The Desperado Undead (6/20)

1

The week following the bodysnatcher epidemic that resulted in the deaths of Elana, the discovery of Ripley being a bodysnatcher, Anne-Marie, and Amanda was filled with repairs and cleaning up. Two hundred thirty seven were dead, and many more were injured. Around fifty buildings had completely burned and the people had collectively spent twenty thousand dollars on window repairs. Children were scared and without parents. Adults were broken and without homes. Amadeus had receded into his home and hadn't come out all week. Jack had done the same. Billy was effectively running the city.

Billy approached Amadeus’ house, beyond stressed. He’d been dealing with what to do with the hundreds of bodies from the night of h*ll, deciding whether or not the city would pay for the hospital bills of those injured, and finding ways to help the now homeless. All Billy wanted was for Amadeus to come back and take over again, he didn’t think that was too much to ask. Was it?

Billy knocked on the door and waited for a response. All he got was the noise of the front door unlocking. He turned the knob, pushed the door open, and walked in.

“Amadeus,” he asks, “buddy, we need you to come back. It ain’t healthy to stay in your home all day every day.”

He gets no response. Billy walks into the living room and peaks around, not seeing Amadeus anywhere. He continues down the hallway, past the bathroom, past Ripley’s empty room, and into the doorway of what was once a room belonging to Amadeus and Elana. Now, only Amadeus lies alone in his bed.

“Amadeus,” Billy asks.

“I’ve been fighting for so godd*mn long that I’d forgotten what I was fighting for,” Amadeus says to him, “I was fighting for the sake of my family, and now I have no family. My wife cheated on me then got ripped apart by my daughter who’d been taken by a bodysnatcher.”

He begins to laugh maniacally. Billy stands in silence and allows him to let it all out. After a minute of psychotic laughter, Amadeus rubs his face with his hands and sits up.

“If I’ve got nothing to live for, and I’ve got nothing to die for, and I’ve got nothing to fight for, tell me why would I even try,” Amadeus asks Billy.

“Because you do still have something to fight for. Though Ripley is gone, she ain’t forgotten. The sacrifice thing I was tellin’ you about the other day, the thing that caused this whole thing? The man that did that didn’t do it of his own free will, he was convinced by a demon Am, one in control of the NWO.”

Amadeus thinks for a moment, “...what did it sound like?”

“It’s…voice I guess you could call it was really deep and…”

“Soothing,” Amadeus finished.

Billy nods. Amadeus thinks it’s odd that he and Billy had heard the same voice. Amadeus when dealing with a self defense mrder situation and Billy when he found an odd, shrine-like summoning room that, they assume at least, opened some sort of portal to Hell, welcoming the bodysnatchers over to their side. Something was missing though. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what exactly it was, but it was something. How could he find that missing piece…

Amadeus throws his sheets off of him, rushes past Billy, and down the hallway. He goes into the living room and down into the basement. He walks down the stairs and stands before the Mirror. He never noticed Billy following him.

“Mirror, Mirror,” Amadeus says.

How may I serve you Amadeus?

“That bad voice from the other week. What is it?”

I told you, Amadeus. Nothing to fear, just a spirit.

“Is it’s name Deschaine?”

…Yes, Amadeus. Why?

Dots begin to connect in Amadeus’ head, “What does he possess?”

Amadeus, these questions, they…they matter not.

“Answer it.”

The Mirror doesn’t respond. Amadeus turns to Billy and reaches his hand out. Billy questions him and Amadeus motions for one of his guns. Billy hands him one of them.

Amadeus turns back to the Mirror and points the gun at it, “Talk, b*tch.”

Oh Amadeus, a bullet will not harm me the way it will a man.

“Sure, but I can use the grip to shatter you.”

Hm…well played. Deschaine is an old soul possessing an old object, Am.

“Which is…?”

The Necronomicon. A book capable of horrible magic. Opening portals to other planes, summoning horrible creatures, changing you physically. And yes, it is in possession of the NWO.

“Which Judicator? Where?”

That I do not know. I can point you to someone who would, though.

“I’m listening.”

Darren Athren. They call him the Alligator Man. He was the one to discover The Necronomicon and he used it to…change himself. He tried to become a lizard-human hybrid for whatever ungodly reason, but the spell failed. It only half changed him, now he is paraded around by the largest entertainment cooperation in the NWO as some sort of freak show. Ever Since his…incident, he’s had an odd connection to The Necronomicon. He’s been able to keep track of it’s exact location, find and speak to him and you will find The Necronomicon.

