Then Gabriella added, “I agree that it would be best to try to drive without stopping, and if you do stop, we should not know where. If we were somehow compromised, and we knew where you would be staying, that information might be pulled from us and then you would be in a dangerous position.”
Rafael smiled broadly, and replied, “Yes, yes, Ms. Gabriella, you are right as always. Now, let’s get back to this… what is this called? A chalupa?”
We spent the rest of the evening in conversation, and having been up most of the previous night, I was getting groggy. Better get to sleep… got a lot of activity ahead the next few days… I’m sure glad Denise gave me some self-defense tips… could come in handy… if any of those supernatural types try something, I’ll have a few tricks up my sleeve this time…
Six fifteen a.m., time to get up. Man, this is just like being back in school… I never thought I’d say this, but I kind of miss those days… kind of… day 750 and counting…
I walked out into the little living room and there was Denise, already packed and raring to go. “Uh, Denise, we didn’t talk about this, but I don’t have a driver’s license. You can’t drive the whole way; we’ll have to trade off a little bit at least.”
A sly smile on her face, Denise said, “Well, do you at least know how to drive?”
“Oh, sure, Arnie taught me. I know how to drive super fast, peel out, whip around corners, stuff like that. That’s how you’re supposed to drive, right?”
“Ok, as long as you promise NOT to drive like Arnie taught you, I guess we can trade off a little bit. Are you ready?”
I gazed at the rest of our little crew, all gathered around the kitchen table drinking coffee, and I was getting the uncanny feeling that this trip was going to change things drastically, although I couldn’t say how or why. I wanted to tell them what I was thinking but I couldn’t seem to get it out, and then I started doing my stupid head tapping and I couldn’t see very well. I guess they all noticed, because everyone rose from their chairs, came over to me, and engaged in a spontaneous group hug in the living room of our little apartment. I think we all felt a similar vibe, like somehow things were changing soon, but no one said it out loud. We just huddled for a few moments, and I don’t think I was the only one who couldn’t see very well if you know what I mean.
When we finally separated, Denise said, “Well, we’re off, everyone. See you soon.”
At the last second, I thought: I’ve got to talk to Marsh before we leave… make sure he’s good with this plan… “Uh, sorry, Denise, hang on just a second.” I ran into the bedroom and closed the door, swiftly fading into the in-between.
Before I had a chance to say anything, or even look around, I heard Marsh-dog from behind me: “yeah, it’s cool, I heard everything. Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on stuff from here while you’re gone. I’m working on a little project with the Time Flies, anyway; this’ll give me some time to get it going. Go on, dude. Go get Aunt Martha.”
I was still feeling some residual emotions, so I took a few seconds before saying, “Thanks, dude. I’ll see you soon.”
“Yeah, not if I see you first.”
I faded back into the bedroom, hustled out, grabbed our bags, and sped down the stairs to Ling’s little car. I don’t know why, but this feeling is powerful… things are going to change as a result of this trip… I think things are supposed to change, though… we have to go through with it, there’s no choice…
Denise was already in the driver’s seat, so I entered from the passenger side, and she said, “Rock-paper-scissors to see who drives first?”
“Nah,” I mumbled, looking out the window to hide my emotions and head-tapping. “Just let me know when you’re ready for a break.”
We wound our way through the city streets, onto the freeway toward Tehachapi, then Barstow, and on into the great heartland of the US.
Chapter 21
As we cruised down from Tehachapi, past Mojave, and on into the California desert, it was easy to get the feeling that we were just on a fun, although extremely hot, road trip. Of course, there was no way that feeling could last. One of the things Denise and I decided privately was to give Ling, Gabriella, Rafael, and Pasquale a fake map of our path toward Hays, Kansas, where Aunt Martha lived. We figured if they were concerned about being compromised, then we ought to be equally troubled, so the map we gave them indicated that we would be traveling from Barstow through Las Vegas, north to Denver, then east all the way into Hays. This was the quickest, most logical route. What we actually did, though, was turn off at Barstow, through Flagstaff, Arizona, on to Albuquerque, New Mexico, Amarillo, Texas, and Oklahoma City. From there we went north to Wichita, Kansas, and then traveled west to Hays. This was a much longer route, and it took us three days of non-stop driving. Despite my bragging about Arnie’s lessons, I did not have much experience behind the wheel; luckily, driving on the freeways was pretty easy, and we kept ourselves occupied by singing along with the radio and playing thinking games.
