“Hope is the strongest inspiration, isn’t it?”
She looked at me thoughtfully for a moment, and then smiled in agreement. I put one box each in my deep pockets and followed her out of the room, back down the cargo area and out into the open. I looked around, wondering if there was a way to escape from here, or if I would have to continue following her, to carry out the deal I originally offered. As if reading my mind, she grabbed my arm and pulled me close.
“Remember what was promised. We will find a messenger to deliver the meds. Tomorrow after I… have you…” She bit the tip of her bottom lip, pulling my face in for a kiss. I have to admit, I didn’t fight it. I could save Dodger, Red’s kid, and get the girl. It was all working out for me. I wondered if Robin’s solo missions ever went this well.
“Eve!” Adam’s voice gutted me, I was pretty sure I pissed myself. We both turned to find him and three Angels standing by the only possible exit. His eyes were a blaze of fire, mouth snarled up in a contortion of pure disgust.
“Adam!” She pushed me away from her. “He forced himself on me. Thank God you came.”
“Really?” He stormed toward us. “Do I really look that stupid?” His face was inches from hers. I could see the veins pulsating underneath his neck and crawl across his forehead.
“Um, I don’t know, should I answer that?”
He grabbed her arm and shook her, yelling vile curses. “You brought this outsider into our garden and you let him taint you! How dare you.”
“What can I say? He’s more of a man than you’ll ever be!” This transferred his rage from her to me. I tried backing up, but the stone stairs blocked my retreat.
“You! I should kill you where you stand!”
Before I could start to beg myself, Eve grabbed Adam’s arm. “Adam, it’s all right. He’s here to help. He promised me a baby, and that’s all you wanted, right? Since you can’t give me one, he will.”
I was convinced Eve was trying to kill me. Already the Angels were approaching. I had no choice but to try and fight my way out of the situation. Adam looked at Eve with a look of pure contempt. I took the opportunity to make my break for it, knocking Eve down. I ran only a couple of feet before two of the three Angels tackled me to the ground.
“Hold him!”
One on either side, they pinned my arms down. I tried to fight, but realized I was just wasting my strength; instead I lay still looking up at the approaching Adam, Eve pulling on his arm.
“Do you see this, my children?” he said to the Angels. “Do you see what has slithered into the sacred Garden of Eden? Just like the book spoke of, a serpent shall appear in the garden and tempt Eve with the apple. All metaphors I see. Here you are, serpent, meaning to put your seed into Eve so she can pass off your corruption to me.”
“Listen, it’s nothing like that. I had no intentions of sleeping with her.”
“Lies!” Eve yelled. “How could you say that?”
“Eve, you’re not helping. Just shut up.”
“To think,” Adam continued. “I let you into my house, unaware that you were the one who sought our destruction, to cast us out from Eden like you did so long ago!”
“Calm down, I already know it’s an act!” I said.
“An act?” Adam seemed insulted. “Do you see, my children? The serpent beast seeks to discredit me in my kingdom! And yet, unlike the Adam before me, I will know not temptation, and I will not be cast out because of you!”
Eve stopped struggling with him and stood up straight. She looked at me apologetically and said, “Oh, stop being a drama queen, Adam. If you’re going to kill him, get it over with.”
“Eve!” I yelled.
“The only way to deal with a snake is to chop of its head.” Adam pulled a knife from his belt. “Of course, this knife isn’t meant for chopping off heads. So it might be a long process.” He straddled me, holding the blade before my eyes. I was trapped. No escape. I wondered when my life would flash before my eyes. Would Dodger die from an unknown virus? Would Red just sit there and watch him decay, knowing full well all she had to do was tell him where Smith was? I guess that was just the way of the world, really. People really didn’t care. Except when it suited them.
I was walking around with this foolish notion of being a hero and of getting a hero’s due. Yet there I was, about to be killed by people who understood how the world worked. All that time I spent trying to run away from Dodger’s shadow, taking for granted what we had―true unconditional friendship. As Adam brought the blade up over his head, ready to snuff out my life, I thought once more about Dodger and hoped he would be okay
I shut my eyes tight and waited for death.
