Part 2: Iowa
I went west as straight as I could for two days. In part, I was grateful for my meeting with Kano. Before I eliminated him and his truck, I removed from it several full gas cans, the aforementioned gun and several impact grenades. Thus equipped, I found myself on Highway 80, halfway between Des Moines and the Iowa/Nebraska border.
I had been living off food taken from convenience stores. For some reason, I always left some money on the counter. Out of habit, I guess. Or maybe just because stealing from the dead didn't sit right with me. It never occurred to me to stock up or anything, I always just took what I needed. I guess I was hoping that I would find wherever it was I was going before I would need to stop again. That's also the reason that I was still driving at half past midnight.
I had had two days alone to think. I didn't have anyone in the world but myself, so I wasn't all that sad that all of New York was dead. The guys at the precinct were fair-weather friends at best. Most of them were on coke anyway. I had close family, no girlfriend. No one in the world to care about. So no, I wasn't sad. Angry as hell, but not sad. I wasn't sad at the thought that all of the United States was dead, maybe the whole world. Just angry. That's all.
It was on the aforementioned road between the aforementioned landmarks on the aforementioned day at the aforementioned time that I saw the light. A real light. Somewhere off the road to my right, a large bonfire burned. It was the first sign of living humans that I had seen since my encounter with Kano and the Chinese ghost. The terrain seemed flat between it and me, so I turned off the road and drove toward it.
Between the dancing light of the bonfire and the bouncing lights from my truck, I could make out figures moving around the fire. Once I identified them as bipeds, I stopped the truck and got out. I considered turning the truck off, but the glare from the headlights could be my friend. Also, if they turned out like Kano did, it couldn't hurt to have my escape that split-second quicker.
I couldn't see them well, because the fire silhouetted them, in the same way that the headlights silhouetted me. There were four of them standing in front of me, one woman and three men by the size of them.
"Who are you?"
I couldn't tell which one spoke, except that it was one of the men, also Asian by the sound of his voice. "Kurtis Stryker, NYPD. Who are you?"
Another of the men spoke. Older than the first, and with an accent I couldn't quite place. "I am Nightwolf. Come, Stryker, and sit by our fire. You will find respite here from the terrors of Shao Khan."
As much as I was wary of these strangers, I couldn't pass up human company. I put away my gun and nightstick and retrieved the keys from my truck.
I sat down at the fire and looked at my seatmates. I identified the two men who had spoken earlier. Nightwolf was, as I suspected, an older man. American Indian, by the look of him. The other, the Asian man, seemed to be in his physical prime. He could have been a Bruce Lee look-alike, but he seemed to have more serious things on his mind than impersonating dead movie stars. He had a dark glint in his eye that told me I didn't want to get on his bad side.
The other two were an oddly matched pair if I had ever seen one. The woman was athletic, if slender, blonde and more than a little attractive. Her companion was a huge, muscular black man. He might have been a boxer. Or a bouncer. In any case, he looked to be big on free weights. Every member of this ethnically diverse foursome was studying me. Sizing me up, I guess. As comfortable as I was with being inspected by four tough-looking strangers, I decided to interrupt.
"So who are all of you?"
They were silent for a second, then the blonde woman answered me. "I'm Lieutenant Sonya Blade, and this is my partner, Major Jax Briggs. US Special Forces." In my mind, I groaned. Two days without seeing a single human being, and the first people I meet are Feds. She waved her hand in the general direction of Bruce Lee "This is Liu Kang. You've already met Nightwolf."
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I don't suppose any of you can tell me why we're huddling around a fire in the middle of nowhere, and why we seem to be the only human beings left alive in the country."
"We can give you some explanation for that, Stryker," offered Nightwolf. "But you won't believe us. Not at first."
"Sir, in the past two days I have seen New York City turned into a ghost town, four-legged aliens from Alpha Centauri, Australians with metal plates in their heads and transparent Chinese ghosts. I'm prepared to believe any explanation you can give me."
