RAGE

23

Ronny looked cute as he lay there, one hand under his cheek, the other between his thighs, spittle dripping from his mouth. Sam had turned him into a recovery position so that he would not choke on his vomit if he threw up. 

His fingers twitched gently. His eyelids fluttered and opened slowly. He cleared his throat, sat up and wiped saliva from his lower lip. Slightly blurry figures were arguing not too far from him. He dropped his chin to his chest and took a deep breath. When he looked up, the vision cleared and he saw Sally, Kendra, Sam, and one of the new kids. The kid was sitting on the ground, rocking back and forth like a soldier who had just seen his platoon torn to shreds by artillery crossfire. Sally, Sam and Kendra were standing in a triangle. Judging by their body language, they were discussing something important. Sally threw up her hands to emphasize a point she was making, prompting Sam to do the same. In a talk-to-the-hand move, he rebuffed her, making her even more agitated. And that's when Kendra stepped in, placing herself between the two as a safeguard, keeping them at arm's length while calmly addressing both.

Ron's eyes moved away from the scene and spotted what he thought were two people taking a nap on the gym floor. White sneakers peeking out from under a red blanket. Odd, he thought, but at least not the kind of crazy his mind had cooked up before. A low growl came from his stomach. I am hungry, he thought, got up and walked to the vending machine that lay sideways in front of one of the tanning booths. The glass had shattered and its contents spilled on the floor. He grabbed a bottle of C4 pre-workout drink, two Tuna Terror sandwiches, and a couple of Peanut Butter Meltdown chocolate bars.

“Dam, tha ssoooo goooo!” He said orgasmically, half a tuner sandwich hanging from the corner of his mouth, a candy bar stuffed on top, blended with the pink, honey-like consistency of the pre-workout drink.

"Oh my God. You're back!" Sally let out a cry of relief and ran over to him.

Big R listened to their story, how they were trapped, the death of the two boys, but tuned out because he was ruled by one thing, hunger. He was so hungry that he wolfed down what he got from the vending machine and went back for seconds, twice.

"How can you be so blasé about all this?" Sally asked, irritated.

Ron shrugged and shoved another bar of chocolate into his mouth.

"The explosion might not only have fried our phones." Sam said, making a circular motion at his temple.

"Hearin's still fine, brotha." Ron said, unwrapping the fifth Peanut Butter Meltdown, not really caring what he just said or to whom. "Shit isn't real anyways. All of you." He pointed the candy bar at each of them. "Not real. Nope, nope, nope. Just a matter of time till you go all Freddy Krueger on me."

The crew shot a few looks of incredulity at each other, and Sally began to believe Sam's theory of the lost marbles.

Sam felt a slight pressure in the back of his head. Nothing serious, just a little discomfort, a minor pressure headache. The kind that had crept up on him hundreds of times before. Must be the weather changing, he thought and pushed it aside, for a more pressing matter: They had been locked up for quite some time, or at least it felt that way. Time has an elusive quality in moments of crisis. And when Sam saw Ronny gobbling up half of the vending machine's contents, he wondered how long it would be before they ran out of food and how long it would take from there to eat one of their own? Sure, he had fantasized about eating out Kendra a few times, but not like this.  Another sting at the back of his head. This time more intense and deeper, like a hot needle slowly torching through the back of his skull, and burning its way into the center of the gray matter.

Above them, on one of the steel beams under the roof, the Brainiacs went into a food coma. They just lay there, stretched out on all fours. But one of them seemed restless, its brain-body lighting up. First the back illuminated, then the glow moved to the center.

"Sam, what's wrong?" Kendra asked.

"Everything's fine. It's just... Ahhh, damn it!" Sam staggered, holding the back of his head, and fell into Sally's arms. "My. Head. Hurts. Bad." The words staggered out of his mouth just the same.

It was hard to concentrate, the pain spread through his whole body, even the tips of his hair felt super sensitive and achy, and then all of a sudden - he was okay. His mind was blank, no memory of the past, no plans for the future, no worries, no regrets, his thoughts dampened by a cozy blanket of nothingness.

"Sam. Saaaam. Sa. Am." Kendra snapped her fingers in front of his face, the dumbfounded face of a newborn.

"Ha! Not bad. I wonder if unicorns will fly out of his ass next." Ronny sniggered as he opened another bottle of C4. 

"Ronny what the hell!" Sally slapped the bottle C4 out his hand.

