Dave shrugged his shoulders back as violently as he could and caused Jeff and Bryan to butt heads. The two loosened their grips enough to allow Dave to break free. Dave wheeled around and grabbed the first one he could. It happened to be Jeff and Dave threw him hard against the wall. He put one hand on Jeff’s throat like he was going to choke him out. It was actually just to keep him steady.
Dave reached back and jabbed his open hand into Jeff’s chest. Jeff gasped when he saw Dave’s hand enter his body so easily and Bryan quickly realized what was going on. He got up to help but he was too late. Dave pulled out what almost looked like a red berry. Jeff’s eyes got wide and then shut as his soul dissipated. Dave squished the little berry between his fingers and let the juice drip on the floor.
Amy was getting to her feet when she witnessed Jeff’s death. She slumped back against the wall and fell back to the floor in shock. She knew this was permanent; it wasn’t like dying down there. Whatever Dave had done he had completely extinguished Jeff’s being. She couldn’t fight the emotions and broke down.
“AMY! TURN IT INTO SOMETHING ELSE” Bryan shouted. “I NEED YOU.” Dave laughed at him and sneered “Calling your little girlfriend to help you fight the big bad man?” Bryan smiled a grin almost evil enough to rival Dave’s and answered “Thanks to you I know how to kill you; I just wanted her over here to watch.” The two started grappling. They both tried to get the upper hand to end the other. There was no more play fighting, they wanted to end it.
Bryan was able to roll on top of Dave but couldn’t get into a position to get into Dave’s chest. Dave stuck the tips of his left hand into Bryan’s chest but Bryan kneed him in the groin and rolled off.
Dave moved quick and rolled on top of Bryan. He did a much better job at getting into position and was soon poised on top of him. Bryan tried to squirm but Dave put a knee on this throat and the other foot on one of his hands. He held the other hand with his left hand and had his right free to strike. Bryan silently wished he could have been with Amy one more time as the final blow was delivered.
As Dave struck Bryan’s chest Amy’s foot struck his head. It forced his punch off target and it didn’t enter the chest cavity as planned. The force and momentum of her kick sent Dave off of Bryan and sliding down the hall a few feet. Amy quickly straddled Dave and pinned his arms with her knees. She couldn’t help but punch his face repeatedly to get some of the rage out.
Bryan joined the fight and went right for the chest. He felt a jolt go through his body as he entered the cavity where the seed was held. The chamber was tight but nearly wrist deep. He felt the little berry first with his middle finger; it was warm, almost hot. He pinched it with his thumb and pulled his hand out. As soon as he cleared Dave’s soul the berry went cold and Dave started to disappear. Amy fell forward since his mass had disintegrated under her.
Bryan dropped the berry and crushed it under his foot. He didn’t want any chance that the monster could return and cause any more strife in the world. The man had served no purpose but to inflict pain on others and he was clearly uncontrollable.
Amy broke down again and Bryan gathered her up and carried her into a darkened corridor. Once they were well out of range for prying eyes or ears he sat down and lowered her into his lap. He sat there stroking her head until she stopped crying. He wasn’t sure how long it was but it felt like an eternity.
When Amy came around it was like a switch was flipped. “Let’s finish this” she said with a look of determination on her face. Bryan nodded, it was personal now, their friend Jeff had given up everything for this mission of theirs and they had to see it through.
Chapter 26- Stairway to?
Amy and Bryan continued their mission with renewed dedication. They were at a disadvantage without Jeff because he was the one who had found out where the stairway was. The two of them had a very generic idea where it was but finding the exact location would require some searching.
That was going to be hard because the word had gotten out that three unaccounted for souls were on the loose. There was no more free travel in the factory and every guard and spare soul was being employed to look for the fugitives. Either Cisco had been captured or the train was already in Canada. Bryan secretly cursed Amy for grieving for so long but he didn’t want to confront her about it, she was obviously quite fragile and he didn’t need her breaking again.
