Warpath, page 23
part #7 of The Legend of Andrew Rufus Series
He needed more, but he had to find Fred and Joe. He ran back to the car and ripped it from the wall, revealing Fred and Joe underneath, crumpled on the ground like discarded stuffed animals.
Andrew checked Fred first. He was still alive, but he was covered in blood. Andrew felt for Joe's pulse next, heaving a sigh of relief. They were both still alive. All he had to do was get them home so Aylen could heal them.
Andrew started to grab Fred's arms but paused. There was a huge pool of blood beneath Fred; he was losing blood and lots of it. Andrew pushed power into his hands, so much power he could barely hold it and tried to force it into Fred.
"Heal him," he begged. But the power wouldn't go. No matter how he pleaded or begged, it just kept snapping back into Andrew. Why couldn't he heal Fred like he'd healed Pecos?
"AYLEN!" he yelled, and just like that, she was there, reaching out her hand to touch Fred, light pouring off her like a gentle sunrise. When she was done, she touched Joe's head, and Joe's eyes immediately popped open.
Joe glared at Andrew. "I'm never, EVER stepping foot in that devil wagon again!"
Andrew laughed with relief. "Couldn't even if you wanted to." He pointed at the destroyed car.
"Good!" Joe snapped.
But when Fred came to a second later he was inconsolable. "Foxy!" he cried. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry! I can't believe I wrecked you!"
Andrew had to peel him off the crushed hood and throw him over his shoulder so Aylen could zap them home.
Clara rushed forward when Andrew dropped Fred to the floor. "What's wrong?" she cried. "He's covered in blood! Is he hurt? Fred?" Fred couldn't answer; he was hiccupping.
Andrew rolled his eyes. "He's fine, Clara. He just wrecked the car."
"Foxy!" Fred wailed.
"Good riddance," Doyle growled, and Charlie nodded in agreement.
"I gotta go take care of something," Andrew said, walking towards the door. Pecos raised a brow. What you doin', boy? Gotta roast a cougar. I'll come. Andrew nodded, and he and Pecos slipped out the back door and into the eerie silence of the night.
"What happened?" Pecos asked as they strode quietly down the street.
"Supply run went fine, 'cept Fred drives like a madman." Andrew shuddered.
Pecos shrugged. "I kinda like it."
"You would. Anyway, we got attacked by rats on the way home. I hate rats. They're ugly, and they have sharp teeth. Can't believe I had to eat one." He cringed, remembering the rancid taste of its flesh.
There was a pack of cinder wolves up ahead so Andrew slipped down a side street to avoid them. Why didn't we kill 'em? Why bother? She'll just make more. How long you been doin' this? Don't know. Month maybe two. It all kinda blurs together after a while. Let's run.
He and Pecos ran silently through the empty streets. Andrew closed his eyes for a second and imagined they were running across a Texas plain, wind brushing their faces, dirt swirling behind them, but when he opened his eyes, they were still in the city and everything was calm, not a breath of air.
Andrew skidded to a stop beside the dead cougar. He hadn't meant to leave it like that; he'd just been so worried about Fred he'd forgotten it, but there was no way he was going to let her add it to her undead army. He had no interest in fighting a pombie… Oh wait, he'd done that already. What about cougar zombie? No, that didn't work either. Mombie? Mountain lion zombie? Andrew shook his head in disgust.
He reached out to burn it but the puma was still warm, and it seemed a shame to waste it. "So whadda you think?" Andrew asked.
Pecos sniffed. "Ridden a cougar but never eaten one."
"It's surprisingly tasty."
Pecos settled on his haunches and cast Andrew a wide, toothy grin. "After you, boy."
And so they feasted, just like old times, and when they'd eaten their fill, Andrew roasted the puma into ash. Then he took Pecos to his old warehouse, the one he used to sit on and think about Pecos and their adventures, the one where he'd fought Death's son's son.
He and Pecos sat on the edge and stared out over the darkened city. It was almost dawn, but Andrew knew they wouldn't see the sun rise. The color would merely shift from oily black to oily grey.
"I used to sit up here and drink crappy coffee and wish I was with you guys."
"Crappy coffee?"
