The New Kid (27 page)

He had no time to feel sorry for them or for Natalie because he heard a blood-curdling scream. Everything seemed to go into slow motion like a movie. The house shook as though being slammed by a giant fist. Will cocked the voltage bombardier just as a hole was blown in the roof from the inside of the house and the Dark Lord rose up through it, carrying Natalie. Her screams of fear cut through him like a knife and he ached to kill the Dark Lord on the spot. But he held his fire. He couldn’t risk it, not when the beast had one of his massive gnarled claws wrapped around Natalie’s neck. No, he would have to lay low and not strike until the moment was just right.

Will heard the neighing of horses—not regular horses but some disturbing hellish creatures who brayed as though being flayed by whips of molten cables. The purple clouds expanded and filled the sky, darkening it even more. Then the heavens cleaved open as thunder rumbled. Shards of lightning sliced down and an opening in the clouds formed. A team of black horses spilled down through it, galloping in the sky and hauling a hearse carriage with no wheels. Demonteens flew around and opened the back of the hearse and Will’s heart thudded as he watched them slide out a coffin and open the lid. The coffin was lined not with satin but with a breathing, pulsing membrane of sickly flesh. Will’s skin crawled as he watched the Dark Lord sweep up with Natalie in his arms and force her into the coffin.

“NOOOOO!” Will bolted up from his position and fired the voltage bombardier. The weapon erupted with a thunderous blast and shot dozens of glowing ordnances into the sky where they exploded
en masse
, taking out six of the demonteens and cutting into the back
of the Dark Lord’s thick hide. The beast whirled and puked a stream of his toxic acid at Will, who dove out of the way in the nick of time as the toxins hit the storage shed. Will glimpsed the propane tanks stacked on the side of the shed and covered his head with his arms just before the whole shed blew. The blast nonetheless knocked him fifty feet into the air and slammed him against Natalie’s chimney. He thought for sure he heard bones cracking. He slumped to the ground, inert, convinced by his screaming pain receptors that every bone in his body had been shattered. He watched with the one eye that wasn’t swollen shut as the horse-drawn hearse was swallowed up by the purple cloud bank and the sound of the thundering horse hooves faded into the night.

The Dark Lord laughed and flew after his prey as Will was surrounded by demonteens. He was lying flat on the patio, one side of his face against the cold stones. The demonteens all held lances with fiery red-hot tips and were ready to skewer Will like a shrimp on the barbie. Images churned in Will’s brain as he rolled onto on his back and stared up at his assailants. He saw Natalie screaming, her eyes pleading, reaching out to him, her arms flailing for help he was unable to give. The leaden sense of failure held him down far more surely than any planetary gravity could. What was the point of moving, of rising up and attacking? He knew he was outnumbered and more than that knew he had failed to such a miserable degree that he deserved to die.

Then he thought of his mother, April, all alone in the basement of their house and he was galvanized. He might have let Natalie down but he wasn’t going to give up yet. He would make sure his mother was safe and then . . . perhaps he could atone for not blasting through the police blockades in the first place and getting to Natalie before the Dark Lord and his murderous band of followers could. He leapt to his feet despite the pain still pulsing through his body.

“If you’re going to kill me then let’s get on with it!”

He whipped out both his power rod and Megashocker. But the demonteens didn’t advance, no; instead they backed off, staring at
him with their ugly wet-black soulless eyes and then turned and flew away into the sky leaving Will to wonder what had just happened. But there was no time to ponder. He jumped into his EVO and floored it across town to his own house where he yelled as he entered the front door.

“MOM!”

Down the stairs he went and through the light lock and into his sanctum where he rounded the corner to his lab and heard the resounding BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! of the electroflayer as his mother’s finger repeatedly squeezed the trigger. Bolts of electricity blasted through the walls of his sanctum and April was in danger of literally bringing the house down around them when Will reached her, pried the electroflayer from her trembling hands, and held her tight.

“I told you I’d be back. It’s okay now, Mom, everything’s going to be okay.”

