Chapter Ten
Felix stood in the middle of an asphalt street, scarred and pocked with cracks and potholes. Broken, boarded up buildings lined the street. It was night, but Felix could see everything perfectly, as if had it's own shadowless light. The sky contained no stars. Nothing moved.
"Interesting, isn't it?" asked a voice to Felix's left.
"Lonely." Felix replied. "Like…"
"Forgotten memories." The voice said. Felix turned to see whom the voice belonged to. An older Asian boy, around seventeen, dressed in a brown janitor's uniform slightly too large and short blue hair looked back at Felix. Felix looked at his own clothing. He was still in his dark gray suit he usually worked in.
"Or one's shoved away and boarded up." Felix said.
"No, I'm not making a comparison. That's what they are." The boy said. Felix extended his hand. The young man shook it.
"I'm Virgil." Virgil replied. He let go of Felix's hand.
"So this is the mind of Emily?"
"Sort of." Virgil said. He started to walk slowly down the street. Felix walked along side. "Part of it. The part she wants to leave alone, so to speak."
"Understandable."
"The monster's roam here."
"Monsters?"
"Oh yes." Virgil replied. "Or, I should say monster. Singular."
"Father?"
"Yep. You know Emily well."
"Lucky guesses." Felix said. He stopped. Virgil turned to him. "So what are you?"
"I take care of the place. Keep it arranged, orderly." Virgil explained.
"Where is everything else?" Felix asked.
"Everything else?"
"Her entire brain can't be broken streets and boarded up buildings. What else is there?" Felix asked. The surroundings changed instantly. Felix thought he blinked but he was sure he didn't. Now Felix and Virgil stood in a clean neighborhood, surrounded by buildings, lampposts, benches, trees, everything one would find on a perfect street straight out of a painting. It was still bright, the sky still evenly black. Felix looked around. He stepped to a sidewalk, followed by Virgil. He looked at blank signs, poked his head in a couple doors and sat down on a bench.
"Is it always empty?"
"The street?"
"Yes."
"No. It's usually traveled by people. The ones she thinks about, or the ones that float through her dreams. Traveled by her, too."
"Emily walks through here?" Felix asked, pointing at the street.
"Yes. Traveling to each place she needs to go." Virgil pointed at a library, a large brick building with a huge white stairs and stone lions on each side a half a block away. "Her analytical ends are there." He pointed to a cluttered thrift store with it's windows blocked by stacks of books and odds and ends. "Her taste for trivia lies there. I seem to be there the most, especially when she's playing that quiz program AI on the trid."
"Oh yeah? I like that show." Felix said. He looked straight ahead to something he swore wasn't there a second ago. They were two hedges, twelve feet high, separated by an opening three feet wide. "What's that?"
"My least favorite place." Virgil said. "The hedge maze. I have to keep the hedges trimmed. Every single one, down to the micrometer. She goes there to escape. To hide."
"The monster?"
"Whatever she needs to hide from."
"She's there now, isn't she?" Felix said. Virgil shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know." Virgil said. Felix got up and crossed the street for the hedge maze. Right before he entered, Virgil stepped out, blocking his entrance.
"You stand a good chance of getting lost, and in Emily's state of being, you may be there for a long time." Felix turned and looked at the black sky.
"So what do I do?"
"Don't ask me. I'm only the custodian of this mind. You're the one supposed to be coaxing her out." Virgil said. Felix looked at the buildings, wondering exactly what he was supposed to do. He walked across the street again, followed by Virgil. He strolled down the street casually, followed closely by his companion. He turned the corner and saw a theater. It was in a state of minor disrepair. Most of it's large, old fashioned light bulbs were burning. The yellowing back-lit marquee was blank. Felix went to the box office, where Virgil was. He pushed a blank, red ticket through a small semi-circle opening on the bottom of the glass.
