Joe was halfway to the ground before he heard the popping sound. He floated seemingly forever between the sky and the ground, waiting to descend. The smell came back to the forefront of his thoughts and was stronger now, enjoyably aromatic, but that wasn’t all. There was a weight on his chest, and it was warm, comfortably so. He instinctively cradled it and felt arms go around his hips and to his back. For no reason, Joe felt the moment was framed in gold. He had just enough time to see her dark tresses spread about his chest as he and this golden person fell. A perfect moment. A perfect meeting.
The force of his body hitting the floor unmercifully interrupted all that.
“Are you an imbecile? Get up and run! Go!”
Her voice had an unmistakable foreign flare to it, but didn’t distract from the message she was trying to convey. The curtness of her voice jolted Joe to his feet to meet her. When he looked up, she was already on her feet. He waited for her to move before he did.
“Go! Now!”
She hadn’t even looked at Joe when she’d said that. Her eyes were on her shooter. She reached for her ear and took off a large earring. The silver pendant bore a symbol that Joe thought looked like a lightning bolt.
She threw the thing hard and Joe heard it smack the guy dead in the chest. He flew back on impact and landed painfully hard on the floor, convulsing. He looks like those guys on Cops after they’ve been Tased, he concluded.
“Why are you still here? I told you to leave!”
Joe: “I’m sorry, miss, I just want to make sure you’re not hurt or anything.”
“I’m not.”
Joe: “Well I … I just want to help you.”
“Oh no! You’re ‘inspired’ … I really don’t have time for this.”
She forcibly grabbed Joe’s hand and started running. Joe saw that she looked determined, and that the earring she had thrown earlier was now back on her ear. He must have been mistaken; she must have thrown the one from the opposite ear.
They continued to run against the crowd and away from the doors. Joe was sure they were actually going deeper into the stadium.
Joe: “Where are we going, miss?”
“Just enjoy the ride. Since you’re so gung-ho about helping me out.”
They found an elevator and the woman called it. It opened as soon as she pressed the button.
Joe: “Is this safe, miss … miss? Um, what’s your name?”
“Just get in.”
Joe: “That’s a funny name.”
Joe offered a smile, but dark tresses pushed him into the freight car.
“This is as safe as we need it to be, and if you must call me anything, call me annoyed.”
Joe: “Seriously!?”
“The concept of sarcasm is lost on you, isn’t it? So to say you’re an imbecile isn’t too far from the mark.”
Joe: “I'm not stupid. I just wanted to know your name.”
"Call me what you like. If I'm lucky I won't have to see you after today."
Joe: "Well, the only thing that I can think of is Beauty."
Beauty: “Whatever helps you sleep at night. Though that is a curious concept, isn’t it? Beauty can be learned, perfected, and mastered, and yet it is utterly subjective.”
Dark tresses studied Joe’s face and laughed.
Beauty: “I’m going to think about that one for a while. I suppose I could use your help. Yes, that’s it!”
Joe scratched his head, both out of habit and in general confusion.
Beauty: “You have a chance to do a really good deed today. Something that can really help a lot of people out.”
Joe: “What are you trying to do? Why are they trying to kill you?”
Beauty: “I don’t have time to explain. Just know that I'm trying to save someone. Once this elevator stops we’re going to have to run, and if you stick with me your life will be in danger. You need to decide before we reach the next floor.”
The wooziness brought on by the drinks and lack of oxygen had disappeared and Joe felt his head was clear now. He wondered why he had even done what he did earlier to save this woman. It was simple, he thought, Mom and Pop taught me early on to do the right thing. It was only natural to help when big men with guns tried to hurt little women. Joe knew he couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. He wasn’t raised that way.
Joe: “This person, are they important to you?”
Beauty: "Not to me, but to someone else, I'm sure. Today is the only day I can get them out."
Joe thought about it for a moment, but he knew he couldn't pass up a chance to save someone's life. He would want the same thing if the shoe was on the other foot.
Joe: "I'll help you."
