by Josh Law
“This time, we will be the ones to bring him down.” She clenched her jaw, forcing him to look steady into her eyes. He nodded and caught his breath. Nick pulled him up. He was strong on his own heels again but still leaned on his brother’s shoulders a little uncertain.
“So, this is a rebellion/ reconnaissance/ rescue mission, Whitehorse?” Marilyn turned around.
“Well, yes, ma’am, you’ve put it better than I could have. The other Wakers are obviously our top priority. Yet a lot of the things the Doc is working on are at their very beginning stages and so he hasn’t made a lot of spare batches yet. If we make off with it now, we’ll set our Enemy back by months. Think of this as an Indian raid, ladies and gentlemen.” He plucked a pistol from his belt with a game smile.
Cipriano nodded to his gang to form protective barriers around the Prescott kids and the women. They moved in as one, like an unstoppable wall of fierce fire upon the fortress. Whitehorse led the way, Nick and Alex guarding either side of him, waiting for Swift’s bodyguards to pounce from the tree-line at any given moment.
They wrapped through the trees on a well-worn path. The Wakers that had managed to escape moved to the outside of this human wall, coursing around it like electricity, moving aside obstructions, making a way for the breath of release to cut through this forsaken place. The door to freedom had opened. It was the way out of this nightmare, this second death that had made their Eternal sleep seem like a granted wish only the great dreamers could fabricate. Their fearless leader and inspiration had returned. Lazarus gave them hope. Hope was far rarer and precious than gems in this brave new World of manic science.
They were halfway up the back of the hill, confused by the absence of assailants. It had to be that snipers were lined up in the laboratory/ barracks’ many windows ready to pick them off like ducks on a pond.
“It’s funny. You might as well have gift wrapped them. Hello, boys. Remember your dear old pediatrician, don’t you?” They stopped dead in their tracks. All guns trained to the one voice. Only one. He’d come forward alone knowing that just his presence would be enough of a challenge for the bedraggled squadron.
“I shot you in the back of the skull! You were dead!” Chief Riggs spat on the ground, eyes as wide as an owl’s.
“Oh, that’s right. Remind me to give you Hell for it later, officer. Then, I suppose Death is like the common cold these days with what I’ve created and you’ve got bigger things to worry about.” The Doctor laughed.
He pulled a giant remote control from his lab coat. Marilyn dashed forward, screaming her son’s name. He just had to be in the front. Why did he always have to be the leader ,the scapegoat? She dashed viciously against a security fence that swept around the whole island.
Lucien Swift tossed the remote to the sand and smashed it with his foot. There would be no forcing him to open that gate again.
Nick spun around as his mother cried out in the bitterness of her soul. It had been hard enough to watch her son blindly sacrifice himself for the good of the others this whole time. Now circumstance alone threatened to separate them, after all they had survived.
“Mom! Cipriano! Me and Alex have got this Joker! You don’t have much time, but if you bring the boat around the hill is shallower on the other side. I can see that from here. The Death Angel and his boys can pick off squatters from decks. The Wakers are hardy and they can jump down to you. You’ll still have this one in the bag!” Nick’s voice cracked. He was terrified.
“Nicky? No! We’re leaving here together!” Marilyn’s hands shook as she pulled her pistol out. She wished she could turn her body to smoke and float into Nick’s mind like a genie retreating to the bottle. She wished she could protect him from whatever impossible choice he was forced with making again.
“The song remains the same, I’m afraid. I guess it always will until somebody takes a hammer to the jukebox, right?” Nick laughed and lowered the gun. Reluctantly, Alex followed his example.
“Ah, hell. Why do you always have to state the obvious, man? You’re right. There can’t be any more scapegoats on our watch. Except for us. I guess it’s our lot in life or the lack thereof. I guess that if someone has to pay the price of research we’ve got deep enough veins to get the job done.” Alex shrugged, knees quaking one last time before he got them under control.
“Damn you, boys! I guess that means you’ve seen through the secret weapon I had plotted to spring on your pathetic band of rebels.” Swift was impish, jittery with anticipation for his psychotic show and tell to commence in full with the captive audience.
