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Post by postmortem on Jun 6, 2011 21:40:24 GMT -5
Moderator's Note: Unable to do attachment. Used old fashioned cut and paste instead.
PHANTASM 4.5: The Ice Cream Chronicles Chap. 11: The Last Stand By: Prymal
Mike stepped through the gate in the jungle-filled Mayan city and stepped out into a desert. He stood looking around, somehow recognizing this place. He stood upon an enormous, cracked and sand filled plain. Mountains stood off in the distance, and a star filled sky hung overhead. Mike walked forward and he felt the gate disgorge the others behind him. As he turned to face his friends, he heard a crunching noise and whirled back around. It was the Tall Man, and He was walking straight towards them, crunching gravel underfoot as he walked. Suddenly, as He walked to them, Mike and his friends found themselves flung to the ground and the ground itself heaved up, and up, and up! When they arose on shaky legs, they saw the Tall Man still standing, watching them with an amused look. He addressed Mike, “Welcome, Boy. Do you realize this place?” Mike shook his head. “No. We’re back in the desert, but what does it mean?” The Tall Man pointed a long, bony finger over the side, down to the distant ground. “You’re back where it starts, Boy.” As Mike walked to the Pyramid’s edge, the Tall Man gave Regg a sidelong glance. “Ah, Ice Cream Man, still trying to save the boy.” The Tall Man glanced at the pink, puckered scar that climbed Regg’s left arm. He threw Regg a wicked smile, “I see you carry a souvenir from our meeting at the Alpha Centauri Station. Good, scars are reminders of our past.” Regg gave the Tall Man an uncertain look. He glanced down at his arm, then at Jody who just shrugged. The Tall Man raised his eyebrow, smiling. “Ah, I see you do not remember. Pity, but then again the gates sometimes have that effect on the feeble human mind.” He turned his attention back to Mike, ignoring the others completely. Mike got to the temple’s edge and glanced down. He could see they were on a black, glyph-covered, stepped pyramid that rose several stories into the air. As he looked down into the cracked, parched plain, the red moonlight of a blood moon revealed a field of red-tinted, silver posts. In the far distance, he could just make out the burned wreckage of the hearse. He glanced over at Regg and Jody who stood with the others. They gave him a bewildered look. Mike turned back to the Tall Man. “So why are we here?” Mike glared at the Tall Man. The Tall Man smiled enigmatically. “To show you the way, Boy. You are ready now, but how can you follow Me if you don’t know the way?” “I’ll see you in hell before I follow you!” Mike bit out. “And so you shall, Boy!” Regg and the others fanned out behind Mike as he began to circle around the Tall Man. “So, let’s end this unreality, this Phantasm, shall we?” The Tall Man turned to follow Mike’s circle, but He said nothing. Regg and the others held their weapons trained on Him, but He seemed not to notice. Mike seemed to find the spot he was looking for and stopped. The Tall Man held his gaze, unflinching. “Where’s Morningside?” Mike demanded. Regg and the others kept their weapons on the Tall Man, but each glanced at Mike uncertainly. All except Kristen and Guy, they seemed to accept the question without a problem. Regg eased up next to Mike and whispered, “Hey Mike, you ok? He’s standing right there in front of you?”
