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John Carpenter's
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HOSTILE TAKEOVER - CHAPTER 6
It was late that night and MacReady was back in his room at the
Clauer. The room was dimly lit as he lay on his bed with his hands
folded behind his head. He still wore the suit that he had on at Wayne
Foundation. It was incredibly wrinkled by his lying down. The jacket
was slung over a bent metal chair near the window. It too looked worse
for wear. He barely resembled the man he was earlier that day.
MacReady didn't mind. This was not how he regularly dressed and
probably wouldn't again any time soon, if ever.
The outside world was fairly quiet, not that MacReady noticed. His
thoughts were of the frozen, white hell to which he would soon return.
He wished that there could be some other way to take care of this
potential problem but he knew there wasn't. He quickly dismissed his
daydream and thought of what he needed for his trek back to the icy
south. If there was going to be trouble, he wanted to be ready for it.
MacReady took another swig off of his bottle of J&B scotch. He
scratched his face feeling the stubble of his beard starting to grow
back. He felt the urge of nature make its call and got up to answer
it. On his way to what some might consider a bathroom, he wondered why
no one tried to get a hold of him yet. Was Wayne playing a game with
him all along? He quickly dismissed his paranoia and thought that
maybe Wayne was just taking care of the fine details of the trip.
While in the bathroom he thought that maybe he should call it a night
and wait for Wayne to call him in the morning.
He labored his way back into the less than spacious room he rented.
MacReady just wanted to go to sleep and forget about the day's events.
Just turn off the light and crash, he thought to himself. He
then realized that the lamp was already off. The breeze that came
through the opened window increased the chill that was coming over
him. Wait. The window... was open?
"' the hell? Did the bulb burn out? How did the window...?" He said
out loud not expecting an answer. MacReady reached for the lamps pull
string to test it.
"Leave it off." A voice as cold as the grave commanded from the dark.
MacReady quickly grabbed the lamp and ripped it from the socket to use
as a weapon. "Who the hell is there?'
MacReady noticed a slight movement in the shadows of the far-left
corner of the room. Someone or something was there and made its way
towards MacReady. MacReady brandished the lamp in his right hand above
his head. A little closer and someone was going to have one hell of a
concussion. If only he had his gun. Maybe then whoever was there
wouldn't be so bold as to attack him in his room.
The figure got closer. MacReady could make out a man's shape. The
figure moved slowly, deliberately towards MacReady. MacReady readied
himself. Steady, steady... now! MacReady hurled the lamp at the
figure's head with as much strength as he could muster. An arm snaked
out from the dark. It caught the lamp in mid flight and swatted it
towards the wall. The lamp shattered into a thousand fragments in a
resounding crash.
MacReady wasn't sure but he could have sworn that the arm was...jet
black and it had what could have been three long, black... spikes
protruding from the back of its forearm?
"Oh my God. It found me! That thing found me!"
MacReady's mind reeled with a million thoughts at once. He knew he had
to get out of that room now before he was taken over. MacReady spun
towards the door with his hands outstretched to grasp the knob. He no
more than lifted his foot off the ground when, SHHHH-THUNK!
Something flew out of the dark where the figure was and embedded into
the wall. MacReady starred in awe at the projectile, which missed his
head by no more than five inches. It was a black, metallic blade of
some sort. It kind of resembled, of all things... a bat.
It slowly started to dawn on MacReady exactly what was happening. He
heard all of the rumors and myths of something that stalked the Gotham
nights. He never believed then or took much notice of them. Now it was
here in the same room as he. What the hell did it want with him? He
did nothing wrong. The matter between him and Wayne was cleared up.
Wait a minute! That back stabbing Wayne sold him out just like all the
rest had. He had sent the Bat to get him after all. Wayne had sold the
Bat out also, though, as MacReady was not going to go without a fight.
He would take down the Bat and then get Wayne. Nobody was going to
make him look like a fool and then have a bogeyman take him down.
"Okay, freak! Let's do it!" MacReady yelled at the figure in the
shadows. MacReady lunged towards the darkness. He swung his right fist
to where he estimated the Bat's head to be. His fist was stopped and
grabbed by a leathery claw. The other claw raced up to MacReady's
neck. The shape lifted MacReady off the ground with the one claw. With
a tremendous thrust, MacReady was sent hurling into the wall with a
painful thud. MacReady picked himself up off the dingy floor. His head
was reeling from the throw. His eyesight was blurry. He shook off the
pain that racked his body and readied him self for round two. This
time he wouldn't be suckered from the dark.
MacReady stood up catching his breath. "All right, freak. Nice sneak
attack. Now, let's try this like men and fight out in the open."
A moment of silence passed. Then, slowly the figure emerged from the
shadows into the dim light that fought it's way through filth
incrusted window of the room. The Bat was in full view of MacReady.
There, as big as life was... The Batman. His head was all black except
for the lower part of its face. It had long, pointed ears on the side
of its head. It's eyes were glowing white hot. MacReady noticed that
the bat had no pupils. It's body resembled a man's albeit a rather
muscular man. The only thing that separated it from being truly human
was the fact that the body was colored a dark coal-gray. It had an
emblem of a black bat centered in a glowing, yellow oval. It wore a
yellow belt around It's waist. MacReady thought that this was peculiar
for a beast like this. It's forearms to it's hand were deep black as
were It's legs from the knees down. It had large, black wing's draped
over it's shoulders down to the about an inch above the floor.
