“Nothing. I was just thinking that I guess there’s one good thing about this shit show coming along.”
“Hmm?”
I brought a hand up to his cheek and kissed him softly.
“I definitely won’t complain about that,” he agreed. He pressed his lips to mine and I sighed.
“Dude, get a room.” Max’s scratchy voice cut into our moment and I jumped up with a delighted cry.
“Maxy!”
He offered us a weak smile. “Hey.” He was just as pale as when he’d been asleep, but he was awake and that was all I cared about at the moment.
“How are you feeling?” Lane grinned.
“Exhausted. What the hell happened, man?”
“You don’t remember anything?” My throat tightened at the thought of having to explain to him that Lizzy was no longer with us. He sat up and rubbed his hands over his face.
“I have to have one hell of a piss. How long was I out?” He stood carefully and I was glad he seemed steady on his feet.
“Three days.” I watched him falter mid-step at my answer before continuing to the bathroom. I sat beside Lane on the couch.
“How do you want to do this?” I inquired.
“I don’t know. Maybe we should go outside so he can have a meltdown in private. If the others are here he might feel like he needs to hold back.”
I nodded. This wasn’t going to be a ‘count your way to feeling better’ kind of situation. Sometimes, you just had to hit something. We looked up at the sound of the bathroom door opening. Max stood just inside its frame, his face covered in shadows.
“Maxy? Are you okay?” Lane stood and strode over to him. “Come sit down. We’ll get you something to eat.”
I made my way to the shelf and took a couple of granola bars and some dried fruit from it, careful not to wake anyone else up. Lane met me back at the couch, a glass of water in his hand. Max took a sip.
“I remember some of it,” he whispered. “I remember that guy who said he was my brother. He sure looked like me, didn’t he?”
I nodded.
“I…” He swallowed hard. “I remember those things jumping on Lizzy and Lane. I felt like I was going to shake apart. It was like I’d drank a ten gallon tank of coffee, you know? I just felt sick and past the point of jittery.” He brought a dried apple up to his mouth, but dropped it back into the package without eating it.
“Do you remember anything else?” I gave his arm a squeeze to let him know I was there.
“I don’t know how I did it. I felt like if I didn’t get rid of the energy I would just die. I just… Fuck, I don’t know. I didn’t want to die and I didn’t want Lizzy to die and I wanted those Yellow Eyes to die. I just concentrated on that and it just left me. That’s all I remember. I remember seeing those things fly off of Lizzy. That’s it.” His light green eyes filled with tears and he wiped his arm across them. “I didn’t do it, did I? I wasn’t fast enough, was I?”
I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close. “I’m sorry, Maxy.” My voice broke and I swallowed hard. “We couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
Lane moved so that he sat on Max’s other side and hugged him from that side so that he was safe between us. Max’s sobs shook all of us and soon the three of us were crying together. Someone came out of the back room then retreated back into it. A few minutes later, the rest of the crew was sitting around us, everyone’s arms around each other.
When the tears had stopped and we were all able to talk again, Lane asked the obvious question. “Do you need to hit something?”
Everyone frowned at the shake of Max’s head. “No. I’m okay. I mean, I’m not okay, but I don’t need to hit anything.” He ran his hands over his face and let out a deep breath. “Can I see her?”
Jason disappeared at Lane’s nod and came back with two jackets. “I’ll go with him,” he offered.
Max took his jacket. “It snowed again?”
Brent shook his head. “No, but it’s back down to minus ten again.”
Max started to walk toward the door then stopped. He gazed at the ground miserably for a moment before looking in my direction.
“Gabs, do you think… I mean…”
“I’ll get my jacket.” I did just that then took him by the hand. I gave it a squeeze. He inhaled deeply, blinked a few times, and relaxed.
“All clear.”
We stepped through the door. Outside, Mother Nature had decided to turn Brent into a liar and small snowflakes were floating down from the sky.
“Did anything change in town?” Max glanced down at me.
“We don’t know. No one’s left the shop since you passed out. I just… I mean… If that guy came back, we wanted to all be here to fight him if we had to.”
