Hellfire Jones and the Angel Invasion

Chapter 3

The times were crazy. You never knew when the person right next to you was going to snap and just stab you. Fights broke out in the street. The news described even worse in excruciating detail, but it was never really real until it happened to someone you knew. That's when you couldn't just turn off your computer and make it all just go away.

"Maybe people got out," Faizan suggested unconvincingly.

"I'm going to check," I said.

April threw the blanket off herself. Her clothes and hair were now covered with green little threads from my frizzy throw. "Don't. It's too dangerous to go out."

"There's no danger, dude. The bomber is probably long gone," I protested. "Or suicided themselves to bits."

"She's right," Faizan said, agreeing with April for once. "Bombings are a red hot flame for would-be violent little moths."

He had a point. In the good old days people would stand there shocked or try to help. Now the sight of death and destruction was an invitation to try to top it. Police sirens echoed in the distance, but who knew when someone would actually show up. Sometimes that was a good thing.

"There's nothing you can do right now anyway," Faizan said.

"He's right," April said in a another unusual show of agreement. It was touching how much she cared about me. Almost as much as she cared about the poor aliens trapped in Roswell.

"Besides, we have our proof of this huge conspiracy," she continued, throwing the blanket to the ground. "We have to plan how we're going to get the word out."

"What conspiracy this time?" Faizan asked with rolling eyes that pretty much stayed permanently rolled when he was talking to April. "This isn't the Big Bird cult again?"

"Bigger than the big bird," April said. "Though it is a fact that the Illuminati planted subliminal messages in the programming when Sesame Street debuted in the 60s. All the captains of industry who watched the show as children are now under their thrall, doing their evil bidding."

"Uh-huh," Faizan said. "And the lizard creatures are behind this?"

"Of course not," April said, running her hands through her greasy jet black hair in frustration. "The lizard overlords are smart enough to know that TV caused cancer; evidenced by the rise in people contracting fatal diseases since television's creation. They'd avoid it like the plague. Keep your far fetched theories to yourself, please. Sesame Street was obviously done by human beings. Come on. How could a show be sponsored by the letters K and S and the number 3? That's all code and someone's behind it. But what Mitch and I have just discovered is bigger. Much bigger. Presidential bigger and we have proof. Damning, irrevocable, x-marks-the-spot proof."

"Okay, I'll bite," Faizan smirked. "Let's see this proof. You saw me using air quotes when I said the word, proof, right?."

"Sorry, we don't trust you." April crossed her arms and held her ground.

Sometimes these two were too strange even for me. It was like watching a tennis match where one person was holding a baseball bat and the other was juggling. You just knew nothing productive was ever going to happen.

"Guys stop!" I held my hands up like a referee who no one ever listens to. "No one else gets along in this world. We have to. I declare my apartment to be a vibe positive zone."

"Fine," April relented. "We can show him the proof."

"I don't want to see it," Faizan countered.

"You need to have your eyes opened to the truth," April said. "I'm going to shove the red pill down your throat if I have to."