“Boys? Whatever he tries to talk you into, just don’t!” Renee grabbed Dr. Clark’s arm, certain she’d need a doctor before this was over.
“It’s okay, Renee. Help Whitehorse clear the Island.” Nick grinned at Swift before Marilyn came and grappled him through the slender metal bars, shaking him until his teeth clicked.
“What the hell are you thinking, stupid kid?! We leave here together or not at all!” She was frantic. He couldn’t think this out in a way that meant they would all be okay, could he? He just had to take the high road to avoid the risk of casualties.
“Marilyn…The boy is right. There’s really no time to argue. Every second counts and we’ll need these so-called Wakers in our ranks if we even stand a remote chance of slowing the Queen down.” Cipriano gently pulled Marilyn off of her son and gathered her to his chest. She was still facing Nick, aghast. The boy swallowed, grimacing.
“Honest to God, Mom, I want to live. I’ve been wanting to live ever since I saw a car veering for me off the side of Main Street in Durango and knew that I was going to die no questions asked at 17-years-old. Now I had no idea it would all go to Hell after that. There was no way that I could guess my whole family would be put in constant jeopardy and be faced with standing against the end of the World because of my genetics. They’re my genetics, though, and this is my responsibility as a man. You see, that’s the problem with being so heavily outnumbered. You’ve got to know when to hold the cards and know when to put them on the table. Ridiculous bets are the name of the game when it comes to the gamble of survival. It’s my dead body that started the whole thing and so chances are it’s my dead body that finishes the job.” Nick chewed his lip chasing gladiator emotions out of his way to keep from crying as she was breaking down. Trying to tell your mother that you have to die for her is next to impossible to do.
“For the gambling bit, he’s a clever one, your son, Marilyn. See, I’ve got the actuator for the same poison that just did my fair lady’s boys in back there on the water. I could have taken more extensive measures to stop Whitehorse from breaking loose with those he managed to pull along, but I knew there would have to be a demonstration of my wonder drug eventually so I let him have it. Now the hot buttons in my hand and I don’t waste antidote on people I don’t like.” Swift smiled. Marilyn thrashed and Cipriano held her back. She gnashed her teeth, spitting and screaming.
“You SOB! One of these days you’ll rot in the Hell you keep on digging for my kid!”
“Wrong again, Ms. Avalon. I keep digging Hell for you and people like you who oppose science. It’s your muse-sent son that continues to stay my hand. Appears I was doing business with you, Nicolas.”
“Seems you were.” Nick’s hands clenched into fists. He’d accidentally dropped his rifle when his mother had clobbered him.
“Alex…Stop him! We’re all getting out of here!” Marilyn turned to face Alex whose face had drawn up like he’d eaten a persimmon. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Renee who was shaking her head, viciously grinding her teeth.
“I wish to God I could, Marilyn. Yeah, I can see where this is going, though. I made him a promise. If he stays, I won’t leave him.” He swallowed, eyes bulging in his lack of air.
“Seems we have quite the quandary here. You’ve got a mother who won’t let you die. A brother who won’t let you die alone. A gang leader who respects your eye for the strategy but can’t convince y
our mother to act on your instinct. Siblings who are pretty much just pawns to the Game. Fellow Zombies who are no more than lab rats. You call yourself a rebellion leader?” Swift giggled and pressed the vial into his teeth pulling free the actuator.
“Well, I’m a better leader than you are a doctor. Don’t hurt yourself trying to figure out what I mean.” Nick grinned.
“I can’t speak for Avalon, but I’ll hold up my end of the bargain easily enough. We came to gather an army and that’s what we’re gonna do.”Cipriano spoke to his men in Spanish and they converged moving back to the ship in single file.
“No worries, confused little kiddies. My spell work won’t hurt any of you as you all have the Prescott gene. Yes, Bacardi, I’m aware of who you are and the fact that you’re actually their niece and not their sister, but a gene is a gene. That only leaves the good Dr. Clark, the Vierra siblings, and Ms. Avalon here to decide if they will be adults and let Nicky and Alex make their own calls.” Swift waved the vial at Marilyn who now stood with her arms akimbo. This was a tougher call than it had been in the days before. That stint in Panama had shown her how critical a piece each of them as individuals was in playing this Game.
