“Red,” Dodger said with all the arrogance he could muster. “If it’s me they want, who am I to deny that poor girl?”
Red, Gia, and the others had returned, and we formed something of a war cabinet, going over all our options. Aside from Red, Dodger, Gia, and I, the only other people he could rely on for war counseling were an old drunk and two storytellers. The rest of Red’s group was hiding in their tents with their tails between their legs.
“No,” Red said. “I’m not doing that. If I give you over, they’ll think they can push us around whenever they want.”
“Why don’t we run?” I asked. It wasn’t cowardice, not in my opinion. It seemed like the only sensible thing to do.
“No,” said Dodger.
“They are surrounding us.” Red sighed. The bags under her eyes attested to the stress of the situation. “The whole perimeter of Union Square is under watch. When I sent my guys out, they only made it a couple of blocks. Angels are posted everywhere, buildings, corners, station entrances, I swear there’s one up my ass!”
“Then we fight them.” Gia, who was listening quietly for some time, seemed angered by all the talk of giving Dodger up, or running away. “This is your home, you can’t give up. I won’t have it, not after all we been through to help your daughter, to help Dodger, I’ve heard all these stories about the mighty Red and toppling governments, but all I’ve seen is a bunch of drunks messing about, and a loud mouth that sends us to do her errands.”
“Ouch!” Dodger clapped his hands in excitement. “Wow, girl, I knew I always liked you.”
Red’s face darkened, her eyes ablaze. “Listen, hun, I ain’t running away, never said I was. Nor am I letting Dodger give himself up. Those bastards are messing with the wrong girl, and you better damn well believe I’m defending mine ‘till I’m down on my knees.”
The last part made Dodger snicker and wink at me.
“I’m serious!” Red continued. “Dodger is the one talking about giving himself up. Twist is talking about running away. I want them to come, let them, straight into this lioness’ den.”
“Good.” Gia slapped Red’s shoulder. “That’s what I wanted to hear. So let’s do this, start arming those who will fight. Give me a rifle, and I’ll climb a tree try to get a high vantage, I’m a good shot.”
“Great shot,” I interrupted, looking at Gia admiringly, making Dodger roll his eyes.
“We don’t have many guns,” Red said. “But a sharpshooter would definitely be worth it. That leaves me my piece. Dodger, you can use it, since you’re in bad shape.”
“Sorry, Red. I’ll stick to thunder and lightning here.” Dodger raised his fists, making sure to flex his arms at the same time. “I don’t much enjoy shooting people; Twist can have it though.”
“No, I’m with Dodger,” I said. “If I have to I will, but I’d rather not kill anyone… again.”
“I’ll distribute what I have then, and see if anyone in the Tribe is holding,” Red said.
“Peter still around?” I asked.
“No,” Dodger said. “He legged it after you guys, thought maybe you went back to Central Park.” Dodger picked up the blue box containing Reynolds’ meds and looked at it reproachfully. “All this drama for one little box. It better be worth it. Man, I wonder what Just Stan would do if he knew his precious package was about to go through a war.”
“Wait,” I said, realizing something I hadn’t thought of in a while. “That’s a great idea!”
They all looked at me, urging me to continue. “Just Stan has a lot riding on this. You think he’ll sit back and hope for the best? He can’t risk this. He needs us alive to get it to him, or he needs to get to us. Dodge, we still have eyes in the sky?”
“Last I checked, yeah.”
“Red, I’ll need some material to make a big sign. Aside from that, we have to figure out how to draw all the Angels out.”
“I got that covered.” Dodger’s smile was all too telling.
helped Dodger out into the street; we both wore our hoodies to protect our faces from the morning sun. I carried his weight on my shoulders; he was having trouble walking. His body shivered, and traces of sweat marked his face. His cough had become a dry heave, and his skin was pasty white except for the areas around his nose and eyes that were a fading red. He looked horrible. I held a big sign in my other hand as we made our way out into the open. Dodger also held his own. Behind us, the Tribe had prepared for war.