The bottle of C4 flew out of Ron’s hand, in a high arc, and landed at Sam’s feet. Feet that seemed not to heed his command anymore. Sam flailed his hands to stabilize himself, but couldn't help wobble from one side to another. Kendra came to his aid again, holding his forearm. He looked at her, first with a vacant look, then in horror. He pushed her away and started to make fart noises. "Brump, pffft, pffft, brrump.” And his expression changed again. This time it was amusement. “P-p-p-p-p-f-f-f-f-f-f-t.” He touched his lips in awe, surprised at the sound they could make. Then he looked at his hands and legs and craned his neck with the same awe.

"Ya boi is trippin balls," Ronny said, opening another bottle of C4,  shielding it with one hand and giving Sally a sly grin. But she just waved him off and rolled her eyes.

"Pfrrt!" Sam declared gleefully, bouncing up and down like a toy soldier. He broke into a few ballet poses, did a pirouette, then jumped into a hero pose and started walking over to Sally, Kendra and the boy, who was still sitting on the floor. He swung his hips seductively from left to right, catwalk style. And when arrived at the boy's feet, did a three-sixty and put his hands on his hips, ready to hear that he had made it to the next round of Austria's Next Top Model. The boy looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. Sam looked down at the boy, pursed his lips, and kicked the boy in the mouth so hard that the sole of the tactical boot broke the boy's face on impact, causing it to collapse in on itself. A fountain of blood. Gurgle instead of screams of agony. Sally and Kendra jumped at Sam, trying to hold him back, but he shook them off like two annoying mosquitoes and kicked and kicked and kicked the boy's face to pulp. 

"Kick it like Backham! Ha, ha, ha, ha!" Ronny cheered.

"RON, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Sally screamed, but you could tell she wasn't angry with him because her face was painted in pure terror; eyes wide open, brimming with lacrimal fluid.

And above them, two Brainiacs were waking up. The third was glowing all over its brain-body, apparently having the time of its life.

Back below, Sally could not look away from the disgusting scene:. Sam had stopped kicking and was now on all fours, munching on the boy's pulpy face.

"DO SOMETHING!" A hot tear ran down Sally's cheek. "Do something," she wailed, and with only a whisper left in her, "please - do something."

And even though this was all a dream to Ron, it felt different. But it wasn't the iron taste in the air that came with blood, or the massacred boy, nor Zombie-Sam, it was the normality of it that creeped him out. No scary music, no quick cuts or slanted camera angles, no desaturated colors or other hallmarks of any horror movie. It felt so damn normal it was maddening. But no, this isn't real, any of it, he thought, and as the thought faded, two Brainiacs appeared next to Sam and joined him at the all-you-can-eat buffet.

Show them. 

"Want me to do something?" Ron sported a massive smile and walked leisurely over to the gang. He did this in such a relaxed manner that it did not alarm the Cerebros, they continued to chow away happily.

"Want me...," Ron was now standing next to Sam and the little monsters and beamed at Sally.

"...to do...," He lifted his right leg.

"...something?” And brought it down with the wrath of Zeus, who sends lightning upon a poor earthly sinner, and squelched one of the Cerebros, making the second one disappear in an instant.

"Shiiiiiiiiit!" He exclaimed with great gusto as he lifted his foot, gray jelly hanging from it. At that moment, the second Brainiacs reappeared and clawed at his chest. Ronny tried to grab it, but it poofed out of his hand and materialized on his shoulder. 

"Ahhh you fucka!" The bite went deep and a warm red stream poured from his deltoid like strawberry jam from a donut. Ron grabbed the beast, pulled hard, and ripped not only the creature, but his entire shoulder muscle from his body. But this time there was no pain, because it was a dream. Or shock?

Why do you care? Kill it. Kill it. Kill. it.

He held Brainiac between his hands and worked it like a vice.

Uhhh yeah! That's what I'm talking about.

The creature squealed as it tried to wriggle out. It was on the verge of escaping into the fourth dimension when Ron dug his fingers deep into its brain body and mauled the thing in one big swoop.

"Yeah, buddy! Ain't nuthin but a peanut!" He shouted triumphantly, eyes glowing with rage, chest swelling with emotion. With all the carnage around him and the excitement of killing, he felt a little devil on his shoulder whispering: 

Why not have fun with this wacky dream? Turn loose. No rules. No inhibitions. 