We arrived in Hays, Kansas at about six p.m. on day 746. We had no contact with anyone on our journey aside from an occasional gas station attendant and fast food drive thru staff, which we thought was the safest way to go. The Others had tracked me down without any clear way of doing it in the past, and we didn’t want to take any chances of anyone getting hurt by having us linger anywhere too long. As we drove down the quaint old downtown area of Hays, Denise was full of questions. “So I still don’t quite understand. I know The Others are trying to get to you because you are the only thing that can stop their plans, at least as far as they’re concerned. But what exactly is it that they’re trying to accomplish? I mean, I know they want to destroy the world, or at least kill all the people, but what do they hope to gain by destroying the Good Line? I just don’t see how that would do anything for them.”
I had to gather my thoughts before answering. “It’s not totally clear to me either. It seems that they believe destroying the Good Line will create a power imbalance and they will somehow be able to capture that excess energy, making them, or their “master”, anyway, basically like a god, the ruler of three universes. I don’t know how they plan on gathering or storing the resources, but I don’t think they would go through all this if they didn’t have that worked out; as we’ve seen, they’re pretty clever. Even if that doesn’t work, they are totally willing to kill everyone and destroy the Good Line just for their own amusement.”
Through a scowl, Denise said, “Not cool.”
Glowering in reply, I muttered, “Totally.”
We continued to cruise down the scenic main street, eventually turning left at the far western part of town, and into Aunt Martha’s neighborhood. She had a good job as a hospital administrator of some kind, and lived in a beautiful home on a curving street full of nicely manicured lawns and mature trees. It was now about six thirty p.m., and I was anxious about simply appearing at her home out of nowhere. As far as she knew, I was either dead or living on the streets somewhere. What should I do when she answers the door? I guess the best thing to do is just play it by ear…
Denise and I pulled to the curb in front of Aunt Martha’s house. I took a deep breath, held it in for a few seconds, and blew it out. “Dude, this is gonna be weird. I haven’t seen my Aunt Martha in… I guess it’s been almost four years. She might not even recognize me.”
Denise smiled, and there was a tinge of sympathy in her eyes. “She probably has some more recent pictures of you. I bet Ariel showed her some… oh, sorry, Ferdie.”
The mere mention of Ariel got me to tapping my head and put a few tears in my eyes. I slapped myself in the face, and said, “Sorry, Denise, I’ll get it together. Are you ready?”
“Do you want me to go up there with you? It might look a little… funny, don’t you think?”
“Well, I don’t think she would believe that I walked all the way here. Come on, if we have to make up a story I’ll tell her I got placed in a foster home and you’re my foster s
ister. She might fall for that.”
“Yeah, that might work. Besides, I don’t have anything better so let’s go with it.”
We got out and walked up the winding path to the door, which was huge and would have been imposing had it not been painted a cheery cardinal red. “Ok, here goes,” I whispered mostly to myself, and then knocked lightly on the door. We waited for a few moments; there was no answer, and I must admit I was slightly relieved. “She must not be home. Maybe we should come back later.”
Denise smirked. “It sounded like a mouse knocked on the door, you tapped so light. Why don’t you, oh, I don’t know, maybe ring the doorbell?”
“Oh. Oh yeah, I’ll ring the doorbell.” Hesitantly, I reached out and pressed the button, and in a moment… there was my Aunt Martha at the door. She looks exactly the same… tall and slim, attractive but not fussy-looking… medium-length auburn hair, again, not finicky, just very natural… I couldn’t help it, I immediately got tears in my eyes, and I did my stupid head tapping. Aunt Martha screamed and lunged out and grabbed me in a bear hug, saying over and over, “Ferdie, Ferdie, Ferdie…” She was crying too and we stood there for what felt like a long time, although it was probably only a minute or so.
