The Hands of Braxis

Part Three: Salvation

Cover: A grotesque, humaniod creature with long arms, short legs and claws leaping at Jason, who is firing at it with both guns. In the background, Braxis holds a golden box toward the night sky while an unknown young female is held before him by more of the creatures.

"y the time Marilyn undid the three deadbolts locks on her front door, her daughter Alexis was already pacing restlessly on the other side, eagerly awaiting Marilyn's grand entrance.

"Mommmyy!"   Alexis threw herself at Marilyn.   Dobbs swooped the girl up into the air and spun around in a little circle... being careful not to swing the girl into the cheap light fixture hanging from the ceiling.  "WWWEEEEE!"

"Whooa, have you gotten heavier since last night?"  said Dobbs.  She returned her daughter to the floor, and retrieved the ice-cream and rented movies from where she'd deposited them on the front step.   She closed and locked the door... then double-checked each of the locks.   "Karla?"   she called.    A thin teenager with curly blonde hair entered from the living room.

"Hi,  Ms. Dobbs."  she said.

"I'm on time for once.  You need me to take you home?"

"No thanks.  I'll walk."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it's just a block."

"It's getting dark outside.   I'll take you home-"

"Mommy, I want a dog!"  Alexis blurted for no apparent reason.   Marilyn looked at Karla, who shrugged her bony shoulders.

"Uhhh.... We'll see about that, okay honey?"

The phone rang.

Marilyn walked past it to the caller-id box.

"Pay phone?"  she mumbled.  "Who the heck uses PAY PHONES?"     She picked up the phone.  "Hello?"

"Millford Farms,"  said a male voice.  Dobbs didn't recognize it.

"Who is this?"

"Go alone.  3016 Miller Rd.   He's there."

"Who's there?"

"The man you should be out looking for."

"Who?  Brooks?  WHO is this?"

-click-

Marilyn held the phone up to her ear for a few seconds.  She looked down at Alexis, and then over at Karla-

"I'll call my mom and tell her I'll be late,"  said the girl.

" can't believe you ran out of gas,"  said Eve.  "Some hero YOU are."

"We DID NOT run out of gas!"  Jason retorted.

"Oh, so when the car started jerking and sputtering out there... what was that?   Epilepsy?"

Jason fastened his lips onto the end of the rubber hose he'd just stuck down into the gas tank of the small tractor.   He sucked on one end the hose until the gasoline from the tractor began to flow freely... then the shoved the other end into the Corvette's gas tank.    The siphoning action continued automatically.

They were hiding out in a old barn on the outskirts of town.   The farm wasn't deserted... as evident from the new tractor with the tank full of gas.  But the farmhouse was far enough away that no one saw Jason rolling the Corvette into the barn and pulling the big red doors closed behind him.

"How're you doing that?"  said Eve.  She pointed to the hose between the two gas tanks.

"Physics,"  said Jason.

"Learn that in school, eh?"  she said sarcastically.

"No,"  Jason smirked.  "I'm Black... we're born knowing how to steal things.  It's in the genetic code."

"That's not what I meant."

"No, but it's what you were THINKING."

"Oh, so YOU'RE the psychic now?"

"Don't have to be.  I know the look."

"What look?"

"That one."   Jason pointed at Eve's face.  "The one that says you're afraid of me EVEN AFTER I just saved your life.   The one that says you branded me a criminal from the get-go."

"I saw you in a vision,"  said Eve.  "You were yelling at me and shooting people.  That USUALLY means you're a criminal.  And it has nothing to do with how much sunlight your skin reflects."

"Cops yell and shoot people all the time.  Does that mean they're criminals?  Wait... that's a bad example."

"All right.  I was wrong.   I'm sorry.  Is that what you want?  An apology?"

Jason shrugged.  Eve moved to a corner of the barn away from the cars and flowing gasoline.  She pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

"Those things'll kill you,"  said Jason.

"So will THOSE."  She pointed to Jason's gun.   He'd taken off his trenchcoat, and the .45 semiautomatic was clearly visible in his belt-holster.

"You got a problem with guns?"

"Yes."

"Me too."

Eve took a puff on her cigarette.

"It's not real, ya know,"  she said.  "It's an herbal cigarette.  Very soothing... no tobacco."

"Herbal.   Riiiight.   You grow your own herbs for that?  Big tall plants with wide, funny-shaped leaves?  Roll 'em up and smoke em?"