"Yeah, they sell this junk at convenience stores; it tastes like dirt and gym socks. It's really horrible, but it still reminded me of home. That was before Mom…" He choked saying her name, but kept going. "Before Mom let me drink real coffee."
"Where is your mom?"
He'd only told Doyle about his mom, because if he didn't think about it, he could pretend she was out there somewhere, beyond the barrier, alive and singing and smiling.
"She killed her," Andrew whispered. Pecos didn't say a word, so Andrew continued. "I'd just gotten back from the ranch, I was in the kitchen, and then I heard her voice. And I knew it was her. I knew she was there. I knew I was dead. But she didn't kill me. I turned; she broke Mom's neck, and then she was gone."
Andrew kicked the side of the building with his heel. "There wasn't anything I could do. I wasn't fast enough, wasn't strong enough. Mom's dead. And it's my fault because somewhere along the way I made the Black Shaman hate me."
"You didn't make that crazy woman do nothin'. She's evil, boy. She ain't right in the head, and it ain't your fault."
Andrew shrugged. "And get this, to make matters worse or weirder anyway the Black Shaman is like my sixteenth great aunt or something."
"What?!"
"I don't know. Ahanu suggested I'm his descendant. But maybe this is a whole enchanted spurs thing." Pecos chuckled softly. "But really," Andrew said. "In some ways it is my fault because of who I am. If I wasn't me she wouldn't hate me."
His mom had died because of him. If he wasn't who he was she wouldn't have died. Vick, Chuck and Ed, everyone in town had died because of him. And if he didn't win, even more people would die.
Andrew shrugged, changing the subject. "I'm glad about you and Aylen. What happens when… you know?"
"I ain't lettin' her go."
"Never thought you would."
"She don't get that. For such a smart woman she sure is thick headed sometimes."
Andrew wanted to believe there was a future to talk about, but deep down he wasn't sure there would be. He and Pecos had already fought the Black Shaman once and they hadn't won, not really. He and Pecos were still the same, but she was stronger, so much stronger.
I'm glad you guys are here, Andrew thought. I think… I mean, I think I needed you. We got this, boy. Andrew laughed. Of course they did.
"And one more thing," Pecos said with a growl. "Don't you even think 'bout tryin' to send us away. We ain't goin'."
"I know, Pecos. I know."
Chapter 25
"You go on in," Andrew said when he and Pecos got back home. "I'm gonna sit out here for a bit." He was so used to being alone, to hunting alone, to sleeping alone, drinking his coffee alone; he just needed a minute. Alone.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the tree, hearing the door close behind Pecos. He'd spent hours with this tree. It was weird how this had all started with a tree, but then again, it hadn't started there at all, not really.
He wondered how many descendants Ahanu had. Had he evaluated all of them and found them wanting? Or was it really just as simple as Andrew's name?
He heard the ravens fluttering in the tree above him and felt a moment of panic. He hadn't lost any of them, not a single one since Frank and Jesse, but they would die just like everyone else if he didn't figure out a way to end this.
He felt Aylen sit beside him and nearly sighed. He'd just wanted a minute. "Thank you," he said earnestly. "I couldn't heal Fred; I don't know why."
"Not many can use the power to heal," Aylen said simply.
"I healed Pecos; but I think the power likes him, so maybe that's all it is."
"Why do you talk about it as if it is not you?"
"It's not." Didn't shamans ever listen? He'd been telling them this from the beginning. "We're not the same thing. There's the power, and there's me."
"It should not be that way," she said. "You should not be separate."
Andrew shrugged. "It is what it is." He opened his eyes, finally looking at her. He'd never seen her look so happy. He wasn't sure if he could appreciate the irony there or not. They were in the middle of a Mexican standoff with the Black Shaman and Aylen was finally happy.
"I'm glad about you and Pecos," he said.
She laughed softly. "What has changed, Andrew? He will still die someday; I still will not. Or I will die as soon as Meli does. Nothing has changed."
"Don't be an idiot, Aylen. You have a chance to be with Pecos. Take it." He couldn't help thinking of his mom. He was so happy she'd had that time with Vick, so happy she'd taken happiness when she could.
