World War Forever (Highway To Armageddon Book 2)

by Harold Bloemer

  Even Lance’s physical appearance is drastically different. He used to always be clean-shaven, his hair was always trimmed, and he always kept himself in tip-top shape. But now his hair dangles past his shoulders, he has an almost perpetual 5 o’clock shadow, and he’s way thinner than I’ve ever seen him. He’s like the complete opposite of Krystal. Sometimes he will go days without eating anything. But he still loves to drink. And even though he promised me he would stop, he’s gone back to doing drugs. Mostly pot, but I’ve seen syringes in the trash can and white powder residue on the kitchen table. Whenever I try to talk to him about his spiraling descent into darkness, he gets angry… almost violent… and he storms out of our apartment for hours at a time… sometimes even days. So I’ve stopped nagging him. Even though Lance is unquestionably damaged, I still need him. Besides Krystal and the twins, he’s all I’ve got.

  What scares me more than anything, though, is Lance’s obsession with finding Klaxton and ending this standoff between America and China. I mean, what happens once this is all over? Our hunt for Klaxton has basically become Lance’s sole purpose for living. What happens if we find her? Will Lance be able to live the rest of his days in peace? Lance has become so violent, so dark, that I can’t help but fear what will happen when he no longer has a mission to keep him going.

  Out of all of his physical and internal changes, I must admit the thing I hate most about this new, gloomier Lance is that damn robotic glove he continues to wear, the one he snatched from Rasputin after he hacked his arm off. I hate it because it reminds me of Arrow. After all, that’s the same glove Rasputin used to electrocute him. But Lance ignores my pleas for him to throw it out. He keeps it on almost all the time now, except when he showers. He even sleeps with the damn thing. Sometimes he will sit in a recliner late at night and watch the electricity dancing along his fingertips. He’s figured out how to generate lightning through the use of his thoughts like Rasputin did. It has something to do with the computer chip we all have imbedded in our brains, the same one that allows us to access the internet and other electronics through the use of telepathy.

  I will be the first to admit the glove has gotten us out of a lot of tricky situations. Like a few weeks ago when we were in the ruins of Seattle and came under attack by a gang of over 50 bandits. Lance took them all down within a matter of seconds. Having a glove that fires lightning bolts can be quite a potent weapon. But I hate how it’s almost turned Lance into a cyborg. He’s starting to remind me of Pitbull. Pitbull is more machine than man now, and I desperately hope Lance doesn’t follow in his footsteps. But the signs are not good. The glove has caused Lance to become obsessed with power. It makes him feel invincible, like no one can touch him. I fear one day his newfound cockiness will be his undoing. I’ve already lost enough loved ones to last a life time. I don’t think I’ll be able to survive if I lose Lance, even if he’s no longer the same man I once fell in love with.

  “I got it!” Lance blurts out excitedly, snapping me out of my thoughts. He holds the syringe up and says, “I think I’ve measured it correctly. Not enough and it’ll just cause Pocahontas to act like she’s drunk. Too much and it’ll knock her out, maybe even kill her. But this amount… this should get her to start spilling her guts. Our $50,000 investment will sure be worth it if your friend helps us find Klaxton and secure that $100 million bounty.”

  “More importantly, Klaxton’s apprehension will end this stupid, senseless war,” I say. “Enough people have died as a result of America and China’s worldwide game of chess.”

  Lance leans down to grab Pocahontas’ right arm. Pocahontas opens her eyes and scoots back in horror. She starts screaming through her gag. The tape mutes most of the sounds coming out of her mouth, but she’s still making a hell of a lot of noise. While there’s luckily no one else on her floor, there are people underneath us. If Pocahontas keeps screaming, eventually someone’s going to come up here to check on her.

  Lance and I grab Pocahontas by her arms and legs and fling her onto the bed. Lance then jumps on top of her and holds down her wrists. Pocahontas responds by wildly kicking her feet.

  “Boom Boom, grab her legs!” Lance grunts, struggling to restrain our surprisingly strong target.

  I leap onto the bed behind Lance and grab Pocahontas’ ankles. It takes everything I have to keep her legs locked to the bed.

  Lance leans in close to Pocahontas and soothingly says, “Calm down, lady. I promise this won’t hurt one bit. We’re just going to give you a little truth serum so you tell us where your daddy is. Then we’ll give you some knock-out serum and you won’t remember anything that’s happened over the past 24 hours. It’ll be a forgotten nightmare.”

  Now that Pocahontas knows we’re after her elusive father, she starts squirming harder than ever. I lose my grip on her feet, allowing her to pull back her right knee and shove it into Lance’s groin. Lance groans and falls off the bed, cursing as he clutches his busted balls.

  Pocahontas sits up and kicks me in the face. I stagger back as a sharp stabbing pain erupts all throughout my orbital bone. Pocahontas takes this opportunity and runs with it… literally. She leaps to her feet and dashes into the living room. Lance and I stumble after her, bumping into each other as we try to squeeze through the doorway.

  Lance shoves me aside. “Quit fooling around, Boom Boom, she’s getting away!”

