Chapter 3-2
2016 Words
But what he hadn’t expected was the sheer emptiness in the man’s voice, the nihilism. The sense of hopelessness that suffused him as he turned from the mound of moist, black earth (with its meager selection of flowers and crude, wooden marker) and said, blankly, “I’m not coming with you. But then, I suppose you already knew that.”
They looked at each other through the gold mist, which swirled and churned.
Ank harumphed.
“It’s too late for that,” snapped Will, and planted the shovel. “Don’t you get it? I killed my wife, Ank—do you understand? I shot her like an animal. Am I supposed to just pull myself up by the bootstraps and forget that?” He knelt and touched the grave. “I killed it all—my only reason for living. The only thing that’s kept me going. The only f*****g thing I ever did right.” He shook his head slowly, deliberately, morosely. “I’ll never squeeze a trigger again.”
There was a distant rumbling and they both looked up; saw three dark masses moving through the haze—masses which were the same size and shape as the ships they’d seen cruising toward Montana, toward Barley—only heading south this time, toward Los Angeles.
“Enough! I’m not going, and that’s final. That’s the end of it.”
Ank shook his head and laid down—slowly, cumbrously.
“It’s only a few more miles.”
“Yeah? Well.” He stuck his rifle into the ground next to the grave and hung his hat on it. “I am asking. And you’re going to have to.” He mopped his brow with his handkerchief. “You’re just going to have to, Ank.”
And he walked away.
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“Nick? Come on, baby; talk to me. Tell me what you’re seeing.”
But Nick could barely hear her—was scarcely even aware they were on a beach in Santa Maria, near the Four Seasons Hotel. All he knew was that the eyes were showing him something new, something frightening, and that each of them had focused on a different part of California—a different road, a different path, a different byway, and that on these roads and paths and byways, there was terror.
“I see people and beasts; armies and entire herds, heading for L.A., heading for Oz—sowing destruction as they go. I see towns and cities being razed and plundered—burned to the ground—and places like Sacramento and Santa Rosa, Rancho Cordova, Santa Cruz, just ceasing to exist. Worse, I can see that the groups from Las Vegas and Carson City are already there; already in the hills surrounding the garden, and are drawing their plans against it.” He shuddered as he attempted to keep his composure. “And sometimes, just sometimes, I think I see the future, or what might be the future, and dear God, it’s too terrible; too awful—too tragic, too grotesque, and I ... I ...”
And then his legs were buckling and he was falling—falling to his knees in the sand and surf—even as Puck began slathering his face and Lisa tried—and failed—to help him up, growling, “This has got to stop, Nick. You can’t keep doing this to yourself. I’m just not going to be a party to it, do you understand? I mean, I’m not.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” mumbled Nick, focusing on the water. “What is that?”
“What is what?”
“That, way out past the buoys.” He climbed to his feet and shielded his eyes. “I mean, it almost looks like a ship, or maybe—”
“It’s you, losing your mind. And mine too; thank you very—”
“Jesus, it is a ship. Like, some kind of submarine. Like a nuclear f*****g—” He began jumping up and down, waving his arms. “Hey. Hey!”
“I don’t see any ... wait.” She took a few steps into the water. “You mean that?” She pointed and looked back at him. “That’s a fish. Or some kind of whale—an orca, maybe, or ... look, it’s diving—”
“That’s a sub, the one I saw with the eyes. The Sarpedon .”
He was running back and forth now, like he was in some kind of dance with it, feinting and dodging, bouncing up and down. “Hey, wait. No, no. No-no-no-no ...” He dashed out into the surf. “Wait a minute! Where you going? Hey!”
But it was already gone, already out of sight. Lost to him.
He turned to face Lisa. “I’m going back in. Back into the trance.”
Lisa just looked at him. “No, Nick—please. Enough. I mean, look at yourself. Look at what this is doing to you. To your mind. To your face.”
“I’ve got to try, Lisa. I’ve got to warn them. I’ve got to tell them that, that ...”
He trailed off, his mind racing. “Jesus. The Sarpedon. It’s a nuclear submarine ...”
“Actually, I think it was a whale—but so what if it was? A submarine, I mean. What difference—”
He rushed forward and gripped her shoulders. “Oh, but don’t you see? Don’t you see it?” He gave her a little shake even as his fingertips ground into her upper arms. “Don’t you see what I’m driving at?”
“You’re hurting me,” she said.
“What I’m saying is—what I’m saying is that I’ve seen the enemy hordes, Lisa. I’ve seen where they’re at. And if I could just get word to The Sarpedon about their current locations, why, this whole thing could be over before—”
She ripped away from him violently. “Okay, stop! I’m done with this. Just—just leave me alone. I’m serious.” She started pacing back and forth in the sand.
Nick faced the ocean and raised his hand out before him, closed his eyes. “I’m going to reach out to the girl, to the deafmute—Pang In-Su. Going to reach out and push her; get her to communicate with the Captain. I’m going to end this right now. Will you help me, Lisa?”
He concentrated as the eyes began to blink and reawaken; to focus, to see.
“I’ll help you,” she said at last, softly, passively—as though she’d finally given up. “I’d do anything to help you. Even if it hurt me, terribly.”
“That’s good, Lisa. That’s very good. Here, take my free hand ...”
He relaxed his fist, opened his fingers. “Take it. Please.”
The ocean breathed and the wind buffeted his hair. “Lisa?”
And then the trance was over before it had even begun and he was opening his eyes and turning around—in time to see her swinging a large rock at his head and striking him in the left temple. In time to see her coming at him like a line-backer and bringing the pain and stars; and to feel himself spinning, stumbling, falling ...
Dropping like a bag of stones even as a gold fog rolled in and she hit him again—shutting him down completely. Painting the world black.
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And then there were four: four great ships moving toward them through the brume; through the sunlit haze—four great galleons casting spearheaded shadows like clouds, like creeping shrouds, and Galaren shivered.
“And when the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come!’ and behold, I saw a horse, pale, greenish gray. And the name of the one riding on it was Death, and Sheol was following with him, and authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill by sword and by famine and by plague and by the wild beasts of the earth. Amen.”
“That was helpful,” said Sammy. He continued propping his rifle on the roof of the car. “I mean, I guess I expected something more like an army ... or a mob. How are we supposed to defend against this?”
And then nothing more was said as the juggernauts came grudgingly to a halt and Sammy wondered what was going on inside—inside the labyrinth—what they could possibly be doing in there that might make any difference at all; might give them some glimmer of hope.
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The Talon glowed—it burned like a green fire—as they all looked up.
“I don’t get it,” said Miles—as the talisman painted his chest, lit up his face. “Why aren’t they attacking?” He looked at Oonin.
∆They wait for their armies to arrive; to encircle us, to make sure nothing escapes. For them, my own kind, it is an opportunity to finish what they started—to wipe you from the earth—while you are here, now, gathered in one place. It may also be that their forces have been distracted in the towns and cities along the way.∆
Jesse squeezed between the boys. “But—what armies? I mean, are there soldiers who look just like you? Because I’ve sure nev—”
∆The people and animals they infect and control; they and the demons, for they are allied. After all, they want precisely the same thing: which is for mankind to be eliminated. My kind because they want to replicate the circumstances by which they themselves evolved and thus create a master race; the demons because it was the invention of Man that caused them to rebel in the first place—rebel against Him, El Shaddai, and so be cast out.∆
- Writer