"But when this is over," Aylen said, voice full of sadness. "When he goes back, what then?"
"I hate to say this… but the end has not yet been written."
She laughed out loud, the cheerful tinkle of it sounding out of place in the greyish dark of dark. Andrew grinned, glad he'd made her laugh, glad she was here, glad she and Pecos at least had this moment.
"I gotta go in," he said. "It's time to make a plan." Aylen nodded, and they went in together.
Andrew went straight to the loft, where he knew the others would be waiting for him. "So," he said, pouring himself a cup of coffee and sitting down. "Any brilliant plans?"
"Not particularly," Joe drawled.
"How 'bout if I just go on down and give her a good talking to?" Andrew said hopefully.
"Alone?" Doyle and Pecos growled together.
"Why not?"
"No!" Pecos snapped.
Andrew rolled his eyes. "What exactly do you think I was doing up until you guys got here?"
"Don't matter," Pecos said. "We're here now. You ain't doin' this alone."
"You realize her whole objective is going to be to kill you guys, right?"
"We can take care of ourselves."
"Really? How do you kill a zombie?"
"Let you do it."
Andrew snorted. "Even Fred can kill a zombie."
"Fine; we'll take Fred."
"No!"
"Why not?"
"He almost died today. I'm not taking him."
"Seems like if we took him and Reid we'd have more in our corner," Pecos argued.
"What we need in our corner is a plan," Andrew snarled. "Having more people she can kill doesn't actually help us."
"Boy's got a point," Doyle said.
"See? Doyle says I have a point."
"What's Doyle know?" Pecos growled.
"He's the military guy," Andrew said with a laugh. "He knows things."
"What's with the people?" Charlie interrupted.
"Which people?"
"The ones in the courtyard."
"The free ones or the ones in the cage?"
"Both."
Andrew frowned. Maybe he'd left more out of his initial story than he should have. He hadn't really wanted to tell them about the boy he'd let die or the hundreds of other people he hadn't saved. He hadn't wanted to tell them about Chuck and Ed.
"Um… free people are like her worshipers, and they bring… sacrifices… That'd be the people in the cage."
"I say we go in there and kill the crazy followers," Doyle said darkly.
"Not that I haven't thought of it," Andrew replied, "BUT if we did that, their deaths would feed her and then they'd turn into zombies. So that really doesn't help."
"We should at least free the people in the cage," Charlie insisted.
Andrew shook his head. "To what end? They wouldn't make it ten feet! And anyway, the whole city is dying. I can feel it. We need to end this, and we need to end it soon. The worshipers, the sacrifices, the wolves, the zombies, the dust devils; none of that matters. She's what we need to focus on."
He could tell they didn't like what he was saying, but he was right, and he knew it. He'd already tried it the other way, and the other way didn't make sense. She was the disease, the problem, the rotting center. She had to die. There was no other way to end it.
The problem is," Andrew said, "we simply don't know how to kill her, not for real, not dead, dead, dead, for real dead." Still no one said anything.
"I'm open to ideas, guys," Andrew said, looking at Doyle.
Doyle shrugged, "I got nothin'."
Andrew rolled his eyes. "Pecos?"
"We already tried the old-fashioned way, and that didn't quite work," Pecos said.
"Is there anything in your modern world that can kill her?" asked Joe.
"I doubt if even a nuke would put her down."
"A nuke?"
"Um, like a cannonball times ninety billion."
"I don't like your world," Charlie said emphatically.
"You and me both," Andrew replied. "I've actually asked myself why I'm trying so hard to save it. I can't stand cars or the sound of electricity."
Andrew shuddered, remembering how loud it used to be. "It's always loud and grating; people are always in a hurry; there's no time to breathe or enjoy the sunrise, not that you could see it. You can't even see the stars at night. The air is stifling. The food tastes like plastic, and I hate it. All of it."
They stared at him. "Then why're we tryin' to save it?" Charlie asked in confusion.
"It's not hers to take," Andrew replied with a shrug.
He continued thinking out loud. "She's too cowardly to be lured away from the capital. She never leaves it. And I'm pretty sure she has enough power to make cinder wolves and dust devils indefinitely. I'm just glad she hasn't made a batch of ice giants. Crap! I wish I hadn't just said that. Anyway, I don't really see any other option than going toe to toe with her."
