"Now this is proper pie."
Hazel and Cha-Cha sat in a diner on the north site of town eating blueberry-apple pie. They'd taken the last few fresh out of the oven after butchering the owner. It wasn't the best pie they'd ever tasted, but it was certainly better then that shit they'd had the night before the search for .05 started.
Cha-Cha had actually eaten about three of them. Hazel could already tell that he was feeling better. The familiar blood/sugar-lust was back in his eyes now.
"So dude," Hazel said as he waved his fork around, "We still got a few of them left to get. I mean, those last ones ran like jackrabbits."
"Totally unexpected," Cha-Cha agreed as he shoveled some more pie down, "But, we can still like, trace their signals."
"Yeah," responded Hazel, "But like, we have to get the other one next. His signal's off the map. And when I say off the map, I mean off the map and out onto the table 'ya know?"
"He's a superhero," Cha-Cha said, doing ghost hands, "I'll bet his signal goes off the table all the time. We'll just wait 'til it goes back to normal, right?"
"In the mean time," said Hazel as he wiped his lips, "We'll just have to go after the other two. Are you done?"
"Almost," said Cha-Cha, "Hey, watch this."
Using only his fork and the g-forces incurred by tilting the pan he managed to funnel almost half a pie into his mouth. His teeth moved up and down only once before he swallowed the whole thing. Hazel stared at him in amazement.
"Dude, that is awesome. Can you teach me how to do that?"
"It's actually pretty simple," Cha-Cha said, "I'll show 'ya later. It's pretty nifty."
"I can tell," Hazel said, still in awe, "Let's go kill those girls and then you have to show me. Promise?"
"Promise man."
.
.
.
Carefully Rumor snuck a glance at Vanya. She could tell what her sister was thinking. How the hell were they going to get Claire out of that thing?
"Mmphf mmmmt fmph?" Claire asked, looking panicked.
"It's nothing," Vanya said reassuringly, "We're going to get you out. Isn't that right Allison?"
Rumor put on a fake but hopefully reassuring smile. It denied the fear that sloshed in her stomach for her little daughter. All of the wires were interlocking and the damn thing looked as complicated as hell. She didn't know what to do. She felt confused and frightened. This was her daughter and because of that she could die by being torn into a million different pieces by a machine designed by maniacs.
Calmly but with trembling hands Vanya untied Claire's hands. Claire's face lit up. With a sinking feeling Rumor realized that she thought that it would be easy to free her.
"Claire," Vanya said, in a comforting tone but Rumor could hear the fear in her voice, "Do you remember when they put you into this thing?"
"Mmyth."
"Claire," wrote Rumor calmly, "Raise your hand once for yes and twice for no. Okay?"
Claire's right hand rose.
"Okay," Vanya said, "Now which wire did they lock in place last?"
Eyes closed Claire started to think. Using her left hand she pointed to one wire that interlocked and twisted with at least four others. Each other wire was slotted into a different part. Rumor had a fear that if one of them went wrong the whole stupid machine might go off. It did seem like something that the Cains might do. She looked at Vanya, who she realized was looking back at her.
"Go on," said Vanya.
"I can't," Rumor wrote, "I'm not good at these sort of things."
"My hands aren't exactly steady," said Vanya doubtfully.
"Neither are mine," scribbled Rumor.
That was true. She now regretted all those late nights spent up drinking coffee and overdosing on caffeine and pills that kept her awake. Her hands had been shaking steadily for hours now. If she got them wrong and the machine went off…she didn't like to think about it.
Vanya didn't have full control of all of her motor skills yet. Even so her hands were a little steadier then Rumor's. Not to mention the fact that she was quite good at Cat's Cradle. She had seen her doing it once with Claire on the lawn…was it only two days ago? It seemed like a lifetime had passed between then and what was going on now. She shook her head at Vanya's insistent stare.
"You have to do it," she wrote, "Please Vanya."
Gulping in air Vanya walked in front of Claire. Her fingers reached out and gripped the wire. Very carefully she unwound it from the others. It unlocked with a small click.
"Can you remember the next one?" Vanya asked, still calm but sweating.
Confidently Claire pointed to another one. She didn't know just how serious the situation was. She couldn't, or she wouldn't be so cheerful. For Rumor the pain had become like a knife slipped between her ribs. It slowly started to lessen as Vanya released wire after wire. Very soon she could make out her daughter's face.
Breathing deeply Vanya pulled away the last wire. Claire jumped out of the chair and threw herself into Rumor's arms.
"Mom!" she said.
Rumor wrapped her arms around her daughter tightly and sunk to her knees. Everything was going to be fine now. Vanya'd gotten Claire out. Everything was going to be fine now. They'd go home, or to the hospital to see Pogo. Then maybe they could go and get ice-cream. She had no idea where they'd get ice-cream at this time of night, but she knew that she could probably find a place somewhere. Everything was going to be fine.
That was the last thing she remembered thinking before bullets shattered the windows. Vanya dropped down and Rumor threw herself across her daughter's body. Claire started to whimper. Before the centralized explosion rocked the bottom floor, she realized that everything was not going to be okay.
