The Twelve Stones (55 page)

“
Good luck in the desert
,
Mr. McCray!” Kline shouted towards the bottom half of the trailer, which was just barely hanging on. Alex pushed his body back, shifted his fingernails into claws
,
and began scaling up towards Kline.

Kline’s smile faded from his face
.
H
e
decided enough was enough. It was time for a strategic retreat.

He turned, grabb
ed
the side of the torn trailer
,
and began inching his way up the side. He reached the top of the trailer’s roof and grabbed the steel cable. He inched his way up, heading towards the cockpit.

Alex saw what Kline was doing and doubled his efforts. He moved, scaling the rest of the trailer with ease. Kline looked down at his pursuer and simply grimaced. He reached the side of the helicopter and stood on the rails.

“
Dump the trailer!” Kline screamed. The pilot didn’t hesitate. He punched the cable cutters, releasing the trailer. The engines, relieved of all the extra weight
,
made the helicopter take off into the night sky quickly. Kline screamed at the pilot through the glass door.

“Let me in
,
you overpaid bus jockey!”

A bullet hit his windshield. He turned on his floodlights and saw a man, holding onto the front of his helicopter at three thousand feet. The naked man aimed a gun at him and smiled, waving it indicating that he should land. The pilot didn’t like his options. Deciding he wanted nothing more to do with Kline, the pilot lowered the collective. The decision was easy when you had a crazy person pointing a gun at you through your windshield at three thousand feet.

“I quit!”
h
e called out happily towards Kline.

Kline was enraged. Tearing off the door to the cabin, Kline slithered in and grabbed the pilot by the throat.

“You can’t quit!” Kline yelled at the man. He reached into the Pilot’s seat and tore the seatbelts off his body. Dragging him out of the chair,
Kline
threw him out from the side of the helicopter. “You’re fired
.
”

Kline pointed the nose forward
,
regaining control of the aircraft as he looked at Alex. Alex looked back at Kline. This wasn’t over yet.

Alex dove towards the pilot, his body shifting as he did so.

T
he pilot fell screaming to
ward
his death. He wasn’t a religious man, and didn’t have any idea what lay in store for him after he hit the ground.

The ground rushed up to his eyes. Squeezing them shut, he struggled to remember the Lord’s Prayer.

But then suddenly, he was flying, up, and moving. An enormous dragon had captured him in midair, and the pilot
found himself
hanging from the beast’s teeth. He shook his head
,
certain what he was seeing was
wrong
. The dragon flew effortlessly through the desert night, landed next to one of Kline’s remaining Suburbans, and dropped him carefully on the ground.

The pilot swallowed nervously, unsure what to say. He looked at the great dragon in front of him
;
the scaly beast was huge, the size of a school bus at least. The red plumage arranged on his back, and
the
wizened expression on his face, comforted the pilot somehow.

Suddenly, the dragon reared back his hindquarters and spat an enormous spout of flames and hellfire into the sky. The pilot shrieked in terror and began running down the road in a panic, forgetting that only moments before, the terrifying creature had saved his life.

The
d
ragon
shifted, and then after a bright purple flash, only Alex remained, stark naked with the exception of the
blue
stone around his neck and the
purple one
clutched tightly in his hand. He smiled and looked down at himself.

“Oh
,
man.” Alex muttered. He turned, walking back towards the Hypertruck parked only a few hundred feet away from the
M
esa.

Scott, Christina and Emily were standing in front of the Hypertruck when Alex arrived. He covered his bits and pieces as Scott whistled loudly in approval.

“Nice,” Scott said
to
his naked friend. “Is this a new trend?”

“Shu
t it,” Alex replied.
“It’s an unfortunate side effect of transforming yourself into something that size
;
all your clothes can’t fit.” He paused, thinking to himself,
Well
,
maybe if I got something out of Rush Limbaugh's wardrobe.

They laughed as Alex retrieved more clothing from the truck. When he was finished, they turned and looked at
the
burning Mesa.

“What now
,
Alex?” Scott said somberly. “Kline’s got a second stone, and a pretty impressive army. What do we have?”

Alex looked at them. They were tired. Christina and Emily had just been through the most traumatic experience of their lives. Scott was tired, but he didn’t dare show it in front of his friend. Alex swallowed. He had a feeling that whatever he had stumbled into, his problems were just beginning.
Then
he smiled broadly.

“I’ve got a great idea.”

Chapter Forty-
Two

When Geoffrey Tate came to, he was sitting in an upright position. He winced. The poison was easing somewhat, and he had managed to regain some feeling in his extremities. Unfortunately, it also meant it was accompanied by uncomfortable tingling as his limbs came back to life.

He found himself seated in a darkened room. He attempted to raise his arms, but found them restrained tightly to his chair. A few moments later, Geoffrey realized the story was the same with his legs.

