A narrow escape
Ashley privately bemoaned her situation as she made her way along the rubble back to the police line. Some work has apparently reached the officers there, because, while they looked at her strangely, they made no comment, and let her cross back over to the less debris strewn road.
A short walk later and she was back in view of Simon's car, and its two occupants. She closed the distance, and got into the car quickly.
"Ash! I was getting worried! Are you OK? Did you discover anything?" comes Simon's concerned voice as she did up her seatbelt.
Babble also looked pleased to see her. "... what if all / Her stores were op'n'd, and this Firmament / ... should spout her Cataracts of Fire, / Impendant horrors, threat'ning hideous fall..." he muttered, as if to express his concern.
"I'm fine guys.... don't worry. As for finding out things... well, they don't have any leads on who might have done this." Ashley said, the disappointment in her voice genuine.
Simon shrugged. "Well, it was a long shot anyway..."
"But I am almost willing to bet that whoever did it will come back to the scene to gloat about it." she added in a lower tone.
Simon looked a trifle nervous. "Why does that give me a bad feeling when you say that?"
The last question that Gabriel had asked her still echoed oddly in her mind... why had she asked Ash about her heart?
"It's the middle of the night right now... we should all go get some sleep. I plan on doing some more snooping tomorrow."
Simon nodded. "OK, the coffee is off till another time. To be honest with you I was not sure I wanted to see this guy here on caffeine." He eyed Babble, who was sitting on the back seat, face nearly plastered against the glass watching the smoke rise in the middle distance. The sky was beginning to get a bit brighter, as dawn approached.
Simon got out of the car and opened the door for Ash. "Your apartment then, or ..." he dropped off the remainder of the comment with Ash's look. No, he seemed to decide to himself, I will not ask her to drop this guy off at the shelter or police again.
He rapidly got into his side of the vehicle and drove towards Ash's place.
Suddenly, Babble started up from the back seat, and grabbed both Ash and Simon by the shoulder. "Ashley to Ashes, Simon to dust!" He said as though it required of him all his strength to say it.
"... What if we find/ Some easier enterprise? ... our present lot appears / For happy though but ill, for ill not worst, / If we procure not to ourselves more woe." He opened the side door of the car in spite of the fact that it is in motion. Simon hit the breaks and yells.
Then Babble was outside the car, rolling on the ground, his borrowed clothes tearing and ripping, blood staining their rendered cloth. Simon continued to swear very loudly, as the car screeched to a halt.
Babble was on his feet behind the car. The car had stopped. He was clenching at his damaged arm, looking at Ashley, then ahead down the road, then at Ashley again, eyes frantic, but speaking no more words, and not taking a step forwards.
Ashley had grabbed on to the dash and the door as Simon skidded the car to a halt, her own curses added to that of Simon's.
As soon as he had the car to a halt, she jumped out of it and headed straight for Babble, the look on her face dark and foreboding.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!?!"
"Get back in the damned car before someone we both don't like comes after us!!!"
Babble was cowed backwards away from her as she approached, and shook his head. He cannot seem to find his tongue again. As Ashley approached him, he crouched down on his hands and tucked his knees to his chest, shaking his head vehemently.
If Ashley wanted to get him into the car, she was going to have to move him physically, because he clearly did not want to.
Ashley, not really caring what Simon thought at this point in time, came up to Babble and forced him to physically look at her. He was quite sensitive to odd things.. him pointing out Gabriel on the TV was proof of it.
He looks into her eyes, and she saw fear deep inside them.
�You know something.... what is it?"
"Blood calls to blood..." he said, and then looked at the ground for a moment, and touched the spots where his own blood had spilled.
"Is there something wrong with the car?
He looked confused, and shrugged.
�My apartment?"
His eyes opened and he nodded emphatically.
Then, it happened.
A symphonic wash, like an orchestra strike, sudden, intense, powerful. It was reminiscent of the first wave, just before the PC became rubble. Less powerful, perhaps, but closer. About three city blocks away.
And it was coming from down the road.
There was a moment of daylight, like the sterilized light of a camera flash, and a second later, a sonic boom, hollow, empty.
And it was coming from down the road.
From the apartment where Ashley used to live.
Babble hit the ground and started muttering under his breath. The words were too indistinct to make out. Simon got out of the still running car and watched as a mushroom cloud rose from the middle distance in the early morning sky.
Ashley's mouth hung open as she stared at the mushroom cloud of what had been her apartment. Babble's words tugging at her subconscious... blood calls to blood.....
"Son of a bitch...." she finally whispered.
There was no mistaking the pattern forming. They... whoever they were... had hit the PC and now her apartment. Someone was out to get her... or out to get Babble.
"Simon... I think we had better go somewhere... somewhere other than your place... maybe a motel room or something..." The disturbed tone in her voice was very genuine.
Simon, still awestruck, shook his head, then abruptly turned to Ashley, a peculiar look on his face. "Ash... what the hell is going on?" he said.
"I don't know Simon and I wished to Hell I did..." Ashley responded back to him.
Ashley turned towards Babble and physically lifted him to his feet.
"Thanks...we would be a bit on the dead side now if it weren't for you."
