Happy
Halloween, boys and ghouls! Today I left the tricks at home, and brought you a
special treat. BOO and GHOSTS and WHATNOT! SPOOKY CANDY SKELETON
Yes, it's Halloween again, Charlie Brown, and I'm going to buck the trend by
posting something scary.
I originally wrote Earthbound: DEAD HEAT for Starmen.net's
"SummerBound" competition. It won first place in the writing
category. I've proven that I can write better material than half-hearted
attempts by 17-year-olds, so you know this is going to be AWESOME.
Twenty years after the Chosen Four defeat Giygas, memories of the past begin to
haunt Ness. To get his mind off things, he and his daughter decide to take a
vacation to the ultimate resort town, Summers, during a heat wave that’s been
turning Eagleland into a sauna.
And for a while, it’s paradise. But something’s definitely rotten in Summers…
Hope you enjoy!
####
Chapter
1
I
could still hear the drill boring into my skull.
I
bolted upright, the sheet fluttering off my chest. The fleeting memory of being
a soul in a robotic shell dissolved in the rays of fresh sunlight.
For
20 years, that day had been the furthest thing from my mind. Great friends,
gourmet food, the glimmer of the sun on Paula’s hair – all I remembered was a
summer vacation that seemed like it would never end.
That
was, up until about a month ago when the nightmares began. Memories of love
took a backseat to the foul odor of the sewers, the sting of combat, and the
whirr of Dr. Andonuts’ drill.
Six
in the morning. I never understood waking up early to have fun, but a vacation
would do me good, said my wife. As I slid out of bed, the door creaked open and
blue eyes peered at me, filled with adolescent joy and wonder.
“I’m
so excited I think I’m going to pop, like a balloon! Boom!”
“Yeah,
honey, me too,” I said. “Summers is the happiest place in Eagleland.”
I
felt the wind off the door as it flew open, and in a flash, Skye was doing and
array of jumps and flips on the mattress.
“Honey,”
I reminded sternly. The bouncing stopped.
“Mommy
wouldn’t like that, huh.”
“No,
she wouldn’t,” I replied, pulling on a T-shirt. “And it’s way too hot for that
anyway.”
Forgetting
about the bed, my daughter was soon engrossed in her Gameboy. Over the peppy,
tinny music of some fantasy world, she muttered, “I wish Mommy was here.”
I
did too. But at that very moment, Serrah was probably suffering through some
hackneyed presentation about appealing to today’s youth though pop-up ads or
achieving marketing nirvana through tracking customer spending habits. We’ve
had our trip booked forever, but she couldn’t skip that conference. Thankfully,
she was only missing the first night.
“Mommy
will meet us there tomorrow,” I said. That seemed to comfort her, but I could
never quite tell when she had her nose stuck in a video game like that.
At
the kitchen table, Skye hurriedly shoveled Cheerios into her face, as if eating
quickly would make the plane show up faster. I smiled. In my youth, I had spiraled
hundreds of years back in time and saved the world. But my greatest
accomplishment was sitting across from me, slurping milk out of a bowl that was
just a bit too big for her hands.
In
the old days, I would have just teleported to Summers. But since we took down
Pokey and Giygas all those years ago, my PSI power faded. Teleportation was one
of the first skills to go. And about a month ago, I could barely heal a scrape
Skye got while riding her bike too fast down the driveway and wiping out at the
bottom. Then again, I guess I don’t need PSI if I’m living this normal life.
Well,
as normal a life as you can have trying to explain to neighbors why you receive
enthusiastic birthday cards each year from the King of Dalaam.
Sweat
drenched my forehead. The air conditioner was cranked up as far as it could go,
but the heat wave that had gripped Eagleland for the last two weeks had other
ideas. Early morning had been the coolest, but today, it already felt like high
noon. With school over, Skye didn’t seem to mind. Just give her a Gamboy and watch
her go. I, however, felt like the sweltering snowman in that old Campbell’s
soup commercial. In the last few days, I been caught in my skivvies with my
head in the freezer more times than I’d care to admit. Good thing Serrah takes
“in sickness and in health” seriously, because the amount of cash we’ve been
putting into our cooling costs lately has made us both feel a bit queasy.