“Where is he now?”

…I feel he is in what is called…Holy Valley.

Great, Amadeus thinks. Holy Valley is the valley in which Holy Mountain itself is located. It is a large valley that goes on for roughly twenty miles before ending at Holy mountain. The mountains creating the valley are nothing special, the only notable features being the same beauty of Holy Mountain as well as paths that lead to it.

It would be a pretty trip, no doubt, but they likely wouldn’t be able to make any sort of contact with this “Alligator Man” without any resistance. But Amadeus knew it was for the best, it would be killing not just two, but three birds with one stone. They would get a new recruit, hopefully at least, they would likely get rid of another Judicator, leaving just three remaining.

Amadeus turns to Billy, feeling really any emotion other than grief for the first time in a week.

“Billy! Did you hear that,” Amadeus asks.

“I did.”

“And? Are you in?”

“Amadeus, these people need a leader…”

“There’s other people in positions of power here Billy, I don’t run the place on my own. If I’m needed, they can call me.”

Billy thinks for a moment, “Fine, if you think some book straight outta a Lovecraft story is in our best interest…I trust your judgement.”

A hint of a smile pokes through on Amadeus’ face. If he could get Jack to go along too, it would be perfect. But Jack was arguably more grief-stricken than Amadeus was. After only knowing each other for around a month or two, Jack and Anne-Marie had grown closer than anyone Amadeus, Billy, or Amanda had ever seen. It was truly impressive.

The idea that Jack would try to do something with The Necronomicon to bring Anne-Marie back had never even crossed Amadeus’ mind, though. He had, in a matter of seconds, planned out the next few months. Get The Necronomicon, kill the remaining Judicators in whatever order worked best, and liberate the world from the NWO’s tyranny. It was a simplified version of a complicated series of events, but it was his idea. The universe had other plans, though, for none of this would be near as easy as Amadeus had hoped.

2

Amadeus knocks on Jack’s door with Billy standing behind him. Just as he had expected, he gets no response. Unlike Billy though, Amadeus does not give Jack the courtesy of asking to come in, he simply opens the door and enters. Billy follows and closes the door behind him. They walk into the living room where Jack sits. He sits alone on the couch, staring at the television which is on Staria’s local news network. Jack’s head slowly turns towards his guests, and he gives them a grunt as a welcome.

“Jack,” Amadeus says, “get up.”

Jack grunts in response.

“Look, I understand you’re grieving…”

Nothing from Jack.

“...but eventually we’ll have to get back to our normal lives, eventually we have to move on. I’m not telling you to move on right here right now, I’m asking you to be open to at least getting your mind off of what happened.”

Jack sits in silence for a moment before getting up. He had always been a positive person, Amadeus would have even said he was the goofy up-beat clown of their little group. But Jack struggled to find positivity in anything since Anne-Marie had died. That didn’t mean that he was against moving on, though.

He walks to Amadeus, “...what?”

“We can do something really beneficial for…everything. Get a new recruit, kill at least one Judicator, get The Necronomicon-”

That name. Something about it resonated with Jack, it burned in his mind like the burning zeal of a tiger viewing its prey.

“The what,” Jack asks.

“...The Necronomicon, or I guess we could just call it the Necro-,” Amadeus says before being again interrupted by Jack.

“What’s that?”

Amadeus tries to explain it the best way he can, “it’s a…a book, a magic book. Similar to the Mirror. It can do magic things like…opening a portal to Hell…y’know, stuff like that.”

There it was. Yet another turning point in the life of Jack. Everything has a cause, and everything has an effect. Everything that happens in one’s life causes them to end up where they are. Everyone has turning points, whether it be the discovery of a hidden talent, the meeting of a specific person, or the death of someone close to them. For Jack, they had been meeting Amadeus, staying in contact with Amadeus after high school, helping form the Desperado Undead, meeting Anne-Marie, the death of Anne-Marie, and this, right here, right now. Him learning of The Necronomicon. This would set up the rest of the events to happen in his life that would eventually lead to his death. Even after that, it would be far from over.

Amadeus saw the life and the light return in Jack’s eyes as Jack planned. Jack thought that if he could use that book to create a portal to Hell…he could search for Anne-Marie’s soul…maybe…just maybe.

As Amadeus rambled on and on about all of the other benefits including getting closer to liberating the world, something about an Alligator Man, bla, blah, blah, Jack cut him off.

“Yes,” Jack blurts out, “...um…yes. I’ll go.”

