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WHEN JACK AND Dale step into the air-conditioned cool, the Sand Bar is empty except for three people Beezer and Doc are at the bar, with soft drinks in front of then if there ever was one, Jack thinks Far back in the shadows (any further and he’d be in the dive’s pri There is a vibe co off the two bikers, a bad one, and Stinky wants no part of it For one thing, he’s never seen Beezer and Doc without Mouse, Sonny, and Kaiser Bill For anotheroh God, it’s the California detective and the freakin’ chief of police
The jukebox is dark and dead, but the TV is on and Jack’s not exactly surprised to see that today’s Matinee Movie on AMC features his mother and Woody Strode He fumbles for the name of the film, and after a moment it comes to him: Execution Express
"You don’t want to be in on this, Bea," Woody says ¡ª in this file, who comes west and turns outlaw,like the gang’s last ride"
"Good," Lily says Her voice is stony, her eyes stonier The picture is crap, but as always, she is dead on character Jack has to smile a little
"What?" Dale asks hione crazy, so what’s to sood? The whole daone crazy"
Jack Sawyer says, very softly: "We’re going to gun down as many as we can Let them knoere here"
On the screen, Lily says the sa to Woody The two of them are about to step aboard the Execution Express, and heads will roll ¡ª the good, the bad, and the ugly
Dale looks at his friend, dazed
"I know etically "She wasany answer came to mind), Jack joins Beezer and Doc at the bar He looks up at the Kingsland Ale clock next to the television: 11:40 It should be high noon ¡ª in situations like this, it’s always supposed to be high noon, isn’t it?
"Jack," Beezer says, and gives him a nod "How ya doin’, buddy?"
"Not too bad You boys carrying?"
Doc lifts his vest, disclosing the butt of a pistol "It’s a Colt 9 Beez has got one of the salances at Dale "You along for the ride, are you?"
"It’s my town," Dale says, "and the Fisherman just murdered my uncle I don’t understand veryme, but I know that et Judy Marshall’s boy back, I think we’d better try it" He glances at Jack "I brought you a service revolver One of the Ruger automatics It’s out in the car"
Jack nods absently He doesn’t care uns, because once they’re on the other side they’ll al else Spears, possibly javelins Maybe even slingshots It’s going to be the Execution Express, all right ¡ª the Sawyer Gang’s last ride ¡ª but he doubts if it’ll be h he’ll take the Ruger There ht be work for it on this side One never knows, does one?
"Ready to saddle up?" Beezer asks Jack His eyes are deep-socketed, haunted Jack guesses the Beez didn’t get ain and decides ¡ª for no other reason than pure superstition ¡ª that he doesn’t want to start for the Black House just yet, after all They’ll leave the Sand Bar when the hands on the Kingsland clock stand at straight-up noon, no sooner The Gary Cooper witching hour
"Alot it, but I also got an idea you don’t really need it, do you?"
