Tony fumbled to find the phone and accidentally knocked a support beam out of place. The roof dipped. Joel let go of the dog and shot up and held the beam up before it completely collapsed.
The dog scurried away in fright
The voices returned.
Tony examined Nadia’s phone and saw Alicia’s name. Tony whispered into the phone, “Alicia.”
Tony listened then relayed the message to Joel, “Alicia’s got the key. There’re out the front of Mauritius’s house.”
Joel strained to hold the weight, his face contorted in pain. He knew he didn’t have the strength to keep the kennel from collapsing. Panic didn’t return, but Joel felt a wave of calmness sweep through his body. “You trust me Tony,” Joel said softly.
Tony nodded in shock at Joel’s cool and relaxed demeanor and confused at where Joel was going with this.
“Stay here, cover yourself over Nadia and don’t move.” Joel pushed his hunched back up into the beam, fumbled for the bronze disk in his pocket then held it tight in his palm.
Tony and Joel spoke to each other through the clear window of their eyes and found the power and emotions far beyond what words could ever express and linked each other as friends for the rest of their lives.
Joel blinked and stepped out.
The pile of wood collapsed to the ground covering Tony and Nadia hiding them from sight.
Joel stood tall and saw the men crawling over fences like creatures from another world with pure malevolence burning in their fiery eyes.
Joel ran.
The bronze disk flicked in the sunlight and drove the creatures ravenous.
Chapter 30
The mustang rested by the side of the road, one driveway back from where they all observed Richard prowling Mauritius’s house a few days before. The trees that lined the street bathed in the gentle breeze. The engine ticked and cracked as it cooled down. Inside Roy and Alicia sat in the front with Eric, their fingers dug into the dashboard and their eyes piercing the air between the windscreen and the house.
The majority of the people that hovered around the house had raced off to the right, some on foot and others in cars. Now all that the three could observe was a big tall military looking man with French traits in his face. The man impatiently paced around the front yard as if either waiting or looking for something.
Alicia’s phone jumped wake. Alicia shot it to her ear, “Tony is that you? I lost you for a second.” Alicia paused listened intently with spasmodic head nods and gasps.
Roy couldn’t take it any longer and begged to be enlightened, “what is it? What’s happening?”
“Tony and Nadia are hiding,” Alicia said annoyed by the interruption. “Nadia’s in a bad state and Joel has run off.”
“What’s wrong with Nadia? Why did Joel run off? Why can't…”
Alicia stopped Roy short with a well executed shut-the-hell-up look. Alicia returned her attention back to the phone, “Where can we find you.” Alicia listened once again. “Ok we’ll meet you there. See you soon.”
Alicia turned to Eric, “we have to sneak around two streets back. There’s a park there. Tony said he’ll meet us there.”
“Sorry Lara croft but do you think this car sounds like it was made for sneaking,” Eric said.
“Fine then go the long way around, park as close as you can and we’ll walk the rest of the way.”
Eric started the car and mumbled to himself, “sneaking? Ha, I built this car to roar, to induce cardiac malfunctions, scare cataracts right out of old granny’s eye balls, to announce my entrance into people’s meager world from four blocks away.” Eric drove off.
**
General Petain scanned the front of the house. He knew what he was looking for should be right in front of him. Thirty years in the military told him so. Patience was the key. A rare smile linked his cheeks as he spotted his target. He called out into the open front door and immediately two of his own guards flanked him. “Objective,” the general said as he pointed at a blue mustang pulling away from the curb and slowly drive off.
**
Tony threw the wood splints and logs off of him. Nadia still lay limp under his protective body. He straightened and stepped away from the collapsed hut. The dog hung its head in confusion and sadness at the loss of his house. The sight of Nadia’s vacant body drew a tear to Tony’s eye. “Hay Nads stay with me ok. I’ll fix everything,” Tony cried.
He began his short walk to the rendezvous point at the park. As he walked slow weak movement returned to Nadia’s limbs. Her eyes began darting around under her eyelids. By the time Tony reached the park Nadia was vaguely aware of her surroundings and clung tightly to Tony. Her eye’s still closed and her mind strapped between two worlds.
They reached their destination.
The park was big, green and flat. A playground sat amongst a small field of bark chips sheltered under a cluster of trees. The park was empty of any other people. To the right was a tennis court and next to that was a square brick building that acted as the change rooms for the local cricket team on weekends.
Tony kicked in the door to the change room, sat on the cold concrete floor and waited. They both held each other tightly trying to force all the evil away with their embrace.
**
Joel hopped onto an old tubeless wooden TV box and launched himself over the dry wooden side-fence and into the neighbor’s house. He ran across the much tidier yard toward the other side. The banging and crashing he herd behind him told him he was still being pursued. Others appeared up the stranger’s driveway and gravitated to him like ice and rocks to a passing comet. Alicia held on tight to his newly prized possession as he leapt, climbed and scattered over backyard fences. The years of dedication to all things sport granted him an extra bounce in his step that kept him ahead of his pursuer. He weaved through swing sets, danced over flower beds and even utilized a trampoline to get over one of the fences in a single jump. A child on a tricycle gave him a bewildered wave as he flash past the boy’s back yard; Joel returned the wave with a smile and not a hint of breathlessness.