"See, now YOU'RE doing it.  You think that just because I'm a psychic that I'm some hippy drug-addict."

"No, you just look like you spend waaay too much time under those heat-lamps."

"If we're quite finished with small-talk,"  said Donovan.  "Shall we at least start trying to figure out what's going on?"

"Okay, you know what?  HE'S freaking me out!"   Eve pointed to an empty space in the far corner of the barn.  There was no one standing there... except a ghost that only she could see.

"Who?  Donovan?  He's harmless," said Jason.   He looked where Eve was pointing and tried to see his ghostly mentor, but he couldn't.  He could HEAR Donovan, but not see him... a fact that annoyed him to no end.

"Harmless!?"  said Donovan.  "I beg your pardon!"

"A psychic that doesn't like ghosts,"  Jason said.  "Isn't that kind of a contradiction?"

"Ghosts are creepy-"

"Donovan?   Annoying, yes... creepy?   Naaah."

"But what I find even creepier,"  said Eve as she gave Jason a odd look. "Is that I can't read your mind."

"Good.   Hey, wait... you were trying to read my MIND!?  STAY OUT OF THERE!"

"Don't get all self-righteous with me," said Eve.  "YOU were trying to scan my aura in the car."

"Yeah,"  said Jason.  "I can't help that.  It's automatic."  It wasn't the exact truth, but it was close enough. "Your aura is strange... I couldn't get anything off of it."

"I was blocking you. My aura is my business."

"Blocking?   Donovan, can she do that?"

"Apparently so."

"Looks like we'll have to get to know each other the hard way,"  said Eve.  "No shortcuts."

"He is resistant to such attempts,"  said Donovan.

"But he... you... are not a sensitive.   Like me.   Even though you can talk to ghosts."

"A ghost,"  Jason corrected.  "I can talk to A ghost.   Singular."

"Then... what are you?"

"Donovan?  Maybe you can explain this... it's my first week on the job and I STILL don't know what's going on."

"What he IS,"  said Donovan.  "Has been called many names through the centuries.   Druid Knights.  Chosen Ones.  Warriors of God.   They were the fiercest among the Knights Templar.   They fought on BOTH sides of the Holy Crusades... striking not at each other, but at the darkness that was manipulating the world into a rapid march toward genocide.  Stories of their deeds have survived the eons as legends and myths.  Beowulf.   King Arthur-"

"Wait, wait..."  said Eve. "You mean monsters and fire-breathing dragons?  That kinda stuff?"

"Demons, actually,"  said Donovan.   "And men like Jason were the only ones who could stand between them and the innocent."

"Yeah,"  said Jason.  "Respect my authori-tay.  You were just kidding about the dragons, though, right?"

"So, Mr. Knight... where's your sword?"

In a swift, fluid motion, Jason snatched a gun off of his belt, spun the weapon around on his finger and slid it back into
its holster.  It all happened so fast that it was difficult to tell anything had happened at all.

"If it weren't for the fact that you have a ghost following you around... I'd swear you were a lunatic."

"Yeah,"  said Jason.  "That's why it SUCKS when people like you call the police on me.   They don't see ghosts.  And speaking of lunatics... it's your turn."

"What?"

"What's your story?  Those guys were after you because you're a psychic, but why?"

"They weren't after me,"  said Eve.  "They were after someone else.   The old guy, he said his name is Braxis.  Said something about how he used to be a doctor and now he wants to help the whole world...  then he starts asking for some girl."

"Girl?   What girl?"

"I have no idea."

"You sure?"

"Positive.   He demands that I tell him where she is... I tell him I don't know what he's talking about, and then everything goes south."

"Then I show up to save the day."

"What this means,"  said Donovan.  "Is that there may be someone else out there in danger from these people.  If it's psychics they're after, then it's safe to assume that the 'girl' they want is sensitive."

"But, uhhh..."  said Jason.  "If they want psychics, then why didn't they take HER?"   He nodded at Eve.

"Perhaps they want YOUNG sensitives."

"Nope.  The one they took in the vision was old and ugly... like her."

"Thank you very much," said Eve.

"Specific psychics, then.   They want certain ones."

"A psychic scavenger hunt,"  said Jason.  "But why?   Donovan... YOU'RE supposed to be the man with all the knowledge... what do evil people use psychics for?"

