The War of All Wars

by J. Eric Booker

  Once all their plates were set up, even though Baltor had not been hungry nor would he be ever, he still ate and drank along with the girls, as they shared “a very friendly dinner conversation.”

  After dinner, Baltor asked, “So…how are we going to get to your apartment?”

  “Umm, actually,” Reva revealed, “While we were in the bathroom, Nadia called a cab company to pick us up in…ten minutes from now. The cabdriver is already aware that he or she is to wait for us to finish doing our hair and make-up at my apartment, before taking us to the show…yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “Hold on a second, and we’ll be ready to go…we need to grab our sunglasses and hats first and put them on. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  After the girls had returned, shortly thereafter, he saw that they were once again wearing their hats/sunglasses that did not match with their new attire whatsoever. He forced himself to not laugh, but asked, “Ready?”

  Sounding and looking uncomfortable, both answered, “Yes…”

  Nadia then asked, “Do you still have the tickets?”

  “In my back pocket,” Baltor answered with a wink.

  “Great—let’s go!” Reva added, just before they left the suite and the hotel out the side entrance—once again arm-in-arm.

  Within five minutes, the three were now riding in the cab, which the cabbie began driving them to Nadia and Reva’s apartment’s parking lot—ten minutes later, the cab stopped.

  Nadia stated, “Just wait out here, Baltor. We’ll be back in ten minutes, we promise…it won’t take us long to get ready. Okay?”

  “Okay…”

  Without another word, the girls exited the cab, before bolting for the front door—after Nadia had it unlocked, they ran inside and closed the door.

  Meanwhile, Baltor waited in silence…once again his thoughts began to dwell on all of the information he had learned about this Apocalypse Island. He also began to ponder the fact that his master would be quite proud of him for having learned what he did…even though he had only been technically ordered to be “on vacation.”

  Perhaps eight minutes later, the passenger side of the cab’s door opened, and in turn, the two girls entered the cab—though he noticed that both girls’ hair still had “the wet look,” their hair actually looked really good, as did their faces that now donned a real-glitzy type of silver eyeliner, eye shadow, and glossy red lipstick…

  “Wow,” he said with a lot of amazement, “you ladies look so, so, so beautiful!”

  “Thanks,” they said, “as do you.”

  After closing the door, Reva stated, “Okay, cabbie…we’re ready to go! You still remember where to go, right?”

  “Yes ma’am,” the cabdriver sighed, “Oktyabrsky Big Concert Hall.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You are welcome, young lady.”

  “By the way, can you drop us off in the back of the building, please? We’ve got VIP passes.”

  “You’ve got it.”

  The rest of the voyage was spent in complete silence, as the girls continued to fine-tune their makeup and hair—therefore, Baltor paid attention to the route and to all of the beautiful buildings.

  Four minutes after having left the apartment, the cab pulled up in front of the black-and-gold door. After Nadia had paid the cabdriver, which included a fifty-ruble tip, the three exited the cab…only seconds later, Baltor handed the girls their tickets.

  As soon as both girls had a ticket in-hand, they unwrapped the cord before wrapping them around their neck like necklaces—he followed suit.

  “One more thing I need to do for you before you…quote-unquote ‘knock the secret knock,’” Nadia said with a point of her index finger.

  Baltor’s eyebrows and forehead furled a tad bit, just before he asked, “What’s that?”

  “Fix your shirt…hold on.” She did just that, including tucking the bottoms into his pants, unbuttoning the top two buttons, and pulling out the collars just a smidgeon. “There.”

  In the next moment, he knocked “the secret knock” on the door.

  The door opened, and a bald man poked just his head around the corner—already could a very loud cheering be heard coming from somewhere within, but no music. Without haste, after seeing the “official backstage passes,” he answered with a wave of his hand, “Come on in, good folks…welcome to Oktyabrsky Big Concert Hall.”