“There’s really no contest. I think we all know how this ends. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Because there’s not a single chance in a Hell-raising haystack that you’ll ever stop with your freak shop here.” Alex indicated the Lab with his head.
“He’s right. This ends in fire, Swift. I’m here now. We’re face to face. Lazarus to Lazarus. Dead men collide in this Millennia and the World has no idea how to deal. It’s fireworks and rat races from here.” Nick winked.
“Oh, so you’re threatening me, Nicolas. With the Legions of Maya on their way and your mother in the center of a poison trap which I have the trigger loaded for. You are cheeky!”
“Not cheeky. I know exactly what I’m doing.”
Nick turned around to face Bacardi who stood with her face pressed to the Gate, barely suppressing the urge to vomit.
“Is there a way you could give me the crash course on blowing a lab to Hell?”
“You could let me do it, Nicky…I bet I can climb this stupid thing!” Bacardi was fighting with herself, trying to be strong. Nick knelt and reached through the bars taking her shoulders in massaging fingers.
“Somebody’s gotta stay behind. A time bomb won’t work with the intended recipient aware of it already. Somebody will have to hold him off until the package is wrapped and somebody will have to blow the fuse…
I’ve got to rid the World of the mess we made of things, you know that. Plus, if the blast goes off and takes me out of the picture…They won’t be fighting over me anymore, anyway.” He swallowed. She placed both hands in his hair. They stared at each other in silence for a breathless moment. Both of them knew there was no way to slip this noose. Neither of them could bear to let the other go. They’d only begun to be a family.
“Are you asking me to lead these kids when you’re gone?”
“You’ve got the street sense. I wouldn’t ask you to do anything I’m not willing to do myself.”
“I know…”
“This is precious. I might have to crash the party, though. Remember, I’m the one making the threats here.” Swift waved his thumb around the actuator. Alex shot at him, barely missing the swinging tool, but managing to blow his thumb off. He screamed and bowed over.
“Life’s a gravy train when you figure out you’re not holding the keys, Doc!” Alex chambered the rifle again.
“There’s no threats being made. We’re strategizing, you pig. Only because we don’t have a choice.” Nick turned back to Bacardi.
“If you could stall them all, I could rig the bomb and you could be the one to blow it.” Bacardi crunched her teeth together, hating herself for her own words.
“I could probably help you climb the fence. Do you think you could jump to the Jaguar’s deck? You might get hurt.”
“Hurt isn’t as bad as killed.” She tried to smile but tears began to break free. He thumbed them away shaking his head.
“It’s okay. Before you knew me, I had already left the World. I can do it again if I have to. Who knows, maybe I’ll come back. Maybe I’ll make it out of this. Weirder things have happened.” They were both laughing, neither able to reconcile this.
“Help me over, Nicky.” It was too late. The choice had been made for them by the relentless World.
Chapter 2:
Lucien was hooked to a mic. The snipers had heard the bomb plot but were swarmed by Whitehorse and Company and couldn’t break loose to help their boss. The Wakers were already slipping out the back door. The Jaguar was already in route. This choice had been made for her. Marilyn stood aghast watching as Nicky stuck his hands through the bars and guided Bacardi up the fence moving his hands higher as stepping spots for her until she reached the top and could scramble over. He let her climb onto his shoulders and eased her to the ground.
A cannon shot off. Marilyn pounced on Renee to move her from the shell debris and sand. The Gate ironically was in perfect condition despite the jarring blast.
“They’re already on the move, girl. Looks like Whitehorse is backing out. Evac doesn’t take all that long when you’ve only got a fistful of refugees to pluck out.” Nick winked. Bacardi nodded.
“I can have it ready in 7 minutes at the longest.” She swallowed and clutched his face. Alex had moved in on the Doctor and had thrust the barrel of the gun into his gut, holding him by his scalp.
