Encompassing (16 page)

CHAPTER 49

“Meeting your maker is the single most profound experience so few have because it is then that you realize it was you all along.”  -- from the book of Brian

“I’m in!”  Renfield looks up at the sky and bellows!  Then he realizes it was a foolish gesture.  Immediately he is onset by the hungry.  He jokingly thinks to himself, “If only I could just say, ‘Take me to your leader’, but something tells me that’s not going to work here.”

For the first time in his life he is met by foes that can hear him and can move as he does, through space.  He knows not to use time.  That would cause more issues than it could resolve.  He puts his mind in the mode of a man fighting, what Illumna calls ‘zombies’.  He also considers both of his daughters mentioning he’s getting old.  However, he has little choice.  He is prey and the predators must be outsmarted.  In the ABC triangle in his mind he remembers.  A is the predator of B, but the prey of C.  B is the prey of A but the Predator of C.  C is the predator of A but the prey of B.  He thinks, “Damnit, these are my own thoughts, I perceived this triangle for a reason!  What am I missing?”  He moves quickly mostly in avoidance while he thinks as fast as he can and then it hits him.  He is A, the “zombies” are B, but where is C in this equation?  Quickly he thinks through the scenario while avoiding blows meant to make him meat.  More are drawn to the action and he knows he can’t hold out that long.  He thinks, “What is C?”  He takes a blow to the back and drops to the ground.  He clicks behind his foe only to realize his foe has clicked behind him and takes another blow.  Simultaneously he takes a hard blow to the head.  Dazed, he looks up as another blow lands squarely in his nose and he hears the break of the cartilage.  “Focus!”  He screams to himself through the pain, “What is C?”  At that thought the biting begins and he realizes he is down and quite literally being eaten by the best of the space movers.  Otherwise, they wouldn’t still be alive.  He feels teeth rip into his shoulder, and more rip into his thigh and yet another directly into his abdomen.  He clicks, but they are still on him.  He clicks again, but there are more on him.  They obviously were the beta of the group, but knew enough to anticipate his next move.  For a moment he feels utter despair and sinks into the horrid reality of what is happening to him.  Then he realizes and he clicks to the outer rim of the field.  Briefly he sees Illumna standing there, waiting.  Her face so pensive.  It works.  None of them can move, which means he survives a few more moments.  He looks up at Illumna as Solstice comes into view and watches them hug each other.  He shakes his head at Illumna to let her know not to act impulsively.  The moment is lost as the onslaught begins again.  He feels one of them biting into his face.

“That’s it!  You don’t mess with my face!”  Renfield yells, and then it begins.  After the bloodshed, he looks at his daughters and has a hole in his heart he can never fill.  He opens his mind, but he doesn’t know if they can hear him through the rim.  “I never wanted you to see that side of me.”  He closes his mind again.  They look at him as if they have seen someone they never knew.

Torn and ripped to shreds, Renfield begins heading to the center.  In his mind he knows if he were to rule this land, the only place to do it from, successfully, would be the center of the chaos.  He turns back and looks at his daughters feeling shame for the life taking destruction he caused in front of them.  They look back at him and both of them blow him kisses.  He’s struck by the gesture and holds it in his heart so he can use it when he needs to remember what the hell he’s doing this for.  Then he stops turns to the edge of the field towards his daughters and wags his finger.  And mouths, “FUCK YOU!”

Solstice and Illumna giggle, but realize he’s making a point.  No emotion.  Get the job done.

Renfield takes one of the best clubs he was beaten with and sits down, finds a rock and begins whittling away at it until he has formed a crude sword.  Then, proud of himself, he stands and announces, “By the Power of Grayskull!”  Then he laughs at his own joke and moves forward to the center where he knows he will find himself.  He speculates over what he has become after so much time here.  All the time wondering if he even survived.  He hasn’t heard a damned thought from himself since he got in here.  While ruminative, he also considers that he would do the same, under the circumstances.