"Maybe not," Jack allows, "but I’ll take all the insurance I can get"
Beezer nods "I’m doith that I sent my old lady back to her ma’s in Idaho After what happened with poor old Mousie, I didn’t have to argue too hard Never sent her back before, ans But I got a terrible feeling about this" He hesitates, then co back"
Jack puts a hand on Beezer’s meaty forearm "Not too late to back out I won’t think any less of you"
Beezer mulls it over, then shakes his head "Aonna talk to her if I don’t stand up for her? No, man, I’m in"
Jack looks at Doc
"I’otta stand up Besides, after what happened to Mouse" He shrugs "God knoearound out there at that house Future ht be short after that, no matter what"
"How’d it turn out with Mouse?" Jack inquires
Doc gives a short laugh "Just like he said Around three o’clock thisleft but foa to revolt, then quickly downs his glass of Coke
"If we’re going to do solances up at the clock It’s 11:50 now "Soon"
"I’," Beezer says abruptly "I’ It can be hurt if you pour enough bullets into it, we found that out It’s how that fucking place ets thick Your head aches and your ood British accent: "Hangovers ain’t in it, old boy"
"My gut was the worst," Doc says "That and" But he falls silent He doesn’t ever talk about Daisy Teirl he killed with an errant scratch of ink on a prescription pad, but he can see her now as clearly as the make-believe cowboys on the Sand Bar’s TV Blond, she was With brown eyes So that song to her, the Van Morrison song about the brown-eyed girl
"I’ for Mouse," Doc says "I have to But that placeit’s a sick place You don’t know, man You may think you understand, but you don’t"
"I understand more than you think," Jack says Now it’s his turn to stop, to consider Do Beezer and Doc remember the word Mouse spoke before he died? Do they reht there, they saw the books slide off their shelf and hang in the air when Jack spoke that wordbut Jack is alive him looks that are puzzled, or maybe just blank Partly because d’yamba is hard to remember, like the precise location of the lane that leads frohway 35 to Black House Mostly, however, because the as for him, for Jack Sawyer, the son of Phil and Lily He is the leader of the Sawyer Gang because he is different He has traveled, and travel is broadening
How much of this should he tell them? None of it, probably But they must believe, and for that to happen he must use Mouse’s word He knows in his heart that heit ¡ª d’yaun; you can only fire it so many times before it clicks empty ¡ª and he hates to use it here, so far from Black House, but he will Because they must believe If they don’t, their brave quest to rescue Ty is apt to end with the, eyes bleeding, vo teeth into the poison air Jack can tell them that most of the poison comes from their own minds, but talk is cheap They must believe
Besides, it’s still only 11:53
"Lester," he says
The bartender has been lurking, forgotten, by the swing door into the kitchen Not eavesdropping ¡ª he’s too far away for that ¡ª but not wanting to move and attract attention Now it seeot honey?" Jack asks
"H-honey?"
"Bees make it, Lester Mokeslike comprehension dawns in Lester’s eyes "Yeah, sure I keep it to make Kentucky Getaways Also ¡ª "
"Set it on the bar," Jack tells him
Dale stirs restively "If time’s as short as you think, Jack ¡ª "
"This is important" He watches Lester Moon put a small plastic squeeze bottle of honey on the bar and finds hi of Henry How Henry would have enjoyed the pocket miracle Jack is about to perform! But of course, he wouldn’t have needed to perform such a trick for Henry Wouldn’t have needed to waste part of the precious word’s power Because Henry would have believed at once, just as he had believed he could drive fro ¡ª hell, to the fucking ive hi it to you," Lester says bravely "I ain’t afraid"
"Just set it down on the far end of the bar," Jack tells him "That’ll be fine"
He does as asked The squeeze bottle is shaped like a bear It sits there in a beaunplay has started Jack ignores it He ignores everything, focusing his lass For a ht focus to rele word:
(D’YAMBA)
At once he hears a low buzzing It swells to a drone Beezer, Doc, and Dale look around For ahappens, and then the sunshiny doorway darkens It’s almost as if a very small rain cloud has floated into the Sand Bar ¡ª
Stinky Cheese lets out a strangled squawk and goes flailing backward "Wasps!" he shouts "Them are wasps! Get clear!"
But they are not wasps Doc and Lester Moon nize that, but both Beezer and Dale Gilbertson are country boys They know bees when they see one Jack, meanwhile, only looks at the swarm Sweat has popped out on his forehead He’s concentrating with all his ht on what he wants the bees to do
They cloud around the squeeze bottle of honey so thickly it al deepens, and the bottle begins to rise, wobbling frouidance syste The squeeze bottle is riding a cushion of bees six inches above the bar
Jack holds his hand out and open The squeeze bottle glides into it Jack closes his fingers Docking complete
For awith Lily, who is shouting: "Save the tall bastard for me! He’s the one who raped Stella!"