We
didn’t have to leave for another 15 minutes, so I switched on the tube and
flopped on the couch. Skye sat next to me, Gameboy in hand.
It
was some sort of news segment about the excessive heat. The network was having
a field day.
“…what’s
most alarming, say experts, is that Winters is beginning to thaw. Physicist and
climate expert Dr. Jeffery Andonuts says he’s beginning worry.”
There
was Jeff, wearing the white lab coat he probably hasn’t taken off since
college. Though I haven’t seen him since graduation – and he’d been much too
busy for personal visits since at least sophomore year – it always felt great
to see him making such a name for himself. Some people even say he’ll surpass
his father’s genius. The rest think he already has.
“This
is most unusual,” Jeff explained. “The Winters permafrost hasn’t thawed since
the advent of recorded history. This heat wave could have worldwide
repercussions.”
There
was a twang of fear in Jeff’s voice that I had only heard once before when our
lives were in danger. My stomach clenched up.
Skye
tugged on my arm.
“Daddy,
it’s almost time to go!” she yelled. “We don’t wanna miss our plane, right?”
The
TV screen went black as I slipped my sneakers on.
“We
certainly don’t,” I replied.
The
oppressive heat hit us like a haymaker as we made our way to the car.
Chapter
2
Skye looked like some kind of sun shy ghost. I slathered
even more SPF 2,000 sunblock on her shoulders.
“Daddy, I want to build a sand castle and go in the water
already!”
She shot free of my grip, fell to her knees, and started
making “sand angels.” Then, with sand sticking to her like Shake N’ Bake, she
trotted to the water and, with her hands at her sides, jumped into the shallow
waves and wiggled around like a beached fish.
I wondered if I had been that energetic, or weird, when I
was six.
The beach at Summers has always been a spectacular
vacation destination and it was especially popular in this heat. Temperatures
creeping past 100 degrees couldn’t keep the beach bums away. Thousands of
beachgoers were sunbathing, swimming in the ocean, and paying way too much for
Gelato de Resort sold from a small refrigerated cart by some sweat-soaked entrepreneur.
I
patted myself on the back for setting up our hotel reservations so early in
advance.
Lying on the beach towel and closing my eyes, I must have
dozed off. I was started awake by a woman’s voice.
“Skye?” I asked, my eyes adjusting to the light. I put my
hand out and found her playing in the sand next to me.
“Oh, I’m sorry to startle you, sir,” said the voice. “I
was wondering if you or your daughter wanted a magic tart.”
“Hey, I know you!” I exclaimed. “You’re the magic cake
lady!”
“You must be mistaken, sir, I only make magic tarts,” she
replied.
“Ma’am, about 20 years ago, you used to go to the Stoic
Club, right?” I asked. “I was the one of the boys who helped rekindle your love
of baking, remember?”
She slowly nodded.
“I thought it was you,” she said. “I just felt compelled
to walk over to you and your daughter out of all the people on the beach.”
She reached into her cart. I was
getting ready to tell her that we didn’t want any magic tarts when she whipped
out a fully decorated cake.
“Every so often, I’ll still make a magic cake,” she
explained. “I don’t advertise it, but there’s some people who’ll pay a pretty
penny for some. Here, it’s on the house for an old friend.”
She waved goodbye and headed off. I waved back, put the
cake in some Tupperware, and stashed it in our beach bag.
After a few hours of fun in the sun, Skye and I washed up
at L’hotel De Summers and grabbed a bite to eat at the Summers Restaurant. Jeff’s
old friend Tony has run the restaurant with his partner, Steve, for the last
seven or eight years and has refused to let me pay since Serrah and I ate there
during our honeymoon.
