Black Light: The Deplorable Savior

by Rich Richardson

  “Well ma’am, I brought you something that I thought you might like to see.”

  He placed a manila folder on my desk. Inside were schematics, chemical formulas, shipping manifests, written orders…

  “What is all this?”

  “Well, you see ma’am, I was rather close with the Men of the Temple. I was there on the night they were… taken out of power. I actually came across these documents that detail methods of keeping entire districts in a close to zombified state. They thought it was too extreme to use in anything but an emergency, but I understand the new ruling body of the Sunset District is using their technology quite effectively.”

  I looked up and into his smiling face, ready to draw my pistol.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “Me? I’m just a patriot, trying to help the city I love so dearly.”

  “Get out of my office.”

  He started to leave, but stopped at the door. “You may question these methods, but you cannot argue with the results. The Cages are plotting, the Sunset District has gone off the deep end and we both know that Scott Vale has something up his sleeve. If you don’t seize control, a lot of good people will die.”

  He left. I got up and made sure to lock the door behind him before taking a second look at the contents of his folder. The machines it showed were obviously designed to disperse some sort of gas or liquid into the air. As for the chemicals diagrammed… I had no idea. I hadn’t done well back in chemistry class.

  I didn’t need to know what these machines did, to know that this was a trap. I threw the file in the garbage, before I’d even finished perusing the pages. If the chemicals in this file were the same ones the supposed “King” was using, then I wanted nothing to do with them. I’d seen the results. His drugs were disgusting, horrifying, destructive… and effective. The King in Lights had turned the people into his slaves, but, at heart, he was an anarchist. If vapor were to be dispersed by a leader who cared about the people…

  “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You want to use what’s in the file, don’t you?”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “I don’t. The file doesn’t matter to me at all.”

  “You’re flipping through it right now! I’m literally watching you do it!”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “God, you’re twisted. This is your idea for fixing the city? Turning everyone into zombies?”

  “Isn’t it better than the alternative? Wouldn’t this be better than watching the city get destroyed? Not to mention, I’ve been the President for years. I’m experienced, and I have the people’s best interests at heart. If anyone can responsibly subdue the population, while still doing what’s best for them, it’s me.”

  “Whatever. It’s not like I can stop you, but you know this won’t end well.”

  As I kept flipping through the pages, brushing bits of garbage off of them as I did, Fischer’s voice faded into the background. It looked like some of the documents hadn’t been touched in years. The chemical formulas were worn out, but some of the papers, many of which didn’t even look like they belonged in the file, were dusty and faded. X-rays showing both metal and bone, blueprints for some kind of specialized breathing apparatus, sketches of sound equipment… It looked like Frollo had once had a larger plan, but butchered it for some unknown reason, only using bits and pieces. Perhaps Thomas had told the truth, and they thought it was too extreme.

  Regardless of its original intent, I knew it would be a waste to throw away a resource like this, so, instead, I picked up the phone and made a call.

  “Can I get something for you Madam President?”

  “I need our best team of engineers.”

  Chapter 51 - Scott Vale

  “Am I a good leader? Am I a good person? Am I doing the right thing?”

  I found myself repeating those questions as I walked through the Gray District. The people in the street seemed happy and content, until they saw my face. A few smiled and waved, but most looked nervous. One woman even pulled her child behind her, shielding him from me.

  I thought I had done well; that I had done everything I could to make everyone’s lives better. Instead of walking out to buy drugs or stealing for a living, men and women returned home from working in the farming facility, wearing dirt stained overalls and muddy boots. People stood in line for food and clothing being passed out by the Black Jackets, rather than trading pennies for bowls of measly gruel at the slop shops.

  But, every civilian who looked at a Black Jacket, many of whom carried automatic rifles while they patrolled the street and catwalks, became agitated and scared, and seeing them act like that was even more disconcerting, because of the news I was about to break.

  “Scott?” someone called out. It was Rae’s mother, who had just finished up with one of her classes.

  “Hi, Ms. Johnson.”

  “It’s so good to see you!” she said, running up and hugging me, which caused a lot of people to look at us in confusion. “How have you been? Why are you so skinny? Have you made the announcement yet? It’s so scary, but exciting. When is it happening?”

  I had to think for a moment before I could answer her rapidly-fired questions. “Fine, I’ve always been like this, I haven’t and how do you already know the news? Did Rae tell you?”

  “Oh, was she not supposed to? I guess she spilled the beans.”

  “I suppose it’s not really a secret. I mean, we’re already making preparations.”

  “Exactly. Rainy also told me you were involved with that Truand girl. You’re a very lucky young man.”

  I looked around to see if anyone had turned at hearing the word Truand, but no one seemed to have noticed.

  “Yeah, I mean… I guess so.”

  “Oh, I see. You kids don’t like to put labels on your relationships. I understand. My husband and I were off and on for years before we got married.”

  “Really?”

