CHAPTER FORTY-ONE – THOMAS
It takes more strength to stop the beating than it ever did to start it. Sullivan and I pull back. Iziah eases his link to us and we stand there, panting hard with the effort as we take in the scene.
Uzi is… limp. I’d call him dead, but somehow, I don’t think he’s capable of dying. There will always be evil in this world.
The rioters are on the ground, weeping as they look up at Sadie. They encircle her like worshippers, only I know they’re not worshipping her. They’re being tripped.
She’s not Sadie though. She’s… everyone. Her face changes every few seconds. This person, that person. And the effect it has on the crowd is… sobering. They’re tripping, I think, then laugh out loud. What a nice trick to have in one’s arsenal.
“Thomas!” Case shouts. “Watch out!”
A force hits me in the back, making me stumble forward. I look down at my chest. At the gaping wound. Blood pours out of the bullet hole and it takes me a moment to realize I’ve just been shot.
“Fuck, no!” a voice shouts from behind.
I turn slowly, my head spinning from the massive chest wound and the blood loss. And I wonder, as I sway back and forth, if this is what Lincoln experienced when he took a bullet from the Blue Boar.
“Fuck, no! Fuck, no!” I force my head up and find Randy Shits coming at me, shotgun out in front of him. He pumps the barrel and pulls the trigger again. This time I go flying backwards, crashing against the ground so hard, my head bounces, cracks, and then blood spills out of there too.
“I did not,” Randy Shits spits, “come this fuckin’ far to have you Alphas rip victory away from me at the last second.”
“Think again, asshole,” Case says.
I turn my head towards his voice. He’s walking straight at Randy, eyes blazing with hate. Lincoln is behind him, cannon arm raised. He shoots, but Randy dives behind a corner. I hear the telltale sound of pump action. Randy reloading.
He shoots, hits Case dead in the chest, just like me.
Only Case doesn’t go down and blood doesn’t spill. Because… well, he’s fucking Alpha Case, that’s why. His superpower is healing.
Randy Shits is dead and he knows it. He reloads, pumps, shoots again. But Lincoln is behind Case, using him like a shield as they walk forward. They shoot each other at the same time. Randy’s shot hits Case in the leg, which only slows him down a little. But Lincoln’s… I laugh. Lincoln blows that motherfucker’s head off.
The whole city goes silent.
Every rioter, minion or otherwise, slumps to the ground. Every flashing light blinks its last blink as Cathedral City goes absolutely still.
Eternity passes in a moment of silence.
I take it in. The whole scene. Anarchy is everywhere. Everywhere but inside my head. Inside my head… everything is calm.
Lincoln walks over to me, claps me on the back. “You two OK?”
Case stumbles up, limping a little as he holds the two pieces of open flesh together. His nanites are doing their job efficiently, and right before my eyes, he heals.
“Damn,” I say, still looking at Case’s amazing power. “I might need a nanite upgrade. I’m not dead and I’m not out, but I’m definitely feeling the two bullets I took.” They both manage a smile.
“Sadie?” I ask, whirling around. My eyes searching for her.
She’s standing in the middle of the circle of slumped bodies, looking around like she can’t believe this just happened.
I know the feeling. I’ve been here at the edge of insane battles too many times to count.
I walk over to her, take her in my arms, and hold her tightly to my chest. If she minds the blood on my shirt and the half-healed hole in my body, she doesn’t show it. Because she holds me back just as tight. “Hey, Trip Chick?” I say, looking down at her head, which is pressed into my neck.
Her body shakes a little with her relived chuckle. “What, Mental Man?”
“That’s a helluva trick you have, baby.”
Her face turns up to mine and she smiles. Relief washes over her. I can feel her again. I don’t want to invade or anything, but she feels like home. And I want nothing more than to be inside her right now. “OK,” she says. “Maybe it’s not so stupid. You can be the wind, I guess.”
We both take a moment to appreciate the joke.
We made it. They threw everything they had at us, and we made it.
I turn both of us around and look at my friends. Case is healed already. Lincoln looks charged with adrenaline and satisfaction as he looks around the city.
“It’s not exactly how we planned it, is it?”
“No,” Case laughs. “Not exactly.”
“There’s still time,” Sheila says. “The program is still running. I made the necessary adjustments. They didn’t mess with it.”
“You mean couldn’t mess with it,” Lincoln sneers. “I made that shit bulletproof.”
“Where’s Iziah?” Sadie asks.
“Over here,” he calls. He’s standing over Randy Shits’ body, tugging on his shirt. He takes a knife out of his pocket and starts cutting it off, then holds it up for us all to see.
“Anarchy,” I say.
“Anarchy,” Case and Linc repeat.
“It belongs to us, motherfuckers.”
“You ready then, asshole?” Lincoln asks me. “Finish what we started and all that good shit?”
I take one more look around the city. Remember it the way it was.
It was nice, once. The unknown voice inside my head is back.
Yeah. I think it probably was. But it’s not now.
No, she agrees.
Thanks, Yasmine.
You knew?
No. But I figured out just now. I’d know you anywhere. But what I don’t understand is… why you helped me break free. Especially after I killed you back at the hospital.
Because, dear Thomas, there’s a saying that goes a little something like this: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Are we enemies? I ask.
Until death do us part.
She fades away after that. I don’t know where they go when they leave me. The dead memories. And I don’t know if that’s all they are. Just memories. If she was just a memory she’d be no help at all. Maybe I’m just insane. Maybe I’ve been chained to the anarchy in my head for so long, I don’t know the difference anymore. Or maybe I just need to get used to the fact that I’m whole again.
At any rate, Sadie and I follow Linc, Iziah, and Case over to the warehouse where Sheila and the little helicopter are waiting on the roof. We take the stairs up, slowly, since I’m definitely in need of a nanite upgrade, then pile in. Linc and Case are up front. Iziah and I are squished into the back, and Sadie sits on my lap.
All five of us look down on our city as we ascend into the sky to wait things out up in the mountains, wondering what will happen when our plan finally takes hold.
People start to wake up. Just like last time when the Red Robber had Case in his grips. At least that threat is over.
No more Blue Boar.
No more Red Robber.
But Prodigy… yeah, those motherfuckers are still out there. But in a few days, it will be impossible to hide from the justice we’ve unleashed on Cathedral City.