He pulled the trigger and the dark shape on the horizon stumbled. Blood
exploded from his left knee and Gabriel saw his leg come apart as he fell to the ground.
It took a second for the scream to reach them across the distance.
Taking his time to retrieve and reload his guns, Gabriel bent and picked up the cat. The man wasn’t going anywhere with only one leg. “Come on. Let’s go find out where they took Sam.”
Picking up his hat last of all, Gabriel jammed it on his head before jogging toward the downed bandit. Mister Mittens climbed up his arm, and lay down across his shoulders as he normally did with Sam.
“If they’ve hurt her,” the cat muttered. “You’re a very violent man, aren’t you?”
“After a lifetime of repression, everyone gets violent every now and then.”
“That was more than mere released repression,” Mister Mittens said. “You
enjoyed it.”
Gabriel was so startled by what the cat said that he stumbled to a stop, slowly turning to see the carnage he’d left behind. The realization of what he’d just done hit him hard enough to buckle his knees. Despite the fact that there was no other way out of the situation with his life, Gabriel had committed the worst of all sins not once by six times.
He was supposed to be working toward redemption here, but he’d killed those men and he’d liked how it felt.
“You can sick up later,” the cat admonished. “First go question that man before he bleeds to death. He’s our only chance at rescuing Sam.”
Nodding, Gabriel turned back to the task at hand.
When he neared the downed man, he drew a pistol in case he was still armed.
The red soil was stained with more blood than Gabriel would have thought a human body could hold. Whimpering, the man tried to stop the flow of blood by tightening his belt around the stump of his leg.
“Hello there. If you want to live long enough to bleed to death, you’re going to answer a few questions for me.”
“You’re not a man,” the bandit screamed. “You’re a demon!”
Shrieking like a prepubescent girl in the audience of American Idol, the man tried to crawl away before realizing the futility and trailing off into frightened sobs.
“You’ve got a few choices here. You can hold that tourniquet and die slow. You can let yourself bleed to death and die a bit faster. Or another bullet could put you out of your misery. So, which way would you like to go? Quick and painless, or long, drawn out suffering?”
“What do you want,” the man rasped.
“Where did your boss Devileye take the girl,” Gabriel asked.
“He ain’t the boss of the Children of the Chosen. The Chosen One is.”
“Is that so,” Gabriel asked, pulling the hammer back on the pistol and pointing it at the man’s other leg.
“Wait,” the bandit cried, waving a hand at him frantically. “Stop! Head east a day. That’s where the Children are, in Haven Maple.”
“Thanks,” Gabriel turned in the direction he thought was east and walked away.
“Hey! What about me!”
“I don’t have bullets to spare on mercy for murdering, raping bandits like
yourself. Take the fate you deserve and rot out here.”
“You certainly were beaten as a child, weren’t you,” Mister Mittens asked.
“This way is east, right,” Gabriel ignored the comment as he started jogging, his injured collarbone jolting painfully with every step.
“Yes,” the cat replied.
“Good,” Gabriel holstered his pistol. “Hold on Sam. I’m coming.”
The sun began to set behind him and Altima set in front of him. Soon it would be very dark, and the temperature would drop to an almost unbearable degree. He couldn’t stop. Every time he thought of stopping for the night the image of that three eyed, inbred monstrosity ripping off Sam’s clothes, and having his way with her pushed him to keep going. He was not going to let that happen to her. His earlier tiredness was completely forgotten as he pushed screaming muscles to keep running ever eastward after her. If they’d hurt her, if they’d even looked at her inappropriately, there was going to be hell to pay. Sure, she might be completely insane, but then again, so were all women. He didn’t want to lose her. If he had to spend the rest of his life on this crazy, messed up world, she was the one he wanted to spend it with. She was the only human being other than his mother that he’d ever felt anything besides hatred for.
He only hoped he had enough ammo. Besides half a box of shells in his pocket, and the ones lining his belts the rest of his ammo was in his saddlebags.
“Just hold on. I’m coming for you.”
Chapter 15: World of Conformity
Noise beat at Kari from all directions, and an acrid underscent, while not
overpowering, seemed to permeate the air. It came close to making her sensitive nose burn.
“Oh wow,” Jonathan cried. “Look at this place!”
The world around her was a sight beyond her wildest imaginations. Hundreds of blocky towers of metal and mirrored glass spread out in every direction. She saw one man dangling from a rope cleaning windows hundreds of feet above the ground as if it was nothing to give a second thought to.
Metal vehicles of every shape, size and color packed the streets, their engines whirring as they followed lanes colorfully painted on the bluish pavement. More darted through the sky, weaving between the massive buildings, following lanes indicated by floating posts with flashing red lights atop them.
Lining both sides of the streets were wide cement sidewalks with the occasional fenced off tree to break the gray monotony. Thousands of people flowed along the walks, wearing odd, drab clothing, consisting of trousers, a button up shirt and a dark coat, despite it being pleasantly warm. Men and women wore the same clothing, and had their hair cut and styled in the same way. It was hard to tell most of them were even women at all. There was not an obese person in sight. Everyone looked fit, trim, and they were all within a few inches of each other height-wise.
“There’s so many people,” Kari said. The noise of all of them going about their daily business had her ears ringing.
“I know,” Michael said with a lop-sided grin. “Isn’t it great!”
Gesturing to her own garb and bowstave, Kari nodded to the people around her.
“We really stand out.”
“We’ll just say we’re foreigners,” Jonathan said. “It’s true, after all.”
It wouldn’t be the first time, but it was more their weapons she worried about. No one else appeared to be carrying any. What if there were laws against it?
“Maybe they’ll think we’re in costume like that one world,” Michael suggested.
“Just tell anyone that asks that we’re on the way to a convention until we can blend in better.”
Frowning at her brothers, Kari noticed that something about the haze in the air of this world seemed to be interfering with the illusions she’d placed on them before leaving the last world. When they moved she could see distortions around them like heat rising from sun baked ground. Unless someone was looking for it, it wasn’t very noticeable, but it irked her that her illusions were not perfect.
“Uh-oh,” Jonathan elbowed Michael, “the beast is giving us ‘the look’. I wonder what we did this time.”
Kari scowled at him.
“No, brother dear,” Michael replied. “Now she’s giving us ‘the look’.”