Save Him

by William M. Hayes

  Ray looked through his binoculars to see a woman in a black shawl pointing up at them from inside the city with two Roman soldiers by her side. The two soldiers started to run as Ray spoke into his headset once more.

  "And take down the soldiers coming toward us."

  The three ran toward the city.

  __

  At a new vantage point over Jerusalem that Ben suddenly decided was better than the one he had prepped earlier, Adriana stood by Steve's side—the two aiming their Smartround rifles below. Behind them, Sal listened to Ray's orders through his headset while moving closer to Adriana and Steve. "Now, guys. And Ray has two unfriendlies coming his way."

  The compact screen slid out from the side of Steve's gun. On the screen, he could make out the two Roman soldiers heading toward Ray's location on the hill. The screen then took a snapshot of the two.

  "Got 'em," Steve calmly said.

  He tapped a side button on the gun, and a mini keyboard slid out from the other side of the Smartround rifle. On the small keyboard, Steve typed with fluid fingers over the small keys, entering the dosage into the rounds, and the keyboard slid back inside the gun. He pointed his Smartround gun up in the air and fired the weapon. The rounds from the gun shot straight up and then headed toward their targets below.

  __

  Head bent forward, limping slowly, Jesus passed sad-eyed men and women all crammed together on either side of the narrow stone street that eventually began to widen. Jesus lifted His head slightly to see the young follower John pulling back the hood of his cloak—the young man mixed in with the rest of the crowd. The eyes of the two men met, and John pushed the people in front of him out of the way so he could reach Jesus. He made it through the crowd only to be held back by three Roman soldiers, forcing him down onto the stone street. With his mouth bleeding, John turned his head to face Jesus.

  Jesus stared down at him and shook His head at John, silently telling him not to interfere. John ignored the warning, broke free from the guards, got to his feet, and reached out desperately for Jesus. He then suddenly fell to the ground, unconscious, along with the soldiers trying to detain him.

  Jesus slowly turned His head over the crossbeam He carried. Behind Him, the men and women lining the path to His crucifixion—and the soldiers leading Him to the cross—began to fall to the ground.

  __

  On the mountain overlooking the city, Steve calmly took down his targets below with Adriana by his side to clean up anything he missed. But Steve did not miss. Every multiple human target he entered into his Smartround gun—with the aid of its snapshot device—either fell on their sides or landed facedown on the street that Jesus walked. Steve then took a step back, snapped a picture of approaching soldiers, and pointed his gun in the air, shooting off the programmed rounds to take out the soldiers. The burst of pebble-sized rounds arching in the air looked much like an assault of arrows in medieval times, going up and then streaming down to find their targets.

  Steve felt the presence of the Other and caught movement from the corner of his eye. He dropped his Smartround gun and instinctively reached for his Glock 19, pointing it toward a ledge above him. The black-cloaked man stood on the narrow strip of stone, staring down at Steve. Steve was only able to see the man's unnerving blue eyes glaring down at him from under the hooded cloak. Then the fear set in as he yelled out to the man without the use of his translator, sounding like a scared child.

  "Come down from there!"

  "No," the cloaked man flatly said in English.

  Adriana heard Steve's raised voice and broke her attention away from her gun's slide-out-screen view of the targets below.

  "Steve—what is it?"

  Steve turned to Adriana with his mouth open—about to speak—and then disappeared in a swirling mist of the dirt he’d been standing on.

  __

  The only one left standing on the street was Christ.

  From around the corner, John, Ray, and Rydel ran toward Jesus—the crossbeam He was forced to carry still digging into His shoulder. The three stepped over the sedated men, women, scattered children, and soldiers to get to Jesus. Ray grabbed hold of the crossbeam with two hands and heaved it away in a vertical bench-press motion. Behind Ray, Rydel noticed the people and soldiers around them.

  "Ray—they're moving!"

  Holding Jesus upright, Ray watched as a black mist fell over the people and soldiers on the ground—the mist lifting them up to their feet. With their eyes still closed, they moved awkwardly, trying to fight off the drug inside them, all slowly walking toward Jesus.

  "Let's go!" Ray screamed at John and Rydel.

  The three turned away from the ones rising around them and faced a Roman soldier standing an inch over seven feet tall. The soldier, muscular to the point of being freakish, wore Roman body armor and a steel faceplate with slits at the eyes.

  Ray was unable to reach for his gun while holding up Jesus. Not taking the time to properly program the rounds to target the vulnerable areas on the man's body, John stepped forward and fired repeated smartrounds at the soldier that deflected off the huge man's armor.

  "Use your sidearm! Kill him, John!" Ray screamed.

  Rydel found a sword on the ground, picked up the heavy weapon, and swiped it at the Roman soldier's legs. The sword glanced off the soldier's protective greaves with a clanging sound and fell out of Rydel's hands.

  The Roman soldier picked up the sword and stabbed Rydel in the chest, dropping Rydel to his knees. The sword came out of Rydel's back and pierced through his right calf into a crevice in the stone road, leaving him skewered. The top half of Rydel's body remained upright with his back slightly arched and his arms spread out at his sides, as if waiting to embrace someone. Rydel's lifeless eyes stared up at the heavens—his body displayed on the sword like some kind of offering to the gods.