I knew Tony was happy to see us, but we noticed something
about his demeanor was off. When I shook his hand on the way out, I asked what
was bothering him.
“Honestly, Ness, I’ve had this really bad feeling lately,”
he said. “There’s something not right about this heat. Have you seen Jeff on
the news talking about it? This isn’t normal.”
I suggested that it was probably going to be over soon. “I
don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”
To tell the truth, I wasn’t so sure about that.
Skye was already outside. It was barely 5 p.m., but the
beach that had been jam-packed only two hours before was nearly deserted. Maybe
it was because the sun was beginning to set. Or maybe everyone had headed off
to the theater down the street for one of those free concerts they sometimes have?
“I don’t want to go to the hotel yet,” she said. “Let’s
take a walk on the beach and maybe we can go in the pool later.”
The idea of going anywhere near that beach made me
uneasy. But there was nothing to be afraid of, right? There was still some
daylight left and it wasn’t like everyone had disappeared. There were just
fewer people than I would have expected.
“After you,” I said, waving my hand towards the beach.
We walked for a while towards the Toto port, with Skye
occasionally throwing sand in the air like confetti or stopping to examine the
odd seashell. We were a little ways off from where beachgoers normally trek.
The
setting sun streaked the skies amber and red, tinting the surf the same colors.
The
excited clamor of Summers after dark had faded. The chatter of the seagulls
looking for handouts might as well have been coming from Fourside. Even the
waves seemed to have stopped. All I could hear was Skye carrying on about how
she wished Mommy were here to see her newest find, “The smoothest, biggest rock
ever.”
Swirling around us was the clean scent of the ocean, but
also a hint of something else – rot. Things wash up on the beach all the time
and it wasn’t unreasonable to assume an unfortunate fish had found its way
ashore. We kept walking, but the smell only got stronger.
I
looked around. My daughter and I were the only people on the beach.
“Ok,
honey, I think it’s time to go back,” I said. “I don’t see anyone else around
so I think we might have gone farther than we’re allowed.”
“But
what about them, Daddy?” She pointed out into the distance.
Two
silhouettes were headed in our direction. Not sure how I missed them. I
breathed a sigh of relief – I’d let those decades old bad memories get the best
of me.
Skye
was already jogging towards them.
I
waved. “Nice night for a walk, right?” I yelled.
No
response. They shambled ever closer.
“Honey,
wait for Daddy,” I said sternly. She just kept running.
Suddenly
Skye screeched to a halt, like she had reached the end of a map in one of her
video games.
I
was close enough now to see them. Deep, black pools for eyes. Grey, tattered flesh
hanging from their arms like rags. No lips to hide their teeth, which were dripping
with a dark, viscous fluid.
A
boney hand lashed out.
“Skye!”
She
flailed in the monster’s grasp!
Out
of nowhere, a massive chill surrounded us. Then, a low, guttural wail of pain.
Skye
slid out of her attacker’s hands before they cracked off and fell in the sand
like a discarded towel. The grotesque body froze and shattered like crystal.
PSI!
Skye could use PSI!
I
eyed a piece of driftwood about a foot away and dove for it. It wasn’t a
baseball bat, but it would have to do.
“Leave
us alone! Leave us both the hell alone!”
The
crunch of wood on bone echoed across the sea. Decaying, green blood seeped into
the sand.
I
don’t remember grabbing my daughter and sprinting back to the hotel room. What
I do recall is the chaos. It looked like most people had hightailed it out of
Summers while we had been eating dinner, leaving only hordes of the undead
roaming the streets. Moans shot through alleyways. The putrid air was
inescapable. And although the moon had just began to peek over the skyline, the
heat got worse and worse.
Bloody
fingers brushed my sleeve as hurled my daughter into our room and slammed shut
the door. Thank God the hotel used a swipe card system instead of keys.
I
overturned the mattress, threw it against the door, and pushed the dresser in
front.
Tears
streamed down Skye’s face. “What’s going on?”
