Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End (12 page)

Dionysus was gazing out the
window. She studied his face, but couldn’t read his thoughts in it.
“What’s up?” she asked, startled somehow by the sound of her own
voice.

He nodded almost
imperceptibly, and rolled towards her. He laid one of his hands in
her lap, but said nothing.

Ariadne spoke instead. “I
was just thinking, what if I hadn’t bought that ticket and went to
the show?”

“
Is that really what you were thinking?” he asked.

“
No. Well, not until I said it.” She took his hand.

The two of them sat
together in silence.

Eventually Ariadne spoke.
“I was actually thinking about Lilith. Dionysus,
sometimes...sometimes she terrifies me. I mean, I’m undeniably
attracted to her...it’s impossible not to be, isn’t it? But she
still scares me.”

Dionysus opened his mouth
to argue, but the image of Lilith’s cold, hungry smile stopped him.
“Me too. I am drawn to her, but it’s like that cliche of a moth to
a flame.” He paused. “I love you. I can’t help myself.”

“
We all have that problem from time to time,” Ariadne said,
smirking at him as she ran her finger across the back of her
arm.

“
Flirt,” he said, returning her smile.

“
Why? That’s what I’m wondering.”

He thought about it. It was
as if Lilith was always right behind him, haunting the cracked
mirror as he brushed his teeth, blurry, but still winsome even
through flecks of dried toothpaste. Walking home from school as a
young boy, his books clutched tightly in the crook of his armpit,
splashing through puddles – her eyes danced in the
ripples.

He couldn’t bring himself
to say any of that, though. They lay together in silence for so
long that he assumed she had fallen asleep, until she spoke. “When
you say you love me, what do you mean.”

“
Who the hell knows? I’m sure you’ve had people where, you
couldn’t explain it if you tried, but everything reminds you of
them. They possess your thoughts. Your dreams.” He thought again of
Lilith. But that didn’t seem like love.

“
I have,” she said quietly.

“
Lilith has the power to possess. I feel I can say anything to
you, I love you to death, but it doesn’t cloud my
judgment.”

“
It just doesn’t...intoxicate you. I’m like an old trusty pair
of jeans. Comfortable, but don’t wear them out of the
house.”

“
Oh, Christ. Now you’re putting words in my mouth.”

She just laughed. “I’m just
messing with you. Love whomever you love. Where’s my place to mess
with that? That’s not at all the fear I was talking
about.”

“
I’m saying, with her, it’s like it comes from the outside, it
overpowers me. It’s not from within. I told you about how I first
met her, right? In a dream,” Dionysus said.

“
You told me a bit about it. Woe is you. Sounded hot as
hell.”

“
If it wasn’t like being thrown to a pack of reef sharks in a
frenzy, it would’ve been.”

Ariadne laughed. “I’m still
trying to figure out where we’re headed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m
loving it. Nothing has felt so right in my life. But it’s obvious
this is Lilith’s game, and she holds the cards close to her rather
delicious chest. And...there’s no getting off.”

“
Why would you want to?” Dionysus asked.

“
No, exactly. Who would possibly want to get off the bus? Come
along with us, all expense paid trip into the rock and roll
apocalypse. I don’t know,” she said, kissing the small of his back
softly. “But I’m a little scared.”

It was Artemis’ idea to
incorporate security directly into the show. Half-naked girls
painted gold dancing with crossbows, that sort of thing. At first,
Loki questioned her logic, but as usual let her run with
it.

She was right. He was
discovering this more frequently than not, and felt an odd, almost
paternal pride when she would pipe up with some crazy plan that
made sense. Not only did it step up the live act, but pretty soon
they had ex-Olympic Russian acrobats covering their six. Who could
complain?

They’d just finished
another show. Campfires twinkled in the night air, a pale
reflection of the open sky above. They were in the Southwest,
planning to turn north next.

Dionysus sat alone on a
rock plateau, surveying the lights beneath. The wind carried the
bite of both sand and cold with it, and he pulled his blanket
closer around him. Autumn wasn’t the same in the desert as it was
in a deciduous climate, he thought. But you could still feel it in
your bones. It felt like they were approaching a turning point, a
true point of no return.

He heard the tinkling of
stones skipping down the trail, and spoke without
moving.

“
Ariadne?”

Her footfalls had become
familiar. Someone else was with her.

“
We’ve come up here to make you quit your brooding, anti-hero
bullshit.”

“
I’m not brooding, I’m thinking.”

“
Whatever.” Two hands perched on his shoulders, a chin rested
on his head. Another hand reached in front of him, holding a palm
full of mushroom caps.

Finally he turned around to
find himself looking into Amber’s enormous pupils. A smirk was
plastered on her face.

“
My God, girls, do you ever stop?”

Amber just wiggled her hand
a little.

Mock-sighing, Dionysus
scooped up the shriveled fungus and chewed it slowly.

“
You know, I really don’t need these anymore,” he said,
talking around the caps. “I’ve opened all those doors already. I
can–”

“
Shut up and chew, Grandpa,” Ariadne said from behind, patting
him on the head.

When he finished the first
handful, Amber showed her other hand.

Dionysus sighed for real
that time.

Hours, eons, or seconds
later, the three of them were seated on an airplane. Two aisles
across. Dionysus guessed it was a 767 wide-body, and didn’t bother
to wonder how they got there. He glanced at the pamphlets in the
seat in front of him, but only found a couple palm sized
rocks.

The engines thrummed along
pleasantly, interrupted by the occasional cough.

