The Siege (29 page)

Breeze nodded.

“What do you want?” the sweating Other asked.

“I want that contract destroyed.”

“I have no power to do that.”

“I thought you were here to negotiate.”

“I can change the terms…” he suggested as Breeze’s blade pressed deeper into his blistered skin.

“Then change them.  Make it read that until there is a safe delivery of my child, I will stay here unmolested by your kind.  My child is not a casualty.  It is everything.  My husband, his friend Cid, Murphy and Breeze will not be
dealt with
now or at any future date.”  She stared at him a moment coldly.  “Want me to write it down for you?”

“No, I’ve got it.  It’s done.  Now let me loose.”

“Sorry, but I’m not finished negotiating,” Mia explained.

BAM!  BAM!  BAM!

The house shook with the violence of the knock.

“I think we’re done with the negotiating process,” Richard said angrily.

Chapter Twenty-two

Murphy flew out of the barn and was facing off with the three ghosts on the porch before the last knock’s echo had faded.  He took a battle stance, sinking his axe into the walk behind the ghosts to get their attention.

CRACK!

Surprised, the three whirled around, briefly losing cohesion.  It took a few seconds for the least powerful of the three to manifest.  Murphy watched as they moved around him.  He picked up his axe and bent his knees.  He held his axe to his side, ready to take on the first attack from whatever direction it came from.

A loud whirling roar preceded the speeding snowmobiles descending from the hillside.  Ryan and Tom hit the level ground spraying snow to each side.  Ryan, not able to see the fight in front of him, followed Tom’s lead.  Tom directed his machine at the largest of ghosts and held the controls with his knees as he raised his shotgun and sent a spray of salt pellets into the ghost’s back before the machine and Tom drove through him, temporarily destroying the entity’s manifestation.  He then directed Ryan to the right.

Ryan drove his machine close to the porch and dove off of it, letting the momentum of the machine take it into where he imagined the smaller of the two remaining ghosts stood.

The ghost, unfamiliar with such a machine, turned around to watch its progress.

Murphy swung his axe, decapitating him.  He kicked out a foot, disengaging the ghost’s body from his head.  Murphy finished him off with the flat of the axe,
SMACK!  s
ending the head deep into the woods.

The sound of galloping hooves on the drive alerted the remaining ghost of danger.  He turned to see a saddled horse sans rider approach. As it neared, the horse veered, turning parallel to the ghost and exposing Tonia Toh side-riding the Arabian. She held a crossbow loaded with an iron, salt-encrusted arrow.  She fired on the ghost, sending him into a world of pain before he could react. His screams pierced the air before he vanished.

Tonia disengaged herself from her steed, White Fellow.  She nodded to Murphy and put her back to his.  The two of them moved as one, protecting the way to the porch.  Tom and Ryan ran onto the porch.  The door opened, and Cid ushered them quickly inside.

Tonia and Murphy kept their posts until Lorna rode up on Airgead who was dragging a sled packed with supplies.  Murphy nodded as Tonia grabbed a sled and took it inside the farmhouse.  Lorna grabbed the reins of White Fellow, guiding him as she rode her horse to the barn where she was surprised by several long-armed bots that opened the large doors and closed them after her.  She looked around at the converted space and chose to settle the horses close to what she assumed was Murphy’s end of the barn.  She pulled the saddles and covered the Arabians with the warm blankets they kept rolled up behind the saddles.

A large centipede robot rolled up and filmed her as she went through her routine of settling the horses in.  She looked at the machine and asked, “You wouldn’t have any bales of hay or straw would you?”

It took a minute before a long-armed bot moved to the middle of the structure.  It reached upwards and unlatched and opened a hatch.  The centipede moved up the arm.  Lorna heard several bumps and a dragging sound overhead.  The arm extended into the hatch and returned with a bale of straw.  It set it down.  It repeated this motion three more times before it reached up one last time and brought down the small bot that had curled itself around the appendage.  The machine set the smaller bot safely to rest next to the straw.

Lorna took care of the horses and then strode purposely towards the PEEPs office where she expected to see a human at the controls of the robots.  She stopped in her tracks as a giant eyeball greeted her.

“Well, I’ll be a seven-legged spider,” she blurted out.  “My compliments.  What are you called?”