Amadeus stops his sentence, shrugs, and says, “ok, then. Great. We’ll head out in…let’s say two hours. Enough time to get together what we'll need and gather our thoughts a little.”

Both Jack and Billy agree to this. Billy and Amadeus leave Jack's house to do their own preparations. As they leave his home, Jack closes the door behind them. With the door shut, all alone, he sets his hands on the door and thinks. Does he really think he will be able to go to the lake of fire, find Anne-Marie, and bring her back to the mortal world? Would it even be possible? With The Necronomicon in his possession, he would at least be able to try.

Jack tries to think of what he will need. A lot? Probably not. They have a couple planes in Staria, and Jack was sure someone knew how to fly them. A flight to a safe spot near Holy Valley would likely be around six or seven hours, from there they just needed to find where this Lizard Man or whatever Amadeus called him is. Two, maybe three day trip at most. Jack walked back to his bedroom, opened the sliding closet doors, and grabbed his red duffle bag off of the top shelf.

He packed it with three days worth of clothes, including the Holy Mountain shirt Anne-marie had been wearing when memories of the mountain. After the bare essentials were packed, naturally, he packed all of his weapons. One knife, a Kriss Vector with three forty round magazines, and his ar-15, with five thirty round magazines. He finished by packing five fifteen round magazines for his pistol, which he holstered on the right side of his hip.

After just ten minutes, he was ready. Now, it was time to wait. The others would be ready soon, and Jack would be one step closer to the edge of the abyss.

3

Amadeus threw the last of his and Billy’s things into the trunk of what was once Amanda’s grey SUV. Three duffle bags between the two of them, one of which was filled with ammo and loaded magazines. Under these bags were a couple rifles, two of which were semi-auto, the other being lever-action. Along with these was a bullpup shotgun, two 9mm pistols, and Billy’s revolvers.

Right as he was about to close the trunk, Amadeus looked over at Jack’s house in time to see him walking out, bag in hand. Jack approaches the car and throws his things into the back.

“What’s the plan,” Jack asks Amadeus.

“We’re gonna head down to the airport, opposite side of town,” Amadeus explains without noticing how he’d somehow picked up Billy’s dialect, “then we’re gonna fly on down to the closest airport Which is about an hour from the valley itself. Then we just gotta hunt Mr. Alligator Man down.”

Jack agreed and Billy nodded. From here until they reached Holy Valley, during the entire duration of their trip, the plane ride and the car ride into the valley itself, not a word was spoken between our three heroes.

4

Amadeus drove, Jack sat in the passenger seat lost in thought, and Billy sat with his head against the window in the back driver's side. They drove through the beautiful flat lands of Holy Valley. Mountains that pierced the clouds surrounded them, some rocky, some the deep and pleasant shade of green that surrounded them. Almost all peaking with varying amounts of snow. A pond could be seen in the distance which was home to fish and amphibians of all kinds. Bushes of berries and other grasses could be seen dotted around in the land. Large Willow and Lodgepole Pine trees occasionally grew amongst the other plants of the land. The land itself was mostly flat, with a few rises and dips in elevation, minus the mountains themselves of course. Jack had been keeping mental notes on the animals he’d seen. So far, most notably he had seen several deer, a bear, some bald eagles, and a couple of moose.

Billy’s mind was empty. It was a nice little trick he’d taught himself when he was just a boy. He only did it when he knew he would be completely safe for a good bit of time. It may not sound that hard, it sounds like something you and I could do like it was nothing, just zone out, right? Billy was beyond zoned out. It was a state on the border of consciousness and unconsciousness. His mind was blank, and not a thing was being registered. He could see, but was truly seeing. He knew there were noises, but couldn’t truly hear them. He smelled and tasted nothing. He didn't even feel the bumpy road they were driving on. Billy could snap out of it whenever he wanted to, though. It was a trick he had yet to use around Amadeus and the other members of The Desperado Undead, for he had never been quite sure he could trust them until now. If they were going to kill him, they would have at least tried on the plane. Plus, they had been through enough together at this point. They all had lost someone around a week ago. Billy thought that was one of the best ways to bring a group together. They were truly brothers in arms now.

Jack was just taking in the scenery while simultaneously looking for any sign of what sounded to him like a circus where the Alligator Man was being held. He had seen nothing so far, they had plenty of land to cover remaining though. Why do they call him that anyway? Jack wondered. Amadeus had not told them everything the Mirror did, only that the Alligator Man could tell them where The Necronomicon is.

