CHAPTER SIX
Darnell Watson arrived back home and crashed into a bean bag chair. He originally lived out in the lower ninth ward before all the madness happened, but had been steadily making himself at home in the Garden District. The hardest part of living in his new home was finding things to do with all the space he now had. He had filled it with all sorts of cool junk that he had found on supply runs, his favourite being the pool table with the Motörhead branded cloth. But even with wall to wall crap that would have cost a small fortune in days gone by, Darnell still found it a bit empty. They were mindless trinkets that helped pass the time, and time was short enough as it was. Getting shorter all the time.
Darnell cracked open a beer and stared into the silent, black nothing. Just a man alone with a beer and his thoughts. It had been a long fucking day, and with Remy's announcement, tomorrow was going to be even longer. Darnell planned to knock back a few before drifting off into a nice boozy coma, but there came a knock on the door. The kind of knock that was intent on spoiling a man's best intentions. Darnell did not expect company at such a late hour. He set down his beer with a weary sigh and went to answer the door. He was surprised by who he saw.
“Karina? What are you doing here?”
She still wore her paint, though she rubbed at her arm as she looked about awkwardly, smearing some of it away.
“I was thinking about tomorrow. About everything. There's a chance we might not come back.”
“Do you want to come in?”
Darnell stepped aside, but Karina paused at the threshold. She bit her lip as she looked away and thought about leaving.
“Yes,” she said as she stepped inside. She noticed the open beer by the bean bag chair.
“Have you got one of those for me?”
Darnell fetched her a beer and raised up his own.
“To coming back alive.”
Karina smiled, but her eyes were sad. She drank to the toast regardless.
“Is that what this is? Living?”
“We're still breathing, aren't we? I'd put that in the win column.”
“We think that we're fighting, but all of us are trapped in this place. We have each other, but all of us were forced together. Not one of us would survive in this world without the others, and sometimes that drives me crazy, you know? I used to be on the road all the time before this. That was real freedom. Knowing that I could just pack up and leave any time I wanted. I ran away from home when I was 16 because I hated everything that came with staying in one place, and now here I am. Now I'm just a prisoner fighting for a larger cage.”
Darnell placed his hands on her shoulders.
“Things will get better. You'll see. We'll wipe out the last of these God-fearing dipshits tomorrow, and we'll start building a better world where they don't exist.”
“There will be others. People will take their place.”
“Then we'll kill them too.”
“But when do we just get on with our lives? When does the path of my life stop being determined by people trying to hurt me?”
“Karina, what's all this about?”
“I don't know. I just...”
He hugged her and held her tight.
“There will come a time when they are all dead, and we are still standing. Life will go on, and you'll be free to run wherever you like. Though, I would prefer it if you stayed here. Sometimes staying in one place isn't so bad.”
Karina looked up into his eyes and didn't seem to be all there. She pounced, and planted an aggressive kiss on his lips, pulling his head down onto hers. She was almost ravenous in her enthusiasm. Darnell broke away from her and took a step back with an uncertain head shake.
“Wait, what?”
“Is this not what you want?”
“Yeah, but is it what you want?”
She crossed the room and kissed him again.
“I told you. We might not come back tomorrow. We don't have time for hard to get. So, shut up and fuck me.”
Darnell didn't need to be asked twice. He kissed her back and pushed her up against the wall. He groped at her body and saw more of her paint come off on his hands. She shoved him back hard and tackled him to the ground. She mounted herself on top and reached down to unbuckle his jeans. His cock was hard and erect, and she took it in her hand, stroking it firmly. Frantically, she ripped off her own clothes, and not long after, he was inside of her. She fucked him with her eyes closed. Not once did she look at him. Her mind was somewhere else and not present in the room. Darnell's hand reached up for one of her breasts, and she harshly slapped it away. Darnell shook his hand and laughed it off.
“Alright. You do you.”
Her nails rested against his chest. She dug them deep into his skin and scratched hard, drawing thin lines of blood.
“Ow, fuck!” Darnell shouted in surprise. “Are you into that shit?”
With her eyes still closed she punched down and cracked Darnell right in the face.
“What the fuck!? What's the matter with you?”
She hit him again. He spat blood onto the carpet as she screamed with her eyes still closed, still fucking him at an increasingly furious pace. They were not screams of ecstasy. They were screams of distress. She raised her fist and swung it at him once more, but this time he caught her firmly by the wrist.
“Stop it.”
She fought against his grip and tried to punch him still.
“I said stop it!”
She didn't listen. Karina continued to fuck him while beating at him with her other free hand. Her eyes darted from side to side under the lids. She was in some kind of trance. Darnell finally reached his limit as she scratched at his neck. He forcibly grabbed her by the hips and shoved her off as hard as he could. She tumbled across the floor and instantly came to her senses. She got up to her knees as Darnell scooted away from her, a look of bewilderment in his eyes.
