Has the World Ended Yet?

Chapter 5-2

“Hot,” the Sandman says.

Titan takes his box and leaves.

Precog is waiting for him at the front doors to the office. He stares at the box of awards and then holds out his hands to Titan. “Whatever’s bothering you, we can fix it. I’ve already scheduled an appointment with an empath.”

Titan puts his hand on Precog’s head. He feels the skull beneath his fingers. He remembers how easily bone snaps. How it can be ground to powder. He thinks he’ll at least try to crush Precog’s skull if he says just one more word.

But Precog doesn’t say anything else, so Titan drops his hand and walks back out into the end of the world.

* * *

TITAN STOPS at an exotic car dealership on the way home. He’s driven past it every day for the last year, to and from work, in traffic jams each way. He’s pictured himself in every car on the lot. They’re a far cry from the Ethereal Flyer, but he’ll never set foot in that again. Even so, most of the cars in the dealership are still out of his price range. All the Lamborghinis and Ferraris are gone, anyway, when he walks in the door. There’s nothing but a couple of Porsches left in the showroom.

“We had people lined up outside the door this morning,” the salesman tells him. “It was like they’d just got their welfare money.”

Titan offers the salesman his box of trophies and medals and keys for one of the Porsche roadsters. The salesman looks through the box for a moment and then shrugs.

“What the hell,” he says. “It’s the end of the world, right? May as well do a good deed for once in my life.” He takes some keys out of his pocket and tosses them to Titan. Titan gives him the keys to his old car.

“What am I supposed to do with that?” the salesman asks, looking out into the parking lot.

“Burn it,” Titan says.

* * *

TITAN RETURNS home to find Inviselle in the black dress, preparing for a party. Bowls of chips and vegetables and dip sit on every table, and she’s making sangria. She tells him she called everyone they know.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if it happened with all of us here together?” she asks.

Titan goes across the street, to the other woman’s house. She answers the door drinking red wine straight from the bottle. She doesn’t say anything, and for a moment the two of them just stand there, looking at each other. Titan waits for some sign of recognition from her, showing she knows who he is. But she just stares at him like she’s never seen him before in her life.

“I’m having an end of the world party,” Titan says.

“What about her?” the woman asks. They both look at his house. Inviselle flickers in and out as she moves past a window. An angel drifts slowly overhead, watching them.

“It’s the end of the world,” Titan says.

The woman hugs herself.

“Do you have any drugs?” she asks.

* * *

TITAN DRIVES them to Buddha’s place. He really wants to open up the Porsche, but the other drivers are all over the road so he keeps his distance and stays well under the speed limit. He’s never been in such a nice vehicle. Back when he was a super, he travelled most places in the Ethereal Flyer or the Wisp just teleported them wherever they needed to go. Neither way was what he would call luxurious. Titan doesn’t speak during the drive and neither does the woman. He thinks he should ask her name but he’s let it go so long it may be awkward now.

Buddha lives on the top floor of a condo tower. He buzzes them up right away when Titan calls him from the lobby. For as long as Titan has known him, Buddha has always been home.

Buddha is sitting at the kitchen table when they walk in. He’s organizing little plastic bags of drugs into various piles. The walls are covered in framed photos of supers. Buddha only sells to retired supers, and sometimes he takes photos for payment. What cop or prosecutor is going to mess with a d**g dealer who has all the former heroes as customers?

On a monitor mounted on a wall, CNN shows a live feed from one of the space stations.

“Has the world ended yet?” an astronaut asks, staring into the camera. Behind him, another astronaut looks out a window at who knows what.

“We’re here for drugs,” Titan says.

“That’s what I figured,” Buddha says, popping a blue pill into his mouth like it’s candy.

“I’m having a party,” Titan says.

Buddha looks at Titan, then the woman and then goes back to sorting his drugs.

“It’s an end of the world party,” Titan adds.

“Who’s going to be there?” Buddha asks.

“I have no idea.” He hasn’t invited anyone and he doesn’t know who Inviselle invited.

“You should come,” the woman says. “And bring all your drugs.”

Titan and Buddha both look at her. Then Buddha shrugs. “No discounts, though,” he says. “I don’t care what sort of holiday it is.”

“It’s the end of the world and you’re concerned about making money?” Titan says.

“This is no time to abandon my principles,” Buddha says and starts gathering up his drugs.

* * *

OUTSIDE, BUDDHA shakes his head at the Porsche. “This is what you dream about?” he asks.

Titan doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t want anyone to know what he dreams about.

They drive back to the house to find another angel standing in the yard. It’s looking in the front window. Its skin is streaked with mud and several feathers in its wings stick out at odd angles.

“Maybe it’s come for us,” Titan says. He honks the Porsche’s horn but the angel only glances at them before turning its attention back to the window.

