Chapter 18, Alexis's in Wonderland
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: The man who owns Castle? Not me. Rating: Some M. I'll tell you when. Time: After my Four of a Kind.
Chapter 18. Surf's up.
"You can't send her back." Castle insisted loudly. "She was shot in the chest and she's had a hell of an awful life. She deserves some happiness. There must be somewhere you can send her, other than back to an endless war."
Metford raised his arms to try to stop Castle's tirade. "Mr. Castle, she wants to go back to her own Earth. We have to accept her wishes on the matter."
"She what? But Caithlain Macbeth has been talking to Kate, Becks and Simone. I'm sure they had her convinced that she could find a man who could love her and not just look at her as a damaged piece of meat."
"Go talk to her yourself." Metford said tiredly.
Castle got up and immediately started walking towards the small hospital at Metford's base on the Moon. One thing he could say for Metford and his society, they had excellent medical care and they were happy to care for Caithlain MacBeth. While Caithlian's wound wasn't as bad as Kate's had been, she was almost ready to be released after only two weeks.
Before he got to her room, he was intercepted by Kate. "You heard?"
He nodded. "It's true?"
"We thought she was coming around. We told her about you and me and Rodgers and Becks and even about the other Kates and Ricks we've met. We told her about societies where being the child of an unmarried woman is not the end of her world. We even got some information from Metford about places on other Earths where she could fit right in. But she wants to go back."
"Why? Why would she go back to a place where everyone thinks she's some kind of a social leper?"
"To change it." Kate replied.
"Change an entire society? Does she have any idea how hard that is?"
"Yes. She knows her home better than we do." She put her hand on his arm. "Rick, people have changed societies before, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, or Nelson Mandela."
Rick sighed. "Can I talk to her? Should I talk to her? Try to talk her into going someplace without a war and….everything?"
Kate kissed him. "You just want all Kate Becketts to be safe and happy, right?"
"I wish I could do just that."
"You can't, really, but that's one of the reasons I love you, Rick. Go talk to her."
Caithlain was relaxing in a private hospital room. Since she was almost ready to be discharged, she was dressed in a bright, flower printed dress and sandals.
"Hello, Rick. Come to talk me into going somewhere else?" She teased.
"I really wish you'd consider it."
She became serious. "Are you in love with me?"
Rick was taken aback, but answered truthfully. "I'm in love with all of the Kate Becketts out there, but not as much as I love my own Kate. I'm even in love with the ones I've never met and even the ones named Caithlain Macbeth. My Kate was so unhappy for so long, and I wanted so badly to make her happy, I guess I sort of over reacted when I found out there was another Kate out there who was unhappy, and then another and another and so on."
"It's not over reacting, it's sweet. But Kate and Becks and Simone and the others Kates somewhere out there have something in common. We're fighters. We don't give up. If my problem was mine alone, I might think about staying on a nice, peaceful, friendly Earth. But my whole society needs to be changed, or a lot of it does. I can't walk away from people who are in a situation like mine or even worse. I have to do something. "She smiled at him. "And maybe someday I can go up north to New York City and meet a Richard Castle of my own. There just might be one there waiting for me. You never can tell."
Rick took her hand. "I hope you do. You all deserve to be happy."
"Everyone deserves to be happy."
Castle kissed her gently on the cheek and left.
Later, the five of them met with Metford in his office.
"So, what hell hole do you have scheduled for us to go to this time?" Rick asked.
Metford smiled. "Mr. Castle, we're sending you to New York City, in fact to your very own loft. At Christmas time."
Castle's eyes lit up. "Christmas in the loft? In New York? A white Christmas with a Christmas tree, presents, and a huge Christmas feast?"
Castle frowned when he saw Metford's look.
"What?" He asked.
"We should get you your virus shots." Metford said.
"Global warming?" Castle screeched after the shots had taken effect.
Rodgers nodded. "The polar ice caps have melted, so has the Antarctic ice, the permafrost in Canada and Siberia is thawing and…."
"The weather forecast for Christmas Day in New York is….One hundred and four degrees?" Castle interrupted. "Christmas Day?"