  The second that the “party of three” stood inside the large hallway of the building, a different security guard closed the door behind them—standing ahead of them in a loose circle were six more of these very-muscular men, chatting amongst each other. All wore the same white T-shirt, bearing an abstract blue-colored pattern spread across the chest—inside the pattern were the red and white letters that prominently read, “E Main—World Tour ’11!”

  The bald man snapped his fingers a few times into the air, before saying, “Kristopher, please take our VIP guests to see Mr. Harthway—he’s in E Main’s dressing room.”

  “Yes, boss,” Kristopher replied. This solid man had curly blonde hair and sea-blue eyes. He gestured toward the group of three with a respectful wave of his hand, before asking, “Follow me, please?”

  After nodding, the group followed, as he led them down a very long hallway that had large steel double-doors—evenly spread thirty feet away from each other on both sides of the hallway. On the back of Kristopher’s shirt was the red-lettered word: “SECURITY.”

  Perhaps a half-minute later, the group of four reached the sixth door on the right, which door possessed a gold star on it that read, “E Main.” In that same moment, music began to play from inside the auditorium, as did the cheering.

  Once at the door, Kristopher knocked, and only a moment later, some man’s voice could be heard inside, saying, “Come in.”

  Kristopher opened the door, and gestured for the three to enter first—E sat in a swiveling chair facing the other way, but he was gazing at them all through a mirror. Standing to his right and leaning against the wall was his manager, James. Six other classy-looking people sat in the couches in the middle of this classy-looking room, four of which were girls.

  Without turning around, E greeted with a hearty smile and a wave, “Hey B, Reva, Nadia! Glad you guys could make it.”

  “Who’s that playing music now?”

  “Oh…that’s my opening act, a rock/hip-hop group called ‘Dusted-off Dreams.’”

  “Cool…when do you actually start?”

  “Umm,” E replied, just before looking down at his watch for a second. After tapping the glass shielding on the watch twice, he looked up and answered, “In twenty-five minutes, but I’ve got to leave for the auditorium in twenty. In the meantime, while we’re waiting, do you guys want a drink or something? We have alcohol too.”

  “Yeah,” Baltor said with quite a bit of appreciation, “Thanks!”

  “Us too, please,” Reva and Nadia both replied at the same time.

  After chuckling a few times along with everyone else, due to the girls saying the same words at the same time, E said, “Jenna will take care of your drinks for you…please sweetie?”

  In the next moment, Jenna nodded with a smile, stood up, and walked over to a large dark-stained wood bar that had a dozen cushioned stools sitting around it, located at the far-right corner of the room—hundreds of full liquor bottles filled the shelves. A large refrigerator filled with beverages of all types sat behind that bar.

  Once she stood behind the bar, she turned around and gestured with one of her hands at all the different types of drinks.

  “I’ll have a Heineken,” Reva said.

  “Me too, please,” Baltor added.

  Nadia asked, “Can I please have a Michelob Ultra?”

  “Sure,” Jenna replied with a smile, “I’ll be right over with your drinks…if you want, just take a seat over at the couches, or whatever. Have a good time!”

  “Thanks,” all three said at the very same time, just before takin
g seats but not at the same time.

  Once seated, Baltor looked over at E and asked, “I remember hearing from someone that you are an author, as well a musical artist?”

  Smiling from ear to ear, E said with a nod, “Yes, sir!”

  Baltor asked, “What kind of books have you written?”

  E answered, “My first is a who-done-it mystery novel, and my other three is an Epic Fantasy Trilogy. All are available for online purchase…through Ebooks and POD.”

  “What are Ebooks and POD?”

  “Ebooks are electronic books that you can read on the latest phones and mini-computers. Print on demand—well, you order and pay, they make and ship.”

  “Wow…that’s awesome,” Baltor replied with a very respectful nod to his head. Only a moment later, Jenna had placed a bottle of beer into his hands. “I love reading anything I can get my hands on.” He took a drink.

  After laughing for a few moments, E said, “Yeah, I know what you mean—but then it’s real hard to be a reader anymore, especially once you’ve become an author.”

  “Why is that?” Nadia asked, mainly because she wanted to be a part of the conversation. She took a nice-sized drink.

