Pursuit of the Apocalypse

by Benjamin Wallace

  “They were hurting people. They had to be stopped.”

  Hawk smiled. “Just like that?”

  Jerry nodded and cracked the door again. The hallway was empty. “Just like that.”

  Hawk was silent for a moment. Jerry expected him to laugh or gloat. But the man simply said, “I really admire that. Like you were fighting for justice. Real justice.”

  “Yeah, it wasn’t my best idea.”

  “Don’t be like that. What you did was important. Just because some powerful people want you dead, doesn’t make them right. You seem like a genuinely good dude, Librarian. I hope you find your girl.”

  Jerry sighed. He closed the door and stepped behind Hawk’s chair.

  “What are you doing?” Hawk asked.

  Jerry untied the rope that bound Hawk’s hands and walked over to the table.

  Hawk pulled his hands free and rubbed some feeling back into his wrists. The look on his face was more than surprise. He was looking for an answer. “But, I was trying to kill you, man.”

  “Yeah,” Jerry held up the axe and set it down on the table next to Hawk’s jacket. “But it wasn’t anything personal.” Jerry checked the door once more and stepped out into the hallway.

  TWENTY-NINE

  “You got to do it last time.”

  “Right, which means I’ve had more practice.”

  “Practice at screwing shit up, you mean. You didn’t need any practice at that.”

  “I’m not going to screw it up, Willie. Stop yelling at me.”

  “Coy, this is our last stick of dynamite. If we blow this then, well, we can’t blow anything else up. And then the girl gets away. And the guy gets away, and our money gets away.”

  “Shut up, Willie. This isn’t like last time. You saw how slow that old guy was driving. There’s no way I can mess it up.”

  “Give me the detonator, Coy.”

  “No. I’m going to do it.”

  “Give me the detonator, Coy!” Willie lunged for the detonator in Coy’s hand and a brief game of keep away ensued.

  At first, Coy tried to hold Willie back with one arm while keeping the detonator outstretched in the other. Willie tried to reach across this barrier without looking stupid which was rather difficult to do with his arms flailing the way they were. Before long he gave up and tried to work his way around to Coy’s other side. This also proved difficult since Coy’s other side was always moving.

  This went on for a minute or two with Willie trying to run around Coy and Coy turning away from Willie, and it didn’t end until Coy twirled himself up in the detonator cord, fell over, and landed on the plunger.

  This, in turn, set off their last stick of dynamite that was planted on a tree trunk at the base of the hill. The trunk disintegrated and the massive pine tree toppled across the highway just as the minivan came into view.

  “You moron!” Willie shouted. “You did it too soon!”

  Coy rolled onto his back and began untangling the detonator wire from around his ankles. “I’m sorry, Willie. I didn’t mean to blow it up.”

  “Didn’t mean to? That doesn’t make it okay! ‘Didn’t mean to’ doesn’t undo what you did. It doesn’t unblow up things. You screwed the trap. Again! Now they’ll just turn around and they’re going to get away. Again!”

  Coy threw the wire away from his feet and stood up. “Shut up, Willie. I feel bad enough as it is.”

  “Well, you’re about to feel a lot worse,” Willie raised his fists.

  Coy laughed for only a second. “Are you serious?”

  “Oh, I’m serious.”

  Coy put his own fists up. “Fine. If that’s the way you want it, let’s do it.”

  “Oh, it’s on, moron.”

  “Good. I’m sick of you always calling me stupid. Saying I’m dumb. I’m tired of you making fun of me.”

  The two men approached one another with their defenses up and began to circle. Then they each took a deep breath and started swinging.

  Willie threw a right cross.

  Coy jabbed with his left.

  Willie threw two quick jabs with his left and followed through with a right.

  Coy ducked low and came up with a right uppercut.

  Every single punch missed. Nothing was blocked, nothing was dodged, there was absolutely no parrying, and no one was hurt in the least.

  Willie took another swing and said, “I’m going to hit you so hard it’ll make your head spin. And then your head will be on backwards and you can watch me kick your ass.”

