San Fransisco
7/17/00
“We’re
going to miss you both.” Maggie spoke for the entire community. A crowd
had gathered to send Rei and Tom off on their journey. The Consolidated
model locomotive was fully operational and ready to go. Two cars, the tender
and a boxcar full of provisions, were coulped behind the steam engine.
The boiler was burning and the iron horse was breathing smoke from the
vent stack. “Tom, you were the best handyman I’ve ever seen. And Rei, we
owe you our lives. We wish you luck.”
“Don’t worry, Mags,” Tom smiled, “We won’t let you down.”
“Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.” Rei bowed. The two journeyors climbed into the cab and prepared the train to leave. Rei pulled the brake as Tom let a long whistle blow. The pistons began turning and the twenty ton monster began moving forward. The throng of people ran along with the train until they could no longer keep up with it. Soon, it dissapeared over the horizon.
Now that she had time to spare, Rei watched the beach slide by. The sun was setting, giving the water a strange orange glow. Waves crashed on the yellow sand then withdrew to crash again.
The Japanese girl remembered when she and her friends would go to the beach in the summer. They would go swimming and snorkeling, play various versions of tag, and just piddle around until evening.
Then there was that one time when Amy had tried to teach them all how to surf. Amy, whose family had quite a bit of money, had traveled to Australia and picked it up there when she was twelve. That had been a disaster! Serena had no sense of balance and kept wiping out. Mina was the only one who caught on at all. It figures, since she did gymnastics.
And who could forget that weekend in December when the Crossroaders had an unofficial class party. A few of the guys had drove their cars onto the beach later in the night and started racing them on the empty beach. Serena had entered her little Volkswagen Rabbit into one of the heats and wrecked it. Greg had won second driving...was it a ‘72 Barricuda?
“We’ll be going throught Sacramento in about one and a half to two hours.” Tom told her.
“Ok.” Rei acknowledged.
Soon, the tracks left the coast and they were driving along through a burnt-out forest. The sound of the wheels on the track echoed strangely among the blackened trees.
“I wonder what it’ll be like?” Rei couldn’t help but say aloud.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to find it wrecked.” Tom told the Japanese temple maiden. “I hope it’s not too violent.”
“Not after all this time.” Flute shook his head. “I bet the portal closed as he passed through.”
“After two weeks we’d have noticed, though.” Jekter shook his head, thinking. After a moment, he snapped his fingers. “I bet he did find the Scouts and they defeated him.”
“No, dear love.” Meredith sat in a corner, playing with her hair, “I made Electrichead to be more powerful and intelligent than all of them combined. He and Jigsaw Man are the most powerful fighting creatures ever created. I just don’t think he’s found them. You told him yourself, master, not to come back until he’s defeated the Sailor Scouts.”
“What if they’re all dead?” Jekter posed the question.
“They most certainly are not.” Flute interjected, “But I should have been more explicit in my orders.”
“Maybe he’s collecting all of our soldiers left on that side to fight them.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, master, it doesn’t matter.” Jekter finally put the question to rest, “What does matter is what we’re going to do next.” Everyone turned their eyes to Flute.
“Nothing.” the blue-skinned man finally said to the astonishment of his followers. “We’ll wait a little longer.”
“But sir...”
“No, no buts.” Flute shook his head. “I was thinking about it. Their world is devistated. They should be starving, weak, in terror. Winter will be falling in a few months. With the work I have done, it will be much more terrible than any they’ve ever experienced. With the ecological dammage to that planet even the warmer cities will feel a cold season. Believe me, they’ll suffer.”
“Still, I propose that we send a scouting group to find out what we can.” Jekter suggested
“Alright, but don’t let yourself be discovered.”
“What? Me?” Jekter was astonished.
“Yes, my boy.” Flute smiled, “Of all of us, you look the most human. None of the monsters can go. Meredith’s eyes are yellow. No human has yellow eyes. I’d go with makeup but my eyes are red. You look like a human being. You go.”
“Yes, sir.” Jekter bowed. With that, he turned away and left for his mission.
“I wonder what his problem is.” Flute watched him go.
“I believe he is frustrated, sir.” Meredith said.
“With what?”
“With this whole campaigne.” teh woman replied, “He constantly complains to me that we are not moving fast enough.”
“And what do you think?”
“He does have his points. The Scouts could have been long defeated by now.”
“But they are such strong warriors.” Flute shook his head, “I had always been advised to be cautious when the Sailor Scouts were involved.”
Meredith was silent for a while, considering this. Thoughfully, she plucked at the silky strands of jet black hair that trailed quite a distance behind her. It was a moment afterward that she spoke up. “You know, the hair on the females of my species grows increadibly fast.” she paused dramatically before adding the statistic. “Over a body length a year on average. Mine, unfortunately grows quite a bit faster. It’s almost overwhelming. Sometimes I swear I can see it growing. I have to cut nearly fifteen centimeters a month to keep it this length. If I didn’t, it would be rolling down those steps and across the...”