Donovan shrugged.  And, of course, Eve was the only one who saw him.

"He doesn't know,"  said Eve.

"But if there IS another target,"  said Donovan.  "We need to find her before they do.   That way we can-"

"Protect her,"  said Jason.  "Right."

"Noo... that way we can use her as bait."

"What?"  said Eve and Jason.

"They want her.  They will come to her, wherever she is.  We can confront them then... and if we have the girl, we can chose the time and place of that confrontation so that it is most advantageous to us.   Trust me, that approach usually works best in these type of situations."

"You want to use some girl... a total stranger... as bait,"  said Eve.

"Yes."

"I thought you said he was harmless."

A slurping sound from the tractor's fuel tank indicated that it was now drained of fuel.

"That's our cue,"  said Jason.  He yanked the hose out of the Corvette.  "Let's get out of here."

"And go WHERE?!"  said Eve.

"You're the psychic.  You don't know where the girl is?"

"I already said I don't know."

"... but can't you just... you know... find out?"

"No."

"Don't give me that!   You told the police exactly where I was... so make with the hocus-pocus and let's get a move on."

"This is different."

"Different how?"

"Well..."

"I think our plans have just changed,"  said Donovan as the sudden roar of motorcycle engines filled the air.    There were about a dozen of them.   They began circling the barn...

"Time to go to work,"  said Jason.   He slipped into his coat and dropped his hat onto his head.  He'd already checked and reloaded his guns.   "Stay here while I go do my thing,"  he said to Eve.

"You're just going to go out there and shoot them?"

"Of course not.  I'm gonna find out what this is all about... then I'm gonna convince them to leave."

"THEN he's going to shoot then,"  Donovan added.

"Get in the car and start the engine..."

Outside, the motorcycles stopped circling.  There was an ominous silence... and then a single voice:

"Come on out, Mr. Brooks!"   Braxis called.

Jason stood in front of the barn doors and waited.

"Jason, what are you-"

"Pause for effect... three...two...one..."

Jason kicked the wooden doors, and they both flew open in a sudden, explosive motion.  Jason stood in the entrance like a gunfighter... coat thrown back, one gleaming .454 Casull revolver in each hand.   Behind him, the Corvette's engine growled and came to life.   The headlights came on, twin beams spilling out past Jason and into the night, illuminating the motorcycle gang that had gathered around the barn.

Jason's gaze darted from side to side, taking in every detail.   The bikers had armed themselves with big sticks and lengths of metal pipe, but no guns.  Yet.   Braxis was directly in front of him about ten yards away.  The old man stood between two large bikers... both of whom Jason had shot earlier.  Both were in perfect health.  The motorcycles were arranged in a semi-circle around the front of the barn.  The bikers stood beside their machines, some glaring menacingly at Jason, and others trying to see into the barn behind him.    Jason raised both weapons and pointed them at Braxis... one aimed at each eye.

Braxis didn't even flinch.  In fact, he smiled.

"You really don't want to shoot me, Mr. Brooks."

"What I want is irrelevant,"  said Jason.  "As soon as one of your guys moves towards me, both of these guns are gonna go off whether I want 'em to or not."

"You sound like a troubled man,"  said Braxis.  "Perhaps I can help you?   That's really what I'm here for."

"To help me?  I doubt it."

"To help EVERYONE.  Not just you... everyone.   An end to sickness... and end to disease and infirmity.   Even with all the technology we have, we still can't cure cancer... or AIDS... or even the common cold.  I'm about to change all that.  And you... are standing in my way.   Why is that, Mr. Brooks?"

"Uhh... I dunno... maybe because you're crazy?"

"Am I?  Was I crazy when I healed the men you so cruelly shot earlier?  Guns can do such terrible things to the human body.  Tissue damage... trauma... shock... I wiped that all away with just a touch.   I can do that to the entire world, Mr. Brooks."

"And all you need is a few dead psychics, right?"

"For every great advance... there must be sacrifices."

"Uh-huh.  Well now that we've established the fact that you're five sandwiches short of a full picnic basket, I think it's time you and your goons just forgot this whole thing and left town.   Now.  Right now.  As in... immediately."

"Well, there IS the small matter of us outnumbering you."

"There's ALSO the small matter of me having two guns pointed at your skull."