The canopies that covered all of Union Square had been taken down, leaving the area exposed to the burning light. It would make it harder to fight for us and the Angels, but, on their own turf, the Tribe had the advantage. Gia found a perch in the apartment of a nearby building. I couldn’t help but occasionally steal glances at the gleaming tip of her rifle trailing me from the third floor window. Others were armed with what they could find and stood poised, ready to defend their land. Their tents and homesteads hid those too weak, young, or old to fight. We were thirty or so strong, the odds weren’t in our favor. I was hoping to change that.
I put on my tinted goggles before searching the sky for the airship that been following us, although it never followed me into Brooklyn, because that would have violated the tenuous treaty between the two nations. Sure enough, there it was, hovering low above Union Square.
“Okay, this is for all the marbles,” I said, holding up my sign for the airship to see. It read:
Found Smith. We are surrounded. Come now before the Angels have the blue box.
I waited, holding up my sign, the glare of the sun reflecting through my shades. Everything depended on the drone being constant surveillance. If whoever controlled the balloon and watched its video feed had grown bored with Dodger’s inactivity, there was a good chance no one would see my sign.
Dodger looked like he was about to collapse, swaying back and forth on his feet. “How long do you think it’ll take them to get here?”
“I don’t know, twenty blocks… maybe a half hour. Depends on how long it takes them to get themselves together. Holy crap, it worked!”
The airship’s motor started up; it shot off, heading back uptown toward the Empire State Building. They wouldn’t wait for the airship to return though; Just Stan was probably getting a battalion of Suits together as soon as the cameras relayed my message. He wouldn’t take the Angels lightly. They had always been a pain in the Empire’s side, and the possibility they could get their hands on some sort of leverage over the Empire would surely be too much. Of course, I was banking on assumptions. But Dodger was in bad shape, and we couldn’t wait it out any longer.
The next step required us to be a bit more hands on. Before I could tell Dodger to do his part, he already had his pants down and, in Dodger fashion, was bent over slapping his butt, aiming it toward the nearest Angel. I looked at him and something clicked. Our world had changed. Ever since we left the Empire State Building, everything had been different. We grew as people; we might have even grown apart. But, in the end, some things would always remain the same. I pulled down my pants and bent over next to him. I could feel the sun stinging my exposed skin, but Dodger and I looked at each other in a way that boys do. He nodded his approval and extended his fist to me. After we bumped fists, he stood up, pulling up his pants, and held his sign up making sure to rotate it back and forth, while pointing at my bare behind. Earlier, Dodger had painstakingly written:
Tell Eve she can kiss it, the same way Adam did.
It wasn’t the most profound of declarations, but it got results. An Angel ran from his post, down the street. Dodger and I discarded our signs, buckled our pants, and returned to Red’s side. Her face was covered with a black scarf and ski goggles; she wore a hooded Captain Morgan sweater over her flowing dress. She held a sword in one hand, and a gun hung out the side of her pocket. She nodded at us as we approached.
“Well, fellas, it’s a good day to die!” Her excited voice was somewhat muffled under the scarf.
“Really?” I asked.
<
br /> “Seriously, Red, that’s the line you want to be remembered by?” Dodger patted Red on the shoulder.
“I wonder,” I continued. “If anyone ever got stabbed in the face, stopped, and said, ‘heh, well, at least it’s Tuesday.’”
“Tuesday’s a good day to die,” Dodger finished.
“Unlike, say, Saturday, cause it would suck to die on a Saturday,” I said.
“Or a Monday. Who wants to die on Monday?”
“Isn’t today Monday?”
“I don’t know, Red. Since you feel today is a good day to die, what day is it actually?”
“How about you two shut up and look!” She pointed across the street. It didn’t take long at all for word to get around. A number of Angels had gathered, all wearing their red cloaks, hoods pulled down low over their faces, brandishing crude swords and machetes. One figure stood out. Eve wore the same white dress she had on when we were at the cathedral, only it was smeared all over with blood. She had no protection from the sun, and yet she stood outside completely exposed with no indication of pain. Even at the distance they stood from us, I could tell her eyes were locked on Dodger. She held a blade in her hand; no doubt the same one Adam tried to kill me with. It was the last glimpse of her we caught before the Angels swarmed around her.
