And It Arose from the Deepest Black (John Black Book 2) (20 page)

13

“You have it, right?” I asked Bobby.

He looked confused. “Have what?”

I pulled out my black mask. “Right now, we’re just another car on the road, but if we drive any closer to those things, we’re going to be on TV.” In the far distance, we could see the Gorgols heads rising above the trees. Around them, like flies on a turd, helicopters circled.

“Yeah, yeah, in the back.”

“Then find a place to pull over, hopefully where your parents’ car won’t get stepped on.”

He did, and from there, with masks on, we walked.

* * *

It didn’t take long before we were spotted. One helicopter, branching off from the rest, zipped toward us, with its
thump thump thump
sound getting closer.

This time around, we had no swords, no weapons of any kind — well, truth be told, I wore my belt, but I told myself that was strictly to keep my pants from falling down.

The Gorgols, of course, weren’t terribly hard to find. Second large monster to the right and straight on ’til morning. In an hour, we were close. In two, we could see the entire situation at hand.

Jake had
parked
the Gorgols in a wide field of corn, their massive feet and tails smashing who knows how many stalks. Some farmer was having a bad day. Or maybe not. My grandmother used to use corn meal in everything. Maybe the farmer could get creative and sell The Official Corn Meal of Gorgol Alpha. He could make a mint.

Jake himself waited for us outside a large wooden barn that looked like it had been painted red once in the preceding three or four decades. As always, Jake stood like a veiled threat.

Still, I couldn’t help but stare. The Gorgols…

It was odd and unnatural and terrifying to see them so close while they were so docile. Or maybe it was natural for them. It made me believe there truly was something inside each of them besides just a smashing, destroying, killing machine.

Sigma stood almost lazily watching us approach, her strange, glowing amber eyes seemingly dimmed in the daylight, her posture at rest. Next to her, Alpha loomed, also at ease. Her diamond-like eyes burned a darker orange as they followed us, and she huffed loud — and, I presumed, stinky — clouds of breath far over our heads. Comparatively, Sigma snorted smaller puffs of air through her flaring nostrils. I was glad the prevailing winds were able to carry the stench away, because I’d experienced Gorgol breath up close and personal before, and I could do without a repeat. Besides, even without smelling their breath, the monsters reeked.

I’d never noticed the odor before, not while fighting them. Or at least I’d never attributed it to them. Perhaps it was the adrenaline, the heat of the moment. But this time… Do you know what old mud smells like? Not new mud. That’s just water and dirt. Mostly, new mud doesn’t smell at all. But old mud, the sort of greenish-greyish-brown, almost-slimy kind that’s leftover from watery rot? From things that drowned in creeks and rivers, leaf and creature alike, bloating and decomposing? That kind of mud smells terrible. The Gorgols smelled like old mud times 10. Maybe it was all the smashing and smushing things into pulp, stuck between their toes. I didn’t know, but I gave Bobby a sidelong glance, wrinkling my nose.

“Seriously,” he said, nodding. “Somebody needs to light a match or something.”

And the sounds they made, just breathing. Their slowly heaving chests creaked like the boards of an old-time sailing ship, punctuated by the hiss and puff of their expelled air. Occasionally they shifted, and the creaking increased, complemented by the clacking of their scales against each other, a sound somewhere between rattlesnake tail and pending avalanche.

All the while above us, three helicopters continued to
thump thump thump
, no doubt broadcasting us live for all the world to see. I wondered momentarily if Pip was somewhere near, keeping an eye on us, no doubt wondering what the hell we were doing talking to the man they called Ranger. The world at large probably wondered about that, too.

I was mesmerized, or something close to it, by Alpha’s diamond eyes, Sigma’s amber ones. What were these beasts thinking, seeing me again? The one who had taken their brother. I wished, not for the last time, that invisibility was one of my powers.

Keeping one eye on the massive creatures, we approached Jake, and he turned, gesturing for us to enter the barn behind him. I gave Bobby an
Are we sure about this?
look, but he just shrugged and went inside.

Just as I was about to follow, Sigma lurched, emitting a huge sound, a blast of noise directly at me.

I can tell you, I didn’t just jump, I
leapt
into the air. My arms came up, a pointless fighting position, and I felt like every hair was on end. My heart was a hummingbird, flapping in my chest, so fast it might burst. Now came their move, I just knew it. I’d walked right into the trap. Now the Gorgols both would lunge at me.