Finally, she held me out at arms-length, and said, “Where have you been? Oh my God, I thought you must be dead. I was so worried after your parents, and Mark and the kids, and then your sister is gone, and… Oh, Ferdie!” and she went in for another bear hug.
When I got to the point where I could speak, I croaked, “I’m sorry Aunt Martha. I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t contact you, there are reasons… this is Denise, she’s my… friend, do you think we could come inside?”
“Oh, of course, I’m sorry, come in… hello Denise, nice to meet you.”
Denise was patting me on the back gently. She smiled and said, “Thank you, nice to meet you too. Obviously this is an emotional situation; I’m glad I could help you reconnect.”
“Yes, well, come on in, let me get you guys something to drink.”
We entered her large and stylish living room and sat on an immense couch covered with a beautiful floral fabric, facing an equally huge TV. Dude, I think that’s the biggest TV I’ve ever seen… Aunt Martha hurried into the kitchen and returned with three glasses of iced tea. I haven’t had any of this in years… tastes really good… tastes like home… ok, don’t start crying again… Aunt Martha’s arm was draped around my shoulder and she held my hand as if she couldn’t believe I was real. “Ferdie, you have to tell me where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing. I have been sick with worry, I hired a private detective to look for you in Bakersfield, and also to look for Ariel, and some FBI agents came looking for Ariel, no one can figure out what happened… Oh, Ferdie!” and she started patting my face and stroking my hair. I was a little uncomfortable because I’m not that much of a touchy-feely type person, but she didn’t care; she had to make sure I was really there.
Ok, what do I do? Should I tell her everything? I think I probably should, but this is going to be difficult… suddenly, there was a very loud knock at the door. Uh oh, this doesn’t feel right… Denise is feeling the same thing… this is going to be an attack… this is not hypervigilance or paranoia, this is the real thing…
“Well now who could that be?” said Aunt Martha. “I could go a whole month without getting anyone but Jehovah’s Witnesses at the door, and now twice in ten minutes?”
I turned to Denise, and she mouthed, ‘Plan A’. I knew what that meant, and there would be no way I could explain; we just had to do it and justify afterwards if we were successful. If we didn’t succeed, there would be no need to give an explanation because we would all be dead. Ok, Ferdie, have to act and think quickly… “Aunt Martha, I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to trust me right now, I’ll fill you in later.” I rapidly faded into the in-between and materialized behind the person at the door, who as it turned out was a pizza delivery guy. By now it was dusk, and I couldn’t see him clearly, as the fading sun was in my eyes. Luckily for me, he didn’t seem to know that I had popped up behind him. He was tall and husky, with an unfortunate asymmetrical haircut. There was a pizza box in his left hand, and behind his back in his right hand he had what looked very much like a razor sharp machete.
Oh, crap, that is not good… there’s no time to worry about how they know we’re here right now, we’ll try to figure that out later… there’s no way they would be stupid enough to attack us with one person at this point… I need to take this dude out ASAP… and I have a feeling I better do it old-school…
I looked around for something to use to hit the pizza guy, and the only thing nearby was a ceramic garden gnome. Ok, a little weird, but heavy and solid enough to do some damage… I picked it up as quickly and quietly as I could, hoisted it high and swung it down hard at his head. He either heard me at the last moment or had a more supernatural warning because he ducked, and instead of bringing the gnome down on his head, I hit his left shoulder, making a huge cracking sound and causing the pizza box to go flying. He collapsed to his knees and spun around, slashing at me with the machete, but before he could make contact I faded into the in-between again. A split-second later, the machete went flying through the space that had been occupied by my neck. While briefly in the in-between I looked into the living room, and their real plan of attack became clear: Denise was doing battle with a demon in Aunt Martha’s living room. He was inflated to three times normal human size and was enveloping Denise, surrounding and trying to smother her, and keep her from getting enough air to go into a glowing, superheated state; so far he was succeeding. He was so stretched and misshapen that I couldn’t tell what he looked like; Aunt Martha was running around the living room, totally freaked out, screaming and throwing things at the demon; at one point she picked up a large vase and sent it crashing into the area of the demon’s stretched-out head. The vase shattered upon contact, distracting the demon just long enough for Denise to wiggle free. She pulled away from him, adopted a combat stance, and wore a crazy grin on her face. I think she’s enjoying this!