As if they can smell him, and perhaps they can, he notes the waves of people clicking to his location and again he must act.  At least this time, he can concentrate on survival without the eyes of his daughters judging his absolute brutality when it comes to his survival.   At that thought he suddenly feels teeth in his hamstring and he begins anew.

He knows he can’t just click to the center and have a logical concertation with himself.  He understands that the Renfield that has been here this long will only respect someone who has earned their way to him, even if it is himself.  However, slowly yet surely he clicks mere meters forward with a singular goal in mind.

He does feel guilt at killing those whom have been so horridly doomed to their fate.  With each killing strike, he considers that.  Then he hears it.

“Adam, why are you here?”

Renfield responds, “Explain your question.  As phrased it is impossible to answer.”

“You have another mission, out there, so why are you here?”  The sound of his own voice in his head is usually comforting, but this voice was him, but so different.

He responds with a thought of his own, “Unfinished business.”

“Adam, I am not your fault.  I am you, we made this decision.  Now you are trapped as I am and that is against the plan.”  His own voice boomed in his head.

“No.  It’s my plan and you’ve reached the same conclusion.  Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”  Renfield was trying to think directly to the voice, but at the same time fending off beings that were literally in the process of trying to end his life for the meat on his bones.

“What have you learned out there?”  Bellows the voice.

“What the hell have you learned in here?  Any tips will do.”  Renfield quips.

Then Renfield literally hears the grin of himself and follows.

“Do you wish to speak?  In case you don’t make it?”  The voice asks in a soft tone.

“Sure, watcha got worth talking about, bro?  You know I love a great conversation!”  Renfield replies.

“Well, your weaknesses would be an interesting topic.  You did ask for tips.”  The voice responds.

“Ok, shoot!”  Renfield answers while trying to move and click faster than those trying to eat him.  He realizes it’s his fat content they are after.  Here, it they eat each other, they get protein, but they have run low on fats and therefore triglycerides and therefore amino acids, etc. as the chain goes.  So he realizes they can smell him.  He’s ‘What’s for dinner!’.  He concentrates on the voice and hopes to himself that voice isn’t ‘Hamburger Helper’.  He grins at his last thought and then thinks, to himself, “No, this is how this ends…’Sorry Charlie’.”  He makes a firm decision not to be the ‘Chicken of this Sea’.  His quips to himself keep his spirits up, but 70’s TV commercials aren’t enough to overwhelm what he is seeing, feeling and witnessing on the horizon he has to head towards.

“They are your weakness.”  The voice says.

“The ‘zombies’?”

“Your daughters.  I watched you before you went into phase.  You could have gone into phase sooner, but you paused because of them.”  The voice points out.

“Yeah, yeah, and apples could be oranges if they had a timeshare.”, retorts Renfield.

“Why do you put their lives before your own?  It is illogical.”  The voice asks.

Renfield having taken another hard blow and landing hard to the ground thinks back to the voice, “If they weren’t important to you too, they wouldn’t be here.  You don’t care if they save you or me.  You wanted to see them.  You have too much to express to them so you don’t move through time to escape because you don’t know where to begin and how to start explaining it all!”

The voice in Renfield’s head replies listlessly, “Neither do you.”

“Hey, umm, could I get some help here or are we going to spend my dying moments discussing my family issues.  Cause then it would take a LONG time for me to die.  I’ve got plenty!”

Suddenly the voice is audible and right next to him.  All of the threats trying to eat at his flesh scurry away.  “OK, what’s the plan, Stan?”  The voice says to Renfield as Adam turns to wonder what the hell Renfield_Prime is that scares them so much.

Renfield looks at himself.  He’s in awe of so many factors.  He realizes he can age.  He realizes he can grow stronger.  He realizes he has seen hell, but this other him has seen more than that and his mind whirls for a moment.  Then he replies, “Hop on the bus Gus, or make a new plan.”  At that they both laugh.

Renfield remarks, “So you do stand for something, even with your legs in shatters like that?”

