Stuart came running into the room, and Arthur could tell he was clearly excited. Arthur was just picking up his bag, and Gwen was still packing in the next room, but he was ready. Gwen was his wife now, he had to get used to saying that, his wife “The Queen” was in the next room, and their honeymoon was right around the corner. They could not leave just yet. They had one big matter of business left, before they could go. That was for Duke to bring him proof that David was just a distant memory. Arthur still holding his bag anxiously, was waiting for Stuart to say something, but instead he just grinned from ear to ear. As soon as he saw this, Arthur knew that it was good news. Arthur your gonna want to get above ground, Stuart said. I heard from them, and they are just about to engage. With all of the hidden wards, and sigils protecting the areas down stairs, he couldn't connect with the knights. Arthur smiled back, shouldered his bag, and he ran passed Stuart, then flew up the stairs. Stuart began to laugh, almost hysterically. He knew that Arthur could not only talk to Duke, Marshall, and the rest of the knights, but he could also see exactly what they were seeing at the time. Arthur’s ability to do this with Duke was especially strong. With him, he could even hear, smell, and taste exactly what Duke was. Arthur got to the kitchen table, and dropped his bag on one of the chairs. He sat down in the chair right next to it, and put his head back so that he was looking up at the ceiling, instantly his eyes rolled back in his head.
Stuart still laughing at Arthur, gently knocked on Gwen's door. It's me Stuart he said, I Just wanted to let you know that Arthur's up stairs. He's all packed up already. Right now he's probably watching the guys hunt. When Gwen opened the door, she had on a plain white T-shirt with a pair of Arthur's camo jogging pants. Other than those, she only had her waitress uniform washed, folded, and hanging over her left forearm. The only other thing she had, was her piglet was in her right hand. She did not exactly paint the queenly image. . . Yet.
So I don't even have to ask you, Did they find him yet? Gwen looked nervous, and almost fearfully anxious. Stuart was not sure if it was from a fear of one of the guys getting hurt, or the fact that Arthur had kept the details of their honeymoon a mystery. Stuart didn't ask, he just replied to her question. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they have him surrounded, and they are just about to jump. That message was a few minutes ago though. By the time we get back upstairs there should be some more news, hopefully that they finished the job.
The Hunt
Upstairs Arthur was sitting at the dinner table physically, but watching across town as Duke crept into the tunnel below David's house. The smell of the wet stone was dank and moldy. The tunnels was carved into the bedrock, the walls were rough hewn stone. Duke had sniffed out the entrance these tunnels at the back corner of the house, the mouth was hidden in a shed. David must have recently used them to come and go, because his scent was also still pretty heavy in there. Marshall and the other guys were upstairs, and they were just closing in on the front and rear entrances of the house itself. Marshall set the timer to 3 seconds on a small E.M.P. device, and whipped it through the front window. He immediately tossed a flash bang grenade in right behind it. Earl was at the back door, and he heard the glass shatter as the E.M.P. was thrown in. He grabbed 2 smoke grenades off of his belt, and tossed one through each rear window. The EMP hit, and the flash bang went off almost simultaneously. The sudden commotion that began happening directly afterwards, let them all know there was more than one person in the house. Marshall kicked the front door in, and Earl kicked the back door in. Whoever was inside, was not going for the doors or windows, they could hear two sets of feet and they were heading down a wooden set of stairs.
