“How dare you.”
“You saw the bodies in the Sunset District.”
“They’re not infected!”
“We can’t be sure of that. You need to think rationally.”
“They’re good people, and they’ll die if we send them away!”
“We can’t take the chance. If one or all of them start turning into monsters, then everyone here is dead.”
“That won’t happen.”
He got very close to my face to make his next point clear. “Do you realize what I just said? If they turn into dog-creatures, they will start killing everyone around them. That doesn’t just include just you and me, but also Tex, Rae, other Black Jackets, civilians, fathers, mothers, little old ladies, babies sleeping in their cribs, they will kill everyone, if they turn!”
I sat down on the bed. We had always known Omniscients didn’t trust us because they thought we were all walking time bombs, but I hated thinking that they could be right.
“You should let me go down there. I’m one of them.”
“That’s exactly why you’re staying here. Being in this district just got a lot more dangerous for you.”
“Scott, I have to see them. You can’t just lock me up. Please, let me go down there.”
He looked down at the ground. “Vera…”
“These are my family and friends, and they’re in danger! You need to let me see them.”
It took a while, but he finally gave in. “Fine. I’ll take you with me, but, once this is resolved, you’re coming straight back here.”
He zipped up my jacket and pulled my hood around my head even tighter than before, leaving no chance that I would be recognized.
When we got down to the barricade, all the guards were on high alert. Jack relieved his command over to Scott, who started barking out orders not to shoot, but keep them at bay.
The main entrance to the Gray District was far too narrow for all the Truands to fit through at once. They were bottle-necked at the bottom, not daring to step onto the ramp with the Black Jackets pointing the President’s automatic weapons at them. And speaking of the President, her officers had lined the streets of the Presidential District with barricades, making a path for the Truands to get to us. I don’t know if they were doing it out of kindness, hoping that we would take them in when they couldn’t, or if it was out of spite, passing off a problem they didn’t want to deal with. Either way, it was a mistake.
“Everyone, calm down,” Scott yelled, but his voice had no effect on the Truands, who continued to shout. However, a moment later, they stopped, and a man in a wide brimmed hat stepped forward. I recognized him the moment I saw him.
“Scott.”
“What?”
“That’s Fells Barrow. He’s the leader of the Truands.”
“Mr. Barrow,” Scott shouted down to him. “Why are you here?”
“We’ve come here to escape the Sunset District. The 80’s have been leading a campaign to wipe us out. They say that we’re all going to turn into monsters, but, I assure you, we are not dangerous.”
“A mob of people showing up on my doorstep seems pretty dangerous to me.”
“You can’t possibly agree with them?”
“I can’t take the chance. You could turn at any moment.”
“None of us are infected!” he yelled, obviously frustrated.
“How can we know you’re not infected?”
“You can check us.”
“You expect us to check all of you? Even if we had the time, there’s no way to know for sure.”
He paused. “We have nowhere else to go. We’ll be killed if we return. You have no idea how much of a risk we took just by gathering to come here.”
“Did you ask to stay the Presidential District?”
“Of course we did, but they told us to come here.”
I looked at Scott. I could tell that he felt sorry for them, but I also knew that everything he had said was true. We had no idea if any of them were carrying the virus; if they would turn and start killing anything that moved. “I’m sorry. We can’t help you. I have my own people to look after. I hope you can understand that.”
“I do, but we’re desperate. A small kindness from you would put us deeply in your debt.”
“You can stay under the overpass, if you wish.”
After living here for so long I had forgotten this district had an underside. The overpass had plenty of space below it, though it wasn’t at all hospitable.
“It’s just concrete ditch. If it rains, we’ll all drown.”
“There’s nothing else I can offer you.”
I saw them too late, but Scott’s trained eyes didn’t. While I looked at the leader, the young ones right behind him were looking at one another and speaking amongst themselves. I saw one counting. On his fingers he counted three, then two, then one…
“Charge!”
They rushed at us. Scott never gave an order, the Black Jackets just reacted. It was a moment when the entire world went in slow motion. I remember every blood splatter and every bullet. I watched one man take two slugs before just crumpling to the ground. Scott didn’t have a rifle like the rest of the Black Jackets, but his pistol never missed it's mark. He fired all thirteen rounds from his clip, and one of them hit the boy who had been counting right in his chest. Even the children charged forward, before they realized that it wasn’t a game. After their expressions turned to horror, they tried to run and were shot by either the Black Jackets or policemen, who were trying to keep the Truands from crossing their barricades into the Presidential District. They were screaming and running in every direction, but in every direction there was someone shooting at them. I only saw a few dozen make it through the gauntlet of screaming and bullets, and back to their inhospitable home.
I was shaken out of my daze by Scott. “Are you alright?”
“I…”
His face didn’t show horror like the rest of us. Perhaps it was because of his time with the 80's, or perhaps the knowledge of what the Black Jackets had done hadn’t quite settled in yet. He showed strength in the face of this event, though his voice was broken.