"Fear if a very powerful motivator, Mr. Brooks.  But... after a little brain surgery, none of THESE men are even capable of feeling that particular emotion.   Gentlemen?"

Half a dozen-bikers charged Jason at once.  The other half ran to protect Braxis.   Jason fired had fired both pistols.    The men standing on either side of Braxis had leapt in front of their master even as he finished speaking... one took a bullet through the throat, the other took a shot to the chest.    Jason twisted to the left and dropped into a crouching position with a gun aimed at the two closed bikers.  He fired, turned to the left and fired again.    Six bodies were on the ground in less than three seconds.  Then:

vvvVVRRRRROOOOMM!!

The Corvette roared out of the barn, nearly running over Jason as it sought freedom.  A very frightened Eve was behind the wheel, her eyes were like two small beacons of pure panic.  Jason jumped to one side.  The remaining bikers scattered... not out of fear, but because the Corvette was momentarily between them and Jason, and they wanted to get around it.   The car's performance tires threw up a spray of dirt, and then Corvette shot off through the grass.

"DAMMIT SHE'S GETTING AWAY!"  Braxis howled.

"DAMMIT SHE'S STEALING MY CAR!"  Jason added.

"Jason, don't get distrac-"

KLUD!

Something struck Jason across the side of his head.  Everything went bright white... then red...then black for a brief instant.  Stunned, Jason dropped to his knees.   He was dizzy... he felt like he was floating... he could see everything around him, but none of it made any sense...

He heard something behind him.   Jason twisted pulled the trigger on both revolvers.  The powerful handguns blew most of the biker's stomach out through his back.  The lead pipe fell to the ground at the same time that ANOTHER biker collided with Jason and knocked him down.   His chin hit the ground hard, but he was already trying to squirm into position to fire.

KLUD!
WHUMP!

...things stayed black for a little bit longer this time.  When Jason opened his eyes a second longer, he was laying face-down in the dirt.  Someone had a boot planted firmly on the back of his neck.  Several someones were holding his arms down and removing the half-dozen weapons Jason had stashed on his body.   Jason still heard the Corvette's engine.... it seemed like hours had passed since everything had gone to hell, but it had actually just been three or four seconds.  Eve hadn't gotten away yet.

And she wouldn't get far.

Jason heard the roar of another engine, and the screech of tires.  A car door slammed... then another one opened...

"POLICE!"  shouted a very angry female detective.  "NOBODY MOVE!"

"...oh, great..."  Jason moaned.

"Detective Dobbs,"  said Braxis.  "We've just apprehended your fugitive for you.  And I see you've found our beloved Madam Eve."

Marilyn had been sneaking up on the scene with her headlights off, and had pulled in front of the Jason's Corvette as it was trying to get away.  Marilyn was now out of her car, approaching Braxis and the others with her gun moving quickly from side to side across her field of vision.  Eve hopped out of the Corvette and approached her-

"Oh, thank GOD you're here!   These people are-"

THUD
-click-

"Hey!"

Marilyn had spun the woman, shoved her across the hood of the car, and slapped a pair of handcuffs on her so fast that Eve wasn't quite sure what happened until she suddenly couldn't move.

"What are you DOING!?"

"I said nobody move.  You moved."

She grabbed Eve by the handcuffs and hauled her back toward the barn.

"NO!  WAIT!  YOU'RE MAKING A MISTAKE!"

"Nooo, a mistake would have been to shoot you when you popped out of that car and ran towards me like an idiot.  THIS is just being cautious."

"You ARE making a mistake!"  said Jason.  The boot on his neck pressed down painfully.

"Everybody on the ground!  Face down,  Feet spread!  Hands behind your heads!  NOW!"

Dobbs shoved Eve to the ground in front of her.

"ON THE GROUND!"

Braxis gave an almost imperceptible nod.  The bikers did as Dobbs instructed, but Braxis remained standing.

"You too, Braxis."

"Wait,"  he said.  "I'm a doctor... these men have been injured, I need to help them!"

"Don't let him do that!"  Jason shouted.   "Don't trust him!"

"You're the last person I need to be hearing from right now, Brooks!"

"I'm a DOCTOR, for God's sake!"  said Braxis.  "Let me HELP them!  I must work quickly!"

"Do what you can.  Slowly."

"I'm not a criminal,"  said Braxis.  He knelt down beside one of the men that Jason had shot earlier.  "Your criminal is over there.  WE caught him for you."