  “Oh, yes. Albert tried to get me to settle down for years, but I never would. Hold on to that young lady. These days, it’s hard to find a girl with brains and good looks to boot, and I’m amazed at how much she’s done for this district, after all that’s happened. I can’t imagine how it must have felt to lose all her people in one fell swoop. Don’t you ever let her go, Scott. I’m very serious.”

  “Ok, I understand,” I told her, as she wagged her finger in my face.

  “Good. Now, I have to go. I need to go find my old codger of a husband. His class on gun safety should be ending right about now. I’m so glad you asked us to hold these classes. Retirement gets so boring after a while.”

  “I would imagine. How has your teaching been going? Do you need anything?”

  “No, I’m fine. My biggest problem is just getting them to focus. Adults and older kids who don’t know basic subjects are always tough to teach, because it’s embarrassing for them to admit when they don’t know something. However, they’ve been doing very well recently. In fact, one of your Black Jackets, Timmy Hull, just finished his first novel. It wasn't incredibly long or complex, but you should have seen the look on his face. He was so proud.”

  Her face lit up, and the smile that seemed to be permanently etched on her face grew even larger.

  “I’m glad things are going well.”

  “Oh, we wouldn’t even be doing this without you, Scott. Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

  She left to find her husband, but turned back to shout at me, “Rainy is coming for dinner Friday. I’ll expect you and Vera to be there.”

  “Ok, Ms. Johnson.”

  I walked up the catwalks, smiling at first, but my happiness soon faded. Several Black Jackets greeted me warmly, but the civilians looked even more uncomfortable, being trapped with me in a cramped walkway.

  “Those supplies aren’t going to pack themselves. Get to it.”

  After whipping a few unruly Black Jackets back into shap
e, Vera looked over at me. Her hood was pulled tightly around her head, hiding her race from civilians and anyone else who might react negatively to finding a Sapien. Most of the Black Jackets knew she was here by now, but all of them either liked her too much or were too afraid of me to say anything.

  “I’m so glad to see you,” I said, wrapping my arms around her waist. She, in turn, put her arms around my shoulders.

  She was gorgeous is every way, inside and out, but the most beautiful part of her was her eyes; there was a deep sadness inside them, veiled by strength and grit.

  “Are you ready?” she asked me. As I looked down from the catwalk, I saw people gathering. They were still afraid, but they still looked up to me.

  I didn't answer her, but she knew how I was feeling. Vera saw inside me; the pain, the insecurity, how I was questioning everything I had done.

  She put her hand on my cheek, and whispered into my ear, “We need you to be strong right now, ok?”

  That was all I needed to hear. It was a reminder that my pain didn’t matter. Hundreds of people looked to me for guidance, and I couldn’t afford to get hung up on my own issues. I had to keep moving forward, no matter what.

  I turned to face the crowd, and I forgot that they were afraid of me. It didn’t really matter. What mattered was doing what was best for them; and so I looked out, took a deep breath, and told them…

  “We’re leaving Jamestown.”

  Chapter 52 - Rae Johnson

  “I think I’m going to throw up.”

  “Hold it in, Princess. We’re almost there.”

  “I don’t like this plan.”

  “You said you wanted to come, and it’s way too late to back out now,” Durango told me, as we struggled to hang onto the roof of the speeding tram. “The plan is simple. We’re going to hit the ramp in about thirty seconds and the tram will fly into the air. That’s when we pull the cords to activate our hover packs, fly forward, crash through the windows and shoot everyone inside. Got it?”

  “No!”

  “Too bad!”

  We flew into the air at breakneck speed. I felt completely weightless, despite the three layers of heavy armor, but that feeling was soon replaced by fear as I started falling.

  "Why hell did I agree to do this?" I asked myself, as my heart beat faster and faster. "Why could I have thought that this would be fun?"

  I felt Durango suddenly clutch my hand. He grabbed his cord, and waited for me to grab mine before tugging on it. We shot through the air like rockets, the wind roaring as we flew towards the three story building, straight ahead of us.

  The windows shattered when we hit them, but, thankfully, our armor held up. All the padding and metal wrapped around us kept us from being turned into pancakes as we crashed and tumbled through furniture and walls.

  “You ok?”

  “Yeah. You?”

  “I'm alive.”

  We were both dazed, but only had a few seconds to recover before the occupants realized what was happening.

  “It’s the 80’s!”

  “They’ve come for us!”

  “The vapor is ours! Tell the King we stole it fair and square!”

  Durango and I dived behind a desk, and pulled out our rifles.

  “Are you sure this armor is bulletproof?”

  “If it can hold up to that crash, it can hold up against anything,” he said, before sticking his head up to take a few shots.

  Suddenly, the gunfire stopped. We could hear something, and it was growing louder by the second; the scraping of metal on concrete. The whole building shook, and we realized that the tram had just collided with the tiny structure.

  “This place is coming down! Rae, we need to shoot these bastards and run.”

  As pieces of the roof started to fall and the entire building began to cave in around us, I dived under a table to avoid the debris.

  “Rae, fucking move already!”

  I couldn’t do it. I was paralyzed. I had handled the crash and being shot at didn't bother me, but the building collapsing around our ears was too much for me, and I went into shock.