  The old woman in black who had pointed out the three on the hill slipped through the blind, slow-moving crowd. She reached the massive soldier and touched his shoulder. The large man crumbled to the ground. The woman then turned her head, staring at John and Ray with hateful, luminous blue eyes.

  __

  Seeing Steve disappear next to her, Adriana shook it off. She glanced down at the slide-out screen on her gun and could see that the soldiers, and the people who had lined the streets, were now up and walking. Adriana entered a grouping of targets into her gun and shot the smartrounds into the air. She turned her head toward Ben, who looked fucking out of it.

  "Pick up Steve's gun and get into the fight!"

  Ben stared at Steve's Smartround gun on the ground.

  "Help me, Ben!"

  "I can't, Adriana. The Other has too much on me. I—"

  Ben disappeared, his Placement chip sending him back to the time he came from.

  Adriana frantically entered targets into her Smartround gun, stepped back, and fired the rounds into the air. Behind Adriana, Sal looked through his binoculars, scanning the city below. "Shit! They're all back on their feet?"

  Adriana set the next wave of rounds into her gun as Sal walked closer to her, still looking through his binoculars at the city below. Adriana stepped back to fire the rounds into the air and bumped into Sal.

  "Fuck out of my way, Sal!"

  Sal stepped back—his point of view still homed in on the reawakened crowd and soldiers. He then let the binoculars fall to the ground and screamed at Adriana.

  "Save Him—!"

  Sal's body and voice vanished. Out of the corner of her eye, Adriana caught Sal being sent back. She fired her rounds in the air. All targets hit, she started to acquire more with her Smartround gun.

  Behind her, a man laughed.

  An eight-foot-tall figure took two ground-shaking steps toward Adriana as she readied her Smartround gun. The figure leaned his head over Adriana's shoulder, laughing at her from under the black hood of his cloak.

  Adriana disappeared in a swirl of dirt and dust.

  __

  The woman in black lau
ghed at John and Ray. John took a step toward the woman and vanished, gone in a whirlwind of dust. Ray placed Jesus on the ground and ran over to Rydel's body, then reached into a pocket under Rydel's cloak. He ran back to Jesus, tipped back the head of Christ so he could feed Him Rydel's one-way chip, but the chip fell out of his hand. Ray eased Jesus's head back to the ground, spun left, then right, and found the chip on the ground. He reached for it and disappeared.

  The old woman stopped laughing, closed her eyes, and fell down face first, crushing her nose.

  Lucifer, wearing his long, black, hooded cloak, walked around those fallen on the ground and the slow-walking crowd of men, women, and soldiers now plodding aimlessly. He stood over Christ. The Devil's hooded head tilted toward the black chip on the ground, and he crushed it with his foot. Jesus stood up, and His blood-soaked hair parted away from His face. With one eye swollen shut, He watched Lucifer.

  Lucifer then spoke to Jesus.

  "I will never let them save you in this time. You will never finish what you were sent here to do."

  Lucifer looked down at the crossbeam on the ground. He picked it up effortlessly with one hand, holding it in his palm like an offering. He folded back the hood of his cloak with his free hand, revealing his true face. No alabaster or jet-black skin, but a man in his forties with a fair complexion and simple, smooth features—the way he appeared before his descent. Except for his eyes. The preternatural glowing blue eyes of the Beast stared at Jesus with pure hate.

  Careful not to touch Christ, Lucifer placed the crossbeam back across Jesus's shoulders. He leaned his head closer, staring at Jesus curiously for a moment, and then turned his back on Christ. He raised his arm in the air, and another black mist fell over the crowd and soldiers.

  Alone, Jesus stood with the crossbeam on His back and waited for what was to come, as all around him returned to their normal state of mind and being. The people no longer felt the effects of the smartrounds, the result of Lucifer's second surge of black mist seeping into each man, woman, and child.

  As if nothing had happened, the Roman soldiers pushed Jesus forward. And the ones in the crowd who had gathered to watch the death of the blasphemous man started cheering once more.

  Jesus looked to His right and could see Lucifer standing among the cheering people, the Devil appearing as just one more in the crowd, smiling at Jesus with his burning blue eyes from under the hood of his cloak.

  Home

  The Placement chips inside John, Ray, and what remained of Ray's Unit sent them back to a room inside the lab. With the interior lights off, the room's floor-to-ceiling window let in a glow from outside lampposts. All sat on the floor, leaning against the surrounding walls at opposite sides of the room, soil by their feet. The group shared the same distant look in their eyes and forlorn faces. Ray stood and began checking on the members of his Unit.

  "You okay there, Sal?"

  Sal nodded at Ray. Ray approached Steve and Adriana, both looking beyond defeated.

  "Adriana, Steve…you guys all right?"

  The two continued staring into nowhere but slightly nodded. A few feet away, Ben held his head in his hands where he sat.

  "Ben, how you doing?"

  Ben lifted his head.

  "I'm okay, Ray," Ben said, lying.

  Ray glanced over to where John had been sitting, and his brother-in-law was gone. Ray scanned the room, but John was nowhere to be seen.

