The Shasta Caper, Chapter Fifty-Six

                       Chapter Fifty-Six

Jimbo, Samuel and Nanny waited patiently in their positions they had been handcuffed to as the cell door swung up and two very large men in white uniforms marched inside. They held odd pistol shaped weapons in their right hands. Their eyes were all shades of blue. Their hair blonde. They looked like they might have been born in Sweden or Germany. 

Their jaws were square-shaped, their faces also square. They had high eyebrows and very sharp looking eyes, as if they could see through walls. The air of intelligence was strong about them, even though their appearance to Samuel was that of thugs, uniformed, but thugs, nonetheless. He could sense that their intelligence was an artificial one, not strengthened by the wisdom of the heart. These men would not tolerate opposition to their ideas or their demands. He glanced nervously over at Jimbo, but Jimbo just stood there, his eyes settled on the nearest of the men, as if appraising him.

A third man walked inside. He stood a good foot taller than the others. He was also Germanic in appearance. He wear a pure black uniform with a Swastika of gold dangling from its left shirt pocket. His eyes were cold and relentless, like a winter storm sweeping over the Antartic. He carried himself like a god on earth, condescending to touch its soil with his delicate spirit.

"You are the accused!" He announced without preamble.

"Of what?" Samuel made the mistake of asking.

The two Soldiers rushed over and punched him in the stomach at the same time. He had been prepared for the punch, so it didn't take all his wind away, but it hurt like hell. He struggled a moment to keep upright, then managed.

The third man acted as if nothing unusual had just happened. He stepped closer to Samuel and eyed him up and down. "Your father was of German descent?"

"Yes."

He looked at the soldiers. "This one will be saved for the last."

He walked over and examined Jimbo closely. "Impure blood. He will go first."

Jimbo growled, but held his tongue.

The man went to Nanny next. "Lovely, but too weak of body."

Nanny's face darkened, but she also bit her tongue at a glance from both Jimbo and Samuel.

"Good!" The man decided, noting what had just happened. "She shall serve the soldiers after the Tubes Battle is ended."

Jimbo's jaw muscles bulged at those words, and with great effort, he held himself back. 

The man smiled smugly at his prisoners. "I am the Leader of the Damned."

Samuel believed that, but he didn't say anything. Something in his look must have caught the Leader's eye, for he turned swiftly to appraise him. 

"You are a sensitive?"

Samuel didn't speak.

The Leader came closer and touched Samuel's forehead in the center. "You use this eye. Yes?"

Samuel remained silent.

The Leader's eyes narrowed angrily. "You have permission to speak! Are you a sensitive?"

"I am not!"

The Leader struck Samuel across his cheek, causing one of his teeth to loosen and blood to spurt into the face of the Leader.

He took out a pure white hanky, with Swastika embroidery and dabbed at the blood on his face, then stepped back. He turned to the soldiers. "I will await them in the Tubes."

He headed for the exit, then stopped and looked back at Samuel, his eyes narrowing in thought a moment, then he exited. They could hear his footsteps march off as the soldiers strode to take the cuffs off Samuel first.

They turned their backs on Nanny and Jimbo, who they felt to be safely out of reach of them.

"Ah-hem!" Jimbo coughed from behind them.

The first soldier turned around just as Jimbo slammed a hammy fist into his face.

The second soldier turned to level his pistol at Jimbo, when Nanny slammed into his gut, and kneed him in the groin. 

Both soldiers dropped to the floor.

Jimbo kicked both soldiers hard in the head, causing them to lose consciousness. He was about to kick them again, when Nanny stopped him. "We're not like them."

Jimbo grumbled about it, but stepped back. She and Samuel quickly used the old cuffs to imprison the men against the walls, then ripped off pieces of their uniforms and shoved them into their mouths and bound them to their face so they couldn't warn anyone.

Samuel went to the exit and peered out. The corridor was empty in both directions, except for the strange lights that lit it.

"Ready." Jimbo said from behind him.

Samuel nodded, and as both Marilyn and Albert materialized to the left and began hurrying off in that direction, he set off that way. 

"I hope your invisible friends know what they're doing?" Jimbo growled warily as they followed Samuel.

"If they don't." Samuel told him. "You'll be the first to know."

The dungeon atmosphere of their surroundings was dark and depressing, even with the lights on the walls. Once they stopped when they heard moaning from a cell. They looked inside and almost threw up.

Hanging by his arms from a wall was a man with scars all over his body from the head down. He was half naked, his eyes sunken so deep in the skull you couldn't see them. He had no ears and his scalp was living brain tissue. Half his right leg was missing, with blood dripping down from where the knee had been. He had huge open wounds all over his body.

"Arrrhhhh!" Jimbo screamed angrily and gripped the door, striving to open it, his mucles bulging with the effort.

Jimbo almost ripped the door open, but Samuel stopped him with a shake of his head. 

"He's beyond our help now. Nothing we could do could save him now."

"But you could heal him, Sam!" Jimbo complained, tears of anger and grief in his eyes.

"Not this time."

He looked across at Al, who nodded.

Samuel lifted the pistol he had taken from one of the soldiers and aimed it at the poor man. "Rest well."

He fired the weapon and a sizzling beam of raw energy struck the man in his heart. The man recoiled from the blow, then looked up at them. His eyes opened wide a moment and he smiled, then his soul fled his body and his weight collapsed against the chains holding him.

Nanny began to cry. Jimbo shouldered her close and held tight.

"Somehow these monsters will pay for this."

Samuel felt the same way, but he knew that wishing the worst for someone else was also the path to the dark side of life, so he just said a silent prayer for the soul who had just died, and then continued to follow after Al and M.