Ch. 18

Walter had a terrible night. He had a hard time falling asleep at first, and when he finally did, he had a dream that Ozymandias was using the device that made people's ears bleed. But instead of targeting bad people, he targeted everyone. In his dream, Walter walked down the streets of the city and there were masses of bodies writhing around him, all screaming. After a while he realized they weren't just writhing in agony; they were writhing in pleasure, like fornicating sinners. He saw the Twilight Lady up ahead, but no, it was his mother. He ran. He saw Laurie -- no, Nightshade -- she told him that she had to be Silk Spectre now. She began to undress and he looked away, away from the image and the transgressions around him. Then Ozymandias was there again. The flesh on his face began to melt away, giving view to the muscles beneath as the blood poured from his eyes and pooled at his feet. The blood was everywhere now, covering the thousands of moving bodies until they were drowned, all of them. Their movement did not cease, however, and soon the blood was a sea and their actions the waves and still he stood there as if floating, Ozymandias too.

"It's all so clear now," Ozymandias told him, as he reached out for Walter. His hands were aged and gnarled, like talons and they grasped at him with intent to kill.

Dogs barked around him -- they were a part of the waves in this wretched mock-ocean -- they began to dive under the water, no, the blood, tearing apart at the flesh piled high underneath the roiling surface. Walter then realized he hadn't been floating at all, but standing atop the bodies and there were more than he could have ever imagined. And they weren't really dead, they were grasping at his ankles and feet and trying to drag him down. In the horizon, almost too far to see, was what looked like a dark ship with torn sails and a twisted, broken mast. And those hands were dragging him down and in every direction. Towards the ship, towards Ozymandias, towards death.

Walter struggled as hard as he could. When he woke up, he was tangled in the sheets. He didn't remember the dream. All he had was a voice in his head. It's all so clear now, it said. It kept repeating over and over, until Walter couldn't stand it anymore. He got up and paced for a long while before returning to bed. He looked out the window to realize the sun was rising just as slumber finally overtook him.

Thankfully, it had been a Sunday -- Walter didn't like missing work, no matter how much he hated it -- but today, he had the day off. On Sundays, Walter usually looked for extra shifts to work through, but sometimes he would go into the city without his costume to protect him and watch people. Not even watch for crime, but just to study humanity. He liked to add each piece to his puzzle that was the human psyche. Walter wanted to know what motivated people, how they worked and moved and lived. Walter went to a cafe for lunch and sat at the window and stared out into the world. Nobody paid him hardly any mind when they could see him, but now behind a glass they really didn't notice him at all. How could they, if they didn't even register the others around them in the streets?

Walter saw an old woman walk by with her arm around a younger man's, probably her son. He saw a business man walking briskly to the curb to flag a taxi. He had a suitcase, probably going to the airport. A wedding band flashed gold on his left hand and Walter studied the way it glimmered in the light, fascinated. A little boy ran up to the window and looked directly up at him. Walter looked back. The child made a face at him, then was ushered away by his mother who hardly gave him a second glance. A homeless man shuffled by and briefly stuck out his cup at the mother and son as they walked past. The son was tugging at his mother's arm and she looked down at him, exasperated, before she reached in her purse and dropped a coin into the cup. She did this gingerly, as if somehow getting close to the man, even though they were far from touching, was offensive. Two men collided with one other, faces twisted in both surprise and anger as they exchanged harsh words. A young woman walked by, long hair flowing behind her. She didn't look like Laurie, but she reminded him of her, somehow.

Thinking about Laurie, Walter suddenly felt sick. He wondered if she had made it. Of course, after walking her home and going back to his own, he realized too late that there was the chance her mother might try to kick her out again. Now in the daylight after much thinking, Walter became aware of the fact that it had been incredibly uncharitable of him to not offer his friend a place to stay. The guilt was sitting on the pit of his stomach like a stone he had swallowed in the night. Suddenly Walter saw an image of tossing seas and felt very ill. For a moment he thought he was going to be sick in his lap, but nothing happened.

God, he should have let her stay with him. Or at least just tell her where he lived in case she needed his help. He remembered what she had said about not having anyone else besides him and her mother. Her mother had tossed her out into the street and he had forsaken her by being so selfish he couldn't see past his own petty ideals. Sitting there in the bright cafe by the window looking out into the busy street, he hated himself. He raked his hands through his hair, wishing he could call her somehow and check up on her. He didn't want to go to her home in broad daylight if her mother was being as bad as she said she had been -- he believed her of course; if he hadn't, he would have gone to her house that instant.

