Attack on an Evil God

by Ásgrímur Hartmannsson

Chapter 12: Night Drive

Maggi went out for a drive. He drove around the city aimlessly, listening to golden oldies, trying to think about something other than a bunch of crazy warlocks with plans that were beyond his understanding. He thought he should have gone into mathematics instead, from there to physics.

He had heard about quantum mechanics, and that stuff all seemed to make much more sense that the stuff that Freyja and Hansi prattled on about. How in hell did some snowflake picture on a doorframe confuse the police, in a different postal code?

He noticed someone following him, gaining on him. It was someone in an awful cheap hatchback, similar to his. Maggi wondered if he should accelerate and try to ditch the guy for the fun of it, or let him pass. Rallying would take his mind off things, but he could also run into the cops. He thought he did not need that.

Then he got hit. It was a noticeable shock and, by all appearances, deliberate. Maggi checked the rearview mirror. It was just one guy, as far as he could tell. He wondered what his problem was, and slowed down. He got hit again. He jammed the brakes, and got hit the third time, this time quite hard. He was pretty sure the taillights were gone now. There was a brief moment, then the guy floored it, pushing Maggi. He moved to the side a little, and Maggi’s vehicle weaved on the road.

Maggi had enough of that, and just ran into the median and stopped. That guy was going to meet the cops. He waited to see his plates. He saw them well enough, but still couldn’t catch them as the car came backing toward him at great speed. Maggi braced himself. The car hit the kerb and got launched into Maggi’s car, striking it above the front wheel, almost propelling over it, before it rolled to its side and stopped.

Glass rained over Maggi. He got out of his car to have a look. He brushed off the glass particles from the windshield and shook himself. There was the other car, rolled over and motionless. His car wasn’t going anywhere. The front wheel was broken. He needed that to drive.

The other driver rose up. He looked awfully calm. He looked at Maggi, dead-eyed, and came walking toward him. Maggi saw that he had the tyre iron in his hand, and backed away from the guy, who had an odd shambling gait, like a zombie. Maggi didn’t like the way the guy homed in on him. He backed away faster.

He decided to call the police. They should arrive a few minutes after this guy had pummelled him good and left. Maggi looked at his phone. It just blinked at him, informing him that the battery was dead and shut off. The guy came at him fast, tyre iron raised, and Maggi ran. The guy caught Maggi, and they fell on the grass. Maggi could feel the iron strike him on the back.

Maggi flipped to his back, just in time to catch a strike aimed for his head. It came down on his forearm with a crack. Maggi took a swing at the guy and hit him in the jaw. That confused the man. “What... where am I?” he said, in a groggy tone.

Maggi was having none of that, and hit him again. He got up and started kicking the man until he was completely down and not moving. Then he picked up the iron and threw it over the road.

He walked back to the wreck of his car, rubbing his left forearm with his right. The fingers of his right hand were a bit out of order after striking that guy. He wondered how those guys in the movies can do that. That guy’s skull had been as soft as a brick.

He got into the car, turned on the engine and plugged his phone in the charger. He called Hansi.

“I’ll be there in twenty,” Hansi said and hung up.

Maggi turned on the radio. There was almost no traffic. Just one car, and he figured that one would call the cops soon. The police would then show up and have a chat with him. That wasn’t a worry; what annoyed him was that guy, who he was pretty sure was controlled through a mara. And you needed four people to do that, and Hansi and Freyja and Anna were only three. And those others had stolen the death-machine and been killed by it.

Which meant there were others.

A horn blared. Maggi looked up and saw Hansi’s Eldorado on the opposing lane, Hansi waving to him. When he came closer, he saw Anna was in the back, and Freyja beside him in the front.

“So you had a little accident,” said Hansi when Maggi had climbed into the back of car.

“Is that your car rolled over?” askd Anna.

“That wasn’t an ‘accident’,” said Maggi.

“Friend of yours? Did you sleep with someone you shouldn’t have?”

“Shut up. That was one of your mara-victims, that was.”

“But I thought there were only the two in captivity,” said Freyja.

“Exactly, there are two,” said Hansi, “now one has exchanged owners, it seems.”

“Are you hurt?” asked Anna.

“Hell, yes, I am!” said Maggi, and rolled up his sleeves to show her. He was bleeding.

Hansi drove slowly, letting the car coast along. The police showed up, coming from ahead, lights blinking.

“They are going to call you about your car,” said Hansi.

“Take me to the hospital. I think my arm is broken,” said Maggi. “And my fingers.”

Hansi nodded. He headed to the hospital. He dropped Maggi and the girls there, followed them into the waiting room, then left, saying he had things to do.

The police found Maggi there a couple hours later, still waiting. They decided to interrogate him on the fly. They were busy; apparently there was some conference tomorrow they had to tend to, and that crazy killer was up to something again. There had been new calls.

They ended up just hurriedly confirming a lot of suspicions, creating a couple unexplainable conundrums, which they proceeded to ignore for the sake of expediency, and then left, just as it was Maggi’s turn.

His arm was cracked, as was his hand, but his fingers were fine, just swollen. He got a sling for his arm and some bandages for the hand and instructions on how to behave for the next couple of weeks while healing. The prescription was some Parkodin, which he caught on the way home at the all-night pharmacy, and went home to bed in a taxi with the girls, who then took the taxi to their respective homes.

* * *

During that same night, the police finally caught up with Nori the killer robot, as it was making its fourth house call of the night. They called to it, startling it, and it looked at them as they aimed their handguns at it. The person in the door was unsure of what to make of any of this, just looking confusedly at Nori and the police; one, then the other, and back again.

Nori scanned them all, and found their fascist tendencies a bit lacking, so it ignored them and went next door. An officer intercepted it but was rudely pushed aside by Nori. Nori punched another in the gut, and he collapsed in agony. Then someone fired at Nori, who was a bit startled but, noticing no ill effect, ignored it and continued going. He got shot at some more, and hit twice before the police stopped shooting at it.

Nobody came to the door at the next house, as the gunfire had attracted their attention, and the sight of the police outside had scared them. But Nori scanned the house, and found there was at least one fascist inside. It broke the door with no effort, barging in. The police fired at it in some panic, and their sniper came running with a properly powerful firearm, and quickly took aim.

Nori disappeared around a corner; there was an elderly woman in there it was after. Having found her cowering in a corner and promptly running her through with its claws, Nori casually moseyed out again. And got hit by the sniper.

Nori’s head, with all the sensory apparatus exploded in a shower of sparks. Its soul started leaking out. The rest of the unit flailed around for a good two minutes, being shot at by the police the whole time. Many of the cops were injured by ricocheting bullet parts and various debris in the process.

Once all the soul had evaporated into the stars, the body stopped moving.

Proceed to Chapter 13...