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Part VIII: 1896- Hate's Consequence
As the bodies to swarmed the time-traveler, the end seemed to be in sight for Stogie. He needed a miracle to escape from the huddle...
Wait a minute! The perfume! Stogie dug into his tattered sailor suit, unveiling the stolen-property-turned-gift-from-Clarice. Taking it out, he sprayed this way and that, confusing the zombies' senses just enough so that he broke free!
But they wouldn't be stunned for long. Stogie needed to find a way to get up to where to Joseephus was. The rope ladder is what he used before, and it was just in Stogie's reach if he can jump and grab...
SNAP!
The rope ladder broke with his weight as Stogie fell on his back, groaning in pain. "Aw, shit..." Joseephus's test subjects were alerted to the sound as well. "AW, SHIT!" Stogie got to his feet, searching for another way to get up there. "SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT..."
In the corner was a rack of shelves carrying crates of raw product! Maybe he could climb that, latching on...
A hand grabbed on to his leg, trying to pull Stogie down! The hero tried to kick him away, but soon another captive grabbed him and another. The shelves couldn't take their combined weight and they collapsed on one end...
...creating a makeshift ramp to the supervising platform! Stogie took his opportunity to climb up there and hit the ground running. But with one caveat...now the captives were using that ramp to follow Stogie up there, touching ground Joseephus never intended his creations to reach.
Now it was a race up this narrow tunnel, Stogie pursued by this horde of zombies. And his luck only worsened, as up ahead, there stood a dead end! Wait...it was a door! Stogie tried to open it but it was blocked and locked! "C'mon! C'mon!!!" He slammed the door, trying to force it open.
His pursuers were getting closer, so Stogie had to improvise, throwing the perfume bottle at their feet, the scent and sound confusing them, if only for a moment.
But how long a moment was it, as Stogie was unable to force this door open? He'd need a miracle to get out of this one!
Netta jumped backward as a rack (the one Joseephus had put aside for his Austrian varieties) trembled abruptly, bottles shaking against each other with nerve-wracking abandon.
She could hear sounds...human sounds...from the other side. There were people on the other side, struggling, throwing themselves against the wall.
Netta approached the shelving, realizing there was a door on the other side, with an old latch bolt. A secret room? With a start, she remembered Sto-Gee's impassioned belief he had heard noises during his night in the cellar.
Her blood ran cold, but she'd made up her mind all the same. No more keeping her head down. No more running scared.
Holding the Marseille bottle aloft, Netta gritted her teeth and pushed the shelving aside, sending any number of bottles shattering to the floor as she unlatched the door and threw it open with one hand, the other holding the bottle like a club, prepared to bring it down on the first head she saw...
-Netta
Stogie suddenly fell forward as the door gave way. He landed his on his side, looking up to find Netta, with a bottle raised high in her hand. "WAIT! IT'S ME!"
"Sto-Gee!" Netta gasped, almost dropping the bottle, "It's you! You're alive!"
She almost threw her arms around him in relief, but her eyes alighted on the grasping, blinded men and women swarming on the other side of the door, moaning and gasping like wraiths.
"Holy Moses!" she gasped.
-Netta
Stogie quickly got to his feet, desperately urging Netta, "Close the door! Close the door!"
Netta realized the sensibility of this instruction quickly enough, hurrying to slam the door shut just before the first of the mob could get their fingers around the jamb. With shaking hands, she drew the bolt and, seeing the door already shaking on its hinges again, nodded to the wine rack.
"Quick! Help me block it!"
-Netta
Stogie was quick to respond, pulling the rack over to the door and pressing it tightly against the force that pounded the door again and again and again...
Once...twice...thrice. Each time Stogie and Netta tried their best to stand their ground and hold off the force of the mob on the other side.
Then, nothing. The door pounded again...once more...and then there was quiet. Stogie and Netta had held off Joseephus's brainwashed creations.
"Oh, man..." Stogie rasped, fatigued beyond belief. "Fuck the Gilded Age. Stupid time period..." Then, finally obtaining the presence of mind to do so, he turned to Netta. "Hey."