"Enjoy the show." Virgil said, smiling. Felix nodded and entered the theater. It was a small room with two theater seats and a movie projector between them. A small portable screen stood ten feet in front of the seats. Virgil was sitting on the right side of the projector with a tub of popcorn. Felix sat to the left. The light turned off. Virgil reached over and turned on the projector.
"I'm being serious here!" Emily said to Sparky and Bubba. "Come on, please help me out." She was much younger, and without the tattoo around her left eye. Sparky was also much younger. His hair was much shorter, but his Afro made him look like a black mushroom in a black leather jacket. Bubba still looked like Bubba, except he was in a brown suit and plaid tie.
"Emily, I've known you for a long time, and I think you're one of the smartest girls out there, but we're talking about something very dangerous and very expensive." Sparky explained. Bubba nodded in agreement. "I mean, what did you do? Steal a catalog and just copy down the most expensive stuff? Your total comes to over two and a half million." Sparky paused to sip his beer. "And, considering you don't come out of this with your brain fried or some Essence-related psychosis, you're just a eighteen year old girl. Four of those years spent in a psych ward! What do you know about running the Matrix?"
"Sparky, I can't go anywhere else." Emily said. "If I go back to school, everyone's gonna know me as that 'crazy girl'. If I get a job, what am I going to tell them when they ask about a work history? 'Well, besides babysitting when I was nine, I haven't much time to work because I've been in a fucking asylum!" She exclaimed the last two words, which elicited a couple stray looks.
"Don't make this a money issue. Dad has enough money in fourteen different bank accounts to buy enough headwear to outfit half the city of Seattle. The grand total on the stuff I want is insignificant compared to all his filthy money. Teaching me the trade will be a lot easier than breaking into the corporations. Safer, too."
"Emily, I can't!" Sparky exclaimed quietly.
"I've spent the last four years away from the world, Spark! If you don't do this for me, there's no way I can make it out there!" Emily said. Her eyes watered. "Four goddamned years! There's so much publicity and rumor about me I'll never get an even break! I need to disappear and start again!" Emily dropped her head on the table and sobbed. Sparky growled softly.
"I, uh, need to go to the bathroom." Sparky said and pushed Bubba out of the other side of the booth. They both walked outside behind the bar. The scene on the screen flashed to the rear of the bar just as Sparky pushed the rear exit door open. Bubba ducked to fit under the frame of the door.
"Now what?" Sparky asked. He stepped a few feet into the alley and turned around. Bubba stopped two steps from the door and put his hands in his pockets. "How do I make her understand that I don't want her doing this?"
"Got me, friend." Bubba replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm withholding my opinion on this one." Sparky turned to him. He stepped toward and shook a finger at him.
"Oh, no. No you don't. You do have an opinion. Out with it."
"Well, I don't see why not." Bubba said, shrugging his shoulders again. "She's got the money."
"It's not about the money. I just…"
"She's old enough to make her own decisions. I've only know her for a week, but I think she's strong enough and smart enough to do this."
"I've known here most of my life, Bubba! Almost all of hers!"
"Oh, don't give into that."
"What?"
"Of course you care about her. I care about her, too. Don't deny her this because you care about her. As a matter of fact, you should be doing this for her because you do care for her! Anyone else would sell her dirty equipment and send her to some gutter trash quack in some back alley, or flat out rob her blind. You and I know a few good people who can do this. The same guy that installed your rigger controls, for example."
"God, Bubba, I just don't want her dodging bullets and jumping off of buildings like we do."
"Neither do I, but you have to let her do what she wants to do, and she wants to buy a lot of cyberware and learn how to run the Matrix like you do."
The reel of film ended. The end flapped against the projector as the rear reel continued rotating. The lights came on, and Virgil reached up to stop the projector. Felix looked past the projector. There was a large, circular vault door.
"What's in there? More films?" Felix asked.
"Yes." Virgil replied coldly. "Hopefully, they won't be shown again."