Billy snapped back to reality when he heard Amadues mutter, “sh*t.”

Billy looks over at Amadeus and asks, “What is it?”

“Look up ahead,” Amadeus tells him.

Billy does as he’s told and sees what concerns Amadeus. It concerns him too. Drawing closer and closer Billy, Amadeus, and Jack see a randomly set up NWO checkpoint. It’s no more than two police officers and one heavily armed soldier.

“Look,” Amadeus says to Billy and Jack, “just stay calm. The only face they really have a chance at knowing is mine. They might not even know mine.”

They drive to and come to a stop at the parked van by which the officers and soldier stand. One officer, a short African American woman, walks up to the car. She has long black hair in dreadlocks and tied in a ponytail. Her dark brown eyes pierce Amadeus’ as she motions for him to put the window down. Amadeus does as he is told.

“Names,” she asks.

“Alex Chan,” Amadeus tells her. He’s had this fake identity since he became the leader of The Desperado Undead.

She looks at Billy, “Billy Henderson,” he tells her.

She nods and looks at Jack, “Shawn Dean,” he says. Like Amadeus, he has had this fake identity at the ready for years now.

“You guys just going to Holy Mountain,” she inquired.

“Yeah,” Amadeus says, “our friend here has never been.” He motions to Billy.

“We were hoping we could see that Alligator Man while we were here too,” Amadeus explains.

“Hm, well you’re SOL in that regard, they packed up last night. They said they were gonna go check out the mountain today then head out,” The officer tells Amadeus.

Billy and Jack look at each other.

“Any weapons in the vehicle today boys,” she asks.

Amadeus had been able to keep his cool so far, but now, panic begins to set in. They had weapons in the car alright, ones that were fifty shades of illegal here in the NWO. Not to mention that they would surely have to show ID’s that they didn’t have. Amadeus didn’t have time to think.

“Nope,” he blurts out.

She inspects him for a moment. She must have seen something in his face, because the next thing she asked was the nail in the coffin.

“Can you open the trunk for me Mr. Chan?”

He slowly nods and hits the button to unlock the trunk. He can practically feel Billy and Jack mentally screaming at him. What are we going to do? He has no way of knowing they are actually thinking that, he just thinks it’s a safe bet.

“Just go with your guts boys,” Amadeus mutters loud enough for both Billy and Jack to hear.

“Sam! Get over here,” the officer yells out.

Amadeus pulls the door handle just enough for it to click open, though he doesn’t push it open at all. He sees the woman officer run around with the car, pistol drawn, pointing straight at him. Amadeus, Jack, and Billy put their hands up. Billy gets out of the car. As Billy’s door closes behind him, Amadeus kicks his door open as hard as he can. It strikes the female officer, throwing her to the ground. Amadeus and Jack lie down on their seats as the soldier begins to fire shots at the car. Amadeus pulls the door quickly shut. Billy runs around to the back and catches the other officer off guard. He is a beefy, bald man, probably in his thirties. The officer turns to see Billy as he raises his arm. Billy punches the officer once in the face. The officer staggers and almost falls Billy catches him and brings him to the passenger side of the car. He throws the officer to the ground and pins him down by sitting on his chest. Billy reaches down to the officer’s hip and finds his gun. Moments later, the officer is having a staredown with the barrel of the pistol. His final thoughts are of his wife and little girl at home.

Amadeus and Jack are pinned in the car. Luckily for them, The car they took is bulletproof. That doesn’t change the fact that they can not go out of the doors on their side of the car. Their only hope was to crawl towards the doors on the opposite side of the car. But once they came into view, the soldier would surely fire at the windows, and they could only withstand two or three bullets before breaking. Jack was able to reach for, open, and get out through the door opposite to him easily enough since he was in the backseat. Amadeus, on the other hand, was stuck scrunched up in the driver's side seat.

Neither Jack nor Billy could grab a gun from the trunk, for they would have to go into the sightline of the soldier to do so, which would almost certainly end in death. Billy kicks himself for putting both of his pistols into the trunk, it was the first time he’d gone away without at least one of them on his side in years. Billy opens the car door and reaches his hand out to Amadeus.

“Wait ‘till he needs to reload, get it,” Billy tells Amadeus.

Amadeus nods. His leg was throbbing with pain again. The deep gash had been able to heal well, but not fully. Nearly every day over the past week, Amadeus had thanked God that the bodysnatcher had not clawed into his bone.

