“Premiere Lawrence won’t tolerate dissent,” said Greenwald. “What do you think he’ll do with a growing insurgency?”
Jon was overwhelmed with sleep deprivation and emotional stimulus. He wasn’t sure how to respond, though he never was even with enough sleep.
“Cowboys,” stated the general.
Jon went pale white, “what?”
“The book missing from my library. Cowboys.”
Jon went translucent.
“I’ve read it. I’ve read most of the books there, though not all of them. I like the way that one ends. Have you finished it?”
“Uh… no, sir.”
“I think you’ll like it.”
“Why did you show me that video, sir?” Jon had to ask.
Greenwald put his attention back to the window. “Because you need to understand what you’re in the middle of. This is now a battle, Specialist. It’s kill or be killed.”
“Yes, sir,” Jon said with hesitation, still not fully understanding.
“You will continue to bring me more intelligence, and I will require it to be in greater detail. There is going to be a full-scale war or a massacre. You get to help decide which one. You are dismissed, Specialist Ballard.”
Jon slowly found his way to the door while the general kept his face to the window. He shuffled and stumbled his exhausted legs towards the elevator. His surroundings were a blur at this point. Nothing mattered because he couldn’t notice any of it. His vision was a blur and his hearing was a hum. He found his way into the elevator. The doors were closing as a uniformed officer hurried his way towards them.
“Oh no, please no,” Jon said out loud.
The officer made it to the elevator before the doors sealed shut and continued his way into that crammed levitating box. It was Everett. Colonel Everett. Things kept going from bad to worse.
“Specialist!” the colonel proclaimed in that angry accent. “How wonderful to see you again.”
The elevator started going down. Jon didn’t take his eyes off the floor.
“Such wonderful weather we’re having, don’t you think?”
Jon wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating or if this was some horrible trick to mess with him.
“Autumn is my favorite time of year,” he said with a smile. “No jackets in the day time, but we get to bundle up in the evening.”
It had to be a trick because Jon’s heart was halfway to his throat. The only relieving aspect of this situation was that it was a quick ride to the lobby floor. They were almost there.
“I almost forgot,” said the Colonel.
He lifted his arm and sent the back of his fist across Jon’s face. Then he grabbed his hair, pulled his head up and slugged him in the gut. It was hard enough to cause Jon to buckle and fall to the floor.
Even if Jon had the audacity to strike back he couldn’t do it in this state. His body wasn’t just begging for rest, it was forcing itself to sleep. It couldn’t endure any more pain. Jon could hardly stand, let alone withstand the furry of Everett’s fists.
“Soon enough you’ll be all mine.” Everett grabbed him by the hair one more time. “When the general is through with you he will give you to me, and make no mistake, Specialist, he will be through with you very soon.” He then kicked Jon in the gut as the elevator doors opened to the lobby. Colonel Everett smiled and clasped his hands together on the way out.
“It’s time to punch out!” he shouted as he walked out into the lobby.
Jon struggled to find his feet. Suddenly an arm reached around him and helped him to stand. It was Sinda.
“What are you…”
“Shhhhhh,” Sinda was quick to silence him. “Pretend we don’t know each other for now. I’m just a stranger helping you through the lobby.”
“Thank you,” he said calmly.
They didn’t speak any words as she braced him to the doors of the building. Everybody stopped to stare at the sight. A few people looked like they were ready to reprimand Sinda for having the nerve, but they seemed to think better of it. Jon was now outside of the building when Sinda had to let him go and send him on his way.
He looked back at her in the eyes. He didn’t think and found words jumping out of his mouth.
“I love you,” he whispered to her.
She smiled and her eyes watered up. “I love you, too,” she whispered back.
Jon gave his awkward half smile, as he knew he had better head to the shuttle before anybody got a hint of what had just happened. He struggled, but he was able to maintain his balance across the plaza and on to the shuttle. He climbed on board and found a seat. He was the only person there. It was the middle of the day, but it felt like it was late at night. The sun was behind the clouds, but it could have been pitch black and Jon wouldn’t have noticed. He fought it. He fought as hard as he could. He couldn’t. He fell asleep.
Blackness. Darkness. Jon could see nothing. But he could hear chaos.
There was screaming in the distance. It sounded like a struggling audio signal that kept cutting in and out. He spun around to try and see where he was. There was faint light in the distance mixed with the sounds of chaos. Then there was a sudden rush, a stampede. He could hear a furry of horses coming straight in his direction. He fell to the ground for cover. The rush of hoofs was all around him. The riders were yelling as they barreled over the top.
Then gun fire, and more chaos. After the rush of horses Jon could hear a stampede of people coming toward him. They were screaming, yelling and begging for mercy. He didn’t want to wait to see what was coming his way so he turned to run away from the furry.
He turned and there was a silver gun barrel staring him straight in the face. On the other end of the barrel was General Greenwald.
“Where you off to, Specialist?”
Jon turned back the other direction to run. There was another gun pointed straight in his face, and on the other end of that barrel was Conner.
“You’re not getting out of this, Ballard. We need you.”