“I'm so sorry,” she said. Her entire body was shaking.
“What the fuck, Karina?”
Darnell wiped the blood from his lip as Karina got back to her feet and grabbed her clothes.
“All of this was a bad idea. I should have known I couldn't do this. I have to go.”
She was nonstop shaking her head as she dressed.
“Stay for a minute. Let's talk about this.”
Darnell got up and reached for her shoulder. She flinched away from him and looked at him with eyes that he didn't recognise. Her eyes had a frightened look, but he couldn't tell if she was frightened of him or of herself. He had never seen that look on her face before.
“Don't touch me. Please. I just - I have to go. I'm so sorry.”
She ran out the front door like a purse snatcher, leaving behind a very confused and semi-undressed Darnell Watson.
“I don't even know.”
THE BOOK OF KARINA II
They arrived in dribs and drabs - well, what was left of them did. About a third of the Renegade Wrestling roster disappeared overnight and went God knows where. The Mighty Cannibal was found dead in his hotel bathtub, his brains splattered on the wall behind him. There was no word for the mood in the room that Karina now stood. Many heads were down, and accidental eye contact was met with internal panic. Todd Jones had assembled what was left of them there in the lobby of a La Quinta Inn. He had worked tough rooms before, but never this tough.
“I don't know about any of you, but I didn't get much sleep last night. I doubt that I'll ever get much sleep again after the revelations we've had.”
The people in the room didn't even seem to register that anyone had spoken. Todd pushed on regardless.
“We are literally living in a Bible story. But just because there is one overriding story, that doesn't mean that the subplots stop. They have told us that we have two years before our extinction. That means we still have two years of life left to live. A lot of great stories can happen in two years. I don't intend to just wait for the end and let there be one topic of conversation. Life goes on, and
we are all still here today. If life is going on, then the show might as well go on too.”
Killer Rex lifted his head. The first in the room to respond.
“You can't possibly be saying what I think you're saying.”
“We go to New Orleans just like we were supposed to.”
“No one is going to want a wrestling show when the world is ending.”
“On the contrary, I think this is when they need us most of all. I've already spoken with the office of Governor Barnes in Louisiana and with the venue, and nobody there has any objections. If anyone here wants to leave and be with the ones they love, I won't hold it against them. But I intend to go to New Orleans and put on a show that will make people forget about all of this, if only for a couple of hours. I'll either see you there or I won't, but there will be a show because people need it.”
“I'll go,” Karina volunteered. “What's the point of winning a title if you never defend it?”
“Me too,” said Lucha Dora.
Killer Rex glared in their direction. The rest of the room seemed to wait for what he had to say.
“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “Why the fuck not? Not like I have anywhere else to be.”
It was an avalanche of people agreeing to go after that. It appeared that they would have their show.
Karina Katana and Lucha Dora shared a car for the first time ever on the road to New Orleans. Karina was glad for the company as she drove. She didn't want to make a drive like this with only her thoughts for company. It also helped to have another pocket to chip in for the highest gas prices she had ever seen. They had queued for over an hour just to get to the pump and witnessed more than one fight while they were waiting.
“Remain calm,” a public service broadcast on the radio told them. “We are working on a solution to this problem. We need people to stay productive. Go to work, and when you are not working, stay at home. This is for your safety. Do not leave your home unless absolutely necessary, or we advise it.”
Karina wondered why they were even letting them run a show in New Orleans after hearing that, but Todd had assured them all that they had the Governor's blessing. Dora changed onto a classic rock station. The DJ at the station was obviously having some fun with his song choices as AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' blared.
“How does one work on a solution to the end of days?” Dora asked. “It's not exactly on the same scale as a budget crisis.”
Karina had no answer to that question. She just assumed they were trying to keep people calm for as long as possible. Rich and poor alike were on equal footing for once. The entire population as lambs to the slaughter. The people in charge were just as clueless as all the rest. They didn’t know how to deal with an event that had no precedent, or a higher power that couldn’t be reasoned with. The only option available to them was to preserve civilisation for as long as they possibly could. It was their best hope at keeping some semblance of peace, and to stop the world devolving into chaos.
“Do you think that people are going to show up?” asked Dora.
“They'll show up,” said Karina.
“Why?”
“Because it's normal.”
Dora nodded and stared out the window a while. People were already on the streets asking for things. Food, money, drugs - some were even looking for diapers. Everyone likes to think they are prepared for the unexpected, but they are preparing for the expected unexpected. Things like floods and tornados. They are the disaster lottery tickets, but they are expected all the same. No one really knows what the real unexpected is until it arrives.
“You were the first to say you would go to New Orleans. You weren't tempted to just take off like some of the others?” asked Dora.
“What is there to take off to? I don't have any family to speak of, just an abusive stepdad that I ran away from many years ago. Am I supposed to find some hole to crawl into?”