The bullets stopped flying. Amadeus waited, the soldier had been firing consistently for a solid thirty seconds. He thought it was safe to assume the soldier was using some sort of light machine gun. Either it had overheated, ran out of ammo, or he was waiting. Something clicked in Amadeus’ brain, the deus ex machina he had forgotten about. He had a pistol in the glove compartment.

Amadeus reached over and opened the glove compartment, making sure none of him was visible from the window. He felt around and found the grip of the one gun he had packed up front. He grabbed it, and brought it into his sightline. Amadeus checked the mag, seeing it was full, checked the chamber, it was empty. He pulled the slide back to chamber one round. He recalled where he last saw the soldier standing, by the front of the van. He could have moved towards the back, or around the car but still in the same general area. He took several deep breaths and sent a silent prayer to the God he now knew fully well existed. He pushed his door open with the pistol aimed. God was still on his side, God was still seemingly on the side of The Desperado Undead. Amadeus shot the entire magazine of fifteen rounds where he saw the soldier standing, even after he had already fallen.

Taking quick, raspy breaths, Amadeus sat up and got out of the car. His legs struggled to hold him up as he limped towards the van. He never thought to reload his pistol or grab a new gun before checking to see if the soldier had actually died. Luckily, he didn’t need it. The soldier was dead. As Amadeus looks at the body of the NWO troop he put an end to, he hears one more shot. It was a shot from the barrel of one of Billy’s revolvers. That shot had killed the female officer, who had been running away, presumably to report what had just occurred. Luckily, though, she was still in their sightline when Billy looked around to find her. No loose ends.

Amadeus walks back around the van and towards what was once Amanda’s car. Jack comes to him from around the car.

“What now,” he inquires.

“Well,” Amadeus says, “he said the Alligator man and his whole circus thing are still here. So, we do what we came to do, we find him and get what we need.”

Jack could do nothing but admire Amadeus’ perceived perpetual persistence. All three of the highest ranking members of The Desperado Undead got back into their respective seats in the SUV, and were off to find their paragon of utility.

5

He gripped the cold, solid iron bars of his cage. His containment cell. His home.

As always, part of him was warm, able to sustain a comfortable body temperature. But the rest of him was cold. Cold like the pitch black area behind the curtains they were keeping him in. It was November for God’s sake, and the only protection from them and the outside world was this stupid tent, no wonder he was freezing!

He reached behind him to scratch his back with his right hand. Never the left, no. That hand had claws. He scratched down, took his hand off his back, and scratched down again. He could scratch up, yes, but that would hurt on his scales.

Between the jumble of voices, those of The Necronomicon, the Mirror, and one which he could not recognize but would later come to know as Valkyrie, the same thoughts that always lived in his mind resided.

B*stards, Darren Athren thought, someday…someday I’ll get out of here. And as God as my witness…that will be their doomsday.

The ‘they’ Darren’s thoughts referred to were his self entitled owners. Those who dragged him across the world, practically to Hell and back just to make money off of his horrific disfigurement. They even called him a name that pierced his heart and soul every time he heard it spoken aloud. Alligator Man, horrible.

He heard the ringmaster make the same speech he made every single time he introduced Darren. After he was done, the curtains rose, and the crowd erupted. Some cheered, some screamed, some gasped, some cried, but three of them, three men at the back of the tent stayed completely still and emotionless. One looked like he had been through h*ll, the one in the middle looked like he didn’t truly care about being there, and the third looked oddly like a cowboy.

Darren felt an odd attraction towards these three. They were important. They were his saviors. He allowed his misshapen, horrific face to form into a wide grin. Doomsday, he thought, he chuckled before turning his attention to the rest of the crowd before him.

6

Amadeus, Billy, and Jack arrived at the attraction to find that it, in fact, was not being closed. It was actually running one final show before leaving. Perfect. They all poured out of the car and made their way to the entrance. A young man, no more than twenty one met them.

“Tickets,” he asked.

“Ah,” Amadeus responded, “well, uh…we don’t have any, can we buy some here?”

“You can purchase tickets online and cannot gain entry without tickets-”

Billy grabs a hold of him by the shirt and lifts him off of his feet so that he was face to face with him.

“Now listen here you little five eight, chubby, blonde hair, blue eyes, hitler youth, Justin Beiber, chickensh*t waste of space,” Billy says menacingly, “you are going to let us in here or so help me by the power invested in me by our good God I will not just kill you with bullets, I will tear the flesh from your bones and feed it to the freak of a man that’s in there.”

The boy cowers after Billy sets him down.