  “No time to read anymore, Nadia,” E answered. “Trust me, I got a whole lot more ideas for books…I’m nearly done writing another book, a romance for all the ladies!’”

  “Wow,” Reva said, “I can’t wait to read it!”

  E replied, “Thanks! You know what I think is most awesome about being an author and a musician, out of everything?”

  “What?”

  “Even though I know that my body will die, sooner or later, yet hopefully much, much, much later, my author’s name and spirit shall forever be immortalized, well, so long as there is a civilized civilization.”

  Hearing that comment, Baltor cast a slightly suspicious look at E, of whom he saw was looking right back.

  Only a moment later, E’s facial expression changed to “suspiciousness,” just before he asked, “What?”

  “No—nothing, my friend. Well, let me reiterate…I’m just shocked and impressed at hearing someone else speak so ambitiously about everything. That’s all! Most people are depressed and non-motivated.”

  “True,” E said, just before his look changed back to normal. “Confidence and ambition are the two very keys to transcending the obstacles limiting our path, so that we can achieve ultimate success.”

  “True, true,” Baltor replied. “You wouldn’t happen to have a copy of your books I could get, would you? I’ll buy them from you.”

  “I’ll tell you what, B. Because I like you, I will mail you a copy of all my books for free…hey, I’m rich now, though for most of my life I was piss-poor.”

  “You’d give me a copy of both your books for free?”

  “Yeah, why not, but I’ll need your mailing address because I don’t have them with me as they’re back in the States,” E said. “And hey, if you love what you read which I’m sure you will, please don’t forget to write a review.”

  “Cool, thanks, my man! I will.”

  Just then, James’s phone rang, which interrupted everyone in the conversation—the one and only word he used was “yeah.”

  On the sixth yeah, he hung up the phone, and said, “Hey boss…your opening act said they have only one seven-minute long song left, as one of their rappers got sick and couldn’t make it. We need to get you out there…”

  “Yup,” E said, just before he rose to his feet, and said, “You guys can come along, if you want, and watch from the side of the stage. Oh, B…were you interested in spinning?”

  “Umm, no, that’s okay,” Baltor said.

  “Come on,” E said, throwing both open-palmed hands up. “How about just for the song you heard me perform earlier today, ‘Beneath it all’? The girls will really dig that sheet around here…yeah?”

  “Please, B…you got too,” Reva squealed, jumping up and down.

  “All right, guys, yeah,” Baltor replied.

  “Cool, cool. You got those lights, right James?”

  “Yes, boss. Here they are, B!”

  After Baltor had stuck them both in his pocket, he replied, “Thanks…”

  With that, everyone in the room followed behind E and James, as they led the way to the stage—they could still hear some bass-pounding music with a group of people screaming out the lyrics to a chorus line! The crowd was already in an uproar…

  James opened the eighth door on the left, where stood two more security guards—the group followed.

  The noise in this room was almost deafening, especially because they now stood behind a curtain that stood near two massive speakers on top of another pumping out all types of rhythmic sounds—to their left could be a small portion of the audience, of who were waving their hands and arms around with a lot of excitement. Right in front of them and to the right stood the stage, as well one black man who was currently rapping out his verse.

  Baltor observed as E poked everything above his torso around the corner of the curtain—hundreds of ladies out there saw him and immediately either began to scream out in ecstatic glee, or scream out his name in desire, “E Main!”

  After confidently waving to them all, he ducked behind the curtain, put his sunglasses over his eyes, and took a deep breath—a few seconds later, he relaxed it, and then sucked in yet another deep breath.

  All the while, Baltor observed with a piqued expression on his face, at how similar E and he were. A few moments later, just before the chorus line was about to begin, E looked across at all his friends, nodded, and said, “E Main’s now here to save the day…so if you’ll excuse me? Thanks…”

  With that, James extended out the microphone—E took it and went out onto the stage, singing along with the other rappers who had only now just begun to sing the chorus line. Instantly thousands of girls began to scream all crazily, especially upon seeing E walking out!

