The Shaman Read online

went to the next door, and it was locked. I kicked it painfully a couple times before I noticed the keypad beside it. I struggled to remember the code I spouted earlier. After a few minutes of this my fingers began to ache, and I finally gave it up. Probably not the right code anyway, even if I did remember it. Oh well.

  Before I made it to the next one, I heard Joseph tryin= to get my attention, then saw his head pop from one of the doors on the far end of my side of the room.

  ATumoc! Come and see all dis shit. You won=t believe it!@

  AWhat?@ I asked, heading his way.

  AJust come and see.@

  I finally made it to Joseph, and a smile split my face from ear to ear. The room was lined with every kind of rocket launcher, bazooka, grenade and explosive device I could think of, some I=d only seen in history books, very few I=d actually used. A shrill whistle slipped from around my tongue.

  AMy oh, my, can we ever make White Devil Souffle,@ voiced Leon from behind us. I turned, and there he was, decked out in tight-fitting camouflage, a heavy automatic something or other being hefted around in his fat hands.

  AThis, gentlemen,@ Leon said with a grin, Ais my all-time favorite of weapons. The M-16 B33 is best damned gun ever made in the history of guns, and there=s plenty more where this one came from. Ain=t it a beauty?@

  ANice,@ I said as I turned my eyes back to the rocket launchers.

  ADat is sweet,@ said Joseph. AAnybody happen ta find a first-aid kit yet?@

  ASure did,@ said Leon. AThere=s what looks like a pretty good, equipped, miniature hospital-type room right before the room with all this stuff in it.@

  AAnd you didn=t bother to come find and tell me about it. I guess my arm isn=t an emergency to you like it apparently is to me. Thank you so much Leon. You=re such a good friend.@ Joseph was simmering with anger, and looked sad at the same time.

  ADon=t mention it,@ said Leon, admiring his gun. AI wonder if there=s a firin= range around here. . .@ He wandered off.

  AHey!@ I yelled after him harshly, AWhich room is the medical one?@

  His head popped back in the room . AFollow me.@

  Leon led us to the med room. We got Joseph patched up pretty good, and went and got us some of that camo-clothing Leon had found. Joseph wouldn=t fit any of the clothes, so we had to patch together a makeshift uniform with the sewing kit we found. We finished exploring as far as locked doors would let us, but we hadn=t yet went down any of the three staircases we=d found. The old food packets we found in the kitchen had expired some years ago, and though we were definitely hungry enough to try >em, we certainly weren=t brave enough to, especially in light of what had just happened to Jumon earlier in the day.

  So everybody was dressed, fully armed and loaded, and ready to go huntin= for Devils or food, it didn=t matter which. We now had the upper hand on either one. Infrared tracking, heat seeking missiles and bullets. . .but now we had to find a way out.

  We tried the nearest staircase, and when we got to the bottom of it we found ourselves standing on the edge of a vast deserted parking lot. The lot stretched as far as the eye could see ahead of me, and to the sides the walls were very distant.

  AAh, it=s good ta see quality engineering,@ said Joseph with a sigh. ADese days it seems dat all we have are a few competent repairmen, and dose few and distant, very rare.@ His tone had become steadily more wistful. AAh, da feats of da ancients, some are saying even now. Pretty soon it=ll be da sacred work of da gods, den a mysterious lost civilization. . .blah blah blah!@ he ended with a sudden flashing smile. AKill Whitey!@

  AKill Whitey!@ Leon and I mocked in unison.

  AReminds me of a silly song I heard at the Library,@ said Leon. AIf I ain=t mistaken, it was written by the White Devils they own selves. Crazy mo=fuckas!@

  AYeah, lets go gettum!@ said I.

  AAnd take deir food,@ said Joseph.

  AAnd put their underwear on fire!@ yelled Leon.

  Joseph and I smiled. Eventually we found a double-lane road ramp that ran steadily uphill, and after a good long healthy hike, we finally made it to a set of controls imbedded in the concrete next to a dead monitor screen. A concrete wall with a rusted metal seam down the middle blocked our path.

  The controls were simple. The monitor stayed dead, but the seam of the door split, and slowly ground and grumbled its way open. We walked through the opening, and found the door opened up from the side of a grey hill that was merged perfectly with the surrounding hilly terrain. A broad, cracked blacktop road conveniently wound its way past the massive opening, and all of it was overgrown with years of neglect. The fat yellow moon shed plenty of light to see by, and the stars were thick and bright in the cloudless night sky.