"Australians with metal plates?" asked Sonya "You saw Kano?"
This did not bode well for me. If I had iced their friend or supplier, I would be in serious trouble. "Maybe. just who is this Kano person?"
"He's the leader of a terrorist organization called the Black Dragons. I. we've been trying to catch him for years. He killed my partner."
"I thought this big fella was your partner. Oh. never mind. I'm sorry."
"That's alright. Now tell me, have you seen Kano?"
The two of them were watching me very closely right now. I kept my eyes locked on Sonya's, but I could feel Liu Kang's gaze on me as well. Kano obviously meant something to these people. My hand strayed to my gun as I considered my response.
"I met him in Pennsylvania. He was driving a truck full of weapons to New York City. We fought and I. he's dead now."
"Are you sure he's dead? Kano has a way of slipping out of tight spots."
"I'm pretty sure he's dead, Lieutenant. Unless he can survive a ton of live ammunition exploding underneath him."
This seemed to satisfy them, although Sonya still looked uncertain. Kano must have been a slippery bastard indeed if she wasn't sure yet that he was dead. She got up and walked away from the fire. After a few moments, Major Briggs got up and followed her.
We sat in silence for a while. Finally, I got up the courage to ask "It's a good thing, right? I mean, Kano was one of the bad guys?"
Liu Kang cracked a slight smile. For one who frowns as much as he does, the half-smile looked surprisingly natural. "Yes, Stryker, Kano was one of the bad guys. I think she's just upset that you got him first."
"Oh."
We sat in stillness for a long while. Sonya and Jax came back to our circle before long; they each favoured me with a weak smile but respected the wall of silence we had so meticulously constructed. I must say, despite the passivity of my new companions, I was happy to have some human company that wasn't trying to kill me. I think we sat watching each other in complete silence for most of an hour before anyone said anything.
It was Jax who ended our silent thinkfest. It was the first time he had spoken since my arrival, and his voice was a booming bass. He asked me, "How did you kill him? Kano, I mean. You mentioned something about live ammunition going off."
"Oh," I said. "He had a truck full of guns and explosives. I. umm. loaded him into it and blew it up. He was headed to New York to teach the whatchamacallems. Centralians to use our weapons. Speaking of which, what the Hell is going on?
Nightwolf and Sonya and occasionally Liu Kang spent the next several hours explaining to me the situation. Fortunately I had a lot of experience with big explanations from my position in the police force, so they didn't have to repeat much. Because it doesn't appeal much to me to transcribe the entire lecture, I'll outline the major points for the benefit of you readers.
Point One: There is a dark world called Outworld, which exists alongside our own. It is ruled by a powerful Emperor God named Shao Khan. He, for reasons unknown to anyone but himself, wants to take over our world, and has a very odd method of doing it. There is some sort of tournament in which Earth's greatest warriors take on Outworld's greatest warriors, and if the bad guys win, they come in and take over.
Point Two: The most recent tournament happened about two years earlier. Liu Kang beat Outworld's big high-up, a guy named Shang-Tsung or something along those lines and protected the Earth from Shao Khan.
Point Three: The Emperor set up a bogus dummy tournament on Outworld, but it was a feint to allow him to cheat with someone's wife or something like that. I got kind of lost at that point, but Nightwolf assured me that it was important, and it was why we seemed to be the last people left alive in the United States.
Point Three and a Half: Sonya mentioned that Shao Khan had already killed one of Earth's greatest warriors, Johnny Cage. This surprised me because the only Johnny Cage I had ever heard of was a movie star. When I asked, she told me it was the same guy. She cried a little bit when she talked about him. I figured that there must have been something between them before he died.
Point Four: Nightwolf used some sort of magic to keep this small area of the country free of Shao Khan's warriors (who, by the way, are called Centaurians) and they, along with the guardian of Earth, the thunder- god Rayden (the old Chinese guy in the mountains) were trying to gather Earth's warriors to fight back.