"You may be surprised," Ahanu said softly, zapping into the loft without warning.
"Damn it, Ahanu! Use the door!" Andrew snapped.
"Another option may present itself when you least expect it," Ahanu said, ignoring Andrew's outburst.
"Do you purposely make everything confusing or is it just a byproduct of being a shaman?" Andrew growled.
"I do try."
"To make things confusing?"
"Yes."
"I knew it! You're such an ass!"
Ahanu smiled. "You will miss me."
"What does that mean?" Andrew demanded.
Ahanu shrugged, lighting his pipe. "I'd like to ask a favor of you," he said, puffing smoke into the air.
Andrew frowned; this was a first. "What?" he asked warily.
"I'd like to borrow your tokens."
"My tokens?" Andrew asked. Ahanu gestured towards Andrew's neck, and Andrew gazed at the pieces of her. He hated them, but he disliked the idea of letting them go. He felt the cold emanating from them, the weight of them pulling him down. He opened his mouth to say "no", but why? He didn't want them.
"You can't have her hair," he heard himself say. Why? Why had he said that? What did he care?
Ahanu nodded, and Andrew pulled the leather cord over his head, sighing in relief as the weight left his neck. He frowned, remembering each moment with her, each time he'd looked into her eyes, smelled the scent of her hatred, and dropped the necklace into Ahanu's hand. Ahanu grinned and was gone.
Andrew glanced at Pecos. Pecos's eyes were narrow and his lips tight. Aylen's not going to die, Andrew thought. You don't know that. We don't have a choice. Then I'm damned for wishing we did.
Andrew wracked his brain. "Maybe we could figure out a way to cage her. Neutralize her power but not kill her."
"Don't you listen, boy?" Doyle snapped.
"What?"
"Always finish it!"
Andrew flinched. He did know that. He'd learned the hard way by watching Chuck and Ed die. "Okay, we finish it."
He drummed his fingers on his head. He just couldn't think. There were too many people here, too many people thinking he should have answers he simply didn't have. "I gotta… I'll be back."
Andrew walked outside and climbed his tree, sitting between Sam and Dean, with Nunya above him. "So," Andrew said, feeling foolish. "Killing the Black Shaman. Any ideas?"
He didn't expect an answer, not really, so he was terribly surprised when Nunya sent him an image of Andrew slicing her into little tiny pieces. "Actually," Andrew mused. "That might be totally brilliant. Thanks, Nunya!"
Andrew jumped from the tree, ran inside and up the stairs. Doyle looked up from his carving, and Andrew said, "What if I sneak in, get the drop on her, and start hacking her into pieces? She's gotta work to fix herself right? You come in, hands blazing and tear her apart." He paused, thinking. "It's not my worse plan. Actually it's Nunya's plan, but that's not the point. Whadda you think?"
Pecos shrugged. "Worth a try."
"Nunya?" Charlie asked.
"My raven."
"You wanna follow a plan made up by a raven?" Doyle asked in disbelief.
"Hey, it honestly can't be worse than any of Pecos's plans."
"Right here," Pecos growled.
"I know; I see you. And I'm telling you, your plans stink," Andrew said.
"Where do we come in?" Joe asked.
"I don't suppose you'd guard the Raven's Nest?"
"Nope."
"Fine," Andrew said with a sigh. "You guys can guard our rear. That sounded weird out loud. Our backs? Behind us? Never mind, just watch the rear." He shook his head. "You get the point."
Doyle grinned. "You'd make a lousy general."
"Good," Andrew snorted. "I'll take that off my list of possible careers." Andrew paused. "What about a car? Foxy's dead."
"I hate cars," Charlie said emphatically.
"I liked it," Pecos said.
Andrew rolled his eyes. "Remind me to never let you drive anything."
"Aylen," Pecos said, and Andrew nodded.
Aylen had always known when he needed her and she always answered when he called. In fact, if he really thought about it, he felt a little foolish for not asking her to zap him more places. He could have saved himself a lot of work, but he honestly didn't like it.