  “Oh yeah,” Coy said. “I’m going to put my foot so far up your ass that it’ll give your face athlete’s foot. And that will be an improvement.” Coy kicked and missed.

  “I’m going to punch you into tomorrow so when I wake up in the morning I can kick your ass back to today and you’ll be caught in a never-ending loop of an ass kickin’ time machine.” Willie swung and missed.

  “I’m going to kick your ass so hard you’re goin’ to walk funny, and when people asked what happened, you’re going to have to tell them that you got a Coy-lonoscopy.” Coy swung with his right and connected with Willie’s face. “Oh, shit, Willie, I’m sorry.”

  Willie backed away holding his jaw. “Dammit, Coy.”

  “I’m sorry, Willie.”

  “That does it!” Willie ran at Coy and dove for his midsection. He tackled him to the ground and the two men rolled over the crest of the hill. They tumbled faster the farther they went until they rolled apart.

  Coy fell naturally into a horizontal rolling style that made him dizzy but slowed his descent compared to Willie’s diving somersault approach which got him to the ditch faster but with considerably more pain.

  The world spun as Coy stood. This was inconvenient, but he kind of enjoyed the lightheadedness. He ran a crooked line to his friend’s side and bent to help him up. “Willie, are you okay?”

  Willie groaned and slapped Coy’s hand away as he rolled over onto his back. He got to his feet and found his balance.

  “Did you break anything?” Coy asked.

  “Shut up, Coy. I can’t believe—” Willie pointed to the road. The van was still approaching. “Holy shit, they’re still coming. Get down.”

  “What?”

  “I said get down.” Willie grabbed Coy and pulled him back into the ditch with a little more force than was probably necessary.

  # # #

  “Now what the hell is this?” Henry said as he slowed the minivan to a stop in front of the fallen tree. The pine blocked the entire south-bound lane.

  “Back up, Henry,” Lynn said. “I don’t like this.”

  “You’re the boss,” Henry reached his arm behind her seat and turned to back up. “Now would you take a look at these idiots?”

  Erica turned to see two men standing behind the minivan covered in dirt, bruises, and a little blood. They each held a weapon that was aimed through the van’s rear window.

  The taller of the two men yelled, “We want the girl. We know you’ve got her.”

  “Yeah,” the shorter one yelled. “Bring her out so we can give her to the Skinners.”

  The tall one slapped the short one, who yelled, “What did I say?”

  Henry looked at Erica. “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?”

  Erica shrugged. “I’ve never seen them before. And I don’t know who the Skinners are.”

  Lynn put a hand on Erica’s knee. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. We won’t let them take you.”

  “Thank you,” Erica said. “Are you sure you don’t have a gun?”

  Lynn shook her head and patted her knee. “There’s no need for that. Henry, go and talk to them.”

  “Will do,” Henry put the van in park and reached for the door.

  “No.” Erica grabbed Henry’s sleeve and pulled him back. “Don’t go out there, Henry.”

  He put a gentle hand on hers and pulled it away. “It’s okay, kiddo.”

  “No. You can’t,” she dove forward and grabbed for th
e gearshift. “Just back over them!”

  Again, Henry took her hand and moved it away. “No, they’d just do this to someone else. Some boys just need a good talking to. Someone just needs to tell them how it is to set them straight. I might as well be the one to do it.” The old man turned off the car, pushed the button for the hazard lights, and opened his door.

  Erica watched as he stepped outside.

  Lynn saw her concern and patted her hand. “It will be all right. Henry can take care of himself.”

  “He’s going to get himself killed,” Erica said.

  Lynn just smiled and nodded to the back window. “Just you watch.”

  “Good morning, boys.” Henry stepped to the back of the van and pointed to the tree. “Is this your tree?”

  “Give us the girl,” Willie said.

  Henry held up his hands in a way that said hold your horses. “We’ll get to the girl in a minute, but first I want to talk about this big ole tree that’s blocking the road. Is that your boys’ doing?”