Mike shook his head. “Not Him, not this copy. The real Morningside, the one that never returned through the portal he invented.” The Tall Man smiled again and shrugged. His right hand twitched, and right next to Mike, the stones slid away and an onyx crystal chamber rose into view. Inside was a withered figure, collapsed against the side of his prison, a prison that had held him for over 145 years. Mike laid his right hand upon the crystal and it slowly and quietly shattered, falling to glass dust that drifted away upon the breeze. Inside the crystal was an old man. It was Jebadiah Morningside, old and withered, but alive nonetheless. The figure slumped down as his prison disintegrated and Kristen ran over and helped the old man sit up as Guy took guard to protect them. Mike glanced at the old man and the old man’s eyes widened and he scampered back somewhat. Jebadiah looked around wildly until his eyes met Reggie’s. Do something…stop him, kill him…Jebadiah thought into Regg’s mind. He pointed a long, shaking finger past Regg. Suddenly, Regg saw that he was pointing at Mike, not the Tall Man! Regg thought of his dream in the car, but shrugged it off and retrained his weapon on the Tall Man. The old man’s losing it, Regg thought to himself. He’s been here too long; he doesn’t realize that Mike is here to help. Regg kept telling himself that, but he shivered slightly and he glanced uneasily at Mike. “Is this the real Morningside?” Mike asked his older brother. Morningside is terrified of me! I can feel his fear, what gives? “Yes,” Jody replied. “Then who, or what is He?” Mike asked, nodding at the Tall Man. Jody shook his head. “I don’t know, Mike. I only know with my time with Him that He is not human and that He is definitely not Morningside. As I told you when we traveled back to His time, Morningside never returned through those gates.” “So what are you?” Mike asked, eyeing the Tall Man as though he was a snake. The Tall Man’s smile faded. “I am the among the first, I am the fallen.” As He spoke, the human exterior began to crumble away, leaving only the gold orb that floated within a dark mist that had the outline of a dark angel, ill formed and faceless. “ I left the Heavens to come here and be worshipped. Before death was turned over to natural caused for humans, my scythe reaped thousands from this plane.” He drew himself up in pride, “I am niphilim, I am the death-angel, Thanatos.” The others tried to comprehend this, but Mike nodded as he fully appreciated the fallen angel’s claim. It was Reggie who fought through the confusion enough to ask, “So, how did you end up here?” The fallen angel’s voice was full of venom; “I railed against Heaven and earth, leaving to start my own kingdom here. We were condemned along with the rest of the earth during the flood. Only the one called Noah and his family escaped doom, having found favor. Along with the rest of the fallen, I tried to return to my rightful place in Heaven only to be denied…and destroyed in the Great Flood.” “Mike, we’ve got company!” Tim yelled. He had backed to the edge and was looking down. Mike returned his attention around him and he felt what Tim had seen. Thousands upon thousands of dwarves were clambering up the sides of the step pyramid. Mike glared at the dark angel; so, you drew our attention away from your army. You want to see what I can do angel? REAP THIS!! Mike’s eyes became cold and metallic and he raised his right hand, palm up and open; then he clenched it into a fist. The pyramid began to shake and everyone fought for balance except the angel who floated in front of Mike. The ground wrenched and trembled, then gave up trying to hold the pyramid as Mike pulled it up and away from the desert plain. The ziggurat now sat upon a small patch of land that had been ripped from the ground and now floated several stories above the earth. Dwarves tumbled and fell as the floating fortress began to slowly rotate. The rest of the Tall Man’s army was separated from the pyramid, Mike having lifted them from their reach. The Tall Man’s smile faded and his eyes went cold. “Careful, Boy! You don’t know what you are doing.” But the enemies didn’t stay out of reach for long. Regg and the others, they all heard it at once. A great buzzing filled the sky, like locusts descending upon the earth. Clouds roiled in the sky, obscuring the stars and suddenly out of these clouds fell a silver rain of death. Sentinels. By the thousands they fell towards the pyramid. Mike smiled tightly and waved his left hand. From behind him the gateway opened and Mike’s own shinobi sentinels flew to meet the Tall Man’s minions in battle. The shinobi had followed Mike and awaited the signal to join the fray. As the Shinobi Sentinels neared the Tall Man’s orbs, the Shinobi altered their shape, sharpening like diamond shards, long and pointed. The Shinobi cut through the Sentinels, tearing them apart. When the Sentinels cut into the Shinobi with their blades, the liquid-metal shinobi bled red-and-silver and fell