"Getting how many of your guys shot in the process?"

She reached into her pocket and got her cell-phone.  She pushed the button that connected her with police dispatch.   The phone rang.  As it did, Marilyn backed away a few steps so that she could more effectively cover everyone.  The man that Braxis was tending to started shaking... even though a large caliber bullet had shredded his brain a few second ago...

"Dobbs, you're being played!"  said Jason.

Someone picked up the phone.

"This is Detective Dobbs.  I need paramedics at-"

"RAAAAA!!!"

Something sprang at Marilyn with all the speed and force of a jungle cat.   It was the man that Braxis had been 'helping'... only it wasn't a man any more.   The large lump of twisted muscle more resembled a piece of gothic, abstract art than anything that could ever be born to a human being.  The legs and torso were short and bulging with muscle that hadn't been there before.   The arms were twice as long as they should have been, and each fingertip ended in a shard of sharp, exposed bone.   The face was gone... all that remained of it was two tiny, predatory eyes and one gigantic mouth.   The biker's clothes ripped and fell away as the creature leapt.  Marilyn fired her weapon-

POW!
POW!
POW!
POW!

-two shots to the chest, and two to the brain.  The thing didn't even notice.  It collided with Dobbs and knocked her two the ground.  Her cell-phone flew out of her grasp, but she brought her gun around and put her last three rounds into the thing's head-

POW!
POW!
POW!
-click-

The creature's claws raked down the front of her chest, shredding her jacket and shirt, and carving deep grooves into her skin.

"ARRRGH!"

She tried to shove the thing away, but was too strong.  She brought her knee upward into the thing's groin, and encountered only smooth, featureless skin.   She used her empty weapon to pummel the thing's thick skull to no avail, then she dropped the gun and clamped her bare hands around the creature's neck even as its claws wrapped around her own throat.  Her fingertips instinctively sought the pressure points and nerve endings what would have rendered a human opponent helpless... but on this creature they simply did not exist.

Jason couldn't see what was going on, but at the sound of the first gunshot he scrambled to his feet and turned-

KRACK!

A big hulking biker punched him square in the jaw, spinning him completely around.   A blow with a lead pipe across the upper abdomen put him back on the ground.   Someone threw an arm across his throat and got him in a choke-hold.  The biker yanked Jason back to his feet while two more proceeded to punch him in the stomach repeatedly.   The more Jason squirmed, the tighter the choke-hold became.

"...help..."

"Jason, do as I say-"   Donovan spoke some instructions into Jason's mind, and Jason followed him.  He jerked his head backwards, head-butting the man holding him.   The choke hold loosened, Jason twisted away, kicked one man in the groin, ducked under a wild punch, and kicked another man in the chin.  He saw his guns laying not far away.   He ran for them-

WHAM!

Something slammed into him and knocked him down.   Something heavy.   Then several rows of something very sharp began to dig into the back of Jason's skull.  Teeth.   Another dead biker, transformed by Braxis's flesh-sculpting touch, had pounced on Jason and had its jaws clamped firmly around Jason's head.   It began to bite down-

"STOP!"  shouted Braxis.

The creature's teeth halted their steady burrowing into Jason's skull.  Blood trickled down his neck and face from a dozen painful punctures in his scalp.

Then the creature was gone.  Someone grabbed Jason, pulled him up and got him in another choke-hold... this one preventing any movement of his head.  At least he could see now.   Two bikers had Dobbs in a similar hold.  She was bleeding from the chest and throat, but seemed to be okay for now.    The two creatures were pacing in circles around Madam Eve.   Braxis said nothing... he walked over to where Dobbs' cell-phone was laying in the dirt.   He crushed the phone beneath his boot.

"I already called for back-up before I came here!"  Marilyn sneered.

"I doubt that very seriously," said Braxis.  "And even if you had... it is your BACKUP who should be afraid, not me..."   Braxis knelt beside yet another dead biker.   He placed his hand over the man's face, and instantly the still-warm corpse began move... twisting and changing beneath the clothes.  "Souls, if there ARE such things, are beyond my reach,"  said Braxis.  "Dead is still dead... but a fresh corpse still has enough life in the cells and tissues to be useful... albeit in a greatly altered form."

