Star-Spangled Apocalypse

by Harmon Cooper

  “He never tuned in?” Virgil asked.

  “I don’t think he even turned on,” Nathanial said.

  “You see, no matter what anyone tells you, if you feel like you always on the right path, then you gonna go ahead and stroll down that path. It don’t matter what I say, and it don’t matter what an angel says.”

  “It can definitely be hard to find the right path,” James muttered under his breath. The right anything, for that matter.

  “People think they is on the right path all the time, but they go through so many extremes to get there. Makes you wonder which path was right in the first place. I guess as long as free will remains, then at least people have a choice when they get to that ol’ fork in the road. We are given free will as a gift. There ain’t no particular path that can’t be forged, but there are paths that lead to destruction. Just like if you drove off that road over there into that ol’ oak tree. It’s a path that leads to destruction, plain and simple. But it’s still a path, and anyone on a path is on a mission.”

  “Not to be rude here, Nathanial, but what does any of this have to do with us now?” James asked as he ashed his cigarette out the window.

  “Well somethin’s been a-tryin’ to contact ya’ll,” Nathaniel said sharply. “But ain’t no angel or deity gonna straight up tell you what to do. No sir. That takes away the free will from the equation.”

  “Okay.”

  “You gotta find your own escape route. What I’m sayin’ is, next time you meet something, try and figure out what they is really tryin’ to say to you. I know ya’ll boys is on a mission from God, but so was Timothy Leary. After all, God don’t play dice.”

  Chapter 17: Molly Meets Modafinil in the Wake of Virgil’s Dream

  The three men arrived in Anson, Texas, a typical small southern town built around a square with a crumbling courthouse covered in a thick layer of dust in its center.

  After the three-hour drive, Virgil was ready to hand the wheel to someone else, but not before making sure Nathaniel got dropped off at the right location. Unfortunately, Nathaniel didn’t know exactly where he was supposed to go, so the three men spent a good twenty minutes driving around the small town looking for Nathaniel’s party.

  After a couple of loops, Nathaniel suggested that they stop at the gas station on the outskirts of town. They pulled up to the gas station and Nathaniel puttered his way to the payphone, aided by Virgil, and called his client.

  James sat in the jeep reading a local newspaper he had picked up in the gas station and chain smoking cigarettes. Roughly thirty minutes later, and a few long sips of whiskey as he tuned out Virgil and Nathaniel, a bottom-heavy man in overalls pulled up in an old Ford truck and honked twice.

  “Welp, that’s my ride. Now, I appreciate you boys cartin’ me all over the great state of Texas. I want you to remember though, if it becomes too tough, too difficult; see if you can’t ask that little voice inside yourself what you should do next. Also,” Nathaniel looked over his sunglasses in Virgil’s direction, “I know of this fella that usually hangs out at a diner somewhere in New Mexico. Look for him. You’ll know him when yah see him. Be careful though, he can be a little tricky.”

  “You think he’ll really be there in the middle of New Mexico?” Virgil asked, not a hint of skepticism in his voice. “That’d be cray.”

  “I sure do. In fact, welp, there are just some things I just knows.” Nathaniel smiled and glanced up towards the sun.

  “What city?”

  “Now that I don’t know, but I’m sure you boys will find him though, if fate has its way.” Nathaniel leaned over to Virgil and whispered in what he assumed was his ear: “One more thing, Virgil, and you don’t have to share this little piece with anyone, if you try and take the world by storm, you’ll be swallowed by the sea of your own flood. We clear?”

  Virgil nodded. “Yes, sir. I appreciate the advice and stories; I hope your gig goes well, too. Who knows? Maybe we will run into you again.”

  “Now, even I don’t know that.” Nathaniel waved in what he thought was James’ direction. “God bless you boys and be safe! Be careful what you put in your bodies ‘cause ya’ll needs to focus.”

  ***

  “Man, Nathaniel sure is a strange dude.”

