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HUMAN AFTER ALL CHAPTER THREE |
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CHAPTER 3
Keahi took in a deep breath, but she couldn’t force the air back out. It was a strangled sob, her eyes watered up till she almost couldn’t see the dead body at the end of her blade. Vincent Pants slowly slid off her telescoping blade and collapsed onto the alley’s wet pavement.
“You…You…you weren’t suppose to die!” she screamed, her breath finally escaping her. “What happens to me now that you decided to duel to the death?”
In a cruel twist of fate, Keahi’s assigned criminal decided to throw himself on her blade rather then surrender when she disarmed him in their sword fight. Her goal to show her skill by capturing him alive and relatively unharmed was gone. She was a murderer in the eyes of EVE now and her journey most likely ended here. She didn’t know if she would be allowed to live after this, but she hoped she would be able to hopefully return to normal. She composed herself enough to walk out of the alley and return to the street.
“Stiff upper lip girl…” she whispered to herself, “Dad didn’t raise me to cry over things I can’t control.”
“Keahi..”
“What?” Keahi turned around, looking for a source to the voice. She was alone on the predawn streets, the closest person to her most likely was the convict laying back in the alley way. She was puzzled, but then the voice came again.
”Keahi..”
She stood stone still as she realized someone was communicating with her telepathically. It was odd since normally people had to keep eye contact with her if they wanted to speak with their minds, her mental defenses had been abnormally high since she was a child. She closed her eyes to try and block it out, but that only seemed to deepen the contact. Soon a vision appeared in her mind’s eye, what appeared to be a female figure floating weightlessly in a sea of orange.
“Keahi, please don’t be sad. You’re going to be all right.”
“Who..what? How can you say that? Do you know what I have just done to someone?” Keahi cried, her tears welling up against her will.
“I know what you tried to do, that is what is most important to me. You have opened yourself more because of this. This is what allows us to speak directly now.”
“Huh? What? Who are you?” Keahi asked, trying to focus on the female figure’s face, but it seemed too far away.
“I am EVE, the one you were worried so much about… or maybe you were more worried about your father’s opinion…either way, both of us are proud of you.”
“…EVE? You’re…” Keahi tried to speak, but was stopped.
“ I am separate from J.I.B.O. but our connection is still very weak and needs to grow. You must return to J.I.B.O. for the next test. Be strong till then…”
“WAIT!….” Keahi yelled, but the image and the voice disappeared like a dream upon waking. She was back in the cold silent street, but now she knew she wasn’t alone.
….
Vee grumbled as he left the police station in the main republic. To hold him for 4 hours for merely handing over that hillbilly nut job was a ******** hassle. In his mind he wondered if he shouldn’t have gone soft and just executed the sick b*****d back in that cabin. He had a feeling like that would be the wrong answer to whatever riddle this damn prophet thing was getting at.
“How did it go for you, Vee?” a disembodied voice asked.
“What the ********!?” Vee yelled and kicked the garbage bin covered with an umbrella where the noise had come from. A grunt and coughing started to sound from with in it, Vee took this as a sign to keep kicking, but a hand popped out waving off the attack.
“Vee, it’s me! Jay Jay!” the umbrella screamed out, confusing Vee to the point the stopped his assault. The smelly little guy from last time poked his head out from inside his parasol disguise, a smile brimming under filth covered goggles. Vee relaxed slightly, not quite sure to make of meeting one of the other “prophets” out here in public, let alone one pretending to be a parasol.
“Well hey there bub, what the hell is with that get up?” Vee questioned Jay Jay before he even remembered to answer the one poised to him.
“I am undercover to bust my guy when he gets released from jail, I think I overheard his conversation telepathically with his girlfriend, she should be back with bail soon.” Jay Jay laughed. “As soon as he gets out, I am going to just drag him back to J.I.B.O. and win major points.”
“How do you figure bringing the a*****e back to the computer is going to make you look good?” Vee asked, slumping onto the police station stoop next to Jay Jay. He couldn’t help but notice that Jay Jay once again wasn’t the best smelling thing in the area.
“Well, I figure prophets aren’t suppose to question or assume anything, they are suppose to seek and obey the higher forces of this world. We’re more of their medium rather then their weapon.” Jay Jay mused as he looked for his lost plunger in the garbage can next to him. Vee lifted an eyebrow at the comment, but then sighed.
“You might have a point, at this stage of the game, we have no idea what this thing really wants with us. Who is to say that any of us have a clue what is better to do with this scum we’re tracking down?” Vee considered and shot a grin at Jay Jay. “Well what does your man look like? I was just put in a holding cell and questioned, so I got a pretty good look at all the scum floating around in there.”