  “Sure it’s our tree,” Coy said. “Give us the girl, and we’ll let you pass.”

  “I don’t think you boys understand. My taxes helped pay for this road. You see, it’s a public throughway, so you are, in fact, blocking my road.”

  “What the hell are you talking about, old man?” Coy asked.

  “This road. It’s not yours to just block whenever you want to. You’ve got to share it. Now I know your generation has come to expect that everything was made just for them, but these roads are for public use.”

  The tall one raised his gun a little higher. “Are you fucking crazy with this shit?”

  Henry smiled. “I don’t think there’s any reason for language like that, son. And, I may be a little older than you two boys, but that’s no reason to assume I’m crazy. That’s stereotyping. It’s inconsiderate and it’s wrong. Now, I’d like to use my road now if you don’t mind, so please remove your tree.”

  The smaller ambusher shook his head while the tall one processed the thought. “The war ended taxes, old man. It’s our road now.”

  “You know, son? For someone with such a smart mouth you sure say a lot of stupid things. War or no war, I paid for this road and I’d appreciate it if it would be kept in working order. Now you boys get to work on cleaning up your mess. I’d offer to help you, but I really think it best if you do it yourselves. I think it would help teach you a lesson.”

  Lynn smiled. “You tell them, Henry.”

  Henry turned to walk back to the car and wait for the road to be cleared.

  The two men began to yell things like “stop,” “get back here,” and “can’t you hear me, you senile old bastard.”

  The shorter one gave up first. “Maybe he can’t hear us.”

  “You don’t think he’s got one of those hearing aids, do you?” the tall one asked.

  “I hope not,” the shorter one said. “I don’t want to catch aids.”

  “That’s not what those are, you idiot.”

  “I’m not an idiot, Willie. You watch.” The shorter of the two men rushed up to Henry and shoved the gun in the old man’s back. “Stop right there and give us—”

  Henry stepped right, spun and seized the gun in his hands. He rolled the gun back so the barrel was pointing at his attacker, kicked the younger man in the crotch, and yanked the gun forward.

  The taller bandit yelled and raised his weapon to fire as Henry backed away, racked a fresh round into the chamber, and fired twice.

  The taller bandit dropped his gun to the pavement with a clatter and fell forward clutching his stomach. The shorter man turned and yelled, “Willie,” as Henry took two steps forward and brought the gun down across his face.

  Henry kept the weapon trained on Willie. The other man was out cold.

  Lynn shook her head. “Some kids never learn.”

  Erica opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the road. She rushed up to Henry’s side as he nudged the taller man with his foot.

  The downed gunman groaned and lifted his head.

  “That was amazing, Henry. How did you do that?” she asked. “Who are you?”

  Lynn appeared next to her on the road. “I told you we wouldn’t let them take you.”

  “Yeah,” Henry reared back and kicked the wounded man in the head. “We found you first.”

  THIRTY

  Getting off of the campus was easy. A combination of escaped bears and Freedom Enforcement Officers kept the men from Alasis occupied.

  Gunshots filled Tolerance as some of the citizens surprisingly found the will to fight back against the group that he could only assume was the Skinners. He had heard of the infamous group from Alasis, but any solid facts were buried so deep in hearsay that he had assumed they weren’t real at all. The tyrants of the city in the north knew better than most the power of a good scary story to keep people in line.

  The sun was setting when he emerged from the coliseum, and he was able to stick to the long shadows of the campus buildings as he made his way back to the town.

  Skinner vehicles were everywhere. Dozens of nightmare machines destroyed the campus grounds beneath spinning wheels as they terrorized the populace and chased down anyone who dare stand against them.

  Anyone unfortunate enough to be run down was left to die impaled on the machines as the drivers selected new targets. The screams of men and women mixed with the sound of exhaust as the citizens died upon the rusted spikes and other wicked implements built into the Skinners’ cars.

  An SUV fitted with spiked sweeper bars tore past his hiding place and left an open path before him. Jerry dashed across the grounds towards the front gate. He inched his way along the wall and peered around the corner.

