chapter8-----

I didn't pay the cabby, just a quick smile and I stepped out of the yellow car and through the double doors that led into the O'Hare airport. I heard something that sounded like Charles yelling at me and then his mumbles as he paid for the both of us.

I just stood there swaying quietly while I opened myself to the quiet pervasive hum of a thousand different people.

Airports are powerful places, they're almost on par with ancient battlefields with the amount of power swirling around like an emotional maelstrom. Fear, uncertainty, excitement and dissapointment I could close my eyes and see the waves and strings as they vibrated in the ether. I hadn't even stepped thorugh the lobby yet and my palms were tingling.

"Hey, jack-a*s. You walk away from a cabby at least make him forget us. I just spent my last hundred dollars on that little car ride."

The influx of energy coupled with the morphine that still swished around my brain like goo in a beaker made me a little off-center but I still managed to look normal for the police that stood guard over nothing at all.

Charles grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear in a cutting little voice, "Nothing stupid Justin, they lock us up it's over."

Something was getting a lot of power from these places, I looked around at the people that milled about with their heads hanging in fear, the police that scrutinized their every move, afraid that any one could be carrying a gun or bomb. Fear is like the finest liquor to certain lower creatures and I could only imagine how bloated they must be from all this sweet dining. I wiped the sweat from my brow and suddenly felt like I was wading through a Georgia swamp.

Fingers snapped in front of my face and the miasm fell away and Chalres shoved something into my pocket,

"These are your tickets, in case we get seperated. Listen to me, I'm serious, if we're being stalked we don't have much longer before something happens, are you set or not?"

I did a quick once over of myself, the slow burning pain in my chest, the tingling of my palms, the morphine that made my tounge feel as big as a moose.

"Ready to roll."

A long line of people pushed their way in front of us and I had to stop to let them through, Charles bumped into me from behind and I couldn't help but feel suddenly aprehensive.

We walked past the food court and all the many splendors contained within, up a long escalator, Charles looking around like he expected a ninja to fall from the rafters and then finally in line to the boarding gate.

To pass the time I looked at the blue score board that told of all the delays and cancellations, I found myself looking for any Texas destinations and almost laughed when I saw a long line of red CANCELLED next to them.

Charles backed up into me and swore under his breath, my thoughts went to battle and I was ready to draw in all the sick green fear and try to mold something usefull from it. Instead I looked up and saw her standing there looking confused and angry, Karrey, no bags, no money, just a plane ticket crumpled in her fist. She hadn't seen us yet but it would only be a few minutes until our line intersected hers.

Someone was standing next to her, a tall skinny man with a ball cap pulled low to cover a face that was already obscured by milky shadows. The waves and strings avoided him like a stone in a stream and I knew I was probably the only one in the airport that could see him. A watcher, a stranger among men, the recorders that always seemed to show up just before something terrible happened.

"You! Get back! I swear to f*****g god you get away from me!"

The screeching desperate voice broke through the hum like a rhino through a daisy patch. People flinched like a gun had gone off and the line in front of us parted.

A fat little man in a stained suit stood pointing at me, his pudgy fingers shaking, jowls flapping with every wheeze and yell,

"I'm not running any more you hear? I'll kill you!"

I don't know who was more confused me, Charles or the police which were quickly coming. The slow boiling wax engulfed my palms and the rotund man took a step forward, his hands burst into a white light, the ground below him began to move in shuddering waves and somebody screamed the one word you never want to hear in an airport. "BOMB!"

Gunfire nearly took my head off and Charles pulled me to the white, speckled stone. The fat little man fell over his scared fading eyes level with my own, I didn't know what to say in those last few moments as we lay next to each other seperated by twenty feet but our eyes as close as lovers in a rain storm. All I could do was look at his blue eyes as the light retreated and finally blinked out.

"What the hell..."

I tried to get to my feet but I was almost bowled over by the rushing police and military. they were surrounding the body and practically throwing people out of the vicinity. Me and Charles were just frightened victims so we did what is expected of frightened victims, we ran like morons.

It was down in the food court that the insanity was corraled by the presence of the military, tall and strong and camoflouge green everybody fell in line like good little sheep.

The sight of those warm blue eyes just before the man died pulled me away for a few minutes but I was quickly brought back by a femenine smell and a sharp slap to my cheek.

Karrey was yelling something at me but I was too stoned and confused to make it out, so I grabbed her by the waist and kissed her protesting lips. That could have been me riddled with bullets, real bullets, full metal jacket and unwavering. Not like the ancient piece of lead that still sat in my sternum.

It just came down to whomever drew in power first, who was more afraid, more willing to strike down the unkown opponent.

I pulled away from her and she bit my lower lip,

"Hey, Doll."

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