“Well let’s see…tall, young, brownish skin, dressed kind of like a meth addict, shoots a lot of things, but he kind of went silent just a bit ago.” Jay Jay held up a sketch he made of his suspect. Vee took a glance at it and went a bit pale. He took a hard swallow.
“Say Jay, this guy of yours, his name Aden?” Vee asked with a worried look on his face, but Jay Jay took no hint and nodded excitedly. “Well, s**t…..I don’t know how to break it to you buddy, but your man here is dead.”
“What…” Jay Jay’s eyes grew large under his blue tinted goggles, a look of fear crossed his worry free face for the first time.
“Well, while they had my guy in the cell with this Aden kid, the little neo-Nazi started screaming racist slurs at the kid. The two of them went at it, before the guard could get in there to stop it, kid got his head cracked open on the wall…” Vee grimaced, bringing up the nasty details of the night he was hoping to forget over a pint at a pub.
“You’re kidding me right? I haven’t even touched the guy! He got busted on his own before I could get him! Do you think J.I.B.O. cares who killed him or is this all still my fault? What should I do Vee?” Jay Jay asked in a panicked voice, his costume starting to shake off of him. Vee tried to center himself and calm the little bugger down with some hopeful words, but his voice had disappeared when his mouth opened…
“Vee, there is nothing you can do. This is the way it has to be.”
Vee struggled with the strange voice entering his head and silencing his voice. His head was filling with the color orange and Jay’s face was disappearing from his vision. A slender face peeked at him from within this orange glow, but flowing hair framing the face made it hard to make out the details.
“Vee, please leave things as they are. Neither of us can control the fates and all have to answer to their own powers.”
Vee relaxed and stop fighting the invasion of his mind. He chuckled at the strange comfort surrounding him.
“You’re Eve, aren’t you?” Vee’s inner voice questioned.
“Amazing, you already knew. Is our connection that strong already?”
“s**t if I know. All I know is that this is the voice I hear poetry in sometimes when I am by myself. I heard it the clearest leaving on the tram car that night, figured it was you.” Vee chuckled, it almost made him lighter finally being able to put a name to the voice.
“If you know it is me, then you know what I must ask of you…”
“Leave Jay Jay?”
“It’s the way it was suppose to be, you understand.”
“You going to kill him?”
“It’ll be painless in his sleep, like the other two, I promise he will not suffer.”
“You’re one foul tempered mistress, remind me to stay on your good side.” Vee said grimly, the voice that was so pleasant a minute ago had become painful to hear.
“Come back to J.I.B.O. for the next test…”
Vee felt the weight of those words hit him as he was sent back into reality, he was to leave a man to die so that he could return for another game of Russian Roulette with a computer and a ghostly voice. For a moment he didn’t know if he wanted to go back on that tram car knowing what he did now. Yet the voice that he somewhat loathed at the moment also brought a warmth he never felt in this world. Something that the dark poet in him just had to draw closer to.
“Vee?” Jay Jay’s voice cracked the dream like state. Vee opened his eyes to be face to face a blue faced Jay Jay sans umbrella. “Vee, you okay? You’re spacing out on me when I need help here!”
“Uhh, yeah, sorry…” Vee grumbled, rubbing his temples. He gave a quick shot at Jay Jay one last time and started to turn away. “Go home buddy, sleep it off and see if J.I.B.O. brings you back down.”
“Oh…..you’re right, I should await further instruction and believe in J.I.B.O.” Jay Jay laughed. “Can’t waver on faith and fate when you’re suppose to be a prophet.”
“Yeah, keep on believing…” Vee mumbled as he walked away from the police station. “See you next time cowboy…”
…..
Megan Hills snored slightly from her hospital bed. The nurse filling out the paperwork raised an eyebrow towards the human waste that was disturbing her conversation with the hottest piece of a** ever to grace her work station.
“I am sorry sugah, but you think you can repeat that last part for me?” Nurse Bella swooned at Chase, as he looked worriedly over at the crackhead sleeping beside them.
“Well I work for a nonprofit organization that answers family requests to rescue their strayed sheep for the life of drugs and alcohol. Ms. Hill here is one of those little sheep that lost her way and her mind out on those harsh streets. She is in desperate need of an involuntary psych hold and a 12 step program.” Chase laid on the charm as the nurse haphazardly wrote down some of what he was saying, barely taking her eyes off him.
“And is her family or your organization paying for her treatment here at St. Augusto’s Rehabilitation Center?” Nurse Bella asked as she swirled a piece of her hair around her fake press on nails, leaning forward to give Chase a better view of the 50 year old cleavage she was offering. Chase tried to keep smiling, fighting off the urge to dry heave.