Then Sigma settled back into her original position. Her nose twitched a little, side to side, as she resumed her normal breathing.

I hadn’t even noticed him move, but Bobby was beside me, drawn back out by the sound and movement. “What the hell was
that
?” he asked.

I only stared at Sigma, meeting her glowing eyes. “I think… I think she sneezed.”

Bobby goggled at me as I stepped past him. You know the old adage about frying pans and fires? We were walking out of the path of sneezing monsters and into a meeting with the man who had tried to cut off my head.

I’d take the frying pan or the fire instead.

14

Jake stood in the middle of a wide space, the large central aisle of the barn. In the privacy of the building, Bobby and I removed our masks as Jake spoke. It wasn’t like he didn’t know who we were already, anyway. “Let me make this clear, gentlemen,” Jake said. “The Gorgols outside want to kill you. You’re alive only because I’m holding them back. You attack me, they attack you. You don’t give me a good enough reason to keep holding them back, they attack you. Your lives are currently a gift, from me. Have you read the Bible?” Bobby and I shared a quick, confused look. But Jake didn’t wait for an answer. “James 1:17.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
”

There was a pause. The pregnant kind.

“Um… ’Kay?” Bobby said.

Jake leaned toward us with a snarl on his face. “You give me so much as a
shadow of turning
and I will bring all hell down upon you. Nature’s infinite fury.” He spoke in a gruff, terse way, standing with shoulders hunched, like he was trying to loom over us as much as the giant creatures did. “Are we clear?”

“Crystal,” Bobby said, returning Jake’s bravado with a curl of his lip.

Suddenly Jake’s tone changed, even his posture. Like he had changed skins. He was straighter, more polished, in stance and in word. “Excellent, my friends. Then you understand this isn’t a game. If you’ve come to speak to me, to make me understand your position, I suggest you begin… now.” He stood, waiting for us to answer. Physically, he didn’t even seem to be the person he was only moments before, the one who had threatened us with the Bible. It was like there were two Jakes inside of one body.

“Before we say anything, I want you to explain, to Bobby,” I said. “What are the Gorgols? Why are they here?”

I noticed just the slightest twitch at the corner of one eye, like a gnat was pestering him but he didn’t want to acknowledge it. He twitched once, twice, a third time. I was reminded of Walter Ivory. The powers had made him go mad. Somehow I knew, at that very moment, that regardless of what Jake said, he was simply crazy. Something deep inside him was not right.

Who was I kidding? Something inside
me
wasn’t right. The powers made me angry. Consumed me with rage, made me want to fight and destroy.

So, you know, the thorns in our cells should have come with some kind of side-effect warning. Ask your doctor if you’re healthy enough for superpowers.

Still, the calm and polished Jake spoke. “Very well. John. Bobby. Do you understand the importance of fear?”

“The
importance
of it?” I replied, grimacing.

“Allow me to explain.” Jake began to leisurely pace the floor of the barn. “In the natural world, fear can be an incredibly important regulator. Do you know what happens when any single population grows too large and overwhelms the available food supply?”

We didn’t answer. In fact, Bobby and I pretty much just listened silently, keeping an eye on him. We heard Jake’s questions, but we could tell they were questions he planned on answering himself, so we kept our mouths shut.

Confirming our suspicions, he continued. “You end up with an unnatural distribution. I’ll give you an example. Along the northwest coast, there’s a small island. Once upon a time, many snails lived on the salty rocks of the shore, and a healthy population of red crabs fed on those snails. In turn, there were raccoons that wandered the shore and ate the crabs. But at the top of the food chain, there were wolves. Not many, just enough to keep the raccoon population in check. Any guess what happened next on this island?”

Again, we were silent.

“Man arrived,” Jake said, locking eyes with me. “And you and I both know what that means. Man always needs to
control
his environment. This is a remote island, so food was a concern. The first settlers began to grow crops, raise livestock. Presented with these new…
opportunities
, the wolves did the only natural thing. They attacked and ate livestock, whenever possible. After all, the raccoons were smaller, wild and harder to catch, but the chickens were kept in a pen. It was far too easy a meal to ignore. And humans, being human, gathered together and decided something had to be done about the wolves. So they killed them. All of them. And that changed everything.”

“How so?” Bobby said, surprising me by suddenly speaking.

