Music City Macabre: The Low Lying Lands Saga: Vol. 1 (23 page)

I’ve never been struck by lightning, nor I have ever met anyone who’s been struck to ask them, but I imagine it felt a lot like this. But purely
good.
I mean, I was filled with
goodness
from the tips of my toes all the way to my brain. Malcolm grew within me in a spiritual form, which planted like a seed in my heart and grew throughout my body exponentially fast. I felt his fingers race down my arms and slide into my hands as if they were gloves. And his feet stepped into my feet, healing my fracture and making that leg better than it ever was. Finally, his sight locked in behind my eyes, and my body took on a very subtle illumination. My body was healed. Completely. All of this happened in seconds and I—we, were ready to fight.

I caught the blade fist of Chaos in my left hand and rocked him with an uppercut with my right. He stumbled backward several steps and fell to the ground.

Yeah!

Stay focused. I have my orders.

What orders?

We left Chaos for the moment, and ran to the aid of Cole and Shields. We helped them both to stand. The Freak guards, who had been so enamored with Kade/Chaos, now cowered or scattered in our presence. I instinctively knew to place my hand over the open ear canal and simply desired a new ear to grow. And it did. Cole looked at me and asked, “Where do you need me?”

“Clear the stage. We’ll stage our offensive from here,” We said.

“Got it!”

We turned to Shields. She looked at me, the tears fresh on her face. “We’re going to make it aren’t we?”

“Yes.”

I put my hand over her gunshot wound and willed the bullet to exit her body and fall into my hand. Her wound, as well as any internal damage, was healed. “What do you need me to do?” asked Shields

Can we do what I’m thinking about wanting to do?

You can.

I reached back over my shoulder, produced a beam of pure light, and held it in my hand. I closed my grip and thought about what I wanted to be there when I opened it. I handed her a steel katana, whose blade was so sharp it could have easily defeated Vizzini in a battle of wits.

“Find Ortiz. I need you to cut one of the heads off this two headed monster.”

“With pleasure!” And she was off.

Prescott, turn around, he’s getting up!

I spun around. “Oh, hey. There you are. I just sent Shields after your boy, Ortiz. Sooo, he’s fucking dead.”

Language.

Really?

Yes.

YOU...WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU...YOU ARE HEALED?”

“Dude, are you OK? You sound perplexed. I’ve never heard a master demon from another plain of existence sound confused. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Kade sent a plant into the Murfreesboro Safe Zone. He failed. You want to know how I’m healed? The Network
.
”

“NO!” Chaos charged at me, and I returned the favor. We crashed into one another and proceeded to brawl, like you know, back in the day. In the schoolyard. Except he was a demon with foot long blades for fingernails, and I had an angel inside of me.

Can we defeat him? Or Do I have a false sense security?

I don’t know.

Good enough for me.

Chaos swung his crazy blade hands in a double slashing move that I was barely able to avoid by diving out of the way. As I jumped up I heard a “whump, whump, whump” noise coming from the sky. Chaos looked up, and I took advantage of his being distracted by kicking him in the stomach and drilling him on the side of the head.

“
MSZ! This is Jay Rives of the Normal, Illinois, Safe Zone. Your call for assistance has been received. Take immediate cover!

It was a helicopter! Jay had a helicopter! Where the hell did he get a helicopter? A massive searchlight shone down on the stage, followed by a barrage of bullets. I dove out of the way and scurried out of the line of fire.

Some friend you have there, Prescott. He arrived just in time to save you and kill you!

Sounds about right.

Chaos turned to me and glared.

“ANOTHER TIME, PRESCOTT! THIS IS FAR FROM OVER! And just like that the red-light eyes were gone.

I think I can take this from here. Thank you Malcolm.

It wasn’t for you, Prescott.

Ok. Well, thanks, anyway.

And just as Chaos disappeared from Kade, Malcolm was no longer with me. Kade and I stood face to face. Bullets were flying and Freaks were dying and we just looked at each other. It was the realization that this fight was just going to be him and me. I didn’t care that he was a Freak, or whatever he was. I’d never actually been sure. I knew he was going down, though. It was time to cancel his order. ‘
Take it back’ starts right now.

Jay laid waste to a section of Broadway with the large Gatling gun that extended from the side of his helicopter, and brought that baby down. Before he stepped out of the bird, he bellowed into the loudspeaker, “IF YOU ARE NOT A FREAK, RAISE YOUR HAND!” Not a hand was raised. Jay and three associates formed a cross and walked in all four directions away from the helicopter. They proceeded to annihilate the remaining Freak contingency with an assortment of automatic weapons fire, frag grenades, and hatchets.

***

Shields, katana in hand, made her way through the mayhem that was going on around her. Prescott’s friend, Jay, had come through as guaranteed, and the tide had turned massively. She felt like she had options. It was obvious, at least to her, at this moment, that she had survived. She could slip away from this mess and start over somewhere. She also almost immediately understood she could not do that. She wanted to know Cole was OK, that he’d made it. She
needed
to get back to Prescott. Although her feelings were untouched by the notion of romance, she didn’t think, after what she had just witnessed, that she would ever leave his side again. He was...important.

She sliced and cut her way through Freak after Freak, looking intently for Ortiz. And there he was, running towards Robert’s Western Wear. She really felt that Prescott and Malcolm had created this katana just for her. It felt so natural. It felt like it was hers. Like it had been hers before. Not the one that had been taken from her when they arrived. No, not like that at all. Like in another life?
That’s just crazy! No, it really isn’t. Not anymore.
She swung the door open and ran into the long-since defunct cowboy shop. She saw him rifling through old boxes, a smashed out display case, and finally he disappeared behind a counter.