Denim and leather ripped at the seams as the former biker rose.   Like the others, the body now resembled a mutated shaven gorilla with claws.     With Jason and Marilyn unable to move, Braxis resurrected the other bikers as well.   Soon, there were seven of the beasts... any one of which was capable of tearing a human being to shreds.  The things glared at Jason and Marilyn with their tiny, slighly oblong eyes.   Jason's searched for his guns.  A loaded .454 revolver lay on the ground not far away.   The other guns were nearby... the bikers had disarmed him and dropped the guns in a nice little pile... just waiting for someone to pick them up.  If Jason could only get away from the goon holding him...

...he'd probably get eaten by the butt-ugly monster squatting between him and the weapons.   The creature growled at Jason when it noticed Jason was looking at it.

"Don't hurt them, PLEASE!"   Eve pleaded.

"I am no villain,"  said Braxis   "I have no intention of killing Brooks or the detective, despite their interference.   They are no longer a threat to me, so there is no NEED to kill them."

"You'll just be letting us all go then, eh?"  said Jason.

"When this is done.... yes."

"When WHAT is done?"  said Jason.  "You still don't have the girl!"

"Ahh, but I do."   Braxis strolled over to Eve, who was still wearing Marilyn's handcuffs.   She tried to run from him, but three of the creatures moved in to cut off her escape.  She turned around, and Braxis was standing right in front of her.

"DON'T LET HIM TOUCH YOU!"  Jason shouted.  The biker's choke-hold cut off his breath before he could say anything else.

Braxis reached for Eve, but she backed away.   One of the creatures charged her and collided with her legs.  She went down, but not before Braxis grabbed her hair... and yanked it off.

"AAA!"

The wig came off in Braxis' hand as Eve fell, revealing a tightly bound knot of golden blonde hair.   Another creature planted a clawed paw on Eve's shoulder and held her down while Braxis ripped her shapeless dress away to expose the padding beneath.

"HEY-"  Dobbs yelled.  Then her captor choked off her words as well.

"A very clever girl,"  said Braxis.  "After all... who would believe a psychic that was barely out of her teens?  Right, Ms. Eve?  ... or should I say Ashley Ricks?"

"She IS the girl!"  Donovan said in disbelief.  "It was a disguise!"

"...duhh..."  Jason managed to gasp.

"Hold her,"  Braxis instructed his creatures.   He walked over to his motorcycle and opened the bag that hung beside the seat.  He began rummaging through it.

Jason eyed his weapons... so close... yet still out of reach...

"NOW it is time to end this cruel era,"  said Braxis.  He was walking toward Eve... Ashley... holding a small metal box.  It looked like a jewelry box, made of gold and silver with dozens of symbols carved into the surface.    All of the bikers... even the undead creatures... eyed the object with awe and fear.

"Uh-oh,"  said Donovan.  "We're in trouble."

"... the era of pain and infirmity... disease and affliction... ALL of that is about to pass away."

"Wha- what is that!?"  said Ashley.  She tried to slide away from Braxis, but the creature held her in place.   Foul-smelling drool from the creature's mouth dripped down into her face.

"Salvation,"  said Braxis.  "At first it was merely MY salvation... it gave me back what fate had taken away: the power to  heal.   What it wanted in return was surprisingly little.  A pittance, really... a few lives.   What is THAT when compared to the ability to save dozens, even HUNDREDS of lives.  To heal wounds... to mold flesh with just a touch.   I considered it a bargain at TWICE the price.  But I am only one man.  I can't be everywhere... can't touch everyone.   I needed something more.  I needed to heal the WORLD.   Heal ALL wounds... Cure ALL disease... everywhere... in the blink of an eye!   Tell me, Ashley, what price would YOU pay to make that happen?   A few lives?   A few very specific lives?  That's all it wanted... all it wanted to save the world.  A few lives... a few people... like you.   And you are the last."

"Let ME GO!"  Ashley screamed.  "HELLLLLPPPPP!!!!!!"

"Jason, that box... the creature inside it is a DJinn.  They are sworn enemies of humanity... cruel tricksters who's power is bound by the bargains they make with mortals.  Braxis has already made his bargain... once the Djinn claims the final soul, it will gladly do what Braxis asks.   But the only way I can think of to cure all infirmity and disease is to..."

"... kill everyone!"  Jason grunted.

"Or worse."

Jason squirmed and strained, but was unable to do anything but watch.  Braxis knelt before Ashley and placed the box on the ground.