Rodgers went on. "What's left of the human race lives in Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada. With some holding out in the tip of South America. And when the oceans began to rise, humans put up levees to keep the water out. Manhattan was completely protected by levees for many years."
"But no one could live in the summer in New York. "Kate added. "Plus it was too hard to get food and fuel to New York City. People all over North America started to flee to the north. They stopped repairing the levees and eventually they broke and New York flooded. Manhattan, with its skyscrapers is mostly above water, from about the third floor up."
"Manhattan's population is a few hundred scavengers." Simone added.
"What the hell can they find that's worth anything?" Castle muttered.
Not recognizing a rhetorical question, Rodgers replied. "There's high tech equipment from hospitals and engineering companies, scientific data from universities, all kinds of valuable things for a civilization that's collapsing. A ship comes down from the north every month or so and trades food, fuel, weapons and ammo for whatever the scavengers have."
"We've identified the two main scavenger gangs in Manhattan." Metford said. "One is called the Westies and is run by a man named Finn Rourke. The other is called the Blues and is run by a man called Ethan Slaughter."
"Oh, crap." Rick and Kate said together.
"Is there a problem?" Metford asked.
"We know both of them. We're not their favorite people." Kate finally said.
"I would imagine that Alexis' kidnappers would stay away from any large armed gang. Given the size of Manhattan Island, you should have no trouble avoiding anyone who doesn't like you."
"Yeah, like we avoided the man eating butterflies no one told us about." Castle grumped.
"We can't have perfect intelligence about every Earth, Mr. Castle." Metford shot back.
"We'll need a boat to get around Manhattan." Rodgers said. "Another PBR?"
"We have a better boat for you. We just "picked it up" from another Earth. It's a bit bigger than the PBR, but the best thing is that all five of you will sit inside an enclosed armored cockpit. You'll control the weapons from there. There are twin fifteen millimeter machine guns in the bow, port and starboard seven millimeter machine guns and a combination fifteen millimeter machine gun and sixty millimeter mortar in the stern. Just behind the cockpit are vertically launched anti-tank/anti-personnel missiles. Twenty four of them. You'll get your virus for the boat later. Oh, you'll also have a complete set of personal weapons."
"Sailing through burning Manhattan. Do they sell tee shirts? "I went to New York City and all I got was boiled alive?" Castle asked sarcastically.
"If you want to leave an Alexis Castle there, Mr. Castle, you can refuse to go." Metford said with a superior smile.
Castle just glared at him. Metford knew he'd do anything for all of the Alexis's and Kates out there.
Later that day their boat, named the Proud Mary, edged up to Castle's loft on Broome Street. "Water's up to the third floor, but the windows are broken out. We can make this our base and start the hunt for Alexis. Rick, why don't you and Kate check it out?"
They were both dressed in boots, cargo shorts and tee shirts. Over the shirt they wore an armored vest with ceramic inserts. They carried extra ammunition, food, water, a medical kit and various other things. They were armed with a bullpup rifle/grenade launcher combination and a 9mm pistol.
As soon as they opened the air conditioned cockpit, the heat and humidity hit them. "Christ." Castle muttered. "Merry Fucking Christmas indeed."
"Come on, lover. Let's see what home sweet home looks like."
They entered the third floor, one floor below their loft. There was a foot of water in it. Castle hit his radio. "There's water in here. I bet the tide fills the place up when it comes in. I can see water marks almost to the top of the ceiling. And the place has been trashed. The door was smashed in and the place looks like it was…" Castle stopped when his foot hit something.
"What is…?" Kate began.
"There's a skull in here. The people in here were an older couple, at least in our Earth. They wouldn't have…"He stopped.
"Let's go up to the loft." Kate said softly, wanting to get Castle out of the wrecked loft just below theirs.
They went up the stairs and found their door also broken in. They looked inside. The water hadn't made it this far and the windows were intact, at least on this floor.