from the battle. Metal and sparks fell from the sky like some bizarre bio-metallic rain. Regg and Tim knelt down back-to-back and began firing their weapons into the oncoming sentinels. Rocky stood to their front, throwing her liquid-nitrogen shuriken and bringing down sentinels again and again. Jody and Liz stood behind the others and fired their orbs, cutting across the advancing airborne army. Sweat began to pour from everyone’s bodies, and their faces took on tired and haggard looks. Even Jody and Liz suffered exhaustion as their orbs were powered by their very essences’. Kristen helped Jebadiah over to the heroes’ position, as Guy fired a .16 gauge, belt-fed automatic shotgun to cover their position. Once there, Kristen brought her wooden longbow to bear on the sentinels. Again and again she fired, bring two at a time down in some shots. Leaving Mike and the Tall Man to face off, while their armies battled around them. The Tall Man advanced and Mike called all of his telepathic energies around him. He blasted the angel with concentrated energy that the dark being blocked with his ‘wings’. The creature then caused the stone to rise like a tidal wave, knocking Mike down in tumble of blocks. The roiling blocks continued onward, tearing through Mike’s friends defending his back. The wave caught Regg unprepared and knocked him back. End-over-end Regg tumbled, losing the quad and he went over the edge. “No!” Mike called, seeing his friend go over the edge, but the dark being hit him full on with a ring of energy that brought him to his knees. Mike struggled to right himself under the onslaught. Jody and the others glanced at Regg’s predicament, concern in their eyes, but they couldn’t lose concentration on the battle or the sentinels would cut them down where they stood. Jody glanced at Tim, “Go, help Regg!” Tim kept shooting and began to scurry over to the edge. He looked down and saw that Regg now clung to a small statue that protruded from the temple’s edge. Tim lay down and reached for Regg’s hand. Regg looked up, stretching to catch the young man’s hand. Suddenly, Tim looked confused and his one good eye seemed to lose its luster. Tim’s hand went limp, and then he fell over the edge. Regg found himself hanging on to Tim’s limp form with one hand, and clinging to the side of the stone monument with the other. “Tim, don’t you let go!” Regg yelled, struggling to hold on. As Regg watched in horror, he saw Tim’s head flop back, as though looking up at Regg. The youth’s face however held no emotion, slack in death. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth and his eye stared into the void. Tim’s head jerked violently, and a sentinel that had burrowed into his back as he had tried to help Regg found its escape as it tore through Tim’s throat. Regg found he could not hold on any longer and his fingers slipped from their perch. Regg fell through the air, trying vainly to hold on to Tim’s body. The shrieking wind tore the youth from Regg’s hold and was lost to him. Tim slammed against the stonewall of the temple and continued its path downward. Regg tumbled through the wind, falling down, down, down… Mike felt his insides turn to jelly as he watched Tim and Regg tumble down off of the temple. Rocky had run to their aid, but was too late and now found herself separated from the main group. Sentinels formed a wall between her and her friends, but she fought on, trying to return to them. Running out of shuriken, she broke out her nunchucks and waded into the sentinels. Mike’s fury built until he couldn’t contain it anymore. The dark being was talking as he fought his way back upon his feet. “The old man is too far gone, Boy,” Death was saying, “Even I cannot keep him alive forever in my current state. If he had been younger when he crossed to my realm, we would have had longer together. But now, he is failing and so is causing me to fail. But you, Boy, you will last a long time! Your body should copy fine until I have my own back!” Mike looked over to see the old fortuneteller and granddaughter watching him. Mike’s anger doubled and he stood his ground, determined to bring this to an end. Stop trying, what nonsense! Mike thought. The old woman shook her head. The last spoken by Death flagged Mike’s attention, but he didn’t stop to ponder its meaning. “Go to hell!” Mike’s fury called down lightening from the sky. Clouds swirled overhead, forming a maelstrom in the sky. The winds blew with hurricane force, nearly toppling everyone from their perches. Mike called the lightening to his hands, and blasted the Death Angel with full force. Lightening swirled over the being in jagged tatters, and flowed down the sides of the pyramid like snakes writhing. Mike blasted it with telekinesis formed in concentric rings. More energy poured from Mike, like a black hole reversing its energy. White-hot energy washed over Mike, and he released it in full fury towards his nemesis. The tidal wave of energy blasted the creature, but then continued on, seeming to come