  “I’m not fooling around, asshole,” I retaliate as I race after Lance into the living room. We both sprint past Krystal, who is sprawled out on the couch eating a bag of chips and guzzling a bottle of wine while she watches one of her favorite reality shows on Pocahontas’ ginormous holographic TV screen. She is so absorbed by her trashy TV show that she doesn’t even notice us dashing past her.

  “Sit tight and relax, Krystal, we’ve got this,” I quip sardonically.

  Without even looking up, Krystal flaps her wrist and grunts, “I know you do. Now try and keep quiet, I wanna hear what Shanaynay is gonna say to Monique when she finds out the stupid hoe slept with her baby’s daddy.”

  Lance glances back at me and says, “And we keep her around why?”

  “She used to be pretty good at whooping ass, but I will admit she’s been slacking as of late,” I say as we continue speeding through the apartment.

  Lance and I find Pocahontas at the front of her apartment, her back toward the door as she fumbles with the doorknob with her handcuffed hands. She makes an admirable attempt at escaping, but that’s all it is… an attempt.

  “Mmmm… mmmmm!” Pocahontas begs through her gag as tears stream down her cheeks. I instantly feel like the worst person in the world at the sight of the terror in her eyes. I hate that we’re forced to do things like this, but when the world’s on a one-way trip to Hell, you gotta do what you gotta do in order to survive.

  Lance grabs Pocahontas by her naked shoulders and says, “Relax lady, I promise you won’t get hurt as long as you cooperate. You have no reason to fear us.”

  Pocahontas does not take Lance’s words to heart. She slams backwards against the door and starts swinging her legs again. She manages to kick Lance in the side, which seems to piss him off.

  “I said stop struggling,” Lance growls. He once again grabs Pocahontas by her shoulders and throws her to the floor. Pocahontas groans as she slams into the carpet.

  “Lance, be gentle,” I snap as I lean down to check on her.

  Pocahontas responds to my kind gesture by banging the back of her head against my chin.

  “Son of a bitch,” I curse, falling back on my butt.

  “You were saying?” Lance says with a smirk.

  I growl and grab both of Pocahontas’ legs just as she starts to get back to her feet. “Get her arm and help me carry her back into the bedroom!”

  Lance does exactly that. Pocahontas still continues to struggle, but it’s virtually impossible for her to escape with both of us holding onto her extremities. Lance and I easily carry our prey past Krystal (who is in the middle of spitting win
e all over the carpet as she cackles at her stupid show) and throw her back onto the bed.

  Pocahontas bounces once and scoots all the way back to her headboard. Her eyes are still filled with fear, but there’s something else in there, too. If I had to guess I’d say it’s a feeling of betrayal… and anger. After all, I did play with her emotions, tricking her into thinking I liked her just so I could get to her father. I’ve been hurt and betrayed by people I thought loved me plenty of times throughout my torturous existence. I know precisely how Pocahontas feels, and it makes me sick to my stomach that I’ve become what I’ve always hated. But if my little charade helps us find Klaxton… if it helps us end this damn war… then it will all be worth it. I have to keep remembering that. If the ends justify the means, then it has to be done. Sometimes in order to defeat your enemies you have no choice but to stoop down to their level. (Maybe if I tell myself that enough, I’ll actually start believing it.)

  Lance whips out his syringe of truth serum and says, “Hold her down, Boom Boom.”

  Pocahontas’ eyes widen in horror at the sight of the syringe. I leap on top of her before she can roll off the bed and shove her shoulders down into the mattress.

  As she thrashes around in my arms, wildly kicking her feet and moaning like crazy, I say, “Pocahontas, please stop resisting. This will all be over soon.”

  I turn toward Lance and snap, “Hurry up. I don’t know how much longer I can hold her.”

  Lance leans toward Pocahontas’ neck. “Hang on, I need to find a vein.”

  Lance pushes Pocahontas’ head to the side as he looks for a good spot to inject the serum. After what feels like forever, he finally says, “Got it.”

  In one rapid movement, Lance firmly grabs ahold of Pocahontas’ neck and shoves the syringe’s needle into her vein. Pocahontas lets out a little cry as Lance empties the entire syringe. He then steps back and exhales a sigh of relief.

  Flashing me a little smile, he says, “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  Expecting the serum to start working immediately, I loosen my grip on Pocahontas’ shoulders. That turns out to be a stupid move, however, because she rolls over and knocks me off the bed. She then starts running toward the door again.

  “I got her!” Lance shouts, tackling her from behind and slamming her face-first into the carpet.

  Pocahontas goes back to flailing around like a fish out of water. Lance grabs her left ankle and tries dragging her back to the bed.

  “Damn, she’s incredibly strong for how little she is,” Lance says as his face turns bright red and sweat trickles down his cheeks.

  “I thought the serum was supposed to work right away,” I say, grabbing her other ankle. “Isn’t it supposed to make people all drowsy?”

  “Supposed to, yeah,” Lance says as he and I pull Pocahontas back onto the bed. “Maybe… maybe we didn’t give her enough.”

  I narrow my eyes and growl, “Or maybe Jack screwed us over again.”