“You mean my brother.”
“We don’t know for sure he’s your brother, Maxy.”
Jason scoffed and looked back at me, his eyebrow raised. “They’re identical, Gabby.”
“Not to mention we both have freaky powers and glowing eyes. I…” Max stopped talking as we rounded the corner to the back of the building. Fear crossed his features but was quickly replaced by a fierce determination. He walked to the blanket that covered Lizzy and brushed the light sprinkle of snow off of it. Jason and I stood back, shotguns in hand. We watched as he peeled back the blanket.
“I’m so sorry, Lizzy.” He hung his head and his shoulders started to shake. “Oh, my god, Baby. This was my fault.”
“This wasn’t your fault, Maxy,” countered Jason.
“Of course it was. It’s me. Don’t you guys see that? Everything I’ve touched since I was small, I broke. There was no way I was going to be able to have someone love me without it all going to shit. How could I possibly think that anyone I cared about wouldn’t get destroyed by whatever’s wrong with me?”
I shook my head to get rid of the snow in my hair and knelt beside him. “That’s enough of that. Lizzy died because some Yellow Eye sicked a bunch of other Yellow Eyes on her. That’s it and that’s all. You did your best to save her, Max.”
Max’s head snapped up. “Gabby, stop.”
“No, you need to listen to this…”
“Gabby! Shut up!” He turned his head in my direction and I caught my breath at the silver that had bled into them. He quickly recovered Lizzy before staring into the woods behind the shop. “It’s the comfortable one.”
None of us moved as we waited for whatever it was to show itself. My heart was pounding in my chest.
“It’s gone.” Max frowned.
I blew out my breath. “That’s getting frustrating.”
He grunted his agreement. “It would be nice to see who it is that’s on our side instead of just meeting the Yellow Eyes all the time.”
“You still have no clue who that old man was?”
He shook his head. “No idea.”
“Okay, well, let’s get back inside before they send out a search party.”
The search party, which was made up of Lane, met us on the side of the building. His worried face relaxed at the sight of us.
“We’re going to make a trip to town,” he announced.
“I’m coming,” stated Max. “You’re gonna need me to tell when those freaks are close.”
I nodded. “Wouldn’t have it any other way. Who’s all going?”
“Me, you, Maxy, and the twins. Jason, you, Robby and Shawn will hold down the fort.”
Jason nodded and opened the door to let us in. I raised an eyebrow at Brent who was sitting behind the wheel of the one ton.
“Back seat, boys,” laughed Lane.
“Dude! Come on! It’s been weeks since we got behind the wheel. I’m dying here!” Brent jumped out of the truck despite his objections and swung open the back door so that Max could climb in. He followed after his friend.
“You guys take care and if anything seems off, or I guess more off than it has been, then get your asses back here.” Robby patted the hood of the truck as we pulled away.
The city looked so peaceful it was hard to believe the horror that was truly happening. Not one set of tire tracks marred the freshly fallen snow. It reminded me of when we’d leave to go fishing at some ungodly hour because Lane loved to get up at five when we hit the road. Though I hated to wake up that early, I had to admit I loved how quiet everything was.
“Let’s go by the Art Hauser center and see how people are faring,” suggested Lane.
I frowned. “What if they decide we have to stay?”
He grunted. “Then too bad for them.” He crossed the intersection of twenty eighth street and sixth avenue. All of our eyes were on Carlton Comprehensive Highschool. Were there people in there? Were they normal? Were they armed? Did they have enough food? We looked past the school to the large arena where all of us had gone to watch our local WHL hockey team play. I wondered if any of the Raiders had decided to hole out at the rink. Cars, trucks, and vans were parked haphazardly throughout the parking lot. Lane shoulder checked purely out of habit and started to turn in.
Max grunted behind us. “Stop!” He reached forward and slapped Lane’s shoulder to emphasize his point. Lane slammed on the brakes and I stiffened in my seat as we skidded on a patch of ice. The one ton’s tires hit a spot of dry asphalt and came to a stop.