Given this new information, which in addition to answering several of my questions confused the Hell out of me, I did what any man in my position would do: I nodded blankly then went back to my truck and went to sleep.
*************************
I awoke shortly after dawn, after some two and a half hours of sleep. Though most of my new companions were gathered around the fire, Nightwolf was nowhere I could see. I sat down next to Liu Kang and tried as best I could to join into the conversation.
"So what are you guys talking about?"
Jax was the one who answered me. "Ballpark hot dogs. I still say there is no dog in the world that can compare to a Fenway Frank."
Now it is a well known fact that New Englanders, particularly Bostonnites, have this delusion that the best stuff in the world come from New England. It is a lesser known fact that the people in charge of correcting this ridiculous and dangerous misconception are none other than we New Yorkers. It's a tough job, but we're tough people. "You have got to be kidding me. Fenway Franks have nothing on the dogs at Yankee Stadium."
This statement sparked a long and spirited discussion on the merits of ballpark hot dogs, and subsequently the merits of individual ballparks. We never mentioned the fact that all the ball players, hot dog vendors and fans from Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium were dead. Nevertheless, I could occasionally feel that fact pressing on the lightness of the conversation. Sonya and Jax were excellent conversationalists and it was a pleasure talking about baseball again, something I hadn't done for months before New York was destroyed. Liu Kang, on the other hand, said very little. He seemed to have more important things on his mind.
We were in the middle of comparing Jax's military haircut to my own curly golden locks (or as he called them, white boy's hair) when Nightwolf reappeared.
"I have communed with my ancestors." He said. "There is no longer any use staying here. No more of Earth's warriors will come to us. We must go and find them."
Liu Kang jumped to his feet, and for a moment the dark glint I had seen in his eye turned into passionate fire. "Then we can go find Kitana, and Kung Lao."
"No, not Kitana." We all jumped, because it was not Nightwolf who spoke. We spun around to see the old Chinese man I had seen in the desert, Rayden. He was barely an image on the air; I could see right through him. "Kitana is being held by the Emperor, and you can not rescue her yet. You must first find Earth's other warriors, then mount an assault on his dark fortress."
"Lord Rayden," said Liu Kang "What is happening to you?"
"As the Emperor's hold on Earth grows, my power is dwindling. You must defeat him or I will die. Now go and find Kung Lao. He is in Japan now, hiding from Shao Khan's forces in the temple of the White Lotus society."
"Yes, Lord Rayden."
"Wait!" Rayden emitted a huge, hacking cough, impressive for someone whose lungs were non-corporeal. I expect it was just for effect. "There is another warrior. You must find Sub-Zero."
Sonya jumped in. "Sub-Zero? No way am I associating with that freak. He nearly killed me in the first tournament."
"Sub-Zero yet has a part to play in this conflict. You must reach him before the Emperor does, or we may have him to contend with as well. You will find him in Alaska, at 65 degrees north and 150 degrees west. My power is waning. Good luck, my champions. I will not visit you again."
And with that, the old Chinese man was gone, leaving me more or less as confused as ever. There was a lot of discussion in the next several minutes as to where we ought to go first, but it was eventually decided that since promptness was the biggest factor, we would split up. Nightwolf and Liu Kang would go and find Kung Lao, while Sonya and Jax would go to Alaska to look for this Sub-Zero guy. It was left to me which group, if any, I wanted to go with.
The choice was not very difficult, and I elected to go with Sonya and Jax. Even if they were Feds, I had more in common with them than I did with Nightwolf and Liu Kang, who seemed to be dripping in mysticism and other otherworldly kind of things.
That afternoon, we bid a short farewell to Liu Kang and Nightwolf and climbed into my truck. Even as we drove away, seeking a northbound highway, I breathed a silent prayer that I would see them again. Mystics or not, I needed all the friends I could get in this empty, soulless world.