Kendra helped Sally to her feet and the two of them retreated carefully so as not to attract the attention of the beast that Ron had become. His gaze was erratic, flitting from one point to another. Something horrible lurked behind his eyes, something primal, something ancient. Crack! Kendra stepped on a piece of broken glass, and in a sudden, awful movement, Ron snapped his neck around and locked his eyes on them. 

Come on. Carte blanche baby!

Sally slowly pushed Kendra behind her back to shield her. With one arm outstretched and palm open toward Ron, she looked like one of those people in nature documentaries, who are trying to calm a wild animal.

"Ronny, please. We are not here to hurt you. We're friends. Please calm down," Sally said as gently as she could, but every word vibrated with fear, revealing the rising panic.

Ron smiled, but it was not a friendly smile. His teeth looked pointy, almost shark-like, but of course they weren't. Like the big bad wolf, he raised his arms and lunged forward, causing the two ladies to flinch and Sally to raise her elbow protectively over her head.

"Ha, ha, ha," Ron laughed, but it was not a happy laugh. It sounded like the lovechild of a foghorn and a lion. He turned and took big bounds toward the barbell rack  and took two from the heavy end. He let them dance in his hands, squeezing his fingers around the grooved steel handle to adjust the grip, and winked at Sal and Kendra. Then he turned again, put Sam in his crosshairs, sprinted the few meters that separated him from the former Special Forces, and with the force of a hundred raging bulls, slammed the dumbbell into Sam's chest, shattering it in the process.

Sam fell to the side, as did the Cerebro on the steel beam under the roof. The spell was broken.

Sam cried out in agony, "Fuck, fuck. Fuuuuuuck," and held his side, "Oh my God!"

Ron came to a halt, his head held down so you couldn't see his face. His massive back was heaving up and down, beads of sweat culminating all over his body. He stood there for a moment, letting out satisfied grunts. 

More. More!

Then he slowly turned his upper body, and when he stood upright again, he began to do biceps curls.

I WANT MORE CARNAGE!

He curled and smiled, smiled and curled, curled and smiled as he walked back to Sam. His biceps filled with blood, pumped up, turning the veins into snakes that meandered gracefully across biceps and forearms.

The Cerebro shook like a wet dog, trying to reorient itself, and watched the humans down there with great interest.

"Have you gone fully nuts?" Sam said, looking at Ron who now towered over him like the Eye of Sauron.

He stopped curling and slowly lifted the dumbbells away from his body, holding them at shoulder height as he took a step forward, his knees poking into Sam's face.

Sam coughed up blood and said, “what the fuck man?!”

Ron blew out the air from his lungs in quick, shallow breaths and when he had reached total muscular exhaustion, he released his arms and the weights came roaring down, crushing Sam's head in a gorgeous splatter. 

 Big R. felt almighty. Taking lives, what a rush, he thought, understanding all too well the pastime of a serial killer.

The Brainiac jumped with rapture, squealed, and disappeared into the nothingness between worlds.

Sally and Kendra had backed up to the entrance and were throwing appliances from the front desk at Ronny, who had turned his deadly stare back on them and was closing in. Pens, a stapler, even a laptop flew toward the monster truck of a man who dodged as gracefully as someone a hundred kilos lighter. In desperation, Kendra grabbed a bag of protein powder and threw it. In an effortless front raise, Ron exploded the pack, covering himself in beige powder which triggered another series of terrifying ha, ha, ha's. The last ha was cut off abruptly, then felt a gust of wind on his right shoulder. And before he could turn his head, he felt a sharp, circular pain. Its circumference reached from his right eye, down to his neck and back up to the backside of his head. Ron's hands opened and the dumbbells fell to the floor. The last Cerebro had lodged itself on the right side of Ron's face. A terrible crack went with it and he felt half his skull break off. The bone became soft and was sucked up and with it the pain was over too. The Cerebro deflated and colourless and hung limply from his side. Ron staggered and took an awkward step; not back, not forth, not left, not right. A very awkward step into somewhere in between, it tasted like cotton candy, it smelled like the first raindrops on hot asphalt, it sounded - white.

24

White, everywhere you looked, white. It was like being in a pitch black room, but in reverse. Ronny's eyes couldn't make out any shapes, shadows or other features that would have given him any sense of perspective. He looked down and was relieved to see his legs and feet, at least his body intact. He walked a few paces and there was no sound.

