This is a draft version of a chapter from John Saye’s book, Longevity and Other Stories. If you are daring, why not subscribe to my newsletter (they come few and far between), and I’ll send you a PDF copy of the book?
The smell of popcorn filled the air as they ran through the green space in the middle of the park. People were scattering left and right, police or guards chased them at every angle and for the first time, Janet saw a soldier, dressed in green, carrying a rifle.
Behind him, we’re three or more soldiers and a Humvee. It looked like they were just coming in.
“This way, everyone, we must evacuate.” It was over a speaker, Janet couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from, but she could see people were being gathered behind a barrier as the military was coming in.
A drone, small with a camera, was following them, buzzing through the trees, low. It didn’t slow Wen down. He jumped and thrashed through the trees, putting as much distance between them as he could.
Janet held Wen close. She looked back. She saw a tank tearing its way through the park’s front gate, and she held Wen closer around his waist, reaching up to hug him around the chest as best she could without falling off.
The park security was still helping, running to the other side as the military came in, but they were rushing out of the room, and she could see that pretty soon they met the corner.
She yelled into his ear, “that way, get to the tower.”
He jumped into a pond full of koi, and splashed his way through it, then stared down the drone, smacking it with a claw. It splashed into the water, and then they came out the other side as a rocket shot from a tube from one soldier and past them, exploding the front facade of blueberry falls.
It exploded in a giant fireball. The entire entrance caved in, and she could see all those clocks, trying to go off as they were melting, burning, and falling. Then the roof caved in with a kawoosh. Dust and fire flew from the front as the fireball rolled in slow motion, and the front caved in, crashing down.
They jumped, flying out over a fence, and through a garden on his way through to where two older rides here were. They felt exposed, a great roller coaster, a rickety wooden monster called Whiplash Fever, and a tower-style free fall ride that Janet had only ridden once before. It went up a hundred-fifty feet, just a circle of seats that rotated up and gave you a panoramic view of the area. When you were at the top, you could see the ocean. She hated it, and she knew it would be the last, the endgame. They would get cornered there, but there was no place left she could think of, no clever direction, or a place she could think of to hide him anymore. At last, there they went.
He got to the base of the tower and another rocket flew right by them, blasting into the big wooden coaster, sending it up into flames,
“Come on, big guy, just one last to climb.”
“Okay.”
He jumped on the tower and climbed over the seats. Everything was off, and it was dark. Tanks were moving in, and keeping aim, but not shooting yet.
He looked up at the top. Far from water, far from everything. He’d come here from who knew where. His mind was fuzzy. But this woman. He’d do anything. He clamped onto a series of cables on the side of the tower and began the climb, with Janet up on his shoulder, holding on.
He climbed onto the cables, anywhere he could find purchase, and used the side of a steel ladder out here for whoever might ever have to climb this thing.
He made it up past the trees, and could feel the warmth of Janet’s skin on his, and hugged her to him, then went back to climbing. Occasionally a shot would ring out from a soldier, and several of them were using bullhorns calling for them to come down, let the girl go, and turn themselves in. Every time Janet said to keep going, keep going up. Don’t listen to them.
Before long, they passed where they could hear anyone below. It was just the two of them in the wing. First so many feet, they could see the surrounding park, now filled with the US army. She could see her apartment because they climbed and climbed until they could see houses around the park. Drones surrounded them. They all looked like they were just filming, but they also looked, some of them, like they could take a shot. She wasn’t sure why they hadn’t fired a rocket at the base and just taken them down, but she did her best just to concentrate on holding on. It was getting windy enough up here.
Wen swatted a drone getting too close, and it went teetering to the ground and crashed into the vase. They were already so high that it didn’t matter. When it hit the bottom, they couldn’t hear it.
About halfway up, the drone just sucked and backed off and they were alone. He climbed and climbed, taking her to the top, knowing when they got to the top, it was as far as they could go. Options were rapidly decreasing, and they were both higher than either of them could fall and survive. He trudged, carrying Janet, his love, until they made it to the top.
It was larger up there than either of them suspected. The top had a nice flat fade to stand on, even with a railing. It wasn’t completely secure, but it was better than being on the side. He climbed over the railing and he and Janet rolled onto their faces and caught their breath.
“This is it,” said Wen.
“I know.”
“You could have given me up down there and gotten away.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted every moment, I could have with you.”
“I love you.”
She kissed him on the top of that tower and held him and his clawed hands close as the sound of the helicopters arrived. They could hear the soft thump of the rotors.