  “If you don’t get the fuck up, you are going to die! Do you realize that?”

  Durango’s shouting didn’t help at first, if anything it made me feel worse, until he said something very specific that got me to my feet; something short, simple and unintentionally inspiring.

  “You’re not helpless, Rae. Save yourself!”

  At that exact moment, I took control. I grabbed my weapon and opened fire on the junkies, who, for some reason, seemed more concerned with killing us than escaping the building.

  At first, I closed my eyes and started firing blind as I moved towards the stairs, but as bullet after bullet bounced off of my chest plate and helmet, a rush of ferocity and adrenaline ran through my veins.

  I felt completely unstoppable, watching blood splatter across walls and my enemies die horribly every time I pulled the trigger. I felt invincible, seeing bullets land at my feet, after bouncing off me like cotton balls. I felt free, not caring about who was the bad guy, or whether or not these men and women deserved to die.

  And most of all, I felt alive.

  “Fuck you!” I shouted, as I ripped a junkie to pieces with bullets, then turned and gunned down two more of his friends.

  “Get to the stairs.” Durango told me, and I immediately followed. The building continued to collapse, faster than we could make it down the stairs.

  We both started ripping off our armor, throwing down our weapons and doing anything we could to lighten up. The helmets were first to go, then the multiple chest pieces, the gauntlets, greaves, shoulders pads and then, lastly, we kicked off the metal plated boots, leaving us sprinting down the last flight of stairs in our underpants.

  We leapt down as fast as we could, and dashed out the exit just as the building came tumbling down, entombing both the busted tram and the thieving junkies inside.

  Fortunately, it was a warm day, because we were now standing outside wearing next to nothing.

  It took a minute for us to process exactly what had just happened. We were safe. We had finished the mission. We had won, and it had only taken ten minutes.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Durango said.

  At least, I think that’s what he said. I had so much adrenaline in my veins that I didn’t care about words. I jumped on him, kissing him harder than I’ve kissed any other man, while I tore off his shirt.

  I felt sweaty, dirty, electrified and outrageous, and I loved every minute of being with him.

  Chapter 53 - Scott Vale

  I wasn’t sure how to feel. The street was empty, the catwalks were void and I could only assume that everyone was at home, wondering what the hell was waiting for us on the other side of the wall.

  “They don’t seem all that dangerous.”

  “We’ve never seen them up close.”

  “They’re not as big as the stories make them seem.”

  “Yeah, but those creatures could still be vicious, especially when three hundred and fifty refugees start stomping through their home.”

  I slid a shot across the counter and Tex downed it right away. “Oh, shit. That tastes terrible.”

  “I know right?” I pulled a bottle off the rack. “I haven’t had anything this strong in six months, but, since we’re leaving in a week, I figured I may as well break out the good stuff.”

  Tex Mex and I were hanging out at one of the closed slop shops, one that I’d been using it for storage since it had closed. The racks of alcohol I had stacked up, along with the newly polished counter, made it almost look like a real bar.

  I looked down at my friend, his face still contorted from the whiskey on his tongue, and, for just a moment, I forgot what Vera had told me.

  "Tex is trying to be strong and stone-faced, but it's killing him. He's started doing vapor."

  I had almost died when she told me that. From the look on her face, I don't think my reaction was what she expected. She th
ought I was going to scream and yell and order him to stop, but I couldn't. I just laid down, put my head on her lap and told her, "I'm tired."

  "I know Scott. We all are."

  "Hey Tex?" He looked over at me. "What do you think is out there?”

  "Dog-creatures, right? Why? What do you expect to find?"

  "An army of vampires and a giant cyclops guarding the gates of hell.”

  “That’s very funny, but what do you really think is out there?”

  I took another shot before answering, bumping my total up to four, so far. “Funny? You think I’m being funny? We’re braving a forest full of giant-dog-things, that may have once been human, to get away from roving bands of hippie-rainbow-zombies, but you think vampires are far-fetched?”

  Tex laughed and I laughed with him. Sitting with my friend, without the pressure of the Black Jackets or the district's needs, made this almost feel like old times; before the 80's, when we were just two orphan thieves.

  “I guess things have gotten pretty crazy.”

  “They’re beyond crazy,” said Vera, walking up to us. She hopped over the counter and kissed me. “I’m glad to see you’re doing better.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be doing better? I’ve got an awesome best friend, all the booze I can drink and I’m dating the sexiest woman alive,” I said, just before grabbing her around the waist and pulling her close to me. However, just as I was about to try and kiss her, I stepped back and realized something. “I might be a little drunk.”

  “You think?”

  They both laughed at me, and Vera grabbed some whiskey from the shelf. “Call the others while I catch up. We’ll have a going away party.”

  “I’m on it.” I pulled out my radio. “Revy, Rae, Jack, get down to the slop shop on the north end; eighteenth door from the entrance. You’ll see us outside.”

  “On my way.”

  “Be right there.”

  “I’m busy.”