  “Can’t disagree with you there.” James started the jeep and pulled onto the road heading towards Amarillo. He’d just checked his GoogleFace map, something he hadn’t done thus far on the trip. Something about knowing precisely where he was going bothered him.

  Keep it an adventure.

  Besides, there were road signs, and Virgil and he mostly kept to the highway anyhow.

  James took a swig from his flask as the vehicle picked up speed. “I didn’t expect him to do the Michael Jackson crotch grab. Also, it was pretty strange how he smelt the feather, like he knows the scent of angels or something. Remember that?”

  “Definitely some weird shit.” Virgil opened his box of narcotics and pulled out a dwindling sack of marijuana and a paper. “Crap, I’m going to have to roll some extra skinny joints until we find someone who has more bud...well I mean not anytime real soon, I still have over an ounce. Besides, once we hit Colorado, I’m gold. Going to get high as a motherfucker there. Got to love that legalization, yo.”

  The mention of Colorado only reminded James how far they had come and how potentially damaging the outcome of this journey would be. Even with what he’d seen at the hotel, he still felt the trip was somehow false. “You don’t have anything in that box that will keep me awake do you?” he asked, hoping to take his mind off what lay ahead.

  “The apothecary is open for business,” Virgil said as he went through his box. “Here you go; it’s called Modafinil. It’s an amphetamine stimulant they give soldiers to keep them up for hours on end.”

  “Does it work?” James inquired.

  “Most def. It’s supposed to not have any adverse effects either. This is some Pentagon-approved shit. You want one?” Virgil asked like a deranged pharmacist.

  “Hell, why not? I want to get to New Mexico tonight, and I’m feeling drowsy as shit.” James reached his hand back for the pill.

  “Well, if you don’t mind, I’m going to take a little nap, then.” Virgil yawned. “All that driving made me tired.”

  “Now you know how I feel,” James said as he tossed the pill back.

  ***

  Virgil woke hours later, covered in sweat. He watched with blurred vision as James bit his nails frantically, his eyes darting back and forth across the road.

  “Dude, where are we?”

  “Shit man I don’t even know I would say we were somewhere outside of Amarillo or something passed through a few small places didn’t really see much you were asleep oh man Texas is big but you were asleep!” James spoke a mile a minute, not pausing between words and rambling on like a coked out beat poet.

  Virgil remembered giving him the Modafinil before falling asleep and grinned halfheartedly. “How do you feel?”

  “I feel crazy! This shit is awesome! I could totally drive to Denver Canada Wyoming Alaska you name it let’s do it. My heart is beating so fast I can practically taste it and it feels great it’s like a drum inside my body boom boom boom boom wow I can’t even explain to you how this feels Virgil I wish I could but you said you hadn’t tried it so I don’t think you would quite understand but no worries I am sure you have more!” James smiled, grinding his teeth and flicking his eyes across the empty Texas landscape.

  “Wow, dude!” Virgil snickered.

  “Oh man, I was thinking about Nathaniel dressed as Michael Jackson which I thought was strange because a black guy was dressed as a black guy who kind of resembled a white guy and somehow all this reminded me of the yin yang symbol then I thought about the Ruskies and then the war and how the government declared martial law. Man, we’re all fucked!”

  “Understatement of the year.”

  James drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Are you hungry?”

&nbs
p; “Yeah, I could go for something,” Virgil said, rubbing his belly.

  “Good! I have something right here I stopped at a gas station in Amarillo and bought some chips an energy drink which I just drank a case of water that’s in the back and I also got some beef jerky!”

  “Hells yeah.”

  James tossed the jerky bag to the backseat and swerved into the right lane. “Whoooooo! I also finally filled up that empty coffee cambro with gas. Now we have extra if we need it we can drive straight into the sun and if we want we should be able to make it to New Mexico no sweat!”

  “You filled the cambro with gas?”

  “Sure did, just in case all this gets crazy now we have back up supplies because you never know man I don’t even know but I can assume it would be nice to have back up just in case something happens that’s unpredictable,” said James.

