And It Arose from the Deepest Black (John Black Book 2) (31 page)

16

“Pip, I just have to say, I’m really sorry,” I said. She was busy driving a stolen minivan, fast, through the bowels of the garage, looking for another exit, trying to throw everyone off our trail.

“At least you two idiots had the sense to turn off those noises we all make.” That didn’t exactly sound like
Apology accepted
.

“You mean our beacons?” Bobby asked, sounding kind of hurt. I assumed he didn’t like being lumped in the same idiot category as me, for several reasons. He’d taken over the shotgun seat, I was in back. I don’t know why I remember this, but there was a video screen dangling down just above my head.
I can watch a movie. Awesome.
Idly, I checked the seat pockets, trying to see what they had.

“Yeah, sure, that. But you’ve gotta lose those masks if we’re going to blend in. I took the liberty of picking up a couple of plain black t-shirts. I figured you guys were going to need an anonymous getaway. They’re in the back.” She hitched a thumb over one shoulder, in my direction.

Our masks came off quickly and were tucked out of sight. I saw a plastic package on the floor, ripped it open, and pulled out two shirts, tossing one to Bobby. Then we each performed an awkward dance, like choreography for the world’s worst classical music composition,
“Two Fools Change Clothes in a Moving Car, in D mino
r
.
”

“I guess you saw the bad news?” Bobby asked, as Pip slowed and slipped out onto a side street. Within a couple of turns, she had managed to merge into a stream of traffic that looked to be made up entirely of people trying to evacuate. I saw other minivans almost indistinguishable from our own, and realized, once again, that Pip was pretty darn clever.

“Oh, whatever do you mean?” Her tone was sharp, speaking to Bobby like she was as mad at him as she was at me. “The fact that there’s now a giant monster with superpowers? That just seems dandy to me.” Yep, she was clever, but also acerbic.

Bobby just turned toward the window.

I tried to help. “What are we going to do now? We’ve got to stop those two.” It was stating the obvious, but I said it to take up space that otherwise was likely to fill with an unproductive toxic anger.

“Why don’t you just jump on up there and kill Alpha, like you did the others?” Pip chided.

“That’s sort of what we tried to do,” Bobby said.

She sighed heavily. “All right, then. Are you ready to work
together
?” Pip looked at me in the rearview, and I nodded emphatically. “You sure about that? What if you decide to get pissed off again? It was bad enough having you go to work on my arm. I don’t want to find a sword sticking out of my back.”

I had to be honest, and that meant I really didn’t know. “Pip, I really am sorry about what happened. And I do want to work together. The anger… I just don’t know. I want to tell you that everything will be fine, that I’ll never do it again, but… I’m not sure why it happens to me, so I don’t want to lie to you. I don’t
decide
to do it, it just happens.”

There was silence, nothing but the hum and rattle of the road passing underneath us and the minivan doing its job.

Then Pip nodded. “Fine,” she said. “At least I know where we stand. I’d rather have you shoot straight with me than give me a load of bullshit.”

I don’t think we ever talked about it again.

* * *

To see if Jake and Alpha were on our trail, Pip drove all over the place, north, south, east, west… I think she even made up some directions. We turned on the radio, finding a news channel that had all the audio quality you expect from radio news. From that, we heard that Alpha was, once again, following a straight path.

Either they didn’t know where we were and hoped to stumble upon us, or they weren’t looking for us at all anymore.

I figured the latter.

“Holly,” I said.

“You think they’re back on her trail?” Pip asked.

“I bet they are.”

“Then we have to get to her,” she said. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know exactly. I sent them away, her and my mom.”

Pip twisted up the side of her mouth, thinking. “Your mom has a phone, right? Call her and find out where they are. We’re going to need to get to them.”

“
She
has a phone, but
I
don’t.”

Pip looked at me funny in the rearview. “How is it you’re 15 years old and you don’t have a phone? You did grow up on Earth, right?”

“I don’t have a job —
yet
.” Who was I kidding? The way things were going, I might not live another week. There wasn’t a lot of time to learn a vocation. “Anyway, what I mean is that I don’t earn any money. My mom works, and there was some money from my dad’s life insurance, but you know, we have Holly to take care of. A phone just always seemed superfluous to me. I know everyone else has one, though.”

Pip looked down, eyes out of the rearview so I couldn’t gauge her expression. Then she fumbled through a pocket and produced a phone, holding it back for me. “Call your mom.”

17

“We turned north, John, once we came to the shore,” Mom said. “We’re only about a half hour from Playa Beach.”

What was I going to say?
Keep running, forever?

No.

