There was a faint chorus of gasps and muffled cheers at Jude's sudden appearance, but everyone appeared to be frozen, locked in anticipation, as he slid smoothly off the bonnet and stepped out into the road, standing now between Caine and Ophelia, and James and Sydney. "I wouldn't try anything, Caine," Jude said softly, threateningly, "so just put the girl down."
"Damn you," was Caine's reply, as his hand slowly lowered and the girl eased back to the ground, unconscious, lying on the concrete. James rushed to her side, kneeling down beside her. "How are you not dead?!" Caine demanded of the newcomer, fists clenched, a bitterness in his voice. "I killed you. I crushed you."
"Death's a fickle thing, Caine," Jude coolly replied. "You'll come to learn that one day."
"Don't threaten my brother, demon," Ophelia spat bitterly. "You'll come to regret it."
"Don't test me today. Your brother already knows what I get like when I'm angry."
Nora suddenly stepped out from the relative safety of the garden path, arms raised in what she hoped was a peaceful manner. "How about we all just calm down here, alright? There's no need for a confrontation," she said, looking from Jude, to James and Sydney, to Caine and Ophelia, and then back again. She finally rested her eyes on Caine. "I'm asking you, nicely, to leave," she said slowly. "We've done nothing to provoke a fight. If you attack us…" She paused for a moment. "I'll let the demon off his leash."
Caine laughed. "You honestly don't think that I couldn't just kill all of you, right now, if I wanted to? And if I certainly couldn't, well… my sister certainly could." A pause, an uneasy silence hung in the air.
"I just want Sam," he said. "Give me him, and I'll let you all go."
Sam looked suddenly uneasy from where he had been standing at the side of the road.
Nora said, "No."
"Excuse me?!" Caine said.
"You heard me."
Caine lifted his hand. Jude lifted his.
There was a sudden, still stand-off moment as the small crowd of mutants watched on, anticipating the fight that might be about to happen. That was when they heard the footsteps. In one, fluid movement, all of the heads in the street turned, looking towards the direction that they had come from. Jude swore loudly. Drake Merwin.
His whip hand was wrapped around the neck of a girl that he had been dragging behind her. She had long, wavy blond hair and brown eyes, with pale skin, slightly tanned. She was wearing a battered, dirty white blouse and a thigh-length denim skirt, with scuffed up white Converse. She was limp, and unconscious – maybe dead.
"You're not a very easy boy to put down, are you?" Jude said.
"Sorry to break up the party," Drake replied coolly. "It's just, I found this girl on the way, and I've got this voice in the back of my head saying I need to kill some people, so… No better place to start, I guess."
"Is she dead?!" Nora demanded, eyes fixed on the girl.
"Maybe. I don't know." In a casual movement, he tossed the body of the girl to Nora's feet. "Check, if you like."
Nora immediately dropped to her knees, checking the girl's pulse.
"She's alive," she said, relief flooding her voice. "Barely, though."
"So, then, Drake," Jude called his enemy across the ruined street. "How are you still alive? And, more to the point, why are you so desperate to come right back into the action?"
There was a pause, and now all eyes rested on Drake, anticipating his answer. They all knew something important – something, maybe crucial – had happened to bring Drake back to life. Even Caine watched, waiting. He had seen Drake die. Lauren, too, standing on the garden path. Sam, uneasy still, at the side of the road. Then, Drake started to laugh, a cold, evil laugh that seemed to send a chilled shiver down the spine of everyone there.
"Death's a fickle thing, isn't it Jude?" He replied. "It can be bent, twisted and reversed, at will. Something, something far worse than anything you've faced so far in the FAYZ, is sitting beneath the ground, sitting there, in the dark and the cold. It's watching all of us, and it is waiting. It has been waiting for a while now, it said, and soon, very soon, it's going to come out of the shadows, and when that day comes, you – all of you – don't stand a chance in high heaven of fighting back." He paused, and then continued. "It brought me back. I'm not sure how, to be honest with you, and I'm not fully sure why just yet – but there's this little voice at the back of my head, telling me I need to kill someone. I'm not sure who, yet, thought, because the voice is very quiet, but I decided to kill two birds with one stone and come here." He laughed again, and then stared into Jude's eyes.
"And you know what's funny, Jude, what really makes me smile?" He smirked. "You don't know how you're still alive, do you? You put on a big, brave face, tell people it's going to be okay, and you fight the good fight – but, at the end of the day, you're just a scared little boy. That fear's going to kill you, if I don't first."
Time slowed down.
Caine lifted his hands, eyes focused. Drake raised his whip hand, about to strike. Nora and Jude moved smilutaneously. Nora threw up both of her hands, aiming for a poorly-cut bush on the opposite side of the street. She pulled her hands back, swiftly, and suddenly, the plant grew and grew in the shortest of seconds, and formed a thick, branched barrier of leaves and twigs and thicker trunks that blocked the street, severing Caine, Ophelia and Drake away from the others. Jude lifted one hand and viciously hurled a parked car that smacked into Drake the second before the barrier whipped across. He turned, looked at the small crowd as Nora fought to hold the barrier together. "Everybody run! The rocks, past the jetty, at the end of the beach – head there!" He yelled at them, and they took off, sprinting wildly, fear seizing their faces and their movements. James took off, carrying the unconscious Sydney in his arms, and Jude lifted his hand, holding the half-dead girl that Drake had delivered to them in mid-air. He started to run, and in seconds, Nora was alone. At the end of the street, Jude turned back, and made a swift yanking movement with his free hand. Nora flew backwards, to the concrete where he was standing, she stumbled, he grabbed her hand, and, the half-dead girl flying alongside them, they ran.
Ran for their life.