“Because, Bobby, without wolves — without the
fear
of wolves, the fear for their lives — the raccoon population exploded. But that’s not all. The raccoons decimated the crabs, leaving very few to eat the snails. So, in turn, the snail population also grew. In the end, the island was inhabited by just a few humans, and an extremely unhealthy number of raccoons and snails. Which, ironically, was also a nuisance to the people, but much harder to eradicate than the wolves. The snails were simply everywhere. The raccoons were much craftier and could hide better than the wolves. And they, too, began to turn to the people’s livestock and crops for food. So, you see, living in an unnatural way, taking away the critical components of the food chain, didn’t solve people’s problems, it increased them tenfold.”

“But what does that have to do with fear? And us?” I asked.

“Excellent question, John, my old friend.” Jake was doing what my grandmother used to call
soapboxing
. Speaking like he was a big deal, standing in front of everyone like he was up on a soapbox. I guess that was a thing in grandma’s day. Personally, I’d never purchased soap by the box.

Something about the way he spoke gave me pause. Why did he call me
old friend
? I barely knew him, and I certainly wasn’t his friend. But it seemed to fit the polished Jake, to speak like that. “Some humans, some sensible ones, attempted a test. To see if the
fear
of a predator is sufficient to change behavior. So they set up loudspeakers on the island — this is of course many, many years after the first settlers, who didn’t even have electricity — and, randomly, they would play the sounds of wolves calling. And they found that
only that
— only the
sound
of the wolves, the
fear
that there
might
be wolves — was sufficient to thwart the raccoons’ unfettered access to the beach and the crabs. In time, the raccoon population, afraid of these new and completely fabricated predators, stopped eating so many crabs, and diminished. The red crab population increased, snails were consumed back to healthy levels. In other words,
fear
brought
balance
.”

“And that’s what you think the Gorgols are here for?” I said.

Jake smiled a broad smile. “Yes, absolutely. Well, that and to kill you. You see, there are only a few Gorgols — only two, thanks to you, John — but that’s enough for
fear
. Human beings have been living out of control for the last hundred years, maybe even longer. Nature is finally giving us something to be afraid of. To rein us back in, at last.”

“You know,” Bobby said, in a tone I knew immediately to be sarcasm, “that all makes perfect sense. And wherever the Gorgols aren’t living, we can pump the sounds of Gorgols through loudspeakers. So people won’t eat all the crabs. Or something like that.” I stifled a laugh.

“Very well, Bobby. It’s your turn. And remember what I said about
giving me any reason at all
. Why are you here?”

Bobby looked to me to answer. But I froze. I had no idea what to say, other than what I’d already told Jake. I didn’t want to fight. I wasn’t sure what the Gorgols were, where they came from, but I didn’t believe they came to destroy humanity. Or to be our
fear
. Human beings could destroy everything, the environment, the ice caps, animal and plant populations, the weather, even each other, and the Earth was still going to be here, spinning around the Sun, oblivious. Maybe it would remember us like it remembered the dinosaurs, just by the crap we left behind. Maybe not. But I didn’t think the Earth operated by sending three big bullies to do its dirty work.

The Gorgols had been brought to Earth by my sister, and now they were seeking her out. Jake’s theory about balance was wrong. If the creatures could be dealt with, reasoned with, then it could only be because they were from somewhere else and wanted to go back. Because they were lost.

Jake twitched again, deeper and longer this time, and I knew that if I didn’t speak, our moment would be over and he would unleash the Gorgols. But what did I want from this conversation? What could I say that could possibly make this all go away? I needed to make him see that his agenda was not the creatures’ agenda.

“Jake,” I started. “I… think I know what the Gorgols really want.”

“Of course, John,” he said with a chuckle. “So do I. I’ve just explained that. Other than their macro intent, they want to kill you.”

“No. Well,
maybe
, but I think there’s something else. Something more important to them. And it isn’t what you think.”

Jake scoffed, and something about him pulsed, like a spotty signal suddenly giving off a shock of static. Not a bright light, but a bright
ness
, inside, throbbing. “Really, John? This should be quite entertaining. Please tell me what it is the Gorgols want, and I do hope you have some sort of evidence, not just wild ideas to waste my time.” Jake started to chuckle again, but suddenly froze.

And I was immediately off the hook from providing any real evidence, because the evidence suddenly presented itself.

Outside, the Gorgols were walking away.