from the earth itself. Lightening flashed overhead, then twisted back on itself and ran across the sky in hellish patterns. The air swirled and the ground shook with a force not felt in thousands of years. Nearby mountains crumbled and fell, their debris cloud filling the sky. Volcanoes the world over vented their fury all at once. Tidal waves slammed into the coasts across nations, wiping some from existence. Mike tried to stop the energy release, but found he could not contain it. More energy poured from him in waves, uncontrolled like a savage beast loosened. Mike began to glow white, and you could see his skeleton, black within and his golden orb shining, hidden with his skull. Clouds were yanked from the sky, forming tornadoes and hurricanes within minutes instead of days. The energy pulled satellites down into the sky forming long, fiery streaks that crashed into the earth with such force that entire cities shook. Mike held his head and screamed, turning and falling to the ground on his knees, but still more energy came, rising like heat off of asphalt. “Mmmiiikkkeee!” Jody called, his voice eerie and metallic as he reached for his younger brother. “Ssssttttooooppppp!” “Agggh!” Mike screamed, holding his head. “Jody, I can’t stop it! Run, get the hell out of here!” The stars overhead careened and wheeled wildly as the Earth was torn from its orbit. As the Earth rose up out of its orbit, it strained the moon until the natural satellite could not take it. The moon was pulled completely around, its dark side exposed to sunlight for the first time. Then, the strain was more that it could take, and the moon was torn asunder. Thousands of small meteorites were thrown into the atmosphere, raining death below. Part of the broken moon brushed the Earth’s atmosphere, boiling part of the seas and catching whole continent on fire. People perished by the millions in an instant. As the Earth and moon broke free of their harmonized dance, the entire planetary system became unbalanced and moons crashed into planets and the very rings of Saturn swirled around the planet like a vortex swallowing rain. The energy then turned up like a wall, killing both sentinel and shinobi alike. The spheres rained down with deadly force. Liz and Jody formed into their sentinel bodies and shot as many as the falling orbs as possible to save themselves and their human friends from impact. Kristen actually laid her body over Jebadiah to shield him from mortal danger as Guy kept shooting the falling metal out of their path. Mike closed is eyes until the energy he had called was spent, his aura actually visible in the normal spectrum. Then finally, it was over. Mike opened his eyes to find himself lying among the wreckage of mangled sentinels. He saw what he had wrought and he wept. He had killed both the enemy, his own army, and millions of innocents had died from his fear and lack of control. The old woman had been right. The few dwarves that had managed to cling to the side of the pyramid managed to finish their climb and stand behind their fallen master. Only the dented and banged up gold orb remained lying on the stone temple, smoke wafting off of it. The black, wraith-like fog that had been projected had been torn away. A short distance away, Rocky lay in a pool of blood on her back. Kristen and Guy knelt by Jebadiah, watching and not talking. Mike sat up, slowly, and then got to his feet. Shakily, he made his way over to Rocky and lifted her head up. Her eyes fluttered open and she took in Mike’s haggard face. “Mike, what have you done?” Rocky asked quietly. Tears streamed down her face. Mike looked around, blinking and taking it all in, yellow tears staining his cheeks. “I don’t know. I think that I have killed us all.” That’s exactly what you have done! The old woman in the wheelchair said in Mike’s mind. The old woman stood on legs that did not work, and Mike realized she was willing herself to stand. The ghost body of her granddaughter floated horizontally in front of her, as if she had died a second time. She walked unsteadily over to Mike and touched him on the forehead. You are a fool! Your fear has killed us all! With that, she returned to her chair, disappearing with her granddaughter. Mike didn’t know what to make of it. Mike tried to comprehend what he was seeing. The air was hard to breath; he could see the others trying to breath the hot, oxygen-depleted air. The gravity was holding everyone down; they had to struggle to rise. Around them and overhead, the dust that the destruction had kicked up obscured everything in a red haze. He could just make out the dark, rock-strewn ground below them in the valley. They were on the Red Planet. Planet Earth was the Red Planet and he had caused the transformation because of his fear!. Mike had shifted the planet out of orbit, closer to the sun. What air was left was dusty and hot, smelling of sulfur. The altered orbit had shifted the gravity, which now held them in its heavy grip. Overhead, the red dust clouded the