“I
don’t know, honey.” Sitting on the floor, I hugged her tight and tried to
comfort her. “You did a really good job,” I blurted out.
“I did what the lady in my dreams told me,” she said.
“Lady? What lady?”
“The nice blonde lady in pink dress who visits when I
sleep,” she replied. “She told me I’d need to use what she taught me one day,
but I thought it was just dreams. She said she couldn’t talk to my Daddy. She
said something was wrong and you couldn’t hear her anymore.”
Paula! But what was stopping her from contacting me like
when we were kids?
A
few minutes passed. My mind raced. What were we up against? How were we going
to get out? What were we going to eat?
Eat…
Yes! That was it!
“Daddy’s
going to get some help, but that means you have to be brave for a while without
him, okay?”
Skye
nodded solemnly.
I
fished through our beach bag, pulling out the magic cake from earlier. The entire
slice was gone in two or three mouthfuls.
“Daddy?
Daddy?”
My
daughter’s voice got farther and farther away as a familiar land materialized
peacefully in front of me.
Chapter
3
The king’s eyes opened slowly. He was only halfway
through his morning meditation, but a feeling of unease had come over him that
was too strong to ignore. The Mu master stood up and surveyed his kingdom from
atop his mountain perch.
A merchant scurried to the market, shirtless children
played games of warriors battling evil, and mothers and fathers fried up garlic
for their morning meals. The heat that so bothered the rest of Eagleland wasn’t
a problem for the good people of Dalaam, who saw it as sign of good luck to
come.
As he climbed down the rickety rope ladder, a breeze
cooled his sweat-dripping face. He nodded happily. Even in a time of unease,
the king had learned to appreciate the simplicity of life. He could see, hear,
move, and think. His Mu training had taught him that those were all things for
which to be eternally thankful.
He walked down the dirt path to the castle, stopping
briefly to greet his people. He was met with smiles and pleasantries, and genuine
good will for their leader. But they also knew the King was moving with
purpose. They let their ruler pass without the small talk that normally filled his
joyful mornings.
The
wind rustled through the vibrant vegetation just outside of the castle walls,
and with the wind at his back, the King strode past his servants, through the
throne room, and into his personal quarters. He opened the glass display on the
wall for the first time in nearly two decades, carefully removing the jewel
encrusted sheath.
In
a single, smooth motion, he withdrew the sword, gently parting the air around
him. He carefully affixed the fearsome weapon into his back.
From
the chest on the floor, he obtained his cloak and bracer. Time had been kind to
the old equipment and it still fit quite well.
He
was ready.
Outside,
the king closed his eyes, focusing on the weak psychic beacon of his friend.
Summers. That was where he was needed.
The
king shot up the dirt path in front of him, past the castle, toward the cliff’s
edge. He leapt off the side, barreling down like a bullet.
And
in a flash, he was gone.
Chapter
4
From our hotel window on the fifth floor, my daughter and
I could see about 100 of those monsters crowded around the hotel, waiting for
us. Palm trees swayed in the summer breeze and the waves crashed lazily on the
beach. From a helicopter, it must have looked like paradise.
From where we were sitting, it was Hell on Earth.
A
constant scratching on the door had kept us awake most of the night, and after the
effects of the magic cake wore off, I stood guard over Skye until daybreak.
She
saw it before I did.
“Daddy, look!”
Way off in the distance, the undead started…
disappearing. It looked like a path was being cleared, like a lawnmower making
a b-line through overgrown weeds, and it was quickly approaching. Somehow the
undead didn’t notice the bodies falling around them. Whatever it was, it embodied
stealth.
“What is that thing?” Skye asked fearfully.
I
smiled. “That’s not a thing, honey. It’s a king.”
The
scratching on our door stopped. A few muffled moans outside the room prompted
me to start tearing down the makeshift blockade that had kept us safe
throughout the night. I waited for unbroken silence. That was my cue.
