nova fiction guest article #14

NOVA FICTION GUEST ARTICLE #14
#13 just posted prior to this, my daily article posted prior to that.
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It was weird, that little encounter, she was surprised and yes, awed that I had held the door for her. She went past me stammering her thanks. I had to back up to give her some room. The women we attracted weren't Burner women. They got all the hot ones I had been told. We were attracting the fat ones. Even when they were young they still had a roll or three of fat. Good women but fat. Roy said he liked them that way but I wasn't going there. At least if Sharon kept coming through for me I wouldn't be.




I blessed a few more people who were milling about packing. They loved that. Rick had his "headquarters" in the basement and I headed down the stairs. I hadn't been here before and I have to admit I was curious what our Good Demon had down there. I was picturing giant flat screens glowing with Demon info flows. Computers and other Demonic gear twinkling and sending off Demonic energy and music playing from one of the forbidden sources like an iPod.



Instead I found more people packing to go. I didn't know he had people sleeping in the same room as his computers. I looked at them closely. None of them looked contaminated. They looked happy to see me and I spun off a few more blessings. Sharon saw me, smiled, and beckoned me over to join her and Rick in front of a laptop that they had been staring raptly at when I had come in.



As I approached them she said, "Chosen! You got to see the response our video is getting!"



I stopped dead and stared at them. Rick had given me a quick smile and had fallen back into the screen. His hand his only visible sign of life as it twitched on the mouse to glide it in response to the Demon that lived inside the glowing profanity that it was.



Anger filled me. HIS anger. This was wrong! Very very wrong! HE filled me with rage and it tasted so sweet to me. Sharon saw me coming and she knew something was wrong. She had just stood up, her mouth opening to say something, her hands rising in the air, probably to signal "Stop!" It was to late. Rick had clued in that something wasn't right. He was looking at me, his eyes beginning to widen, as I stopped, raised STAFF in the air, and brought it down like I was swinging an axe. STAFF slammed into the laptop sending little black keys popping into the air. STAFF was Angry! STAFF crushed the table the laptop was sitting on and collapsing it onto one of Ricks knees. He started screaming. Sharon was yelling "No!" I raised STAFF again and caught the laptop monitor which had detached itself from the keyboard part and was sliding slowly to the ground. That was a satisfying crunchy hit.

I raised STAFF again. I can't what I was thinking or even if I was. I do know that if Sharon hadn't gotten in front of Rick I would have killed him. She was yelling, "No! No! Stop! Please Chosen!" I would have to take her out to get to him and I didn't want to do that. "Not Yet" HE whispered. I lowered STAFF and the room which had shrunk to the space Rick, Sharon, and I occupied snapped back to its full size. With that came the knowledge that it wasn't just the three of us. There had been three people in here when I came down. Two men and a woman.



Rick was moaning and Sharon had changed her focus to him since I looked like I was no longer going to beat the crap out of him. Myself? I was still working on getting my brain re-tuned for dealing with the reality I needed to inhabit right now. I felt people behind me. Before I could turn around I heard a voice, It was Micah, a recent convert, say "You okay Chosen?" I looked over my shoulder. The two men had fanned out behind me. Micah had a closed Buck knife in his hand. The other male, Tiny, had pulled his shirt up to expose the handgun he had tucked into his waistband. The woman was standing by the stairway watching all of us. I wasn't sure what that was all about. I didn't really care either.



I told Rick "Get up. We leave in fifteen minutes. With or with out you." I turned to leave and as I did I told the two men "We're good. You need to go forth soon." I thought that I had covered everything but Sharon couldn't let me get away clean. She shouted, "Chosen!" I stopped and turned around slowly to look at her. She had her hands on her hips and her head cocked. Never a good sign with her.



"Was that necessary?"



"If you have to ask then you might want to rethink coming with me. You got fourteen minutes."



I looked at the two men who backed me up. "How many of there are you total heading out?"



"Three." This was from Micah.



"Including the woman by the stairs?"



"Yes sir."



"You have a car."



"Yes sir!"



"You'll be leaving with me."



"Outstanding! You won't regret it sir! We're ready!"



I left.



I was still coming down of HIS righteous anger and, if I was honest with myself, my anger was partially from seeing Sharon sitting there next to Rick with her head in the screen. There should not have been a computer in our compound. It was my decision and it was driven by pride. I wanted the youtube fame. I wanted people to know it was me who was working in HIS name. I was driven to me knees with shame and cried out to HIM to forgive me. I was such an idiot. I was kneeling in prayer when I heard Sharon's voice say "You lose something in the grass Chosen?"



"No. I'm praying." I didn't look up.



"That's nice. Any reason why?"



"Because I'm an idiot."



She laughed. I felt her hand on my shoulder, then her breath against my ear as she whispered "All men are. You may be the Chosen but you are definitely a man too."



I straightened up a bit when I heard that.



From further away I heard her say, "You got five minutes to pack."



We were rolling down the road twenty minutes later.



We were a two car caravan with Micah driving an older blue Suburban and following behind us. Rick was in the backseat and in a bit of a snit over getting his laptop whacked. His leg was fine as far as I could tell but whenever he walked he limped. I wanted to hurt him.



We had one problem right away. No one knew where we were going including me. Everyone was looking at me and HE wasn't telling me anything so I decided we were heading South. So I told them, "Take I-95 South towards Richmond. We'll find a motel and spend the night there." I left it at that. To my surprise nobody had a problem with it. They just assumed I knew what I was doing. That came as a bit of a surprise to me. It had been awhile since anyone had assumed I knew what I was talking about. The last time that I could remember was when I had a job.



I was feeling better once we were on I-95. Traffic was slow. Traffic on I-95 was always slow though it was a little better than what I remembered. Part of that might have been the improvements made on the I-495 to I-95 merge lanes. The other part was the crappy economy. The good thing about the traffic rolling slowly was it made Roy a normal driver. It also gave me time to talk to him and the rest of them.



"Roy" I asked, "What do you know about the Micah, Tiny, and the woman. What is her name anyway?"



Sharon answered from the back, "That's Suzie. She's alright but a bit lazy."



Roy laughed and said, "She isn't lazy. She's pregnant."



Sharon returned with, "How can you tell?"