“I’m sorry, sir,” the boy says, “head…head right in.”

The three of them enter the tent in time to hear the ringmaster's speech to introduce the Alligator Man.

“Now gather ‘round, gather ‘round, men and women across the town! Step right up, step right up!”

The crowd begins to get riled up, “Ok…ok step back down. Come pay homage to the beast! But don’t be scared, he didn’t always look like this. He used to have a home, family, a wife he could kiss…but he seemed to just p*ss it all away! Or...at least that’s what they say. But hey, I’m just an average man livin day to day, tryna make it through, so without further ado, I give to you…the Alligator Man, and his seven deadly sins that follow him, wherever he goes,” the ringmaster yells. The curtain falls.

Amadeus, Jack, and Billy all see the man creature they came to find. The Alligator Man, trapped in his cage, like a dog at home alone. Darren’s gaze fell upon them. The three of them all made eye contact with the man that had experimented with the wrong kind of science. They stared each other down, eyes piercing into each other’s souls. Darren grinned, it sent a spike of terror through Amadeus, excitement through Jack, and nothing through Billy. The Alligator Man turned to the rest of the crowd.

Time for the usual song and dance, Darren thought before yelling, “ONE OF THESE DAYS THEY’LL LET ME OUT OF THIS CAGE! AND WHEN THEY DO, I’M COMING AFTER YOU ALL! YOU’RE DEAD!”

Amadeus looks over at Jack. Jack says nothing. Before Anne-Marie’s passing, he would have made some snarky comment or clever remark on what had just happened, Amadeus knew him so well he could predict exactly what he would have said. Shiver me timbers, he thinks. Seeing Jack in this state had saddened him enough, thinking of the past just made it worse. Amadeus returned his gaze to the Alligator man that he would soon come to know on a first name basis.

Those in the crowd, those who knew little to nothing of what was truly going on behind the two-faced charade of the NWO, gawked at the freak of a man. No one except for those on the inside knew what truly was going on with The Desperado Undead, the supernatural elements of their realm, amongst other things. Those who got too close to figuring it out, they would, almost always, ‘commit suicide’. Though it could be said that they tied the noose by going against the NWO, it was the Judicators that kicked the chair.

The people in the crowd took their pictures, made their comments, and recorded their videos. All the same things they always did. After around twenty minutes, the curtains closed. The ringmaster came out once more to announce that tonight's show, and thus the series of shows they were performing at Holy Valley was over. He thanked the crowd, and they, like the sheep they didn’t know they were, herded out of the tent. Amadeus, Billy, and Jack stayed back.

After no more than five minutes, everyone was out of the tent, and it was just the three of them. The ringmaster came out from behind the curtain and was visibly stunned when he saw them.

“What are you three doin,” he asks, “I thought I was pretty clear about the whole show’s over thing.”

“You were,” Amadeus tells him, “but we need to speak to you.”

“Look, whatever you’re selling, I don’t want it.”

“Oh, we aren’t selling anything,” Amadeus tells him.

“Well then…what,” he asks.

“We want to speak to the Alligator Man,” Jack explains.

Darren, who has been listening in on this conversation from the start, has his interest peaked. Why would they want to speak to him? How odd…

The ringmaster laughs at them, “Uh, no. No talking to the attraction.”

“He’s not an attraction,” Amadeus says.

“He’s a man that made a mistake,” Billy practically yells, “we all do every once in a while.”

D*mn right, Darren thinks.

“Whatever,” the ringmaster says, “please leave before I call security.”

“I said, we want to speak to the Alligator Man,” Amadeus says, “we are going to speak to him.”

Billy draws his revolver. The ringmaster sees this and his eyes grow wide. The fear becomes obvious in his face.

“Oh…o-ok, calm down,” the ringmaster says.

Billy turns to Amadeus, and Amadeus nods. Billy walks up to the ringmaster and hits him over the head with the butt of the gun, knocking him out. The ringmaster falls to the ground with a thump. Amadeus turns his attention to the curtain. He walks over to it, lifts it up, and walks behind it. Behind the curtain, he finds just what he anticipated, the Alligator Man locked in a cage.

“Well, hell there,” Darren says in his raspy voice. He reaches an arm out to Amadeus.

“If I shake your hand, you’re not going to rip my arm off are you,” Amadeus asks him, only half kidding.

“Of course not,” Darren responds, “I may look it, but I’m no animal.”