Peering
into the hallway, I found myself face to face with King Poo. It was littered
with rotting corpses. I could tell that he had done his best to dispatch the
monsters as efficiently and painlessly as possible, on the off chance they
might still be human enough to know suffering.
“Kept
you waiting, huh?” he asked.
“You’re pretty good,” I replied.
The
King sheathed his sword. Skye ran over and hugged him around the neck.
“Uncle
Poo!”
“It’s
not just me, little one,” the King revealed.
Tony
burst through the open door, out of breath and terrified out of his mind. He
put his hands on his knees and sucked as much air into his lungs as he could.
“Tony,
you’re alive!” I explained.
“Ness!
Ness!” he stammered in-between gasps. He held something out to me. It was a
small receiver phone, like the one Apple Kid had made all those years ago. I
vaguely remembered Jeff giving a similar phone to Tony the summer they
graduated from Snow Wood Boarding School. The words “best friends” were
emblazoned on the back in Tony’s handwriting.
I
grabbed it. “Hello?”
“Ness,”
said a voice, calmly and firmly, “It’s Jeff. I’d love to catch up but we don’t
have time for small talk. I’ve figured out the cause of this unnatural heat.
It’s connected to your current situation, and unchecked, it could spell doom
for Eagleland.”
Jeff
explained that while researching the heat wave, he was taking readings near
Stonehenge in Winters when he noticed that some of the years-old snow had
melted, revealing what looked like the hatch to a World War II-style bomb
shelter. Intrigued, he pried it open and climbed down. But what he found wasn’t
a ham radio and a few copies Eagleland Digest from the ‘40s. Sprawling out
before him, he said, was a secret laboratory that had been operating right
under his nose for decades.
The
rows of monitors were dim. Absent was the typical whirr of alien machinery we
had come to know as kids. At the edge of the complex was a room with a single
computer chair, facing towards an old computer. The monitor flickered.
There
was someone in the chair.
The
scientist didn’t wait for answers. He tore a small laser from his pocket and
blasted over and over again. The room danced with explosive greens and purples.
Whoever had been sitting there slumped to the floor with a sickening metallic
clang.
A
Starman. A single, standard model Starman. Jeff guessed that it hadn’t been
functional for a long time.
That
is, until it started talking: “DEAD-HEAT initiated June 5, 201X.”
“Define
DEAD-HEAT,” Jeff commanded.
“DEAD-HEAT
protocol: A failsafe in the event that Master Giygas is destroyed. Protocol
calls for annihilation of the Chosen Four. Protocol failed to trigger upon Giygas’
defeat on June 5, 199X due to the event occurring in the past, before creation
of DEAD-HEAT. Recent environmental scan initiated by Starman serial number
SNS-006 revealed that Master Giygas no longer exists. Starman SNS-006 manually
initiated DEAD-HEAT protocol as per programming.”
“What
is the nature of DEAD-HEAT?” Jeff asked.
“A
thermal signal to reanimate deceased organic life, emitted from a chosen ground
zero throughout Eagleland. Dead tissue functions again and subjects begin their
attack after an incubation period of 17.54 days. Subjects within 15 mile radius
of ground zero will revive several hours earlier. The remains of Master Giygas,
located in the Lost Underworld, will revive after an incubation period of 18.722
days.”
I
suppressed my panic for Skye’s sake, but my eyes betrayed me as I sat down on
the floor. She hugged me from behind. Would my daughter know the horror of
another alien invasion?
Jeff’s
urgency snapped me out of it.
“If we can’t take care of this, Giygas will be reborn
with an undead army at his command. There haven’t been reports of zombies
anywhere else but Summers yet, so that area is likely the point of origin. Ness,
you and your daughter are at ground zero. Whatever is causing this must not be
far away from your current location.”
The meteor. The sanctuary guardians. Heading back in
time. I was scared then, too. But I’d done all of that with nothing but a
baseball bat, my buddies, and my wits. King Poo was here, ready to help. And
from the looks of things, my daughter controlled more powerful offensive PSI
than I ever had.