“I have the full payment right her in cash, from the family. They rather not deal with her till the drugs have been gone for a bit, you understand? Tough Love and all?” Chase smiled again, handing over all the money he had stolen off of Megan and her dealer after knocking them unconscious.
“I understand, been there myself with my grand kids. So will you be staying around tonight till she comes to?” Bella asked, hoping he would stay all night and then some. Chase’s jaw felt like it might brake on that one.
“Oh no, well I still am wearing my protective gear I had to use to guard myself from these drug crazed lost souls. But I will return in about 4 hours wearing my suit and looking more presentable for the intervention.” Chase smiled and winked. Bella nearly buckled at the knees at the thought of this greasy young stud cleaned up in a suit and tie.
“Well then you best be on your way back so you’re here when she wakes up Reverend ….? I don’t believe I caught your name sir?” Bella questioned as she checked her paperwork.
“Reverend Adam.” Chase blurted out the first name that came to mind.
“Well thanks kind sir, I do believe I will come back after my shift for Ms. Hicks‘…I mean Hills’ intervention.” Bella flirted as Chase waved goodbye from the hospitals front door. As soon as it shut behind him, he burst into a dash. A voice had been distracting him and calling for him the last few minutes.
“Follow her back…”
Chase added an extra burst of speed as he tore through the streets, dawn barely cracking. His metal boots clanking hard against the pavement, his breath becoming harsh. A soft warm orange glow started to cloud the sides of his vision.
“Please come with her…”
Chase was just about to start to question this odd drive and commands pushing him forward until he saw someone coming up on the street that he was charging up. He slowed his pace and the orange started to disappear from his vision, the voice stopping it’s nagging. A warmth filled his chest and he called out to the person.
“Hey Keahi! Wait Up!”
…..
Ogait called Hotnip back to his arm, watching the majestic bird glide over the misty paddock, landing lightly on his leather glove. He gave a gentle pat on the Hotnip’s head before noticing the bird was carrying a rather odd scrap in his beak. A human eye hanging from the optical nerving endings dangled from the bird’s trap. Ogait frowned at his pet.
“I said that wasn’t for you to eat. It’s bad omen to disrespect even a thief in their grave.” Ogait snatched the eyeball from his upset falcon and tossed it back into the open grave. It bounced and rolled off the first body, falling off onto the second cadaver. Tofaa chuckled slightly at the sight of the eyeball returning haphazardly to it’s owner. He started to shovel the dirt back into the grave, slowly covering the remains of Marco and Bruce. Ogait frowned at the sight and mumbled as he rubbed his left wrist. “Sorry again for you having to go about burying them alone, my arm is still a bit tender.”
“You wouldn’t have an injured wrist if you didn’t defend me from Mr. Donner, I owe you more then a simple task for that.” Tofaa said as he tossed more dirt atop the bodies. “But it is both our good fortune to have met each other while hunting these men, to know that two shallow beings had formed an alliance to fight off law officers and kill innocent hostages…”
“It’s a shame that neither of them could be saved, but what choice do you have with that kind of person. If the only life they hold precious is their own, we could have never saved them in the long run either.” Ogait mulled over, feeling the sting of the hammer he took to his gauntlet. “But then again, who is to say we’ll be saved…”
A silence fell between the two men, the sound of dirt hitting the shovel and falling into the ditch filled the long awkward moments. They seem to be pondering to themselves from an outsider’s prospective. Neither spoke for nearly an hour, just shoveling dirt and watching Hotnip mindlessly waltz through the air. When the grave was filled, the silence broke between them.
“Where have you been my friend?” Tofaa asked, resting the shovel on the ground near the burial mound. He took a long reflective glance over at Ogait. The silence held up on the old man’s part for a little longer, but finally broke.
“I've been somewhere that I hope in all honesty that you were as well…” Ogait said dimly and gave a grim look over at Tofaa. But to his delight, Tofaa’s trademark grin greeted him.
“I was there, the maiden who was calling us back.” Tofaa smiled, “I did fear for a second that you had not been there too, but then I think we sealed out fates together at this pasture.”
“Indeed. But I have an odd feeling like I have seen this woman in my mind before, she seem so familiar.” Ogait said, flexing his wrist to notice the pain was gone. “She seems to connect directly to my core.”
“I have a feeling she is our core. The attachment I get being out in the wilderness is the same I feel is her presence. Perhaps we all have known her before in some way?” Tofaa contemplated aloud as he started to gather his equipment and reattach his scabbards. Once they both had all their belongings back on their persons, they started to walk out of the damp little meadow.
…..
