Pornography (part 4)

Elvis wrenched the shackles free of Daisy-Donnie and helped them down.

‘You look…’ he glanced down at Daisy-Donnie’s chest. ‘Different?’

Daisy-Donnie grinned at Elvis, but was distracted by the sphere of energy high in the air.

‘What are they doing to him?’ they asked, looking upwards.

Madame Pink and Monsieur Bleu leaned forward and kissed each other once on each cheek. Then they stepped back and stood at predefined positions.

Two isolation spheres exploded energy around them. They too screamed in agony, as the spheres lifted from the ground and moved towards that of The Assassin.

They rotated and tilted in the air until they were either-side of The Assassin, still imprisoned.

* * *

‘What the hell is going on?’ asked Elvis, shocked. ‘What are they doing?’

The three spheres merged into one.

‘No! Please NO!’ screamed The Assassin in a moment of clarity. ‘You don’t know what you’re unleashing!’

Madame Pink and Monsieur Bleu reached out for The Assassin and he jerked unnaturally. Gasping, blood now running from his mouth, he opened his mouth and from it escaped an awful sound of pure torment. The blood ran down his body and dripped from his feet, fizzling as it struck the blue.

‘No,’ he gurgled, choking.

His body distorted and twisted.

Then, in a moment of desperation and with the last of his energy, he looked down at Elvis, eyes pleading.

Elvis lifted the President’s gun.

The Assassin’s head snapped back suddenly, the single projectile releasing him from the torture.

Madame Pink and Monsieur Bleu screamed, now in torment as well as agony. They were so close…

‘There!’ yelled Panix, leading his men into the room. ‘Fire!’

One of the better-armed but less circumspect members of Team Amber fired an appallingly large and destructive weapon.

The explosion took-out the power-supply and control-mechanism for the isolation spheres.

Three bodies fell to the floor.

* * *

Elvis dragged Daisy-Donnie out of the room. They tumbled forward, forced off their feet by the shock-wave.

‘You shot him. I don’t believe–’ said Daisy-Donnie, pushing up from the floor.

‘Better I did,’ said Elvis urgently. ‘You saw what they were doing to him.’

He grabbed Daisy-Donnie’s arm and pulled them upright. ‘Now come on!’

They ran. They ran from the explosions behind them, and the corpse of The Assassin.

‘If you know a way out of here, now’s the time, darlin’.’

‘The Monorail,’ murmured Daisy-Donnie. ‘This way!’

* * *

Colonel Panix stood over the corpse of The Assassin. He nudged the body twice with a foot.

‘Dead,’ he said, and nodded. He reached down and lifted a radio from his belt. ‘Close the net.’

* * *

Daisy-Donnie and Elvis tried desperately to put some distance between themselves and the BSD goons, but it was all getting too much.

The stairs slowed their pace substantially.

The four corridors just about did them in.

‘Jesus,’ gasped Elvis. ‘This is too much.’

‘It’s ahead. It’s just down there!’ said Daisy-Donnie as they emerged in the baggage-handling facility.

Daisy-Donnie slowed, letting the King catch up.

Their face was sprayed with blood.

‘Oh… shit,’ Elvis gasped, clutching his chest. Blood seeped past his hand. He collapsed to his knees.

* * *

‘Done,’ said Colonel Panix, lifting the gun, a satisfied grin on his face. He had a birds-eye view of the two below. He lifted his radio and spoke.

‘Move in.’

* * *

‘Elvis?’ said Daisy-Donnie crouching by their friend.

‘Go,’ wheezed Elvis. ‘You have to… go.’

BSD troops flooded into the room along the gantry above and through the doors.

They fired at anything and everything; Bullets whizzed through the air.

The smaller of the luggage machines spewed smoke.

‘I won’t leave you,’ said Daisy-Donnie.

‘Why does everything…’ Elvis gasped for air and sank to the floor, tense from the pain. ‘…have to be a… debate?’

Daisy-Donnie dragged their friend along the ground by one arm; he weighed a ton.

‘You’re next Penfolde!’ yelled Panix and fired a volley of shots through the smoke.

Elvis struggled free of Daisy-Donnie.

‘Go, goddamn it!’ yelled Elvis and with the last of his strength, he rolled so he was facing the right way and  forced himself to kneel. He reached out and grasped the President’s gun.

* * *

Daisy-Donnie ran for the double-seat monorail car, leapt onto the drivers seat and threw the controls forward.

The machine leapt into motion.

* * *

‘Time to take care of business,’ Elvis wheezed, then steadied the gun in both hands, and fired his last bullet.

* * *

Colonel Panix fell, screaming, his knee gushing blood.

* * *

Daisy-Donnie looked back, as Elvis squeezed off the shot.

A flash-bang exploded near the entrance to the tunnel; Elvis was a momentary silhouette as the phosphorous blanketed everything in dazzling white.

Then there was darkness.

Click to see the next installment: Elvis has left the building

South Yarra, February-March 2006