Amadeus reaches out his hand and grabs Darrens. As Billy and Jack enter the back part of the tent, Darren grabs a hold of Amadeus’ arm and yanks him against the cage.

“Who are you,” Darren yells, “what the h*ll do you want?”

Billy and Jack both draw their guns and aim at Darren. Darren turns his attention to them. He throws Amadeus to the ground.

“Do it,” Darren demands, “Please. This is no life for a man to live!”

Jack lowers his gun, “You want to die,” he asks.

“Do you think I want to live,” Darren shouts, “Look at me! I’m a freak!”

They couldn’t deny that. His entire left leg and the bottom half of his right were reptilian, both with dark green scales for skin. A tail extended from behind him, reaching down to the ground. His right arm was that of a man, but his left was that of a reptilian. The scales extended up his back, even reaching around to the front. His neck was fully reptilian, and it spread up the left side of his head. His left eye was yellow with just black slit for a pupil, and the left part of his jaw being slightly extended outward with long, sharp teeth. Messy dirty blonde hair topped his head. He stood at around eight feet tall.

“Not to mention the voices,” Darren yelled, “the…f*cking voices! The Necronomicon, The Mirror, the other one! I’m a prisoner in my own godd*mn mind!”

The Mirror never mentioned that he could hear it, Amadeus thought. He never even fully registered the fact that there was an ‘other one’, he was too concerned with the fact that the Mirror was withholding more information from him. He would deal with that later though, for now they just needed to get The Necronomicon.

Amadeus, Jack, and Billy allow Darren a moment to regain his composure.

“I’m sorry,” Darren says after pulling himself together.

“It’s ok,” Amadeus says, “Mr. Alligator Man, we just want to talk.”

“It’s Darren,” Darren tells them, “Darren Athren.”

“Ok, Mr. Athren, we just wanted to speak with you,” Amadeus tells him.

“Speak, then.”

Amadeus thinks of where to start, “I am Amadeus Wright, these are my subsidiaries, Billy Henderson and Jack Taylor. We are the top of the power chain in both our city Staria and our rebellion against the New World Order, the Desperado Undead. The Mirror has informed us that you would know where the Necronomicon is?”

“Hm, the Mirror said that eh,” Darren asks, “welp, it’s not wrong. But I won’t do it for nothin’.”

“As anticipated,” Amadeus says, “what do you want in return?”

“Simple,” Darren responds, “I want out.”

“Pardon,” Amadeus asks.

“I want out of here,” Darren explains, “out of this cage and away from that excuse of a ringmaster. Why not take it a step further? I want to be part of your little rebellion, I want to help tear the NWO to shreds. I want to be part of the Desperado Undead.”

Amadeus looks back at Jack and Jack shrugs as if to say, why not? He turns back to face Darren.

“I think that would work just fine,” Amadeus tells him.

“Well then,” Darren says, “start by gettin me outta here.”

Amadeus turns to Billy, “Go check our passed out friend for a key.”

Billy nods and walks back to the ringmaster. Billy kneels next to him and can hear him groan.

“Wakin’ up,” Billy asks.

The ringmaster groans.

Billy holds out his hand, “The key. To the freakshow's cage.”

A groan in response.

“Ah, I see.”

Billy begins searching all of the ringmaster's pockets, the ones in his red and black coat, the back ones on his pure black pants, then the front. He finds it in the ringmaster’s front right pocket. Billy takes the key and walks back to his gang. He hands the key to Amadeus who uses it to open Darren’s cage. Darren ducks his head to be able to walk out. He stretches his odd arms out.

“Oh, freedom,” he says, “I am in eternal debt my friends.”

“So tell us where the Necronomicon is,” Amadeus demands.

“Ah, yes,” Darren says, “let me find it first.”

This was one of Darren’s classic tricks, he was able to find the location of the Mirror and Necronomicon since he became bound to the two, but not Valkyrie, that voice was just…there. For now at least.

Darren closed his eyes and listened to the voices. A cluster of conversations conversing in his consciousness. The deep, soothing voice of Deschaine, the slightly more high pitched and confident one of the spirit in the Mirror, and the horrifying, grumbly one belonging to Valkyrie. He focused on the voice belonging to Deschaine. The others became no more than whispers as he and Deschaine began to have their psychic conversation.

Hello, Darren. How are the scales treating you?

Darren ignores this attempt at angering him, where are you?

Pardon, Deschaine asks.

Where. Are. You.

