Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End (5 page)

Trevino blinked, finally
taking their awkward silence as a kick under the table. “Ah. So,
let me see if I understand you. I locate and observe the subjects,
determine if they have co-conspirators, investigating them as well,
if they do. Then, once I have sufficient information and
evidence...I am to ask them to accompany me to the nearest, duly
constituted authority for whatever reason seems most convenient.
And when they resist with deadly force, I am to prevent civilian
casualties by dropping them all in their tracks. Am I
correct?”

The suits deflated.
“Precisely, Agent.”

“
You start now.”

“
Emphasis on now.”

“
Good luck, Deputy. We’ll be in touch.”

The door closed behind him,
and the three slumped in their seats like discarded marionettes.
They had another meeting in an hour with the military people, and
bodies need their sleep.

Jesus rubbed her eyes. The
lights of passing cars streaked by like trails during an acid trip.
It was raining. Soothing patter of droplets on the glass. A
slate-blue, gloomy evening. She blinked, tried to sit up, but
something was holding her in place. Seat-belt.

She heard voices in the
front seat chattering like two squirrels. Though she could only
make out part of the conversation, she knew the speakers well:
Dionysus and Loki.

Her eyes closed again. She
took another drag off a cigarette, only then realizing she had lit
one. Being comatose was so much more pleasant.

“
That was brilliant. I prefer a plan with more mescaline,
but...” that would be Dionysus.

“
All your plans start with getting high. You ever notice
that?” Loki asked.

“
Ah, but there wouldn’t be a ward to escape
from
. We’d just slip
between the dancing molecules,” Dionysus said.

“
It really amazes me that you can tie your own
shoes.”

“
Velcro, motherfuckah. Velcro.”

Jesus cracked open her eye.
She was still dressed in inmate chic. A cigarette dangled from her
lips, half ash. The ash finally fell all over her chest.

“
What. The. Fuck,” she said, brushing the ashes away with
three curt motions.

Loki looked back at her,
driving casually with one hand. “Oh, she speaks. Have a nice nap,
did we?”

“
Ugh. Had to wait almost a year to break us out of that
hell-hole, did we?”

Snorting, Loki said, “I can
turn around. Come back for your anniversary?”

Cody shook his head. “No
way, man. No fucking way. I’ll get out and walk.” He craned his
head, looking out the window. “Really, the corner up ahead looks
just fine...”

“
How’d you spend ten months locked up with this guy if you
can’t take a joke?” Loki asked.

Dionysus laughed. “He’s
from So Cal, They don’t have sarcasm out there. Maybe we can import
it for them, along with irony and a healthy dose of Eastern
indifference. What’s the conversion rate on that?”

Cody crossed his arms. “We
do indifference just fine.”

“
Terrific. Now that we have that sorted, where exactly are we
going?” Jesus asked.

Loki shrugged. “Well, I
broke you guys out. I thought maybe you could come up with step two
of this plan.”

Silence fell in the van for
several moments.

“
Alright, so... I bunked with Dionysus here. And I recognize
Jesus from the halls of the asylum... but who are you?”

“
Loki.”

“
Huh. You guys a cult or something?”

“
Well, since you put it that way, I suppose we are,” Dionysus
said.

“
Or were,” Jesus said.

“
They kind of got themselves mistaken for terrorists. It put a
little crimp in the Wednesday potluck,” Loki said.

“
Since I put it what way?” Cody asked.

“
Well, you could put it a lot of other ways. Like... We are a
disorganization, a chaote order of the highest disorder, a
mythological manifestation of–”

Cody put up his hands. “Now
you’re just freaking me out.”

“
I’d think you would be used to that by now, too,” Jesus
said.

“
You’d think that, but no. For my part, there’s not much to
say. I’m Cody. I play guitar.”

“
They put you in Pennhurst for playing guitar?” Jesus
asked.

“
Music wasn’t how I lost my mind. It’s how I got it back,”
Cody said, eerily.

“
Right.”

“
See...It all started with my wife, Margarite. We met at a
small coffeehouse in Santa Cruz. I remember...the place was heavy
with the tangy smell of lemon, dill and shrimp that
night.

“
I matched gazes with Margarite’s chocolate brown eyes after I
started the second set. My hands fumbled, the notes came out all
wrong. That was a first. Then I ripped loose. I turned myself
inside out on that stage. Nothing remained hidden. It was a tender,
unadulterated message for only one set of ears. I was asking – are
you
Her
? The
tears in her eyes said yes. The awkward sensation felt by the rest
of the audience was the result of their unwitting
voyeurism.”

“
I think I know how they felt,” Jesus said.

Cody didn’t seem to notice
the not-so-subtle nudge. “The two of us spent that night drinking
margaritas, salty as sweat, first in a nearby bar, then in a hotel
room. It could’ve been tawdry, but it was our Eden.

“
The next month in Vegas was painfully sweet, mostly spent
looking into her eyes as the two of us lay moistly
entwined...”

“
Whoa,
whoa, whoa
, man. I was trying to be polite, but stop.” Jesus broke into
laughter.

“
She let out a faint gasp, and then suddenly, she wasn’t there
at all. Her softness was still all around me. Rose petals
everywhere, drifting away coyly in the spring breeze.” Cody looked
out the window with a far away look in his eyes.

“
See? There’s a reason he was in the crazy bin with us. Though
I think that’s more than he said the whole time we roomed
together.”

