“I’m not sure what you just shot me up with, but let me tell you, this isn’t over. You’ve not seen the last of me,” Enoch stated, then vanished.
Chapter 18
As soon as Enoch was gone, Hauser and I stepped out of the tub and tended to Penny. “Are you okay?” I asked as I knelt down beside her.
Her eyes were bloodshot, and the side of her face was bruised. She nodded in between coughing fits.
“Can you move?” I asked.
Penny rolled to her side and tried to stand, but fell back against the wall. Hauser and I lifted her and carried her into the living room. We laid her down on the sofa, propping her head up with a seat cushion.
“Why don’t you rest for a bit?” I said. “I think you’re out of danger for the moment. Either way, I’ll be here to protect you if Enoch returns.”
She tried to speak, but it only induced more coughing.
“It’s okay, Penny. You can trust me,” I said as I stroked the hair away from her eyes.
Hauser motioned for me to join him in the kitchen, just out of Penny’s earshot. I nodded, then said to Penny, “I’m just going to be right over there. If you need anything, just… throw something my way.” I winked.
Joining Hauser in the kitchen, I had a million questions, but first I gave him a big hug. “Hauser, you’re alive.”
“Yep. I seemed to have dodged yet another bullet,” he said, patting me on the back. “Although it was touch and go there for a while.”
“What happened? I brought Penny to the city, but when I got back to the cabin, I heard gunshots and then the entire place exploded.”
“Sorry about that, champ. It looks like your homestead is in need of a bit of repair. After you two left, Enoch and I had a fairly drawn-out battle. We each went for the gun and the auto-injector, but thankfully I was able to secure them before he had a chance to. Unfortunately, though, he threw a gas lantern across the room at me, spreading fuel throughout the cabin. As I tried to maneuver closer to him, he continued to throw crap across the room at me. We both jumped in and out of space, trying to get the upper hand on one another. Finally, I’d had enough and decided to take a shot at him with his own shotgun. It was all so fast, I don’t really know what happened. The gas fumes must have ignited or Enoch had a stick of dynamite. As soon as I pulled the trigger, the cabin exploded, and Enoch and I both jumped out of there.”
“Then where’d you go? If he wasn’t tagged yet, how were you able to follow him?”
“Well I’ve been trying to narrow down where he stays, as you’ve seen from all the news reports and research that I’ve done at my place. So I had a pretty good idea of the region. As we jumped out of the cabin, I was able to follow him a number of jumps before he lost me. Finally, I called off the hunt. It would be just a matter of time before he jumped in the middle of a volcano or something and bye-bye, Hauser. Then I came back and found you lying unconscious on the ground and figured the best bet would be to put you as close to the Sentinel as possible before I went back out after Enoch.”
“That is how I got there, then,” I said. “Just so you know, Wilson and the Sentinel believe that you and Enoch are both dead. With no contact from you, they don’t know what to think. They’ve made some changes, and—”
“Jesus, I wasn’t gone for that long. Just a few days really,” Hauser said, shaking his head.
“Well? What did you expect? Anyway, they’ve made Wilson my new trainer and sent me here to finish Penny’s soul collection,” I said, nodding in her direction on the couch.
“Well I’ll stop by the Sentinel and straighten them out before I go on the hunt. A hunt that was only made possible by you, Jack. We would not have been able to get this far without your help.”
“You mean you’re going to go after him yourself?”
“Yep. I wouldn’t miss this opportunity for the world. That bastard has been a thorn in my side ever since he went AWOL.”
Hauser then looked at Penny resting on the couch not ten feet from us. “And whatever your play is here with Penny, I will back you up. Whatever it takes,” Hauser said as he slyly slipped a glass vial from his pocket and handed it to me.
I held the vial up to the light and, seeing a faint silvery mist inside, knew instantly what it was.
“Use your imagination, kid,” Hauser said, nodding in Penny’s direction. “Now, if you’ll pardon me, I need to go catch me an Enoch.”
I stashed the vile in my inside pocket and nodded. “Thanks for everything, Hauser. You’ve done so much for me in the past six months, and I don’t know how I would’ve made it without you. You really are a good person, and it’s been a real pleasure to have known you,” I said, hugging him again.
“Hey, relax, buddy, I’m coming back. Between me and any number of other Sentinel members, we’ll be able to bag Enoch with ease. Of that I am certain,” Hauser said.
“Just be careful, then,” I said, stepping back into the living room. “Wait, before you go, Hauser, you never told me your last name. What is it?”
Hauser smiled widely. “It’s Teufel. It’s German for the devil. It was agreed upon that I would not use it in the afterlife.”
“Ah, wise choice,” I said.
Hauser winked, then he vanished.
Chapter 19
I stood by for several minutes, wishing I had said more to Hauser before he left. Now, he’d never know really how much he truly meant to me.
I returned to the living room and found Penny staring up at the ceiling, looking lost.
“How are you feeling, champ?” I asked, borrowing a moniker from Hauser’s vocabulary.
She blinked her thoughts away and looked up at me, then smiled. “I’m… I’m feeling okay, but I’ve been better,” she said, her voice a little rough.
“I’d imagine so. You nearly died.”
Penny sat up and leaned awkwardly against the back of the couch. “No, there was no almost about it. I did die. I was dead, Jack.”
“Ah, technicalities. At least you’re here now, right?” I said, hoping her suicidal tendencies had passed.
“I suppose, but I would liked to have stayed dead just a little longer.”
Surprised by her answer, I asked, “Why is that? Does that mean that you’re still wanting to give up?”
Penny shrugged. “I—I’m not sure yet. When I was… there, I saw my brother. I would’ve liked to talk to him, but there wasn’t enough time. One minute I was walking toward him and he smiled at me. Then a moment later I was pulled away. It was so brief.”
“I don’t know what to say, Penny. I didn’t know what you just described was even possible. I thought that once a soul was collected, it was reincarnated into another living being. What you just described certainly gives me hope,” I said, trying to maintain my composure until my final plan was put into motion.
“Yeah, me neither. At least I was able to see him for a moment, and he looked happy. And that makes me happy.”
“That’s great, Penny,” I said. “But where does that leave you and your situation? Are you still feeling depressed? Are you still contemplating suicide?”
“I don’t know, Jack. I don’t know what to think. With everything that I’ve witnessed since first meeting you, I’m confused more than anything else. Nothing can change the fact that I am alone on this earth. And before you go on telling me that I can make friends, let me just say that being alone is not a terribly bad situation for me. I have been alone for so long, I’ve learned to crave the solitude.”