  Meanwhile, the group of four watched where they were at, bumping their heads up and down the whole time…until finally, the song reached its conclusion, though there remained a steady rhythmic beat, and E began saying motivational words, like, “Put your hands up, St. Petersburg—yeah I see you having a good time! What’s up? E Main’s here to save da day. Whoo!”

  With that, thousands in the audience whooped emphatically back.

  Combining with the beat were the strangest yet coolest sounds Baltor had ever before heard. It sounded synthesized, yet it also sounded like an entire orchestra was playing.

  Quickly the beat faded, yet the orchestra sounds continued…until finally, an ethnic male’s voice could be heard echoing these words, “E…E…Prrwaaat!”

  From all around the room, laser lights began blasting here and there…causing unique patterns to show throughout the entire room.

  Sixteen seconds later, again came that male’s voice as he said, “E…E…Prrwaat!”

  Again the crowed whooped vigorously! Although they did not quiet down, E began, “None of you have heard this song before—it’s a brand new rock song I just made up. I hope you like it.”

  After pointing to the DJ, the DJ began to play the next tune. E began, “Hollywood baby…that’s where we’re going. The land of milk and honey…you feel me. Hahaha!”

  Then he sang his chorus line, “Hollywood—Hollywood bound—playing my harmonica in every little town! Hollywood—Hollywood bound—rising up from the underground! Hollywood—Hollywood bound—playing my harmonica in every little town! Hollywood—Hollywood bound—rising up from the underground!”

  It was then that the chorus line ended and the verse began. He did not stop as he now rapped into the microphone, “Standing at the corner of fifty-five and eighty, with my thumb held high, up in the air. Looking for the gal driving topless Mercedes—take us down, down to Hollywood Squares. We’ll pay our gas fares with all the shows we snare—make the crowds wave around like they just don’t care. Through each and every town we selling all our wares—CDs, hats, T-shirts, all
at cheap fares. Doing our thing right up on this stage—all having a good ole time, players. After having traveled, all across this nation—inevitably reach, reach our destination. There’ll be no, no procrastination—it’s an uphill battle we all facing. When all the other acts are all perpetrating—don’t you dare be mistaken, we the bacon!”

  The chorus kicked in the next second, and all the backup rappers on stage sang out simultaneously, “Hollywood, Hollywood bound—playing my harmonica in every little town! Hollywood, Hollywood bound—rising up from the underground! Hollywood, Hollywood bound—playing my harmonica in every little town! Hollywood, Hollywood bound—rising up from the underground!”

  Following the chorus, E kicked off his second verse, “At the end of this trip—we hitting Sunset Strip. Looking at all the pretty gals showing so much skin—seeing all the stars who act like they up-to-par. Passing all them cars that look like they straight from Mars. ‘Fore hitting all the bars like the Whiskey A Go Go, Sipping on some Royale or a little bit of Petron. ‘Fore hitting the clubs and throwing up them dubs—‘Fore performing at the Roxy or the Troubadour. So long as we get paid—we’ll stop your way. Whether from Midway all the way to Norway, but for now, I need to get my plays, and that’s why I’m heading, heading to L.A. And if you want to tag along, well go ahead and come along, we going to have a party all night long, we going to rock as we record a new song. That’s how we do, never stop rising from the underground!”

  Again came the chorus line. By now the crowds were now in “a frenzy!” Hands were either holding lit lighters or wildly clapping and/or waving in the air; voices (both male and female) were singing at the top of their lungs; feet were dancing in place!

  On the third and final verse, another rapper picked up where E left off—as for E himself, he ecstatically began walking up and down the lengths of the stage with a huge smile on his face, warmly slapping the peoples’ extended-out hands upon passing.

  Once that rapper had finished his verse, in which Pit B identified himself at the end of that verse, the chorus line recommenced one final time—this time, E crouched down on his knees in the very front of the stage while singing out the lyrics and holding the mike out toward the crowds! The ladies were all trying to reach out for him with all that they had…two or three of them were able to touch the tips of his knees with their fingertips.