Jesus kept
laughing.

Dionysus continued, “But
this much I can vouch for: he can play better than you or I, Jesus.
And I know you’re no slouch.”

Jesus’ hysterical laughter
wouldn’t subside. She was crying. “We’ve got an over-sharing idiot
savant, a transsexual, and two assholes. Sounds like a rock band to
me!”

“
Count me out. More of an audiobook guy,” Loki
said.

“
What do you do, then?” Cody asked.

“
Paint-by-numbers. Prison breaks.”

Jesus’ laughing fit
subsided very suddenly.“Ahem. Since we have no better plans, do you
guys want to find a place to eat? I’m fucking starving.”

Chapter Three

They pulled up in front of
a pub in the outskirts of the Philadelphia suburbs, right in the
spot where the Venn diagram of WASP, redneck and Amish country
overlapped.

“
This place work?” Loki asked.

Jesus noticed there was a
tractor in the parking lot. That wasn’t a good sign. “You have
cash?”

“
Yes.” Loki sighed.

It was a busy night. From
the look and sound of it, half the place was half lit, and the rest
were about ready to make sweet love to a toilet seat. There was a
small stage and the setup for a band, but the band was nowhere in
sight.

Jesus headed straight for
the bar.

“
I thought you were hungry,” Dionysus said.

“
Liquid bread!” Jesus exclaimed, grabbing the last free bar
stool. The rest of them clustered uncomfortably behind.

“
When we go on, man?” someone to their left asked. Jesus
turned towards the voice. It was a group of three guys, red necks,
would-be cock-rockers two decades past their prime. Her favorite
sort of assholes.

“
I don’t know. Where’s Rich?” another asked.

“
Rich?”

“
Rich! You know, the guy that run the place. He disappeared
with that girl with the...” He made the universal ‘large breasts’
hand gesture.

“
Fuck if I know. Not here?”

Jesus turned to the
bartender, a sadly energetic woman that looked like she had taken
one too many “falls down the stairs.”

“
DRINKS ALL AROUND!” Jesus exclaimed.

Loki rolled his eyes.
“Sure. Why not?”

“
What’ll ya have?”

“
Stouts and whiskey,” Jesus said.

A redhead that had been
listening in to the conversation leaned towards Jesus. “Can you
count me in on that, babe?”

Dionysus stared at her,
slack-jawed.

Loki elbowed him. She
either didn’t seem to notice, or didn’t care.

“
Drinks for the musicians, too. You’re the entertainment,
right?” Jesus asked.

With a grin, one of them
nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.”

The three of them carried
their drinks to a nearby table, leaving Jesus to her peculiar
carousing.

“
I swear I’ve seen that woman before,” Dionysus
said.

“
Who?” Loki asked.

“
The smokin’ redhead at the bar, I’m guessing,” Cody
said.

“
Eh,” Loki said.

“
I’m not kidding. It’s on the tip of my tongue...” Dionysus
said.

“
I’ll bet it is,” Cody said. He lit a smoke. “Nice to be
somewhere civilized, where you can kick back, light up a
smoke–”

“
You’re not listening to me,” Dionysus said, refusing to let
it drop.

“
I’m just saying, you’ve been locked up for a
year...”

“
Right, which makes this all the stranger. I’m
sure
I’ve seen her.
Recently,” Dionysus said. He squinted suspiciously.

A waitress approached them.
“What’ll it be?”

Jesus passed yet another
drink to the band. Just “one of the guys.” Har-har. She made
exaggerated manly gestures and gave them a wide smile. Anyone who
knew her would recognize the smile as bitingly insincere, but it
was already too late for this lot.

“
No, no, no. What I’m saying is–” One of them started, but he
was overrun by a series of guffaws.

“
Liquididated bread!” his friend screamed, still laughing. The
laughter turned into a gurgle as a stream of alcoholic vomit
lurched out of his stomach. Waitresses scrambled to the site of the
incident as the band rolled and slipped on their regurgitated
fluids. The ensuing series of events would surely haunt their
dreams for the rest of their lives.

“
Why are you– Wait, we’re the band! Where’s Rich?” one of them
yelled.

His friend mewled and
wheezed like a newborn, muttering “ma...ma...ma...” with each
desperate breath. Horrible alcohol poisoning, clearly.

The bouncers went into
motion, escorting them rather impolitely out the door.

“
Don’t you remember? You guys already played! Awesome show.
No, really fantastic. Now out you go...” Jesus said, sitting back
down on the bar stool.

“
Ah, I love doing that,” she said, sipping her stout. “It’s
like the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady wins the
race.”

“
Nice performance,” the redhead said.

“
Oh. We haven’t gotten started yet,” Jesus said.

She gave a crooked grin.
“Is that right?”

“
Jesus. Pleased to meet you.” She bowed and did a sarcastic,
Renn-faire hand-gesture.

“
Lilith. Likewise.”

“
Lilith... Really?” Jesus asked.

“
You go by ‘Jesus’ and you want to give me a hard
time?”

Jesus laughed.
“Touche.”

“
Anyway, it’s Lola Rose Parsons. But that’s a fucking
mouthful. Who are your friends?”

Jesus led her over to the
table. “This is Loki, Dionysus, and...Cody.”

They looked at one another
awkwardly. Dionysus scrutinized her, and made a decision. “This is
going to sound like the oldest line in the book. And it’s not a
good line, or book, but...Do I know you from somewhere?”