say out loud. It’s for Sarah. I grab the gun and leave the room.

  -John! John!

  Glen Ray comes running around a corner across from the kitchen and then sees me and runs up the hallway. They’re in the pool! They’re in the pool!

  -Swimming? Who’s they?

  Glen Ray has already turned around and run back the way he came. Shit, I know I’m healing up but running hurts. Still, I take off as fast as I can.

  Through the large doorway across from the kitchen is a massive family room filled with couches and chairs and tables and on the other side is an open set of folding glass doors. I run through and into a sunroom filled with furniture and plants. There are more doors on the other side leading to a patio. Glen Ray is standing there and waving for me. I run out and see Sarah and a big guy with a heavy beard standing at the bottom of a huge empty inground pool. Most of a blue tarp is ripped and hanging loose around the white concrete sides. The patio lights are on and also the pool lights and Sarah and the man are bathed in stark bright light. They’re slowly circling each other, their shadows multiplied on the pool bottom, dancing over one another, Sarah with dark red blood-streaked arms and empty hands spread out, her red dress shredded and barely still there and crusted with more dried blood, the man with a three-foot long curved blade in each hand and no apparent wounds. They’re in the middle of the pool, in the deep end. Their heads would be two feet underwater if the pool was filled.