Duke was patiently waiting in the dark tunnel when he heard the other guys breach the house. Then Duke like a he had done a hundred times before, began transmitting his song. When he went into “hunting mode” he had a mental loop of the 1980’s song “Your Wildest Dreams” by the band the Moody Blues that he would broadcast to the other guys. Duke in full wolf form was sitting there right at one of the turns in the tunnel. He could just hear their footsteps coming from further down the tunnels, when the smell of the two people also hit him. There were two males, and one of them was bleeding. Just as the first chorus line of the song was playing, Duke could see a flashlight beam bouncing up and down the on wall. They were now coming down the long straight leg of the tunnel, and heading for the turn Duke was hiding around. When they got right up to the corner, they both stopped and turned to look back down the behind them. They had no idea that there was a massive black wolf standing just inches behind them. A wolf that stood head height to both of them. They both stood there oblivious to the wolf behind them, and shined their flashlights back down the tunnel to see who was coming after them. Then at the other end of the tunnel another smoke grenade slowly rolls into view. It begins to hiss and spit out a thick cloud. David and his bleeding friend suddenly decided not to wait to see who was chasing them. David quietly said “Go, go, go,” the man with him was the closest one to Duke. He turned and took a step, before realizing that he was placing his head and neck right into the unseen creatures massive jaws. By the time David turned and saw Duke, it was too late. He was eye to eye with David as he was dropping the the other mans head. While the friends headless body was falling, it was spraying David from head to toe with blood on its way to the ground. The head hit the ground with a wet thump, then it bounced off the tunnel wall, rolled and landed right at David's feet. Duke placed one of his massive paws on David's foot, then he put his massive face right up to David's and Barked. The smell of fear was rolling off of David as the surge of adrenaline began to course through him. Alive Duke, Bring him to me alive. Arthur's voice echoed in Duke's mind.
David was frozen stiff. The massive black wolf was clearly not going to let him leave. His heart was hammering in his chest, he had almost no doubt that these were his last few minutes left to live. Duke was looking at him eye to eye, and he leaned in to sniff the blood on Davids face. The scared man had just began pissing himself, when Earl and Marshall walked up behind him. Earl grabbed his wrists and cuffed him, before David realized they were even there. In a way, he was happy to have just been captured. His hired security guard did not end up so lucky. David tried to turn and see who his captors were, but before he could, Marshall put a black cloth sack over his head. At first David tried to threaten them to figure out who they were, he tried saying My father is a politician, and diplomat he will have your jobs for this. One of the men slapped him on the side of the head, it was hard enough that it busted his ear drum. What the shit dude, you ruined my fucking ear. Another one of the men, in a deep serious tone, said “shut the fuck up,” and the man directly behind him grabbed one of his wrist and cuffed it. David was about to try negotiating instead of threatening, just as he felt the wolves mouth closing around his other shoulder, collar bone, and bicep, instantly David quit talking. He could tell that same man that cuffed him was clearly not going to talk, or negotiate, he said “let's get him back, the King wants him in one piece,” and the beast slowly removed his mouth. He growled right in David's good ear as he backed away, and other than pissing his pants a bit more, he was frozen and couldn't even react. The king wants him in one piece, what the fuck was that supposed to mean. David's mind was racing, and now he was really worried. What was really fucking happening now, and how did some foreign kings mercenaries find him..
David silently waited to hear them talking on the way back, hoping to pick up a hint to where they were going, or who they were taking him to. They walked him into the woods somewhere not far from his place, but that could be in any direction. The next thing he knew, he was being strapped and tied to a saddle of some kind, and his hands were tied to the saddle horn. He knew the smell of horses, and this was obviously not a horse. Was he riding the huge wolf? It dawned on him that it was wide, really wide his legs were nearly in a split trying to grip on, and wrap around it. Then he heard someone with a deep voice say one word, “Go” and it sounded like someone slapped the animal on the ass. Suddenly the musty animal started running. There was brush and sticks slapping him in the face, and his ass was bouncing all over the saddle. He tried to get a rhythm of the animals stride, primarily to stop himself from crushing his nuts. There were no stirrups, or reigns. It seemed like every time he would just get the rhythm down, the animals pace, or whole gaite changed. Was this beast trying to give him a rough ride? Just as he was thinking that, the animal bounced awkwardly heading up an incline, and David got whacked in the face hard enough to daze him with a fairly thick pine branch. Now he knew it was.
The Trophy.
The man, the wolf, and the bear come running up toward the front porch of the house. There is a frightened man with a black cloth sack over his head, riding on the bears back, he is tied to the big brown bears saddle. The man, who ran through the woods with the bear and huge wolf, walks over to the bear cuts the rope binding the man's hands to the saddle horn. Then the man shoved him sideways off of the saddle. David hit the ground hard. The bag was yanked off his head, and the sunlight blinded him. When his eyes focused, he was looking at a beautiful females face. She was dressed like she was an average lady who just rolled out of bed, not someone who he pictured would be around a king. When he looked back to see what kind of animal he was just shoved off of he was stunned, he was laying on the ground looking up at a huge saddled bear. Who the fuck are these people.