I yanked my red baseball cap out of my suitcase and
slipped in on my head.
“Okay, Jeff,” I replied. “Where do we start?”
Chapter
5
King
Poo sliced though the undead menace effortlessly, Skye roasted ‘em, and with a
baseball bat we borrowed from a memorabilia store in the hotel lobby, I was
getting zombie guts all over Sammy Sosa’s signature. But in the short time since
formulating our plan, the streets ran thick with rot.
According to Jeff, there was only one place in Summers
that could transmit the DEAD-HEAT signal across Eagleland: the radio station,
WSMR. I wondered: How could a small station known for Beach Boys-style surf
rock be the source of an apocalyptic plot to raise the dead?
Then we tuned in. At first it was just some generic tune
about hot cars, cute girls, and hitting the beach. But then: “…and that was ‘Super
Smash Summer’ by the Melee Bros.!” exclaimed the overexcited disc jockey. “I
hope everyone out there in Listener Land is having a sizzlin’ summer, including
Ness and his daughter, the beautiful Skye. Come on down here, Spankey, and the
hits’ll just keep coming, if ya know that I mean! And don’t forget to pick up
that phone because the next 10 callers get to hail Master Giygas! Yowza!”
They
were leading us into a trap. But with we didn’t have many options.
“This one goes out to all those gorgeous zombie girls out
there!” blared the radio. “You can sink your teeth into me anytime! Hubba
hubba!”
Skye frowned. “Can someone turn that off?”
I could have sworn I knew that D.J. from somewhere.
* * *
It
was getting harder to advance. For every zombie we took down, it seemed like
two more joined the fray. I was glad that these zombies weren’t like the ones
in the movies, because we must have been bitten more than 100 times
collectively. The King was doing his best to heal us, but I could tell his PSI
was growing weaker. And the heat was nearly causing me to pass out.
I
wished I could have traded places with Tony, who was bunkered down in the hotel
room for his own safety.
It
was only a mile. Then half a mile. We were almost there, I told myself. Just a
little bit more.
The
receiver phone rang and I hastily answered, swinging the bat with my other hand.
“Jeff? Anything you can do to help us?”
“Hello,
it’s your Dad,” replied the phone. “You’ve been out there a long time now… It
may be none of my business, but don’t you think it would be a good idea if you
took a break?”
“NOT NOW, DAD!” I exclaimed.
“I
deposited $564 -”
I
wailed a nearby zombie with the butt of my bat. It gnashed its teeth and lost
consciousness.
“-
$587 into your bank account.”
“Dad,
I’m 33! You don’t need to keep giving me money like this.”
“Your
dear old dad was also thinking about hitting the hay for the night.”
“It’s
7 a.m., Dad,” I said. “How did you even get this number?”
“Ness,
you like to work hard, just like your mother. But, I don’t think it’s good to
work too hard. I love you son.”
I
sighed. “Thanks, Dad. I love you too.”
I
had hardly stuffed the phone back in my shorts pocket when I heard my daughter
exclaim, “There it is!”
I
couldn’t believe that the broken down husk of a building ahead of us was the
source of so much misery. What was once a vibrant paintjob had dulled to a light
grey, accentuated with dirty black streaks and years of unchecked water damage.
The windows on all six floors had been hastily boarded up, whether by station
employees trying to avoid the undead or by Giygas’s followers fortifying the
building, I didn’t know. And on the top was the antenna that had been
broadcasting DEAD-HEAT, unrestrained, for more than two weeks.
“I
bet Jeff could make one heck of a laser gun outta that,” I muttered.
The
undead were packed shoulder to shoulder around the building. There was no way
we were going to get in without casualties. My heart sank.
“Ness!”
yelled the King. “You’ve got to destroy that antenna! I’m going to take care of
our enemies here, but you and Skye need to run as soon as you have a chance.
Just get in when you can!”
“Poo,
how do you think you’re going to…?”