"Those are images of…" Felix started. Virgil closed his eyes and nodded.
"I won't show those reels again." Virgil said. "I've had to watch them too many times." Virgil pulled the reel off of the projector, reached under his seat and took out another film. "I recorded them." He clipped it to the projector, turned off the lights and started the film.
"Forty-eight seconds, Circumstance. C'mon!" Sparky exclaimed, looking at his wristwatch. Emily sat cross-legged on a piece of cardboard in a tiny maintenance tunnel deep underground. Bubba stood in a freshly dug hole. A wire ran from her head to a small box, which was connected by a thicker wire to the bottom of the hole, which was connected to a wire inside a broken steel pipe.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm going, I'm going." Emily replied with her eyes closed. "I've got nineteen seconds left. Let me crash this node correctly."
"I hate to inform you, but we don't have nineteen seconds, kids." Bubba said. Flashlight beams danced on the far end of the tunnel. A shot rang out and echoed down the tunnel. The bullet ricocheted once in front of them and once behind them.
"Oh, hell." Emily said. She pulled the cord out of her head. "We're trapped!" Bubba climbed out of the hole. He lowered his head and rammed into the side of the tunnel. He repeated twice more before the wall gave way. Bricks tumbled into a crowded subway platform. Bubba grabbed Sparky and tossed him out. He landed on his feet and waited for Circumstance. Bubba grabbed her and sent her out the same way. Sparky caught her. Bubba jumped out head first and landed on his stomach, but jumped to his feet and put Circumstance on his back. She grabbed hold of his neck and held on tight. They ran through the crowd, plowing people over too slow to get out of the way.
"Circumstance! Did you get the codes?" Sparky shouted from behind as he ran.
"Yeah!" Emily shouted, bouncing along with Bubba. She nearly lost her grip as Bubba tossed his shoulder into a tightly packed group of businessmen. She dug her heels into his back and regained her grip. The scene cut back to the breech of the subway wall. One man, a uniformed Lone Star officer, jumped from the hole and joined another officer.
"Think you can get her?" The officer asked the one who just jumped from the wall. Without a word, the officer drew his side arm and squeezed the trigger, sending three bullets into the air. The movie cut back to Bubba, the camera was close on his face. His expression changed from one of stern concentration to slight curious confusion. The scene panned back slightly. Emily's hands around Bubba's neck loosened and let go. Sparky managed to catch her before she fell nearly two meters from Bubba's back. Bubba stopped abruptly and turned. Emily was unconscious in Sparky's arms. Her midsection was mangled by the trio of bullets from the officer's gun.
"Oh God." Bubba exclaimed. He took her limp wrist in his hand and pressed his thumb against the vein. "She's still with us. Get the hell out of here." Sparky nodded and ran for the stairway leading up to the street, Emily in his arms. The two officers ran for Bubba, shouting "Freeze!" and "Get down!" to the crowd. They both had guns drawn. Bubba ran for the two pursuing officers. When the officers saw him approaching, they stopped to shoot, but Bubba met them too quickly. He lowered his head, gored one in the chest with his horns and tossed him in the air like a bull at a rodeo. The second officer squeezed off a burst of shots but missed Bubba. Bubba swung his fist at him and tore the officer's jaw off. Without any pause in motion, Bubba continued on his original path for the staircase up to the street.
The film faded to black. It stayed black while Bubba and Sparky spoke to each other.
"I didn't know the Thunderbolt could fire jacketed ammo." Bubba said.
"Over the counter? It can't. Someone probably took one home and played with it. The thing was meaner'n Hell by itself. But this…" Sparky explained. "How's your back?"
"My back? Oh, it's fine, thanks." Bubba said. Virgil leaned over closer to Felix.
"The bullets fired by the officer passed clean through Emily and buried themselves in Bubba's back." Virgil explained. Felix didn't respond and kept his gaze fixed on the black screen.
"Can you do anything for her?" Bubba asked.