  Lance grits his teeth. “If he did I’m going to put a bullet in his forehead.”

  I’m taken aback by Lance’s violent rhetoric. His newfound propensity for violence is really starting to freak me out.

  Lance whips out the vial of truth serum and empties the rest of it into his syringe. “Before we start panicking, let’s inject her with the rest of it.”

  “But I thought you said if we used too much it might kill her,” I say nervously.

  Pocahontas starts moaning even louder.

  Lance gives an irritable sigh. “Yeah, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. It took us months to find Pocahontas. She’s our best link to Blackbird. We are not leaving until she gives him up.”

  Lance is just about to jab the needle into Pocahontas’ vein, but I grab his wrist and firmly say, “No. Not yet. Let’s see if she gives up the information willingly.”

  Lance rolls his eyes. “You know she won’t, Boom Boom. And even if she did tell us where he is, how will we know she’s not lying? The truth serum will make sure she tells us the truth.”

  “Yeah, I kind of figured that’s what it would do, since it is called truth serum. Just chill out and let me try this.”

  “Find, suit yourself,” Lance mumbles. “But I’d think twice before removing her gag if I were you. The first thing she’s going to do is scream for help.”

  I turn toward Pocahontas and hold up my hands.

  “Look Pocahontas, I really don’t want to hurt you. We just need to find out where your father is. I promise we won’t hurt him. We just need him to tell us where Angela Klaxton is. You… you wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you?”

  Still cowering against her headboard, Pocahontas gives a slight, almost imperceptible shake of her head.

  I inch even closer. “Okay, I figured as much. What about your father? Do you know where he is?”

  Pocahontas starts to shake her head again, but then she stops.

  “Do you… do you know where Blackbird is hiding?” I ask in an excited voice. I’m usually good at controlling my emotions, but we’ve worked so hard trying to secure Blackbird’s location that I can’t help but feel elated to know we’re so very close to the end of our journey. Well, the first part of our journey.

  With tears streaming down her cheeks, Pocahontas nods her head.

  I turn to Lance and grin. Lance stares at Pocahontas suspiciously, then turns to me and shrugs.

  “I guess we can hear what she has to say,” he says somewhat hesitantly.

  I inch my hands closer to the tape and quietly say, “If I remove this, do you promise not to scream?”

  Pocahontas nods her head again, this time a bit more fervently.

  I give Pocahontas a comforting smile. “Okay. I’ll pull the tape off slowly so it doesn’t hurt.”

  Pocahontas nods again and allows me to touch the tape. I gently pull it back from the left side of her mouth. Pocahontas squirms in discomfort but she doesn’t make a sound. Once the tape is halfway off, she opens her mouth and inhales a deep breath of air.

  “Almost got it,” I say as I pull the rest of the tape off her lips.

  Pocahontas licks her lips and stares at me for several intense, awkward seconds, her eyes focused on mine. The rage and fear in her eyes is so intense that I’m tempted to look away, but I do not. I must show strength if I’m going to get any information out of her.

  “Okay, so spill the beans. Where is your father?”

  Pocahontas stares at me for a few more seconds, then opens her mouth and whispers something unintelligible.

  Lance and I both lean forward.

  “Yes?” I say.

  Pocahontas opens her mouth again, then kicks us both in our faces.

  “Son of a bitch!” Lance curses as we both stagger back, clutching our noses. Pocahontas leaps off the bed and runs into the hallway, screaming at the top of her lungs, “Help!! Somebody help!! I’m being attacked!! HELP!!”

  “Goddman it, Boom Boom, I told you!” Lance growls as he stumbles to his feet.

  “Oh yeah, this is all my fault,” I snap as I run after Pocahontas.

  Lance and I needn’t have worried about her escaping. Krystal cuts Pocahontas off and slugs her square in the face. Pocahontas falls backwards and smacks the back of her head against a small table, toppling a vase of flowers. Thankfully the vase falls into the carpet and doesn’t shatter. The last thing we need is even more commotion.

  I rush over to Pocahontas and quickly go back to slapping duct tape over her bleeding mouth.

  “Thanks Krystal, you’re a life saver,” I say.

  “I know, I told you all I’m the brains and brawns of this operation,” Krystal says, massaging the hand she used to punch Pocahontas. “Now will you two hurry the hell up? I’m tired as fuck and want to go home and get some sleep.”

  Krystal heads over to the couch and goes back to stuffing her face with chips and wine while Monique and Shanaynay fight over their baby’s daddy, or whatever the hell is happening on the stupid TV show. />
  Lance kneels down beside me. “You ready to let me handle this?”

  “Whatever. Just make it quick. And try not to kill her.”

  Lance jabs the needle into Pocahontas’ neck before I get a chance to change my mind.

  Lance and I watch Pocahontas for the next several minutes, hoping like mad that the serum starts to work. Our hopes are dashed when Pocahontas starts sobbing.

  I can see the white-hate rage in Lance’s face when it becomes apparent Jake gave us a bad batch of serum. I grab his shoulder and try to calm him down, but he just shrugs me away.