Rick walked to his office, curious to see if a Rick Castle had lived here and if he was an author as well. As he walked into the office, a club was swung at him, just grazing his head and a form jumped on him and started beating on him. He grabbed at the person and saw first the red hair and then the face of his daughter. "Alexis!" He yelled. "Quit hitting me."
Alexis jumped back. "Dad? Daddy? It's you?" She looked up. "And Kate? You both escaped?"
"Alexis, who's there?" Called a familiar voice from upstairs.
"It's okay, Lexi. It's Dad and Mom, they must have escaped. They're free!"
Rick and Kate watched as a second Alexis Castle came down the stairs.
In seconds Castle had two redheaded daughters clinging to him and crying, telling him how happy they were that they were together again. He really hated telling them the truth and spoiling it all.
Alexis, the one who lived on this Earth, as opposed to Lexi, who had been kidnapped from another Earth, stared at Castle. "You're from another Earth? Just like Lexi is?" Alexis shook her head. "If I hadn't met Lexi, I wouldn't have believed it."
"Look!" Castle said happily. "We can take you both back with us. You'll both be safe."
"No!" Alexis said sharply. "I can't leave my dad and mom behind. I can't leave them here."
Lexi nodded. "We have to try to get them away from the Blues."
"Why don't you tell us the whole story, from the beginning?" Kate asked.
Alexis took a second to gather her thoughts. "Things started to go bad before I was born, but people adapted. They built levees and dams. They developed drought resistant foods. New farmland further north was opened up. But each year things got worse. And each year more and more people fled north, where there wasn't enough room for the people already there."
"Millions and millions of people died." Lexi added.
"Mom and Dad stayed in New York because…"
"Your dad was still married to Meredith?" Kate asked.
Alexis smiled and shook her head. "No, Meredith lived in LA. I don't know what happened to her. Dad is married to you. Um, to Kate Beckett. They met when I was nine and fell in love. Anyway, Dad and Mom felt they had to stay in New York to protect people. When I was thirteen, there was some kind of a tipping point. Instead of getting a little worse each year, things started to get a lot worse. There were riots, looting…people just went crazy. Then the government in the north said they wouldn't take any more people. We were stuck here."
"And Slaughter runs the Blues? Won't he try to save your mom and dad?" Castle asked.
Alexis laughed bitterly. "He's the one holding them prisoner. He keeps Dad in a cell and he's made Mom his girlfriend. If she doesn't sleep with him, do everything he wants, he beats up Dad. He beats up Mom anyway, the bastard. He wanted me, but I managed to escape a month ago. I came here because Dad had a supply of food here and Kate had a pistol and a shotgun. I've been trying to figure out how to free Dad and Mom, and then a week ago, Lexi showed up."
Lexi nodded. "As soon as my kidnappers got here, there was a gunfight and I got away. I headed for home and found Alexis."
Rick and Kate exchanged glances. "So, we'll just have to rescue another Rick and Kate and sail off into the sunset."
"How are you going to do that?" Lexi asked.
"I have no clue. Luckily, I have another man with me who solves those little military problems for me. Gather up your weapons, food and whatever else you want to take and let's get back to the boat."
Alexis told Rodgers everything she knew about Slaughter and his operation. He had commandeered a fifty story office building near the southern tip of Manhattan for his headquarters. The building had its emergency generator's on the roof of the building, rather than in the basement as was more usual, so it hadn't been flooded. That meant that he had electrical power since he could trade for diesel fuel. He had some fifty men and women with him, armed with pistols, shotguns and assault rifles. His boats were civilian craft, the military having taken all of the armed ships north with them.
"We have one more advantage. Detective Ann Hastings. She was Slaughter's mistress before Mom was."
"And she wants her old job back?" Becks guessed.
"Hardly. She hates Slaughter and couldn't be happier not to have to sleep with him. She's been trying to find a way to get Mom, Dad and her out of Slaughter's building and to the north. Getting them out can be done, but getting to the north without one of Slaughter's boats is impossible. It may be impossible even with a boat."
Rodgers thought about it for a long time. "We'll need a few things from the Moon. But, I think we can do this."