The woman didn’t look all that surprised.
Chapter 3 She Can Do That!?
Ding!
Joe: “Okay, we’re here, let’s go!”
Beauty: “Get back in here! This isn’t our floor.”
Joe hopped back into the freight elevator and looked at the button panel.
Joe: “But it says we’re at the ground floor. We can’t go any lower.”
Beauty: “Shhh.”
Beauty ran her fingers through her hair and produced what looked to be a keycard. She took the keycard and inserted it into a small slit on the back side of the elevator. Three glowing squares popped up in the middle of the small glass display on the wall. They were marked UG5, UG6, and UG7. Beauty pressed the square for UG6; the elevator began to move and the display disappeared. The card reader ejected Beauty’s card and she grabbed it and placed it back amongst her dark tresses. Joe wondered where exactly she had put the card, but didn't linger too long on that thought. He had other things on his mind.
Joe: “Do you have a gun or anything? Seems like all these guys might have guns.”
Beauty: “No, I don’t need ‘em. I have everything I need right here.”
She touched the earrings on her ears. Joe didn’t know what she meant or how her missing earring was back on her ear.
Joe: “What will you do with those? They’re just earrings.”
Beauty: “I’m tricky. They won’t even see me coming.”
The elevator had finally come to a stop. For some reason Beauty was still facing the back wall. Joe went to tell her that they had reached their stop, but was halted when the back wall of the elevator suddenly slid completely open. Joe gaped down the hall to see if there was anyone there, but didn’t see or hear anyone.
Beauty: “Just follow me, Joe.”
Joe: “Okay, but how do you know my name? I haven’t told you yet.”
Beauty: “You look like a Joe. A real average Joe, as the saying goes. Now come on.”
Joe followed her as close as he possibly could. He figured that even if he somehow lost his sight he could still follow her as long as he had his sense of smell. The woman smelled as delightful as she looked, and Joe was taking it all in. It was one of the perks of following a woman, he supposed.
Beauty: “Remember to watch me and not my superbly sculpted buns, little guy. I need you to be alert.”
Joe snapped to attention and looked mortified.
Joe: “But I … I mean I wasn’t.”
Beauty: “Save it. Let’s go!”
Beauty ran down the hall with the speed and grace of a creature of the night. Joe had never seen a person move like she did. Complete confidence in her movements, she hugged the walls as if she were a part of them whenever she checked her surroundings. Joe felt awkward and clumsy as he tried to keep up. He wasn’t used to sneaking around, and seeing Beauty in action just made him feel like the kid he was. In that brief moment, he felt oddly uncomfortable in his own skin. A very strange thought crept into his head. He imagined some small creature piloting his body and now cursing itself because it didn’t pay attention to lessons in human piloting school. The creature also cursed Beauty’s pilot for being a know-it-all goody-goody and an overachiever. His daydreams ended when Beauty signaled him over to her side.
Beauty: “I’m su
re this floor was successfully evacuated. I didn’t see anyone up ahead, but we should have company pretty soon. Let’s clear this hallway and I’ll lead you to our destination.”
Joe: “Okay, but what do you want me to do when we get there?”
Beauty: “Don’t worry, I’ll let you know soon. You’ll come in handy.”
They ran down another hall filled with doors that mostly led to empty rooms. Joe had no clue what these rooms could have been used for or even why the stadium had hidden floors to begin with. None of it made sense. Far behind them Joe heard the elevator doors slide open, and shortly after heard voices as well. The sound hadn’t escaped Beauty. They turned a corner and entered a large room filled with lockers that seemed like the coldest part of the building. Joe wondered if it was a backup locker room for the sports stars, but couldn’t see a visible showering area nearby. He did spot one thing though, a beautiful blonde girl bound with rope and gagged. She wore some sort of blue security pants with lots of big pockets and a white tank top but no shoes. She had a few bruises on her face and upper back near her shoulders.
Beauty: “She’s still in here. This makes things a lot easier.”
Beauty quickly ran over to the girl and tugged at her ropes.