Anton began wiping the blood from his aluminum bat as he watched the small make shift funeral pyre continue to burn through the cold night. Under his steel mask his mouth formed something halfway between a frown and sneer. The smell of burning flesh was somewhat overwhelming, but he bared with it time and time again with his families line of work. He figured out that smashing the jaws in and burning the bodies was the best way to erase evidence and hide the identities of the carcasses. When you are constantly throwing the law officials off your trail, you learn slowly how to commit the perfect murders.
“Can’t believe the first task that computer gave us was simply to off a whore. How the hell is that even challenging?” Anton mumbled as the fire crackled away, slowly washing away his feelings of remorse and guilt. At first, he always felt the weight of what he had done, the shame of taking away a life from the world. As he went through the motions of dragging the bodies out of the trunk of his Shelby Cobra and arranging the wood and gasoline, it weighed on him that he might have lost his soul somewhere along the line. But by the time the fire was dying down, he realized everything had to come to an end and who was to judge who at the final moments.
“******** s**t, I wish I knew what to do after this…do I just try to get back to that tram car at a certain time?” Anton grumbled as he tossed the blood soaked cloth he used to clean his bat into the fire as well. As it sparked up a flare, he was suddenly mesmerized by a patch of orange flame in the center of the pyre. A slender feminine shape started to take shape. At first a bolt of terror went through him, thinking that it was attached to one of his victims, but then a calm flushed the negative concern away.
“What do you think you have done here Anton?”
Anton chuckled a little at the voice’s concern, “I think I did what needed to be done. They all would have gone eventually. I just did the work myself to save fate time.”
“Do you think it was right to take life away from those who you weren’t responsible for?”
“Hmph, I figure if I make prophet, killing three people will seem like a drop in the bucket. I am not naïve enough to believe the position you’re offering us ain’t laced with death and devastation. I am sure you picked me because I am damn near apathetic not to care what needs to be done. I’ll get you results and then some from any task you give me.” Anton smiled at the slender face. It’s emotion didn’t change either as he ranted, figured it either approved or was judging him.
“You’re right that’s why I picked you and why I still have faith in you. What I ask of the prophet won’t be for the faint of heart. Yet remember that your choices don’t always have to be to this extreme. Please return to J.I.B.O. for the next test.”
“Huh? Ain’t you J.I.B.O.?” Anton questioned, figuring the computer was contacting him out in this lonely warehouse.
“Hmmm, it seems our connection needs work if you can’t tell me apart from a machine…”
“Huh?” Anton jerked up and noticed the face in the pyre was gone. Whatever spell had just fallen over him was gone and he was alone in the dark warehouse with the smoldering charred remains. He grumbled and took one last look at the bodies before he walked back to his car.
“Goodnight ladies, sleep well!” Anton whispered, “Especially you Bellstae…”
….
The two small tram cars slowly slid into the station platform at the core of the EVE project space station. It’s occupants had sat silently through most of the ride, some how mourning the disappearance of the two individuals not present on this ride. Vee thought it best not to tell the rest of the group that he had run into Jay Jay and was told to leave him behind. Anton had no intention of letting the group in on his involvement in the missing Bellstae.
With a jerk of the brake, the tram cars came to a stop and the doors airlocks hissed as they opened. The groups slowly came out, looking at the mainframe’s monitor that was booting up. The feeling of being embraced by a power greater then themselves had become present, unlike last time, they felt some telepathic connections.
“Welcome prophets of EVE, this is the J.I.B.O. mainframe. You who stand still before me have passed the previous task and are ready to start phase 2. Your mission is to start to form your persona into a leader worthy of the title of prophet. You’ll be responsible for gaining one follower who truly believes in your power. You’ll need to bring them back to me here at the mainframe in one week’s time. The outcome of this task will decide which of you still has the potential to move forward to the third task. Good luck and God speed.” The monitor snapped and fizzed out, leaving a cold glow across the faces of those gathered before it.
“Well great, now we going to start a cult.” Anton mumbled and walked back into the tram car. The others looked at each other in a worried silence, almost afraid of not seeing each other again. Which one among them would not be returning in a week’s time.
“Please travel safe everyone, I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.” Keahi muttered lightly, almost not believing it enough to dare speak it. The others gave a round of week smiles at her, knowing she meant well and somehow hoped deeply that she was right.
“We should leave quickly, we have a lot of work to accomplish in a short amount of time.” Ogait stated as he started to enter the tram car. “Eve herself will not be fooled by any half-hearted attempts.”
The group slowly filed into their cars behind him and waited for the hiss of the airlocks on the doors. The quick manner of their briefing this time was a sign of everyone worrying about spending more time together then necessary. The missing Bellstae and Jay Jay were a huge burden on those knowing there was only going to be one left standing at the end of this…
 Jibo Phoenix · Fri Nov 14, 2008 @ 01:46am · 0 Comments |
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