"No!" Metford said. "Your mission on that Earth is done. You have the Alexis you were sent to get. Now we need to plan the next mission."
"You realize you'll be trying to keep two heavily armed Alexis's? Cold blooded killers, both of them." Rodgers lied. "This could get messy. What would happen if a couple of Alexis's got killed on your watch? And killed some of your people? Messy?"
Metford sighed. "We need to find a place for another Alexis, Castle, Beckett and this Hastings woman? You do realize that while there appear to be an infinite number of Earths, they're not all suitable for human life?"
"Oh, we noticed. It was the zombies that tipped us off." Castle added. "Or was it the killer butterflies?"
"And you'll need more equipment? And men?"
"Come one, Metford. We take all the risk and you get all of the glory. Go for it." Castle wheedled. "And just a couple of spare people. You can do it, big guy."
There were times when Rick felt, that in spite of all of his bitching, that Metford enjoyed getting involved vicariously in the trips to the alternate Earths and the schemes that they came up with. Whether that was true or not, Metford had come through.
In addition to their boat, they now had two muni-submarines, not much more than manned torpedoes, really and two four man crews to go with them.
Arriving back at the loft, Rick, Kate and Simone, along with the two Alexis's had moved back in while Rodgers, Becks and the sub crewman went to check out Slaughter's headquarters in the two subs and the boat.
"I hear an engine coming." Kate said.
"It can't be our boat. They just left." Castle replied.
Lexi ran to the window and looked out. "More scavengers, I think they must be independents. The Westies use green armbands and the Blues wear blue. Crap, they're headed right here."
Rick, Kate and Simone got the two Alexis's into the office and covered the doorway with their rifles. Soon they could hear men sloshing through the water on the floor below them, then the sound of boots coming up the stairs.
A voice sounded. "Alexis Castle? Come out, come out where ever you are? We know you're here. We saw you. Come on, sexy. We aren't going to hurt you. Hell, you'll enjoy it. Come here, little girl."
Two men carrying rifles edged into the loft and looked around.
"If you make us work for it, bitch, we'll fuck you up real bad when we're done with you. Now come the fuck out!"
Castle and Beckett fired at the same time, killing both men. Simone ran to an open window and fired a grenade into the boat tied up below. Rick and Kate ran to join her. Looking down, they saw a boat with three male corpses sinking slowly.
"Did anyone hear the shots, do you think?" Rick asked Alexis and Lexi, who'd come out of the office.
Alexis answered. "Probably not. There are just the two big scavenger gangs, but dozens of smaller outfits like this one. And gunfire isn't that unusual."
Lexi nodded. "We should collect their weapons. We only have a shotgun and a pistol between the two of us." She crossed the room with Alexis and began stripping the dead of their weapons.
"I hate the idea that there are Earths where Alexis Castle worries about whether she has enough guns and ammo." Castle said softly. "That just sucks."
"We can at least get two more Alexis's to someplace safe, babe."
It was well after dark when Rodgers, Becks and the sub crewmen came back.
"What happened?" Rodgers asked. "I saw a body hung up on the building. Who was it?"
"Some guys looking to rape Alexis." Castle said quickly. "We took care of it. What did you find out?'
"We scoped out Slaughter's HQ. He has eleven boats, nine powerboats and two are sailboats. He has a big cigarette boat that's his private yacht. And he's got a schedule. They're looting Columbia University Medical Center. We saw Ann Hastings from a distance, too. We need to get in touch with her."
Two nights later, Ann Hastings was checking the sentries as they removed valuable equipment from the medical center. It was just the sort of stuff that Finn Rourke would try to hijack from them. As she walked, she thought back to what she had been. I was a cop and a good one, but then the world turned to shit. Slaughter is a vicious bastard, but so is Rourke and the other looters who got left behind. I'd love to put a round in Slaughter's skull for what he did to me, for what he's doing to Beckett and Castle. But one of his people would kill me. Probably kill Castle and maybe even Beckett. At least Alexis got away, although I'm not sure being alone in what's left of New York is better than here. Maybe she's okay, or at least she died quickly and painlessly. Shit! How can I…?
