The Permutation

Apex (Part 6) Vergil

Vergil made eye contact with each of them in turn, and noticed the beach bum, he thought he remembered Michelle referring to him as Ron. The cameraman stood there making circles in the dirt with his feet, eyes downcast. He looked like a man who had something to say.

"What do you got Ron? I'm fielding ideas, even stupid ones," Vergil said.

"I have no idea how this information could be put to use, but there's an enormous tunnel system underneath our feet. If we could somehow trigger a collapse, we could maybe trap them or suffocate them if we're lucky?" He framed the last sentence as a question, "But I don't know how long that would stall them, or how to keep us from going down along with them."

Vergil smiled in spite of himself. He looked at the enormous projector screen that he'd seen countless times, and it took on a new meaning, "Tunnel collapse? No problem." Vergil said and gave Ron a thumbs up.

"But burying them is just a stalling tactic, I've seen these people, I mean monsters in action. A little dirt may trap and suffocate some of them, but the rest aren't going to stay down until they get what they want. Us. We need something more," Michelle added.

"Excuse me, gentlemen... and miss, my transponder isn't picking up anything on the other... side, and I believe it will have exhausted its energy source in a manner of minutes if we are using your archaic measurement of time." Vyth said.

"I've had it about up to here with your overly, pretentious technical jargon. Tell it to us straight Vyth," Lisa said.

Vergil had forgotten Lisa in the heat of things, and especially wished that her life was not in his hands.

I should never have gotten her wrapped up in this. If there's anyone here that doesn't deserve this. It's Lisa.

"No need to get testy, I am trying to be of benefit seeing as my failure would also mean my imminent demise. I am simply stating that when we run out of power," he said motioning towards the whirling thing-a-ma-jig in the middle of the clearing, "your 'friends' will descend upon us."

"I might have another idea," Jordan piped up. Her voice was a trifle louder than the shrieking of the wind, but not by much, "But I'm not sure I can do it."

"Give me a break. You can either help or you can't squirt," the fat man groaned.

Michelle crouched down, so she could look Jordan in the eye, "Something tells me you can do anything you set your mind to."

"But if I can, all those people are going to die," Jordan replied. She had twined a strand of her crimped hair around her index finger.

"They only look like people sweetie," Michelle said placing her hand on the girl's shoulder. There was a new tension in Michelle's muscles, as if she wasn't comfortable with the physical interaction, "I think the real people are long gone."

"Yeah, they're monsters. When we get rid of 'em, the people we love will come back!" Derek shouted.

Heads turned to look at the boy, but no one had the heart to correct him. The fat man opened his mouth to respond, but even he had good enough taste to not crush the kid.

That man has said enough already.

"That metal tower over there is full of water right?" Jordan asked.

"Last time I checked," Vergil said, but he couldn't remember if he'd heard the familiar sloshing of water the night before.

Was it only a night ago?

"Well, if someone poured the water all over them, I could... electrocute them."

A laugh barked out, it came from the greasy guy that Michelle had left unconscious in the projector booth, "That's cute Squirt. Hate to break it to you folks, but you're all shit out of luck."

Jordan ignored the man, but Vergil saw the edges of her eyes harden.

"I can do it," she replied, but her feet shifting back and forth like she needed to go to the restroom spoke otherwise, "But Mr. Neiman needs to pour water on them."

"Fat fucking chance of that. I tired myself out saving your ungrateful asses, but even if I could, I wouldn't do it. You'll just leave me out to die when I'm all used up."

At that moment, Vergil would have liked nothing more than to punch that man's face into a jelly or give him a hug. It was a coin flip. He couldn't imagine having such a low opinion of humanity where people were discarded like trash on the side of the road when they were no longer useful.

"I can do it!" Derek shouted, raising his hand into the air much like a child impatiently waiting for the teacher to call on him.

"How do you propose you do that flyboy?" Blujh scowled, "Just because you can whiz around in the air like a natter, doesn't mean you can lug around that hulking piece of metal. I bet that thing weighs more than you ten times over."

"Bet!" Derek shouted back launching himself into the air.

"We believe you Derek," Vergil said. He knew a thing or two about the hero complex, "But we are going to need a backup plan just in case."

The soot-stained scarecrow of a man spoke up. "It is my assessment that the boy can do it. I have looked at this situation from every angle, and I've concluded this strategy has a 23% chance of success provided we can collapse the tunnels in approximately," the man looked at the fading violet light, "93 seconds with a five seconds margin of error in either direction, so Mr. Wilson, if you do indeed have a plan to collapse that tunnel, I suggest you get started."

There was no time to waste on tear-stained goodbyes, anything he could say in that moment wouldn't have mattered in the big scheme of things anyways. Besides, he would've just screwed it up. The others would be able to manage without him. Lisa and Albert had managed before him, and they would long after he was gone. His plan would wipe out the denizens of Lancet Falls and the Nueva Vista in one fell swoop. Vergil didn't think he wanted to live in a world without either anyways.

Vergil crossed the distance between their group and the projector screen in a matter of seconds. It looked so much larger up close and personal. A strange thought overcame him. He really oughta be thankful to the guy who'd shot him. The velocity of the bullet had probably given Vergil just enough juice to be able to swan dive to his death.

Vergil looked at the daunting monolith one last time with a mirthless grin, gripped the cool railing, and started to climb.