Chapter 21: The Club of the Dead Part 3
Maria stares at Cool Kid, completely overcome with shock and awe. Only the sound of the boustrious music could be heard, as Cool Kid's now bloody hand lowered to his side.
"W-what did you do? Why did you shoot yourself in the fucking head!?" Her scream echoes throughout Cool Kid's mind, and shortly after hearing her scream, a smirk spreads across his face.
"Don't you know anything?" He says while blood pour from his open wound. "You tried to drug me with the suck and yet you know this little about it?"
She looks at him, completely bewildered. "What do you mean!? What does the suck have to do with you blowing your brains out!?"
"Heh….You really don't know a thing…" He points at her and smiles. "When I got addicted to the suck, I learned everything I could about it! I read every textbook! Read every scientific report! Watched every PSA! Even that one by Reagan himself! I know the suck inside and out! And I'll gladly give you a lesson!" He raises his arms as though he's T-posing, then using his feet to spin himself around in a circle. While spinning, his fingers twitched at an ungodly speed. The bullets from his guns fired in a perfect circle at all of the zombies surrounding him. He never had to reload, because each bullet killed about ten zombies, at a minimum, in each row. After using only one magazine for each gun, he slaughtered almost all the zombies in the club.
Maria was shocked. Her once snarky and confident face went blue with fear. She quickly pulled herself together.
"Interesting, I suppose you do have some skills after all…. Congratulations." She tries to sound unimpressed.
"You see Maria, the suck isn't like just any other drug out there, the suck has special qualities. One of those being the part of the body it attacks." He starts to walk towards her. "Drugs usually target the brain for psychedelic effects, or to create a rush or slowdown in the mind, but not the suck. The suck attacks the nerves above all else. That's how it affects the rest of the body. The eyes, ears, mouth, and brain are all connected via nerves. Because of this, the suck can affect your body like no other drug."
Maria sighs and blows her hair out of her face. "Okay, and?" She replies, with scrutiny. He just politely smiles at her.
"Well, I've learned a while ago, that the best way to stop a suck overdose, or to stop someone from hurting me by using the suck? Is to turn off my nerves."
She stops playing with her hair and stares at him. "Turn off your nerves? Don't tell me….is that why you-"
"That's why I shot myself in the head." He says smugly. "I shot my Peripheral nervous system! By doing that, all of the nerves in my body, outside of my brain and spinal cord, have been shut down. I can no longer feel anything, but I can still see and hear, since I only shot part of my Peripheral nervous system. So now, the suck will have no effect on me! It is still in my body, but all it will do now is make me pee a little longer later, and make me feel overly patriotic in a few hours! At this point in time.." He adjusts his sunglasses. "I am invincible!"
She grinds her teeth then raises her right arm. "We'll see about that you little twit!" She snaps her fingers, and suddenly, seven other versions of her appear from her body. Without a moment to spare, they all scatter in different directions to attack Cool Kid.
Cool Kid thinks quick on his feet, and dodges the first few attacks, then fires bullets at the first clone in front of him. All of the bullets he fired pierced into her body, causing blood to pour out from the holes. However, she was almost entirely unaffected by the attack. She lunged at him again, as though nothing happened to her at all. With a smirk, she rises and lunges at Cool Kid, throwing shurikens at him.
He dodges all but one, which pierces the bottom of his left leg. Since his nerves are currently off, he felt nothing from the attack, and responds in the same way the clone of Maria did to pain. Maria clenches her teeth and bites her nail as they fight each other.
"How is he like this?" She whispers to herself. "How can he even fight without any nerves?" Normally, a human would become paralyzed in an area if their nerves stopped working. Luckily, Cool Kid has a workaround. He only damaged his Peripheral nervous system slightly, leaving the brain and spinal cord in control. Because of this, his brain can still send messages to his muscles and bones, even without the use of his nerves. When the muscles receive the message, they violently convulse to confirm to the command the brain is sending, causing the bones to move along with them, causing Cool Kid's movements. Because of this quick sporadic movement, Cool Kid's body, no numb to pain, is moving in inhuman ways at inhuman speeds. It's as though he's been set free from the restrictions of life, and can achieve the full human ability. Kinda like that movie Lucy (2014) but less stupid.
There is a downside to this however; everything good in life most come at a terrible price. Cool Kid's body is able to move this way because of the lack of pain, his body no longer feels injury when performing moves that would cause even the great Houdini to scream in pain. Which is great for the moment, but as a consequence, his body is constantly damaging itself with each movement, and it can't warn Cool Kid about the dangers. With each movement, he could be snapping his bones in two, tearing muscles from his flesh, or ripping apart his skin from the inside out. No matter what happens, Cool Kid's body may not be the same after this.
Cool Kid keeps dodging the clones' attacks, most of which miss, but some land on him. He's been hit in his legs, arms, chest, belly, and butt; thankfully nowhere important was hurt, but plenty of blood was spilled on the floor.
Dammit! Cool Kid thinks to himself. Why won't they die!? I've put bullets into every one of them! This is getting out of hand… He takes a moment to survey his enemies, and he began to notice something. Huh...they're all acting...differently. I'd assume they'd all put their full force into killing me but….only one seems to be extremely aggressive. The others are either trying a lot less or….doing something else entirely. He looks over and sees that one of the clones is in the fetal position on the floor, crying. And the clone that tried to seduce him before is just moaning by herself on a chair in the corner.