Walter looked up, eyes widening with realization. Laurie was all he had. He had never thought of it that way before. She at least had her mother. And of course, she now knew of her father. And she had him. But she was all he had.

And he couldn't even help her when she needed it.

Walter brought his fists down on the table, startling the customers nearby. He didn't even see them. He was utterly tormented. He didn't want to sit here anymore, so he left. He went home and changed into his costume. Yes, it was early afternoon, but he just couldn't handle being home alone with his thoughts. He climbed onto the roof of his apartment and looked out as far as he could see. He felt safe under his mask, and for a long while withdrew into himself. It was barely late afternoon when he saw an airship fly overhead, bearing a banner. For a moment, he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the message:

"CRIMEBUSTERS PLS MEET AT AREA"

Rorschach shook his head and made his way out into the street, chuckling despite of himself. Was this some sort of joke? Half an hour later, he was at Nelson Gardner's home. They had previously agreed to start meeting there for subsequent Crimebuster meetings, though Rorschach had not been to the place previous to the moment. The door was open, so Rorschach walked right in. Captain Metropolis was there, as well as Ozymandias and Nite Owl II.

"Ah, glad you could make it," said Captain Metropolis. "I was just explaining to them that this isn't a joke or a drill, but a real emergency Crimebusters meeting."

"And I was saying, that his message-bearing plane was quite a loud way to announce a meeting," said Ozymandias, smiling.

"Well, if I had phone numbers..." muttered Nelly. Ozymandias immediately walked over and wrote down something for him. Nelson smiled at him.

"Hey, where's your partner?" asked Nite Owl II.

Rorschach should have just brushed it off as a perfectly normal question, but for some reason it made him unbelievably angry. Maybe it was the fact that Ozymandias and Nite Owl II were there together, while he had lost track of his own...

Nightshade walked in the door just then, and Rorschach felt immensely relieved. He wanted to approach her and hold her closely to him to convey to her how sorry he was; something he didn't think he could do with words.

"Hi," said Nightshade, to Nelly. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"No," sighed Nelly. "And I would have been able to contact you the proper way, Laurie, if you had actually been home for me to call."

Nightshade pursed her lips and walked further into the room to join Rorschach at his side.

"Gee, thanks for using my name," said Nightshade, who didn't seem all that bothered. She seemed to be quite radiant, actually. But maybe it was because Rorschach was so glad to see her alive and well.

"Oh God," said Nelly. "I'm sorry... I just..."

"Forget it," Laurie laughed, then her smile quickly vanished. "Did my mother tell you where I was?"

"No. I mean, no, nobody answered."

"All right..."

Laurie frowned. She then turned to Rorschach as if to speak to him, but Captain Metropolis clapped his hands together.

"You may or may not have heard of this already, but Moloch has escaped," he said, gravely.

"I thought Dr. Manhattan had him thrown him jail?" asked Laurie.

"Well, he was in jail awaiting trial, actually," said Metropolis. "But early this morning, someone blew up the walls of the building where he was being held. There were only eight criminals detained inside; five escaped. One of them was Moloch."

"Does this necessarily warrant an emergency meeting?" asked Nite Owl II. "Moloch was a hassle, but he never was such a threat before."

"There have been reports of a strange transmission coming from this area," said Captain Metropolis, directing them to an area on the map. Then he moved his pointer to another location. "And this is where they discovered most of Moloch's resources was coming from."

"Hey," said Nite Owl II, lighting up. "I live in that neighborhood."

"And the two of us patrol most of the other neighborhood, actually," said Ozymandias.

"Great, you guys can handle both problems," said Nightshade.

"Ha ha ha," said Captain Metropolis. "I was thinking that maybe you could split and mix up the pairs -- perhaps Nite Owl II with Nightshade and Ozymandias with Rorschach? It makes more sense to make teams where at least one person knows the area well."

"Now wait a minute," said Nite Owl II.

"I'm afraid we don't have much time to discuss this. We don't know if these separate incidents are related, and we need as much information as possible," said Nelly, holding up his hands in a pleading gesture.

"If time is of the essence then perhaps it would be for the best," said Ozymandias. Then he looked at Nite Owl II. "It's only temporary."

"It's settled, then," said Captain Metropolis.

"I'll go with Rorschach to find the source of the transmission while Nite Owl II and Nightshade investigate Moloch's whereabouts," said Ozymandias.

Rorschach, shocked, just stood there while Nightshade looked over her shoulder at him as she left with Nite Owl II. Ozymandias approached him as if he was a broken bear trap set to snap at any moment.

"Shall we go then?" asked Ozymandias.

Rorschach had to keep from attacking him.

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To be continued...