“… And I don’t think it’s us they’re looking at.” Landis finished saying.
Turning around, Dabbler saw the real focus of the Russells’ attention, a thorough blockade of police cars and officers, nearly all with drawn weapons trained on the approaching family. Turning back, he jumped in surprise as Jim, still walking forward, came straight at him… And straight through him. More of the Russells did the same, until Dabbler had managed to step out of their general path. Now that, was disturbing…
Downside of being as solid as a ghost, friend, the virtual Zorlond offered.
As Landis stepped up next to Dabbler (having proven to be similarly insubstantial), he asked, “What’s going on here?”
Dabbler merely shrugged, watching as Jim spoke quietly to one of the officers. Very quietly, like someone had hit the world’s ‘mute’ button. There was very limited body motion, probably a reaction to all the artillery aimed at the scene, but eventually Jim turned to the rest of his family and nodded. At that, several more police officers, handcuffed, were brought out from the middle of the mass of bodies and allowed to join their comrades. At which point, Dabbler could see Jim offering his wrists to the officer before him peacefully. He was handcuffed, then placed in a cruiser as other officers closed in and began taking the rest of the Russells into custody.
Internally, Dabbler asked, What is this? I don’t remember Jim being arrested in this thread…
He wasn’t, was the answer. Not at the time, anyways. *sigh* Arrested, to be convicted and imprisoned, and once word gets out inside the prison what he was convicted of, Jim’s got the life expectancy of a fruit fly…
The scene suddenly started slowing down, everyone moving as if swimming in molasses, and then it all stopped, leaving Dabbler and Landis as the only motion in the area. Before either could comment, there was the sound of shattering crystal, as the world around them shattered and blew away…
“Was that supposed to happen?” Landis asked. The scene had apparently re-set itself, although this time the Russells weren’t marching out of the house to give up. Dabbler could see furtive movement inside the house.
“… I don’t think so,” Dabbler replied. “Come on.” Walking up to the house, he found the front door as solid as the Russells had been before. Inside was barely controlled panic as Jim spoke into a phone with readily apparent agitation.
As they looked around, Landis started briefly. “Oooh,” he remarked. “I definitely remember dreaming about her, though I don’t recall her being so large at the time.” The object of his attention was Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and apparently due to be a mother any minute.
Noticing the handcuffed officers lined up against a wall, Dabbler watched as Jim motioned to a couple family members who carefully lifted a few of them to their feet and led them outside. Moments after the delegation had gone out the door, however, there was a rapid and intense influx of armed officers, quickly and efficiently stifling all opposition in their path.
“This looks like…” Dabbler started, as the scene shattered again. “It looks like someone trying to find a solution…”
All wrong… Run the probabilities, run the matrix… All wrong… The virtual Zorlond seemed to be loosing self-control a bit. And not unreasonably, as the scene went through several iterations, each as bad as or worse than the last. After a particular messy scenario, the scene seemed to settle upon what appeared to be a relatively peaceful, lengthy siege.
“Doesn’t look like they’re doing too well, then,” Landis offered.
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Fri Sep 24 13:29:38 2004
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