Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End (22 page)

“
Go,” Trevino said hollowly.

“
Beginning bracketing bombardment,” the merc
repeated.

In the cave, Loki was
crouched over a series of rocket tubes, fussing with fuses and
checking caps. He looked up as Dionysus entered, then returned to
work.

Loki nodded to the others,
passing them rocket tubes as they swarmed out of the
caves.

“
The camp’s a pile of dead kids. We’re down to two teams in
the core...” Loki said.

“
Artemis thinks we can win this. She–” The ground shook with a
distant explosion. Dionysus' eyes widened.

“
Artemis is a believer.”

There was a second, closer
explosion.

“
That’s artillery–” Loki started.

A series of rhythmic
explosions continued. Loki stopped, troubled by something in the
timing, but Dionysus got there first.

He grabbed Loki and leaped
for the cave mouth as there was a final blast and much of the room
collapsed in dust and screams.

Dionysus and Loki crawled
from under gravel and debris. They were alone. The entrance to the
outside was partially open.

“
How–?” Loki asked.

“
I’m a drummer, dumb ass.” They grinned through a coating of
blood and dust.

Loki looked around. “We’ve
got water, food and a collapsible entry. Worst case, we hide out
for a month or so.”

“
Artemis? Mary?” Dionysus asked.

Loki shook his head. “If
they’re smart, they took cover and are high-tailing it out of here.
This is over.”

Dionysus nodded, and picked
up a handgun. The two of them went down on their haunches. “A while
back,” Dionysus said contemplatively, “you told me you didn’t think
it mattered if people are unique.”

“
Huh?” Loki shook his head. “Wouldn’t you rather be playing
cards or something?”

“
Nah.”

“
Alright.” He tried to recall the conversation Dionysus was
referencing, and then remembered. “Well, you can easily boil down
the infinite complexity of humanity to a simple truth: everyone
wants to matter. The other stuff...doesn't so much.”

“
Sure, but. You can pick any premise, any myth and spin
everything around it. Make it the
axis
mundi
of the universe. You can hang
Foucault's Pendulum anywhere. That's the nature of all our myths
about the world. They conceal and reveal, they invent in their own
image.”

“
Goddamnit. You are the only person that could get me talking
about this, at a time like–”

“–
It doesn't hurt anything to focus away from this madness for
a moment,” Dionysus said. He grinned.

“
Seriously, man. Okay, I have my breath,” he wiped his eyes,
blinking. “Hey. Is that Lilith?”

There she was, walking by
the entrance to the cave, looking like she didn't have a care in
the world.

“
Lilith!” Dionysus said in a hissing whisper. Loki shot a
glare at him, but he didn’t catch it. Loki closed his fingers
around his dagger as she approached.

“
What happened to you?” he asked.

“
Caught. Questioned. Escaped,” she said.

“
Good to have you back. We’re probably it. You know
that.”

“
No one else needs to die here,” she said.

“
Huh?”

“
I made a deal with the Marshall, Trevino. He's the guy that's
been tailing us forever.”

“
Lilith. Since when did we start negotiating with
feds?”

“
It’s at least worth thinking about,” Dionysus
said.

Loki locked eyes with
Lilith. “No, it’s martyrdom. I get it. This was all you, wasn’t
it...I planned your war, drove your chariot, guarded your damn
doorways, but this does it. Count me out.”

“
Don't do this,” Lilith said.

Loki unsheathed his knife.
He began to move it into a defensive posture.

Faster than he could have
predicted, Lilith shot past him. Now she was behind him, dagger to
his throat, other hand on the elbow of his primary arm.

“
Wow,” Loki said.

“
What are you doing? This is nuts,” Dionysus said.

“
She’s gonna feed us to the Feds, don’t you get it? We’re a
goddamn sacrifice. All this, the band, the movement...”

Lilith looked at Dionysus.
“You were always a stubborn fool.” Then she turned to whisper in
Loki’s ear, “and you always were a bit too smart for your own good.
Till next time, friend.”

“
You better hope not,” Loki said.

Dionysus shook as he
watched blood pour from his friend’s neck into the thirsty sand.
Their conversations had been a constant part of his life for more
than a decade. It had shaped their ideas about both themselves and
the world more than either cared to admit.

There was nothing he could
do. He knew a mortal wound when he saw one. So far from medical
assistance, there wasn’t even a point in trying to help.

“
Why?” was all Dionysus could force between his
teeth.

She looked at him blankly.
“You’re like a kid asking why the sky is blue.”

“
You built us up just to have us publicly disassembled? Is
that it?”

“
I’m a force of nature. If you full realized what you are, you
would be too. Look at you, your animal body quivering. Your mind
spinning. See Loki dying on the ground there? Look, he's clawing
towards you, desperately fighting. Fighting. There's nothing to
fight! Let go.” There she was again, hands on her hips, so
certain.

“
Slough off this mortal coil, is that it? Embrace
divinity?”

“
Something like that,” she said.

“
Then you should thank me.”

“
Thank you for what?” she asked, the subtlest trace of
confusion tainting her placid demeanor.

“
Setting you free,” he said, with crushing
finality.

She was gazing into the
dark barrel of a gun. Her eyes widened in horror. “You
wouldn’t–”

The darkness of the cave
went white, then womb red.

