He walked to the front of the RV, and I started hyperventilating a little. Denise noticed, and she grabbed me by both arms, saying, “Breathe. Breathe, Ferdie. We need you to be cool right now; it’s not the time to panic. Come on, walk outside with me.”
We walked out of the RV, her buff arm around my shoulder like always. “You can do it, Ferdie. There’s no one else who could. I know you wish this burden didn’t fall on you, but it does. I’ll be with you. That’s for always. Deep breaths, now. Get your head straight.”
I wiped my face again, and choked back a sob. “Where should we go? I mean, to do the video Terry is talking about?”
“You know, I always wanted to go to New York City, and now’s our chance. If there’s a center for information in the world, that’s it. We drop out of the in-between right in the middle of Times Square. Now that should get some attention.”
We were so focused on our discussion that we didn’t hear Arnie as he came up behind us. We both jumped when he said, “Sorry for eavesdropping, but you will need me to go along. Plus, I’m getting antsy. I need some action, to tell the truth.”
“Don’t worry, there’s no way I would do this without you. I feel like the rest of the group should stay here and prepare for what’s to come, though. What do you think?”
“I agree. The three of us can handle the job there, but more might confuse matters.”
“Ok, it’s settled, then. The Power Trio to New York City.”
We all chuckled just a little at that. “I just can’t figure out how, or maybe more importantly, why all of this happened around me. I know I have these stupid powers, but aside from that I’m just a slightly weird teenager. Ok, maybe more than slightly weird, but still… I hope I get the chance to figure it all out before it’s too late.”
Arnie ruffled my hair, and said, “Me too, son.”
Well, that made me cry just a little.
Then Denise gave me a squeeze and said, “Me three.”
Well, that made me cry a little more.
After a few minutes we walked back to the RV, and Terry was finishing up his phone calls. “One of the improvements I made to this iPhone was to install one of the graphene batteries we developed. It works quite well… it will hold a charge for two weeks of regular use before it needs recharging. At any rate, all is set. We go live in three hours. It will take that long for them to get the hacks set up properly. We must hit it at just the right moment, so we can’t miss any of the timeline. They think they can get us five minutes of air time before being shut down. I’ll need to let them know the location asap, though.”
We all stared at Terry for a moment, and then I said, “Why didn’t we get you to join us before now? You’re awesome. Thanks for getting that set up. We talked about it, and we think we can make the biggest impact and reach the most people if we go to Times Square. What do you think?”
A slow smile spread over Terry’s face. “I think that is the best place in the world to do this. You now have… let’s see… two hours and fifty seven minutes to get ready. It would be best if you were well prepared with what you are going to say and do once we go live. We will likely only get one shot at this. In a week’s time, such institutions as news organizations and TV stations may no longer exist. It’s now or never, Ferdie. Some governments have already declared martial law, and it will happen here soon as well. It won’t take long for that to break down, though, and then all is lost. I… I just got a bit of news on my phone… there is an outbreak in Japan. Not a lot of guns among the public in Japan, so they are… its knives, swords, gardening tools, whatever they can get their hands on, and they’re tearing one another apart. It started in… Osaka, but it appears to be spreading. We now have two hours and fifty five minutes.”
“What time is it right now?”
“It’s two fourteen.”
“That makes it… is New York three hours ahead, or four?”
“It’s three, so that makes it five fourteen there. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I’m just thinking that we don’t want to do this in the dark, and if we wait two hours and… what is it now, fifty four minutes? It will be dusk. I hate to ask, because I’m not ready, but on the other hand I don’t think I’ll ever be ready, so I guess it doesn’t really matter. Do you think we could get it going faster? I mean your hacker friends, could they make it happen sooner?”
“I’ll be right back.”
He zipped around to the front of the RV again, dialing as he went. At that moment the rest of the group came outside. We told them of our plan, and of course the protests began. “You must take me also! Never have I seen New York, and this is to be one of my dreams. Please, Ferdie, I must go,” begged Ling.