“Why don’t we continue along this dark corridor?” Bryan suggested, “Maybe it comes out on the other side and we can sneak around the back way. Amy agreed, going deeper into the darkness was better than going out into the light where it seemed like there was a patrol passing by every minute or so.
The two journeyed into the bowels of the factory. It was slow going because it was pitch black. They walked by feel, keeping one hand locked to the other’s and the other hand on the wall. They knew they had to travel right eventually so they hugged the right wall and hoped for an opening.
About an hour in they finally found a right turn in the corridor. At the end of it they saw a pin prick of light so they knew it would take them back to the main factory area. It looked like it could easily be a mile away though and at this rate could take another 6 hours or more.
“We can get within a couple hundred feet of the corridor and stop for a rest” Bryan suggested. Amy agreed, it was a good idea to be rested for the battle they would likely have to fight when they finally emerged from the darkness.
They continued on and watched the light get bigger and bigger. When the shaft of light got to be around the size of a nickel Bryan tripped and fell over something and brought Amy down with him. “What the hell?” a strange voice asked and the two realized they weren’t alone.
A torch was lit and Bryan and Amy realized they were surrounded by nearly one hundred sets of eyes. The two looked around horrified knowing they wouldn’t be getting out of this mess if these guys were hostile. The man with the torch said “PSST” and caught their attention. It was Cisco!
“What are you doing down here?” Bryan asked. Cisco countered with “I could ask you the same buddy, the upstairs is way down there” he answered pointing towards the light. “We know” Amy said, “but they know we are missing, there are patrols everywhere…but here, what’s with this place?” Cisco laughed. “They think its haunted” he told them “The reality is it is where souls who don’t want to go back to earth hide out.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to go back?” Bryan asked. Cisco shook his head “A boy with so much trauma in his life and you still want to go back?” he asked. Bryan saw the point but added “Until last time I didn’t know any better.” Cisco agreed and said “Well, consider these folks…enlightened.” Cisco then explained that each and every one of them had gone off the grid and died at some point and realized that the factory was just a mindless and heartless machine. They all felt it could be used in extraordinary ways but its potential was being wasted. As a result they boycotted returning and had “haunted’ several abandoned corridors in the factories for centuries.
“Well, we plan on making some changes around here too” Bryan said. “It’s going to be hard to go at it alone; do you think the enlightened will join us for a revolution?” Bryan already heard several around him agreeing but he would let Cisco pose the question to the troops as he appeared to be one of their leaders. Cisco read his mind and said “I’m no leader, boy, I’m just a loudmouth. I’ve only been back a day.”
Cisco, Amy, and Bryan walked around for the next hour recruiting help for the attack on the tower. A good percentage of the enlightened agreed to go out and fight. The rest said they would gladly support them and come out if they triumphed. That cowardly outlook angered Bryan but he didn’t expect much from souls who would hide in the dark for over 100 years just because they didn’t like how their lives were scripted.
Of the 300 souls hiding out in the corridors the three had an army of 213 willing to go out and fight. This should be enough to overwhelm a small portion of the factory and be enough o
f a distraction to get Amy and Bryan upstairs to confront the mysterious tower people.
The three drew out a plan. They would break up the small army into 6 groups. Two of them would double back and emerge where Bryan and Amy entered. They would be the distraction and hopefully draw a lot of attention while the remaining groups pressed forward and emerged near the stairway. They all agreed that they would get some sleep and attack when all were ready. They had messengers that could scurry through the darkness from one end to the other in under half an hour so when the diversion group attacked the messengers would run to the main group and the party would get started.
Amy lay in Bryan’s arms and gently snored. He rubbed her shoulders softly and tried to get himself some rest. He had so many thoughts running through his head and couldn’t shut them off. Cisco noticed he wasn’t sleeping and sat down next to him.