"Sto-Gee!" now she threw her arms around him, crying anew, "They said you were dead! I s'pose as far as Lennox was concerned, you were! How did you get back, and..." she eyed the door, "Who are those...those people back there?"
Though she already was getting a sick feeling that she knew exactly who those people were...or at least had once been.
-Netta
Stogie got to his feet gingerly. "Well, they're dumbasses. I'm still kicking." He looked back to where he came from, the entrance sealed shut for now. "It's a long story. Just that your boss has a kidnapping racket in Lakewood where he experiments on the people...so they can do his bidding...and make drugs...I need to catch my breath." Stogie leaned against the wall, his chest heaving in and out. "It's a lot."
"Experiments," she shuddered, "Those aren't just experiments...not if he was able to turn them against you like that! He...he broke something. Oh God," pressing a hand to her mouth, Netta forced herself to keep things together, "Thank you for coming back. I-I knew you would, if you could, but I figured someone would stop you somehow. But now that you are here..." she met his eyes, "How are we to get out?" she indicated the door, "Because the way you came in won't be much good."
-Netta
In the distance, Stogie heard the joyous bellowing of Joseephus's fellow Klansmen from upstairs. "I'm guessing the front door's not an option." He searched his brain, trying to concoct a way out of here. "Wait a second...my Heelies. They weren't in Joseephus's den when I broke out of here last night. Where are they?"
"His bedroom!" Netta replied at once, "I saw them. He's got them stowed away up there, though why, I've no idea. They're just shoes with wheels in 'em, and as important as they must be to you, I don't know what more he expects to get out of 'em. But that's where they are, and it'll be a close thing getting them back. He's up there now with a whole crew of his toadies."
-Netta
Joseephus called from above. "Where's that wine, girl?"
Before Netta could answer, Stogie instructed her, "You keep those guys busy and I'll sneak up there and get my Heelies. Once I do..." He took a deep breath, weighing the potential consequences of his plan. "...I'm gonna distract them as long as I can. I'll be ten times faster once I have them, so I'll be able to stall long enough for you to bust Gregaro and get the hell out of here. Keep running, don't look back. Eventually, you'll see the Republican Jasper Leroy. You'll hop in his carriage and he'll take you somewhere safe."
Netta had a thousand questions, but the one that rose first and most urgently to her mind was, "But...what about you? After you're finished distracting them, how do you expect to catch up with Mr. Leroy and the rest of us?"
-Netta
"I dunno." Stogie replied solemnly, gravely considering the likely possibility this ends with him in a potter's grave a century before his birth. "Look, you've never seen me in my Heelies. I'm fast as hell, alright? Like Lightning McQueen. I'll be fine. Trust me." Not wanting to linger on these doubts any longer, he quickly instructed her, "Just get their attention somehow, Netta. Once you see me in my Heelies, grab whatever you need and find something to free Gregaro. They won't see you because they're gonna try to catch me, which they won't because I'm the Heelies Hellion." He paused. "OK, I just came up with that now but it's true. You'll see."
"Wine, girl!" Joseephus bellowed from upstairs. "Need I come down there myself?!"
Sensing the urgency of the situation, Stogie held Netta by the shoulders and kept eye contact with her. "You're getting out of here, Netta. You and Gregaro. Because if I'm known for anything, I come through for my friends. I'm good for that much."
-Stogie and Joseephus
Netta didn't look away from him and, with a conviction that surprised herself, nodded, "I believe you, Sto-Gee," she smiled, "Thank you for coming back. Thank you for...for wanting to help. I won't fail now, you can trust that."
-Netta
Stogie smiled. "I will." He glanced up the stairs. "You better get going with that wine. I'll be right behind you. Just give me an opening and I'll be fine."
"Right," Netta nodded, "I know just what to do. But first…" she smirked devilishly, eyes alight with new whimsy, "I must be getting Mr. Lennox his wine."
She wasted no time hurrying up the stairs, the Marseille red in hand, hastening to the drawing room, where Joseephus and his cronies remained in assembly.
"So sorry, sir," she bowed her head, "I nearly picked the wrong bottle, I'm afraid. I had to take special care."