“But Mr. Ferdie, you need more defense should problems arise. Ms. Ling is right, you should take her, and me as well. Remember, we were all in the video that the world saw, and we deserve the chance to show that we are not the evil creatures they think us to be.”
I have to admit, there’s some logic in taking all of them… I wanted them to stay here to keep Aunt Martha, Pasquale, and Terry safe, but I’ve checked everyone and The Master doesn’t have a connection to anyone here… I need to talk to Marsh…
Aunt Martha had her hands on her hips, a stern look on her face. “You need to take Ling and Raffy along with you. Us normal humans will be ok here, and we have this lovely weather to enjoy. I don’t think it’s over one hundred ten degrees today. We have this fancy car to go cruising around in if we need to… maybe we’ll zip down to the AstroBurger while you’re gone, get a burrito or something. Rafael’s right, they were all in the video, and they all deserve the chance for vindication. That’s what I think, anyway.”
Pasquale was nodding his head in agreement as she talked. “I hear you. I’m just feeling a little uneasy, that’s all. Tell you what, I’m going to go talk to Marsh again, I need his advice. I’ll be right back.”
How did it happen that all these adults look to me for decisions and permission? That will never not be weird… like that double negative that just came out of my brain…
“Hey, dummy, are you here just to admire the scenery or did you want to ask me something?”
“I assume you heard all that. What do you think?”
“Take them all. They’re right; they deserve the chance to clear their name. Even if it won’t really matter soon, you should let them be seen. Do you know what you’re going to say?”
I… I don’t know. I just feel like I need to tell the truth, just let it all out, and let the people see what we can do. What do you think?”
“Dude, I hate to pay you a complement, you know that. But you’re good in the moment, so I think you’re right. Have some ideas, but let it flow, you’ll be ok. The biggest thing, even if you screw up everything else, is get those Other dudes to come out here. That’s what really matters. Look, here comes Dr. Reyes; you better go. I know he told you to call him Terry, but I can’t do that. Tell him ‘hi’ for me. This is it, man. Make it count.”
“I’ll do my best. See you soon.”
I faded into the area outside the door of the RV, and Terry said, “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that. I called in a few more contacts, and we got the time moved up. Thirty minutes. But that was two minutes ago, so twenty eight minutes from now. Better get ready. I’m going to go put on my armor, if you don’t mind.”
He went to his car, got into the back, and slipped on… a Metallica t-shirt. Then he went to the front seat, turned on the sound system, and out of the speakers came blasting the primal thump of… Enter Sandman.
I don’t know, it just energizes me,” he explained. “Let’s put these Others to sleep permanently, shall we?”
Man, this dude is really awesome… he totally saved the day… at least I hope he did…
Chapter Twenty Nine
We all gathered in the living room of the RV to discuss our excursion to New York in the twenty minutes or so we had remaining, and it ended up feeling like a point of
no return. “We’re getting close, I can feel it,” declared Denise. “I think it’s all going to end tomorrow, one way or another.”
“I too share your feeling, Ms. Denise. Us or them, it ends here. And you, Ms. Ling?”
I glanced over, and Ling had tears in her eyes. Uh, oh, look away… now is not a good time to cry… “I feel the emotion for this adventure. We must win, for our families, for all the people. We must so.”
We spent a short while strategizing, but there wasn’t enough time to plan thoroughly.
“Just follow my lead; you’ll know what to do. I wish none of this had ever happened. I wish we were all home, happy with our families and our lives. But since it did happen, I’m sure glad I got to go through it with all of you, and Marsh-dog. There’s no way I would have made it otherwise. After this is over, maybe we should all go out for breakfast or something, maybe Denny’s. What do you say?”
That brought a polite chuckle from a very serious group. “Time’s almost up. Better get set for blast-off. That reminds me…” Inspired by Terry and his Metallica t-shirt, I ran to the closet in the back bedroom and grabbed… a NASA t-shirt. “Hey, Terry, I have my armor, too. Ok, guys, let’s go outside.”