“Jesus, Maxy!” I took a few deep breaths before looking back at him. My heart sank. “Good, bad, or comfy?”
“Bad. Very bad.” He was starting to shake so hard the twins were trying to hold him still. Lane didn’t bother asking any more questions. The truck fishtailed as he stepped on the gas.
“Which way, Max? Which way to get away?” I reached a hand back and squeezed his arm. My throat tightened at the sight of the tears rolling down his face.
“West on Marquis. Turn right.” He groaned and squeezed his eyes shut. I looked around wildly, trying to find what was causing him so much pain. He blinked and gasped. “What the fuck…”
“What’s going on?” Lane kept his eyes on the road and we flew past Liquidation World.
“It’s gone. Just like that. It never happens like that. I can usually feel it move away, you know. Like the feeling fades.”
Grant looked over Max’s head to his brother. Brent stared back at him, his face pale.
“I don’t like this, Lane.” I tried to keep the fear out of my voice, but knew I did a terrible job of it. “Let’s go back to the shop.”
He nodded, turned right onto second avenue and headed back towards fifteenth street.
“Man, I’d kill for some KFC right now.” Brent looked at the restaurant longingly.
“No way, dude. Mcdonald’s.” Grant grinned.
“Nachos and a beer,” I mumbled. Lane reached over and gave my leg a squeeze.
“Bagels and Timmies,” he added.
“TJ’s Pizza. Bacon wedgies with ranch dip.” Max sighed. He frowned. “Hey, Lane, can you pull over? It’s that comfy feeling again.”
Lane stopped and we all got out of the truck. The twins jumped into the box to get a better view. Max blinked and looked at me, confused.
“That’s weird. It’s comfy and bad together.”
Everyone made sure the safety was off of their riffles.
“Yellow Eye,” warned Brent. We all turned toward the Mohawk parking lot where one of the freaks was standing, his yellow gaze on us.
“Dog,” stated Lane as a yellow lab trotted out from behind some hedges. The Yellow Eye started at the sight of the canine and promptly turned and ran around the building, away from us. The dog cocked its head at us, its tongue lolling out of its mouth.
“Holy fuck!” exclaimed Max. None of us responded. We all stared, shocked, as the dog blinked its silver eyes before giving a bark and chasing after the Yellow Eye. Max glanced around. “Umm, I think we need to get moving.”
Everyone piled into the truck, no questions asked, and Lane headed for the shop.
“Okay, so, are we thinking that the dog was your comfy feeling?” I glanced back in time to see Max nod. “Wow. This just gets more fucked up the longer it keeps going.”
“Well, on the plus side, it couldn’t get a whole lot worse, now could it?” Max looked much less hopeful than his statement.
We got back onto the highway without any further feelings or sightings and I sighed with relief as we pulled into the yard. Lane honked the horn.
“Did you guys find anything?” inquired Shawn as we got out of the truck and he shut the door.
“Nothing really useful. The Art Hauser Center seems to be filled with pure evil so maybe Glade or whatever his name is is holed up there, the Yellow Eyes are still walking around, and it looks like dogs are on our side.” Lane ran his hands over his face.
Those who had stayed behind gawked at him.
“Dogs?” Marie blinked.
“Yeah. That comfy feeling I get, I think it’s dogs. Or at least it was today. We saw a Yellow Eye and this yellow lab chased after it. The dog looked at us and it had silver eyes.” Max shook his head.
“Dude, you should have seen it,” exclaimed Brent with a grin. “That Yellow Eye saw the dog and freaked then Cujo looked at us all happy and chased after it.”
“Cujo was a St. Bernard,” mumbled Robby.
“Whatever, man.” Grant shrugged, dismissing his brother’s mistake. Everyone started to talk at once, either throwing out ideas about what this new development meant or jumping in on the argument of which killer animal in a movie was the scariest.
“Hey, guys?” Max’s silver eyes met mine and my heart jumped. Everyone else seemed too engrossed in their conversations to notice.