atmosphere, which ironically kept the sun from scorching the earth completely, even as it robbed the oxygen from the atmosphere. Jody and Liz made their way over to Rocky and Mike, not saying anything. Mike wept yellow-tined tears as he held Rocky’s head up. Jody reached out and took Rocky’s hand, squeezing it slightly. Liz placed her arm across Mike’s back and said nothing. There was a crunch of gravel behind them. Mike closed his eyes, letting Jody take Rocky. He stood and turned knowing what he would find. There, standing right behind him was the Tall Man, looking exactly as he always did. “Why did you let it happen?” Mike asked at last. “Let it happen?” The Tall Man repeated. “Didn’t Mother warn you? Didn’t I tell you to follow? Look, boy, look at the portal field, you have damned us all! You feared my enslavement of mankind, but you, you boy have destroyed it!” Mike glanced over and saw the dimensional forks. They were now old and rusted. Instead of standing perfectly erect, they were now scattered and askew. The Forks were now disappearing slowly, almost imperceptible to the human eye. Mike looked back to the Tall Man. “So what does this mean?” The Tall Man looked down at him. “It means you have narrowed the possibilities down to what happens. You have ripped time and space asunder, and now you close off the avenues to repair your damage.” “My damage?” Mike yelped. “You were an untrained pup when you traversed the space gates. That’s why I didn’t copy you when I held you. You needed to open up your potential, to grow. If I had copied you then, I would be much weaker in my new body. You traveled space and time, creating whole parallel universes!” The Tall Man stared intently at Mike. “You are the creator of our prison, until Morningside stumbled across us.” He nodded towards the old man. “Whoa, I am the creator of your prison? What the hell are you talking about?” The Tall Man sighed, as if explaining the obvious to a small child. “Here, Boy! The other fallen and me, we were banished to your future; here in this very hell you just created, for our crimes! We could not leave, we had no bodies! We were reduced to our essences’!” Then Mike understood. “It’s the yellow blood, isn’t it? It’s not blood at all; it’s your essence! This place, our future, is your prison. But then Morningside came here through the gate. You cannot leave this place in your essence state, so you copied his body, place your essence in the gold orb, and escaped through the gates. You met me, sensed my telepathic abilities, and want me for your own, but until what?” “Very good, Boy!” The Tall Man smiled. “We, the fallen, were destroyed by separating our essence from our bodies. Our bodies are here, somewhere on this earth, buried by the flood and lost in the sands of time.” Mike nodded. “That’s what the dwarves do, isn’t it? You crush your victims so the dwarves are accustomed to the heat and gravity while they continuously look for those indestructible angelic bodies!” “And the sentinels are my army to invade once I have my body back!” The Tall Man finished. “And what about the others, like you?” Mike asked. The Tall Man looked around with his eyes. “Oh, they are here, Boy. Look, even now some of those streaks of light, falling from the sky are the fallen, being sentenced here just now as you created hell! My past is humanity’s future! Sometimes they try to escape, but ultimately they will serve me.” Mike got it immediately. “I have seen photos, old ones where mediums had ectoplasm coming out of their orifices. But it wasn’t ectoplasm, was it? It was the essence, the yellow blood, your friends trying to cross over to our plane of existence!” The Tall Man nodded. “Your feeble minds will not take the essence. Beside the orbs carrying me across to your plane in safety, your brain is equally protected in its casing from the essence that reanimates your body.” Mike nodded, swallowing. “And now, Boy, I will copy you and your powers until I am rejoined with my body.” He started for Mike. “I have few copies of Morningside left to inhabit, and they are weak. I can only copy what is there, that’s why I need you, Boy! Come, with your help I will rejoin my body and we will look for a way to repair what you have destroyed. You will serve me…” Suddenly, out of the gate atop the pyramid, the Cuda came tearing out and straight towards the Tall Man. It was Regg! He had fell through the gate when he toppled off of the ziggurat and landed back in the jungle where the Cuda had sat. He lined up the Tall Man and poured on the gas! He slammed into the Tall Man, separating him in two, yellow gore covering the windshield and top of the Cuda. The Cuda slid sideways, leaving black marks as it careened to the edge. Regg dove out and the Cuda went over the side, carrying the Tall Man’s upper torso embedded in its grill. The muscle care hit the bottom of the plain, exploding on impact. Regg lay on his side in the heavy gravity, panting. Mike started towards his friend, overjoyed at him being alive. Halfway