Besides, I had no other plan. Drive this way or that, fine. It might buy a little time, but it didn’t change the end game. And, like Mom had said, I had to protect my family.

“Once you get there, stay put. I’m coming.” With that, the little fire was set alight within me, once again. The familiar fire.

Pip drove into the night, snaking through traffic, which seemed to be everywhere. Everyone wanted to get away from the oncoming Gorgol menace.

We made good progress, at first. I thought we’d beat Alpha to Playa Beach by a day or so. I was wrong.

At some point in the dark, we hit a traffic jam that seemed like a billion red lights receding into the never-never land of the distant horizon. Only the rare pair of white lights headed back the way we came. Who knows where those people were going?

We inched along, like everyone else. Funny how something so mundane as traffic equalizes the ordinary and the extraordinary alike. With nothing to do but sit quietly in the back seat, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I started to drift off.

“Did he doze off back there?” I heard Bobby say softly to Pip with a chuckle.

“Think so,” she replied.

Bobby was silent again for a long while, and I almost fell completely asleep. “Hey, Pip?”

“Yeah?” We crept slowly in the traffic, the minivan making a monotonous hum all around me.

“I hope you’re not mad at me for getting back with Johnny. He is my friend and all.”

“Oh, shit!” Pip said, stopping abruptly.

There was a static noise that at first I thought was the radio acting up. Then I realized it wasn’t a sound you could hear out loud, it was in my head. It was Jake. He was nearby.

I sat up quickly, scanning the windows for some sign. “Where?” I said. Pip pointed to our left.

It was nearly pitch dark and we were on a lonely stretch of highway, amid tall pine trees. Well, I would call it a lonely stretch except that we were there with 600,000 of our closest friends.

From above the trees to the left, a glow filled the sky as Alpha thudded into view, bathed in floodlights from the surrounding helicopters.

“Choices, gentlemen,” Pip announced.

“Oh, now we’re gentlemen,” Bobby riffed.

I expected Pip to get mad, but she shot him a coy look instead. “Boys. We have three choices, as I see it. Fight our way toward Alpha and do this now. Push to get out of here. Or sit exactly where we are and do nothing.”

“I vote for option three,” Bobby said. When we both shot him a look, he rolled his eyes. “I’m
kidding
, you guys, come on!”

“John?” Pip asked.

I had to think. What was the best plan?

“Plan?” I said out loud.

“Huh?” Bobby replied.

And that was that. I realized our dilemma. “We don’t have any plan. If we attack right now, we’re no better off than we were in the fight we just ran away from.” They both nodded. “So that leaves run or do nothing. I’m not really a fan of do nothing.”

“So?” Pip asked, watching Alpha loom closer.

“Run!” Bobby said.

* * *

It was slow and awkward, getting to somewhere — anywhere — where we could get off the highway, but we did, eventually. You certainly couldn’t call it
running
. I think our top speed was a snail’s pace above zero. That is, until everyone started freaking out and all the rules of driving went out the window.

Cars went in every direction, not caring about white lines, yellow lines, median strips, forests, or anything else. We careened right, followed the highway through the mess, and eventually found an exit.

From there, we were on a rural two-lane road, with houses spaced out at maybe one per quarter mile. Not big fancy places, either. Squat little brick homes with barren yards. Most had too many cars, unless every bedroom in the house slept four people, which I suppose was possible but seemed doubtful. Many had some sort of overblown lawn ornament. Water wells to nowhere? Ornamental planters that could be seen from space? Completely unnecessary stone lions on equally unnecessary walls plopped down on the lawn? Check, check, and check. And more gazing balls. Go ahead and laugh. I’ll wait.

We made some space between ourselves and Alpha, but could still see her illuminated in the ghostly spotlights from afar.

And then something happened.

Not that I would know, but it seemed that if you messed with the military long enough, they felt obligated to try to return the favor. All of a sudden, there was an eerie silence. And then three or four heavily armed helicopters were swarming Alpha, flooding her with light.

Without warning, they fired.

I had to admit, it wasn’t the worst idea I’d ever seen — hit her from all sides at once. How could she evade everything at once?

Well, she did, and the missiles hit unexpected targets all around Gorgol Alpha, sending up flames and shockwaves in every direction. The creature slid and flowed like water, sidestepping every attempt to bring her down.

She was a blur, almost a figment of my imagination, a haze on the horizon. Streaks came from each of the firing choppers, and, as far as I could tell, not one shot came close to landing.

You know how, in video games, you can just keep firing forever? Well, that’s not how it works in reality.

Soon, all of the helicopters ran out of missiles. And then they simply turned and flew away, pathetically.