“Man,” Dodger said. “I don’t know if that’s the hottest or scariest thing I’ve seen all day.”
“What do you think they are waiting for?” I asked.
“I don’t know… this?” Dodger stuck his middle finger up high and proud, shooting the Angels the most condescending of smiles.
And that’s when they came.
When I was younger, I had seen movies that ended with two factions going to war with each other. Both sides would start at opposite ends of a field, looking intimidating and amped up for battle. Someone from the good guy’s team would march up and down their ranks and say some sort of awe-inspiring speech that would give their side the strength and courage to win against insurmountable odds. Once anticipation reached its towering heights, both sides would charge in a flurry of manic adrenaline. They would meet in the middle, head to head, sword to sword, whatever was at hand really, in a mass of carnage and glory. Those guys at the front line, they always had it bad, but there was no questioning their courage. It was almost beautiful. This, however, was not.
The Angels met us at the street. Each side barreled into the other like a devastating car wreck; bodies thrown, and trampled in the sheer chaos. Although both sides were distinctly dressed, it was hard to tell which side was which, with all our bodies meshing together into a strange painting of chaos. Gunshots fired, and metal clanged against metal, yet those did nothing to diminish the sound of flesh crashing into flesh or the shrill screams of human life being ushered into death.
It doesn’t shame me to say I panicked. The world closed in on me, as I drowned beneath a sea of violence. I was almost certain I would die there on the cement streets bathed in blood, and no one would notice my death. Instead, they would jump, trample, or stumble over my body and continue this mad fight. People pushed past me. Dodger, as sick as he was, managed to pummel an Angel to the ground. I spotted Red off to the side, swinging her sword like a windmill, everywhere I looked was insanity. Then I realized a hulking shadow loomed over me. I turned in time to see a towering Angel glaring at me with a raised sword. This was it. People tended to have the fight or flight reflex. I, however, seemed to go with a third option, which was to stare dumbfounded as my sentence was carried out.
I was about to do the bravest thing I could think of―close my eyes tight―but stopped at the sound of a loud pop. I looked up in time to see a large hole explode on my attacker’s forehead. . I managed to glance behind me at the broken third-floor window where my guardian angel watched from above. More popping noises filled the air, and Angels fell at my feet. The tide of battle slowed. People were rattled, Angels and Tribe alike. Who brings a gun to a knife fight? We do!
I smiled at the Angels who backed away from me. Red had her gun drawn and was recklessly firing in the direction of fast-approaching Angels. Dodger grabbed my arm and pulled me through the melee of bodies, too tightly intertwined in battle to be safe shots for Gia. We pushed and shoved people out of the way, trying to make our way to the back of the fighting. We weren’t fleeing; this was always part of the plan. Eve wanted Dodger dead, and we hoped to separate her from the group. If we could eliminate her, the rest would fall back. It was a shame Gia couldn’t get a clear shot. If Eve wasn’t lost amongst the chaos of her Angels this could have been over already. The others had to keep the bulk of the Angel army contained to the street. We didn’t want any making way to the camp to find easy prey among those we left behind.
We made it through the mass out into a clear area. Two Angels were on our heels, but the sound of two well-aimed gunshots told me they were no longer a threat. We ran into the park, away from the tented area of the infirmary.
“Where is Eve?” I took Dodger’s arm in support, noticing him slowing down. “I lost sight of her in the melee.”
“I don’t know, and, I hate to admit, I can’t keep up like this. There are a lot of trees around; you think she’ll find us?”
“Come on, Dodge, when has a girl ever been able to take their eyes off you?”
“I think that was the wisest thing I’ve ever heard you say. I might be in love with you.”
“Keep it up, and you might get a bullet to the head.” I pointed at the gun muzzle trailing us from the building across the street.
“I’m surprised she hasn’t shot me already.” Another Angel came tumbling out of the bushes with a knife in his hand that he barely had time to raise before his head blew up like a crushed watermelon. “Jesus Christ, she’s efficient. You sure you want to get in bed with Sarah Conner over there? One minute, she’s throwing you kisses in her dinner outfit, all American-girl like, the next you’re covered in bruises, scared you’ll get a fresh one if you don’t get that pie done on time.”