  Virgil shook his head and took a bite of the jerky, savoring the processed teriyaki flavor. He had been wondering why the cabin smelled like gasoline. He reached around to pull out a bottle of water, opened it and downed most of it with a single gulp.

  As James rambled about the different types of farm animals he’d seen while Virgil was asleep, Virgil traced his finger along the carved surface of his wooden stashbox.

  He opened his collection and looked inside, wondering what he should take next. He took note of what he had left, moved the bag of ecstasy over, lightly squeezed the mescaline pills with his fingers, and settled on a plastic, burnt orange pill bottle.

  He shook the bottle.

  “I hear pills! Any more Moda-whatever-it’s-called? Wow it sure is desolate out here. Hey! Are you taking something else back there?”

  “Well, I figured I would take a hit or two of molly, just to lighten the mood.”

  “What’s molly?” James blurted out.

  Virgil yawned again. “It’s like a more organic ecstasy, made from Sassafras root. It doesn’t really have the upper effect of ecstasy, but does have all the good feelings. It’s like your first kiss; butterflies and anticipation.”

  “Fuck me! Driving across Texas doing drugs during Armageddon, is there really any other way to live?” James pounded his hand against the wheel. “What in the fuck are we doing?”

  “I don’t know, but I really need to piss.”

  “Piss it is!”

  James saw a small dirt road and ferociously pressed down on the brakes. The jeep nearly spun out of control as the back end of the vehicle replacing the location of the front in a matter of seconds, spraying a cloud of red dust into the air.

  As James pulled onto the dirt road, the screeching sounds from the jeep’s rubber tires still rang in Virgil’s head.

  Virgil placed his palms on his ears, and rubbed them up and down. The sound kept repeating itself, bouncing back and forth between his ear drums.

  Small rocks hit the rumbling vehicle in a bizarre, rhythmic cadence, eventually creating a wall of sharp, tingy sounds. This coupled with the bumpy terrain quickly added to Virgil’s anxiety. The road, like most dirt roads, seemed to go on infinitely.

  “Piss there.” James pulled up to a stop sign and pointed towards a decaying house that was shaded by a couple of portly oak trees.

  The house appeared to be condemned, evident by its missing windows and broken down front door. The speckled paint job stuck out like scalloped acne scars, and the weathered driveway looked like it had survived a dozen earthquakes.

  A broken pipe, with large kidney-shaped rust stains spread up one corner of the house, while a small plastic awning was attached haphazardly to the other side, leaning heavily towards its demise.

  “Are you serious?”

  In front of the house was a toppled barbed wire fence, a couple of animal skulls and an old washer and dryer. The washer had plants growing out of its opening, reaching out from inside it like an octopus and nearly touching the ground. James pulled into what used to be a driveway, careful to avoid a sharp crater, and pointed towards the house.

  “Serious as a heart attack. Take your piss, Virgil, and we’ll be on our way!”

  Chapter 18: The House in the Middle of Nowhere

  “I’ll be right back,” Virgil called to James as he slowly made his way towards the abandoned house.

  “All right, buddy.”

  As Virgil neared the back of the house, he noticed a rotting tire lying on the ground with a rope tied around it that looked like a noose. He traced the rope and its path to a large oak tree, sighing as he walked closer towards it.

  A shiver of fright danced down Virgil’s spine.

  Not knowing what triggered it, he spun around and looked up at the house. The house was decrepit, the roof needed some work but other than that, nothing seemed out of place.

  “Dude, chill,” he told himself as he turned and looked back at the field, figuring whatever sensation he had felt was just a figment of his imagination. That or the molly.

  As he finished watering a few weeds, Virgil heard a moaning sound from inside the abandoned home. He looked back at the house and gasped as he saw something trembling inside the open window, something that looked human.

  Too caught up in the moment to think things through, he rushed towards the back door of the house and burst into the kitchen, hopping over a toppled wash bin as he pushed his way into the living room.

  “Shit.”

  A pale young girl of about nine years of age stood in the corner of the living room, her dirty hair dangling around her face.