“What’s your point, woman?” Flute did not like being lectured about beauty secrets at any time.
The yellow-eyed woman smiled. “My point is this: to control a situation, you have to act quickly and decisively. Otherwise, you’ll be overwhelmed and totally lose control.”
“I see what you are saying.” the general said, “But my orders still stand.” He then tossed a glance over his shoulder at Meredith, “For now.”
It was about this time that Serena joined in. “Got to be a joker, he just do what he please.” The two girls continued in unison. “He wear no shoeshine. He got toejam football. He got monkeyfinger. He shoot Coca-Cola. He say ‘I know you. You know me. One thing I can tell you is you gotta be free.’ Come together, right now, over me!” Afterward, there was a long pause, followed by an embarressed glance.
“Um...” Amy redened a little, “I can’t remember the rest of the words.”
“Is this verse the ‘He back production’ part or the ‘He rollacoasta?’ I can’t remember.” The blonde shrugged.
The Catholic thought a moment and then said, “I don’t know, but it ends in ‘hold you in his arms and you can feel his disease,’ I think.”
“What were the Beatles on when they wrote this?” Serena asked, almost laughing.
Amy smiled and gave a mischevous sidelong glance. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
“I don’t know the words...”
“No, no. Serena have you even listened to that song? It’s about an LSD trip.” Amy explained. “And so is ‘A Little Help from my Friends’ and some of their other late stuff.”
Almost on cue, Serena began singing. “What would you do if I sang out of tune. Would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your ears and I sing you a song. I will try not to sing out of key.” She stopped and to think a moment. “Gosh, I never knew their late music was about such wierd stuff.”
Amy raised an eyebrow and quoted a line from another song. “‘I Am the Walrus?’ And how could you possibly forget ‘Yellow Submarine’?”
“That was a good movie.” Serena remembered. “Snapping Turtle Turks and Apple Bonkers.”
“The Horrible Flying Glove.” Amy threw her head back to laugh.
“Officer, would you believe me if I told you I was being followed by one of those unidentified flying cupcakes?” Serena began. Amy instantly caught on.
“Are you sure it isn’t just a phigment of your imagenation?”
“But I don’t have an imagenation.” At that the two teenagers were sent into reels of giggles.
“I remember when you did the talent show that one time.” Amy said, “Was it ‘Shake it up Baby’ or ‘Bad Boy’ that you sang?”
“It was ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ actually.” the taller one responded, “When the Beatles weren’t drugged up.” They were silent for a long time then. Serena broke it by putting her hand to her stomach and wailing. “Oh, God, Amy I’m so hungry.”
“So am I, Serena, but we have to try to keep our minds off food.” It had been two days since either of them had eaten anything. Amy was trying to catch fish with an improvized net but there was little else they could do. The destroyed city of Los Angeles did not provide much in the way of food. They had nothing to trade and weren’t strong enough to steal anything. Water was becoming more scarce. Amy was looking into a way to distill it but they had so little to build such a machine with. Serena kept saying it was impossible, but Amy would only remind her that the Apollo XIII astronauts had built oxygen scrubbers from plastic tubing, duct tape and a sock. Serena would then shake her head and walk away.
“We shoulda left like Rei did.” Serena finally suggested. It was the first time she’d mentioned Rei in a long time.
“Rei could be dead by now.” Amy shook her head, “We had everything we needed on the Asylum anyway. We had no idea that this would happen. Not even Rei and Greg knew, and they have the most psychic powers of anyone I’ve ever known.”
“That’s not many people.” Serena’s off-hand comment stung Amy, but she shook it off. Serena was bitter right now and there was no reason to make her angry.
“We’ve got to find a way to solve our problem.” Amy changed the subject.
“How?” Serena asked. “We have nothing to trade, and if we try to steal something, we’ll get killed.”
“What if we go as the Sailor Scouts?”
“Then they’ll make more of an effort to kill us.” Serena shook her head, for once sounding intelligent. “And besides, we don’t need to advertise ourselves. People will only hate us for not preventing all this destruction. And with it just your and me, our enemies will know Venus, Jupiter, and Mars are gone. Then they’ll hunt the two of us down and kill us. And besides, how odd would it look if the Sailor Scouts were begging for food?” Serena let it run through her ind a moment, then threw her head back in laughter. “I am Sailor Moon, champion of justice, and in the name of the Moon I’m starving. Do you have anything to spare?” The two girls shared a strange look, then began giggling at the absurdity of the monologue.
Ah, well, anything to please his lord and master. He held up the device and began searching.