There was a loud bang. And the weight of the world fell on top of me.
thought the scream was mine at first, no matter how feminine it sounded. A weight fell on top of me, and I thought it was Adam snuffing the life out of me. Warm liquid spilled across my chest and arm. Blood. I feared it mine. At least I didn’t feel anything. Thank goodness for small miracles. I waited for the darkness to overcome me, welcoming me into the afterlife. But then I heard Dodger’s familiar voice.
“Back off, assholes! Twist, no time for panic. We have to go.”
I opened my eyes. Adam’s lifeless face was inches from mine. The blood was pouring down his face, trickling onto me from a small hole on the side of his head. I looked around as I struggled from under him. Dodger stood a couple of feet away from us, holding a smoking gun in his shaking hands. He wore the robes of an Angel, the hood pushed back to reveal his face. He had a distant look, and his skin was paler than Adam’s dead flesh. I kicked the body off, and Eve was quickly at its side, emitting a mix of cries and screams. I almost felt bad for her. Almost.
“Angels! Kill those bastards!” she yelled, pointing a condemning finger at us.
I ran to Dodger’s side. He still held the gun, but he wasn’t aiming it at the other two Angels. They stood frozen, surely under the impression that he would shoot them, but coming up closer to him, I realized his eyes weren’t exactly seeing anything.
“Dodge,” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. He flinched, looking at me as if for the first time. “You saved me!”
“We… we have to go!” he said, still not moving. I took the gun from his hands and aimed it at the two remaining Angels. My actions seemed to pry Dodger from his trance, like the gun was a curse that I had just lifted. He blinked a couple of times, trying to clear his head, and looked at me with a half-grin. “I need to start keeping track of all the times I save your behind.”
“You killed him!” Eve glared at us, still holding Adam’s limp head in her bloodied lap. “You killed him! I swear to God I will make you pay!”
“Please,” Dodger said, as I started pulling him toward the door. “No need for clichés. I know, I know, you’ll make it your life’s work and all, etcetera, etcetera.”
We began running with no sound of pursuit. The only thing that followed us was Eve’s anguished screaming. I had precious little time to appreciate not being chased before the sounds of heavy boots echoed throughout the corridor.
“Which way?” Dodger yelled from behind me.
“I’m not sure. I followed her here, and, even so, the way we took only leads deeper into the cathedral. We need to get out, not in.”
“Wait!” Dodger grabbed my arm. “This way, I remember now.” He led me down a corridor. We went in silence, making turn after turn. At first, I feared we were just running in circles, I was about to protest as much when we came out into the open. We were in the grand hall, where a shattered chandelier lay. I was about to ask what happened, but he didn’t stop and ran on toward the exit. The doors burst open under his weight, and the welcoming night air greeted us. As luck would have it, the doors swung open with such force they knocked one of the outside guards out cold. The other one barely had time to register what was happening before Dodger punched him in the jaw, putting him to sleep.
“I can’t believe we made
it out!” I said, happy to see the night sky again. Dodger, however, was bent over at my side, violently throwing up until there was nothing left but dry heaves.
“Jeez, man,” I said. “Are you okay? We have to get out of here.”
“Yeah, just give me a second.”
Looking behind us, I saw Angels running into the hall from all sides. “We don’t have a second, come on!” I pulled him by the arm and ran down the stairs, two at a time. Once we made it to the sidewalk, a whole army of Angels had come down the stairs, followed by Eve. Dodger looked at her, and, for a second, I could swear I saw remorse in his eyes.
“Move it!” I yelled, and we took off down the street.
No question about it, we were completely screwed. We were behind enemy lines and outnumbered, and Dodger wasn’t in good shape. We tried our best, ducking through alleyways and hiding in every dark corner we could find, but it seemed like, after every turn we made, another Angel was waiting for us. I found the more we maneuvered, trying to lose our assailants, the further into Angel territory we went. We needed to get to the train station and fast; they weren’t out to capture us anymore. This was blood for blood.