"Don't be afraid,"  he said.  "In all the times I've done this, the end is usually quick and painless.  Usually.  As long as you don't try to do anything rash..."

"HELLLP!"

"It DOES like the screaming, though,"  said Braxis.  "Keep it up."

Braxis began to stroke the lid of the box with his fingertips... it was a lover's caress...... back and forth... back and forth...

Thin tendrils of black smoke began to emerge from underneath the box's golden lid.

"NNNRRRRGG!!"  Jason grunted as he tried to break free.  The biker holding him outweighed him by at least a hundred pounds.   All Jason managed to do was make the man tighten his grasp.   He tried jabbing his elbow back into the man's gut, but the angle was wrong.

Smoke was now pouring from the box.  Braxis continued to rub the lid slowly... then the lid began to vibrate... then rattle violently.  A eerie green light beamed from the tiny crack where the lid met the body of the box.

"...it's almost time..."  said Braxis.  The man was literally giddy... smiling from ear to ear.   "...almost..."

"HELLLP!"  Ashely bellowed.  "DONOVAN!  JASON!  DO SOMETHING!"    She managed to sit up, but the creature behind her swatted her back to the ground.    "HELP ME!"

Jason reached out for his guns... they were well out of reach, but he stretched out his hand for them anyway...

Suddenly the box's lid flew open.  The hinges made a tiny, creaking sound... and then a rumbling roar filled the air.  Braxis picked the box up and held it high over his head as A column of thick black smoke shot up into the air.  The smoke rotated... the column twisted back and forth like a miniature tornado.

"It HAS COME!"  Braxis shouted.

A figure began to solidify within the twirling cloud.  Something dark... a horrifying creature made of ash and smoke...

Ashley screamed for her life.

"MMMMMMM!!!!"  was all that Detective Dobbs could manage.  She had two bikers holding her, and even they were having a hard time keeping her still.

Jason's eyes locked onto his gun.  The gun... just a yard or two away... sitting there...

"AAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!"  The Djinn's laugh was like a rolling cascade of thunderbolts.  Jason felt the vibrations in his bones.   "THE SEVENTEENTH POWERFUL SOUL!  THE BARGAIN IS COMPLETE!"  The ground shook with each word.   "STATE YOUR WISH, MORTAL!"

"My wish is the same as it has always been," said Braxis.

"STATE IT AGAIN!!"

"An end to sickness and disease... everywhere... at once.  And end to the million plagues that time, genetics, and misfortune bestow upon the all-too-fragile human flesh."

"AS YOU HAVE STATED,"  said the Djinn, "SO SHALL IT BE MADE TRUE!   WITH THE CLAIMING OF THE FINAL SOUL, I GRANT YOUR WISH!"

The creature reached down.  One dark, clawed fist descended toward Ashley.   The girl turned away, with tears of terror in her eyes.  She looked at Jason, her face pleading with him to do something.   But he could not.  He reached for his revolver, fingers wiggling as if he could magically make it appear in his hand... if only he had it... if only he had the gun... the gun...

The gun moved.

At first it was barely a twitch, but then the weapon slid across the dirt and sprang into the air.  It shot past a startled creature and landed neatly in Jason's grasp.

"THE BOX!"  shouted Donovan.

Jason's arm moved of its own accord.   The gun fired twice in rapid succession... the first shot knocked the golden box out of Braxis's hands.   The box hit the ground and slammed closed... the Djinn vanished as if someone had pulled the plug on a movie projector.   The second shot put a bullet through the head of one of the bikers that was holding Detective Dobbs.

"URK!"

Dobbs twisted out of the second man's grasp.  He lunged towards her, but she laid him out with a savage right cross.

"KILL THEM!"  Braxis howled.  "PROTECT ME!"

Jason's third shot was at the ground a few feet away.   The bullet ricocheted off of a rock... then off of a rusty iron hinge on the barn door... then it went right through the neck of the man who had Jason in a headlock.   Suddenly free, Jason dove for the rest of his weapons.    One of Braxis's creatures was leaping for him... Jason hit the ground, rolled under the springing creature and came up in a crouching position, two guns pointed at the monster.

He fired two rounds into the thing's head, but the creature kept coming."

"Braxis has moved the vital organs!"  said Donovan.

Two more shots removed the monster's eyes.   The thing snarled and swatted blindly at the air.