“Okay, great,” Bobby said, sliding down in his seat. “We’re going to fight
that
.”

18

“Halt! Who goes there?”

Okay, I lie. He didn’t say that.

Ahead of us, shadowy in the blinding lights, the silhouette of a soldier raised one hand. Stop.

“
Masks
,” Pip whispered to us, and we quickly obliged.

“Why? Just push their minds,” I said.

“No, Pip’s right,” Bobby said. “If we’re going to risk our necks, I’d at least like a little respect for it.”

“Suit yourself,” I said, pulling on my mask. Bobby followed, and Pip was last, pulling hers on with one hand still balanced on the steering wheel.

“Plus, I don’t want to spend the energy here,” Pip said. “We’ll need it when we face Alpha and Jake. Pushing the minds of every person from here to Playa Beach sounds exhausting.”

“Okay, sure,” I said. “Except I think you two just like being recognized as superheroes.”

Neither of them answered me, but in the rearview I thought I saw a twinkle in Pip’s eye.

She rolled to a stop with the soldier just outside the window, and he twirled his hand in a gesture meaning
Window down
.

The name FELDMAN adorned a patch on the left side of the soldier’s chest. “What have we got here? Bunch of jokers? I need you to take those masks off.” A second soldier, ORLANDO, appeared on the passenger side, and the two exchanged amused smirks.

“We can’t,” Pip said.

“Oh, you can’t? And why’s that?” Feldman asked, still smirking.

“Um… It would reveal our secret identities?” Bobby offered from the passenger seat.

Feldman laughed. “Hey, Orly, the jokers here say they can’t take off their masks because it will reveal their secret identities. What do you think of that?” They both laughed.

“Don’t you know who we are?” Pip asked.

The smile faded from Feldman’s face. “I know who you’re
pretending
to be…
Red Hope. Yellow Fury. Black Sword.
” He pointed at us, one at a time, ending with me. “But I know one more thing. You’re not really them, so
take off the masks
. Last warning.” Feldman adjusted the strap of his semi-automatic rifle, a not-so-subtle gesture.

“Told you guys this was silly,” I muttered. Bobby shushed me. Which made me understand something a little better. This was a chance for Bobby and Pip to do something I didn’t like, even though it was minuscule and pointless. So I kept my mouth shut and played along.

“That’s who we really are. And since we’re the only ones who can do anything about Gorgol Alpha, I’d appreciate it if you’d go ahead and let us through. We’re just here to help.” Miraculously, Pip said all this in a relatively sweet tone. For a billionth of a second, I actually thought it would work.

Feldman paused. I doubt this was a scenario he’d considered prior to roadblock detail on that particular evening. But he recovered quickly. “Out of the car. Now.” He stepped back, hands firmly on the gun.

And Pip, she just slowly opened the door, mask still in place. Bobby did the same, and I slid open the back door to the minivan, joining them. Orlando guided Bobby around until the three of us stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the soldiers and the bright lights behind them.

A voice called out. “Feldman, what’s going on down there?”

Feldman shouted back over one shoulder. “Sir, these folks are wearing masks and don’t want to take them off. Seem to think they’re those superheroes from TV, sir.”

“Well, cuff ’em and let ‘em think about it for a bit. And move that car out of my road,” the voice demanded.

“Yes, sir,” Feldman replied, nodding to the other soldier beside him. Orlando walked around behind us, pulling handcuffs from his belt as he approached Bobby.

And that’s when things went south fast. I didn’t see it, but I could guess what was happening. Orlando tried to cuff Bobby, and Bobby’s body sluiced out of the way. Orlando made a little surprised sound and jumped back, which was enough to make Feldman raise his weapon.

I was just trying to calm things down. I raised my hands, too quickly, toward Feldman, in a way that was supposed to communicate
Hey, let’s talk this over
. He must have assumed my intent was much more threatening. And I guess Feldman and the others were probably a lot more jumpy than usual.

Because he shot me.

Well, you know. He tried to. His aim was true, dead into my gut, a bullet that would certainly have dropped me. If my body didn’t just arc around the bullet and then reform.

Still, that was enough. Someone yelled from back where the bright lights were, and other shots rang out. Pip, Bobby, and I slid and sluiced like three marionettes in a crazy dance number.

And then it was over.

“Oh… my… God,” Feldman said, staring at us in disbelief.

“No,” Pip said, dusting off her outfit with one hand. “We’re not hardly gods. But we
are
Red Hope, Yellow Fury, and Black Sword. And I’d appreciate if you’d let us pass now.”

Mouth gaping, Feldman just nodded his head.