“Guys! Hey!” His second attempt to get their attention did the trick and everyone stopped short at his shout. He turned toward the front door. “He’s here.”
“Who?” Lane started to raise his riffle, but stopped at a shake of Max’s head.
“The old man.” He walked to the door, opened it, and stepped back. The barefooted gentleman looked just as he had the first time we’d seen him. Long, silver and white hair hung past his shoulders and blended with his long beard. His silver eyes met Max’s and he smiled.
“I’d like to take offence to that comment, but I’m afraid I can’t.” He stepped into the shop at Max’s invitation and sent a nod in our direction. “Hello, Max.” He gazed at him warmly and I wondered if Maxy had lied when he’d said he hadn’t recognized the man.
Max frowned. “Do I know you?”
“You used to.” The man’s voice was laced with sadness. He took a deep breath. “Max, I am your father.”
The ensuing shocked silence was broken by Brent’s snort which was quickly followed by his laughter.
“Dude!” Grant punched his brother in the arm. “What the fuck man?”
“I’m sorry!” Brent was putting a lot of effort into getting a hold of himself but I could tell he was losing the battle. “I just… Come on! Max, I am your father?” His laughter redoubled. “Maxy… Dude… Can you imagine… if your name… was Luke!”
We all gawked at him and the man frowned.
“Why would his name be Luke?” It was his turned to be stared at.
“You know, man. When Darth Vader says the same thing to Luke Skywalker… Luke, I am your father?” Brent’s laughter died down and he frowned at the man. “Dude, what the hell! Everyone’s seen that movie.”
The man’s blank expression was enough to sober everyone up again.
“I never knew my dad,” stated Max, ending the Star Wars discussion.
The man claiming to be his father closed his eyes and gave a sad shake of his head. “When I brought you here, I’d hoped you were young enough you would forget about us.” He let out a long breath. “It seems I got my wish.” His brow furrowed as he pondered whatever thoughts were running through his head and he ran a hand over his face. “I really thought it was for the best, Max. Your mother was ready to get rid of you. Permanently. Glade came to me and told me of her plans. I couldn’t take you with me. Or maybe I could have
. Maybe I should have. Either way, it’s my fault you’re not ready for this…” His voice trailed off and he seemed lost.
“Okay, look. Back up a bit, will you?” Max’s fists were clenching at his sides. The man noticed the gesture and smiled.
“Do you need to hit something? It always used to make you feel better.”
Max’s fists paused mid-clench. He frowned. “Wait. Glade. He said the same thing when he was here. That bit about our mom and him being my brother.”
“Your brother found you?” The old silver eyes widened. “You have to leave. Now. If he comes back…”
“Hang on, now! How about you tell me what the fuck is going on before you start ordering me around.”
“We don’t have time to…”
“Oh, we have time.” Max promptly sat on the ground and crossed his arms like a pouting child. “I’m not moving until you tell us what the hell is going on, who you are, and who you think I am.”
The man let out an exasperated sigh. “I see you aren’t any less stubborn then you were when you were four.” He looked at all of us. “Fine. Here’s the short version. I am your father. Your brother’s name is Glade; he is four years older than you are. Your mother’s name is Terra. She embodies beauty, love, life. Glade took after her. They were made to create. You, you took after me. But you’re like her as well. You couldn’t control it. We just… Here, it wasn’t as bad. Here, you use fists...”
“Jesus! Get on with it.” Max was five shades paler than he usually was. The shop shook with the sudden lightning burst and ensuing thunder.
The man looked up at the ceiling. “Your mother knows I’m talking to you. She’s very upset. Max, please. You need to hide. You’re humanity’s only hope.”
“Right. Well, now I know you’re fucking nuts. I don’t save things. I destroy them.” He swallowed hard.
“Dude! Maxy’s mom makes lightning when she’s pissed? What is she? Like a witch?” John’s eyes were saucers in his face.
Angered Seasons: Volume Two (Zombies, Aliens, and Meat-Eating Vegetarians?) Page 6