John's Lawn

As we came to the end of a trail, Abraham stopped the car, grabbed his head, and opened his door. “Should only be another mile or so, I presume you’ve had plenty of time to prepare.”

“Eh, something like that, guess we’ll see for sure when we get there,” I replied, grabbing the headpiece from the back.

The hike didn’t take long, and soon enough, the guards at the entrance were in sight, “What business have you with The Remnants of the Crystal Age?” The lizard-like man on the right spoke, wearing black robes, and a clear power looming over him despite his small stature. The silent one on the left was built more akin to Chad, despite being covered in brown robes, he didn’t quite radiate the same way the lizard man did.

“We’ve come to speak with Jedidiah, Jedidiah Haddad! Tell him Abraham has come to make good on his promise!”

They whispered back and forth until we were within earshot. Then the bulky guy shouted over the log wall, “Go tell Jedidiah! Let him decide!” The man’s voice rumbled the ground like an earthquake, causing my muscles to loosen.

I chuckled, “Quite the tone you got there, you trying to pacify us? We aren’t gonna try anything.”

He sneered, “Like I’d trust the child of the hammer.”

My tone went wild, “You don’t know how he was, how can you judge me?”

“Cause I know how he is, that’s what counts. Was ten last month, how many more remnants do you think he’ll shatter this month?”

“You think I condone it!?”

The lizard man spoke in a hushed tone that seemed to exist on its own wavelength, “I think you’re both ill-informed and should shut up before you make yourselves look as ignorant as you are. The hammer was a different person when he raised the tall one, and the tall one hasn’t seen him since. You’re each operating with half a deck, so I advise you just stand silent and wait.”

A few moments passed of wind and chirping birds when the door opened, revealing an old western style town. Buildings lined up, compact, and extending both sides of the initial path, which led down to a meeting area in the center of the town with an all too familiar statue in the center. It painted him in quite the hideous light, holding organs from bodies that lay at his feet as he laughed eternally. There was a warhammer in his hand, and as we reached it, I saw the sign at his feet. “The Hammer,” below that lay a description, “Never forget the enemy of the remnants, the man who has and will continue to destroy us until every fragment of the Crystal age is destroyed from existence. Let us keep that from happening.”

Despite everything he’d done, I couldn’t simply turn my back on Charles, even if he killed 10,000 remnants, I still owed the man, god, or whatever the hell he was my life.

“We ought to be moving, people are staring, Terry.”

I suddenly realized just how long we’d been standing there, “Right, let’s keep going. Where’s his place?”

“Straight down and to the right, though… be wary. He is quite fond of the Remnants and has lost a fair few confidants over the years.”

I sighed, “Greeeaaat. Sure we can’t back out?” I mumbled sarcastically, to which he didn’t respond. Shortly thereafter, we stopped at a hardwood door with a brass knocker and handle. Abraham ignored the first, instead choosing to crinkle the handle, opening the door without hesitation.

A gunshot resounded, causing a metal clink.

“So much for pacifism.” I thought to myself.

 “Always a pleasure Jedidiah, truly.”

A thick but jovial Hebrew accent responded, “Abraham, my dear friend, it’s been far too lo–” the man raised the gun he’d begun to lower, aiming it at me this time, “Why do you bring the son of the hammer to me?” His voice was disturbingly calm, “You must have a prime reason for doing so?”

As I took another step, I put his appearance together, he had thick but short black hair that stood on his head in a stylish manner. His eyebrows were finely plucked, clearly broadcasting his every emotion. He had a crooked but clean grin that could barely mask his fury, and he wore a clean plumber outfit along with a gold watch on his right hand and a static-absorbing wristband on his left.

“Please, put the gun do–”

“No, I really don’t think I want to do that unless you give me a stellar fucking reason.”

I spoke next, “Jedidiah, was it?”

“You say another word, and this bullet goes through your head, it’s silver.”

I prepared to make my move, but Abraham held out his arm, “You really don’t want to do that, who do you think will come if Terry is killed? We’ve come to discuss a matter involving the Neural Segmenter, I need help extracting some data from our… private modifications.”

The man cautiously lowered the rifle, “Is that all?”

“Well, it’s in pretty bad shape…” He gestured for me to come forward.

Setting it on the table, I continued for him, “It got pretty beat up from the USPM. But A–”

“I’ll decide whether or not it’s beaten up.” Jedidiah picked the device up, inspecting it as though he were a prospector inspecting the land for gold. About five minutes later, he dropped it on the table, “Might have a memory bank or two still alive in there somewhere. So what’s the information worth to you?”

Abraham spoke up, “Now hold on–”

The man raised his hand to him, facing me as he stated, “You can make good on your promise when you don’t have the son of the hammer here.” He raised his eyebrows, “So, what’s it worth to you?”

I thought for a moment, then it came to me. I pulled out the bag I’d brought with me, grabbed the Doc’s meds, and dropped them on the table, “Antipsychotics, an SSRI, an Antidepressant, and a stimulant, all made by The Westcoast Plague Doctor himself.”

A flicker of surprise came and went, “An enticing offer to be sure. But that wasn’t quite what I meant. Who is it you’re trying to get ahold of?”

“Why would you need so–”

This time I cut Abraham off, my legs feeling tight, “Now now, this is between him and me. Back off for a minute.” He stepped back, “Is that the information you’re wanting in exchange, or a separate question entirely?”

The man smirked, folding his arms onto the counter, “Oh how perceptive you are, I can see how you’re able to get away with murdering children now.”