  Virgil paused, fear filling his chest with apprehension.

  The girl wore a faded green dress and a pair of torn leather sandal that looked like they had melted into the floor.

  “Are you okay?”

  Virgil gazed in horror at her long nails, which stretched from her hands nearly to the floor. She stood silent, gazing at the wall in front of her, occasionally shifting her head left or right.

  “Hello?” Virgil assumed he was hallucinating.

  The rational part of his mind told him that was indeed what was happening, but he couldn’t deny just how real she looked, how real all this felt.

  The young girl’s head moved slightly towards him, her hollow eyes still hidden behind her dirty hair. She reached one of her hands to her face and used her long curly nails to sweep her bangs aside.

  “What’s your name?” she asked, her lips curving into a crooked smile.

  Virgil shook his head, his eyes watering. “My name? My name’s Virgil.”

  “Oh.” The girl un-balled one of her fists and pulled her dress aside, showing Virgil her legs. A rash that looked strangely like the outline of several continents pulsated and swelled near her knees and thighs. Her shins had already succumbed to the disease, boiling like lava with infection.

  Virgil’s eyes swelled, it was hard enough staying calm in front of the girl and her haggard appearance, but seeing her sickening legs full of disease was too much for him to stomach, and this was before he really started paying attention to the putrid smell fumigating around her.

  He started to gag, clutching his stomach and leaning forward. He looked up at her mid-gag and watched as she started crying, her sniffles emerging from her face like sad hiccups.

  A deep breath in and he remembered what he had seen in the motel room, and how the creature had practically emerged from the mirror.

  There is no way she can be real, he reasoned at the back of his mind.

  “Is…is there anything I can do to help you?” Virgil asked despondently.

  “Maybe… I haven’t seen a human in so long.” Another tear fell down her cheek and onto her blouse. “Won’t you let me get a closer look at you?”

  For a split second she looked like ballerina, her upper torso moving but her legs stuck gracefully in one position. Virgil shook his head. He reasoned that there was no way the molly he had taken in the car was creating this hallucination.

  “Molly…doesn’t create visions,” he mumbled to himself. “Are you going to hurt me if I come closer?”

>   Her hair moved out from in front of her face and slid down her back. Small twigs emerged from her temples, wrapping her hair back and forming a crown of leaves around her forehead.

  “Well…look…I just don’t know...” Virgil started thinking out loud.

  “Virgy…” she whimpered, the intonation of her voice changing to that of Hope’s. “Come here and be with meee…just for a minute…..”

  “Why are you doing that?” Virgil demanded. “How do you even know about her!?”

  “Virgy…come here…”

  Her eyes sank into the top of her eye sockets. The air swelled around her frail body as she inhaled deeply. Menacing vines ripped from her back, flailing in the air behind her. What was once a small girl had quickly become an intimidating Medusa.

  Virgil panicked.

  He stepped off the carpet and looked around the room, noticing that everything was slowly gravitating towards her as she continued her measured inhale. Virgil shook his head in disbelief. He started to feel the oxygen depart from his lungs and found it harder and harder to breathe. The spiny vines on her back grew larger, convulsing and spinning chaotically.

  “Stop!” Virgil screamed at her as he felt the foundation of the house shaking. “You will kill us both!”

  She stopped and looked at Virgil with her eyes closed. “Oh Virgy…” she said in Hope’s voice. “Please come closer…”

  “Okay…just as long as you stop doing whatever it is you are doing!” He put both hands in front of him, hoping to calm the girl down. “Here’s the deal, I will come closer, but please don’t hurt me…I am helping my friend rescue his son in Denver and need to get back to the jeep soon.”

  “Come here, Virgy.”

  Virgil took one step closer.

  An image of a hospital bed mushroomed into Virgil’s mind, a heart monitor flatlining. A young boy in a coma, his father staring miserably at the tiny body. The woman’s voice changed into Hope’s again, this time more restrained and compressed.

  “Ohhhh Virgy,” she whispered melodically, “come beeee with me.”