Epilogue
The sun, just as it had the past four months, beat down on the Earth with little pity for anyone on it's surface. Felix looked around him at the fourteen other people, dressed in black, wondering if they also felt that the traditional mourning garb could be superceded on days like his. He scratched at the thick beard and moustache. They felt awkward and like they were on the verge of falling off.
"How you holding up?" Bubba asked. He stood next to Felix in a flat black suit. Sparky stood to Felix's left in a similar suit, except his was leather.
"I'm gonna freakin' die." Felix muttered back.
"Emily Post was a young woman, cut down too soon…" The priest's voice from the head of the grave surprised the three. Doc didn't seem to care; he stood under a nearby tree smoking a cigarette. They listened to the pastor's speech until a pair of Asian gentlemen approached them.
"Don't you have any respect?" Sparky asked, his view fixed on the casket suspended over the open grave.
"We don't not mean any disrespect, but my friend and myself would like to ask a few questions, if we may?" One of the gentlemen said.
"No, you may not." Bubba growled through his teeth.
"Tell us, is that really Emily Post in the box?" The gentleman asked. All three turned to him. "There is a sizable bounty for her capture, dead or alive, and we were wondering if she was, in fact, dead." The other gentleman approached the casket and attempted to lift the lid.
"Excuse me, young man!" The priest snapped. "Have you no shame?" The man backed off and went back to his friend.
"What are you trying to say?" Bubba asked in a low tone.
"Perhaps we can split the bounty with you? Maybe after the service, we come back for the body?" The Asian gentleman said, smiling with a mouth of plastic teeth. Bubba face tightened into an angry scowl. He raised his fist and belted him in the mouth, sending him and each of his teeth rolling down the cemetery hill. The small crowd gasped and started to whisper. The priest approached the group angrily.
"This is hardly the place for fisticuffs! Have some respect for those who've past!" The priest exclaimed in a whisper. He turned around and tried to finish his remainder of his speech. The other Asian gentleman approached Felix.
"There is also a bounty for her boyfriend. One Felix Page, if I'm not mistaken." The Asian leaned in on Felix.
"I don't know what you are talking about." Felix said in an impeccable German accent, his gaze fixed on the horizon.
"Her boyfriend. You must know, right?" The Asian leaned in closer. It seemed to Felix the man was examining his face.
"That man was shot by the Japanese Mafioso and burned in a car fire. There are no remains to speak of." Felix replied, and leaned closer to the Asian, shifting his gaze over to look him in the eye. "Now let me mourn for my niece!" He resisted the urge to scratch the synthetic beard on his chin. The Asian remained one second longer, then turned and walked after his friend lying in a heap at the base of the hill. The quiet squeaking of the pulleys lowering the casket into the ground made the three of the turn around.
"Let's go." Felix said. He walked up the hill to a limousine followed by Bubba and Sparky. Doc flicked his cigarette into the street and got into the driver's seat of the limo. The other three sat in back along side Nocturne. Nocturne wore a pair of pitch black sunglasses with side panels to keep any light from sneaking inside. She appeared blind.
"This is a rather lovely spell." Felix said to Nocturne in a German accent. Nocturne did not look well.
"May I drop it?" She asked, but did anyway. The wrinkles and pockmarks on Felix's face flattened and disappeared. Felix looked like Felix again, wearing a fake beard and moustache. He slowly peeled them off of his face to avoid removing any skin.
"I wish you people could have done this at night." Nocturne sighed, rubbing her temples with one hand.
"Something else is being done tonight." Bubba replied as they pulled off the curb and left.
"I swear…" Bones growled to himself in a three foot by three foot tunnel, holding a shovel. "I'm gonna kill 'em if he ever threatens to tell my boss about the money again. My Mohawk is ruined." He crawled back a few feet and retrieved a pair of tracks six feet long. He hooked them to the ends of tracks he'd been building through the tunnel. The secured them, picked up his shovel and jabbed the end of the tunnel. A sharp knock could be heard, followed by a muffled yelp of surprise.
"Finally!" Bones shouted.
"Careful!" Emily muffled voice called. "My head was right up against that board."
"Sorry." Bones said. He dropped his shovel and went back for a hook. He hooked it onto the brass handle at the end of the coffin, then pressed a small button on the hook. The line it was attached to became tight and pulled the coffin forward onto the tracks. Bones crawled forward followed by the coffin.
"I need a drink." Emily moaned inside the coffin.
"Not until they grow you a new liver, Circumstance." Bones replied. "I'd appreciate your good fortune."
"Being stuck in a box? No thanks."
"Clean slate. The only problem is coming up with a new name."
"So does Felix."
"Yeah, right. He'll just keep whining about not being a runner." Bones sighed.
"He'd better not. He's going out with friends of mine tonight to arrange 'funding' for my new organ." Emily giggled slightly. "I guess honest, good-hearted people can earn a living shadowrunning."
"Fucked up times we live in, Circumstance, but it sure beats flipping burgers."
end
