• Ace in the Hole

    tab Eli.
    tab The white was unbearable. The walls glared and pulsed with light. All around him was a cacophony of lights and sounds that he could only fade in and out of. He crashed to the floor, throwing his arm up to shield his eyes. A dark seed throbbed in the center of the far wall, veins of black spreading across the walls. The darkness shifted and spread until it became a beautiful, pale woman. She walked around the bare room, her hand running over the wall, dulling the pain of the light.
    tab We really have to talk about your motives, Eli.
    tab "You and I have nothing to talk about. I'm coming, and hell's coming with me, sweetheart."
    tab Do you think killing me will accomplish anything? The world itself is a ticking time bomb. What would you preserve? A blue planet, a feeble population, a few spits of land in the middle of a churning, raging sea. Mankind is on the brink of extinction, with or without my help, you're all going to die.
    tab "Tsk tsk. No faith. Of course, you're a robot. You've done the math. What are my odds, Brain?"
    tab You're not going to make it, Eli.
    tab He went for the throat. It was a dream, he knew it was a dream, but he went for the throat anyways. His hands went through her, into a pale nothingness. He couldn't stop himself, sucked into a time rift where there was no God, no hope. He let himself fall into oblivion.
    tab Eli, Eli, Eli...
    tab It's coming, Eli.
    tab The Leviathan.



    tab "Eli." She shook him harder. "Eli!"
    tab He woke up to Valerie's huge brown eyes looking into his. His own looked startled and confused. She looked at him questionably. He ran a hand over his face.
    tab "Nightmare." He said. "What's the word?"
    tab "We're three miles outside Port Rivera. The accelerator is charged up and ready to go. I say we can reach port by nightfall."
    tab "Glad to hear some good news." He swung his legs over the side of his throne and stood up. She backed up a few steps, and might have been a port squall in her sea tattered dress. Her hair was a tangled mess, her eyes deep set in the dim overtones of seafarer's age. "You're a sight."
    tab "What's that supposed to mean?" She put a hand on her hip.
    tab "Whatever you want it to." He walked past her and grabbed his hat. "Let's just say, I've had ruder awakenings."
    tab She smiled at him, and her teeth were mostly white. That was a hard find, especially now that most hygienic supplies were under several hundred feet of water. New governments were working on reestablishing a trade center, as well as assembly lines and everything that had once made the world so damn convenient. But for the time being, it was bare necessities. Trade ships flowed out of China with rice shipments for larger populations, and the US Army had started shelters for survivors on foreign islands that no one had ever heard of. Nations were spread abroad, disconnected. Sometimes Eli wondered if Dutch wasn't right, if he would die trying to find the truth.
    tab "Go ahead and use the accelerator. We need to make port as soon as possible."
    tab "Eli, something you're not telling me?"
    tab "Ignorance is bliss, Val." He pulled his sword out of the top of his throne, checked the chamber in both guns. "Fear is a killer. Get me to port and we'll talk."
    tab She turned to say something and he was gone.