In the little seating area outside the door of the RV, we all hugged Aunt Martha, Pasquale, and Terry, and they wished us well. Then we joined hands, and shared eye contact all around. “Ok, let’s make this count. Ready?”
“Wait, Ferdie. First we must do the high-five!”
“I almost forgot. Come on, everyone, hands in.”
All hands went up, we touched, and disappeared into the in-between.
A moment later, we faded in right in the center of Times Square at five fifty p.m., Eastern time. There were people everywhere; I had never seen that many people in one place at one time, all walking very quickly, mostly in their own little worlds. As we faded in, some noticed us but just kept walking, which I thought was strange. Some others, though, stopped and began pointing and shouting, and very quickly there was a massive crowd gathered around us. I put up a force field to keep them at a distance; some came rushing up, but bounced off, landing on their backsides, shocked expressions all around.
Soon we were recognized. “Hey, it’s them!”
“Yeah, From the YouTube video!”
“The ones who killed all those people in New Mexico!”
As the crowd built, Ling got the iPhone set up on the little tripod that Terry gave us.
I gathered our group together, and said, “This is it. Is the camera ready?”
“Yes, it is very much ready.”
“Do they have us hacked into the speakers in the square?”
“One moment…” Ling spoke into the iPhone: “Check, checking…” Her voice came blasting out all around the square.
“Ok, here we go. I’m bringing down the force field as soon as you guys get warmed up. The heat will keep them back.”
We were standing in a raised area next to a statue, and taxis were stopped and angrily honking all around due to the crowd that had amassed. Virtually all the buildings in the area had video billboards advertising clothes, perfumes, and various other items, and some were displaying live news programs. Denise walked about twenty feet in front of me, Arnie to the right and Rafael to the left. “NOW!” I called, and Ling turned on the video recorder. At the same time, the angels all ramped up the heat; I could feel it burning me slightly, even at a distance. They were glowing brightly, and the crowd gasped and backed away. I could hear police vehicles with sirens blaring, but they couldn’t approach due to the immense crowd and traffic being stalled in all directions. Suddenly, most of the video billboards showed my face, which would have been totally embarrassing if there had been time to think about it.
As I spoke, my voice came roaring out of the Times Square sound system. “Hi, everyone. My name is Ferdie. These are my friends, Denise, Arnie, Ling, and Rafael. We’re a group of supernatural people. I know how crazy that sounds; it sounds crazy to me, and I am one. It’s true, though. Do you think these guys would be able to make this kind of heat from their bodies if they were normal people? They’re technically what you would call angels, and they can do all kinds of supernatural stuff. Ling and I are different. We’re part of a group called The Seven. We have different abilities; some of you tried to approach us and bounced off of an energy field that I was projecting. That’s one of the things we can do. We don’t have time right now to get into all of it, but just know that we can do lots of unusual things. We’ve tried to stay undercover, and help people from behind the scenes, but there is another group, who we call The Others. I know, dumb name. The thing is, all the bad stuff that has been happening in the world, they’re responsible for it. We’ve been trying to stop them for ages, but now things have gone too far, so we need to come out in the open and let you know what is really happening.
“These supernaturals, The Others, have been trying to kill me my whole life, because they think I am the thing standing between them and domination over the universe. I know, I’m just a teenager, but that’s what they think. They made my mother kill my father. They tried to make her kill me, but she wouldn’t do it so she killed herself instead. They killed my best friend’s parents and almost killed me, but thanks to him I escaped. We went to find another supernatural person to get some help, but they killed him and almost got me again. That time I was saved by Denise. Those same people returned to the little town in Italy and massacred every resident. You guys obviously know about that. They tried to kill my aunt and sister, but I was lucky enough to save them. My sister disappeared, though, and we haven’t seen her since. Remember the Carnage in the Cornfield? They wanted to find her as a way of getting to me, so they gathered up all her friends and took them to Canada, and killed them all because they didn’t know where she was.