April was weeping, her chest heaving, her eyes bloodshot and strained wide with fear.

“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” said Will as he picked her up and carried her up the stairs to her room. He set her on the bed and she watched blankly as Will packed one of her suitcases and spoke calmly to her, telling her he was going take care of everything and that they would be together again soon. He only hoped his words were truth.

As Will drove away from Harrisburg on his way to take his mother to the airport he checked his rearview mirror. As far as he could tell they weren’t being followed. The thin tendril of smoke emanating from Mount St. Emory had grown into a thick plume now and every few minutes the ground shook with more intensity.

All the way to the airport Will kept glancing over at his mother, who had a deep sadness in her eyes. They were almost there when she spoke, softly and with regret.

“I never wanted any of this for you, Willie.”

“It’s okay, Mom. I’m going to take care of everything.”

“I’m not sure you can. I’m not sure anyone can.”

Will felt his stomach tighten. She didn’t sound like she was in shock anymore; in fact she sounded almost like she’d been expecting something like this to happen. Fear coursed through Will’s body. What did she know? Had she known about Edward’s family business? He had so many questions and so little time.

“Did you know about Gerald? I mean, what he was?”

April was quiet for a long time before she spoke.

“Do you ever look at the world around you and wonder if any of it is real? Sometimes I do that, Willie, and I don’t always know what the answer is.”

“What’s real is how much I love you, Mom, and that I’m going to make sure nothing bad ever happens to you.”

“Do you even know what you’re fighting?”

“It doesn’t matter what I’m up against. What matters is that I have a duty to protect you and I will do that. No one . . . nothing is going to stop me.”

April smiled at Will’s bravado but then sighed heavily and nervously smoothed out the wrinkles in her pants. She was trembling and it hurt Will to see her like this. He vowed he would nail the son of a bitch that caused it. But he couldn’t let his mom see his anger so he put on a brave face.

“I think a part of me did know what Gerald was,” confessed April.

“Then why . . . how could you live with him?”

“Edward came to me one night. . . .”

“Dad came home?”

“Yes, Edward came home. It might have been in a dream, but he spoke to me very clearly. He said I should allow Gerald into my life, that it was
necessary
.”

Confusion swirled in Will’s head.

“Necessary for what?”

“He didn’t say. He just said not to try and resist Gerald, that it would be better for me. And for you, Willie.”

“Dad . . . Edward said this to you? In a dream?”

“I said it
might
have been a dream. It felt so real. But of course he’s long gone so it had to have been a dream. Right?” April’s eyes drifted far away as she sought refuge from the terrible reality confronting them.

Will’s head was still spinning. Why would Edward have told his mom to stay with a hideous creature like Gerald? He could not for the life of him come up with an answer. And he had precious little time to think because they had arrived at the airport now and it was hectic with activity. People looked scared and heated arguments were breaking out all over. He double-parked his EVO in the passenger loading zone, got out, and ran around and opened the door for his mother. He helped her out of the car, grabbed her carry-on bag, and they went inside. Will pushed by several people to get to the counter only to find out that almost every flight had been delayed because an Airbus A-320 had crashed en route to Harrisburg. Making matters worse, Mount St. Emory’s rumblings were discharging smoke and ash into the air so it didn’t look good for any departures.

Will knew he had to be aggressive. He herded April back out and helped her into his car, then sped out of the departures area of the airport and circled back around to the entrance. He made a U-turn onto the road leading to the air freight and private plane terminals and spotted a seven passenger Falcon 10 private jet taxiing out of a hangar. He cut it off with his EVO.

“What are we doing?” asked April.

“Just sit tight,” said Will.

He got out, popped the trunk, and ran around to the back of the car. Opening the jack compartment, he pulled out two thick stacks of one-hundred-dollar bills tightly wrapped in plastic. It was always good to have a little spending money handy for emergencies—and
by “a little,” he meant two hundred thousand dollars. He opened April’s door and as she watched he stuffed half the money into her large purse, then pulled her toward the Falcon. The pilot was already eyeing the cash and it wasn’t hard to convince him to take April aboard.
Nothing speaks quite like money
, thought Will. They got on the plane. Only two other seats were filled, with guys in expensive-looking suits. Will paid them no attention as they scowled their disdain.