"I… I dunno. We don't have her covered by DocWagon, that's the real problem. They'd see this and wonder what all the fuss was about." Sparky replied. "I can't grow a section of spinal cord and three vertebrae in the sink."
"Do you know anybody who can?"
"There's a guy by the name of Dr. Feelgood who stole a whole load of government grade medical equipment seven months ago." Sparky sighed. "I can give him a call and see if he's actually using it."
"He is, actually." Nocturne added. Felix wasn't expecting to hear her voice. "Last I heard, he's using the stuff he didn't sell to brew Novacoke in his kitchen."
"Christ." Bubba groaned.
"I can't keep this up forever, guys." Nocturne said. "You've got about maybe five hours before the spell wears off. After that, unless she's patched up, she's a goner."
"Well, I guess that gives us one option." Bubba said. "You suppose Miss Thang is still up?"
"She'd better be. We need a whole new set of equipment from stomach down, three vertebrae and four inches of spinal cord, and right now, I don't care if it's all flesh or tin. We need something in there now."
The film came to an abrupt end. The screen became bright white and hurt Felix's eyes. He rubbed them while Virgil turned the projector off and put the film away.
"That is a small glimpse of the person who's head you're currently in. Why she decided to cram her head full of cyberware and why there's so much of it elsewhere, because I'm sure you've asked yourself that." Virgil said.
"Well, yeah, I did wonder about it." Felix admitted.
"All magicians do. Guess you guys will never understand." Virgil said, putting his hand to his forehead, acting pitiful.
"Got anything about me?" Felix asked. Virgil looked at him, but didn't understand his request. "You know, am I in any of these films? Does she ever talk about me?"
"What grade are you in?" Virgil asked irritably. "Geez, man, wait until you're in third period and pass her a note! 'Dear Emily, do you want to be my girlfriend? Write yes or no.' C'mon!" Felix smiled.
"Alright, alright. What now?" He asked. Virgil shrugged. Felix got up and wandered out of the small theatre and back onto the street under the inky sky. He proceeded half way down the block when he spied a small building with swinging doors like those found in saloons from the Old West. Felix figured that was as good of place, if any, to look and assess his situation, so he turned for the building and entered, pushing the doors out of his way.
"Hello!" The bartender greeted. "Come and sit down! Drinks are on the house!" Felix smiled and approached the bar.
"C'mon, Virgil, let's brainstorm here…" Felix said as he looked over his shoulder. He saw nothing but the bar. He looked at the bartender.
"Something the matter, son?" He asked.
"Yeah, it was just, I was…" Felix said. "Um, now I can't remember."
"Must not have been that important then." The bartender said. He drew a mug of beer and set it on the bar.
"No, it must not have." Felix said, smiling, and sat at the bar. He sat there for what seemed to be several hours, drinking beer after beer, conversing idly with the bartender. His face was made up of a combination of every pleasing feature Felix had seen over his life. Felix grew more and more intoxicated as the bartender kept filling his glass. Soon, Felix started to slide off the stool, but caught himself before landing on the floor.
"Whoops!" Felix exclaimed in a rather sloppy voice. "Nearly killed myself!" He scratched his nose and laughed. His laughter was cut abruptly. He reached for his leg.
"Okay there, son?" The bartender asked.
"Yeah, jus' like somethin' bit me."
"Oh, nothing another beer can't cure."
"No, I don't, I don't think something bit me." Felix said. He reached into his pocket, but found it to be empty. The bartender dropped the mug right in front of Felix. "Yeah, I had a piece of wood. A splinter of wood. Came from a violin I busted."
"Oh? Why didn't you tell me you played the violin?" The bartender asked.
"I did a long time ago, but I was playing this one, and it busted, so I was playing around with a piece of it, and I shoved it in my pocket for no reason, because I was on a job…"
"Well, you're not working now! Drink up!"