“We have been trying to catch them, stop them, but they’ve been very tricky. We tried to divide them to snare some of them, but somehow they knew of our plan and they killed one of us, and almost killed me. They attacked Artesia. I know you all saw us on the YouTube video, but we went there to try to stop the people from killing themselves; that’s how The Others work, they get people to kill one another. We did stop them, but not before a lot of people died. That was really bad. The point is, the bloodbaths in Panama and Japan that are happening right now, even as we speak, are just the beginning. They won’t stop until everyone is dead. So now I’m left with no other options.”
The crowd was completely hushed; even the taxis had stopped honking. I turned and looked directly into the iPhone. “I am calling you out, Master, in front of the whole world. Quit hiding behind your minions, quit running scared. Prove you’re not the coward that I know you are. Prove you’re not a weak, broken little man who has to kill to make himself feel big. If you want me dead, come and get me. I won’t hide, and I won’t run. Let’s get this over with, once and for all. You have us outnumbered, so what do you have to lose? You’ll know where to find me. I’ll give you a signal you can’t miss at noon tomorrow. I picked high noon because I know you like the theatrics. We’ve had lots of good chats. Let’s have one more before it’s all over. I…” and before I could say anything else, the hack got shut down.
Oh, man, I left out how they killed Marsh-dog and Arnie… that would have taken too much explaining anyway, there wasn’t enough time… I wanted to get in one more shot at The Master, but I think he got the message… now let’s see what happens…
Although some in the crowd yelled obscenities, many more applauded, haltingly at first, then thunderously. I didn’t know what to do then; I didn’t expect or plan for it. Eventually I just waved to them, and they roared louder still. Shouts of “Give ‘em hell, Ferdie!” could be heard among the clamor. Eventually I held up my hands for quiet. By now Denise, Arnie, and Rafael had returned to their normal temperatures, and I motioned for them and Ling to come near. Ling gathered the iPhone and tripod, and we stood together facing the crowd. I could now see police officers mixed
among the throng, and they were also applauding and shouting.
“Man, I didn’t think it would turn out like this at all. How about you guys?” I hissed out of the corner of my mouth.
Each one chortled heartily, even Arnie. I motioned again for the crowd to quiet, and shouted at the top of my lungs, “Watch this, it’s pretty cool!”
I raised my hand, and we all went up for a group high-five. “Ok, let’s get out of here, but not too fast. Let’s give them a little show.”
It took us a good three seconds to fade out, and we heard the crowd bellowing their approval as we went, waving with our non-high-five hands. What a relief… now for the hard part...
Chapter Thirty
We sat in the living area of the RV, yakking in an animated way about the incredible outcome of our trip to Times Square. “I think people were just desperate for some good news, any kind of good news. Even if it was totally unbelievable. We gave them quite a spectacle, though.”
“Oh, we saw it. Terry has cell service in his car, and a nice big screen. We saw the whole thing. You looked poised and confident, all of you. It was very convincing, didn’t you think, Terry?” Aunt Martha cooed.
“I thought all of you were fantastic. I agree that the response was unexpected, but obviously welcome. They accepted the explanation about the Artesia video quite easily, which I think was the biggest surprise. All in all, a very successful venture.”
“Yeah, now we just need to see if The Others show up. What time is it?”
“It’s… four thirty. That was quite a whirlwind trip from coast to almost coast.”
“Whoa, I feel tired. Maybe it’s jet lag,” said Denise.
“Ha ha. I really do feel tired, though. I think it’s just the relief from that part of our journey being over. If you guys don’t mind, I need a little bit of private time… I just need to do some thinking. I’m going to walk out in the desert a ways. See you a bit later.”
Ferdie and The Seven: Book three: Fractals Page 20