The adjacent monitor lit up, and the name JAKE appeared along with Marvin the Martian dressed in a full Indian headdress.  He walked proudly to the center and bowed.

“The word
offensive
comes to mind, Jake,” she said.  “I’ll let it go this time.  What can you tell me of the situation here?”

Information flashed on the third monitor.  Lorna pulled out a chair and sat down.  “Slow down,” she commanded.  Her eyes opened wide when she got to where Jake had transcribed what Murphy had told him.  “Shit.”

A picture of a bubbly bar of soap flashed briefly.

“May I have control for a while?”  she asked.

“No internet, no dial up, no hope, all is lost,” Jake said in several radio hosts’ voices.

Lorna pulled the pack off her back and drew out a heavy package.  “Satellite,” she announced.  “Give me a chance to install it.  I’ll need that climbing thing in the barn.”

~

Tonia walked into the house behind the end of the sled she was carrying with Murphy.  They set it down on the foyer’s wood floor.

Cid opened his mouth to protest.

“It’s just water,” she said and walked into the small bath and returned with a few towels.  She tossed them at Cid before following Murphy down the hall to the kitchen.

Mia nodded at her when she entered.  Tonia looked at the sensitive who resembled a Weeble in her current position.  Her yellow-gold eyes, however, did not.  She followed Mia’s gaze to the wall of the kitchen.  There, between a Whole Foods world calendar and a Confederate corporal holding a sword, was a very damaged man.

“What does this son-of-bitch call himself?”

“Dick,” Ted answered.

“Richard!” the Other barked.

“Tonia, would you like a coffee?”

She nodded as she moved in front of Richard.  She continued to study Mia’s confinement scheme.  “Brutal.  What did you do to piss her off?” Tonia asked, holding her hand to the side.  Ted placed a mug in it.  “I know you can speak, Richard.”

“Threatened her baby,” he admitted.

Tonia nodded.  “That would do it.”  She turned her attention to the young soldier.  “Tonia Toh.”

“Breeze,” he said without taking his gaze away from his prisoner.

“Nice to meet you, Breeze.  Unusual name, but I like it.”  She walked over to Mia who kept a continual glare on the Other.  “You can relax, Mia. I’ve got this.”

Mia lifted an eyebrow.

Tonia backed away.  “Have it your way.  Do I smell fried chicken?”

“Cid’s best. Maybe Ryan and Tom saved you some,” Mia said, lifting a finger and pointing it in the direction of the table.  “I offered some to Dick here, but he insisted that he didn’t eat,” Mia explained.

“He turned down your hospitality.  He
is
a dick,” Tonia walked over and good-naturedly elbowed her way in to grab a drumstick.  She whispered to Tom, “Mia’s ready to blow.  When she does, I would be elsewhere if you value your present opinion of her.”

“Is he human?” Tom asked, indicating the prisoner pinned to the kitchen wall.

“Was.  Not now,” she said and bit into the leg of chicken.

“Then he’s not in our jurisdiction.  Right, Sheriff?”

John Ryan looked up from his plate of potato salad.  “He owes the community of Big Bear Lake a cell tower, but I doubt he’s good for it.”

“I was thinking of heading upstairs to keep an eye on things.  I understand the ghosts will regenerate soon?” Tom asked.

“Unfortunately, yes.  All we need is someone to think about Christmas for those effers to draw energy,” Tonia replied.

“How are you going to stop them?” Ryan asked.

“I’ve got a theory.  I need to find an atheist.  Know of any?” she asked the men.

“An atheist, good god, why would you need one of those?” Ryan questioned.

“It takes a non-believer or someone that has never heard of Charles Dickens and hates the English.  I was hoping that was a Revolutionary solider,” she nodded towards Breeze.  “But, damn it, just not my day I guess.”

A loud tap on the back door window broke up their conversation.

Tonia walked over and saw a very large gray bird.  “There’s a big bird at the window.”

“Let it in!” Mia, Ted and Cid chorused.

Tonia opened the door, and the bird flew inside, circled the kitchen once, headed into the hall, and up the stairs.  Overhead they heard a heavy thud.  Followed by footsteps.

Tonia’s skilled ears picked out two different sets, a heavy male and either a small woman or a child.  She pulled out her knife and headed for the stairs.