They stood together, knowing it was their last moment, and waiting for the end, that blast from one of these black helicopters when one of them approached close and extend a ladder, and a short man no taller than four feet, with a thick brown beard, and a dark suit on, wearing thick reddish black goggles dropped to the roof.
“Miss Janet?” He offered a hand. He was smiling, and it seemed genuine, so she took it. He waved to Wen. “You are kind of hard to catch, my friend. Thanks, Barton,” said Wen.
“You know him?”
Wen shrugged. “We’ve met. Barton isn’t here to help us, you know. Yes, nice, but he means business.”
“I’m afraid it’s true. There’s nowhere to go. I can get you off this tower without you crashing to your death, and I can get you out of here alive if you just let me take you.”
“What will happen to us?”
“Well, big guy, you know where I have to take you.”
“Bacon?”
“Yeah.”
“And Janet?”
“That depends on her. If you both go quietly, we’ll do a debriefing with her and see where it goes from there.”
“Can I visit him?”
“At Bacon? You want to just go with him?”
“What’s Bacon? A breakfast nook? Probably not right?”
“It’s kind of…”
“Space prison,” said Wen.
“That’s putting it a little bluntly. It is more like a place he can be himself without having to hide.”
“Where no one else can see him, right?”
“He’d disappear, yeah.”
The wind picked up. The helicopters were getting a little close. Janet’s dress was flying all around her.
She hugged her crab man and kissed him again.
“Or we could just blow up the tower with y’all on it.”
“Shut up.”
“Take us up,” said Wen. “I’ll go, just don’t hurt her.”
“Good idea. Let’s get off this tower then, right?”
He smiled and waved to the helicopter ladder hanging by them. You first, m’lady, then the big guy. I’ll be right behind you.
They climbed the ladder, which seemed even less stable than any of their previous climb. It was rubbery, yet strong, and it held its weight fine, but the view with nothing around them wasn’t comforting. The noise of the helicopter made talking nearly impossible.
When Janet reached the top, Barton held out a hand to help her in.
“But, you were…” she looked down. He wasn’t behind them.
“Sorry,” he said. “I can do that.”
He took a bulky headset with a thick blue foam microphone and showed them a seat where she could sit and strap in.
Then, as Wen clambered into the helicopter, again, Barton helped him in and showed him to a seat next to Janet.
Then the helicopters turned to leave, and in the lead of them all, she watched out the open door, his claw in her hand as her town went by under them. She saw her apartment go by again, the store she liked, a shopping center, and a swimming pool. There were quite a lot of swimming pools. They crossed out over the ocean and turned. Going low, she assumed they were heading for a base or something.
She watched people on the beach, tons of swimmers in the water, dark shadows, and sharks. There were more sharks than people, but they seemed not to notice each other down there.
The strip of hotels and sunbathers fell away and became homes, big expensive mansions on the ocean, and more pools, and then she realized that instead of getting lower they were getting higher.
“Where are we going?”
“Up.”
“You’re such a dork.”
“Why Thank you.” He smiled at her. “Not long now.”
We looked out the window at the sea, then the doors opened in front of them in the sky. A doorway, long and wide, easily large enough to land all these helicopters in, opened wide out of nowhere.
They set down, and the rotors came to a halt above them as the others came in and landed nearby.
She went to the edge, with Barton close behind. “What is this?”
“A ship.”
“What kind? This is crazy.”
“You’re in love with an eight-foot-tall crab man.”
“I see your point.”
“Come on, they’ll close the doors in a second.”
Lights blinked on the left and right sides of the bay doors. Sir, she stepped back, and they closed her in.
“Come on, this way.”
She followed Barton and found Wen’s arm again.
“Up here.”
They followed him into a glass elevator and rode up a couple of floors to a conference room made of glass. They could see the bay full of helicopters, and other things she wasn’t sure of, and on the other side, the open sea. There was a large triangular emblem on the floor made of a slowly spiraling inward series of triangles. The tables were made of glass, and there was a wide range of chairs around.
“I’m in a flying invisible aircraft carrier. This is stupid like I’m in some kind of movie.”
“It’s not an aircraft carrier,” said Barton. He dropped into a chair by the big table, as did Wen. She couldn’t tear herself away from the window.
Wen and Barton exchanged a look, then they watched Janet as the sea quickly vanished in a single whoosh. You could barely feel the ship moving, but a second’s worth of blur later and they were looking at the earth. The moon was off to the right.
“What the actual hell?”