  __

  John ran down a white hallway, opening lab doors to his left and right, finding no one. The lab seemed to be deserted. He ran down another hallway that led to the Overlook. He caught his breath in front of the door and then slammed it open. A young lab tech and two large security guards sat around a monitoring screen. The three, having been left behind, looked over their shoulders at John.

  "Where is everybody—what happened?" John asked in a voice that was both desperate and demanding.

  The young tech stood up and walked over to John. "Evacuated because of a storm that was heading this way. But it stayed out to sea, passing us now. It never really came close. It's good to see you home safe, sir."

  A Meeting with the General

  Three Weeks Later

  John and Will sat beside each other at a long mahogany table inside a spacious, sunlit conference room, the light streaming in from windows to their left. Across from the two, four high-ranking military men sat with their hands clasped together, leaning back in their chairs. General Dowling sat between the four men. The general leaned forward in his chair, his eyes on John.

  "Three weeks of questioning Catlin's Unit has all but confirmed your initial report, Colonel." The general rubbed the stubble on his face. His eyes glanced back and forth from John to Will a couple of times; then he continued speaking.

  "Rydel's project to save soldiers in the field had my support from the get-go. However, after it led to Placement, I've had nothing but sleepless nights because of what happened in Japan. And now this, where—"

  Will abruptly stood up from his seat. "Sir, this is a project that cannot be abandoned. Colonel Adams's last time out proves it is safe. It's been weeks, and nothing has happened—"

  "Who the hell told you to speak freely?" General Dowling barked at Will. He pointed at Will to sit back down, and Will quickly sat his ass back down.

  The general stared at Will for a few seconds. He shifted his glaring eyes away from Will and stared at the window letting in the sun, the slanted sunlight reaching across the floor. The general looked back at Will.

  "But you are right, Will. Rydel's last project cannot be abandoned. But it can be for now. From what I understand, he destroyed most of his notes on Placement's progression, so most of his work died with him. And the last two Placement chips have somehow gone missing, which no one can explain."

  "That's correct, sir," Will said, and he let out a small sigh of frustration.

  "All right, then. Will, you're staying at the lab, watching over the other scientists that were involved with Placement. Watch them close. You will get your orders when to start up again on Rydel's final project. Now leave the room, please."

  Will stood up from his chair, gave a quick look over at John, and exited the room without looking back. General Dowling leaned forward in his chair.

  "Some fucking mess, John."

  "Yes, sir."

  "Placement is on the back burner for now—you're needed elsewhere."

  __

  John walked out of the conference room to find Will waiting outside. "Something to say, Will?"

  "Strange. I happen to conveniently not be at the lab, and the last two Placement chips go missing…with you being the only one with access to the chips."

  John moved a little closer, and Will recoiled, keeping his distance from John. "You jumped ship like a dickless rat and left Genesis unsupervised. That's the reason the chips are now missing. And Will…if you ever insinuate something like you just did to me ever again, there will be only one of us working on Placement."

  Will looked away from John, stood where he was for a few seconds, and then walked away. He reached a door with a red-lit EXIT sign just above it and turned back to John. "Having friends like General Dowling, I guess you're right. However, positions of power change all the time, Colonel Adams."

  Will opened the door and was gone, his hurried steps making rapid thuds down the staircase, echoing away.

  Backyard Party

  Three days later, John and Ray, each with a beer in their hand, stood over a fire pit in Ray's backyard. Above the two on the deck to Ray's house, Kate and gathered friends spoke and laughed loudly around candlelit tables, enjoying the crisp autumn night. John looked up at the gathering on the deck and then pointed toward the other side of the fire pit so they could face the others above while they spoke. The two sat down in wicker chairs facing the deck, making sure all from the party were together in one spot.

  "After all the contact we made with the people in the past, no disaster followed us home," Ray quietly sai
d.

  "Rydel was right, Ray."

  "The two chips left over?"

  John shrugged his shoulders. "Gone. No surveillance of a break-in. They're just gone."

  "I have to be in Afghanistan the day after tomorrow," Ray said after a moment.

  "I know. I'm flying there tonight."

  John reached out to Ray, and the two shook hands. An odd expression crossed over Ray's face as the two clasped hands. John leaned in closer, whispering to Ray.

  "Coming into contact with the Other made me believe, Ray. Just wanted you to know that. I'll see you in Afghanistan, my brother."

  John stood up and walked toward the backyard gate. The area underlit, Ray could only hear the sound of the gate opening and closing without actually seeing John leave. After a moment by the fire alone, Ray joined the others on the deck and had half-conversations with guests from the party, most picking up that Ray was distant, looking a little tired.

  With the party winding down, and after saying his good-byes, Ray headed back to the fire pit and waited for Kate to join him.

  Kate sat down in the wicker chair next to Ray, unhooked her bra under her T-shirt, and leaned in close, her brown eyes looking up at Ray affectionately, lovingly. "Your wife would like to take advantage of you upstairs, if you're up for it. How many beers did you and John take down out here talking alone?"

  "One."

  "Mmm…"

  "I noticed you weren't drinking tonight either."

  "No, not tonight."