-Netta
Joseephus waved her off. "Yes, yes. Will you start pouring already? While the joob-E-la-shun is still fresh in the air?" He returned his attention to his Klan brothers. "As I was saying, biz-E-ness will take a while to recover after the Chinaman's destruction of my chemistry set but so long as you continue your dee-liv-er-ees, I doubt it will stagnate." He leered, hands pressed on the table. "In fact, we might be able to expand."
A particularly overweight hooded member slapped the table jovially. "Bully, bully!" The rest of the table cheered in support.
A younger fellow, in his teen years (likely a new initiate), spoke up. "I'd like to thank you for inviting us into your home, Dr. Lennox..."
"It's no problem at all...Barnaby, correct?" Joseephus replied politely.
"Yes. Barnaby Rooney, to be precise. I handle deliveries from the other side of the lake, over yonder. In swamp country." he pointed out the window to Wren Lake in the distance. "I was just meaning to ask, the moaning in the basement..."
Joseephus's smile faded in an instant.
"Is that another work station we don't know..."
"A private work station," Joseephus cut the youth off. "Somewhere that falls far out of your jurisdiction, Swamp Boy."
The teenager was silent, fortunate he had the hood to hide his embarrassment.
Joseephus's jovial smile returned just as quickly as it disappeared. "Now...let's have some wine."
The overweight fellow spoke up. "Er, yes. Start pouring, girl."
While this all transpired, Stogie positioned himself just at the wine cellar door, ready to bolt across the house for the stairs once Netta made her move.
-Joseephus and Stogie
"Yes," Netta said softly, trying to disguise the terror in her voice, "I will pour."
She began to do just that, leaning over the obese Klansman with the decanter. With a little prayer for fortitude, aware that she was taking the biggest risk of all her days, Netta uncorked at the very last moment...
"Oh no!" she gasped as a torrent of crimson spilled out over the Klansman's formerly immaculate white garb, "It's spilled!"
-Netta
The fat Klansman gasped. "My robes! No!"
Joseephus was quick to get a napkin, along with several other Klansmen, to dry the spreading stain. "Oh, I ay-pall-O-jize, Walden! She's usually very good with serving and what not. It is what she does best."
"It's fine, it's fine!" Walden said, though it seemed it wasn't fine at all. "If she wasn't your serving girl, though..."
"Now, now. I'll take the disciplinary measures," Joseephus glared at Netta. "Later. For now, we cannot forget out celebration!"
Stogie smiled at the chaos Netta was causing, as he began to quietly sprint the best way he knew how: Naruto-running. He was almost there!
"Apologize to Walden, Netta." Joseephus demanded of his maid. "Immediately."
-Joseephus and Stogie
Netta drew very upright, doing all she could to avoid meeting Walden's eyes. While some may have been taught the importance of looking in an elder's eyes when making their amends, she knew well that such men as he didn't want their lessers to meet them directly on any footing, especially not when they were in disgrace.
"I am heartily sorry, sir," she said softly, "Truly, I suppose I only...I must have been affected by news of Mr. Lennox's remarkable victory today. I just...lost my head wondering what happens next."
-Netta
Walden was quiet for a moment. "I must say, Joseephus, this one is a keeper. If only my girl would be so obedient and understanding of my achievements..."
A tall Klansman from the other side of the table jeered, "Achievements in what? Gorging on a Christmas ham?"
The whole table exploded in laughter as the mood was restored.
But suddenly, Joseephus clutched his stomach. "Oh, that reminds me. I haven't been able to death-O-kate for more than a day! Not since Stoh-Gee escaped. Nerves and all." As a good host did, he bowed. "Pardon me, gentlemen."
A mix of "Yes, yes" and "Take your time"'s erupted from the table as Joseephus took his leave for the bathroom.
Stogie froze, as suddenly Joseephus was heading towards his direction! He had to think quick...the table! The time-traveler slid under it, the table cloth just barely covering him.
The master of the house didn't notice at all, as in one motion, he unbuckled his pants and ducked in the bathroom right next to Stogie's hiding place. All Stogie needed to hear was the prolonged groan that followed to let him know he was good to go.
Up the stairs the hero went, though he could not help but glance down from the second floor landing at Netta, stuck serving the Klansmen at the table. Hoping to get her attention for a fraction of a second, Stogie shot her a thumbs-up, grateful that she cleared the way for him.