Then they streasland Ale clock stands at 11:57
"Holy Mary, e, al your light under a bushel, looks like to me," Dale says His voice is unsteady
From the end of the bar there comes a soft thud Lester "Stinky Cheese" Moon has, for the first tio now," Jack says "Beez, you and Doc lead We’ll be right behind you in Dale’s car When you get to the lane and the NO TRESPASSING sign, don’t go in Just park your scoots We’ll go the rest of the way in the car, but first we’re going to put a little of this under our noses" Jack holds up the squeeze bottle It’s a plastic version of Winnie-the-Pooh, grimy around the ht even dab some in our nostrils A little sticky, but better than projectile vo in Dale’s eyes "Like putting Vicks under your nose at alike that at all, but Jack nods Because this is about believing
"Will it work?" Doc asks doubtfully
"Yes," Jack replies "You’ll still feel some discomfort, I don’t doubt that a bit, but it’ll beto cross over towell, to soht the kid was in the house," Beez says
"I think he’s probably been moved And the houseit’s a kind of wormhole It opens on another" World is the first word to come into Jack’s mind, but somehow he doesn’t think it is a world, not in the Territories sense "On another place"
On the TV, Lily has just taken the first of about six bullets She dies in this one, and as a kid Jack always hated that, but at least she goes down shooting She takes quite a few of the bastards with her, including the tall one who raped her friend, and that is good Jack hopes he can do the sa Tyler Marshall back to his mother and father
Beside the television, the clock flicks from 11:59 to 12:00
"Come on, boys," Jack Sawyer says "Let’s saddle up and ride"
Beezer and Doc mount their iron horses Jack and Dale stroll toward the chief of police’s car, then stop as a Ford Explorer bolts into the Sand Bar’s lot, skidding on the gravel and hurrying toward the a rooster tail of dust into the summer air
"Oh Christ," Daleludicrously on the driver’s head that it’s Fred Marshall But if Ty’s father thinks he’s going to join the rescue ht you!" Fred shouts as he all but tumbles from his truck "Thank God!"
"Who next?" Dale asks softly "Wendell Green? To Universe?"
Jack barely hears hie from the bed of his truck, and all at once Jack is interested The thing in that package could be a rifle, but somehow he doesn’t think that’s what it is Jack suddenly feels like a squeeze bottle being levitated by bees, not soas acted upon He starts forward
"Hey bro, let’s roll!" Beezer yells Beneath him, his Harley explodes into life "Let’s ¡ª "
Then Beezer cries out So does Doc, who jerks so hard he alhs Jack feels soh his head and he reels forward into Fred, who is also shouting incoherently For awith the long wrapped object Fred has brought the over it
Only Dale Gilbertson ¡ª who hasn’t been to the Territories, hasn’t been close to Black House, and who is not Ty Marshall’s father ¡ª is unaffected Yet even he feels so like an interior shout The world trembles All at once there seems to be more color in it, more dimension
"What was that?" he shouts "Good or bad? Good or bad? What the hell is going on here?"
For a moment none of them answer They are too dazed to answer
While a swar the top of a bar in another world, Burny is telling Ty Marshall to face the wall, goddamnit, just face the wall
They are in a foul little shack The sounds of clashing machinery are much closer Ty can also hear screa crack of whips They are very near the Big Co confusion ofpit about half a mile east It looks like acollection of chutes and cables and belts and platfor children who roll the belts and pull the great levers Red-tinged solf cart rolled slowly along, Ty at the wheel and Burny leaning askew in the passenger seat with the Taser pointed, squads of freakish green men passed them Their features were scrambled, their skin plated and reptilian They wore half-cured leather tunics from which tufts of fur still started in places Most carried spears; several had whips
Overseers, Burny said They keep the wheels of progress turning He began to laugh, but the laugh turned into a groan and the groan into a harsh and breathless shriek of pain
Good, Ty thought coldly And then, for the first ti a favorite word of Ebbie Wexler’s: Die soon, you motherfucker