Ok, I have to take pizza guy out of the equation, and quick… what can I use… got to check in the garage… I searched frantically. Hey, that big wrench will probably do the trick… I snatched it off the wall and faded back into the in-between, then popped out of the in-between directly in front of pizza guy. I began swinging the heavy tool while exiting, so just as I materialized, it made contact with pizza guy on his right temple, resulting in a solid whump!, and he went down in a heap on Aunt Martha’s doorstep. Immediately, I went into his mind… no one there… they got out fast… sorry for smacking you in the head, dude… At that point I was beginning to hyperventilate, and I knew if I was going to be of any help to Denise I would need to think clearly and have myself entirely under control. Ok, Ferdie, slow your breathing… remember Plan A… attack and retreat, attack and retreat… need a good weapon to use on a demon… hey, a machete might work… I quickly snatched up the machete that pizza guy dropped as he crumpled to the ground. We were counting on my being more nimble and faster on my feet than other supernaturals, especially when it came to moving in and out of the in-between at a rapid pace. Attack from a different angle every second… don’t give him a chance to respond… I peeked into the living room, and… Oh no! Now Aunt Martha is attacking Denise too… they got to her, she’s being controlled… either that or she’s just gone mental… she has to stop, or Denise might end up hurting her… Aunt Martha was swinging a lamp around by the cord, trying to hit Denise in the head, while Denise was trying to fend off another attack by the demon. I dropped out of the in-between right in front of Aunt Martha and shoved her hard in the chest, knocking her back onto the immense couch; the lamp went flying, smashing harmlessly into the wall, and I immediately entered her mind. Of course, who else would be there but The Coward. He began, “Hello Ferdie! You’re in a real pickle this time, eh?”
“Sorry,” I shouted into Aunt Martha’s mind, “I d
on’t have time to chat right now!” I sent a huge bolt of energy his way; it was a direct hit, and he wasn’t ready for it. He seemed unconscious and injured severely; he was cleared from Aunt Martha’s mind, and she was out cold. She appeared to have hit her head as she fell, so I turned my attention to helping Denise. Ok, Ferdie, stay calm, you can’t help if you panic…
Denise was fighting like a whirling dervish. She solidified her arms and legs into stabbing tools, as she was not yet able to activate her supernova state. The demon was anticipating her strikes, and hardening his skin just in time to deflect her attacks, all the while continuing to advance on her in another attempt to envelop and smother her. She’s not able to do much damage so far… time for me to go on the attack…
I exited the in-between directly behind the demon, and he didn’t see me coming. I stabbed him between the shoulder blades with all my might, and moved back into the in-between. Hmm, that seemed to hurt him a little… I dropped back out of the in-between, attacking now from the left side, stabbing as hard as I could. Got him good that time… didn’t do much damage, though… demons are super-tough… I popped out and in again, this time attacking from the right. I did this repeatedly, probably about fifteen or sixteen times, over the course of about ten seconds. I was definitely doing some damage, and he was beginning to fade. He took his attention off Denise just long enough for her to literally ignite, and she lunged at him. Diverting his attention made it possible for her to grab him and hang on, and his left side was fried to a crisp. He turned back to her, making it easy for me to continue stabbing him repeatedly; at last, he was too wounded to continue, and he faded into the in-between.
I shouted, “I’m going after him!” and followed into the in-between. Unfortunately, because I am so used to using the good-line side of the in-between, that was instinctively where I went, and of course he was using the bad-line side. By the time I had reversed course, he was long gone. Man, this place is horrible… what is that stench? Dude, it’s so hot… let me get out of here pronto…
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