“You could find a nice, handsome man to fuck. Get some drugs, go out in a haze. That's what I'd do if I didn't have a family waiting for me. It would be like reliving my college days.”
“Why aren't you with your family now? Why'd you stay?”
“The last time I was in the ring, I lost. If it is going to be my last match, then I plan to go out on top. I'll join up with Arturo and Maya after. The angels said two years, not two days. I plan to do something for me first.”
They arrived at the New Orleans Arena, and Karina found that she was right. People did show up. The arena was far from capacity, but when she glanced through the curtain, she saw a solid 5,000 in attendance. Karina went to apply her body paint as the first bouts began. She decided that she would be a phoenix, rising up from the ashes of this world. The golden feathers ran up the length of her arms in exquisite detail and caught fire at her shoulders, with the flames spreading up to her face. She enlisted the help of some Renegade staffers to cover the spots on her back that she couldn't reach herself.
Once everything was done, she dismissed the staff and assessed the finished article in the mirror as the angel Uriel appeared at her side. His real feathers brushed against her painted ones, though she felt nothing of their touch. It was the first angel Karina had seen in person, and she was momentarily stunned by its beauty, unsure of what to say. The angel leaned in to whisper in her ear, and she paid very close attention to his words.
“You think you will rise, but there is nothing after the fire.”
Karina just laughed, and the angel pulled back as if slapped. It took only one sentence for her to be tired of their shit.
“Then take a front row seat and watch me burn,” she said as she left a perplexed Uriel behind.
“Don’t you care for your soul?” the angel called after her, but Karina ignored him and kept on walking. She never did believe, even now when her eyes told her that she should. Now that she had seen an angel up close, she saw no reason to roll over for them. She decided that she wasn’t going to let these strangers take her world away from her without a fight. There had to be something that someone could do. They all just had to put their heads together and come up with a solution.
Karina bumped into Lucha Dora in the hallway. Her skin gleamed with sweat from her recent match.
“You look amazing,” Dora managed to say in between breaths.
“I feel amazing,” said Karina. “Did you get to go out on top like you wanted?”
“I did. Though none of this is what I want. Strange to think that I will never set foot in a wrestling ring again.”
“You leave one circus to deal with another. Wish me luck, I'm up next.”
“I would if you needed it, but people like us make our own luck. So, go out there and make your own, mamacita.”
'The Painted Phoenix' Karina Katana made her grand entrance to the strangest of crowds. There was a quiet and subdued aura about them. Karina guessed that she shouldn't have been surprised. There is only so much that you can make people forget through the spectacle of wrestling.
Her opponent for the evening was Back Alley Sally. She wasn't as good at the craft of pro wrestling as Dora was, but she was good enough to put on a show. Karina did everything at double the intensity she would typically do it at. It was a struggle for Sally to keep up with the pace but keep up she did. They were wrestling to beat the devil.
Every high spot in the match was met with polite, respectful applause from the audience, but as Karina started building towards the big finish, she noticed something odd. The crowd hadn't reacted to any of the last three moves. They made no sound at all. All that could be heard in the arena was the groaning wood and metal of the wrestling ring as she slammed Sally down to the mat. It was like they were all waiting for something to happen. Then it did.
KA-BOOM!!! An explosion at the far side of the arena. KA-BOOM!!! Another. Body parts flew through the air as they were violently ripped from torsos. Gore splattered against the faces of shocked onlookers in the crowd. They all screamed and desperately tried to find an exit to run for. KA-BOOM
!!! Each blast was a powerful vibration of panic. Karina could see its source now from her elevated position in the ring. A man was walking through the crowd and tossing grenades as casually as someone might throw a piece of gum. People charged at him, but he shot them just as casually as he tossed the grenades.
Other people started getting their guns out in response and shooting in any direction their panic pointed them to. Their bullets only killed more innocents. The bodies were piling up fast. Those that didn't have a weapon ran away, and those that couldn't run got trampled by those that could. Sally turned to Karina with a deer in the headlights look.
“What do we do?”
A stray bullet clipped Sally in the head and down she went. Her blood ran down the phoenix feathers on Karina's body as Karina looked down at it in shock. The angel Uriel sat watching from the front row with a smile on his face. He had taken a seat to watch Karina burn, just as she suggested. KA-BOOM!!!
That one hit the ring. Karina got thrown by the blast as pieces of canvas and turnbuckle cut through the air. Her head hurt. The room sang. The building was on fire. People were screaming. People were dying. Karina did the only thing she could do. She ran. She ran for the backstage area and almost got trampled by some fans who had the same idea. One of them even wore a picture of Karina on their t-shirt. Karina punched and kicked to get people out of her way and fought through the swarm. Once she was through the curtain, she stepped to the side and let the stampede of humanity pass her by.
“Lucy!” she called. “Dora!”
Karina searched for her friend, checking behind every door. She happened across a terrified staffer cowering in a corner.
Killing Angels Page 7