“There really isn’t anywhere for you to go, asshole.” It’s time to meet your...whatever the hell. Look, I’ll even put down the sword. I want to kick your ass with my bare hands.” She tossed the katana aside. Once the sword clattered to the floor, Ortiz stood up and moved around from behind the counter. He was wearing a smile so sinister, it gave Shields the chills.

“Let’s dance,” he said.

“Gladly.”

***

When I entered
The 88
three days ago I saw smoke rising into the Chicago night from what turned out to be a looted, run-down grocery store. Now, as I stood on this stage, facing down Kade, the smoke was thick and pungent. Jay’s helicopter had fanned the dying flames from my rocket blast on the
Big River
, and had reset the blaze. It was totally apropos.

“I don’t need Chaos’ help to kill you, Prescott. I’ve been raping and killing since long before The Descent. Ha! That just made it OK,” said Kade

“I pinned a lot of hate on your chest that didn’t belong to you,” I admitted. “I thought coming to Nashville, and cutting your cord, would somehow make up for for the wrongs that had been done to me by people you don’t know. But it turns out I was wrong. I mean, I do believe that I was supposed to come here, but not for the misguided reasons I first thought. I’m here because an intervention occurred on a level that someday I’ll fully grasp, that had me in Normal, Illinois, to hear a radio broadcast. And ever since then, each person I’ve met along the way has convinced me that we don’t have to live this way.” I shifted onto the balls of my feet.

“The Descent happened. Assholes like you and the Freaks were the result. The Dreamers? They took the easy way out. The rest of us sufferred. But not anymore. My friends and I are not content with just survival. We intend to fight for our world. It starts now! It turns out I don’t need any other reason to kill you than that you deserve to die.”

I threw a right-left combination of punches that he blocked with his forearms. He then threw a roundhouse kick that hit me right in the hip.
Damn!
I grimaced and backed away a bit before re-engaging. He threw another kick that missed, then he rocked me with a punch to the side of my head. This wasn’t going how I planned. Kade came at me with a right hook that I blocked, but he then hit me with a left in the ribs. When I cringed from that, he came back with right to my jaw. Down I went.

“Some hero, Prescott. You’re not even going to make it out of the first round.”

“Wanna bet?” I said. I hopped up, shook off the cobwebs, and repositioned. I had an idea. I yanked off my tie and wrapped a little bit of each end around each hand, and gripped tight. Kade looked puzzled and made a “whatever” gesture.

Kade feinted to the outside but quickly shifted to the inside with a punch. I saw it in time, blocked it, and sent a jarring elbow to the bridge of his nose.
Perfect!
Kade stumbled back while the blood flowed freely from his nose.

“Dammit!” Kade screamed. He was pissed. I had him right where I wanted him. I hoped.

He charged me with a guttural roar that was actually pretty frightening, but I stayed in there. I waited till the last possible moment. He grabbed for my throat with both of his hands. I kicked him square in the balls. When he doubled over, I brought my knee up square into his jaw. It was a sickening crunch that saw him spit all sorts of blood from his ruined mouth. He was down.

“Kendrick Kade! Your reign of terror ends today!” I walked behind him yoked him with my tie. I took a couple more wraps of the tie-turned-garrote, threw myself backwards and pulled with all of my might. The result was my knees between his shoulder blades, while I choked the life of him with the tie. He fought for his life, and he gargled, and he kicked. But he died. I dropped the ends of the tie and he dropped to the stage. I looked out over Broadway. Fires raged, punctuated by the occasional triple urps of automatic gunfire. But what I didn’t actually
see
anywhere was a Freak. I closed my eyes, and allowed myself a little smile. I knelt down, picked up Kades body and walked it to the edge of the stage. I threw it off. No fanfare. Just symbolic. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a figure emerging from the smoke. I instinctively went for my Glocks, but of course they weren’t there. I was resigning myself to another brawl when I realized the figure was Jay. It was Jay!

I smiled the smile of a victor and ran to embrace my friend.

“You made it!”

“Yup! Wouldn’t miss it. Make ‘em think you’re weak when you’re strong. I knew nothing but good would come out of that CB.” Jay ripped off a very satisfying laugh. Where’s your crew?”

“Where, indeed,” I said. I turned and saw the microphone nestled comfortably in the stand, and went to it. “Michael Cole! Laura Shields! If you can hear this come to the stage.

“I heard you just fine,” said a voice from behind Jay and me. Again, another smoky entrance. It was Shields. In one hand was the katana Malcolm and I had given her, and in the in other was Ortiz’ head. She had a shiner under one eye, a slight nosebleed and was a little gimpy.

“What the hell happened to him?” said Jay.

“Who, our buddy Ortiz? Well, let’s just say he brought a knife to a swordfight.”

“Have you seen Cole?” I asked.

“No, I was busy.”

“OK, Let’s find him—and Jay, let’s round up your guys.”

There was a general chorus of “OK” and people started to break out towards the stairs down to the street.

“Wait! Wait a minute.” I walked back to the microphone. I tapped it with one finger and was greeted with that same resounding feedback. “Nashville, Tennessee! I repeat, Nashville, Tennessee! YOU. ARE. FREE! Regulars! That shit stops today! You are HUMAN BEINGS and this is YOUR city. It is time for the humans to emerge from the shadows and write Nashville’s new history. Page one starts today!” I dropped the mic and walked off stage.

Two hours later, we found Cole. Alive. He was in the kitchen of an old Honky Tonk called
The Stage.
We found him lying atop a rather large Freak with his knife buried to the hilt in the carcass. When I first shook him he didn’t move. Then I kicked him in the ass as hard as I could and that rousted him. He looked rough. Not in life threatening condition, but tired. Cole had killed about thirty or so—according to him—Freaks and mustered up about all he had left for the buddy we found him with, then passed out.