The Reckoning: Part 1
A story of death, destruction and adventure
The beginning of the end
There was fire on the horizon in the morning. A glowing orange ember outlined the ridge on the hills overlooking the north of the city. Dusty translucent smoke seeped into the sky in the distance.
His mind was empty. There was nothing left to think about. He’d finally slept last night, crashing on the chipboard floor of the half built house he was squatting in. The last two nights he had stared at the exposed rafters in the ceiling until the sun came up. He’d been over the mission in his head a thousand times.
Now he stood on the back balcony admiring the force of destruction that was coming alive in the hills. He refused to check his phone before mid day. One half day to ignore the sinister figure that watched his every move, to forget his promise and enjoy his last precious hours as a normal human being.
For an hour he sat silently on the camping chair, imagining the flames engulfing the city. And then the girl who was sleeping beside him came to join him. She was a strange and beautiful homeless girl with porcelain skin, honey blonde locks and lightly freckled cheeks. She put her tiny arms around his shoulders and nestled her face into his dark mane. He stroked her face lightly with the tips of his fingers.
Elektra was what she called herself. He thought it was a ridiculous fake name, but he didn’t bother to argue with her. He had to trust her because he had no one else. He told her everything, about the death of his ex wife and his child. About Nero and about the mission. He knew it was an insane thing to do but he had nothing left to lose. And she was good company.
A month ago he would have thought meeting Elektra was one of the best things to ever happen to him. She had mysteriously appeared by his side at the stroke of midnight. It was four nights ago and he’d been pacing the streets, obsessing about the mission. She grinned playfully as she asked him what he was doing. Her smeared lipstick and porcelain skin made her look like a cute goth-girl clown and he couldn’t help but laugh to himself a little. They went and laid on the grass together in the park, talking until morning.
His housemates thought he had gone to pick berries for a week at the lakes to the East. He chose the construction site he’d been working on as a base he could store his supplies and prepare for the mission. He needed to be close to the city to escape when it was done.
During the day, he left Elektra alone at the house while he prepared. He picked up his cheque from work in case his deposit from Nero wasn’t enough to cover expenses then went into the city to buy supplies. Food, camping gear, clothes he would normally never wear. He would become somebody else, a stranger in the night.
Every day he returned to find her waiting for him. Part of him hoped she would rob him and he’d have an excuse to quit the mission. Or maybe she’d turn him in.
He’d screamed at her to leave the previous night. With tears of mascara running down her cheeks she refused. He said that what he was about to do was too terrible. There would be no turning back. She said that all of the things in her life were terrible. They kissed for the first time and he collapsed on the floor with her in his arms.
He knew they were doomed. It was the beginning of the end.
A dialogue with the devil
It was the middle of the day and the smoke had begun to block out the sun. The air was warm now that he was closer to the north. He was by himself under a tree in park in the middle of the city, enjoying it for the last time. He wanted to be alone when he spoke to Nero.
He tapped the smiley face app on his phone and then found the avatar, a statue of the Roman emperor with glowing red eyes.
NeroEternal666: Are you ready for the mission?
Punished_Cowboy: Everything is ready. All that’s left is to wait.
NeroEternal666: Excellent. What did you decide to do with the girl?
Punished_Cowboy: She is coming with me.
NeroEternal666: Good.
Punished_Cowby: You’re not worried?
NeroEternal666: No. I’m raising an army. The more the merrier ;)
He started to type what for and erased it. Instead he asked one more time.
Punished_Cowboy: Who are you?
NeroEternal666: I’m the person giving you everything you want.
Punished_Cowboy: Ok. That’s true. It would be nice to know who to thank though.
NeroEternal666: You have 5000 dollars of my money, cowboy. I have nothing from you yet. Don’t you think its a bit rude to keep asking?
Punished_Cowboy: Fine.
NeroEternal666: I’m not going to tell you. But you’ll find out.
An object whizzed over and stopped about twenty feet in the air above him. He leaped to his feet and shouted. Did the drone see what he was typing? He scanned the area. For a moment he thought that it was all over. Then he saw the small boy smirking and holding a remote. He marched over to him, red in the face with fury.
The boys father trotted over and picked him up over one shoulder just in time. They locked eyes for a moment and he swore at the father before marching off.
As he made his way back into the city his long hair began to bead with sweat from the heat of the air. He could feel that the people on the streets were on edge even though there was no possible way for the fire to reach the city across the bay from the north. Maybe on another day they would noticed the fear and the blood lust in his eyes, but not today. Today he was just another face in anxious crowd.
He was on the sky train back to Main before he checked his phone again.