Joel finally ran out of fences and yards and found himself in the middle of a side street. This is when he discovered two cars were also in on the chase. The two cars charged him down. Joel glimpsed the name of the street painted on the curb in white paint and could not help chuckling, Chasers Street.
The cars herded him onto the side walk, snapping at his heals like hungry crocodiles. His stride slowed a little as the cars became temporally stuck on the banks of the sidewalk. Then WHACK.
Joel felt a crunching weight slam his hand up against a fence. His head swam in pain and floated through a swarm of colours. When the world fell back into place a thug had him in a head-lock. The forearm around his neck closed in like a vise, the pressure and pain built up in his head. Joel instinctively swung his fist holding the disk up into the man’s groin. The pressure released and the man fell to the floor begging “why there”.
Joel had taken one step forward when another set of claw like hands grabbed hold of him. This time he twisted, squirmed and slithered out of the grip and ran free. It's time to lift the game Joel thought and darted into a newly built housing estate. His recent acquired hobby of parkour took over. Joel hopped between two palm trees and scaled up onto a house’s roof. He looked along the row of cramped rooftops, sucked in three deep breaths and ran. Roof to carport, carport to roof, he skidded along the tiles that grinded and cracked under foot. The gaps between houses proved too narrow to pose any degree of danger until one was filled by an outstretched hand. The hand wrapped itself around his ankle causing him to lose height and momentum. Joel’s chest crashed hard into the roof guttering an instantly pain flooded his torso and pushed all the air out of his lungs. He somehow managed to shoot an arm out and find a grip on the tiles to stop from slipping to the ground. His mind slowly sank into the sea of unconsciousness; it was here through his watering eyes that he saw someone standing on the roof watching him in
tently. The man looked handsomely perfect. Dusty blond wavy hair flopped over his silky smooth face. His presence felt an air of innocence, not unlike a child of one year old but his deep blue eyes held not fear or confusion but an all knowing limitless knowledge.
Joel was observing the loose fitting tan robe like clothes he wore when a tremendous weight dragged him down to the unforgiving concrete below. Shadows swarmed over him and he felt a jabbing pain in his stomach, then to his face as he tried to pick himself up, the blow knocked him back to the floor. Slow waves of black fell down past his vision. In the darkness he felt himself being violently dragged across the rough ground. When he reopened his eyes he saw a crowd of men around him. That image fell to black then he saw a cane a foot away from his eyes.
Joel was rolled onto his back; the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.
“You can never run from me,” Mauritius’s muffled voice dug into Joel’s ear.
Joel saw the stranger on the roof now standing behind Mr. Cushly. The presence of the man drew strength into Joel. “Out run you. No,” Joel coughed and a trickle of blood escaped and fell down the side of his lips.
Mauritius knelt down beside Joel and tried to wrench the disk out of his hand.
“Out smart you. YES!” Joel said with a mad smile. He opened his palm and dropped the disk into Mauritius’s hand. “Here you can have it. I understand now you deserve it more than me.”
Mauritius lifted himself up staring into his own palm. His face scrunched up into a ball of rage, “NOOO!” he yelled as he held the disk with the words, Worlds Greatest Idiot engraved on it.
Joel laughed as loud and as painfully as he could.
**
Roy and Alicia left Eric waiting in the car some way back at the end of the street, the car idling and his phone in his hand ready to help out if Alicia phoned and gave the word. They walked towards the park that was nestled amongst old style houses, their eyes and ears on wide alert. The pair reached the start of the wire fence surrounding the park without spotting anyone, friend or foe.
“So where are they?” asked Roy.
Alicia shrugged then awkwardly climbed over the fence and started off across the soft grass.
Roy let out a painful grunt as he managed to get stuck straddling the fence in his attempt to climb over.
“Roy, stop mucking around,” Alicia called out over her shoulder.
“Mucking around?” tears swelling up in Roy’s eyes. “I assure you I’m not enjoying this one bit.” Roy slowly lifted his leg over and caught up with Alicia.
The pair headed over to the playground area set amongst a cluster of trees.
The cool air invited them into the shadows of the trees. The dry pine bark chips crunched and snapped under their feet as they wondered through looking for Tony and Nadia.
“We must have got here before they did,” Alicia said. “I guess now we wait.”
“Preferably out of sight,” Roy hummed a low tune as he scanned the park for a hiding spot then pointed at a pair of five foot high dense native bushes by the back fence. “Over there looks good.”
Before they reached their snug little hiding place Alicia spotted movement in the window of the square building across the oval by the tennis courts. Alicia looked harder and made out the shape of Tony waving furiously in the window. “THERE HE IS!” Alicia shouted in excitement.
Alicia waved back and then Tony vanished from the window. Roy and Alicia began to jog towards the building. Alicia never made it past the barked area. Without a sound made or movement detected as if materialized from thin air, from behind her a muscular arm clamped down on Alicia’s arm and another around her stomach. Alicia screamed in shock. She was lifted off the ground and her legs thrashed out trying to force herself free from the grip.