The woman in jogging pants stepped aside, and another man stepped forward. The first thing David noticed waa the mans worn out Puma sneakers, and the fraying hem on the bottom of his blue jeans. He couldn't see the man's face, he was wearing a baseball cap, and the sun was right behind his head. “Are you happy with the results of your plan?” The mans voice sounded kind of familiar. David was trying to figure out from where he knew it from, when a stinging pain rang out from the side of his ribcage. “You heard the king fool, answer him!” He looked back up towards the man's face, still blacked out from the backlight of the sun. David said “It was not my plan.” The brief moment of silence that happened next, was deafening. The bear stood up on its hind legs, and if David wasn't fully freaked out before, when the bear changed into a man, then looked down at him and called him a liar he was now, he actually started muttering, then he shit his pants, and just fainted.
When David woke up, he was hanging from a wooden beam in the barn, by a rope leading down to his bound hands. He was shirtless, and the one of the men that was just a bear not long before, was now removing David's pants. The huge man was also naked, and covered in burns, tattoos, and scars. He slipped David's pants off over his ankles, and tossed them. Then the man in the baseball cap and ratty sneakers began hosing David off. The shit smell instantly got stronger when the stinging got water from the garden hose sent it running down his legs. His toes barely touched the hay covered ground. By the time most of the piss and shit were rinsed off of him, David's toes were dangling in a soup of his own shit, piss, hay and mud. The man dropped the water hose. Then he said, we will let him hang there to dry off a bit, then we will come back to talk. Duke, you stay here and watch him, the massive wolf stepped into the doorway of the barn beside the man. The wolf nodded his head in confirmation, then it turned and looked David right in the eyes. The older female that was now standing with them said, “If he moves, or talks, or does anything but hang there silently, you can slowly chew his genitals off.” The wolf, keeping eye contact with David the whole time, slowly crept further into the barn growling quietly, while the others walked back across the yard towards the house.
Arthur was going to need to figure out if David was telling them the truth. He said it wasn't his plan, and if it was not, they needed to know how David fit into it, and who's plan of destruction this was. In order to get the truth, they needed to keep him scared, and in a state of shock. When they got in the porch, Arthur opened the front door, and asked Stuart to go grab him the butchers kit. A few minutes later, he came walking out with a rolled up leather bundle, with a piece of my leather cord tied around it. He handed it to Arthur who laid it in the wood slat porch floor, untied the binding, and rolled it open. Staring back up at him was an assortment of different shaped knives. They all appeared to be sharp, and ready to use, so Arthur rolled it back up, and sat down on the edge of the porch. He wanted to give David about 20 more minutes hanging there, just enough time to let his arms begin to hurt. Donna, just before we all go back in the barn, I want you to walk out there and without saying a word, walk up and kick him in the nuts. Then recite a piece of irrelevant poetry at him, and walk out. When we see you come back out of the barn, that will be our cue to enter.
Dangle like a pro
Hanging naked from a roof beam in a barn, was not how he pictured his life ending. At this point he was just hoping that the way these people were going to kill him, was going to be fast and humane. Given what David had done, and the death and destruction it led to over the past few days, he knew his didn't deserve any type of kindness. If he tried to explain to them why he kick started the dark ages again, they probably could not even begin to understand. The rest of the world would only know the details that he gave in the crazy little show that he broadcast. This was the cursed knowledge that he would just have to carry, and luckily for him it probably would not be for much longer.
David was accepting his fate. He had saved a portion of humanity, but the surviving people would only remember the half that died. The only part of it that he added in, was choosing to broadcast some of the Only Fans cell phone detonations. He was not lying, when he told his captors earlier that this wasn’t his plan. His father wanted to wipe out 99% of humanity, and if David had not done all of this, it would have happened on a bigger scale a few days later. David discovered what his father's plans were, and tried to warn some of the higher ups in intelligence. Apparently they already knew, and they were in on the plan with his father.