We stopped and leaned behind the cover of a building; I peeked out around the corner. “I told you not to come for me,” I said halfheartedly. In all actuality, I was glad he came, but I needed to keep us both distracted.
“Yeah, you definitely had everything under control.”
“Come on, man, no time for a break. We’ll rest when we get to the station,” I grumbled as he struggled for breath, leaning on the wall and sliding down to a sitting position.
He looked up at me and shrugged. “Do you really think we can make it? We are a bit outnumbered, if you didn’t notice.”
“We just have to get underground. We can lose them on our turf.”
He had that faraway look again that worried me. I knelt down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You okay, man?”
“Tired, I guess. I… I killed him…”
“Yeah, he totally deserved it though. You saved my life.”
“I know. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I just… I can’t believe how easy it was. Bam! And just like that, he was dead… I did that. I took his life.” His eyes were looking at me, but I could tell he wasn’t seeing me. Was he seeing Adam’s empty eyes?
“We can’t think about that now. If we get caught, it would have been for nothing. Check it out.” I pulled out one of the antibiotic boxes. “I got the stuff; we just have to make it back.”
“Yeah. Yeah, we should get going.”
We both got to our feet and peeked around the corner, the coast was clear. “Okay,” I said. “We have about three blocks to the station.”
“And over an avenue.”
“So, how ‘bout Plan B?”
He nodded his head. He wasn’t in a good way, but I had no choice. We couldn’t sit around talking about it. So I took off, and thankfully he followed.
Angels, they fought with swords. It had something to do with tradition, and the fact that heavenly Angels used only swords. They were honorable weapons. Frankly, who gives a crap? I was only happy for the fact that the ten or so Angels running after us had no projectile weapons or means of hurting us, unless they got right in our faces. It was officially a sprint to the finish line. We gave up on hiding and took to speed, hoping to outrun them. My heart skipped a beat when the station entrance came into view. It wouldn’t be long now. We were almost home free. We ran down between parked cars and threatening buildings, doing our best to stay clear of either side of the street to avoid potential ambush. I felt naked; we were so vulnerable, completely out in the open. Only a block left.
Whatever hope I had was quickly put in its place. As we reached the station, a group of Angels shuffled out, then another group from our left, and one more from our right. They casually walked toward us with a thick air of confidence. I started backing up, until the sounds of approaching boots reminded me of the group chasing us. I looked over at Dodger, who unceremoniously plopped down onto the ground. We were screwed.
“We got to get out of here,” I whispered to Dodger, desperately searching for a quick exit.
“No point,” he said, seemingly not interested in the approaching Angels. “We aren’t getting out of this one; I don’t think I should either.”
“Come on, man, snap out of it!”
The Angels who had originally been chasing us stopped in their approach, and the others flanking us followed suit. There was an eerie silence; I almost expected a bush of tumbleweed to blow on by. Like the Red Sea, the Angels all parted down the middle, and Eve walked toward us. Even from this distance, I could tell her face still shone with tears. She wasn’t the same wild-eyed girl I met earlier. Now she had a cold, hard determination to her. She aimed all her animosity toward us, mostly at Dodger.
She came within feet of us. “You stupid son of a bitch!” she growled. “I am going to make the remainder of your life, as short as it will be, a living hell.”
“He was going to kill you!” I shouted.
“That was my business, not yours!” she shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Dodger, who just stared up at her.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, tossing the gun at her feet.
“What?” This seemed to enrage Eve even more. “Sorry? Sorry! Sorry won’t bring him back, now will it?”
Dodger began coughing a loud dry cough. Once he regained composure, he wiped his mouth and sighed. “Listen, sister. You gonna walk the walk or talk the talk?”
“I am going to wear your skin as a―” Her proclamation of doom was cut off by familiar sounds.
“Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!” We all looked around for the source; the chant seemed to be coming from all around us. A barrage of rocks, spears, and arrows soared through the air. They came from to the surrounding buildings. Little faces peeked out behind open windows, and roof tops. The dirty little faces of Runts!
“Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!” they yelled as they let hell rain down on Angels. Taken by surprise, the Angels ran and ducked for cover, trampling each other as they hastily avoided missiles. Bodies dropped all around us as spears and arrows buried themselves in soft flesh. Jagged rocks and small bricks knocked others unconscious. It was pure anarchy, yet Eve still stood over us, unfazed by her dwindling army. “This isn’t over,” Eve pulled out a knife and pointed it at Dodger. “Blood for blood!” The moonlight reflected off the dull silver blade. I had no time to think. Before I could piss myself, I heard the echoing thunder of a gunshot. The knife fell down at my feet; Eve lay on the ground, holding her bloodied arm. Everyone froze, looking around for the source of the shot.
“The only one making his life miserable is me, bitch!” Gia walked out from behind the subway entrance. She was a sight to see, wearing a leather jacket with black plants that were tucked into armored boots. The ornate spear was strapped on her back. Most importantly, she held a rifle trained on Eve’s fallen body. She was goddess come to save the day.
“Now that’s hot,” Dodger said, before collapsing on the ground.
ia and I were all but carrying Dodger. We skipped the station and ran straight for Central Park. Four extra blocks, but the Runts were still behind us, keeping the Angels busy. After the shock of Gia shooting Eve, the street kids continued their volley of rocks and spears. With the Angels preoccupied, Gia and I had enough distraction to get Dodger out.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked as she struggled under his weight. “Why’d he pass out?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t been doing well since we left. I think he’s exhausted. How’d you find us?”
“After we realized you jerks left and I thoroughly cursed out Red, I got her to lend me some gear and came after you. Didn’t take long before I realized I had no idea where I was going. I was kind of too proud to go back and ask Red, so I went looking for Peter. He knew where I had to go and insisted on sending the whole crew of Runts with me. I had no idea there were so ma
ny of them. Guess being their new leader has its perks,” she said, pointing at the spear strapped to her back.
“That was totally like a movie, you guys came in the nick of time!”
“Not really. Peter suggested we wait in ambush near that subway entrance, that you guys would surely need the backup because trouble usually chased you out of places.” She smiled at me, and I laughed in return.
“Gia, Runt Princess!” I said, and she flipped me off. “Where’d you learn to shoot like that?”
“Daddy Dearest. Before he realized the perks of having a daughter, he spent most of my childhood trying to raise me as a boy. We went hunting more times than I can remember.”
“So, no Barbies?”
“Only when the GI Joes needed to let off some steam.”
I wondered what kind of life Gia would have had without her father’s influence. She was lighthearted about things, but there seemed to be coldness beneath the surface of her smiles, that made me sad for her.
We ran for what seemed like hours. It was probably less, but Dodger slowed us down, making it seem like forever. Gia and I were covered in sweat, our muscles straining with every step.
“We have to take a break,” she said, struggling to keep Dodger upright.
“I know.” I tried to stretch the cramps out of my back. “Another minute of this and you’ll be carrying both of us.”
“More like leaving you both for the wolves.”
“Okay, let’s stop for a bit. There’s a lake over there. We can cool off.”
“If you think for one second I’m skinny dipping with you, you are gravely mistaken.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Dodger mumbled and life crept into his legs. “Just bend over and point me in the right direction.”
We laughed, dragging him further into the park. We didn’t have far to go, but the lake was over an uphill road. After nearly deciding to call it quits, we were rewarded with the sound of gentle water splashing against rocks. The moonlight danced on its crystal surface. We walked over to a grassy patch near the mossy rocks that led up to the lake. Without a word between us, we dropped Dodger and stumbled over to the edge and splashed water on our faces. I felt myself regenerating as I poured a handful of water down my neck, cooling down my whole body. Heaven. Gia dipped her hair in the water and rubbed her hands through it and down her neck. The moonlight reflected on her sparkling face, making her look angelic.
The Artful (Shadows of the City) Page 13