Dionysus stood frozen in
place. Her words rang in his head long after the sharp crack of the
gunshot echoed back at him from the impassive walls of the
cave.

The gun in his hand did not
shake. He felt no remorse, no rage. He was merely a channel for
what had to be done. How it was that a brutal act of revenge
elevated him to some kind of Demigod-hood, he wasn’t sure. But the
certainty was there, sitting comfortably in the part of his stomach
that usually housed fear and doubt.

My God
, he thought, looking down at her shattered body, still
twitching and spurting black blood. Whatever made Lilith
Lilith
was still as it
always had been. Everywhere and nowhere. She howled between the
rocks as the first proto-humans emerged from an ice age. In a strip
club, between the grinding of flesh and slacks, the passing of
coke-speckled cash from sweaty hand to hand – she was there. In the
flash of new lust that tears apart commitment and restraint to
birth new life in feverish passion – she was there, too.
Forever.

But she wasn’t
here.

Here were two blood soaked
corpses, fit to be carrion come the dawn.

Maybe, in a way, Lilith
was right. Demigods are monsters, terrible and beautiful as a
tornado.
Our
eternity is not the procession of disparate lives so much as
an ever-shifting singularity. The distinction is subtle, a mere
hairs-breadth that distinguishes man from God. The surface of a
pond may ripple in the wind, but the pond is the same. Demigods
appear without remorse because they know nothing has changed. A
baby born, an entire civilization torn down by a twist of fate – no
change.

Smoke still slithered out
of the barrel of the gun.
Demigods are
monsters, and now so am I.

Trevino watched Dionysus
through his binoculars. He was walking alone, fearless of
gunfire.

Normally at this point in a
mission he would feel professional satisfaction, even elation, but
this time he just felt sick. He had been following orders, sure,
but he knew many of the people that died today were just misguided
kids. That was true on both sides. What if those rigid lines – the
good guys over here, the bad over there – weren’t real at
all?

“
Confirmation,” a voice crackled on the radio. “He appears to
be unarmed.”

Trevino shook his head. “He
wants us to take him. Cover me.”

“
We have the shot.”

“
He’s mine. Do you hear me? Don’t fire without my
command.”

Trevino stepped out from
cover, his arms open. Two mercs followed.

“
Dionysus,” Trevino said.

Dionysus stopped, but
didn’t turn.

“
It’s over.”

Dionysus turned a piercing
gaze on him. He was different somehow. “It is. There's nothing you
can do to me that hasn't already been done. Nothing you can
take.”

“
I believe you.” Trevino turned to his men. “Stand
down.”

They appeared
unsure.

“
Stand down,” he repeated.

Trevino approached
Dionysus, who put out his hands in expectation of handcuffs.
Trevino shook his head. “Five guys with guns pointed at your head.
I’m not worried.”

“
You’ve spent years tracking us. The first case, this one.
Here I am. But you’re not smiling. Why is that?”

Trevino had
nothing.

Dionysus looked thoughtful.
“For some reason this reminds me of a story I heard about a
samurai. He was sent by his Daimyo to kill an official of some
kind. And before he could land the blow, the official spit on him.
The samurai...he just sheathes his sword and walks away. Do you
know why?”

He got no reply. “If he
had killed him at that moment, it would have been
personal
. You see...I've
lost everything, I've gone beyond it...beyond anything being
personal. Tell me. Is this personal for you?”

Trevino continued to ignore
his questions. “Loki?”

Dionysus shook his
head.

“
Look. I called off the slaughter. I have no stomach for it. I
just want you and Jesus.”

Dionysus shook his head
again. “Called it off? Trevino, haven’t you killed nearly
everyone
already? This
is like the end of fucking Hamlet. Let me ask you something. Why do
you think you were sent after us?”

“
You're an escaped convict. You–”

“–
You're not stupid. I can see that now, looking in your
eyes.
You
aren’t
the one who has been hounding us. You’ve been someone’s errand boy.
Why did they pick you to do the job?”

Trevino nodded grimly,
despite himself.

“
I’m guessing...You are disposable and desperate. They want
you to take down rival Demigods. Keep us from shifting the status
quo.”

“
Gods? You're insane.”

“
Let's find out. If you're right, I'll spend the rest of my
life in a mental asylum. If I am...you'd better run. And
fast.”

“
You’re going to threaten me, now?”

Dionysus spread his hands
wide. “I'm not the one you should fear. You’ll be the remaining
lose end. They will have you expunged from the record.”

Trevino had considered this
as well. Hundreds of miles away, would the three Suits sigh
together like wearily triumphant surgeons when he called it in? If
the lunatic was right, would they kill him?

He pictured himself laid
out with the lumpy quiet of a cadaver on the conference table, with
the Suits surrounding him. Their hands adjusted his tie, pinned his
credentials to his lapel, fussed with his hair. Martyred, a Saint
Stephen full of hollow point slugs like bloody
mushrooms.

Is this what their
predicted outcome was?

Dionysus continued. “We
don't change anything by drawing lines on a map. Two or three sides
can be at war and serve the same master. Aid this uprising, topple
that one. For as far back as recorded history goes, this has been
the game. The men you work for live on blood, dictating the course
of history from behind a desk. You can shoot the messenger if you
like, but it changes nothing.”