“Just
be ready!”
I
grabbed Skye, put her on my shoulders, and told her to hang on.
The
King jumped into the middle of the crowd and put his hands together in meditation.
The undead around him scratched and bit, but he continued unflinching.
“PSI
Starstorm Omega!”
The
sky opened and the heavens expelled celestial fire. There was a torrent of
decaying limbs and green blood.
A
path had emerged to the radio station entrance.
Poo
collapsed to one knee. My instinct was to aid my old friend, but I saw the
remaining undead were already filling in the gaps left by their predecessors.
The
king said only one word: “Go!”
As
I hurried through the charred remains of the building’s front door, Skye and I
heard King Poo’s sword gracefully unsheathed.
“Come
get some,” he beckoned.
Chapter
6
My
watch stopped calculating the temperature increase at 120 degrees. Sweat
stinging my eyes, I trudged up six flights of steps to the top of the building.
There
was no one else at the station, it had seemed, but clearly someone didn’t want
us to succeed: The final set of stairs had been blocked by furniture and old
radio equipment.
“Daddy,”
whispered Skye. “What now?”
“I’ll
have to try to climb onto the roof from one of the windows on the top floor,” I
replied. I turned back and cautiously entered the sixth floor.
With
the boarded up windows blocking the sun, I had no idea where to go. But a faint
light shone from the last room on the left.
My
stomach churned. Something bad was about to happen.
I
crept down the hallway, baseball bat at the ready. Skye was holding her breath.
I
ran in swinging. The bat crashed into the window. Boards toppled down and
hundreds of glass shards glimmered in the light that was now flooding the room.
“The
years haven’t been kind to you, Spankey,” whispered a voice from behind.
No,
there was no way…! Yet Pokey stood before me. He looked exactly how I remember
him from my childhood.
“How
are you even…?!”
“You’re
about ready to wet your pants, aren’t you?” he laughed through an inhuman, ear
to ear grin. “Let’s get it on, Spankey!”
A
flash and a sting in my jaw. How did he hit me so quickly? He hadn’t even moved!
“I
was just fooling around before, when we were neighbors,” he hissed. “This time
I’m going to kill you. Then I’m going to enjoy taking your daughter apart piece
by piece. Slowly.”
“You
monster!”
My
bat whizzed through the air violently, again and again. Pokey kept dodging,
countering. And if I stood still, he just pummeled me where I stand. It was
like fighting a coked-up Yoda. I couldn’t land a single hit.
Skye
tried desperately to help me though her tears, but the PSI just fizzed out
before even reaching the beast.
I
could taste blood. PSI Life-up was useless. I tried anyway, again and again, in
between his relentless attack. My PSI was gone entirely.
Pokey
stared at me with that unnerving, unbroken smile. His twisted eyes danced with
delight.
“Remember
when we used to play Mortal Kombat at the arcade down the street, Ness?” Pokey
asked, gleefully. “You remember what would happen when one combatant couldn’t
fight anymore?”
My
daughter got on her knees. “Daddy, concentrate!” Skye prayed from the bottom of
her heart. “The woman from my dreams is telling you to concentrate!”
I
closed my eyes and in my mind, I saw Pokey standing before me. Near his heart
was a faint gold shimmer, like Paula’s hair in the sun so many years ago.
I
raised my bat and dashed forward. I felt a snap in my left wrist, then searing pain.
The
bat had splintered into toothpicks. I was still holding the knob and the grip.
The majority of the barrel was lodged in the adjacent sheetrock wall. (Sorry,
Sammy.)
Pokey
clutched his chest, heaving.
“How
do you… keep… winning?” he stammered. “I’m better than you! I’m… better…!”
Something
tumbled from Pokey’s chest and rolled out in front of me – a huge chunk of the
Mani Mani statue.
I
grinded it beneath my heel.
The
illusion broken, Pokey’s figure faded away, revealing a Starman model I’d never
seen before. It was a shiny turquoise and it radiated a dark aura. Judging from
how fast and tough it was, it must have been made of titanium.