He was completely baffled by their actions, until he looked at their leader. Huh? She seems so...cold? She looks agitated of course but….not as much as I would expect someone in her situation to feel. It's almost like she has no- Just as he thought that, Cool Kid's eyes widened, and he analyzed his enemies again, but this time, to analyzed what it looked like they were feeling. The one that was constantly trying to kill him looked angry (duh). The one crying on the floor looked sad. The one moaning by herself looks lustful. The one irregularly trying to attack him with a smile and a giggle looks joyful. The one hiding from him, only throwing a weapon once in a while looks scared. The one staring at all of the other ones and mumbling to herself looks jealous. And finally, the one that keeps throwing things at him and missing then bragging about it looks prideful.
With that quick analysis, Cool Kid felt he finally understood the situation. The clones weren't just clones: they were clones created from her emotions. It's as though her emotions have come to life! Kinda like Inside Out (2015) but deadly and not inside. This gave him an upper hand, he could easily outmaneuver all of them now that he knew what their primary emotion was based on. But the question still remained: how could he defeat them?
Before he could think of an answer, shurikens started flying at him once again, this time, from the source of the clones herself: Maria. The original ones. Her aiming was off, likely because of her lack of emotion, so none of the shurikens were even close to hitting Cool Kid. But they did bring about something else: opportunity. Thanks to those attacks, Cool Kid's eyes were now focused onto the original Maria, and thanks to that, he saw it. The arrow he had been chasing for so long, tied to the back of her dress. Without even thinking, he rushed towards her, jumped over her, and grabbed the arrow, ripping it from her dress. He accidentally ripped off the entire back part of her dress, but since most of her emotions were gone, she didn't really care.
Now, Cool Kid held his goal in his hand once again. Yes! He thought to himself. I have the arrow again! Now I can…. He stops for a second. Wait...why did I want this? Before he could ponder anymore, the anger clone of Maria jumps from behind him, and wraps her hands around his neck.
"Ahhhh!" Cool Kid screams as she starts to choke him. He raises his arms to try to push her off, he can't feel any pain from her choking, but it's making it hard for him to breath. While trying to push her off, Cool Kid raises the arrow in one of his hands, and accidentally stabs her with it. She lets out a vicious scream, then falls to the floor, convulsing in pain. Cool Kid rubs his throat as he watches her, then raises the arrow and looks at it. He slowly approaches her, then lowers himself, and stabs the arrow straight into her chest. She screams even louder, starts bleeding violently, and then explodes into nothing but blood. Cool Kid smirked, then looked at all of the other clones.
It only took a matter of minutes after that. The arrow was instant death for all of them. Only puddles of blood remained where they had once existed. With a smirk, Cool Kid slowly approached Maria, who was standing by herself, with her dress slowly falling off.
"Ironic, isn't it?" Says Cool Kid with a smile. "The very thing you used to cause destruction, was your own undoing. Now to finish this." He holds the arrow with both hands, then smashes it across his knee, breaking it in half. As it breaks, she lets out a deep breath, then falls on her back onto the floor. Cool Kid walks over to her, holding his gun in hand. "So, is this it?" She looks up at him, with no response, at first. Then she starts to speak.
"I suppose it is huh? God, I was so stupid…"
"What do you mean? I mean, yeah you are stupid, but why did you admit it?"
She sighs. "Back then...when I was a child...I loved Cool Cat...he brought me so much happiness...he protected me...wanted to….keep me safe…"
Cool Kid let out a happy smile as he lowered his gun. "Yeah, that's Cool Cat alright...and that's why I had to stop you, to save him."
"I...I know...I should have never sided with Butch...he was just so powerful...and I needed someone powerful...like Cool Cat...but I wanted him to make me feel powerful too….something neither of them could provide…"
Cool Kid's eyebrow raised as she says that. "Huh? What do you mean by that?"
"It doesn't matter…" She says after a second of silence. "I chose wrong in the end...I wish I didn't…"
"Well uh...I still don';t entirely understand what you meant but...Cool Cat would be happy to help you! I bet he'd even be willing to forgive Butch and everyone else in the world! I'm sure he-"
"You just don't get it…" Cool Kid went silent. "You killed my clones. I didn't even know that was possible. When you killed them, you killed the emotion they were embedded with. Now that they're dead, I can no longer feel that emotion. Ever again."
Cool Kid stood in silence, not sure what to do.
"Cool Kid….Cool Cat would….even if I could go back now, I won't be able to feel anything when you find him...I won't be able to feel his warmth….his power….his coolness. It will all be lost to me..forever...and I can't go on as this evil witch woman for Butch…."
Cool Kid looked her in the eye. "Are you...asking me to…"
"Please Cool Kid….Just….put me out of my misery….that way….I can at least pretend like I can feel something…" A deafening silence engulfed the entire club. Both were silent as they stared into each others eyes. He just couldn't do it, he knows how much she means to Cool Cat. They went on so many adventures together. How could he possibly kill her now? Cool Cat could never forgive him if he did that.
"Cool Kid…" he looked at her again.
"Yeah?"
"Trust me….Cool Cat would be okay with this…."
Cool Kid opens his eyes. "How could you say that? He would hate this!"
"No...he would hate what I did….not was has to come of me...he would understand…" Silence. "But even if he didn't….he would still respect your decision….I know he would…." she smiles lightly.
As she smiles, tears start to roll down Cool Kid's face. He slowly raised his pistol, so it's pointed at her head. She keeps smiling for her, waiting for the bullet.
"Just pretend….that your decision...and Cool Cat's….are one in the same….that should make it easier for you…" She closes her eyes, and lowers her head back, then breathes deeply.
Bang.