Beauty: “What an amateur. I can’t believe you got caught like that. You’ve made my job one hundred times harder.”
Joe: “I don’t think she can hear you.”
Beauty: “Can’t a girl vent her frustrations? This girl really mucked things up for me.”
Joe: “Sure but what made you both come here anyway?”
Beauty: “I guess I can tell you that. I have no clue why she’s here but I’m here to get something precious to me. It’s supposed to be down here somewhere. I thought I’d free her in the process. She got caught, a few weeks ago.”
Joe: “Who is she?”
Beauty: “Ask her yourself whenever she wakes up. Here take this.”
She handed Joe her elevator card and grabbed the earring from her ear. It looked like she was squeezing it but when she opened her hand Joe saw a shiny curved knife there, not an earring. She took it and sliced through the ropes cleanly as if she were using a katana and when she was done the knife turned back into a little earring and she put it back on her ear. Joe couldn’t believe that he wasn’t dreaming right now. The woman tried shaking the girl awake, but to no avail. She looked over towards the back row of lockers and only saw one that was lockless.
Beauty: “Okay, I need you to listen very carefully, Joe. A group of those guys that were shooting at me earlier are going to arrive here any minute now. I need you to do a few things for me. Starting off, I need you to hurry and tie me up.”
She lifted the girl off of the chair that she was sitting on and gently placed her on the floor.
Joe: “But I—”
Beauty: “No time to explain, Joe. Just do as I say. I’ll be just fine.”
Joe nodded his head and waited for further orders. Beauty picked up the rope that had bound the blonde girl and handed it to Joe. Joe was shocked to find that the rope had none of the cuts on it that Beauty had made earlier, but he decided not to linger on that thought.
Beauty: “Make sure you do that nice and tight, country boy. Knot it good. Once you finish that, I want you to pick up Sleeping Beauty and head straight to that locker over there — I’m staring right at it — and hide. Once the room clears out, I want you to wait a few minutes — at least until you don’t hear any more voices — and then I want you to escape with her.”
Joe: “Who is she?”
Beauty: “She’s important. I need her alive, and if anything happens to her I’m going to find you and besmirch you.”
Joe: “Besmirch?”
Beauty: “Now go. Hurry, we have no time. Make sure you stay hidden.”
Joe grabbed the mystery blonde and walked himself and the girl to the only locker that he saw without a lock. He opened the locker and saw nothing but a Pantera t-shirt inside. He lifted the cute blonde up and placed her inside first. She kept falling to the bottom of the locker, so he leaned her up and propped her at an angle.
Beauty: “Hurry up!”
Joe hastily draped his legs over the girl’s slumbering body and squeezed in as best he could. It was definitely a tight fit, and it was definitely uncomfortable. He could feel the girl’s tiny breaths on his chest, and could feel the weight and warmth of her body against his belly. The only girl he had ever been this close with was Kate. He peered out through the slits of the locker and nearly dropped his jaw. Where Beauty had sat before, there was now another blonde girl. No … the same blonde girl, but that was impossible. Joe looked down again at his locker mate and examined her face. He then looked at the girl in the chair and saw that they were identical right down to the bruises they shared.
This was madness. More importantly, where was Beauty? Joe had only looked away for a few seconds and had lost her. Wait, something was off, he thought. The clothes didn’t match up. The girls wore completely different outfits. That’s when he saw it. Before his eyes, the blonde in the chair’s outfit changed from the one that Beauty had worn to the same blue security outfit that his locker mate was wearing. It was then that he knew.
Joe: “She isn't like us.”
Want more? Head on over to the Average Joe purchase page. And also, I’d also like to extend an offer to you all to be a part of my ARC group and receive copies of my future books before they are released to the public. To do this you just have to review this book then send me a link or screen capture of your review to [email protected] along with a request to receive an ARC of my next book, which will be Average Joe and the Beauty.
Story of K: An Infinite Golden Light (Sci Fi Action) (Space Fiction) (Robot Fiction) Page 5