I went west as straight as I could for two days. In part, I was grateful for my meeting with Kano. Before I eliminated him and his truck, I removed from it several full gas cans, the aforementioned gun and several impact grenades. Thus equipped, I found myself on Highway 80, halfway between Des Moines and the Iowa/Nebraska border.
I had been living off food taken from convenience stores. For some reason, I always left some money on the counter. Out of habit, I guess. Or maybe just because stealing from the dead didn't sit right with me. It never occurred to me to stock up or anything, I always just took what I needed. I guess I was hoping that I would find wherever it was I was going before I would need to stop again. That's also the reason that I was still driving at half past midnight.
I had had two days alone to think. I didn't have anyone in the world but myself, so I wasn't all that sad that all of New York was dead. The guys at the precinct were fair-weather friends at best. Most of them were on coke anyway. I had close family, no girlfriend. No one in the world to care about. So no, I wasn't sad. Angry as hell, but not sad. I wasn't sad at the thought that all of the United States was dead, maybe the whole world. Just angry. That's all.
It was on the aforementioned road between the aforementioned landmarks on the aforementioned day at the aforementioned time that I saw the light. A real light. Somewhere off the road to my right, a large bonfire burned. It was the first sign of living humans that I had seen since my encounter with Kano and the Chinese ghost. The terrain seemed flat between it and me, so I turned off the road and drove toward it.
Between the dancing light of the bonfire and the bouncing lights from my truck, I could make out figures moving around the fire. Once I identified them as bipeds, I stopped the truck and got out. I considered turning the truck off, but the glare from the headlights could be my friend. Also, if they turned out like Kano did, it couldn't hurt to have my escape that split-second quicker.
I couldn't see them well, because the fire silhouetted them, in the same way that the headlights silhouetted me. There were four of them standing in front of me, one woman and three men by the size of them.
"Who are you?"
I couldn't tell which one spoke, except that it was one of the men, also Asian by the sound of his voice. "Kurtis Stryker, NYPD. Who are you?"
Another of the men spoke. Older than the first, and with an accent I couldn't quite place. "I am Nightwolf. Come, Stryker, and sit by our fire. You will find respite here from the terrors of Shao Khan."
As much as I was wary of these strangers, I couldn't pass up human company. I put away my gun and nightstick and retrieved the keys from my truck.
I sat down at the fire and looked at my seatmates. I identified the two men who had spoken earlier. Nightwolf was, as I suspected, an older man. American Indian, by the look of him. The other, the Asian man, seemed to be in his physical prime. He could have been a Bruce Lee look-alike, but he seemed to have more serious things on his mind than impersonating dead movie stars. He had a dark glint in his eye that told me I didn't want to get on his bad side.
The other two were an oddly matched pair if I had ever seen one. The woman was athletic, if slender, blonde and more than a little attractive. Her companion was a huge, muscular black man. He might have been a boxer. Or a bouncer. In any case, he looked to be big on free weights. Every member of this ethnically diverse foursome was studying me. Sizing me up, I guess. As comfortable as I was with being inspected by four tough-looking strangers, I decided to interrupt.
"So who are all of you?"
They were silent for a second, then the blonde woman answered me. "I'm Lieutenant Sonya Blade, and this is my partner, Major Jax Briggs. US Special Forces." In my mind, I groaned. Two days without seeing a single human being, and the first people I meet are Feds. She waved her hand in the general direction of Bruce Lee "This is Liu Kang. You've already met Nightwolf."
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I don't suppose any of you can tell me why we're huddling around a fire in the middle of nowhere, and why we seem to be the only human beings left alive in the country."
"We can give you some explanation for that, Stryker," offered Nightwolf. "But you won't believe us. Not at first."
"Sir, in the past two days I have seen New York City turned into a ghost town, four-legged aliens from Alpha Centauri, Australians with metal plates in their heads and transparent Chinese ghosts. I'm prepared to believe any explanation you can give me."