The huge black wolf watching David dangle, just got up and walked out of the barn. David looked up at his bindings to see if he could work his hands free. With the way his wrists, and hands were tied, there was no way he could escape. He was noticing that his arms were starting to cramp, the muscles in his shoulders and upper back were starting to spasm. He looked down at his feet, and thought that maybe he could rake enough straw and mud with his toes, to make a small flat spot to put his feet on. Just as he started reaching for some of the straw with with his big toes, the older lady from earlier walked into the barn. His heart skipped a beat when he noticed the way she was staring at him. She did not say anything. She walked over to the wall just inside the big doors where there were a few nails in the wall with things hanging from them. She reached up and grabbed a pair of hedge trimmers that looked like huge scissors, and he instantly felt helpless. She looked down at the trimmers in her hand, then back over at David. She smiled in a creepy and foreboding way, then hung them back up. Next to the hedge trimmers was a piece of rope, a small segment maybe 15 to 20 feet long. She took it down, looked at David and just nodded yes.
The lady silently stood there across the barn, just staring at David while she was tying some type of knot at one end of the rope. She finished, and her smile grew more frightening as she walked in his direction. “Wait lady, this is not what what you all think.” She laughed out loud, and David started to tremble. “Can we talk about this?” The woman stopped dead in her tracks, and her face went from smiling to blank. She was standing there in front of him, but her attention was on something else. It reminded David of talking to someone while they were listening to something else on a Bluetooth earbud. It was just a few seconds, but felt like an eternity. Suddenly her attention snapped back to David. David looked passed her, over at the door to the barn, the wolf had returned. It was just standing there, licking its chops while staring at him. The woman was also still as silent as can be. She walked around David with the piece of rope, until she was directly behind him and he couldn't turn to see her. She pushed the back of his right knee, bringing his toes just up off of the ground, and felt the rope slip up over his ankle. She yanked it so the knot tightened, then she ran towards the wall further off to David's right side. She was standing by the wall just where David could barely see her off in his peripheral. She put the rope around some kind of bracket, and pulled it. David's right leg came up and away from the ground, she pulled the rope some more, until his leg was stretched almost out at 90° being pulled so his right foot was straight towards the wall. His left foot was still dangling there over the wet dirt and hay.
“What are you.. going.. to do to me?” David's voice was starting to crack. A few tears had formed, and welled up at the corner of his eyes. She did not say anything in response, instead she walked over to him, and was staring him in the eyes standing right in front of him. Without saying a word she pointed up towards the rafter he was tied to. David looked up to see what she was pointing at. He followed the rope up to where it wrapped around the beam, nothing stood out to him as being deserving of attention. He was scanning further down the beam towards the wall, when she said “Star light, star bright, first star I see toniiii.” David went from quietly hanging there like a mass murdering marionette, to screaming in a high soprano, when the top of her foot crashed into both of his testicles. While David was looking up towards the wall, Donna had cocked her leg back and driven a place kick square into his groin, his right ball got crushed between the flat top of her foot, and his own pelvic bone.
“Old mother Hubbard looked in her cupboard..” was the last thing he could hear, through his own wailing and dry heaving, as she joyfully recited mother goose poems, and skipped out of the barn. While he was hanging there over the next few minutes alternating between vomiting, sobbing, and groaning in pain, he was actually hoping for death now. In this moment he truly began to realize two things. The first thing, was all of the millions of ways they could cause him horrible pain, while still keeping him alive. The second, was the fact that millions of people were currently out there, dead, in pain, or worse because of the chain reaction of events he set off.
Time is relative
David had heard the term “Time is relative” more than once in his life, but he never really had an appreciation for the meaning of it until now. He had been the son of an American politician and diplomat. He had never been hungry, or in need of anything. He never even once had to wait to use the bathroom in his home, because there was either another sibling, or family member was using it. His parents house had more bathrooms, and bedrooms, than actual people. If he needed some money, he just texted his mommy or daddy. He was pissed at his dad when he made him get a job, David saw it as some sort of punishment. He made him work at the general store, and pay for his own health insurance. But, his parents still gave him a hefty six figure annual allowance out of his trust. A trust that his father built up in just over ten years, as he went from being the Governor of Mississippi, to the Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and the Secretary of the US Navy. His family went from being $200,000.⁰⁰ in debt, to being more wealthy and powerful than any US president, or European King over the time it took his dad to have a few job title changes. David knew for certain over the last two years, that his father had become one of the notorious “deep state” villains you only hear about in the conspiracy theory circles. He hated him now. It's part of the reason that David triggered his dad's digital apocalypse early.