Jon turned to his left only to find another pistol pointed at him. It was the sheriff.
“Where ya headed, Johnny?”
In one last effort Jon turned around to escape but there was another gun pointed at him. This time it was the mayor.
“Howdy, Johnny boy.”
He turned to witness the four men brandishing their weapons in his face. There was no way out. He was going to die by one or all of them.
He felt a strange calm come over him. Then he heard a voice.
“Don’t be afraid.” It was Sinda.
The sound of her voice washed over him. Then he opened his eyes. The screaming was louder than ever. He could hear all four of the triggers being pulled back. Click, click, click, click and the hammers struck.
Jon woke up gasping for air and clutching anything he could get his hands on. He remembered he was on the shuttle headed home. Then he heard a voice come from behind him.
“Bad dream?”
Jon turned to see who was asking the question. It was Marcus. He breathed a sigh of relief knowing he wasn’t about to endure another physical assault.
“I’m just living the dream, Marcus.”
“Aren’t we all?” he said with a smile. Then he sat and waited for Jon to speak next.
“What are you, what can I do for you? Wait no, I’m, I’m going to my quarters. If you need me you can come get me in about a month.” Jon could have fallen back to sleep right then and there.
Marcus kept smiling, “I’m just checking in on you, my friend. You and I need to stick together.”
Friend? Jon had never really had a friend. There was no room for one in this city. There was nobody worth the risk. He had learned to keep his thoughts to himself, to trust no one, but to smile at everyone. There was a sense of peace when Marcus was around, however. Jon felt he could let his guard down. Marcus seemed like a good soul stuck in the same rotten world that Jon was.
“So, what do we do, Marcus? There’s trou
ble coming, and fast.”
“We’re meeting to discuss the takedown of Lawrence when he comes into the city.”
Jon turned to face him, and looked him dead in the eye, “What?”
“You thought we didn’t mean it? We need to cut the head off the snake.”
“Do you know what you’re doing?”
“What do you mean?” Marcus could tell it was a leading question.
Jon sat upright and leaned towards Marcus. Then he pulled out the crumpled piece of paper, sticking it in the face of Marcus. Marcus looked it over. Then he gave Jon a look as if to say, what’s the big deal?
“I’ve suspected as much since I first met him. He’s militaristic, not a civilian type, and I’m not surprised,” said Marcus.
“What do you do about him?” asked Jon.
Marcus shrugged again, calm as ever, “Expose him. Expose him in front of everybody. He’ll be dealt with accordingly by the mob. Once that happens he’ll no longer have any information for the Colonel, and the Colonel will no longer have any use for him.”
“You’re about to start a civil war. I just finished meeting with the General. They’re not messing around here. That house we were at last night is nothing but ash right now. How do you combat that when you’re armed with fake orange juice, and a leader who is going to have you all shot?”
“There’s always a way,” Marcus insisted. “Lies cannot stand in the way of truth. We are the truth and this city is built on lies.”
“And if Lawrence burns the city to the ground with all of us in it?”
Marcus shrugged, “Die trying or live knowing you did nothing.”
Jon stared out the window for a moment. A million thoughts went through his mind in a minute or less. How did he get here? How did all of this happen in less than a week? How was he so deeply involved in the middle of it, and on both sides? This was crazy. Everything he knew last week was meaningless. Everything had changed and there was no going back.
The shuttle came to a stop. One of the gates to the labyrinth was being lowered to allow them to pass. This silence went on for a few blocks, and a few more gates were lowered to let them through. As soon as the shuttle was through the gate would be raised. They were living in a prison. A city sized prison. The only way, the only chance for a decent life was to forsake what you know to be right and get in line with the party elites and do exactly as they say. Men weren’t meant to live like this. Jon was becoming riddled with anxiety. If he could have in that moment, he would have burned the city to the ground himself. The time to make his decision had come. He had to choose a side and fight for a reason to survive. He took a deep breath and turned back towards Marcus.
“What time are you meeting?”
Marcus smiled an even bigger smile, “That’s the spirit. We only ever meet in the early hours of the morning. So, go get your rest and gather your thoughts. This is the moment we take back what is rightfully ours.”
“What is that?” Jon asked.
Marcus’ smile turned to a stern glare as he leaned forward to get into Jon’s face. “Our God-given liberty.”
A moment of silence passed as they went through another gate.
“This is my stop,” said Marcus. “A car will be by shortly after midnight to pick you up. Bring that paper with you. We’ll deal with Connor. This is our moment, Jon.”
Then he stood up, climbed on top of the seats, opened-up the emergency hatch at the top of the shuttle and climbed onto the roof. Jon watched in awe as Marcus leapt from the shuttle to a balcony as they slowly passed by. He turned back to watch Marcus quickly scale his way back down to the street. There was more to Marcus than what Jon had been led to believe. He turned to face the front once more and thought about what Marcus had said _ our God-given liberty.
Jon had heard distant echoes of this sentiment before but never really gave it much thought until that moment. It suddenly had meaning. It was deeper than he had ever cared to contemplate.