Babble still held his hurt arm as he was helped up. He looked at the ground as Ashley spoke to him. He pointed again. "Blood calls to blood." he said once more, pointing at the spatter marks on the road, from his wounds, then looking back at Ashley, eyes afraid.
"This is my body, this is my blood. Holy water from the grail. House of the Holy. Burn. Healer taken, preacher fallen. Fall, into the light. Dawn comes! Angel of the Dawn! Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war! War into Hell, taking the sword, two rulers. The last is sought, watchers around, vengeance follows, the great southern land, songs sung from the ethereal skies, the three come, lightning, scales of justice and abandoned books of healing, seek and ye shall find..." he said in a rush, then stops. "Babble, babble. Babble on." Then became quiet.
Simon closed the distance to them and shook his head at Ashley. "Lady, I have no idea what you have gotten yourself into, with this guy, but if you think I am going to leave you out here, with a mad-fucking-bomber on the loose obviously out for you, then you have another thing coming."
"I-" Ashley started to speak but was cut off by Simon.
Simon raised his hand to try to forestall objections or comments, and said, "Look, OK, you don't have to explain anything to me, all right? I get the feeling like I just don't want to know. But I will be damned before I just leave you here. Especially if I have to go to alternate accommodations myself because of this. I will take you where you need to go, just get in the damned car. If you think it is not safe for the car, then I will ditch the damned thing, and we can get a taxi. But I am coming."
Ashley stared in disbelief at this human... this man who, though no longer under any obligation of a Binding, was still insisting on helping her out!
The man simply wasn't sane....
"Fine... but you really don't know what you are getting yourself into Simon...." Ashley said with a tone of finality in her voice.
"I have no problems telling you what is going on, but you won't believe me. Just so you do know, I am not sure if these guys are after me or after Babble here. If I understand Babble, they are probably after him because he saw something and they don't want witnesses."
Simon frowned as if trying to get a grasp on this, realizing there is so much more going on here than is apparent, but then he shrugged, as if trusting to his instincts rather than his reason. "Well, you seem determined to help him, so lets get to it." Pause. Finally he muttered, "Look Ash, I care, OK? I am not just going to leave you like this. I don't care what is going on."
He turned to Babble, a trifle gruffly. "You. Guy. Hey!" Babble looked up at him suddenly. "Yeah, you. Are we going to have any more problems with you and the car?" Babble looks at him blankly. Simon sighed, then pointed very slowly. "You... in ... car... OK?"
Babble blinked at him, then nodded, and clambered over to the vehicle. Simon turned to Ashley. "All right, beautiful. Lets get you someplace far away from here." And he went into the drivers seat.
He looked over his shoulder into the back seat. Babble guiltily pointed at the blood on the leather. "Blood calls to blood..." he said for the thousandth time.
"I know. OK. I get the picture. Shit, I wanted to get rid of this lemon for months anyway." Babble looked at him insistently, and he sighed again. "All right, man. I will drop you off at a hotel and park it in the front of a car dealership, then catch a cab to a nearby motel. And I will call in sick to work tomorrow. Does that meet your approval?" Babble seemed to understand, and relaxes.
"OK." He turned to Ashley. "Ready?"
"Yeah." Ashley said and then turned to face Babble.
"Are you trying to tell me that our adversaries can smell your blood?" Ashley asked, as if it were the most normal question in the world to ask.
Babble looked at her curiously, and shrugged. "Just like a car crash, Just like a knife. The only truth I know, is the look in your eyes." he said mildly. He then bent low and sniffed at his own blood on the seat, and then sat up and shook his head. He frowned, then hummed, then lowered his ear as though listening to the humming, but more like he was listening to the blood responding to his humming. Ash could not sense anything...
Simon either ignored this, or just assumed it makes no sense, and instead got to driving.
Several minutes later, the car pulled into a roadside motel, with the lights still on and a vacancy sign lit up, suitably far from the various sites of unpleasantness.
"Well, here you go. Now, do you want me to come back here, or go someplace else to sleep? Will you need me to help you get whasisname here around tomorrow?" he asked Ashley, voice matter of fact.
"You can stay here if you want...." Ashley said, leaving the choice completely up to him. "...and I can try and explain a few things to you."
Simon looked at Ashley once, and seemed to get the shivers a little. Then he shrugged. "Well, I will be back in half an hour, and I will get a room next to yours. To be honest with you, I am exhausted. I do not think I could handle hearing whatever it is that you are involved in, not tonight. But I will drive you around tomorrow, after I get some sleep."
He dropped Ashley and the still bloody Babble off at the motel, and drove away. Babble watches him go and seemed lost in thought. Finally, he turned back to Ashley, muttering. "Help me, I broke apart my insides. Help me, I've got no soul to sell."
Ashley sighed and dragged him to the front desk, getting two rooms and paying in cash. A short while later, she had done her level best at dressing the wound of Babble, putting him in his pajamas and putting him to bed. It was like having a child, she thought. A hundred and seventy five pound baby. He passed out all most immediately. Well, at least he doesn�t cry, she thought. Until he began to snore.
Ten minutes later, there was a polite knock at the door. Simon checked in to see she was all right, then headed off to sleep himself.
Ashley had a few hours before she could reasonably wake up the mortals. Some time to relax, or act on her own.