there, he stopped short, his blood running cold. Just over Regg’s shoulder, a gold sphere shot straight up from the fireball the Cuda had caused. Mike yelled for Regg to get down, his voice metallic and slow in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. Regg turned as if in slow motion, drawing his .45. He came up to a kneeling position, taking aim. The gold sphere screamed towards him, spinning saws popping out on both sides of the sphere…Regg shot, hitting the left side and taking the saw blade off, but the sphere came on. Regg ducked at the last minute, the sphere barely grazing him. Regg twisted as the sphere passed, shooting it squarely in the middle. The sphere bounced past Mike and spun to a stop against the ledge. Mike, Jody, and everyone turned to Regg to see him kneeling, still alive, only a tiny trickle of blood coming from his head. Yellow Blood. Mike skidded to a stop, not believing what he was seeing. Regg knelt, looking at the yellow ooze on his fingers, uncomprehending what he saw. He reached up and touched his left temple, felt the cold metal embedded there. He looked again at the Yellow Blood. Then he remembered. Back at the Morningside Funeral Parlor, he was separated from Jody and Mike. He had found six girls in a room, two couldn’t walk. He had carried one and led the other three to the exit and then returned for the fifth. It had been the Lady in Lavender. She stabbed him, and then took him to the Tall Man. He had undergone an alteration, just like Jody and Mike. He remembered being dead, choking back to life. He remembered hearing the saw, his skull being cut and his brain removed. He had screamed in silence as they placed his mind in the orb, and then put it back in his head. His blood had been drawn out, and the yellow blood reanimated his body. He remembered being so cold as the Tall Man touched his forehead, and told him to forget. Then he had been reinserted into the time stream just a few minutes from when he had lost Jody and Mike. All of these years, the Tall Man had used him to track Mike, or to train Mike, or whatever the hell the sick bastard had used him for. Mike stood there, staring, unable to move. Regg looked up at Mike, confused. “Mike…?” Regg lowered his eyes, “Ah…Tanesha…” Nearby, the gate opened again and more sentinels swarmed out, surrounding Mike, Jody, and their friends. Three gold orbs floated up in front of Mike and took shape. It was the Tall Man, flanked by Alchemy and the Lady in Lavender. Alchemy looked towards Regg and blew him a kiss. “It’s time, Boy,” The Tall Man said, “I have called all of my generals together.” He indicated the orbs and figures took shape in the flesh. All of the ones that the Tall Man had made contact with over the years, showing them things and training them. Mike recognized them from his dreams: There was Dustin and Tony standing together. Just behind them was Floyd from Russia, standing with Natalie. The Scotsman, Steve took form beside the Americans Russ, Brooklyn, and Ayden. An enigmatic figure with the name ‘Bladghost’ tattooed down his arm stood to he right side of the pack. Kristen and Guy helped Jebadiah over to the group. All had heard his call, felt his pull, and none could resist. For reasons they could not comprehend, they were drawn as moths to a flame. Fight as they had, or come willingly, here they stood, awaiting Mike to join their group. Jody carried Rocky over and stood beside his brother as Liz came up beside Mike on the other side. Mike looked over the group and thought of the granddaughter’s words: “Don’t fear, Michael. Fear is the killer.” He looked at the fallen world he had created, trying to stop the Tall Man out of fear of what would happen. “Stop trying, just stop trying. How can you stop what is meant to happen?” Mike realized he was not the answer, he never was. He was the Tall Man’s echo, just as surely as he had split himself in two trying to thwart the Tall Man. That day on the Civil War battlefield, he had died, just out of the Tall Man’s grasp, only for them to resume the fight in this time. They had probably fought for an eternity, to this moment towards the end. And who knew? There was over a year left until December 21st, 2012 and that was time for hope to come through. Maybe he could stop the Apocalypse and turn back time, to stop what had transformed this into the Red Planet. He turned towards that hope… his friend, Reggie. He had said that Regg would fight until the end and beyond, and that was real hope. Even now, Regg reached for Mike trying to get to him, to help him out of the Tall Man’s clutches. Mike smiled warmly towards his friend. Not this time, friend. This time, I help you so that you can save us all. Goodbye Regg, my friend… my brother, I love you. Godspeed, always… Quietly, behind Reggie, a gateway opened as two silver dimensional forks appeared. Mike gently, so gently, made a pushing motion with his right hand and Regg, a forlorn look upon his face, slowly slid into the gate and disappeared, taking all of the possibilities and hopes for humankind with him. Mike immediately closed them down and the poles slid into the stone. Mike smiled briefly, feeling the possibilities swirl around him in the time stream. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw new dimensional forks wink into existence, bringing changes with them. Regg is already at work! Mike turned and walked to the front of the group with Jody, still holding Rocky, and Liz fell into step behind him. As he came abreast of the Tall Man, the fallen one gave him a strange look, raising his eyebrow and then turned and walked side by side with Mike, their contingents falling in behind them as the blowing dust of the newly formed Red Planet swallowed them up…