"Hello," he said, and there was no reverb, no echo, the word as dry as a bone.

A shimmer in front of him started to appear. "Hey Ronny," a woman's voice came from it, while the dancing particles of light slowly condensed into what looked like a woman's body. A hand formed and touched his cheek, another formed and touched his chest and yet another squeezed his buttocks.

"Alexa?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, babyboo, it's me," the light figure said, "what happened to your face?" And gently stroked the side of his head where the Cerebro hung droopily.

Overwhelmed, disoriented and angry from being pushed from one bizarre dream to another, he wanted to say something, "I... I... I..." but that something wouldn't come out. 

"Poor baby," the light figure hugged him and morphed into Alexa's physical form.

A comforting warmth flowed through Ron, a feeling of motherly protection. Oh no! No, no, no. He thought. This might be the worst of them all. Give me horror, give me carnage, blood, broken bones; all of it, but this, this is just plain nasty.

He pushed away from the entity, "Stop it. Please, I beg you, stop." And with his head down he said, "I am... I ... I am so terribly sorry."

"It's OK," Alexa said as she came closer again."

He was at the end of his tether and was at the mercy of Alexa's embrace. The effect was immediate: warmth, security, peace; the world with all its problems and, more importantly, the self-loathing voice inside him ceased to exist. Weightlessness. He never understood how she worked her magic, how she tamed the beast, but it did not matter, what mattered was that it worked. And boy, did it work. She ran her fingers through Ron's hair, scratching him like a good dog, and his thoughts straightened. Alexa was the blanket that you pulled over your head when you're scared, the blanket that warms you on a cold winter's night, the blanket that hugs you so tight on a Sunday morning that it is hard to get out of bed.

"I... I can't do this without you," he said meekly.

"Yes, you can," she said, …

What do you know, bitch!

… and tightened their embrace.

"You don't understand," Ron’s voice cracked, "there's something inside me, something dark. It wants to see the world burn, it wants to kill me, kill you, kill everyone, I... I don't know how to describe..."

"I understand, Ronny, and it's OK. I know you're a good man, you won't let it run the show. Look, we can build the biggest strongholds but the more we shut ourselves off, the more we suffer because we lock ourselves in with the perp. You let me in honey, I saw the beast and the beauty and it's all you. This is the man I've fallen in love with. I really wish you could see yourself through my eyes." Alexa laid her index finger under Ron's chin, lifted his head, looked deep into his eyes, "I love you" and kissed him.

It felt so good and it hurt so bad and Ron knew it was a kiss goodbye. He felt a sting at the back of his neck and a slow pull away from the white, from Alexa, from safety. He stretched out his arms, desperately trying to hold on to her, but she just stood there with a loving smile. Her body became translucent, pulsed at its edges and exploded into a million tiny light particles. 

"Let them in."

The white shrunk until it was only a tiny dot in his field of vision, and the last Ron could make out was the smell of the sweat drenched rubber floor of the gym and three shadow fingers. A dry "Aaaalexaaa" left his weak and cracked lips and - darkness swallowed him again.

25

Silence. Peace. It's over, Sally thought with Kendra's hot breath against her neck. Ron was gone. Where he went? No idea, but it didn't matter. He was gone, and the monster with him.

Pang! Pang! Pang! Pang! Four small explosions at the front door, accompanied by four tiny puffs of smoke. The reinforced hinges came off and the door plunged into the gym. Three silhouettes crept out of the bright sunlight and dispersed in all directions. One of them made a beeline for Sal and K, holding a semi-automatic weapon and speaking mechanically through a gas mask, "Two survivors, awaiting further instructions". A moment passed. "Understood." A red dot appeared on Sal's forehead.

"Wait a minute..." Sal tried to explain, but the bullet from the Steyr Aug had already made its way through her brain. 

Kendra wanted to scream, but the same bullet had continued its journey through her noggin. Two women floored by one bullet, you could almost see a smile under the gas mask. When the rifle shot died down, Ron was back in the gym. Half of him, anyway. He seemed to be phasing in and out of reality. His body blurred in ghostly fashion, like a video shot at a slow shutter speed. The black operative leveled his gun at him, set it to stun and pulled the trigger. Under high pressure, a small vial left the muzzle. It pierced Ron's neck and with a hiss, the vail's content was released, causing the brick wall of a man to hit the floor hard.

"Package secured."