-Joseephus and Stogie
Netta spotted Sto-Gee out of the corner of her eye. Afraid of drawing anybody's attention, she merely gave him a little smile, for fortitude. The men were all down here, and Joseephus in the lavatory...he would encounter no obstacles.
Except...
Netta froze, paralyzed with the sudden realization. She turned back to the landing, desperate for some way to warn her companion...
But he was already gone.
-Netta
Stogie smiled back and went on his way. Aware of what happened last time he roamed this landing, though, he remained alert of Timothy. The hero peered into a nearby door. It was Timothy's room, and within it, the boy was fast asleep.
Thank God. The time-traveler was relieved he didn't have to dodge any random knife-attacks or egg-peltings. For now, at least.
Forward he crept, reaching the master bedroom. Ever so quietly, Stogie opened the door, stepped inside, and delicately closed the door behind him.
In the moonlight creeping through the curtains was revealed to be a pedestal, surrounded by all manner of notebooks and drawings. And atop it...lo and behold, it was Stogie's Heelies!
"Fuckin' A, let's go!" Stogie quietly rejoiced, stepping forward to reclaim his prize.
"Not so fast, Chinaman!" None other than Evangeline emerged from the shadowy recesses of the drapes, where she had concealed herself upon hearing his approach. Now she stole upon him with furious rapidity, holding aloft a tassel from the curtains to pull taut as a garotte around Sto-Gee's fat neck!
"My Timothy will be avenged!" she declared, her beautiful face contorted into an expression of frightening zealotry.
-Evangeline
"GAH!" Stogie rasped as he was being pulled from behind by Joseephus's mad spouse! Tugging at her hands, he carried her this way and that, but nevertheless, she clung on like a spider-monkey!
In a last ditch effort, Stogie fell on his back, forcing his weight onto her. The harpy was stunned and she lost her grip!
***
THUMP!
Walden looked up to the source of the sound. "Why, I do believe that came from upstairs!"
Barnaby leaned forward. "Should we go investigate?"
The other Klansmen shrugged.
***
As he recovered his breath, Stogie finally got a good look at Evangeline, realizing, "Hey! That's my hat!" For atop her scalp sat his signature fedora!
"It is your hat!" Evangeline declared, the fedora tipped to a jaunty angle by her stumble (she had previously been wearing it as though it were a sunhat, which couldn't have been very good for visibility), "I have taken it from you, as you took my peace of mind! As you have tried to take my family! Accepting you into this household was the most fool decision my husband ever made! Worse by far than choosing to throw our name and money behind that fat imbecile Maddox when he could've swept the polls come November!"
She shook her head, the manic gleam never once fading from her wide eyes, "My husband is a wise man, but his ambitions have often led him astray. Me, however...I've long since learned where to check my ambitions, you Sino-Simpleton. I knew from the first that he was courting more trouble than glory having you around… But no more!"
With a manic cry, she lunged!
-Evangeline
Stogie blinked. "What?" But it was too late to ask questions, for the cougar made her move and pounced, her nails digging into Stogie's flesh. "WHAT THE FUCK?! AHHHHHHH!"
***
More ruckus from upstairs. The tall Klansman was starting to get concerned. "Why, I think that's Joseephus's wife!" He listened closely. "And another man!"
A burly man put down his wine glass, theorizing, "You don't think she's..."
Walden guffawed. "With visitors in the house? How uncouth! What would her daddy think?"
The table laughed at that.
***
Staggering back, Stogie reached for something on the dresser to fend off the maniac, anything...
Lord Tuckuston! He grabbed the wooden spoon and slapped Evangeline so hard with it, it broke in half!
"Oh!" Evangeline moaned as her instrument of discipline was turned against her, "Oh, you fiend! Will you stop at nothing to debase me and my household! I curse the day you arrived! I curse my naivete for ever allowing you near my son!"
She picked the broken pieces of Tuckuston off the floor, "I'll chop you like suey!"
She advanced on him, splintered sticks in each hand, windmilling her arms in confused, but potentially dangerous, circles.
"AIIEEEEEEEEE!"
-Evangeline