“Head count! Is everyone ok? Jack, Shoan, Rae… Rae? Rae?” he called to her. She had gone completely catatonic, just holding her automatic with a blank and horrific stare on her face.
“I’ve got her.” I saw Revy walking away with Rae, but she turned back to Scott and shouted to him, “Vera. Where was she?”
“I’m sure she wasn’t in the crowd,” said Revy, and he continued walking away with her.
Scott picked me up, and carried me back up to my new house on the top level; my hiding spot. I heard more gunshots on the way up. Just single ones. Making sure none of them were suffering. My anger brewed down below; anger at Scott and at the Black Jackets, anger at the 80’s, anger at the infected creatures, and anger at the world.
He sat me down on the bed and locked the door before collapsing in the corner.
“Don’t you need to be out there?” I said, wanting him to leave.
He didn’t answer. I noticed that he was still holding his pistol and it was shaking in his hand.
I cried. I didn’t really know what else to do. What else was there to do?
“I’m sorry.” I looked over at him. He came up to me and said it again. “I’m sorry.”
“Get the fuck out!” I screamed in his face, punching him as hard as I could. He looked at me for a moment, and then left, locking me inside my prison.
Chapter 44 - Scott Vale
“God is going to smite us! He’s going to reach down kill us, and let us burn in hell!”
“Jack, calm yourself.”
“It’s fucking happening again!”
“Jack!” I yelled, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Shut the fuck up! You need to be strong again, understand?”
He was still shaking, but he nodded.
Black Jackets and police had been working for over an hour, trying to move all the bodies to the
crematorium. Unfortunately, the small facility wasn’t built to handle a massacre.
I saw Tex standing in a nearby alleyway, leaning against a wall.
“Hey, pal. How are you holding up?”
His eyes were more bloodshot than I’d ever seen, but he still looked at me and said, “I’m fine.”
He obviously wasn’t, but I didn’t push the issue. I didn't have any problem giving orders to the rest of the Black Jackets. I frequently told Jack to stop drinking or came down on the others whenever they did something wrong, but Tex was different. I didn't want to be his boss, I just wanted to protect him.
“If you need anything, let me know.”
“I’m fine, Scott. I know the job comes first,” he said, with an eagerness that was both admirable and concerning.
“We may as well,” someone said, behind me. “Everything they have is stolen anyway.”
I turned to see several officers rooting through the Truand’s pockets.
“Get away from them,” said Jack, running up and shoving one of the cops.
“Back off, thug.”
“Leave them alone!”
“Everything in their pockets is just going to get incinerated anyway.”
I put my hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s not start anything.”
“Listen to your friend, little man.”
Jack lunged at him, but I held him back. “I’ll handle this. Go stay with Tex.”
Once he was gone, I turned back to the officer. “We’re on the same side, just so you know.”
“Then tell your boys not to mess with us. He came up and started harassing me first, just for taking back what the Truands owe us. They’re all thieves and liars. Everything in their pockets is what they stole from hard working people like us… well, not like you.”
When my hands instinctively balled into fists, I knew I was about to do something I would regret, so I simply turned and walked away.
“It was just a joke, kid. I’m sure you don’t freeload as much as the Truands do. I mean, did you ever see their dancing girls?”
I stopped.
“Even dancers don’t dress that skimpy,” said a second cop.
“Yeah, they probably whore themselves out on the side. Truands would do anything to make a quick buck.”
I marched back to them.
“What’s the matter kid?” Instead of replying with words, I grabbed his rifle and swung it around. In one motion I tore it out of his hands and bashed his jaw with the stock, breaking several of his teeth and causing him to bite off a piece of his tongue.
Before his friends could react, I swung the weapon twice more, taking great satisfaction in breaking their noses.
“If you ever say that again, I will fucking murder you!” I screamed at them, pointing the rifle at them as they lay on the ground.
Other officers rushed to their side, but the Black Jackets came to mine. Soon they were all pointing their guns at each other, stomping their feet and pounding their chests in between a chorus of threats.
“Let them go!”
“Put the fucking gun down!”
“Get the hell out of here!”
“Fuck off, pigs!”
I fell to my knees, my ears suddenly being ripped apart by a high pitched noise. It only lasted a few seconds, but, as I got back to my feet, I saw that everyone else, Black Jackets and officers alike, had been affected.
“Scott Vale.” I turned to the voice and saw the President standing nearby, removing her earplugs and holding a device in her hand the size of a keychain. “Come with me.”
“Stay here,” I told the Black Jackets, as I followed her.
However, one of the officers, the one that had been a particularly large asshole, ran up to us.
“Ma’am, with all due respect, there’s no way we’re working with these thugs any longer.”
President Wilson didn’t appreciate that comment, but she choose not to scold him or tell him to do his duty like all the others. Instead, she put a bullet in his head. The bullet from her tiny toy pistol didn’t create an exit wound or knock him back, but simply caused him to crumple like paper as the bullet ricocheted inside his skull.