About two e wooden platfor post projected out from the top, alled fro in the hot and sulfurous breeze Under the platforround that never felt the sun, were litters of bones and ancient piles of white dust To one side was a great mound of shoes Why they’d take the clothes and leave the shoes was a question Ty probably couldn’t have answered even had he not been wearing the cap (sbecial toyz for sbecial boyz), but a disjointed phrase popped into his head: custo his father sometimes said, but he couldn’t be sure He couldn’t even reibbet was surrounded by crows They jostled one another and turned to follow the huress of the E-Z-Go None was the special crow, the one with the naer re for fresh flesh to pluck, that’s what they were doing Waiting for newly dead eyes to gobble Not to mention the bare toesies of the shoe-deprived dead
Beyond the pile of discarded, rotting footwear, a broken track led off to the north, over a fu hill
"Station House Road," Burny said He seeinto delirium Yet still the Taser pointed at Ty’s neck, never wavering "That’s where I’ the sbecial bouy "That’s where the special ones go Mr Munshun’s gone to get the mono The End-World mono Once there were two others Patriciaand Blaine They’re gone Went crazy Committed suicide"
Ty drove the cart and remained silent, but he had to believe old Burn-Burn was the one who had gone crazy (crazier, he reminded himself ) He knew about monorails, had even ridden one at Disney World in Orlando, but monorails named Blaine and Patricia? That was stupid
Station House Road fell behind the Co ants on cruelly inclined belts Children Some from other worlds, perhaps ¡ª worlds adjacent to this one ¡ª but many from his own Kids whose faces appeared for a while on er in the hearts of their parents, of course, but eventually growing dusty even there, turning froraphs Kids presuraves by perverts who had used them and then discarded them Instead, they were here So to yank the levers and turn the wheels and reen-skinned overseers cracked their whips
As Ty watched, one of the ant specks fell down the side of the convoluted, steaht he could hear a faint scream Or perhaps it was a cry of relief ?
"Beautiful day," Burny said faintly "I’ll enjoy itto eat alwaysalways perksa little at the corners with sudden warmth "Baby butt’s the best eatin’, but yours won’t be bad Nope, won’t be bad at all He said to take you to the station, but I ain’t sure he’d give me my share Mycommission Maybe he’s honestmaybe he’s still my friendbut I think I’ll just take ents take their ten percent off the top" He reached out and poked Ty just below the belt-line Even through his jeans, the boy could feel the tough, blunt edge of the old man’s nail "I think I’ll take h, and Ty was not exactly displeased to see a bright bubble of blood appear between the old et it?" The nail poked the side of Ty’s buttock again
"I get it," Ty said
"You’ll be able to break just as well," Burny said "It’s just that when you fart, you’ll have to do the old one-cheek sneak every tihter Yes, he sounded delirious, all right ¡ª delirious or on the verge of it ¡ª yet still the tip of the Taser re, boy ’Nother half a er Road You’ll see a little shack with a tin roof, down in a draw It’s on the right It’s a special place Special to me Turn in there"
Ty, with no other choice, obeyed And now ¡ª
"Do what I tell you! Face the fucking wall! Put your hands up and through those loops!"
Ty couldn’t define the word euphe thosefrom the rear wall are shackles
Panic flutters in his brain like a flock of shts to hold on ¡ª fights with griives in to panic, starts to holler and screa to be finished Either the oldhim up, or the old man’s friend will take him away to some awful place Burny calls Din-tah In either case, Ty will never see hisBut if he can keep his headwait for his chance
Ah, but it’s hard The cap he’s wearing actually helps a little in this respect ¡ª it has a dulling effect that helps hold the panic at bay ¡ª but it’s still hard Because he’s not the first kid the old ht here, no , slow hours in that cell back at the old rease-caked barbecue set up in the left corner of the shed, underneath a tin-plated sas bottles with LA RIVIERE PROPANE stenciled on the sides Hung on the wall are ovenbrushes, andha knives One of the knives looks al beside that one is a filthy apron with YOU MAY KISS THE COOK printed on it
The smell in the air reminds Ty of the VFW picnic his mom and dad took him to the previous Labor Day Maui Wowie, it had been called, because the people ere supposed to feel like they were spending the day in Hawaii There had been a great big barbecue pit in the center of La Follette Park down by the river, tended by wo loud shirts covered with birds and tropical foliage Whole pigs had been roasting over a glaring hole in the ground, and the odor had been like the one in this shed Except the smell in here is staleand oldand
And not quite pork, Ty thinks It’s ¡ª
"I should stand here and jaw at you all day, you louse?"