Lizard boy wants to know where I am? Ok, I’ll spill. I am currently in possession of Judicator Smith. Conveniently for you, he will be boarding a plane in an airport five hours from here in about eight hours. I, of course, will be with him. You should be able to make it in time to get him if you hurry.

Thank you, Darren telepathically says. His eyes open and he looks at Amadeus. Darren relays the information given to him to Amadeus. He considers what to do. They could all go to the airport, or they could have some of them go there and the other take Darren back to Staria…

“Billy, Jack,” Amadeus says.

“Yessir,” they say in unison.

“You two are going to the airport.,” he tells them, “I want Smith dead, NWO troop casualties are fine. Make sure no innocents are killed.”

“Copy that,” Jack responds.

“Good,” Amadeus says, “I’m gonna take Darren back to Staria and get him settled in, ok?”

“Got it,” Billy says.

“What is this…Staria,” Darren asks.

Amadeus chuckles, ”You’ll see.”

Amadeus, Billy, Jack, and Darren all say their temporary goodbyes and go off to do their respective tasks. Amadeus takes the SUV back to Staria, and Jack and Billy steal a truck from the circus to make their way to the airport. They were able to find the airport on google maps, it was called J. Dempsey International Airport.

And with that, they were off.

7

Billy and Jack sat in their stolen truck in the parking lot of J. Dempsey National Airport, waiting. They knew what they were looking for, a pure black limousine, cliche. Billy was biting his nails and Jack was taking apart and reassembling his pistol over and over. Push the buttons on each side up, pull the slide off, push the spring forward, take the spring out, take the barrel out, undo what was done, rinse, and repeat. Billy turned to look at Jack.

“You ok, Jack,” he asked.

“Yeah,” Jack said, blatantly lying, “just fine.”

Billy knew he was lying, but let it go, he was never good at the whole sympathy thing. Billy turned his gaze back out of his window. Billy internally beat himself up over not even making an attempt at helping Jack. All Billy ever did was push people away, he never let anyone in. He felt that this prevented him from becoming true friends with anyone. Yes, he considered him and Amadeus, and Jack to be friends…but not good friends. They were closer to acquaintances. Billy, the bad*ss. Billy, the mysterious cowboy. Billy, the gunslinger. Billy, the mental mess. Billy, the man who kept a bullet with his name on it for when it all became too much for him. Billy, the loneliest man on earth.

“When I was a boy…,” Billy says without turning.

Jack turns to look at Billy.

“...when I was a boy, not past fifteen, there was this girl,” Billy explains, “I thought I was in love…and maybe I was. But whether a fifteen year old can be in love is debatable. She was perfect for me, not much different from Anne-Marie.”

Tears form in Jack’s eyes.

“Long, dark brown hair. She was tall, I dunno, that had an odd charm to it. She had the most…enchanting brown eyes and she was…hilarious. So kind, so caring. We got together after I obsessed over her for around a year. A week into the relationship, her father went mad for some reason. Killed her, her mother, and himself in a double-murder-suicide. The day I found out I was…heartbroken would be putting it lightly.”

Billy looks Jack in the eyes. He sees Jack is openly crying at this point.

“My father told me something when I came home the day I found out. He looked at me and said, ‘son, when someone you truly love and who truly loves you dies, they don’t leave you. Love binds two souls together, so part of her will always be with you, and part of you will always be with her. Even if one is in Heaven and the other is in Hell, you will always be together.’”

Understanding fills Jack. The tears streaming down his face were providing a much needed emotional catharsis. Though Jack would remember what Billy told him for the rest of his existence, it wasn’t enough to stop the events set in motion.

“Thank you Billy…that means a lot,” Jack says.

Billy says nothing in response. They sit in silence for a minute or two before Billy sees the limousine pull into the airport parking lot.

“Here he is,” Billy says.

Jack turns his gaze out of Billy’s window.

The limousine stops and five soldiers pile out. After them, Smith steps out, dressed in a tiger striped shirt and bright, sparkly blue pants.

“...is he…is he gay,” Billy asks

“That’s probably a safe bet,” Jack says.

The soldiers lead him through the parking lot and into the airport.

“Alright,” Jack says, “his plane leaves in an hour and a half, now's the time, you ready Billy?”

Billy nods, “I did it once before all on my own…I should be able to do it again on my own.”

Jack pats Billy on the shoulder. They sit in silence for another moment before getting out of their truck. Billy is armed with his two revolvers in their holsters, and Jackhas the Kriss Vector from earlier in a backpack he brought.

Brothers in arms, Smith’s doomsday quickly approaching, they walk towards the airport.