Now he was hanging there, wishing that his evil father was tracking his location. Praying that by some type of miracle, a task force of his dad's government spooks would locate him, and rush in to save him. Instead, he got a very different surprise. He was staring down at his his groin, watching as his scrotum slowly filled up with blood, when saw some motion outside of the barn. The wolf had walked back out, and the guy in the baseball cap, and ratty sneakers was walking back in. The pretty lady in jogging pants was with him, along with some massive long haired guy. David was fairly sure that big guy, was the one that he rode here as a bear. The lady, and the big guy stayed at the door, and the guy wearing the hat walked all the way in. He had kept his head down, and David still had not seen his face. He had no idea who it was, until the man walked up and said “Hey David, you forgot to clock out.” When Arthur took his hat off, and looked up at David the look of shock on his face was beyond obvious.
King of the Cashiers
What is this Arthur? Who are you really, and why are you having me tortured? Arthur just shook his head and laughed. He pulled a sharpie marker from his pocket, walked right up to David, and began making a dotted line on his torso. It started about an inch below his nipples, and went across him from one side to the other. Arthur looked up at him with a smile, and asked if he had ever seen the Hannibal Lecter movie “Silence of the lambs.” David began to sob, and he asked Arthur, are you going to eat me?
Ewww no friggin way, that's gross. Arthur told him, no sir, I'm going to skin you alive. Well, actually I'm not going to, I'm just going to watch, while Earl over there does it. You see this line I made, Arthur said as he pointed to the dotted line. The big guy standing over there and I, well.. we have a bet going. I think if we cut the skin around your torso, and pull it down like a kilt, you will bleed to death in a few hours. He keeps telling me that he's done this before, and that if we give you antibiotics to stop the infection you can live like that for weeks. He tells me that the bottom of the skin kilt starts to get necrotic after a while, and that's actually what will do it. “Just kill me!” David already had tears rolling down his face. I'm bleeding internally already. Your friend already crushed my nut, so please just get it over with. Cut my damned throat. Arthur stopped him there. Save your breath David, you triggered some shit that's probably going to wipe out half of humanity, over a lying, cheating Only Fans hooker. I have no regard for you desire of a quick death.
David hung there almost silent for a few seconds, then he looked up at Arthur and said, “no man, she was just an excuse. You have no idea how many people I actually saved.” Arthur exploded, Are you fucking kidding me David? If people want to hoe around and catch crabs, or herpes, that's there prerogative David. You can't kill them and claim to be saving them, what kind of puritan bullshit are you selling yourself. Your taking it all wrong Arthur, the 5G and satellite infrastructure I used to do it was already there, My dad was going to trigger it in a few more days when he finished setting it up. It would have done the same thing, but also triggered nuclear explosions in every big metropolitan area, if he finished linking the systems together, his plan wiped out 99% of all life on earth, not just half of the people. The only way I could stop him, was by setting it off before he had the Nukes tied in.
Arthur grabbed David by his bangs and picked his head up. Look at me David. The pathetic look he gave Arthur told him more than he needed to know. He was being sincere. So either his Father was the Government Antichrist, and he was telling the truth, or he was just delusional enough to truly believe it. Arthur was instantly leaning towards the first option. The main reason he believed David, was the amount of linked infrastructure needed to crash everything he did, and also weaponize and detonate everyone's cellular devices was well beyond the abilities of one guy working alone. Arthur walked a few feet away, and leaned on the wall. To David, it looked like he was just thinking, and analyzing what he told him. Arthur walked back over and grabbed David by the chin. He pointed his face directly at David's and stood there for a second. Who is your father David? When he told him his dad's name, Arthur shoved his face to the side, and walked back over to the wall. He was leaning there scratching his chin.