As he buckled his mom in her seat he saw the panic in her eyes and gave her a hug.

“Look at me. Everything’s going to be okay. Find somewhere safe.”

“I will,” she said.

“Don’t tell me where you’re going and don’t try and call me. Phones won’t be secure. When you get settled in I want you to send me a postcard, just some touristy kind of thing. Send it to this address.” He handed her a piece of paper with an address on it. “I’ll come to you.” Then he gave her another hug.

The pilot’s door was open and he shouted back to them as the jet’s engines whined and the plane vibrated.

“If you’re getting off make your move now, kid. I’m going up.”

“I gotta go now, Mom.” April was crying silent tears and it broke Will’s heart. She held his hand and didn’t want to let go, fearing that if she did it would be the last time she ever touched her son. He gently lifted her fingers from his and then kissed her on the forehead. There was nothing more for him to say. He’d given her the best instructions he could. He turned to leave but stopped when he heard her voice.

“Will, whatever happens, know that I love you.”

“I love you, too, Mom.”

“And Will. I’m sorry.”

They both let those last two words hang there. Will wanted to know what she meant; what was she sorry for? But there was no time
to ask. Will could only offer a temporary emotional salve he hoped would make his mother feel okay.

“Whatever it is you’re sorry for, I forgive you,” he said. And then he got off the plane.

April looked down at her son as he ran to his EVO, jumped in, and sped off. She shook her head.

“You can’t possibly forgive me,” she whispered. “Nobody can.”

The jet taxied out to the runway and without pausing for the perfunctory safety messages from the pilot the Falcon 10 screamed down the runway and lifted up into the sky. April prayed with all her might.

B
ack home Will tore through his sanctum, arming himself. He knew this was it. This was going to be the battle that defined his entire life. He stripped off his usual clothes and opened a cabinet that held a remarkable suit that had just arrived by FedEx the previous day. Like all his weaponry and tech gear the suit was of his own design, though he’d had to employ six different tailors around the globe to have the garment crafted. It was woven from a bonded metallic-like fabric, a composite of Nomex, Kevlar, and threads of a metal Will had invented in one of his chemistry classes while the other kids were testing the electrolysis of water and determining the density of a potato. The fabric was nearly impossible to tear and provided maximum protection against even the sharpest titanium blades. It was Will’s for-real Under Armour. Just like the commercials only better. After he pulled himself into the skintight suit he zipped himself into his leather combat jacket and pulled on a pair of high-capacity cargo jeans with enough pockets that he could load up for a twenty-four-hour battle if need be.

Next he pre-soaked some self-adhesive patches with the healing balm, and then sealed them in individual packets and slipped them
into a sleeve pocket for easy access. When he was a kid and fell off his skateboard or out of a tree or something and scraped himself up, his mom would come to his aid with what she called a “magic bandage,” guaranteed to make his “owie” stop hurting. He had some magic bandages for real now but he knew the pain he’d experience that night wasn’t going to be taken care of so easily. These “owies” were much more likely to be the permanent kind. But he didn’t care about getting banged up or scarred; as long as he made it out alive he’d be thankful. He calculated his chances of surviving the upcoming battle at somewhere between five and twelve percent. What the heck, he always rooted for the underdog; maybe someone would be rooting for him.

He opened several more aluminum travel cases and checked and loaded the Rapid-Fire Terra Blazer, the Death Hacker, the Long-Range Blinder, a couple of mini-bot drone searchers, and finally an invention that he’d never even had the time or opportunity to test, a tube-shaped contraption called the Demon Trapper. All the weapons were loaded and cocked. Only a couple more items to go. He opened a cabinet filled with goggles and glasses and contact lenses and took out a container. Then he looked under the futon and pulled out an old metal Batman lunch box and rummaged around inside. He took out a small plastic packet and pocketed it.