APOCALYPSE NEXT Chapter 9 Hammer Murders Strange thing, really... feelin' insubstantial... Kitty calls it phasing and now I'm a ghost floatin' in the rain... we must be very high, the helicarrier 'as yet to splash... Oh! There it goes. There's a sprinklin' of lights along the carrier's downward path... escape vehicles... every day the patina obscurin' me mind gains another layer, as if... "Pete! What are you trying to do?" Kitty. Wot?... "You've been trying to light a cigarrete since we cleared the helicarrier... too much wind up here, and it's raining!" Kitty. Shoutin' into me ear. I'm holdin' Kitty's hand in me left, me lighter in me right an' a limp, soggy fag in me mouth... wot wos I just thinkin' of? "Just let the weather pass through us!" Her hair is dreadlocked from the filth of battle an' tangled by the wind. The rain plasterin' the whole tragedy of it all across her face... the lovely face that smiled at me at the mansion... as she walked over to Ollie an' put 'im on 'is arse. Her face... lookin' at me now like I'm too stupid for words. "It's taking all I've got to phase us both and keep us drifting toward land... hoping we'll be rescued... while you fucking try to have a smoke... selfish prat." Kitty. Yellin' at me and then that last bit I didn't hear. When she's angry an' yellin', Kitty's lips do a very alluring- feral kind of a sneer-kiss me-pout hybrid... but she's right... put me lighter back in me pocket. If I want to, my hotknives can burn as hot as the sun, but that kind of heat is not always practical. For now I just need to turn night into day... so... I let it out slowly. The burn begins... hurt... skinside out, I hurt... "Kitty -- don't let me fall!" Build up... hits the backs of me eyes... see... up... finger tips... sizzle... I'm fallin' in a coffin! I hear static... voices... one loud, the other small and incomplete. Shakin'... other voices... a soft hand on me chest... warm breath next to my eye. "Kitty!" "Shhh, we're safe. Lean back. Your flare led the SHIELD survivors to us. We're in one of their flying cars... I think you gave me a sunburn." Kitty. It's a weak little smile she gives me. "Sorry, pet... I'm a sinful, rude man." She's close enough an' the car is overcrowded... She leans into me when I kiss her... it's short an' surprising. I look at her and feel a bit of sadness for her... The next time I open my eyes, the cabin is dark except for the glow of the instrument panel. "It's dark... we fell into the ocean after all." "Don't be a dork, Pete. We were attacked again and had to put up the blast shields. You missed all of it but Nick Fury flew in with the cavalry... we're landing in Madripoor." Kitty. Everythin' rattled as the car seems to 'ave just bellyflopped onto the ground. One of the blast shelds drops off, lettin' in wot little of the sunrise can squeeze through the rainclouds an' smoke. "Any landing you can walk away from, folks. Welcome to Lowtown, also known as 'at least I ain't dead'. Now let's get the fuck outta this deathtrap." Our pilot. We landed on the roof of a hospital. Lowtown reminds me of every operation I've ever been on -- an over crowded city slum hammered into smokin' silence, where heavily armed soldiers confidently patrol streets they'd normally be too cowardly to walk on their own. We 'ad a rough landin' due to all the damage we 'ad sustained. Last man out of the car wos the pilot, an' when he kicked the only remanin' tire, the car kinda' groaned an' crumbled. There's too much chaotic activity up here an' for now Kitty an' I seem to be on our own. Only one thing to do at a time like this an' it's been a long time comin'... "Kitty, let's find a pub." ************************************************************************************************ It's a depressing walk through the hospital an' down to the street. Rooms spill their overflow of injured an' dyin' out to the corridors. It smells awful, an' the sounds of the blasted an' maimed... a body can work up a bit of pity for a single or a few wailers, but so many... you just tend to shut them out, even feel angry at them... Shut the fuck up... 'ave some bloody dignity! On one of the floors, Kitty an' I find showers an' shitters. The showers are full of soldiers, male an' female, with serious looks on their faces. Quickly, an' without much to say to each other, they wash away the mornings' battle, the blood of others an' the oily film of smoke... The drains are clogged an' we clean ourselves standin' up to our ankles in death soup. On the roof I noticed that Madripoor is no longer divided into the slums of Lowtown and the affluence of Hightown. Hightown is gone... just a blasted landscape now. The view of Lowtown from street level is not pretty, but much of the damage an' decay are evidence of the city's old wounds... This place was stillborn... hell before the devil moved in. We don't need to walk for very long before we find a pub. We follow the sounds of mob drinkin' to the only pub around. There are only four populated areas left in the city: the hospital, the docks, the airport and the Ass Palace. I look at Kitty; she doesn't look too thrilled about goin' into an old brothel. "Yuck... smelly!" Kitty. The Ass Palace is a three floor walk up near the hospital. The bar is in the lobby. It is smelly an' crowded with too many hot bodies an' the smoky air is thick an' too flavourfull... home... I pull Kitty with me to the bar. "Think of it as bein' in Mos Eisley, pet." "Or the island of Tortuga... if you didn't wanna dumb it down for me." Kitty... very smugly. "Didn't think I wos." Every fringe mercenary an' adventurer seems to be here, stinking up the place... "Oh... um... yeah! I remember now... I saw it in a Steve Reeves pirate movie." We reach the bar an' are greeted with a bottle of absinthe an' three glasses... and a card with me name on it. The noise level drops... "Who knows you're here?" Kitty. "Everybody, it seems. But this one is true death -- the one who ends life." "The X Men have met one or two of those... it's mostly hype." Kitty. The card directs me to one of the more private booths 'round the side of the bar. As we approach the booth, a young woman all in black -- boots, trousers, tank top an' hair -- on milk white skin, a black painted smile as she stands to face me. A slight pause an' she walks away into the freakshow, leavin' Kitty an' I to the old man who kills. "Mr. Snuff."