She stopped and brought her shotgun up. A light had flashed ahead of her. She thought about calling for backup, but if it was nothing, Slaughter would go berserk for taking people away from the looting. She had too few sentries as it was.
She crept down a darkened hallway to a set of windows that had been broken out years ago, and stepped into what had once been a waiting room. She could see the light some distance away across the water.
"Hello, Ann."
She whirled around and brought her shotgun up. Then stopped and stared, open mouthed. "Beckett! How in the hell did you…." Then she stopped. "You're not Beckett. You don't have bruises and you're twenty pounds heavier than she is. Who the hell are you?"
"Kate Beckett."
"And I'm Rick Castle." Said another voice. Castle stepped out of the darkness and smiled at Hastings. "Good to see you again, Ann. And we are Rick Castle and Kate Beckett, just not the ones you know."
Hastings' hands tightened around the shotgun. Am I finally going mad?
"Could you point the shotgun somewhere else, Ann? I don't really want to get Kate or me killed. And you need to listen to us. We can help you. And the other Rick and Kate."
"The…other Rick and Kate?" Hastings said slowly. But she pointed the shotgun towards the floor.
"This is going to sound awfully, well, totally unbelievable, but it's true." Rick began.
Five minutes later Ann Hastings was convinced. Any chance at all to get out of this hellhole was worth taking.
"The best time to hit Slaughter will be tomorrow night. "She said. "After midnight sometime. There's a ship coming from the north to pick up what we have tomorrow. To trade with us. Once the trade is done and we're back here, Slaughter always has a party to celebrate. By midnight, everyone will be too drunk to fight."
"Where's the other Castle?" Rick asked.
"In the hole. Slaughter rigged up a cell at a little above the low tide level. When the tide comes in, the cell is flooded. Castle has to stay awake and upright or he'll drown. It's on the south side of the building so there's nothing to stop the incoming tide."
"Can you and Beckett get down to the hole at about midnight?"
"Sure. Kate can drink any three of Slaughter's people under the table and I don't drink much." She smiled. "Even though I'm no longer Slaughter's whore, he objects to any of the other men screwing me. I'm pretty much left alone at parties."
"Is there anyone else we should try to take out of here?" Kate asked.
Hastings thought about that, then shook her head. "Most of his people are ex-gangbangers. People who were his CIs when he was still a cop. The few cops he has with him are as bad as he is. Leave 'em all."
Rick sketched out their plan for Ann and then they dropped into the water. Their SCUBA gear was on a small ledge just below the water. They put it on and disappeared into the water.
The next twenty four hours was nerve racking. Castle thought of every possible and impossible worst case scenario. Suppose the ship from the north never came? Suppose the Westies tried to ambush the Blues? Suppose there was no party? Suppose neither Kate or Ann could getaway. Suppose they couldn't get Castle out of his cell? Finally Kate dragged him into their bedroom and kept him otherwise occupied until they both fell asleep.
Night had fallen and they were ready. Rodgers, Becks, Rick and Kate were in their SCUBA gear and were also fully armed. The petty officer in charge of sub number two spoke. "Boat One reports that Slaughter's people came back from the meeting with the north boat as happy as could be. They'll be back in ten and we can go have some playtime."
The four crewmen of Boat One sat in an open cockpit of the mini-sub while Rick, Kate, Rodgers and Becks held on to handholds on the side of the boat. They moved slowly through the water towards Slaughter's HQ.
Out of their view, Boat Two headed underwater to where Slaughter's boats were anchored. Once there, the sub drifted to the bottom and three men detached themselves from it. They swam up and found the propeller shafts of the power boats. They hooked explosive charges to them and set the fuses. The two sailboats were more difficult, but they managed to tie their explosives to the rudders. Then they returned to the sub, which backed off a few hundred yards.
Meanwhile Boat One had grounded itself by the south side of the building and Rick and his friends, plus two sailors swam up to the level where the other Rick Castle was being held. They crawled through smashed out windows, dragging spare SCUBA tanks with them. They found a wrecked room that Hastings had identified for them where they could keep an eye on Castle's cell and the entrance to the hole. Rick raised his head and peeked at the other Castle. He looked like shit. Castle ducked back down.