With
the nightmare rock destroyed, I felt a familiar power welling up in me. I knew
instantly: That thing had been weakening my PSI for years!
All
the self-doubt, all the fear, all the bad memories of my childhood battle
against the Universal Destroyer – they were gone in an instant. The power of Giant
Step, Milky Well, Lumine Hall and the rest was mine to wield once more. With a shattered
wrist and my only weapon in pieces, I was going to need it.
The
Starman whirred and clicked.
“Assessment:
Battle plan compromised. Primary objective remains unchanged: Protect DEAD-HEAT
and destroy Ness. Resuming combat under secondary battle plan.”
“Ness!”
Paula spoke directly to my mind. “With the Mani Mani statue gone, you can use
PSI again. Please, let me lend you my power as well.”
I
felt her strength mingling with my own. My senses peaked. My wounds healed. My
emotions flared.
“Skye!
PSI Freeze! Now!”
Ice
clung to the hapless machine. The Starman’s body solidified!
I
ordered Skye to stand close to me where I could keep her safe. I gathered all
my power, all my anger, and all my love.
“PSI
Rockin’ Omega!”
King
Poo told me how the blast shattered every window on the top floor, as if
someone had triggered an atom bomb. Pieces of the building sailed through the
air, slamming into the streets.
Smoke
stung our eyes and seared our lungs. Skye and I coughed and coughed until
finally, the room was clear enough to see. Before us lied the smoldering
remains of the strange Starman.
“Yeah,
Pokey,” I said smugly, “just like Mortal Kombat. Toasty!”
We
heard a massive creaking and got to the window just in time to see the antenna
hit the ground outside, crumbling into a heap of scrap. The force of battle
must have been too much for it to take.
With
the DEAD-HEAT signal cut off, the zombies returned to the dust of the earth. A
cooling breeze caressed my dripping cheeks.
Epilogue
“Are you sure you won’t stay for lunch?”
The king shook his head.
“My people need me. And besides, you know I’m not too
fond of the food around here.”
“Or anywhere,” I said.
He smiled.
I thanked King Poo for his help one more time and he
dashed off, disappearing into the crowd of tourists.
The beaches were packed as usual. Since we had thwarted
Gigyas’ plans so early in the morning and the zombies had disintegrated and
blew away, vacationers had no idea anything had been wrong. Most businesses,
lured by the sweet promise of cash, were open. They weren’t going to let a
little thing like a zombie apocalypse stop them from making a buck.
I hadn’t even heard of anyone being injured.
My daughter and I were too wound up to sleep and decided
to head to the beach ourselves. While I was waiting for Skye to change into her
bathing suit, Paula’s voice filled my mind once more.
“You did an excellent job, Ness.”
“Well, you were a real help,” I replied. “But let me ask
you something. Why didn’t you come to us in person?”
Paula chucked.
“Because you didn’t need me. Besides, you have Skye now.”
* * *
The water in Summers is clear, like crystal, so you can
see several feet in front of you if you can get over the shock of having your
eyes open underwater.
Skye swam past me again like a little dolphin. We both
came up for air at the same time and laughed.
I
never thought I’d consider 85 degrees on the cool side, but man, did it ever
feel good to be out of that heat wave.
We
walked out of the water and flopped down on our beach towel. Skye started
packing sand in a bucket for her castle. I lazily helped her dig a moat.
My
wife had been right. No more bad dreams, no more blue moods. This vacation had
done wonders for me.
Serrah
emerged from the gaggle of beachgoers lined up by gelato cart. I waved at her
and she hurried over.
“Mommy!”
Serrah
smiled at me.
“Sorry
I’m late,” she said. “Did I miss anything?”
Hyper Street Fighter II, released in the early 2000s, was
supposed to cram everything from the previous five games into a single, “greatest
hits” masterpiece. It sounded like a dream come true for longtime fans. 
