Off the Wagon (Users #2) (16 page)

“Everyone’s the hero of their own story.”

Carter wasn’t sure why he was so shocked. He barely knew the man. How was he supposed to know his old man was a Scorcher too? The flame on the end of his father’s finger flickered as Carter leaned forward and blew out the fire like he was blowing out some kind of sick and sadistic birthday candle.

“This is such bullshit,” Carter said. “You show up out of nowhere and expect me to not only turn on my friends but to help, or at least stand by and watch, you kill them? Are you that stupid?”

“Hey, don’t do it for me. Do it for yourself. Do it for the money.”

“And just exactly what do you get out of it?” Carter knew there was a catch. There always was with this man. He never did anything that wasn’t for himself.

“Well I would expect a twenty five percent finders fee. Not as your father, but as your lawyer of course. It’s just a good business decision. Whether you like it or not, you’re just like you’re old man.”

“I’m nothing like you!” Carter shouted.

He was barely able to contain the heat building up in his body.

“Keep it down. You want to alert the whole Compound? Look, I tried to make this easy on you, but that little bastard Barber is tougher than he looks. He just wouldn’t die,” Jack said.

Carter had been so distracted by the fact that his father was a Scorcher, that he had almost forgotten his old man was responsible for nearly burning Barber to death.

“Thanks for that,” Carter said.

“It was nothing. A father would do almost anything for his son.”

“No, not that. Thanks for reminding me of what a rotten asshole you are.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way.” Jack growled and clenched his fists.

“I will never betray my friends. And I will never be a party to your misdeeds, not i-” Carter was interrupted by a punch to the face that sent him flying back to hit his head against the cabin wall.

“If you aren’t willing to do what’s necessary, and for your own good, I’ll just have to make you,” Jack said. “God damn, spoiled ass, little tit mouth,” He mumbled under his breath as he approached Carter on the ground. “You’ve never done anything right without me. Just look at you, you are pathetic,” he spat the words down at Carter. “You haven’t even been in charge two days and look at the mess you’re in. You think these people care about you? They sure have a fucked up way of showing it. Nice friends you picked there.”

His father was standing over him, just as he had so many times before. The old man’s jaw was clenched, one arm cocked back, and the other reached for Carter’s forearm. Carter saw himself as a helpless little boy, all those years ago. No one came to his aid then, and no one was coming now. He was alone. Carter was used to being alone with a monster, but usually he was the monster. His father hit him with a jab right in the face.

“No more!” Carter shouted. “Keep your fucking hands off me!”

“Don’t you talk to me like that, you ungrateful little shit,” Jack said and cocked back for another punch.

“He said to keep your fucking hands off him.” Ryker appeared in the open doorway. He stood casually with a calm and cool demeanor, but there was a glint of rage in his eyes.

“Who the hell are you, and what makes you think you can come in here and tell me how to deal with my own son?”

“I am not your son.” With his head turned toward Ryker, Jack didn’t even see it coming when Carter kicked the old man right between the legs.

Jack groaned and grabbed his privates. “You little son of a bitch.” Jack fell forward, but as he did, he hit Carter with a head butt to the nose.

“Get him off of me.” Carter cried to Ryker for help, but when Ryker reached down to pull Jack off of him, Jack rolled over to his side and hit Ryker with a fireball. The ball of fire exploded right in Ryker’s chest, knocking him back and sending him crashing through the cabin wall.

Carter growled, grabbed Jack by the collar of his button up shirt, and summoning the fire to his feet, he hit the jets. Carter twisted in midair and they crashed through the window, shattering the glass. They landed in a roll beside the fire pit located in the center of the yard. Their arms flailed and intertwined as they tumbled, but Carter came out on top.

“You killed him…you dirty old bastard,” Carter said, struggling to speak as he regained his bearings.

He shook his head from side to side, physically trying to clear his mind.