"…and we had to get out in a hurry because we were being chased, so we wound up at this bar…"
"Ah, my favorite place. I bet the beer there wasn't as good or as cold as mine!"
"…but Mystique blew his brains out and we went home and the next morning Bubba and I went to a talismonger but were trapped by the Yakuza and this orc…"
"Tell me about the orc. What'd he look like?"
"…so I was kidnapped and Bubba got shot, and then someone got me, and I came home and found out that Emily found me, but she got hurt…"
"I hope it wasn't bad! A drink will help cheer you up!" The bartender pushed the mug closer to Felix until he pushed it over the edge and dumped it into his lap. The bartender looked shocked and started to look around for a towel. Even though the beer was as cold as ice, Felix didn't even blink.
"…so Doc and I went inside her mind to help her, and I met this custodian who gave me a tour and we went in a bar and…" Felix looked at the bartender. He saw the cold face of Emily's father.
"Then what happened?" He asked in a British accent. Felix swiftly grabbed his throat and squeezed with all his strength. Felix's face remained still and calm. Emily's father clawed at Felix's hands, gasping for air. Felix crushed harder.
"…so I found out what the monster was trying to do, so I killed it." Felix ended. A sharp click came from Felix's clinched fists. The body fell limp. Felix dropped it. He reached over the bar for a towel the bartender missed while he pretended to look for it and wiped his pants off. He swiveled around on the barstool to discover Virgil sitting at one of the tables, playing solitaire.
"Where is Emily's compulsive stuff? The things she likes but isn't supposed to?" Felix asked.
"The adult book store?"
"No. More like manias. Secrets." Felix explained. Virgil dropped the cards and walked out of the bar. He walked half a block and stopped in front of a liquor store. Felix entered. It looked like a regular liquor store would. On the counter was a flame-thrower.
"How did you know she was a pyro?" Virgil asked.
"Her personality." Felix said. He picked up the flame-thrower, lit the pilot off of a lighter in a display rack and marched out. The surroundings changed back to the boarded up abandoned buildings.
"I suggest you find a place to watch from a distance." Felix said over his shoulder. He pulled the trigger and sprayed burning fuel on the walls and in the street, watching it catch fire readily. It wasn't long before everything around him was consumed by fire. When fire was all that Felix could see, the fire took on a mind of it's own and closed in on him. Felix could feel the white-hot flames fall upon him, but it didn't matter. He convinced himself they weren't real, or, it wasn't real fire. Either way, through sheer force of will, he continued. Felix continued spraying the flame-thrower at the fire that surrounded him, fighting the beast that surrounded him with the stuff it was made out of. He continued to spray liquid fire and watched until he ran out of fuel. The fire, with nothing to feed upon except it's own excrement of carbon and smoke, shriveled and died. Only ashes remained of the broken, abandoned neighborhood of Emily's memories. Horizon to horizon, all that was visible was charred bits of wood and heaps of black soot. Felix dropped the flame-thrower in a pile of ash.
"I'm sorry for the mess." Felix said, looking at Virgil.
"I will be happy to clean it up." Virgil said, smiling. He produced a push broom from nowhere and began to push ashes. Felix turned around and the immaculate street he was on moments before appeared again. He ran into the hedge maze, taking turns randomly, frantically yelling for Emily. He tripped numerous times on the perfectly trimmed grass, falling into the perfect hedges with identical leaves and blossoms. Rapidly he lost his cool, and his confidence was replaced with frustration and desperation just as fast. Suddenly, he turned a corner and tripped into the street. He quickly turned over and looked at the entrance, holding his breath in disbelief. Virgil came into his view, sweeping the street. Felix jerked his view to Virgil, then back at the maze.
"What's the matter?" Virgil asked, leaning against the broom. Felix moved his mouth, attempting to come up with a reason, but none came.
"They're just bushes, you know." Virgil said, pointing. "They don't offer much resistance." Felix stood up and approached the hedges slowly. He touched them, then put his hand through one. The hedge behaved just as any twelve foot high shrub would. He grabbed a hold of the base and ripped the hedge out of the soil, letting it topple into the street.