“It’s like some sort of peeping Tom,” Buddha says.

“Maybe God’s a p*****t,” the woman says.

“I wonder what kind of drugs God would do,” Buddha says.

Titan parks the Porsche in the driveway and they go inside. The house is crowded with people. Titan knows most of their faces but can only remember a few of their names. He hasn’t talked to some of these people in months, if not years. He doesn’t care. He says hello and shakes hands and laughs at their jokes about the apocalypse. It’s just like doing another work event. He moves in the direction of the bedroom with the woman from across the street. When he finds the Sandman in the living room, though, he stops and asks him what he’s doing there.

“Precog says you’re serious about this quitting thing,” the Sandman says. “I’m supposed to support you as a valued team member and provide friendship incentives for you to stay.” He smiles at the woman from across the street. “Have we met?” he asks her, but she just looks at him and doesn’t say anything.

“I’m done with the company,” Titan tells the Sandman. “I’m done with everything.”

“All right,” the Sandman says, still smiling at the woman. “All right.”

Buddha sits down on the couch and spreads his bags of drugs on the coffee table. On the monitor on the living room wall, CNN is now showing a riot in the streets of Jerusalem.

“I’ve never been there,” Titan says. “I guess now I’ll never get the chance.”

“I wouldn’t want to be there at this particular moment,” the Sandman says.

“Maybe not right now,” Titan agrees. “But maybe before.”

“How is it any different now?” the Sandman asks.

Titan shakes his head. He turns to the woman from across the street, but she’s not there anymore. He looks for her in the crowd, but he can’t find her. He looks back at the monitor.

“It seems we may have been premature in one of our earlier reports,” an anchor says. “It turns out Hawaii hasn’t sunk into the sea. But stay tuned – it still may.”

“If you don’t come back to work, can I have your computer?” the Sandman asks.

Titan walks away from him without answering. He looks for the woman but can’t see her anywhere. He goes into the kitchen, but she’s not there either. He checks outside, thinking maybe she’s gone home. Her house is dark, the street empty.

Titan looks up at the sky. There are rifts in the clouds now, with lights shining through the holes. Angels rise up to them from all over the city and pass through, out of sight. The angel in the yard is still looking in the window. Titan goes back inside.

He pushes his way through the crowd and remembers when crowds used to part before him. He opens the door to the guest room first, but it’s empty. Then he opens the door to the bedroom he shares with Inviselle.

The woman from across the street is there, on the bed. She’s wrapped in an embrace with Inviselle, who’s strobing in and out of sight. They both stop and look at Titan.

“I’ve been watching her for months,” Inviselle says.

Titan doesn’t say anything.

“She undresses for me,” Inviselle says.

Titan doesn’t say anything.

“She’s a mind reader,” Inviselle says.

The woman from across the street smiles at Titan. “You can watch,” she says.

“Hot,” the Sandman says from behind Titan.

Titan goes back into the living room. CNN shows an angel walking across the lawn of the White House. Secret Service agents in black suits step out from behind trees and bushes, guns in their hands. But they just watch as the angel walks past them and into the White House. One of the agents says something into his lapel. Another agent sits down on the lawn and cries.

Titan goes down into the basement. The simulator is back on. The ice zombies feast on his fallen body on the floor of the cave. Titan ignores them and takes off his clothes. He puts on the simulator uniform. He wants one of his real uniforms from the closet, but he doesn’t want to go back into the bedroom again. He goes upstairs in his simulated uniform, then outside and onto the lawn.

The angel turns away from the window, toward him. Titan punches it in the face. There was a time when his fists could shatter buildings. The angel just rocks back a bit. He punches it again, then again and again. There’s blood on the angel’s face now, and on his hand. He doesn’t know which of them is bleeding. He keeps hitting it, even though it doesn’t fight back, until he’s out of breath and has to step away.

He bends down for a moment, resting his hands on his knees. The angel pants in unison with him. When Titan looks up, he sees people staring from all the windows. The Sandman toasts him with a drink. Inviselle and the woman from across the street stand in the doorway, wrapped together in a bedsheet. Inviselle covers her mouth with her hands. The woman from across the street nods like she knew this would happen. Titan can see the monitor in the living room through the window. The astronauts are screaming.

The angel doesn’t take its eyes off Titan. It doesn’t even blink.

Titan straightens up, even though he still hasn’t caught his breath. He adjusts his uniform.

“All right,” he says. “We’re not going to live forever.”

For a few seconds there are no sounds but their breathing. Then a distant siren begins somewhere.

“We’re not going to live forever!” Titan cries, although he’s not sure if his words are a challenge or a plea.

The angel’s lips twist into something that could be a smile. Then it spreads its wings and lunges at him, and Titan rushes to meet it.