“Anybody so much as twitches a finger, or bats an eyelash at the little girl and I’ll blow his head to the four winds!” He shook Dr. Swift’s head back and forth to prove his point.
Nicky picked up his rifle.
“You got him, bro?”
“Yeah, I got him.”
“Good let’s move. I’ve got you, girl. Eyes on the prize. Let’s move.” He turned back to look at his mother with one last grimacing smile. Alex spun around and nodded in Renee’s direction. Then they were gone, kicking up the sand as full-auto rounds descended upon their every step. They raced like dancers in long sweeping side-to-side serpentine lines, like the waves on an EKG.
Renee shouted in horror and fell to the ground. Her face was gray and her golden hair stood on frazzled ends. Chance stooped next to her, laying a hand on her shoulder.
“We can follow the fence on the beach to the other side of the Island. They’ll need all the ground cover they can get to pounce over and the boys have got their hands full!” Chance’s eyes grew wide as his sister lashed a scratching hand out at him.
“Curse it! Never a second just to grieve!” She spat. Chance backed up and hit his knees.
“They’re not dead yet, sis. You can grieve when you’ve got a reason to.” His eyes were on fire but his voice was soft. She gaped at him.
“He’s right. Let’s get a move on!” Riggs bolted down the fence.
“Renee, it’s alright.” Clark snuck up behind the woman and encircled her waist, hauling her to her feet. She kicked and screamed.
“No! Make this stop! Bastards! All the little bastards!” She thrashed with her fists and tossed her head. Marilyn watched in horror. Here was the one person she always counted on to be strong slipping away, soul becoming soap in the heat of their sacrifice.
It was this moment of weakness that compelled strength into Marilyn’s dying will. She had no choice. It was Renee’s life that depended on her tenacity now.
“Listen! You’ve got to pull yourself together, girl! You remember what you said to me on the bus in Mexico?” Marilyn ran up to Renee as Clark drug her across the sand.
They stopped for a moment, Chance and Riggs leaving them behind in their dust as they raced to cover the gates. Already Wakers could be seen pouncing desperately from it, trusting the Jaguar to catch them and spare them from the merciless rocks that served as a naturally occurring wall below the lab’s low-rising back cliff.
Renee stared at Marilyn wide-eyed. She
had given Marilyn the pep talk of a lifetime when they’d been hostage on the Devil’s Swan’s bus.
“I told you that the fight isn’t over until you let go of it.” She swallowed. Clark knelt behind her. Marilyn dropped to her knees and took her hands.
“Go on, Clark. They need you. I’ve got her.” Marilyn waved him on. The Doctor nodded and bolted.
“Don’t let go, Renee.”
“How do I keep hanging on? How many times do I have to watch?” She bowed her head, eyes fluttering sporadically.
Marilyn lifted her face in both hands. She caressed her filthy cheeks. Their eyes reflected each other’s souls.
“Listen, sister. I feel you. Every bit of your pain is mine. You’re the one that told me to hang on to that light tooth and nail. You wouldn’t let me give up on my son. I won’t let you give up on yours. I get that war is Hell, but you’re selling the boys short. They can do this. They were born to do this. Whatever happens now, we have to hold up our end of the rope. We can’t let these political bullies win at tug-of-war, girl. We can’t because our sons would have wanted us to keep going.” She felt her tears breaking free. There was no time to fall now. Yet, it’s not like one can time a breakdown.
Renee nodded and scrambled. She wasn’t strong enough to lift herself up again.
“Help me?”
“Of course!”
Marilyn hauled Renee to her feet. Each woman’s knees were knocking like maracas, harmonizing with the others. They pulled each other forward, scraping heel across sand like lame men forced to try and run.
How to go on? How to breathe? There was no world to save if their children wouldn’t live to see it. Only that suspended animation of hope persuaded them. The crescendo hadn’t sounded yet. There was still half a chance.
It had been five minutes. If Bacardi had scheduled herself right, then there were only two minutes left before she turned the bomb over to the boys.