  Guy Fawkes One and Two were both very dead, and two of the Skinners had taken up their post. Unlike the Tolerance guards, these two men were focused and cast their attention inside the campus grounds.

  They stood silently with keen eyes behind horrific masks and appeared immovable until the squelch of a radio broke their attention. One sentry wore a radio mic on his shoulder and he cocked his ear to the speaker. He listened for a moment before responding with, “Affirmative.”

  The second guard didn’t wait for an explanation. “Did they catch him?”

  “No. We’ve got the girl. They found her on the highway east of town. They’re sending a couple of cars to escort them now.”

  They had the girl. Erica was alive! But she had been captured again, and it was worse than before. Alasis had her now. And every second he waited she was getting farther away.

  The second guard gestured to a pair of motorcycles standing in the road. “Should we take the bikes and go with them?”

  The first followed his gaze and waved him off. “No. We wait here and shoot anyone that tries to get out.”

  When they turned back to the campus, the Librarian was in front of them with his weapon drawn. He fired twice at each guard and dropped them both. Less than a minute later he was on a motorcycle with the radio squatting in his ear.

  He sped through the town avoiding the headlights of the Alasis patrol vehicles. They were everywhere, and for a brief moment he was flattered that they would send so many men after him.

  Destroying the truck had been a matter of survival. To protect the town of New Hope, destroying the vehicle and the raiders within had been necessary. He never would have guessed the action would haunt him a year later. It had been a matter of life and death to him, but it had meant much more to the men behind it.

  It had exposed a weakness, and they were the type of men that relied on a perception of strength to maintain control. Until the day that he and the people of New Hope dared raise up and assault Alasis’s men, no one had been able to stand against the city’s might.

  It wasn’t something they would let pass.

  He stopped the bike briefly and dismounted. The lights were too much. He took the butt of the pistol to the bike and shattered each of the bulbs that threatened to give hi
m away in the darkening night. But it wasn’t enough.

  He wasn’t far from the truck when a pair of escort vehicles spotted him. Their tires squealed as they turned to pursue him.

  The bike wasn’t quick, but it was nimble. He played this edge to its fullest by finding narrow streets and blazing his own trails through backyards and alleyways. The radio barked in his ear as his presence was reported and spread to the Skinners throughout the town.

  It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was getting to Erica. He cut through a neighborhood park and gained a minute or two on his pursuers.

  The light had all but faded, and taking the less beaten path was becoming more and more dangerous as obstacles became all but invisible in the darkness. But, the truck wasn’t far. And he knew it would be safe.

  He recognized an abandoned car that he had noted to mark the street and twisted the throttle. The bike sped to the house where he had left the truck. He pulled into the driveway and leapt from the seat, letting the bike roll into a hedge where the machine imbedded itself in the bushes and stalled out.

  He grabbed the handle on the garage door and threw it open.

  The mass of brown fur struck him in the chest and forced him to the ground.

  Chewy’s nose dug into his neck seconds before her tongue lashed out in a thousand places.

  “Get off, girl.” He pushed the dog back and stood up.

  She buried her head in his hip and demanded a pet.

  He patted her once and pushed his way through to the garage. “I know where she is, girl.”

  Chewy barked as if she understood.

  Jerry opened the door to the truck and the giant dog jumped past him to the passenger seat where she began to bark.

  “I’m sorry, Chewy.” He reached behind the seat and pulled out a pair of jumper cables. “I know you like the truck. But it’s not going to be fast enough.”

  # # #

  The scream of seven hundred horses shook the garage as the massive Hellcat engine blared. The Librarian smiled. His dog was not amused. The giant dog was cramped in the backseat and barked at the noise of the engine.

  “Oh, get over it.” Jerry dropped the car into first gear and shot from the garage. He left half the tires at the end of the driveway as he acclimated to the vehicle’s throttle. The car’s rear end swung wide as he cranked the wheel to put the Challenger on the street.