David was really confused by what happened next. Without saying anything to each other, the large man walked into the barn, and handed Arthur a rolled up leather case. Arthur walked over and laid it out on the ground in front of David, and untied the binding. When he rolled the case open, and David saw all of the medieval looking butchering blades, he fainted. The next thing David knew, he was in his parents old house from before the time his dad was a politician. It was his grandfather's house, but when he passed, David's parents were left it in his will. It was a Saturday morning, and David was looking down at a version of himself when he was about 7 years old, he was watching cartoons on the living room floor. His dad walked in from the kitchen with the cordless house phone pressed up to his ear. He was always in the middle of some important business call, or trying to get people to invest in his newest version of the “next big thing.”
He was paying his dad no attention, just being a kid watching his animated world coming to life in the TV. His mom came jogging into the room excited, she was smiling. “I found it honey, I was cleaning out your mom's sewing room, and I found it.” She handed David's dad a leather bound old book, there was a string book mark hanging out at the top of the books spine, that had a small key on it. This cought David's attention. The key was sparkling as it spun in the narrow beam of sunlight, it was running from the crack in the curtains right across the middle of the living room floor. As she held the book out to him, the key was perfectly in the beam, spinning and throwing hundreds of sparkly dots on the floor dancing all around him. His dad just hung up on whoever he was talking to on the house phone. He didn't even bother to put it in a table, or one of the back of recliners that he was standing by. He just hung it up, let go of it, and dropped it. He ran over to his mom, and picked her up in a loving embrace. “This is the answer to all of our problems.” David was trying to get a good look at the book, but before he could, he was sucked into another memory.
David was with his dad camping in the Blue ridge mountains. It was a few years after the previous memory. In this one, he was about 10, and his dad was celebrating becoming the Governor. It was the first time David could remember having his dad bring him to this cabin. It was just the two of them there, and David was amazed looking around at the rustic log walls, and stone fire place. His dad pulled that same book out, and set it on the kitchen counter. The ten year old David ran up the stairs to look at the loft. His dad picked the book up, and looked at young David at the top of the stairs. You stay here and explore bud, I'm gonna run out to the wood shed, I'll be right back. The version of David watching the memory tried to follow his dad out the back door, but wound up in another memory.
This one was different. David did not recognize his surroundings. He was laying on a hospital bed, and he was maybe 17. His mom was crying, and she was holding his hand. His dad walked into the hospital room, and his mother instantly went ballistic on him. She jumped up from the chair and was hitting and slapping his father, this is all your fault isn't it. What are you going to do next you sick bastard, sacrifice me to become the president. You think I'm stupid, and I didn't notice. The family dog suddenly dies mysteriously, and you become the governor. My sister gets butchered, and a week later you become the secretary of the Navy. Now you are about to be running a multi billion dollar investment in a group that will be running the lives of all of these people, and our son winds up in the hospital. I want you out of here now, you stay away from him. He's not your sacrificial lamb. His dad walked out of the room. His next memory is his mom's funeral. There was not really a body to bury, as far as David knew, her head, and left foot were the only pieces of her that were found. He walked over to look down into the hole as they lowered the casket in. As he was standing there, something walked up and shoved him in. He was falling towards the casket when it opened. Instead of seeing his mom's head inside, it was just a hole leading into the earth. He fell through the open casket, and into the hole. There was no bottom. He just kept falling.
When he hit the bottom, he instantly noticed the smell of shit and hay. He woke up on the ground in the barn. Arthur had cut his bindings. David looked up at Arthur, I think he sacrificed my mom to get the political.power he currently holds. I know David, I was watching. Come with me. Arthur held his hand out to help him up. As David reached for it, he asked Arthur Why do they call you a king? Arthur grabbed David's hand, and as he stood up, thousands of years of memories flooded into David's head. He stood there looking at Arthur stunned, he was stuck in place just blinking. Then he asked Arthur, What the fuck dude? Arthur told him, as you can see I have been battling the evil that your father has awoken again for several millennia. If you want redemption, and to correct some if this mess, you will help me to put those demons back where they belong.
A New Plan
One minute you are planning to peel the skin off a guys torso before you leave to go on your honeymoon, and the next minute he becomes a possible ally in a battle to save humanity.
It's funny how the world works.