…Suddenly, Regg blinked fully awake! He was propped against the Hearse where Mike and Jody had left him until they returned. Musta drifted to sleep for a second, Regg thought, Man, is it cold tonight! Just then, Mike stumbled from the gate, saying the Tall Man was coming for him… Long moments later, Regg knelt over Mike by the burning hearse. “You’re alive!” Regg exclaimed. “Regg, I’m dying,” Mike said simply. Regg glanced from Mike to the gate where the Tall Man had retreated through with the gold orb from Mike’s head. A look of determination crossed his face and he gritted his teeth. He grabbed the quad and started for the gate. He paused just before entering, looking back at Mike. “Hang on Mike, I’ll be right back!” Reggie threw himself through the gate and into oblivion…
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Post by postmortem on Jun 6, 2011 22:02:48 GMT -5
Moderator's Note: This is the final chapter (12) by our very talented Prymal. Make sure to read chapter 11 first in previous post! Enjoy!PHANTASM 4.5: THE ICE CREAM CHRONICLESChapter 12: The Omega & The AlphaBy: Prymal 5/30/11“Hey girl, what the hell are you talking about?” Asked a voice. Rocky jumped awake, bumping her head. She was in the back of a C-135 cargo plane. She untangled her fingers from her dog tags and rubbed her eyes. “What did you say?” Tanesha stood over her looking amused. “I asked what were you talking about? You were dreaming and talking in your sleep.” Rocky sat there thinking. “I don’t know, I can’t remember now. I think it was something about a white-boy ice cream vendor trying to make out with me.” “Uh-huh,” Tanesha looked at her. “Girl, when we’re done with this mission, you and me are headin’ to New Orleans on some R&R. Come on, the captain wants us in the cockpit.” She turned and led the way out of the passenger area. Rocky followed, troubled by the dream and Tanesha’s comment about New Orleans. As they reached the door, Rocky noticed her voodoo necklace that Marie had given her was still around her neck. She looked up as Tanesha threw open the cockpit door. “It’s a dream!” Rocky exclaimed, falling back away from the doorway. Tanesha gave her a wicked grin and started laughing. Inside the pilot’s station sat the Tall Man. He turned and looked maliciously at Rocky, “NO, IT’S NOT!” He threw the plane into a nosedive and Rocky was thrown to the deck as the plane went down… * * * * * “Tim, breakfast is ready!” Tim awoke to his mothers voice downstairs. He had just been having a troubling dream about his father when he awoke. Felling relieved it was a dream; he nonetheless hurried downstairs to assure himself everything was ok. “Hey Mom,” he called as he crossed the living room towards the kitchen, “is Dad home today?” Tim entered the kitchen to find his Dad there pouring himself a cup of coffee. He looked up as Tim entered. “Hey, sport! You want to come with me today?” “Sure,” Tim went to the refrigerator. “Where are we heading to?” Tim asked as he opened the refrigerator door. He gasped as he did; inside sat his mother’s decapitated head, staring lifelessly at him. He spun back to his father. Tim’s father stood there, looking blue faced with lifeless white eyes. “To HELL!!” he exclaimed and reached out and grabbed Tim… * * * * * The bell rang and Liz hurried to her locker, trying not to be late in her first day at a new school. As she ran, a boy plowed into her, knocking her books everywhere. Irritably, she knelt down and started gathering them up. “Sorry,” the boy said as he started helping her pick up the books. “Fine!” Liz exclaimed, grabbing the book and stopping short as she took in the boy’s face. “I’m Mike,” he said, staring back. “Do we know each other?” “I don’t think so, I just moved here with my grandparents,” Liz said. “You do seem familiar, though.” “I gotta get moving, my parents are picking me and my brother, Jody up today. They’re taking us to see the new Star Wars movie that just opened up.” He looked at her intently. “Look, I’ll see you around.” He took off, but turned again to look at her before going out the school doors. Liz hurried home on her bike from school, anxious to tell her Grandmother about Mike. She entered the house and called out “Grandma!” “In here Elizabeth,” her grandmother called from down the hall. “Grandma, do