NeroEternal666: The target will be downtown tonight at 8pm. He will meet with friends. I will give the word. Remember everything I told you. When I am satisfied with your work I will activate the card.
Punished_Cowboy: What if I fail?
Nero started to type but then he stopped. The silence would last until the night.
Downtown
He had been sitting for over an hour with a dirty brown blanket over his legs and a cardboard sign. He was on the cold black tiles on the stoop between two buildings. He knew there were no security cameras nearby because he knew the location of every one within a mile after spending an entire month studying Nero’s maps.
He was alone but Elektra had given him some pointers on how to play a convincing homeless man. Don’t act too energetic, you are tired. Dont take your hoodie off even if youve get hot, people have to think youve been out there for days.
He began to wonder about her life before they’d met. All he’d been thinking about was the mission and he didnt know her. All he knew was she was from the prairies and used to work in a flower store. Her mother was a nurse and her dad was in prison. With the punk make up she wore she could have been in her 20s or as young as 15. He didn’t want to ruin a good thing by asking.
How can she sit here like this all day? He rolled over in frustration and checked his phone again. Still nothing. What if they lost communication at the crucial moment? What if they already had?
The summer sky would have still been bright only it was now thick with the smoke of the fires from the mountains. It was like somebody had sent the darkness to help him hide, as if Nero were some dark supernatural entity.
He sat there for another two hours, the stillness of his body giving way to lethargy of the mind. He had thought every thought a thousand times over and he was sure now that the time would never come.
The phone dinged.
NeroEternal666: Its time. You have about two minutes.
The Pursuit
He moved mechanically. First he put the shower cap over his hair then he pulled the black bandanna up to cover the lower part of his face. Like a cowboy. He stood up from his stoop and began his frantic march towards the location of the target.
There were surprisingly few people around the streets and those who were there did not seem alarmed by the site of a masked man in a hoodie. It was just another week night in a city of degenerates. Even as he stomped down the street like a methed up Wermacht soldier it barely raised an eyebrow. He zig zagged on and off the road following the jaggered path he had practiced to avoid the watching eye of the street cameras.
His breath was hot against his cheeks beneath the bandana and his hair was starting to sweat from the shower cap. His sneakers thumped on the pavement in sync with the furious crescendo of his heart beat, limping ever so slightly from the extra weight on his right hip.
He stumbled on the gutter of the road! Dammit! His right hand reached for the glock afraid it would fall out. He stopped himself before he touched it. Do not touch the gun!, Nero had told him. Act like there is no gun.
He had walked this route a dozen times. Fully armed, running the simulation in his mind. It has to feel real. Your mind has to do the best it can of predicting what it will feel like. Dont panic. Dont be over confident. Just get the job done and get moving.
As he reached the corner of the street he knew there was no turning back. He felt a surge of energy like a tidal wave rising inside his spine ready to crash and leave the world beneath it in total ruin. Lets go, he said to himself. Lets fucking go!
He turned the corner and began to scan the street looking for the target. His centre of weight dropped slightly, like a predator ready to pounce, ancient mammalian instinct guiding him. Where is he?
He couldnt have more than a few seconds until the target left the area, unknowingly escaping from his doom. He needed his eyes to get to work dammit! Where was he?
He crept along the pavement at half his previous speed. This street was busier, there were people out the front of closed bars, smoking and chatting. People waiting by the street for their ubers. There were cars. Cars! Can I see his car?
Black Toyota Lexus. Clean and shiny. A rental vehicle. These types never drove anywhere, just flew in and took Ubers around the city. The target liked to drive himself.
A hundred metres down the road he saw him. The slightly pudgy outline of a man with square shoulders wearing a black jacket. If it wasnt the guy, he was too late. He picked his pace up even faster than before. Lets fucking go!
But he was not as single minded as he had been a moment before. And with every step he became more and more clouded. No matter what he told himself, he had spent his whole life believing it was wrong to hurt other people. It flooded his body like poison. He felt himself become heavier, his body sinking with every step.
Picture that moment when you want to quit, when it feels impossible. And picture yourself pushing through that moment to get your revenge.
He narrowly missed being hit by a bus as he darted across the street. The driver hit the horn and his heart thundered inside his chest like a machine gun. He was now only a few metres behind the target on the foot path. He reached for his pistol.
A woman’s scream suddenly pierced his ears.
The Target
The target’s face was soft. Half opened mouth. Stubby pig like nose and clammy white cheeks. After turning to face the assassin he had become unable to move, frozen in time. The woman behind him screeched in blood curdling terror. But it was too late.
The assassins steps became shorter, slower. The glock inched closer to the target’s face. The silencer on the end kissed his forehead. The target mouthed the word “wait”.