We stopped at a bronze statue of Washington atop a horse, pointing out into the distance. Dodger leaned up against its base, trying to catch his breath, coughing up black phlegm and sliding down into a sitting position. We could still see the battle beyond the trees as people ran back and forth clashing. I climbed up onto the horse and pulled myself onto Washington’s outstretched arm to get a better view of the park. I scanned the area, looking for Eve.
“So wait, how far did you get with her?” Dodger shouted up to me.
I spotted the old timer from the bar. He was beating the living hell out of an Angel while he had another held firm in a headlock, surrounded by other fallen Angels who contorted on the ground in looks of pain and agony. “Way to go, grandpa,” I muttered.
“What?”
“I dunno. Not far I guess.” Red was holding her own. She was quick with her sword and quicker with her gun. Angels seemed to be avoiding her all together. “We made out; we made out a lot actually. Cuddled a bit when the Slavers caught us.”
“The Slavers…” he whispered to himself. “Wait, cuddling already! Oh, no, man, you are heading down a dangerous path! Don’t get her used to that crap. You let them think you’re a cuddler, you’ll never have a comfortable sleep for the rest of your life. You wake up with a leg across your lower body, an arm wrapped around your neck. All the circulation in your arm gone, feels like it got cut off while you were sleeping. It is common knowledge. This is something men have had to deal with since the beginning of time. The curse waiting at the end of sex, the cuddles…”
I looked down at him; he had his arm held out in front of him, and was squeezing his wrist. “Well, it was cool. I mean I liked it a lot. I miss feeling the warmth of a female body comforting me. Kinda like when my mom, well, what I can remember of her, used to hold me.”
“Holy crap, man, what?” He smacked himself in the forehead. “Please don’t tell her she makes you think of your mom.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” I
spotted an area where Angels had three unarmed men surrounded, moving in slow. I waved up at Gia’s window and pointed them out. “I just meant, it felt good sleeping with a woman,” The gunshots echoed, and the Angels fell. “And comforting.”
“If you wanted someone to hold you all this time, you just needed to ask,” he said laughing to himself.
“Oh, no!” I yelled, cutting him off.
“What? I was just joking, I am not cuddling with you. Nope, never, won’t do it with girls, won’t do it with you.”
“They’re breaking through.”
He sat up, looking out into the direction I pointed. “How many?”
“All of them.” The old timer and Red were forces to be reckoned with, but the rest of the Tribe was being overpowered; a fresh wave of Angels ran into the scene, pushing our forces back, trampling and slaying whoever stood in their way. I waved frantically at Gia and pointed at the oncoming Angels. She fired rapidly, felling countless bodies, but then stopped. My heart sank as I saw her waving from the window. She had run out of bullets. “We got to find Eve, if we don’t—”
“Twist.” Dodger’s voice was off. It didn’t take long for me to realize why. Eve was standing in the clearing, aiming a gun at him, the same one we stole from the scavenger, the one Dodger killed Adam with. He looked up at me, hands raised, and shrugged.
My statue dismount wasn’t graceful; I tried to climb down quickly and ended up tripping myself up and falling onto Dodger.
“This is unbelievable.” Eve’s voice sounded like nails across the chalkboard. “You two idiots killed Adam. You two are nothing but idiots!”
Dodger and I got up onto our feet and straightened ourselves out. I was standing in front, but he calmly pulled me behind him.
“Listen,” he said. “I’ve never said anything serious in my life. Really, everything that comes out of my mouth is mostly bull. But what I’m about to tell you is a hundred percent. I’m sorry. You don’t know how sorry I am. I wish I hadn’t killed him. I can still see his face; I can still hear your scream. I can imagine your pain. But I had to do it; he was going to kill Twist. Twist is the only brother I’ve ever known, so all you have to do is look at how you are feeling right now and understand that that’s what I was feeling. What I had to stop. If anyone ever hurt Twist, I’d probably hunt them down and make them pay. I don’t blame you. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m just sorry. I honestly had no choice.”
The Artful (Shadows of the City) Page 21