MacReady could not believe what he saw. He never expected to run
across this living myth ever. MacReady thought to himself like many
others who had been in the same situation. Oh, Christ! It does
exist! The Batman does exist!
Wait a minute! He thought. Upon further inspecting, he noticed
that this wasn't a supernatural creature at all. This was a man
standing in front of him. A rather large man in an elaborate bat
costume. The Batman must have stood over 6 foot, eight inches with the
ears. The suit he was wearing looked as if it was kind of sculpted
foam latex. The muscle sculpting was seemingly unnecessary. MacReady
could discern that the man inside was muscular to begin with. "So, the
rumors are false. You're not some kind of a freak. You're just a man
after all." MacReady stood ready. Since it was just a man he could
fight it. MacReady wasn't going to loose to some Halloween reject.
MacReady feigned a left hook to The Batman's head. The Batman blocked
the assault with a snap of his left forearm with grace and ease that
MacReady never saw in a fighter before. MacReady reacted by
immediately slamming his right fist under The Batman's jaw. The Batman
spilled back wards into the dark. MacReady jumped into the shadows to
grapple The Batman and finish the fight quickly. MacReady barely
noticed the black boot before it rushed to his midsection. Once again,
MacReady's frame met the same spot on the wall that he previously was
sent flying into. MacReady didn't have time to regain his composure
when he was suddenly grasped by the throat and aggressively hoisted
into the air.
"We can end this now the easy way or the hard, your choice." The
Batman informed MacReady in a menacing hiss.
"It won't-be-as easy- as- you think." MacReady spat out.
The Batman felt something sharp against the inner side of his left
thigh. He slowly glanced down to find the problem. MacReady held a
broken piece of the shattered lamp tight next to The Batman's femoral
artery. One slash and it be all over. At the same time, one twist of
The Batman's wrist and the same would happen to MacReady. A very
strange Mexican stand off, indeed.
The Batman stared MacReady dead in the eyes. He slowly, deliberately
pulled the disheveled man closer to his masked face. MacReady could
then see that the mask housed reflective lenses in the eye slits. He
was uncomfortable in seeing his own reflection in the face of his
assailant.
"This ends now. I only came here to deliver you a message." Growled
the Dark Knight. The Batman slowly lowered MacReady to the floor
gently. The Batman back away to give MacReady his personal space and
to show that he was not going to attack MacReady again. MacReady stood
and stared at The Batman for a moment. He wasn't sure what to do. He
studied The Batman, who stood completely motionless. MacReady held his
attack posture. Who knew what The Batman would do next? When he was
finally sure that the fight was over, MacReady lowered the piece of
the broken lamp and dropped it to the floor. It made a small tinkling
sound as it broke into a few smaller shards.
"Okay, what do you want?" Demanded MacReady.
"I spoke with the police commissioner tonight. He informed me about
what happened in Bruce Wayne's office today. I then talked to Wayne to
hear the details first hand. Wayne told me everything."
"And he sent you here to bring me in, right?" Injected MacReady.
"Let me finish." MacReady could feel the irritation in The Batman's
deep, harsh whisper of a voice. "He sent me here to tell you to be
ready at nine sharp tomorrow. A car will be sent by Wayne to pick you
up and take you to Wayne Fields. There you'll meet up with a Col.
Haines. He'll be your escort to the pole."
"That's it? You sneak in here and trash this place just to tell me to
be ready? What kind of an idiot are you?" MacReady snapped back.
The Batman stepped up MacReady to address him directly to his face.
"You were the one who threw the lamp. You made the first move. I just
finished it."
"Yeah, I almost finished you. One good cut to the femoral artery and
it would have been 'bye-bye, Bat." MacReady said with a confident
sneer.
"You're right. But, you would of had a tough time trying to cut your
way through this." The Batman tapped on the legging of his costume. It
made a muffled sound as if it was a thick, solid material. "This is a
revolutionary extra-light weight body armor. As flexible as rubber,
stronger than Kevlar. Much stronger."
MacReady felt agitated about being one upped by this sideshow lunatic.
He was used to being in charge and not on the receiving end of
humiliation.
"Okay, freak, is that it?" Asked an exasperated MacReady. This was
getting to be too much. He was reaching his limit.
"Should there be anything else?" Replied The Batman.
"Yeah, while we're at it, give this to Wayne. I wrote a list of
equipment and supplies I'll need for the trip." MacReady handed The
Batman a small sheet of crumpled paper. The Batman inspected the list
to see all of what MacReady needed.
"Are you serious? You need all of this?" Batman inquired.
"Hey, if things get hairy down there, I'd like to be ready for it.
Besides, I'm sure that ol' Brucie boy can fit the bill for it all."
MacReady replied flippantly. He wasn't concerned with The Batman's
opinion. He knew what could possibly lie ahead and he wasn't into the
fray unprepared.
"I'll take this to him and see what he says." The Batman response was
emotionless and chilling.
"I don't care what he says. He wants me to go, then he better give me
what I need to take care of any problem or I ain't going. End of
discussion." MacReady wasn't going to take know for an answer. He
alone knew how to deal with terror that might lie ahead.
"Tell Wayne I'll be waiting." MacReady turned towards the decrepit
door. "And don't forget this either." He reached to get the "batarang"
that was sticking in the door. What he discovered stopped him in his
tracks. It was already removed. He quickly spun around to inform The
Batman of the fact. "Hey, your little toy is..."
When MacReady had spun around, The Batman had silently disappeared as
if he never existed.
Chapter 7
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