I slammed my fist on the table, the tightness in my legs growing ever stronger, “You better watch your tone!”

Standing upright, he chuckled and folded his arms, “You sure I need to?” He raised an eyebrow and smirked.

I took a moment to relax, managing to force out a tight, “My apologies.”

“I feel like you aren’t really trying, can I hear it just one more time? Your father has killed hundreds of us after all.”

Loathing the arrogant cocksucker, I obliged in a softer tone, “I, am, sorry.”

“That’s better. I think I’ll just take all of this person’s personal information as payment. Not a bad deal is it?”

“I can give you some, I don’t know everything about him.”

He sighed, “I suppose that’ll have to do. Also, I need to know whatever he is.”

Holding back my frustration, I let out a defeated, “Fine.” Before letting him know the minimum of what he wanted.

When I finished, Jedidiah turned to Abraham, “All the information he gave me is accurate?”

“But of course, Terry may be one creepy fellow, but he’s an honest man.”

The man scoffed, “Anyway, I suppose it’s time I get started on this. However, it’ll be a little while, extracting data from the chips isn’t simple. Feel free to roam around, grab a bite, and do whatever else it is you do. Don’t snack on any children and we should be fine.” He raised an eyebrow at me, “The one true ruler is always watching, and I advise against disturbing the peace he’s formed here.” He waved us off, keeping an eye on me until we had fully left the building.

“What an asshole.” I shook my head as I crossed my arms.

“You do know why he’s so wary.”

“Yeah but still, I’m not judging him based on who his adopted father became after leaving.”

Abraham stopped us, “You also have a tendency to eat children, Terry.”

“Something tells me, if he had to eat a baby dolphin once a month to survive, he’d do it without hesitation.”

“I suppose you could be right…” He seemed to lose himself in contemplation.

We stopped by a couple of small food places selling stuff from stir fries to rice balls to salads. Suffice it to say, we didn’t end up getting anything. I’m not against veggies or anything, they just didn’t have any meat, so we ended up leaving the town for a little while for a bit of hunting.

When we came back a good while later, we were stuffed, and I could feel my cells rejuvenating by the minute.

Entering the room, Jedidiah was clipping his nails at the counter, “Seems there wasn’t much of any use on it. There was mention of taking him to a town, but not even Kalthrulre would know where to start. There are hundreds across the US, not to mention all the ones outside.”

“You mean the ones they keep humanoid atypicals in don’t you.” Abraham stated grimly.

“Correct you are.”

“How do we know you’re being honest, how about you give us a flash drive with the data on it? Then we can decide how honest you’re being.”

“I can only read the information stored on the chips. I can’t transfer the data to a new device. I’m sorry but you are going to have to take my word for it. He was taken to one, but any specificity was lost to some corrosion through a few blown pieces of circuitry. A lot of what’s in them is hardly legible, and only a fraction of what is is any use.”

“God DAMNIT!” I slammed my fist into the doorframe, causing a few splinters to fly off. “What the hell was Dexter thinking? If he’s so smart, why didn’t he see this coming?” I stomped out of the building as lightly as I could manage, kicking up a few dust clouds from stray rocks ass we left. “Well? What the fuck are we gonna do now!?”

“Terry, you’re far too stressed. We’re not going to find him overnight.”

I spun to meet him, “I am WELL aware off that! Doesn’t mean I can’t be a little frustrated when we come to a dead end!”

“A little frustrated? You’re pissed! You won’t even fit in the car like that.”

I took a moment, analyzing my surroundings, only just realizing how far down I’d had to look at Abraham. I took a deep breath, pulling the meds from my bag. I dry swallowed them, and we made our way back to the car in silence. We had to wait a little while longer before we could leave though.

He set his head on the car, turning it to me, “I…” he let it consume the silence.

I glanced at him, “It’s not that easy…”

“But it could be easier. I think it’s smart you take it easy for a little while.”

“You just–” I shook my head, “No, he’s out there, no memory, and a vampire, and that’s not exactly a secret.”

“What kind of plan could you possibly form with the complete lack of information we have? Maybe we just need to wait around for some information to come to us. Dexter has an adaptive IQ, a truly rare ability. Whatever we choose to do, he’s likely already anticipated. He’s rarely so confident as to tell people what he told us.”

I shook my head again, “I fucking hate that. I don’t trust him, I get that you do, but this guy… he knows too much, has his fingers in too many pockets. I’m not comfortable simply waiting around just because he may have seen it coming.”

“Is that so?…” He let the word drag out for a moment too long.

“Well? Let me hear it then.”

“Hear what?”

“Don’t do that, just spit it out.”

He paused, “Well then, I’m not sure I can aide your obsession. You’re just… too stubborn. Feel free to go on a wild goose chase, but you don’t even have a starting line. You’re an astronomer looking for barley in a wheat field. You’re not a fucking farmer Terry.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m going to give up.”

“No, I’m telling you to have a little faith in those around you.” I opened the door and sat down, closing it, I folded my arms. He followed suit, “Look, if we don’t hear anything in the next month, we can go looking around.

“I would trust Dexter with the most classified information I have, and I have on a few occasions. He’s never given me a reason to regret that, so if he tells us we need to just do our thing, let’s wait around for a little while, help you get your you sorted, and if nothing comes of it, we can go hire all the detectives we need.”

I turned to him as he set his head in his lap, sighing, “Fine.” Then I looked ahead, “But if nothing comes up in one month, we’re doing our own digging.”

“There we are, Joseph’s a capable lad anyhow. Even without memories, I’m sure he can handle himself.”