you have cold? You sound strange and sorta like an echo..” Liz started as she entered the room. When she opened the door, she saw her Grandma was a shrunken, hooded dwarf. The dwarf reached out for her and Liz backed up towards the door. Nearly there, she bumped into something solid. She turned and looked up into the face of her Grandfather, skin tattered and dead with his mouth sewn shut. Liz screamed…. * * * * * Regg put down the guitar and everyone at the party clapped vehemently. He and Tommy had just finished an impromptu performance and he needed a beer. As he found a Dos Equis, a dark haired beauty caught his attention. The girl gave him a ‘come hither’ look and disappeared into one of the bedrooms at Tommy’s place. Far out! Regg thought and followed the girl. Inside, it was dark. The girl shut the door behind Regg and put her arms around him from behind. “You want to play, rock star?” “Oh yeah, baby!” “Lay on the bed, lover,” she demanded. “Hey Babe, what’s your name?” Regg asked as he lay down. “Alchemy.” The lights came on and Regg found himself being held down by Alchemy, and on the other side was a blonde girl. “Say hello to Jennifer,” Alchemy said. The other girl laughed. At the foot of the bed the Lady in Lavender stood holding a dagger. “Hello, Reggie,” the Lady said. “Your friend Gigi has been waiting for you to join our party.” With the last, Regg saw the lady hold up the severed head of Gigi, the woman from his dreams. All of the women began laughing. Alchemy leaned close to Regg’s ear, “How about a Foursome, lover?” Reggie screamed… * * * * * “It’s all over,” Mike mumbled. He bumped his head and realized he had been dreaming as he rode in the back of his parent’s wood paneled station wagon. As he came awake, he saw two men on the side of the road, talking. It was an older version of him and Jody! As he the car passed by, the older Mike and Jody waved frantically at them. The young Mike came fully awake and looked over at his brother Jody. “Did you see that s**t?” Mike asked, but then saw the look of terror on Jody’s face. Jody sat huddled in the corner, pointing up to the front of the car. Jody latched onto Mike’s sleeve. Up in the front, their father crushed their mother against the passenger side door, being held fast by a long arm. Their father in turn had blood coming from his nose and was turning blue. The Tall Man drove the car with one hand and was crushing the life out of Mike and Jody’s dad with the other. The mother and father were beating on the Tall Man’s arm to no avail. The Tall Man looked back to Mike with a sneer, “IT’S NEVER OVER!!” With those words, the Tall Man jerked the steering wheel hard to the right, and the station wagon began tumbling end over end… * * * * * The young man made his way to the cabin behind the owner as they walked up the trail in the woods. The owner was saying, “It’s pretty secluded up here. You sure you’ll be ok after dark?” “Absolutely,” the young man replied. “That’s what I need, complete quiet so that I can write.” A few moments later they arrived. The young man turned and shook hands with the older owner. “Thank you very much…I’m sorry. I didn’t catch your name?” The older, tall man smiled, “Scrimm, Angus Scrimm.” “Oh, thanks. I’m Don, Don Coscarelli.” With that, the older gentleman left Don to his secluded cabin. Don looked around and unpacked his bags. “Home sweet home for the next few weeks,” Don said to no one. “What’s this?” He looked on the table and found a Styrofoam cup with a hole poked through the bottom of it, and a sticky, yellow substance clung to the side. “Strange.” Don pulled the covers down on the bed and readjusted the pillows. As he did, a paper backed notebook fell out onto the floor. On the cover, in his handwriting was the word ‘PHANTASM’. Don thumbed through the book quickly, feeling his heart thump louder and his pulse quicken as he realized he had been here before, but when? These were his ideas, but he had never spoken to anyone about them and he had nothing written down, that’s why he was here in the first place! Suddenly, hands shot out from under the bed and grabbed Don by the ankles, pulling him underneath the bed. Don screamed. A short time later, the door creaked open to the cabin. Boot steps thudded on the wood floor. Don extricated himself from beneath the bed and stood up, facing the Tall Man. The Tall Man reached out and wiped a smear of yellow from Don’s temple. He then rolled his eyes to the left, indicating which way Don should go. Don reached down and grabbed the fallen Script and walked out the door. The Tall Man walked to the door, looking around the interior of the cabin, slowly, as if searching for something… There! The Tall Man locks eyes with YOU, holding your gaze. You play a good game, but now, the game is finished! The Tall Man smiled, raising one eyebrow and walked out, shutting the door behind him…. “IT’S ONLY THE WIND…” PHANTASM 4.5: THE ICE CREAM CHRONICLES
By: Prymal 5/30/11
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