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Adventures Of Oakheart, Issue #006

July 9, 2013 in Adventures Of Oakheart Tags:

oakheart cover
Issue #006 – – – – – controlled by Wayne Gildroy – – – – – Credits 86

There was no time for careful reflection.  Oakheart had to make a snap decision and make it he did.  Reaching out to another tree he snapped off a huge branch.  He didn’t feel bad about this.  Other trees were not sentient in the way he was.  In fact, Oakheart didn’t think of himself as a tree at all.  He may look like a tree but under all this he was a human of sorts, albeit a very, very abnormal one.

On the street the cop and the lead ganger, Carlos, were facing one another like two gunslingers from the wild west.  A small crowd had gathered, seemingly from nowhere, and unusually the sight of the guns had not caused them to run screaming into the distance.  Rather, it was as if they were trapped in the unfolding spectacle, drawn to see its outcome in whatever grisly way it may resolve.

“Go long,” Oakheart thought and hurled the branch high and far.  His aim was true and the hefty piece of wood went spinning way over the gang and landed in a crash behind them.  The sight of the branch spinning above them and the sound of it smashing into the street behind them proved a dangerous distraction.  Their instincts caused them to turn – including Carlos – and the cop used the moment to his advantage.  A single gunshot cracked in the air and the side of the young ganger’s face exploded in a splash of crimson gore.

Oakheart hadn’t meant to take sides.  His choice to aim the branch behind the gangers was meant to break the tension and create enough temporary confusion to enable the little girl to pursue the cat to safety.  In a way it worked, as the cop’s aim proved accurate enough to score a hit while the girl ran safely past the unfolding drama.  But Oakheart hadn’t reckoned on the bloodthirsty opportunism of an officer of the law.  How could he?  He’d never seen cops act this way before.  At this point, everything went wrong.  Several of the gang, clearly caught up in a powerful mixture of shock, terror, anger and grief, pulled more guns from hidden places in their clothes.  The second cop now had his gun in his hand too.  The air was filled with whistling, screaming, deadly bullets.

Young Louis, who had taken the taser hit, looked down to see a ragged crimson hole in his stomach.  He clutched at the wound, but his fingers could not hold back the pouring blood. Another young ganger tried to help him and took a bullet in the arm, sending him spinning across the pavement.  He landed just inches away from the still body of a woman, the mother of Josie the cat chaser.  She was alive, but her breathing was ragged and shallow and her eyes were glazed.  Blood pooled beneath her.   The taser cop was hit twice, once in the arm which caused him to scream in agony, then again in the left eye which stopped him screaming forever.

Now the bystanders did panic.  In roughly two halves, one group fled in every direction while the other charged the cops, or the gangers, or both and began kicking and punching.  Two men picked up a youth and rammed his head through the window of a parked car.  Another hit the second cop on the back of the head with his heavy briefcase, then began stomping on his face as he hit the floor.

Off to one side a woman had found a piece of concrete from somewhere and, almost casually, swung it side-on into the face of a passer-by.  The teenage girls used a trash can to smash a shop window and began grabbing goods from the display shelves.  The shop owner came charging out shouting and was immediately set upon by an old man with a cane and two further teenagers.

Oakheart had planned to blend back into the foliage like just another tree if his intervention had worked.  Instead, he appeared to have sparked a confrontation that was in imminent danger of tipping into a riot.  In just a few short chaotic seconds lots of people were dead or injured and the violence was still escalating.  Several cars were honking their horns and some drivers had climbed out of them to walk threatening towards the fighting.  Sirens could be heard distantly.

Amidst it all, Oakheart could see the little girl.  She had lost the cat and was now huddling behind a park bench as two men beat each other senseless with their bare fists just above her.  Oakheart spied one of the young gangers, who had a short but wicked-looking knife in his hand, heading her way.  He had seen the little girl and there was blood lust in his eyes.  For no reason Oakheart could ascertain, the young man was clearly heading towards the child to do her harm.  Something was very wrong about all this.

It was at that moment that Oakheart noticed his sixth sense.  It was throbbing urgently, trying to alert him to something.  Amidst all the fighting and action Oakheart had not recognised it’s urgent pulse.  Or perhaps it was because he was out of practice, having spent so long in some strange sort of hibernation.  Whatever the case, he recognised it now.  His eyes were drawn a little further along the street to an elderly woman standing alone as the crowd surged around her.  There was nothing startling or even notable about her appearance.  But Oakheart could feel the energies emanating from her.  Wave after wave of low, subsonic pulses.

He knew what this was.  The woman had happened upon a tense situation and she was using some kind of power to escalate the emotions of those in the area.  Those pulsations for whom she was the apex were waves of fury, or spite or of pure aggression.  She was some kind of abnormal and she was deliberately causing this orgy of violence and hatred.

 


4 Responses to “Adventures Of Oakheart, Issue #006”

  1. Frank Says:

    ouch….that kinda backfired

  2. False Bill Says:

    This Twisted Helix City,
    every attempt to do right, seems to do more harm.
    still Oakheart should be able to beat up the nasty lady or save the little girl.

  3. Fraser Machin Says:

    Rip it up!!! maim everybody :-P they all seem bad!! lol

  4. Junius Stone Says:

    Making everybody angry…

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