Chapter 27

 

1

 

          Officer Nelson stopped and set the hand brake on his patrol car.  The rain had tapered off though the wind was still blowing enough to rock his heavy cruiser.  He swung his search light across the beach towards what he thought was the fire.  As it flickered from side to side in the rain, he stopped and wondered if he were hallucinating.  He had never seen a two-legged lighthouse with a red beacon before.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed, as he reached over and flipped on his PA system.

"You on the beach.  Put your hands on your head and stand still!" he shouted into the microphone.

Hearing the officer's voice, Eddie momentarily looked for a place to hide.  He quickly realized that there was no place to hide as long as he was emitting the red glow that seemed to grow proportionality with his power.  To lose the glow would mean to lose the power and that was an option he wasn't ready to take.  Not yet.  If he could only find the bitch, he could sew things up here and beat feet.  Glow or no glow, he told himself, the cop was not an insurmountable threat.

"Where did you go, bitch?" he shouted out.

No answer.  Fine, he told himself.  I'll take care of her later, Jonathan too, and the ol' man.  That should just about do it except for Mr. Put-Your-Hands-On-Your-Head.  I'll deal with him first.  Then I can take my time to clean up the rest of this mess right.  He started walking towards the police car, while concentrating on melting the battery.

That should do it, he told himself.  No battery, no engine.  No lights, no radio, no chase, and no shit.

 

2

 

"I repeat.  Put your hands on your head and stand still!" Officer Nelson broadcast again.

Eddie put his hands on top of his head but kept walking towards the police car.  Mike Nelson was still trying to figure things out as he got out of the cruiser and drew his weapon.

"Stand still, or I will have to open fire," he shouted into the microphone.  "This is your last warning!"

Eddie stopped and, as if on cue, all power went out in Nelson's squad car.  Suddenly everything was black again except for the glow coming from Eddie's eyes.

"What the hell?" Mike Nelson said to himself.

He tried the PA system again.  Nothing.  He tried turning his ignition key back and forth.  Nothing.  Shit!  He grabbed the shotgun out of it's holder mounted on the dash and resumed his position behind the driver's door.  He chambered a round in the breech of the shotgun and let off a warning round into the night sky.  The glow kept coming.  It was only ten yards away now, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Something wrong, officer?" Eddie asked, with his nose flapping in the wind as he spoke.

"Take one more step and I'm going to blow your ass away buddy.  I mean it!  Now down on the ground."

Eddie did as he was told, hoping to pacify the officer long enough to work his way out of his present situation.

"I told Janice no police!" Eddie shouted.

"I don't know any Janice, so do yourself a favor and be quiet."

Eddie looked past the feet of Officer Nelson and saw the approaching headlights of another cop car in the distance with its blue lights flashing through the rain.  He cursed to himself.  Lady luck was definitely not on his side tonight, but then there wasn't anything he couldn't overcome.  He eyed a pile of driftwood near Nelson's feet, and picked out a piece that looked heavy enough to do the job. 

"Officer," Eddie yelled, "I think your friends are here."

As Mike turned to catch sight of his partner arriving from the corner of his eye, Eddie let the driftwood fly.  It caught him just below the ear, and he went down against his cruiser.

Eddie was up and running before Mike Nelson had regained his bearings.  Even though his glow gave away his position, he was over and down the next sand dune, not leaving the officer a shot.

"Shit!" Nelson yelled to no one in particular as he got back to his feet.  "The next time I see that son of a bitch I'm gonna shoot first and ask questions later!"

"Good idea," came a voice from above him.

He looked up just in time to see a woman, at least he thought it was a woman, fly off towards the glow that had to be Eddie.  She glided like a sailplane, yet was unaffected by the wind, a mere ten feet off the ground.

          "Ah shit!  First, a fucking human glowworm, now the Flying Nun.  I need a new job!"

Officer Preston pulled up behind him and got out of his car.

"So?  Where's the fire?"

 

3

 

Eddie skittered along the bottom of the sand dunes and headed for the jetty.  If he could just get to the other side of the jetty without anyone seeing him, he might be able to make an escape.  If not, he definitely would have lots of boulders to throw around.  He was about to start climbing the stairs to the old lookout tower when the spotlight from Preston's cruiser caught him in its beam.  One quick burst from Eddie's mental laser melted the tungsten wire that produced the light, and it quickly faded away.