"Australians with metal plates?" asked Sonya "You saw Kano?"
This did not bode well for me. If I had iced their friend or supplier, I would be in serious trouble. "Maybe. just who is this Kano person?"
"He's the leader of a terrorist organization called the Black Dragons. I. we've been trying to catch him for years. He killed my partner."
"I thought this big fella was your partner. Oh. never mind. I'm sorry."
"That's alright. Now tell me, have you seen Kano?"
The two of them were watching me very closely right now. I kept my eyes locked on Sonya's, but I could feel Liu Kang's gaze on me as well. Kano obviously meant something to these people. My hand strayed to my gun as I considered my response.
"I met him in Pennsylvania. He was driving a truck full of weapons to New York City. We fought and I. he's dead now."
"Are you sure he's dead? Kano has a way of slipping out of tight spots."
"I'm pretty sure he's dead, Lieutenant. Unless he can survive a ton of live ammunition exploding underneath him."
This seemed to satisfy them, although Sonya still looked uncertain. Kano must have been a slippery bastard indeed if she wasn't sure yet that he was dead. She got up and walked away from the fire. After a few moments, Major Briggs got up and followed her.
We sat in silence for a while. Finally, I got up the courage to ask "It's a good thing, right? I mean, Kano was one of the bad guys?"
Liu Kang cracked a slight smile. For one who frowns as much as he does, the half-smile looked surprisingly natural. "Yes, Stryker, Kano was one of the bad guys. I think she's just upset that you got him first."
"Oh."
We sat in stillness for a long while. Sonya and Jax came back to our circle before long; they each favoured me with a weak smile but respected the wall of silence we had so meticulously constructed. I must say, despite the passivity of my new companions, I was happy to have some human company that wasn't trying to kill me. I think we sat watching each other in complete silence for most of an hour before anyone said anything.
It was Jax who ended our silent thinkfest. It was the first time he had spoken since my arrival, and his voice was a booming bass. He asked me, "How did you kill him? Kano, I mean. You mentioned something about live ammunition going off."
"Oh," I said. "He had a truck full of guns and explosives. I. umm. loaded him into it and blew it up. He was headed to New York to teach the whatchamacallems. Centralians to use our weapons. Speaking of which, what the Hell is going on?
Nightwolf and Sonya and occasionally Liu Kang spent the next several hours explaining to me the situation. Fortunately I had a lot of experience with big explanations from my position in the police force, so they didn't have to repeat much. Because it doesn't appeal much to me to transcribe the entire lecture, I'll outline the major points for the benefit of you readers.
Point One: There is a dark world called Outworld, which exists alongside our own. It is ruled by a powerful Emperor God named Shao Khan. He, for reasons unknown to anyone but himself, wants to take over our world, and has a very odd method of doing it. There is some sort of tournament in which Earth's greatest warriors take on Outworld's greatest warriors, and if the bad guys win, they come in and take over.
Point Two: The most recent tournament happened about two years earlier. Liu Kang beat Outworld's big high-up, a guy named Shang-Tsung or something along those lines and protected the Earth from Shao Khan.
Point Three: The Emperor set up a bogus dummy tournament on Outworld, but it was a feint to allow him to cheat with someone's wife or something like that. I got kind of lost at that point, but Nightwolf assured me that it was important, and it was why we seemed to be the last people left alive in the United States.
Point Three and a Half: Sonya mentioned that Shao Khan had already killed one of Earth's greatest warriors, Johnny Cage. This surprised me because the only Johnny Cage I had ever heard of was a movie star. When I asked, she told me it was the same guy. She cried a little bit when she talked about him. I figured that there must have been something between them before he died.
Point Four: Nightwolf used some sort of magic to keep this small area of the country free of Shao Khan's warriors (who, by the way, are called Centaurians) and they, along with the guardian of Earth, the thunder- god Rayden (the old Chinese guy in the mountains) were trying to gather Earth's warriors to fight back.