“I’m not that easy to kill.” Ryker stumbled out from behind a bush, his fancy shirt smoldering with a big hole burned in middle, exposing his bare chest. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I was using powers while you were still in diapers boy,” Jack said and as he spoke, his skin began to glow bright orange. Jack roared as his entire body caught fire. Using the flames from his entire body like one big jet, Jack floated up to a standing position a few feet above the ground.

Then he unleashed hell fire on the Compound. Balls of fire shot from his hands, hitting cabins at random, and sending them bursting into flames. Users ran from their cabins in an all out panic only to be met with more balls of fire. Evan, one of the first Users on the scene, was almost incinerated as he burst from his burning cabin and ran right into another ball of fire, but using his Mover powers, he dropped an invisible shield in front of him that sent the fiery ball ricocheting off to the side. The ball exploded off the lawn like a land mine, sending grass and soil sailing dozens of feet into the air.

“Oh no you don’t,” Ryker said as Lucy emerged from her cabin to the same greeting as Evan. Using both hands, Ryker dropped a wall of ice between Lucy and Jack. The ice exploded as the ball of fire nearly blasted clean through the wall.

Knowing his fire powers would have little effect on his father, Carter leapt from one of the benches surrounding the fire pit and kicked out with all his strength. Jack simply floated aside and Carter went sailing by. Before his feet even touched the ground, Carter grimaced as the blood in his veins boiled and his pours opened wide, unleashing the flames within him and sending him back up into the air. Carter rocketed through the air with one arm out like he was a fiery Superman, but again Jack saw him coming and spun aside.

“Fight me you coward!” Carter screamed. “Be a man for once in your life!”

“You want a fight?” Jack asked. “You’ve got one.”

Chapter 18

Their fiery bodies crashed together in midair, sending sparks and fire exploding across the night sky like a firework display on the Fourth of July. With both Carter and Jack being almost impervious to fire of any kind, they had to resort to a good old fashioned fist fight just to hurt one another. Only this fight took place a good thirty feet above the tree tops.

Shortly after Carter had challenged his father to a fight, his old man had pummeled him with a quick jab, jab, right hook combination that caught Carter off guard and he soared up and away, in an attempt to pull together some semblance of a defense. Jack chased him higher and higher into the night sky, until the Compound was little more than a dark spot on the earth below.

“Who’s the coward now?” Jack asked.

“Just prepping myself to kick your ass.” Carter readied his fists as Jack shot up and over to face him.

They circled one another in midair with their flames whipping in the wind. As they squared off, Carter’s hand trembled. Could he really hope to defeat the man who had given him more beatings in his lifetime than every other fight he had been in combined? He half expected his first punch to suddenly turn into slow motion, like in those nightmares he used to have where no matter how hard or fast he punched, Carter just couldn’t hurt him. He might as well have been punching a wall of steel in those dreams.

“No!” Carter clenched his jaw and tightened his fists. “No!”

He would not back down this time. This time he would stand up to the bully. For all the days in his life he had curled up and taken the thrashings, this time he would fight.

“What are you going on about boy?” Jack asked. “You scared? You looking for mommy to come save you?”

This taunt no longer held merit for Carter as it had when he was small. The selfish bitch had never dared interfere with his father’s tirades, even to protect her only son, and he knew the only one to save him would be himself.

Carter threw a right cross, catching Jack off guard, and punching him right in the ear. Flames splattered as the fire from Carter’s fist connected with the fire coming off his father’s head. Jack recoiled and grabbed his ear.

“Right in the ear,” Jack said with a cringe, and then came back to face Carter with an almost proud smile. “Maybe you do have some fight in you for a change.”

“Fuck you,” Carter said.

“Fuck me?” Jack undid his buckle and slid the leather belt from around his waist. The belt was doused in dancing flames that would soon turn it to ash, but not before Jack could get in a few good lashings with the fiery whip.

“What’s that for? You gonna spank me?” Carter asked. “I’m not six anymore.”