"What the hell?" asked an astonished Bill Preston.

"Welcome to my nightmare, buddy," said Mike as he began walking towards the tower.

"Hey!   Wait up!  Do you want to explain to me just what the hell is going on?"

Nelson turned around slowly and looked his colleague in the eyes.

"I would, if I could.  But I can't, so I won't.  You better stay here and wait for more backup, then make damn sure no one gets out of this park!  No one, you got that?"

"This is fuckin' crazy, Mike!"

"I do believe you're starting to get the picture, Bill.  Just do me a favor and stay put.  I'm going after Pumpkin Head.  Don't even think of backing me up until you get some help.  And Bill?"

"Yeah."

"Don't fuck around.  Just shoot to kill."

"Whatever you say Mike."

"Wish me luck," Mike said as he turned and raced towards the jetty.

 

4

 

Eddie scrambled up the old wooden stairs to the lookout tower, breaking several of the weather-beaten steps as he went.  Once on top he followed what was left of the old Army Corps of Engineers road on top of the jetty until he found a group of rocks that looked easy enough for him to descend to the Columbia River side of the jetty.  The boulders were huge, many of them as tall as a full-grown man.  It didn't take him long to find a semi-sheltered area to retreat into.  He needed time to think.

No matter how far he tucked himself into the jetty, he realized, his glow would give him away.  He briefly thought about trying to calm himself again, but found himself laughing at the idea.

The water was somewhat calmer on his side of the jetty, yet occasional spray found it's way into his hiding spot.  He was not cold.  In fact, he felt nothing except the need to end this situation as soon as possible.  He brought his hand tenderly to his face.  It was a mess.  No biggy, he told himself.  He had seen what they had done to Dolly Parton, Pamela Sue Anderson, and Michael Jackson, so a new nose couldn't be all that tough.

He laughed at the thought.  I could have a nose that was one great big perfect tit.  And then I could spotlight it with my glow when I got pissed.  Now that would get me the attention I truly deserve!

'Yeah, and it would give you something to suck on when the going got tough too, you big baby!' came a voice into his head he instantly recognized.

'Janice?' he transmitted.

She let him wonder as she sat on a boulder several rocks from where she knew Eddie was hiding.  This flying thing was new to her and had drained her badly.  There was no way she could even attempt to deal with Eddie and stay airborne at the same time.

'Janice?' he queried again.

She waited silently as she gathered her strength.

'Come on Janice, let's talk.  There has got to be a way we can work things out.'

She bit her lip, trying not to think of anything but resting.  And building.  Building up of the power she knew she would need to defeat him, much like an Olympic weight lifters concentrating before pressing record weights of more than twice their body size.

'I know you're out there, very close.  How you got here is a mystery to me, but I am impressed.  You've come a lot farther than I could ever have imagined.  You have much more potential than your brother Jonathan.  I do hope he's all right.'

Janice continued to concentrate on the inner energy of her own body.  She knew Eddie was trying to play on her emotions, but she realized that all emotions were gone, but one.  There was no time for hate, or love, or fear, or even revenge.  This was about hope.

Hope for a world without Eddie, or anyone else with his kind of power.  Hope for the strength to do what she knew had to be done.  Hope for a world that was slowly losing hope for itself.  And believing.  She had to believe.  Believe in her self.  One way or another, she knew that things would never be the same.

'Come on Janice,' Eddie continued, hoping to play on her weaknesses and draw her out.  'If you think I'm just gonna lay here and bleed to death, you're badly mistaken.  I'm probably just like you right now, just biding my time and gathering strength.  Of course, I'm doing it at a much faster rate than your, considering how long we've both been at this business.  By the way, thanks for the nose job!'

She bit her lip even harder.

'There were other people you know.  Other people I did.  Don't you want to know who they were?'

Janice could taste the coppery fluid of her own blood as it ran under her tongue from biting her lip so hard, but she focused her thoughts on her inner powers, trying to block out Eddie's voice.