"I'm sorry about that." Felix said.
"It's not real. This is all just thought form." Virgil replied, still leaning on his broom. Felix walked to Virgil and shook his hand.
"It's a shame. It was a pleasure meeting you."
"Likewise."
"I won't ever see you again?"
"Technically? No. You wander through here quite a lot, but it isn't you."
"I'm flattered." Felix said. He turned for the bushes again, then back to Virgil. "So long." Virgil nodded his head and continued sweeping the immaculate asphalt.
Felix tore through the hedges, seizing ones in his way and tearing it out of the ground. He stepped on others, breaking them close to the root. Each step, each plant he destroyed made him a little angrier; the way he felt standing in front of the Mexican restaurant as he waited for Bubba. However, it wasn't the anger that was accompanied by feelings of futility, but rather righteousness. Every step closer to the center of the maze reassured him he was winning.
"I'm comin' Emily!" Felix bellowed, ripping two hedges out of the dirt Emily's mind concocted. He tossed them over the wall in front of him and watched them wiggle like a limp javelin as the fell to the ground. "I'm comin'!" He raised his foot high and bent a hedge forward. Felix charged forward through the opening, but stopped in his tracks. He had stepped into a circular garden. The hedges formed a seamless wall twelve feet tall around the parameter. The grass was perfectly trimmed like a Matrix construct. Small hedges bent into animals and trimmed into geometric shapes grew in random spots, breaking the perfect pattern of the grass.
In the center of the garden stood a tall and narrow gazebo. Felix walked to it slowly and cautiously, careful not to disturb anyone who might be sitting there. As he approached, he saw that someone was sitting there, just as he expected. Emily. She was balled up on the skinny bench in the tiny gazebo. She squeezed her legs with both arms and buried her head within. Felix approached the entrance and stopped a few feet short. Emily looked up, her face red from crying.
"Hello." Felix said.
"Hi." Emily said, her voice raspy.
"Are you okay?" Felix asked. Emily sniffed, lowered her head and shook it.
"I can't…"
"You can't what?"
"I can't face him anymore."
"Who?"
"The monster. I just can't do it anymore."
"I've killed him." Felix said softly. Emily shook her head again.
"No, in here." Emily said, then sighed heavily. "He keeps tormenting me and keeps bringing me back to the places I don't want to go."
"The city? The abandoned one? All boarded up and broken?" Felix asked. Emily nodded.
"I've burned the city to the ground and strangled the monster that looked like the man they called your father." Felix declared, his voice a little louder. Emily looked up. Like someone exhaling after holding their breath, the gazebo widened slightly, stretching out a few inches in each direction. Emily loosened her grip on her legs.
"You did that to save yourself." Emily said.
"Maybe I did. But I tore through the maze to find you." Felix said. The gazebo widened again, stretching almost enough to let one more person in. Emily let go of her legs and let her feet rest on the ground. She wiped her eyes with the edge of her shirt collar.
"And why did you come in to find me, even after Doc knew there wasn't a chance?" Emily asked. Felix approached the gazebo. He pushed at the edges of the entrance, widening the entire structure to accommodate two people. He took a seat next to Emily.
"I'm sure that you've seen enough of those cheesy action flicks to know that someone will do some dangerous things to rescue someone they love." Felix said. Emily leaned for him, laid her head on his shoulder and hugged him. The gazebo, the grass, the random topiary, the twelve-foot high hedge wall and the black sky cracked. The cracks spider-webbed and turned the scenery into a trillion little pieces; an inverted spherical mosaic. Then the world shattered around them, replacing the perfect garden with Emily's bedroom, with Felix sitting on the edge of the bed and with Emily sitting up hugging him. Emily let go and looked at Felix.
"Thanks for bailing me out." They said in unison.