“What happened to your buddy?” he asked in a whisper. “Jeff got killed by an assassin here” Bryan answered in a sad tone. Cisco shook his head. “Such a shame, did he crush the berry?” he asked with a little bit of hope. “Yeah, I crushed his later though” Bryan answered. “Good for you man” Cisco said and patted his shoulder. Now it was Bryan’s turn “When did you get in?” he asked Cisco. “Yesterday” he answered. “We pulled into Canada and there was a bunch of Mounties waiting for the train. Apparently someone was smuggling drugs on-board at the same time. I wouldn’t have time to dispose of you three without getting caught so I drank a shot for myself and rushed down here” he explained. “I have stayed here between lives but something always draws me back out. I guess I like helping others in need. I suppose I still run the underground down here too eh?” he asked. Bryan laughed “You were in Canada for a day and you’re already saying eh?” Cisco chuckled.
Others were starting to stir. It appeared as if the time for revolution was upon them. Bryan nudged Amy awake and she told him it was still dark she was going back to sleep. He laughed and told her it’s always dark down here. She realized what was going on and laughed too.
Everyone was gathering up for the battle and getting psyched up. Amy grabbed Bryan and pulled him close to her. “Before this all goes down I wanted to tell you something.” She said. He was going to tell her to stop but she wouldn’t listen anyways so he let her continue. “My time with you, no matter how short it is, has always been spectacular. I would die a million times to be with you for five minutes” she said. A single tear rolled down her cheek and splattered on the floor.
“I feel the same” Bryan countered. “Every time I am born I begin looking for you. No matter what memories they give me or where they put me I always remember you” he told her. They hugged and kissed then he squeezed her hand and said “We’re gonna make it though, this isn’t the last time we touch.” She nodded and smiled even though she didn’t believe him.
The arrival of the messenger meant it was time to go and the army rumbled forward slowly. By the time they had reached the light of the open corridor they were all at full sprint and came bursting out of the darkness completely surprising and overwhelming anything in their path. “Collect the berries don’t smash them!” Cisco reminded his troops.
Bryan and Amy were bringing up the rear so they didn’t see a whole lot of action. It was nice to have someone else do the fighting for a change but they were itching for a fight with the big bosses upstairs. They had to be held accountable for their actions and Bryan and Amy would see to it that they were. When they reached the staircase the guards had already been cleared so they broke off from the group and darted up the stairs.
Cisco leaned into the stairway and yelled “Give ‘em hell, we will hold off the dogs!” Bryan gave him a thumbs up and they proceeded up the stairway towards the tower and their destiny.
Chapter 27- Not God, Good
After a long climb the two finally made it to the top and a small landing. There was an enormous oak door separating the staircase from the tower’s rooms. Bryan kicked the door hard enough to send splinters flying and the two burst into the room.
Two men were sitting on a couch in the expansive room. One of the men was in white robes with long white hair and a long scruffly beard. The other was in a black robe with short black hair and a goatee.
The man in white stomped his feet with glee upon seeing the two and yelled “CHECKMATE” to the man in black. The man in black kicked the coffee table over and stomped out of the room and into a side room. He slammed the door hard enough to make a picture fall off the wall.
Bryan looked at Amy with a completely confounded look and asked her if she had any inkling of what was going on. She shrugged her shoulders and held up her hands while shaking her head.
The man in white stood up from the couch and began to speak “I suppose you are wondering what is going on?” he asked. Bryan stepped forward and put on a tough façade. “You’re right we do, you have a lot of nerve pulling what you did back on earth. Do you think you are God?” Bryan challenged.
The man in white laughed. “Not God, Good. My name is Good and that fellow in black was Bad, or evil if you want to use nasty terms” he explained. Bryan made a sarcastic sound and asked him how he could call himself good with the things happening on earth.