The shot was like the crack of an enormous whip, echoing throughout the streets and just as a whip had smack the target in the very same spot on his forehead, his head swung behind his shoulders, chin to the sky before his body toppled like a tree. The bullet had angled downwards, exiting the base of the skull and shattering the windshield of the Lexus.
The woman who had screamed shuddered with the sound of the glass breaking. She paused for a moment and then took off the other direction, high heels clopping at an impossible speed.
Should I shoot her as well? She’s a witness. He let his arm trace across the street in her direction but his arm was now shaking. He knew he wouldn’t be able to shoot straight.
He felt like there were eyes on him everywhere. He squinted and let his vision blur. He didn’t want to see them. As he put the pistol back into his pants he took one more look at the body. The soft faced man stared back at him peacefully from within the crimson puddle in front of the car.
Time to go. Fucking go.
His legs exploded into a sprint. He knew how to disappear, where to go. The path became a foot bridge, three blocks to the east. Dimly lit, no cameras. A tunnel underneath. He dodged pedestrains along the way. He tripped over a homeless woman’s leg in the tunnel but rolled to his to his feet without missing a beat. Pain shot through his knees and shoulders.
When he was out of the tunnel he was in a park and it was almost pitch black in the shadows outside of the lamp light. He turned 90 degrees. Nothing could stop him. The hair in his shower cap was soaked with sweat.
He stopped moving in the shadows, watching the path, seeing if he was followed. Nothing. They were alone.
He shouted the code word: FIRE.
The light came on, blue tinged in the distance to the other side of the path. He made his way in a light across the path. The ghostly light floated towards him. The soft hum of the electric bike was barely audible over the sound of his frantic breathing. Elektra’s pale face appeared in the lamp light, framed by the hood of her jumper.
Let’s get the fuck out of here he said as he climbed on to the back of the bike.
The house after dark
The house was pitch black because he wouldn’t let her turn the light on. The orange glow on the horizon was only the faintest glimmer. Her breath smelled of hard liquor and she had come alive with chatter. He couldn’t follow anything she was saying. She couldn’t see him shaking in the darkness.
He felt her arms over his shoulders again. She squeezed him tighter than ever. She begged him to have just one drink. They planned to leave in the morning. If he was caught before then there was nothing he could do. She pleaded that it could be their last night together.
He held out for hours, insisting that he needed his wits and he needed to be prepared. But he didn’t feel prepared for anything but to collapse on the floor and give way to disgust and grief and nothingness. Like the day his wife died only worse.
One moment his lips were against hers and the next she was pressing a bottle of vodka to them. He still didn’t know if she was old enough to drink.
Finally he gave in and took a huge gulp, letting the burn of the liquor seer through his insides. Burning away the sickness in his stomach like the trees burning to the north. And the next time they kiss he felt the fire on his lips as well.
He drank more and then kiss her and drank more again, imagining the world around them burning. The world he hated more than anything. Today he had set fire to the world and to his life and the burning taste was the taste of victory.
Then they were naked and they were fucking for the first time. Fucking like the last two people left alive. They fucked once for every day they had been together and not fucked. And then they fucked again and feel asleep on the dusty floor.
He awoke to the sound of someone banging furiously on the door. For a moment he didn’t know where he was or who the young woman next to him was. Then as he began to remember, he still didn’t believe it.
He made his way to the door, conscious that he needed to rip off the band aid before anxiety would have time to take hold. Behind that door could be his salvation, or his doom.
The escape
The fire to the north had raged up and down all night and there were still whisps of brown smoke in the air come morning. They were in the back of a small cream colored Volkswagon van, decked out in retro styled furnishings. Elektra was asleep on his lap snoring.
The driver and his wife were trying to make small talk. They were square faced German travellers in their 30s, headed for the Okanagan region. He pretended to be stoned on weed to limit the pressure to chat. Elektra had found them on Craigslist. They knew nothing about the two fugitives.
The van turned onto the six lane highway travelling East. He watched an enormous pick up truck shoot from the outside lane all the way to the inside without indicating. The smokey apocalypse disappeared behind them.
He enjoyed two hours of peace before he let his mind return to Nero, to the gruesome crime he had committed and to the silver credit card in his wallet that promised him his freedom. The card had no numbers or letters and was adorned only with the sigil of a snake eating its own tail. It was insane to think it would work, but he already had money from Nero in his own account so hopefully… surely?
He checked his phone finally.
NeroEternal666: Good work Cowboy. You have earned your reward.
Punished_Cowboy: I’m glad it’s over.
NeroEternal666: Who said it was over?
He buried his phone deep in his bag, sunk back into the chair and let his eyes close.