The Taser gives off a crackling sizzle Tingling, debilitating pain sinks into the side of Ty’s neck His bladder lets go and he wets his pants He can’t help it Is hardly aware of it, in truth So but still terribly strong thrusts Ty toward the back wall and the shackles that have been welded to steel plates about five and a half feet off the ground
"There!" Burny cries, and gives a tired, hysterical laugh "Knew you’d get one for good luck eventually! Smart boy, ain’tcha? Little wisenheih them loops and let’s have no more foolishness about it!"
Ty has put out his hands in order to keep hi face-first into the shed’s rear wall His eyes are less than a foot froood look at the old layers of blood that coat it That plate it The blood has an ancient y Jellylike Nasty This may be an illusion in the physical sense, but Ty knows that what he’s feeling is nonetheless quite real This is corpse ground The old man may not prepare his terrible meals here every time ¡ª may not have that luxury ¡ª but this is the place he likes As he said, it’s special to him
If I let him lock both of my hands into those shackles, Ty thinks, I’ve had it He’ll cut , he may not be able to stop hi, not for anyone So get ready
That last is not like one of his own thoughts at all It’s like hearing his mother’s voice in his head His mother, or someone like her Ty steadies The flock of panic birds is suddenly gone, and he is as clearheaded as the cap will allow He knohat he must do Or try to do
He feels the nozzle of the Taser slip between his legs and thinks of the snake wriggling across the overgrown driveway, carrying its ht now, or I’ to fry your balls like oysters" Ersters, it sounds like
"Okay," Ty says He speaks in a high, whiny voice He hopes he sounds scared out of his mind God knows it shouldn’t be hard to sound that way "Okay, okay, just don’t hurtit now, see? See?"
He puts his hands through the loops They are big and loose
"Higher!" The growling voice is still in his ear, but the Taser is gone fros, at least "Shove ’em in as far as you can!"
Ty does as he is told The shackles slide to a point just above his wrists His hands are like starfish in the glooain as Burny ru his thoughts a little, but this is too obvious to ot handcuffs in there Handcuffs that have been used many, many times He’ll cuff Ty’s wrists above the shackles, and here Ty will stand ¡ª or dangle, if he passes out ¡ª while the old monster carves him up
"Now listen," Burny says He sounds out of breath, but he also sounds lively again The prospect of a ht back a certain amount of his vitality "I’onna slip a cuff around your left wrist with the other hand If you et the juice Understand?"
Ty nods at the bloodstained wall "I won’t ibbers "Honest I won’t"
"First one hand, then the other That’s how I do it" There is a revolting complacency in his voice The Taser presses between Ty’s shoulder blades hard enough to hurt Grunting with effort, the old man leans over Ty’s left shoulder Ty can se It is like "Hansel and Gretel," he thinks, only he has no oven to push his tormentor into
You knohat to do, Judy tells hiive you a chance, and if he doesn’t, he doesn’t But if he does
A handcuff slips around his left wrist Burny is grunting softly, repulsively, in Ty’s ear The old man reachesthe Taser shiftsbut not quite far enough Ty holds still as Burny snaps the handcuff shut and tightens it down Now Ty’s left hand is secured to the shed wall Dangling down from his left wrist by its steel chain is the cuff Burny intends to put on his right wrist
The old ht He reaches around Ty’s front, groping for the dangling cuff The Taser is once ets hold of the cuff, Ty’s goose is probably cooked (in more ways than one) And he alrip, and instead of waiting for it to pendulurab it, Burny leans farther forward The bony side of his face is planted against Ty’s right shoulder
And when he leans to get the dangling handcuff, Ty feels the touch of the Taser first lighten, then disappear