Good shook his head. “I’ve had a bad run” he said. “You see, we play games every day. The daily winner gets to make a move on earth.” Good sunk his head in shame and shook it slowly. “I haven’t won in a long time” he said mournfully. He quickly perked back up and his eyes got wide “Until today!” he exclaimed. “You two were incredible!” he told them.
Bryan was enraged. “So this is all a game to you?” he snapped. “People are being killed, tortured, and maimed and it is all because you suck at checkers?” he yelled. Good didn’t like Bryan’s tone and got in his face.
“Look buddy” he yelled back “You’re here because of US. We made every single one of you so don’t come in here and tell me that we aren’t utilizing you properly. You ARE just a game piece, how about that?” he countered. Bryan punched him in the face, he had enough of it. Good fell to the ground and was looking up at Bryan who was on the verge of going berserk.
“You have created a mess down there. People who don’t have any clue about all this up here are just trying to survive. Trying to make ends meet and trying to do right and you do nothing? How is that GOOD? You’re both evil, pure and simple” he yelled while vigorously pointing at the man.
It was Good’s turn to push back. “We didn’t make all that mess. You did. We are black and white. Pure good and pure bad. Good would plant a crop so he could feed all his neighbors. Bad would burn it down because he hated the thought. That’s all we are. It was YOU who created all the grey in the world. It was YOU who took the idea of planting the crop to feed others and turned it into a profit. It was YOU who took that profit, invested it in chemicals to make your product more resistant to nature so you could make more profit. It was YOU who hired lawyers to defend you when your chemicals killed innocent people and caused birth defects. It was YOU who created government entities to cover up these atrocities. Don’t come in here pushing me around and calling me evil when YOUR world is the one who invented war for profit, war for greed, mass extermination for entertainment. Need I go on?” Good asked, out of breath from his long tirade.
Bryan was stunned. Was this really the reality of it all? Where they really all to blame for their horrible custodial efforts? Could something as complex as the world be put into black and white terms?
Bryan shook his head and said “I don’t care. Your time is up; someone else will be taking your place. It’s over.” Good laughed, went over to the door where Bad was hiding and opened it. “Come here man, you gotta hear this” he told Bad who came out of his hiding place to apparently mock Bryan too.
“This boy says we’re done” Good told Bad. Bad smiled and laughed. “All these years of trying to win the earth and the earth wins us?” he asked and Good just nodded and chuckled. “Ironic isn’t it?”
Bryan cleared his throat to get their attention. “I’m going to assume you two have berries?” he asked. That’s when they realized they might just be out of time.
Amy had begun to wander around the room to look at things since Bryan seemingly had them under control. She got Bryan’s attention when he heard her gasp. She was looking through a window and muttered “Bry…you gotta see this.”
Bryan went to the window and looked out. The tower overlooked a giant courtyard in the middle of the factory. Right in the center of it was an enormous tree. There were thousands of tiny berries on the tree. The tree gave off the most amazing and peaceful vibe, Bryan almost wanted to close his eyes and just bask in it but he remembered the two standing before him.
“You’re not even special are ya?” Bryan asked them. “You just figured out how the tree worked and manipulated it.” The two hung their heads low. “We’re the first two berries” Good said. “We fell from the tree, sprouted and there we were. We then collected all the other berries before they could root. That way we could control them. Thousands of years later we find ourselves here” Good admitted.
“And earth?” Bryan asked. Bad looked up and said “Another berry that was grown from a different tree. They’re all over in the mountains” he explained. Bryan could barely stand with the weight of the knowledge being dropped on him.
“So nothing down there is real?” he asked. The two shook their heads no. “Up here is real, this is where you actually live, down there…maybe you could call it a dream?” Bad said. Bryan shook his head and spat. “You two are sick. So you take reality and make it a twisted, dark, and dismal place like this god forsaken factory and take the fake world and make it beautiful and inviting?” Good shook his head “You guys made it beautiful and inviting, much in the same way you made it ugly and foreboding.”
Soul Factory Page 11