All of us stood in shock, until she did something totally unlike her; something that may have actually been scarier than watching her execute a man in front of us. She raised her voice.
At the top of her lungs, she shouted, “Get back to work!” making everyone in the crowd, Black Jackets, cops and even civilians who happened to be watching, to swarm like bees, looking for something to do.
“Come with me.”
She led me a block down the street, to the President’s building, and took me up to the top floor. Next to her desk I could still, just barely, see the blood stain I had left the last time I was here.
“I want to apologize to you, Scott. Those officers were not acting under my orders when they allowed the Truands to approach your doorstep, and they will be punished accordingly.”
“I think that’s already been accomplished,” I said, just a little snidely.
“Yes well, insubordination isn’t something we can afford to tolerate right now. The stakes are far too high.”
“I should apologize too. I overreacted to their comments.”
“Because they insulted your girlfriend?”
My eyes went wide.
“Despite all these rules and regulations about Homo Omniscients and Homo Sapiens, it’s amazing how many people can’t tell the difference until they look closely. Your secret is safe, but she might not be. Distrust is brewing everywhere.”
“Actually, she’s not my…”
“Are the logistics of your relationship really what’s important right now?”
“I guess not.”
“Exactly. Now, as I was saying. We need to make sure our forces can work together without killing one another. Can you convince your Black Jackets to play nice?”
“Yeah, they’ll be fine.”
“Excellent. It’s going to take a lot of work to fix this city, but, eventually, we’ll get things back to the way they were.”
I raised an eyebrow, “You actually think things can go back to normal?”
“Why couldn’t they?”
“Haven’t you seen the Sunset District? It looks like a warzone.”
“We’ll clean it up.”
“Clean it up? Are you kidding me? This city is never going to be the same. The damage is irreparable.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?”
“Well… I told you how we wanted to leave, right?”
“This again? No one has ever left this city and survived.”
“But we found a map. It shows the area outside of Jamestown, and there might be other cities out there.”
“There are cities on the map?”
“Sort of. I mean, Jamestown is on it. It’s not highlighted or anything, but it’s definitely the shape of this city.”
“So you haven’t found any other cities, just shapes?”
“Yes.”
“So, if you left to go and find a city, it could end up just being a large rock formation, or a pit, or a mountain, or anything else that would show up on a topographical map? And where did you even find this? I’ve never heard of any maps that extend beyond the forest.”
“It belonged to Frollo. I’m not sure if it’s right or not, but taking the chance is probably better than staying here. If we don’t kill each other, the ravers, junkies and monsters will.”
She turned around and looked out the window. I don’t think she could stand to look me in the eye. I didn’t mean to sound like I was betraying her, I just wanted to do what was best for my people, as did she.
“Fine, do whatever you want, but, as long as your here, I still need guards and workers.”
“That’s fine. We need the food anyway.”
I started out the door, but she stopped me as I reached for the handle.
“Scott, do you think… If there are more cities,
do you really think it’s possible for someone to leave the city and survive?”
Despite the anger she had shown earlier, she now sounded as if she wanted it to be true.
“I don’t know. Leaving is the only way to find out.”
Chapter 45 - Sirius V
Each and every stroke of stone on metal made the guards more and more uneasy. I continued sharpening my machete next to the cage door, sitting on a milk crate and watching beads of sweat roll down their fearful faces. Even though there had been a growing tension between the Shamans and I, it didn’t give me any more love for these officers, who were paid to keep us locked up.
“Do you know why I keep this blade so sharp?”
Neither of them answered. They continued to look past me, and pretend like they were keeping people safe.
“I keep this blade sharp, so that if anyone threatens my people,” I held it up to shine in the moonlight. “I can slice through their bodies like paper.”
“Why don’t you just shut up?”
I ran to the door, making both fairies jump back.
“You talk big. Why don’t you come in here and prove yourself?”
“I’m not afraid of you. You’re an animals; one of those crazy wolf bastards.”
The Shaman’s words echoed through my head, “They think us beasts, and so beasts we shall become.”
“Be careful what you say. I won’t be in this cage forever.”
“And what are you going to do if you get out of there, you animal? You’ve had food and water handed to you for years. Do you even know what you would do if you got out of that cage?”
I gave serious consideration to using the tunnels to sneak out and cut his throat, but thought better of it.
“I’ll do three things. The first is to kill you, and every other Omniscient like you. Second is to kill the Great Beast, the Dragon who will stand against us. And the third is to conquer the world. I will sit on an enormous throne, with the skulls of dead fairies under my feet.”
Before he could say more, a man walked into the light behind him. All three of us looked at this odd and broken looking man. His eyes were surrounded by black skin and he seemed to be drooling bright orange goo. It ran out of his mouth, down his shirt and was left behind in his footprints.
Black Light: The Deplorable Savior Page 17