Firestarter

Music and the madman

Unleashed.  No other word for it.

Jacobian watched as Max stared at him from the other side of the barricade.  Something in this man had snapped and Jacobian wasn’t sure what had happened.  Everything since the bell tower was so conflicted.  So confusing.

Twenty-four hours ago, Max and Jacobian were on the same side of this line.  And now they were on opposite sides of the street �" opposite sides of the war.  Jacobian could feel government eyes all over him.  And yet, Jacobian knew they were going to setup someone.  Maybe they weren’t quite thinking about the consequences of setting up a man like Max Bryant.  They didn’t know how far he went on a normal day; how could they know how far he would go when the world turned to chaos.

The gentle summer breeze that swept over the abandoned shops seemed to stir Max slightly.  The crowds that were blocked from this street watched eagerly and silently.  Would this madman follow through on his threat.  Jacobian could tell them all before he had blocked off the street.  That to Max, this button was pressed long ago.  Its easy to destroy everything when you don’t care about anything.  And Max was a man without a country; without a home.

The police officer behind Jacobian Put the mega phone to his mouth.  Jacobian saw the faintest smirk flash across Max’s face.  He was waiting for this.  The showdown.  The scene.  The pandemic chaos he was about to unleash.

“Put your hands above your head and walk slowly toward the police.” Shouted the chief through the megaphone.

From other end of the block, Max simply held out his left fist and bowed his head.

“I repeat.  Put both of your hands above your head or you will be fired upon.”

Max raised a solitary finger on his left hand as if warning them.  He kept his head bowed.  Jacobian could hear a slow tune of music coming over the speakers for the downtown shopping district they were standing in.

“I repeat �"“  The megaphone cut off.  Max raised a second finger.

Lyrics started to fill the distance between the standoff.  A soft female voice on a slow orchestral backdrop cast an eerie sense of finality over the scene.

…silence falls on the echoed past…

The police chief turned to his SWAT commander. “Prepare to take him down.” He whispered in a gruff aside.  The hardened SWAT commander nodded.

…hollow, broken, built to last…

 

Jacobian heard the volume of the music rising around him, still slow in pace, but growing in volume.  He knew Max was committed to whatever he had in mind.

…wreckage upon the alter…

Lyrics filled the distance between the standoff, Jacobian knew the Police chief wasn’t going to wait past the chorus to shoot Max.

…wedding vows and murders you…

Max raised a third finger and finally glared at the barricade.

…terror, horror, violence, pain…

 “READY!” Shouted the police chief more to Max than to the SWAT commander.

…broken in silence, voiced disdain…

“Snipers have a shot.” Whispered the SWAT commander.

…this isn’t about the ones we love…

“LAST CALL, HANDS UP!”

…Sorry to say- I’ve just HAD ENOUGH!

“FI-“

It happened in one swift motion.  Before the police chief could finish screaming the order to shoot, and just as the music quickened to a rapid climax, MAX raised both of his arms above his head.

BOOM.

Jacobian was rattled and thrown onto the ground.  Both shops on either side of him and the police squad had exploded and showered them with glass.  He could see blood all over the ground and his clothes and didn’t know how bad he was injured.  His first thought was to get to cover, but he was suddenly rocketed across the pavement from several more explosions.

Jacobian coughed and sputtered, he was dazed and couldn’t tell which way was up.  He was trying to get off the ground, but another nearby explosion throttled him back onto the debris covered pavement.  He knew the explosions had deafened him, but his mind was playing the stupid song.  Music was still ringing in his ears as the shops and skyscrapers continued to explode all around him.  Through the haze he could still see Max walking past the barricade, undisturbed by the force of the buildings exploding all around him.  A manic glint was in his eye, and he still had both of his hands above his head conducting the explosions as if they were music.

A shadow overcame the glass and debris Jacobian was staring at.  As he turned his head towards the shadow’s source, he could see the massive concrete and steel start to cascade upon the ground all around them.   Max was now in middle of the square, leaning off of the grand statue wildly conducting the music no one could hear with his free arm as the explosions continued all around him.  Jacobian knew Max wasn’t planning on escaping the collapse of the square.  As the dust and shadows overcame everything, Jacobian last saw Max with an almost peaceful expression on his face as if the explosions he conducted were serenading him.  And then Jacobian felt the ground buckle beneath them, massive chunks of steel and debris fell around the square like a torrent of merciless rain.  And then darkness.