A piece of gravel scuffed in the dark behind him. He snorted
.
T
he
intimidation game was his baby;
let’s see what you got!
Geoffrey thought to himself smugly.

“Come out
,
whoever you are
,
”
h
e
said in a bored tone
.
“I invented the ‘
I
s
there someone here?’ game.”

Nothing.

“Hello?”
h
e said
,
frustrated. “I heard you moving.
I can hear you breathing. Show yourself!”

“Very well
,
”
a
dark
and ominous
voice announced.

It was then
that
for the first time in his life, Geoffrey Tate knew
real
fear. A face appeared out of the darkness, one
formed from
every horror show devised by man. The slimy tentacle face made him release his bladder. Screaming in terror, Geoffrey realized a stark truth
:
h
e
had died
,
and now found himself in
H
ell
for his transgressions. The time for judgment had arrived.

“You thought you could do whatever you wanted on the earthly plane and have no one to answer to!” The demonic face grinned horribly as it danced gleefully in front of him. “You’re all mine now!!” It screeched in horrifying laughter, the sound of a thousand
lost and angry
souls.

Geoffrey attempted to cover his ears
,
but it was no use
;
the laughter was something that could drive a man mad.

“I didn’t mean it!” Geoffrey sobbed. “I was following orders, falling in with a bad crowd!”

“Let me guess,” the deeply sinister voice sneered, “
y
ou wanted to be popular?”

Something slimy smacked the back of his head
. “You think I haven’t heard it all already!?”
t
he
voice screeched. “You answer only to me now.” The laughter was maniacal. “There’s nothing you have
that
I want….unless…” The voice paused.

“Yes!
Anything
!” Geoffrey shouted
.
“Spare me the pain
,
and I will do anything you ask.”

“The stones.” The voice his
sed. “Where did he get them
?”

“I don’t know!” Geoffrey said panicked. “He didn’t tell me.”

“Where did he take them?”

“I don’t know!” Geoffrey cried out.

“LIAR!” The entire room lit up, a bright fiery red, and the sound came back, the moaning lost souls grating on Geoffrey’ nerves. He pleaded with the demon to stop.

“I swear it!” Geoffrey panted
,
exhausted
.
“
B
ut
there was something…”

“Do tell…”
T
he
demon shoved his face into Geoffrey
,
purring as he spoke. Geoffrey turned away in horror, smelling the foul creature’s putrid breath. The demon was taking a great deal of pleasure in Geoffrey’ fear, as it ran a thick yellow fingernail underneath Geoffrey’ chin.

“We had a set
up in Los Angeles. A
secret
lab!” Geoffrey shouted. “Below the LA boardwalk
.
Y
ou
can’t miss it…”

Suddenly
,
the demonic music stopped, and the lights turned on. The
terrifying face
began to melt away
,
replaced by
that of
the beautiful Emily Harper. Scott lowered his iPod and unplugged the speakers. Christina just stood in the back of the room, covering her face gamely
and
trying not to laugh.

“You…” Geoffrey said
,
unbelieving. “You’re…”

“Gah…give this man an adjective or something to help him complete a sentence,” Alex said
,
annoyed
.
“I once played Faust in a production at Stanford, and this lovely young lass over here tempted me as the Devil. It’s good to know she still has the chops.”

“That was…” Geoffrey still couldn’t quite get it out. He was alive?

“Amazing
,
I know. I’ll let the academy know your vote. Unfortunately
,
it looks like you’ll be locked up during the next awards season.”

Alex, Emily
,
Christina
,
and Scott all headed out the front door of the mine. Alex paused before leaving. “I’ll go ahead and turn the lights out here for ya.”

“Wait! No!” Geoffrey said
,
panicking, “You’re just gonna leave me here?”

“More likely
,
the po
lice will find you. Don’t worry;
I’ll call in an anonymous tip about your shenanigans up here
.
P
erhaps
,
once the
S
heriff is done with that massacre
you left
at the station, he might come out here looking for you.” Alex paused before flicking out the lights
.
“But then again…who knows?” Alex smiled and turned out the lights on the man who had helped kill his father.

“Nooo!” Geoffrey cried. Alex shut the heavy steel door and padlocked it shut. Scott glanced at Alex.

“It’s an abandoned mine
.
S
ome
Boy Scouts could find it and get lost.” Alex said softly. Scott looked away from his friend and nodded
.
I
t
was a problem solved. That was enough.

Christina turned and looked at Scott, her eyes dancing mischievously. “You’re pretty handy with that piece of hardware. Wanna show me how it works?”

“Absolutely.” Scott replied, his eyes lighting up.

Emily and Alex watched the two of them walk towards the back of the Hypertruck
,
which was parked right outside of the mine shaft. They turned and looked at the eastern horizon, the pink hues beginning to show faintly in the distance.

“There’s a lot you need to explain
,
Alex.” Emily said softly.

Alex nodded and watched the sunrise with the only woman he’d ever loved.