Renfield_Prime answers, “Don’t we always? Each of us has our role.  I suspect, no I hear that you have plans for me?”

Renfield looks at himself, a tattered and torn version of himself that somehow survived this madness and answers. “No, I was hoping you’d be the one with the plan.”  The two grin at each other and reappear at the edge of the field.  They watch Illumna breath and concentrate and wait.

Even for those who perceive how time works it takes their breath away to watch Illumna do what she does in such extremely fine increments.  There is not one single being present that doesn’t watch in awe.

Solstice grabs Renfield, and in a completely different time space Illumna moves them out of the field.

Renfield, out of the field turns back and sees Renfield_Prime is still in the field, he looks to Illumna.  Illumna looks surprised.  Adam looks to Solstice, but she doesn’t seem surprised at all.

Renfield bursts into anger beyond anything his daughters have ever seen, including the slayings.  He yells at Solstice, “What did you do!  Why?”

Solstice cowering slightly, not realizing her father was capable of such rage explained, “He is not you.”

Renfield can’t even think of words to express his anger and regret but opens his mind with a blast of thoughts at Solstice.

Illumna pushes her mind between the two and Renfield calms slightly, but yells “That was it!  That was the one damned chance we had and you made a decision without consulting me!  Without telling me!  What the hell was all of this for!  Look at me, I’ve been half freakin’ eaten and why?  Explain that Solstice!  How long did I plan this?  Yet you just choose to change and F it all up at the last minute!  Why, Solstice?  How could you?”

Solstice looks to the ground not knowing how to answer, but Illumna comments, “Dad, do you remember you told me I would learn my own things?”

Renfield, still in shock and disbelief turns and says bruntly, “Yeah.”

“Okay, well Solstice is right.  He isn’t you.  Also, another thing I read…”  She waits to test his mood before continuing.”

Renfield is silent for a while.  Then turns to her and says, “Go on”

“You’ve always thought he was the first because he got captured and stuck in there.  It was your guilt that made you think he was the first.  He is not.  You are the original.  That explains why Renfield_2 is waiting in that place of nowhere trying to learn about it, for you.  Your idea.  Am I wrong about where Renfield_2 went?”

Renfield slowed his heart rate and looked at Illumna.  “I never let that thought out.  How could…”  He stopped then started again with a new train of thought, “OK, so I guess I was right, you gain your own.”

He looked at Solstice who sat staring at the ground and said, “You acted on instinct.  Sometimes that’s wrong.  Sometimes it’s dead on.  You did what you thought was right.  For now, girls, I need you to get me back out of there.  I have to be sure.”

Solstice walked over and handed Renfield something she’s hid away for a long time.  Renfield looked at the weapon, sized it up and was impressed with how well maintained it was.  Then he looked at Solstice and said, “Keep this you may need it someday.”

Solstice replied, “If you’re determined not to break this timeline and determined to go back in there, you need this today!”

That point was hard to argue.  Repeat of the same maneuver and Renfield felt like he was in a badly edited version of a re-run.  “What am I doing?”  Renfield thought.  Then Renfield_Prime was next to him so Renfield asked the question he had to.  “If we save the world, how does the world save itself from then on?”

Renfield_Prime answered, “The world?  Do you mean humanity?”

Renfield thought that was a bit obtuse, but understood the question.  “Yes.  For now, I mean humanity.”

“Humanity is not symbiotic with its host.  It is parasitic.  Humans will destroy their own host and then die off.  No matter what you do today, tomorrow, yesterday a thousand years ago or a week from now.”  Renfield_Prime responds.

“OK, given that view, which I won’t ignore, I’ve considered it.  As have many other than ourselves, what is the solution?”  Renfield asks.

Renfield can hear the thoughts brewing in Renfield_Prime’s mind and he reaches slowly for the gun his daughter gave him.  He knows too well that Renfield_Prime will click in space before he can draw it, but he also knows himself and where he would click to so he eyes that target, lazily and tries hard not to think about it.