"BEHIND YOU!"

Two more were springing towards him.

"Aim for the center of mass!"

One gun was empty.  Jason dropped it and reached for another while the second gun fired in rapid succession... one shot after another, alternating between the two creatures so quickly that it may as well have been two different weapons firing at once.

Both creatures dropped, squirmed... and went still.   All of their vital organs, even the brain, had been relocated to the center of their abdomens where they would be safe surrounded by layers of hard muscle.  Only THESE two now had abdomens that looked like swiss cheese.

"ACK!"  The last human biker hit the ground, his trachea crushed by a spinning ridge-hand strike from Detective Dobbs.    Braxis ran past her, making a mad dash for the golden box.    She ran after him, but suddenly Braxis turned and reached for her-

BLAM!
BLAM!

Braxis's right hand vanished, blown to bloody chunks by two quick shots from Jason's .454.

"ARRRGH!!!"

Braxis stumbled back away from Dobbs, as the last of the creatures swarmed to protect their master.   Dobbs retrieved her spare weapon... the 9mm she kept in an ankle holster.

"AIM FOR THE GUT!"  shouted Jason.

Jason grabbed the two snub-nosed .357's... he was down to them and the .45 semiautomatic.  It was more than enough.   He started firing like a machine... as if he himself was a weapon and someone else was pulling the trigger.   Every shot was a hit.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE THINGS!" Dobbs screamed... her voice inaudible over the noise from her own weapon.

Meanwhile, with blood pouring from his bloody stump...Braxis reached he golden box... only to find that it wasn't there.

"Wha-"

"Looking for this?"  said Ashley.  She had the box in her hand, and she was standing well out of Braxis's reach.

"Give me that!"  he howled.   He took a step toward her... and that's when the gunfire stopped.   The last of his creatures was dead.   Braxis had no one to protect him.   "Don't think this is over!"  Braxis snarled.  "My bargain STILL stands, and you are STILL the final sacrifice!  You WILL see me again!"  With that, Braxis dashed for the nearest motorcycle.  He jumped on it, started the engine and sped away from the barn as fast as the machine could take him.

Jason could have easily put a bullet or two in the doctor's back... but he had other concerns at the moment.

Marilyn and Jason glared at each other over the sights of their weapons.  Each was aimed at the other's head.

"You can't be serious,"  said Jason.  "I just saved your life... no way you could've taken all these things out by yourself."

"You're still a wanted man... AND you're pointing a weapon at an officer of the law."

"If I drop mine-"

"I'll haul your ass to jail."

"That's what I thought,"  said Jason.  "He's getting away, you know."

"But you aren't."

"After what you saw here tonight... you still believe I'm some kind of criminal?"

"I don't know what I saw tonight.  But I do know that there's an arrest warrant with your name on it.   You're coming with me."

"Can I just say one thing?"  said Jason.

"No."

"Just one?"

"Drop your weapon.  Now."

"You'll really want to hear this,"  said Jason.

"What?"

"Your gun is empty."

"Wha... DAMN!"

Dobbs lowered her weapon, which was, in fact, empty.

"ASHLEY, GET IN THE CAR!"

"You gonna add kidnapping to your rap sheet?"

"Not kidnapping,"  said Jason as he slowly backed away toward the Corvette.  He still held his weapon pointed at Dobbs.  He didn't want to shoot her, but he didn't want her running up on him and kicking his ass, either.   "Returning.  I'm gonna drop her off somewhere... and then I'm gonna disappear.  Maybe I can still catch up with Braxis.  If I do, I'll send 'im your way."

"You know I'm gonna be right behind you as soon as you pull out of here."

"You think you can catch me?  You guys tried that already... didn't work."

Ashley was already in the car.   Jason got in and took off, throwing up a shower of dirt... most of which landed on Dobbs.

"Damn,"   Dobbs looked around at the field full of dead bodies.   The non-human ones... the ones Braxis had reanimated... were beginning to dissolve into lumps of bloody mush.   "Nice,"  said Dobbs.  "Now how the hell am I gonna explain THIS!?"

Next Issue:What's this? Is the story over? Well you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that Jason hasn't seen the end of Braxis. He'll be back... soon. But meanwhile, something deadly is stalking the streets of Rock Springs... and it ain't the good doctor. Be here next month for: Ruger!

copyright 2005 by Dark Icon Entertainment