'Like, Lt. Taylor and his friend?  And several of Jonathan's political opposition, but then, you know that already, don't you?  You've chosen to ignore it until now.  Why?  Because I didn't fuck with anyone you still cared about?  That's it, isn't it?  You were just happy to live your life the way it was, power or no power, as long as no one fucked with your little piece of reality.  So was it Jonathan, or dad who brought you into the open?'

Silence.

'Come on Janice.  You can tell me.  Not that it matters.  I'm going to have to kill them both now.  Thanks to you!'

Janice felt her anger beginning to boil over but turned it inward, toward building her inner power.  Whether it was comprised of concentration, need, or rage didn't seem to matter anymore.  She was becoming a mental nuclear power plant, ready to explode, and she didn't dare waste the energy on anyone but Eddie.

'I feel your intensity, Janice,' Eddie transmitted, still hoping to get a grasp on exactly where his sister might be.

"Feel this, Triple E!" she screamed aloud, as she exploded all five of the boulders surrounding Eddie.

Eddie barely had a chance to brace himself as the shelter he was hiding in exploded as if hit by an eight-inch howitzer.  Jagged shards of rock embedded themselves in his flesh as the pulverized rocks then fell around him, setting off a chain reaction.  The rest of the jetty boulders in the immediate area followed suit, rushing in to fill the void of exploding rocks.  One of them was the one that Janice was sitting on.  The whole mess tumbled into the frigid waters of the Columbia River, taking both Janice and Eddie with it.

The sea was churning with the combination of surf, storm, and changing landmass, creating a wave sequence all it's own.  Somehow, Janice had managed to stay afloat, when an incoming wave tossed her high above the waterline and onto the rocks, knocking her unconscious.

Mike Nelson came over the top of the jetty just in time to see the last waves crash into the hollow where Eddie's cave had been.  He shined his long aluminum flashlight into the sky looking for signs of the Flying Nun, but saw no one.  Realizing that it would be easier to spot the Glow Worm without any light, especially if he was hiding, he clicked off his flashlight.

At first he didn't see anything.  He scanned both ends of the jetty again.  Then he saw a dull, now seemingly orange, light forcing it's way through the foam of the surf about ten feet from the edge of the jetty.

At first he couldn't believe it then decided that all believing would have to come another day.  He started down the rocks using the stock of his shotgun as a crutch to make it from one boulder to another.  He slipped several times on the rain soaked rocks and seaweed as he made his way closer to the glow in the surf.

He looked up just in time to see a rogue wave crest above the waterline rocks of the jetty, and he simultaneously ducked and fell attempting to avoid the onslaught of the powerful force of tons of water.  When the water receded, he was amazed to still be on the jetty with his gun in his hand, and to be on top of the Flying Nun.

He nearly screamed at the sight of her then quickly looked over his shoulder to check for another wave.  The waves were still crashing against the rocks but one to two rows of rock below him.  He turned back to her, certain she must me dead.  Then he remembered what had happened with Luke.  He decided to check for a pulse, but realized by the rising of her chest that she was breathing.  Thank God, he told himself.  His fingers were too cold to check for his own pulse, let alone anyone else.  He turned back to the water and instantly saw the glow coming near the jetty's edge.

Suddenly the Pumpkin Head emerged from the frothy sea and began gasping for air, seemingly trying to make for the rocks.

Nelson waited as the creature, he had long ago quit thinking of him as a human, caught the next wave and floundered onto a large flat rock that had no doubt been a favorite fishing place for locals at low tide.  To his never-ending amazement, the Pumpkin Head managed to stand on it's own two feet.

"Janice, you fucking cunt!" the Pumpkin Head screamed at the top of his lungs so loud that Officer Nelson could make out the name.

          "She's up here!" shouted Nelson, cupping one hand around his mouth to help focus the sound.

Eddie's head twisted in their direction and he began climbing the rocks toward them.  Nelson sat down on the nearest rock, checked his shotgun, and waited.

When Eddie climbed the last rock between himself and Janice, Mike emptied the rest of the double ought magnum rounds of his shotgun into the Pumpkin Head's chest.

Eddie went flying backwards off the boulder he was standing on and disappeared from sight.  By the time Mike managed to check on the situation, there was little to be seen except for a diminishing glow sinking deep into the frothy water.  A second later it was gone.  He stood there waiting another five minutes as the surf crashed against the jetty before turning around to check on the Flying Nun.

 

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