Jack flung the belt like a whip and the end popped with a loud snap as it hit Carter in the chest. Blood spurted from a long slash that ran at an angle across Carter’s right peck and down onto his stomach, before the wound was quickly cauterized closed, but Carter didn’t back down. He stared hard at his father, not giving the old bastard the satisfaction of letting him know how much that whipping just hurt.

“You’re bringing this on yourself. You could’ve had it all,” Jack said and he whipped the belt back and forth like a fiery fly fishing rod before snapping it forward again at Carter.

This time Carter was ready. The belt’s end bore in on him, but Carter snatched it with his right hand in midair.

“I don’t want it all. Not that way anyway. Not at the cost of even one of my friends.” Carter had a firm grip on the belt and he tugged with all his might, dragging Jack along with the belt.

Carter threw a quick jab with his left hand as Jack sailed in. The momentum from Jack being dragged across the night sky combined with all the weight behind Carter’s jab blasted Jack right in the mouth. Dazed, Jack lost his grip on the belt, and was sent flying backwards. Carter did not relent. He shot forward and punched Jack again. Jack put his hands out defensively, but Carter just slapped them away. The same way his father had done to him so many times as a child. It was almost euphoric to see his father on the losing end of a beating for a change.

“You show up out of nowhere and expect me to betray my best friend!” Carter shouted between fiery blows. “Is that the kind of man you think I am?” Carter kicked Jack in the gut.

“That’s the man I raised you to be!” Jack blurted out before he wheezed for breath. “To be tough! To watch out for your own!” Hunched over from the kick to the belly, Jack hit the flames on his feet and barreled forward, tackling Carter in midair.

Jack engulfed Carter in a bear hug around the waist and knocked Carter flat on his back. They fell, or more appropriately, they rocketed toward the earth. Jack drove Carter into the ground head first, but Carter tucked his chin to his chest, letting his back and neck absorb most of the blow. Still, Carter heard the bones in his back crunch from the impact.

“You are the same weak, cowardly little shit I abandoned all those years ago. The worlds going to chew you up and spit you out!” Jack punched Carter twice, knocking his head against the grass and dirt with each blow.

“It already did,” Carter spat a sizzling mouthful of blood in Jack’s face, but it did little to deter the enraged man.

“I’ll kill you boy!” Jack punched Carter again and again.

“No, you won’t!” Ryker said.

Jack’s arm was cocked back for another punch, but no matter how hard Jack tried his arm was suddenly frozen in place. Jack gnashed his teeth and his arm shook as an invisible force held his arm back. Evan emerged from the shadows his face showing a grimace from the strain, but his mental grip held firm on Jack’s arm.

“This has got nothing to do with either of you,” Jack snarled. “This argument is between me and my boy.”

“If it has to do with Carter, it has to do with us,” Lucy said as she and the rest of the Compound’s Users emerged from the darkness and into the illuminating light coming off the fires burning on Jack and Carter.

“Why? Why do you care?” Jack asked. “The boy is a god damn loser. Look at him.” Carter felt awfully small pinned beneath his father at that moment, but then something miraculous happened.

“Because we are a family, that’s why” Barber said coming out the door of Doc’s office.

He was limping to keep the weight off of his burned leg, and wearing little more than bandages wrapped around the burned portions of his body. “And if you don’t get off him, I’m going to skewer you from ass to mouth.”

The spike elongated from Barber’s right wrist until it was at its full length. Barber held it out in front of him inspecting its size as if contemplating if it was indeed long enough to run Jack clear through.

“Okay. Just let me go and you can have him,” Jack said.

“Evan,” Ryker said. “Let him go.”

The look of strain on Evan’s face passed to a more comfortable composure and Jack was finally able to lower his arm. His father threw Carter a hateful glare as he slowly got off of him. Jack was completely naked, his clothes having long burned away, but he kept the lower half of his body covered in flames like fiery pants. As soon as Jack was safely away, Evan and a handful of other Users ran off to help Carter to his feet.