    tab "Two fives." Butch Valentine sat back with his legs propped up on the table, one hand holding down his cup. "So where does this map I'm about to steal from you lead me?"
    tab "Three fives." Hyde Ingelwood spat. "You seem a bit confident, friend. Sure those dice aren't loaded? If they are, you know port rules."
    tab "Four fives." Butch lit a cigarette. "I'll put it like this, Hyde. Even if these dice were loaded, you don't have enough boys here to take me. How's that?"
    tab "Five fives." Hyde sat on the edge of his seat, glancing at bystanders who watched liars' dice for entertainment. It was a way to pass the time in this crawling apocalypse. "What you got, Valentine?"
    tab "Six fives." Butch took a drag.
    tab "You must think I'm a fool."
    tab "I think you're out of your league."
    tab Hyde wasn't sure what to do. Those blue eyes weren't moving too much. They were looking right at him. And he wasn't sure if he cared for it too much.
    tab "Show, then."
    tab Butch revealed four fives. Hyde already knew he had the other two.
    :******** this." He got up, grabbed his map, and started to walk down the dock.
    tab "Whoa, Hyde, where you going? We had a bet, brother."
    tab "Lay off, Valentine. You know those dice are loaded. This is foul play."Hyde held the map up in the air for him to see.
    tab "No, you're just a sore loser." Butch stood up, with that same stare he had before, and pulled his .45, a hand cannon with ivory laid into the grip. His aim was on Hyde's balding head. He cocked the hammer back. "Give me the map or die, Hyde. I didn't put three hundred on the table so you could puss out on me."
    tab "You're threatening me?" He laughed, harsh and grating.
    tab "I'm telling you, give me the map."
    tab "Ten guys out in that crowd with guns on you, soldier. I'm known around here."
    tab "You're about to be dead. We had a deal. Nobody goes back on a deal."
    tab Hyde looked in his eyes, got scared, started sweating. His fingers started itching for his Smith and Wesson six-shot. It was tucked into the waistband of his pants, and he could almost feel it, but Butch was getting edgy. "Alright, kid. Just take it easy."
    tab Hyde walked towards him, map held out. Butch flipped his gun back into its holster.
    tab "Just business, friend." Butch said, taking the ancient piece of paper.
    tab "Yeah, sure." Hyde's arm moved too fast for Butch. He was what some people called a, zero tolerance, kind of guy.
    tab He had the gun out and up to Hyde's eye in half a second. The moment he saw the flash of steel Hyde's head was a swarming mass of teeth, metal fillings, bits of skull, brain matter, and blood. Hyde's gun sounded off once before he hit the ground. You had to kill him, or else, he would have killed you. Self defense is the only excuse for murder. The only reason. Survival instinct.
    tab Butch bent down and picked up the map, tucking it into his shirt. The crowd around him thinned in a matter of seconds, the dock cleared of the usual rubberneckers. He walked down the dock, strolling as the fisherman and sea captains stared at him. He turned to give them a s**t eating grin when he saw they weren't looking at him, they were looking past him. He didn't even have to look. He had been here, he knew what to expect. But he looked anyway. Coming down the aisle of shacks and shanty houses was the posse of Port Rivera. Somewhere down the street a guitar played solemnly, sour chords that set the mood. Butch sighed and turned to face six men, their guns drawn. He raised his hands high into the air.
    tab "Easy there, Bill."
    tab "Butch Valentine in Port Rivera. How'd you get out of Cakerra, Butch? I hear the place is a floating hellhole, an abyss where the screams never end. Where men are torn apart, and skin melts from their bones." A broad rimmed hat covered his eyes, his golden revolver hung by his side. "So what I'd like to know, is how a little chickenshit con artist like yourself managed to spring that joint?"
    tab "Friends in high places, Billy Boy."
    tab "And where are your friends now, Butch? We'll hang you in the morning. This is a port authority issue, and we will be held accountable. So throw your guns into the sea and turn around, hands behind your head."
    tab "Certainly."
    tab He pulled his guns out slowly, barrels facing the dock. It was a thirty foot drop to safety. Butch didn't know if he could stomach it.
    tab He fired both barrels and felt the world give out underneath him, his only view a rushing cliff wall, yells overhead. Dust and debris showered down, he could see their silhouettes against a hot midday sun. Gunshots rang out as Butch fell and fell and fell. His arms pinwheeled in some desperate attempt to regain his balance.
    tab A ten foot spray shot out of the water when Butch hit. He felt every muscle in his body relax, he was still alive, still conscious. He could hear the scream of a vessel's jet engines as they churned through the water. He turned in the water, got his bearings, and made for the surface.
    tab He let his head break the water's surface long enough to get some air. Rifle shots whizzed past his head. Butch took a huge breath and headed for the gleaming white hull of The Seraphim. It was a decent half mile, with rough waves. But he had seen the fishing nets hanging from its side. He smelled opportunity on the horizon, and that was enough for him.
    tab Butch made his way towards The Seraphim with every bit of strength he had left. He turned back to see three longboats pull out of port. With hell on his heels, he prayed that heaven wouldn't pass him by.