“Give me the key,” came an angry French accent into her ear.
Roy’s body froze, paralyzed with a mix of shock and fear that seemed to have crammed the feeling of an hour passing into thirty seconds. His brain started to tick over, a thousand thoughts raced through his mind. The combination that fitted went like this; I have no way of overpowering him, they don’t want us they are only after the disk so… Roy snatched the key out of Alicia’s entangled hands, spun around and ran towards the building. Just as he hoped Roy heard the sound of Alicia being dropped then the fast succession of bark crunching behind him, he was being chased. With pure accidental luck Roy lost his balance, staggered forward and grabbed at a protruding thin tree branch. The tree branch refused to hold him upright and Roy stumbled past the branch which slipped out of his hands. The branch whipped back and smacked the man right across the bridge of his nose. The man fell but only for a split second before he shot back to his feet and continued the chase.
What was left behind on the bark chips at the spot where the man fell was a palm size black box like object with a lightning bolt symbol on the handle.
**
Tony gently sat Nadia on the floor and propped her up against the wall. “I’m just going to check the window for the others, ok Nads,” Tony said reassuringly.
Nadia only responded with a string of incoherent mumbles.
Tony walked across the bare hall like room that somehow acted as a change room for the cricket players on weekends. He reached the dirt stained window and pressed his face in closer to the glass to get a clearer view out over the park. He immediately picked out Alicia and Roy beside a bush in the playground area. Tony waved like a madman to draw their attention. He felt a wave of excitement and relief as he saw Alicia wave back. “NADS! NADS!” he cried. “Everything’s going to be ok. I see Alicia and Roy.”
Tony ran to Nadia’s side. Nadia with eyes still closed shut clutched the disk tighter and used her body to protect it as she felt Tony sit beside her.
“It’s ok. I won’t take it from you.”
Nadia’s body relaxed again but her hand still held on tight to the disk.
A loud bang echoed through the room and through Tony’s head. Tony looked towards the open door that now drooped forward; having been ripped off its top hinge.
Two tall shadows entered the room.
The shadows took on the form of two tall strong disciplined men, one twenty or so years older than the other. They wore black slacks and shirts but Tony knew that they were cloths that the two men were not used too or comfortable in.
“I must applaud you and your friends on your courage and determination,” said the man in a French accent. “My name is General Petain, and now this is where you hand me the disk.”
Tony spat out a certain place were the General should go and a particular act he should perform when he got there.
The younger man lowered his hand and a small black handle he held extended into a three foot baton. He then lifted it up and a small solid metal ball sparkled and wobbled at the tip of the baton.
“Ohh, sorry how polite of me,” the General said. “This isn’t where you give me the disk. This is where I take it from your blood soaked lifeless hands.”
The baton hovered just below the ceiling.
Tony dropped his body over Nadia and waited for the bone crunching impact. From the corner of his eye he saw a blur of colours flash past and sweep away the man with the baton. The blur and the man smashed against the brick wall with a sickening crunch. The blur came into focus, it was Richard Bursik. His face scratched and bruised, his shoulders held high and his face grimacing in pain.
The baton-less man picked himself off the floor and attacked; at the same time the General charged in at Richard from the opposite side. Richard blocked the punch from the General and pushed the other man back against the wall with a ramming side-kick to his stomach. This time he took longer to get up.
Richard shifted his attention back to the General. The controlled anger burnt in the general’s eyes and his cat like stance showed that he didn’t climb up the ranks issuing orders from behind a desk; he earned his stars straight off the battlefields. The ten years he had up on Richard was
countered by the knowledge he desperately wanted to posses. They fought ferociously. One upholding an oath the other willed on by greed. Each shared an even volley of blows.
The other opponent staggered to his feet, shook away his disorientation and threatened to attack Richard from behind.
Richard anticipated the man's move, he stepped to the side and landed a combination of lightning fats kicks and punches that left him swaying on his feet.
Tony locked eyes with Richard and read his intentions. Richard sacrifices his defenses to drag the fight deeper into the room leaving a clear passage between Tony and the door. Tony didn’t hesitate he scooped up Nadia and ran for the door.
**
Alicia watched the man quickly catch up to Roy and then leap into Roy’s back, dragging him down with the full weight of the trained solider onto Roy’s thin frame. Roy squirmed under him trying to escape but the solider had him pinned down good and secure.
Alicia picked up the black block and charged at the man with the weapon held out in her right hand. Alicia dug the Taser into the small of the man’s back and pulled the trigger. The box vibrated and crackled. The man’s body spasm in pain but he still managed to hold Roy down on the grass.
“TONY!” Roy’s muffled voice yelled out from under the man.
Alicia looked up and saw Tony running across the oval with Nadia bouncing about in his arms.
The man stopped squirming to look up but before he could change his target Alicia panicked and repeatedly jabbed the sparkling Taser into the man clicking her trigger finger as fast as she could. He yelled through clenched teeth but still held his strength. Her panic grew as the man sat up. This guy’s superman, am I doing it right. Alicia zapped his arms, legs, back and even accidentally hit Roy’s leg who let out a yelp in pain. But the man persisted. He is Super Man.