As they waited. Castle kept checking his watch. "What's wrong?" He whispered. "It's twelve thirty. The charges should be going off."
One of the men with them whispered back. "Be patient. Explosives aren't an exact science yet."
Castle kept his eye on his watch until fifteen more minutes had dragged by, agonizingly slowly. "We need to…" He began when they heard someone coming towards the hole.
Castle's heart sank when he saw who was coming. Hastings and Kate were coming all right, but so was some man. A big man with two pistols strapped low on his hips, gunfighter style with bandoleers over his shoulders and a rifle in his hand. He was talking. "Come on, bitch. It's a trade. I don't tell Slaughter that you snuck his girlfriend down here to see Castle and I get to fuck your holes all night long. And if I tell, I'll get to fuck you anyway, along with every other guy and a couple of the women." He laughed.
Hastings shrugged. "Well, since you put it that way…" She began to take off her top, very slowly.
She had just undone the last button when the first charge went off. The man turned around. "What the fuck…" Whatever else he was going to say was cut off by a gunshot to the head from Ann.
"Are you out there?" She yelled.
"Right here." Castle yelled, running for the other Castle's cell. The cell itself was made from welded bars, but the lock was a simple and cheap padlock. Castle was elbowed out of the way by one of the sailors with a pair of bolt cutters. "Excuse me, sir." He said as he cut the lock off.
Outside they could hear the sound of the charges sinking Slaughter's boats and the sound of the Proud Mary firing at the upper floors of the building. In between explosions and bursts of heavy machine gun fire, they could hear screaming from upstairs.
"I think the party is over." Castle said, smiling.
The other Castle was in bad shape, so two of them had to carry him. As they headed for water and safety, a burst of fire pinned them down.
"You think I'm going to let you get away from me, bitch? Either of you?"
"Shit! That's Slaughter."
Bullets began to zip past them. It took a second or so to realize they were coming from outside of the Medical Center.
"It must be the Westies." Hastings yelled over the gunfire. "They're the only ones who have that kind of fire power."
One of the sub sailors was on the radio. "Proud Mary, this is Boat One! We're taking fire from the building to the south of us. Light 'em up."
They could hear the roar of the engines as the Proud Mary wheeled around and headed for the building. Then machine gun fire, mortar rounds and missiles stopped the incoming fire.
"I can see people moving towards us." Someone yelled.
Rodgers lifted himself up a bit and fired. Instead of the sharp crack of a rifle, they heard a soft pop, quickly followed by a flash of light, then screams. "Willie Peter, make you a believer." Rodgers said, smiling.
"What?" Becks asked.
"White phosphorus grenade. Burns like hell. He stuck his head up and found no one was shooting at him. "Let's get the three of them into the SCUBA gear and get out of here before someone starts the party up again.
Rick was the closest to the other Kate and began putting SCUBA gear on her.
"Rick…" She stopped and looked at him. "Who are you?" She looked around, confirming that her Castle was being helped into SCUBA gear by…another her?
"All you need to know is that we're going to get the three of you and Alexis to someplace safe."
She shook her head. "There is no safe place."
Rick was showing her the mouthpiece when he saw her face clearly. She had a black eye, a split lip and bruises. "What happened?"
"Slaughter. He never liked me or Rick."
"I should go make sure he's dead."
"Like hell." Rodgers interrupted. "We don't have the time and with his boats gone, even if he did survive, which isn't likely, he'll die nice and slowly." Rodgers looked around. "Everybody ready? Let's get out of here."
They helped the three into the water and to the sub which was just a bit above the water. Castle ended up hanging onto Ann Hastings with one hand and onto the handhold on the sub with another as they sank and headed slowly back to the loft. One there, they gave the three former hostages some food, cared for their injuries as best they could, and then got everyone back in the water and onto their boats.
Three blue flashes later, they found themselves in a small artificial lake on the Moon.
"Welcome to someplace safe." Castle said to the three.