Cid walked in front of her.  “Not necessary, we know who they are.”

Tonia tapped his chest.  “You don’t like me, do you?”

Cid didn’t say a word.

“It takes a while for people to warm up to me.  I’ll grow on you, I promise.”

Tom walked around the two and started up the steps.  He stopped when he saw the man at the top landing of the stairs.  He looked like he’d soon burst out of the clothes he was wearing like Marvel’s Hulk.  A very beautiful Native American woman stood to his side.

“Hello, you must be Tom. I’m Judy, and this is Ed.”

“I’m headed for the lookout position,” he explained. 

The odd couple stood aside to let him through.  Tom heard the woman tell the man as they descended the steps, “He’s the one that Murphy brought back to life.”

Tom didn’t know he was so famous.  This put a cocky smile on his face. He walked into the front bedroom and raised the window. He ignored the cold as he leaned out to get a better view of the front.  He caught movement to his right.  He pulled himself back in, slammed the window, and ran to the master suite and looked out the side window.  There he had a better view of Curly climbing up the steep incline of the barn’s roof dragging what looked to him like a small dish.  He couldn’t help getting a little nauseous remembering the night he spent inside of one.

The superhuman and his mate were greeted with joy and laughter from everyone with the exception of Mia, who Judy rushed over to check on.

She laid her hands on the sensitive and shook her head. “How long have you been in labor?”

“Not long.  He’s doing it,” Mia said through clenched teeth.  “He can’t take me with the child inside, so he’s trying to make me expel it.”

Judy rushed over to Ted.  “We’ve got to get Mia upstairs and away from that thing.”

Ted rushed over and picked his wife up in his arms.  “Come on, Mighty Mouse, we’ve got to lay our troubles in the hands of our friends.”

Mia laid her head against his shoulder and let him carry her out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

Judy followed them.

Murphy approached the Other and raised his axe.

“No!” Tonia shouted, putting herself between them.  “He’ll just regenerate and become stronger.  Right now he’s weak, and we can watch him.  Save your energy because his friends will soon be back.  If you want to help her, we have to neutralize them.”

Cid approached Tonia. “Tell me again why you need an atheist.”

Tonia repeated herself and then asked, “Why?”

“This big lug here is a superhuman from the past.  He preexisted the Dickensian era by hundreds of years.  He believes himself to be a god.”

Tonia looked at the large man a moment.  “Tell me more.”

“He killed birdmen when he was a young man.”

Ed sensed he was being discussed. He looked over and lifted his chin.

“May I introduce He-who-walks-through-time,” Cid said.

“I’m Tonia Toh,” she said, extending her hand.

Ed squeezed it gently until she applied enough force to break a finger then he met her might with his.

Tonia turned to the Other, “Tell me, Dick…”

“Richard,” the Other corrected.

“Tell me
Other,
have you ever met a god?”

Richard looked up at the superhuman and shook his head.  “I haven’t, and I still haven’t, have I?”

Ed’s face clouded.

“This is the opinion of this man and the three ghosts that work for him.  Awful people really,” Tonia incited.

Ed flexed his hand.

Cid patted his shoulder.  “We need you.  Murphy and Breeze are outmatched.  They’re trying to take Mia away forever.”

“I’ll kill him and his trash,” Ed vowed.

“Just take care of the trash.  We have to deal with this jerk in a different way,” Tonia explained.

Ed nodded.

Sheriff Ryan walked up to the group.  “Excuse me, but I think we need to get this gentleman armed.”

“We have a lot of old iron spears in the barn,” Cid said.  “Follow me.”

“Did you say you have iron spears?” Ryan questioned.

“Doesn’t everyone?” Cid replied, pulling on his coat.  “What about Dick?”

“I’ll stay and watch Mia’s guest,” Tonia offered.

“I’ll stay and watch Tonia,” Ryan said.

Tonia smirked, “He’s mine, Ryan.”

“Yes, but only when the time is right.”

She nodded.  “I’ll have to curb my impatience.  Mind if I ask him a few questions?”

“Free country.”

Ted watched helplessly as Judy moved her hands over Mia.  They had placed Mia in the nursery, feeling that the protections set there would interfere with the Other’s mental hold on her.

Judy looked over at him.  “The baby is fine.  But the baby is coming.”