Ariadne turned to Dionysus.
“How did we get here?” she asked.

“
How long have we been here?” Dionysus replied, shrugging
helplessly.

The three of them sat
silently for a moment. A stewardess passed, asking if they needed
anything.

“
Ginger ale?” Amber asked.

Squinting out the window,
Dionysus only saw blackness at first, and then flashing lights at
the end of the wing. Wrapping his hands around the glass to block
out glare, he moved closer and waited for his night vision to
adjust. Instead of seeing the tell-tale lights of a city, he saw a
black shape shoot across the wing.

“
What are the chances, do you think, that a marsupial or
simian could survive on the wing of an airplane, traveling at five
hundred miles an hour, at thirty five thousand feet?” he asked,
pulling away.

“
A what or a what?” Amber asked.

“
A marsupial or a simian,” Ariadne said.

“
Like a, um. Lemur. But faster. And
meaner
.” Dionysus squinted out the
window again, chewing on one of his nails pensively.

“
Oh,” Amber said.

The plane suddenly jolted,
lurching violently to one side. The lights flickered, and oxygen
masks descended from the overhead compartments like flaccid
testicles.

“
Those look like–” Amber said.

Ariadne giggled.

Everyone else in the cabin
screamed for their lives. An announcement was blaring through the
tinny speakers. Something about immanent destruction. Dionysus
ignored it.

“
Bloody things are tearing the engines off,” he said. “Just
like in the Twilight Zone.” He took another look. “They don’t
really look so much like marsupials anymore.”

Ariadne laughed
hysterically as they plummeted through the clouds and into a
shopping mall. Metal sheered and shrieked as glass powderized into
the air in a rainbow cloud. It twirled gracefully around the
wreckage, like dragons on Chinese New Year. Books, stuffed animals,
overcoats and televisions poured from the shelves as they shuddered
past the jewelry aisle and a flock of slack jawed housewives. The
plane’s double tires splattered all the would-be shoppers that had
the misfortune of being in its path. They popped like cherry
tomatoes and left a red smear all the way from what was left of
Macy’s down to the food court, where the shattered vehicle finally
came to a lurching stop in front of Taco Bell.

All was silent in the
cabin, charred black with smoke and fire. Outside, the lights of
rescue vehicles flashed, but there were no survivors, and no
vehicles.

Dionysus turned towards
Amber, about to comment on how odd it was that they were still
alive, when he saw her bite her lip. She sighed and closed her
eyes. Ariadne was licking her ear and running her hand between
Amber’s slowly parting thighs.

The thought did cross his
mind – for a moment – that this was an unusual time for sex. But
only for a moment. One of his hands wandered under Amber’s shirt,
finding her pierced nipples already hard. The other gently lay on
top of Ariadne’s damp fingers as they explored under her
skirt.

Looking at him through
wisps of Amber’s hair, Ariadne smiled and hiked up her skirt
further.

Taking the hint, he leaned
over, kissing his way up her thigh. She shivered appreciatively. As
he leaned forward, he felt his hands sink into the dust.

He looked around. They were
on the plateau. Drums beat ceaselessly in the distance.

“
We weren’t on a plane,” Dionysus said matter-of-factually,
looking up at Ariadne, past Amber’s now exposed breasts.

“
Huh. Guess not,” Ariadne said.

Dionysus leaned forward
again.

–

They passed out in a
contented pile shortly after the sun crested the
horizon.

Ariadne drifted in
sensations, untethered from time and space. Her mother was smiling
above her. She was encircled by a crowd of wrinkled faces, atop a
picnic table. She put her foot in the birthday cake, and the smile
turned to a frown. Three candles, and such tiny toes. The sticky
icing oozing between them turned dry. She was on a beach.
Sun-blinded and breathing in the smell of salt, sand and crabs
baking in the heat.

Her hand closed around
another. The shape of it, its warmth, the tingle she felt
throughout her body when fingertips touched, were all impossibly
familiar. An electrical circuit seemed to close as their fingers
intertwined.

When the circuit closed,
she was fixed again in one place, one time. She rubbed her eyes,
and was surprised by what she saw when they opened. No longer on
that ridge, and Amber was nowhere to be seen. Dionysus was curled
around her. They were both in a labyrinth of stone and forgotten
memories.

“
Hey,” she said, running the back of her hand along his cheek.
He mumbled to himself, but didn't stir. Changing tactics, she bit
his ear.

“
Fuck!” He flailed pointlessly, and then looked around.
“Where's this?” he asked absently as he stared at a baby hanging
from a tree above him, squirming in its glowing amniotic
sac.

“
I don't know. I've been here before, though...I think,”
Ariadne said. She started to stand up but he grabbed her arm and
pulled her close.

“
Does it really matter?” he asked.

She held him close and
thought for a moment. “Except–”

She was cut off by a sound
that sent a shiver through her, like the monstrous hybrid of a bull
and a locomotive had been set loose in a crowded theater. She was
on her feet and running before Dionysus could get out a
word.

He chased after her. “Hold
on!”

She didn't reply, though
she did cast him a horrified look over her shoulder.

“
Listen– Hey, stop!” He caught up with her, grabbed her. She
shook in his arms. “We're dreaming.”

“
Together?”

“
Yes,” he said. “Look.”

Behind them, a twisted
beast was galloping through the labyrinth, uprooting trees,
shooting sparks from under its metal hooves. She jolted to run, but
he held her still. “Look at it. Trees with fruit babies. A...
Whatever the fuck that thing is...”