The shuttle came to a stop near the entrance of Jon’s building. He got out and decided to head to the main entrance instead of the stairwell. He had a hope that the elevator had been fixed. That hope was primarily based on the fact that he could hardly stand. He entered in to the lobby. He wasn’t shocked, but he was disappointed. The elevator was still broken - just another reason to have a revolution. To top it off it seemed the computer had malfunctioned.
The voice was a series of crackles and pops, “goo… .good….” pop, crackle, “citizen…..of.” Absolutely predictable. The building would probably have to burn down before anything was ever fixed. Maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Jon headed back to the alley where he had twenty-seven flights waiting for his ascent. A nap in the stairwell was tempting but not worth the trouble it would bring. He mustered up the strength and took it one step at a time.
He had made his way to his door and found himself with a bizarre surge of energy. Any man should be face down in a pile of his own drool by now. Yet here was Jon, ready to climb another twenty-seven flights. This couldn’t have been normal – or healthy.
Jon entered his unit. Instead of hiking up to the top of the building he decided he would catch up on his reading. His brain was in some focused buzz. It must have been the lack of sleep. He was focused because he was too tired to think about anything else.
He picked the book up off of his bed and noticed he was nearing the end. He almost didn’t want to finish it. He had never had the privilege to read a story like that before, and he wanted it to last as long as it could. But he needed to know how it would end. He sat down, opened-up where he left off and lost himself in the pages.
It was early evening. Johnny was sitting on the edge of the hills looking in to town. Folks were ending their day by going into town to grab a bite or a drink. It was busy getting busier. Then something intriguing caught Johnny’s eye.
It was the town hall building, right at the center of town. He knew the mayor would be in there. At least two of the sheriff’s men had been sacrificed to the wolves just moments prior. Johnny was certain that the rest of the deputies would be out on the hunt for him as well. Which only meant one thing. The mayor was unguarded. This was Johnny’s hope.
Without a lead on where his family was being held and nobody on his side, he decided there was nothing to lose. A harsh action required a harsh reaction. So Johnny stood up and started heading into town – right to the center.
As far as he knew nobody was aware of what was going on. Johnny felt like public enemy number one, but nobody else seemed to notice he was even there. Perfect. The sheriff and his company were trying to keep this hush-hush. Johnny couldn’t have hoped for anything better, given the circumstances.
He walked right through town with no trouble. He could even feel more confidence in every step. He approached the town hall building and took a deep breath as he opened the front door to the lobby. There was a female clerk sitting at her desk as Johnny walked in.
“Ma’am,” he said and tipped his hat as he walked by.
The clerk smiled and then put her eyes back down to her desk.
Johnny felt like there was an army behind him. He walked up the stairs and headed down the hall. Straight ahead were those notorious double doors that opened-up to the mayor’s office. As he approached he lifted his leg and kicked the doors in. He kicked hard enough to take one of the doors right off its hinge.
The mayor was startled and panicked at the sudden burst.
“Johnny boy!” he proclaimed with excitement. He started to scurry towards the very back of the room, all the way to the window. “What are you doing here?”
Johnny didn’t answer the question. Instead he leveled a punch across the mayor’s face and introduced him to the floor.
“You got some confessing to do, mayor.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the mayor pleaded.
Johnny wasn’t having it. He wasn’t in the mood for a conversation. He picked up the mayor by the
neck and placed his pistol under his jaw.
“Are you going to kill me, Johnny boy?”
Johnny paused, “No.” He released the mayor from his grip. “I’m going to humiliate you.”
He hit the mayor again and grabbed him by the back of his collar and then kicked him in the back of the legs, urging him to start walking forward. Johnny pressed the gun to the back of the mayor’s head to serve as a little motivation.
Johnny lead him down the hall, down the stairs and past the clerks desk.
“Ma’am,” he said kindly as they passed by.
She smiled nervously back.
Johnny kicked the doors open and threw the mayor face first into the dirt in the middle of the road. There were enough people outside and in the bars across the street to attract plenty of attention.
“On your knees!” Johnny yelled.
The mayor did as he was told.
A large gathering of people began to form a circle around them.
“Tell all these folks what you stand guilty of, mayor!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the mayor pleaded.
Johnny kicked him in the back sending him back down to the dirt. His nice suite was now covered in it.
Johnny cocked his gun to demonstrate his resolve, “Tell me where my family is!”
“Okay!” the mayor yelled. “I’ll talk.”
The crowd let out a loud gasp.
“Your family is being held in the Jenkins’ barn on the outskirts of town.”
Johnny pressed the gun to his head, “Why are you trying to frame me for the murder of my own family?”
Mayor Wallace struggled to take in a breath as he sat helpless in the dirt. He replied, “You’re always in the way Johnny. You are the one who probably should have run for the sheriff’s office,” he said with a sad chuckle.
Johnny lowered his gun, “I’m not going to kill you Mayor, but now these people know exactly who you are. A coward.”
Johnny turned his back on the mayor and walked out to the crowd. They moved on his behalf and looked on as he headed towards the Jenkins’ barn.
The Cowboy of Pinnacle City Page 18