  AWhat=s those sensors say, Leon?@ I asked. He looked down at his wrist scanner, and smiled.

  AIt seems they=re all grouped around a small area a few hundred yards west of us. My guess is they=re still trying to figure out a way to get through that outhouse. . .Wait. Some of >em are already a few meters below the other. . .@ His smile spread slow and malicious. AFish in a fuckin= barrel!@

  We made our way slowly and cautiously toward the swarming mass of Devils. We got close enough to smell >em, and a few steps later, there they were. Before I could say a word, Joseph began arming the concussion grenades on his belt, and Leon found his target, the Devil with the rocket launcher, and opened fire. Joseph then, as methodically as he=d armed them, began lobbing grenades, one after another, right down the line.

  AWhat am I waitin= for,@ I mumbled to myself, taking aim with my bazooka armed with a cluster bomb, and pulled the trigger. Those Devils that weren=t running by now were either dead or clutching at the ruins of lost limbs, and I think some of >em might=ve been making more noise than the explosions and machine gun fire. Tossing the bazooka aside, I cocked my own gun, the twin of Leon=s, and tore into anything that moved.

  After a few minutes of this, and after all the Devils above ground had fled, or no longer moved, and after all the fires had burned themselves out, we made our way over to the splintered remains of the outhouse. Joseph and I kept a watchful eye out, as Leon slowly crept his head over the opening in the ground. He jerked it back suddenly, barely avoiding a pack of black arrows.

  ABye, bye birdies,@ said Leon with an evil chuckle, his face full of gleeful spite. AIt=s been nice knowin= ya, fellas. Give my regards to king Blondie when you get ta heaven.@ He paused to hear their curses, and change his voice to a mocking twang. AOh, don=t worry, I=ll be givin= mine to yer sisters and yer wives when we find yer undefended nest. Never can have too many slaves and second-class citizens to polish my boots, amongst other things. . .but I ramble.@ His voice changed to melodrama. AGoodbye, my darlings.@ With that, one after another, he dropped just about every one of the many different explosives he had on him into the pit below, until finally he sighed, and looked inside.

  AAw, hell, yaw needs to come see this. My my, ain=t it pretty.@

  Joseph casually peeked down into the chamber, but the smell of it was enough for me.

  ADamn I=m hungry,@ said Leon. Lets start searchin= what=s left of those mo=fuckas back there and see if they got any grub on >em.@

  AI don=t know how in da hell after all dis,@ Joseph said, his tone surprised, Abut I=m starvin= myself. I ain=t gonna eat around here though, hell. . .wait a minute. . .you here dat?@

  ASure do,@ I said. The distinctive sound of that damned Devil truck was makin= its way up the road to the west of us, growing louder and louder by the second.

  AHide. Hide!@ I yelled in a fierce whisper. We all got behind one tree or another, and then, there it was. You couldn=t tell what color it was in the dark, but its beat up markings were unmistakable, its bed brimming with Devils. The truck skidded to a stop, brakes squealing like a soul of the damned.

  AStay in the truck boys,@ said the unforgettable voice of the chief. AMe and Lormond >ll investigate. Come on son.@ The two doors of the truck creaked open, and out stepped the tall menacing form of the chief from the driver=s side, and from the ot
her door stepped the much smaller figure of his poor halfbreed son --

  The streak of fire from behind Joseph=s tree caught me as much off-guard as it did the small mass of screaming-burning Devils caught in the violent explosion of the truck beneath them. The chief was thrown clear of the fiery wreck, his camouflage swastika-confederate uniform torn to ribbons, burned and smoking like the shrapnel-imbedded flesh on his back. He tried to rise once, and fell face-down in the ashes of burnt foliage beneath him, and lay still.

  AAre dey all dead?@ asked Joseph as he strolled from behind his tree. The light from the burning truck bathed the area in flickering light.

  Leon emerged from the woods and made a circuit around the burning truck, almost complete until he stopped at a corpse that differed from the rest. Where their flesh was pale and pink, where it wasn=t charred and bleeding, his was yellow-brown. Where their hair was straight and oily, his was kinky, though not as tightly curled as Leon=s.

  ANow, now,@ said Leon with a spat on the small corpse, Aain=t this a sight.@ He pulled a knife from a sheath at his belt, and knelt down.

  ANo!@ screamed Joseph so loud it seemed the trees shook. His body was tense with fury. Leon looked at his hand that held the knife, looked at the gleaming blade, looked to where the boy=s lifeless eyes stared out blankly toward the starry heavens.

  ADamn,@ said Leon as he stuck his blade heavily into the