Given this new information, which in addition to answering several of my questions confused the Hell out of me, I did what any man in my position would do: I nodded blankly then went back to my truck and went to sleep.
*************************
I awoke shortly after dawn, after some two and a half hours of sleep. Though most of my new companions were gathered around the fire, Nightwolf was nowhere I could see. I sat down next to Liu Kang and tried as best I could to join into the conversation.
"So what are you guys talking about?"
Jax was the one who answered me. "Ballpark hot dogs. I still say there is no dog in the world that can compare to a Fenway Frank."
Now it is a well known fact that New Englanders, particularly Bostonnites, have this delusion that the best stuff in the world come from New England. It is a lesser known fact that the people in charge of correcting this ridiculous and dangerous misconception are none other than we New Yorkers. It's a tough job, but we're tough people. "You have got to be kidding me. Fenway Franks have nothing on the dogs at Yankee Stadium."
This statement sparked a long and spirited discussion on the merits of ballpark hot dogs, and subsequently the merits of individual ballparks. We never mentioned the fact that all the ball players, hot dog vendors and fans from Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium were dead. Nevertheless, I could occasionally feel that fact pressing on the lightness of the conversation. Sonya and Jax were excellent conversationalists and it was a pleasure talking about baseball again, something I hadn't done for months before New York was destroyed. Liu Kang, on the other hand, said very little. He seemed to have more important things on his mind.
We were in the middle of comparing Jax's military haircut to my own curly golden locks (or as he called them, white boy's hair) when Nightwolf reappeared.
"I have communed with my ancestors." He said. "There is no longer any use staying here. No more of Earth's warriors will come to us. We must go and find them."
Liu Kang jumped to his feet, and for a moment the dark glint I had seen in his eye turned into passionate fire. "Then we can go find Kitana, and Kung Lao."
"No, not Kitana." We all jumped, because it was not Nightwolf who spoke. We spun around to see the old Chinese man I had seen in the desert, Rayden. He was barely an image on the air; I could see right through him. "Kitana is being held by the Emperor, and you can not rescue her yet. You must first find Earth's other warriors, then mount an assault on his dark fortress."
"Lord Rayden," said Liu Kang "What is happening to you?"
"As the Emperor's hold on Earth grows, my power is dwindling. You must defeat him or I will die. Now go and find Kung Lao. He is in Japan now, hiding from Shao Khan's forces in the temple of the White Lotus society."
"Yes, Lord Rayden."
"Wait!" Rayden emitted a huge, hacking cough, impressive for someone whose lungs were non-corporeal. I expect it was just for effect. "There is another warrior. You must find Sub-Zero."
Sonya jumped in. "Sub-Zero? No way am I associating with that freak. He nearly killed me in the first tournament."
"Sub-Zero yet has a part to play in this conflict. You must reach him before the Emperor does, or we may have him to contend with as well. You will find him in Alaska, at 65 degrees north and 150 degrees west. My power is waning. Good luck, my champions. I will not visit you again."
And with that, the old Chinese man was gone, leaving me more or less as confused as ever. There was a lot of discussion in the next several minutes as to where we ought to go first, but it was eventually decided that since promptness was the biggest factor, we would split up. Nightwolf and Liu Kang would go and find Kung Lao, while Sonya and Jax would go to Alaska to look for this Sub-Zero guy. It was left to me which group, if any, I wanted to go with.
The choice was not very difficult, and I elected to go with Sonya and Jax. Even if they were Feds, I had more in common with them than I did with Nightwolf and Liu Kang, who seemed to be dripping in mysticism and other otherworldly kind of things.
That afternoon, we bid a short farewell to Liu Kang and Nightwolf and climbed into my truck. Even as we drove away, seeking a northbound highway, I breathed a silent prayer that I would see them again. Mystics or not, I needed all the friends I could get in this empty, soulless world.