Needless
Things & Zenescope Entertainment
Present
The
Winter Wonderland Contest!
If
you listen to the Needless Things Podcast
and visit Needless Things, you could win a Wonderland prize pack from
Zenescope, which includes:
*One
Alice action figure sculpted by Clayburn Moore, as reviewed here on Needless Things
*One
Grimm Fairy Tales: Wonderland board game
*A
trade paperback collection of the Wonderland
comic book from Zenescope Entertainment
Just
send an e-mail to phantomtroublemaker@gmail.com
with the subject “Winter Wonderland” telling us one item you
would take with you if you were going down the rabbit hole into the
wild world of Wonderland.
Be
sure to include your name, phone number (in case we need to contact
the winner), and mailing address.
Contest
runs now through midnight on December 13th,
2014. One entry per individual.
*****
III
With sparks flaring inside
the transit car, an eerie chill hangs over Joseph as he tries to
shake the unconscious business man awake. Breathing heavily and
drool dripping to the floor, the beastly shadow of Omar hovers over
them and shutters under the sparking overhead light, his veins in his
forehead pulsating rapidly, as he glares directly at Joseph. Joseph
does not dare break eye contact, but continues shaking the business
man. Omar grunts, turns around and walks to the adjacent side of the
car.
“Hey! Hey! Wake up!”
Joseph turns his attention to the business man, noticing that this
may be his only chance.
The business man slowly
starts to come to, as Joseph slaps him a couple of times to speed up
the process.
“What…What’s going
on…” mutters the business man.
The sound of metal being
bent is heard from the other end of the car. Joseph and the business
man both look and see Omar pulling on one of the seat columns, trying
to detach it from the wall.
“Shit! Oh, shit!”
cries the business man jumping to his feet. “Holy, shit!”
“Hey! Umm,” said
Joseph as he notices the business man’s name tag dangling from his
side belt loop alongside a small, self-defense pepper spray
dispenser. “Mason!”
“What!”
Omar growls deeply as he
continues jerking at the seat. Joseph begins calculating different
ideas in his head and prepares to make his next move. He looks back
at the hanging pepper spray dispenser.
“Let me borrow this,”
said Joseph, as he rips the spray from his side.
Omar roars loudly in
triumph after he is finally able to rip the seat column from the
wall. He takes two huge stomps to turn and face Joseph and Mason,
and then he shucks the column in their direction.
“Move!” shouts Joseph
pushing Mason out of the way.
The seat column crashes
into the wall over them and lands on the floor hard into many pieces.
Omar turns around and begins tugging at another column.
“You’ve got to be
fucking kidding me!” screams Mason with his arms covering his head.
“I dropped the pepper
spray,” Joseph shouts looking frantically for it on the floor.
“What were you going to
do with it anyway?” Mason said, sarcastically. “We need a damn
tank.”
Joseph - without actually
taking the time to think and plan accordingly - goes with the first
idea that pops into his mind. He runs to the adjacent end of the
car and grabs Omar from behind around the waist. Omar smirks and
with a grumbled laugh, he grabs Joseph by his arms, breaking the
hold, and throws him into a wall on the adjacent side of the car.
“Are you serious? You’re
dead!” cried Mason.
“Agh…I had to do
something!” Joseph shouts sitting up holding his head from the
blow. “I want to at least try to survive.”
Omar continues to pull at
the seat column, breathing heavier than before.
“Look where that got
you!” Mason shouts, throwing his arms up.
The peppers spray rolls
and bounces off the tip of the Mason’s dress shoes.
“Shit…” said Mason.
Omar is able to pull the
column away from the wall and chucks it at Joseph. With quickness,
Joseph crawls quickly underneath a seat column.
“HEY!”
Omar turns around and is
instantly sprayed with a heavy mist of pepper spray to his blood red
eyes. He roars in aggravation, grabbing at his eyes and slamming his
body against the walls and windows. Mason tries to rush past Omar to
reach Joseph, but he bumps into him and is suddenly grabbed hard by
the arm.
“Let me go!” cried
Mason punching at Omar’s massive hand.
Omar squeezes his arm
tighter. SNAP!
Mason yells in pain, as
Omar applies more pressure and refuses to let go of his vice grip.
“Help…help me!” he
shouts.
Joseph, trying not to
panic, spots an exposed piece of scrap metal sticking out from the
wall where one of the seat columns had been ripped away. He grabs
hold of a nearby broken pipe and crawls from underneath the seats.
Standing to his feet, Joseph swings the pipe with all of his might
and hits Omar across the side of the head.
“ERF!” grunts Omar,
releasing Mason.
“Get up!” commanded
Joseph assisting Mason to his feet. “We have to force him back.”
“My arm,” said Mason,
“my arm is broken.”
“It’s that or die
right now.” stated Joseph. “So, on me…NOW!”
Joseph and Mason both
charge forward and hit Omar with stiff shoulder tackles, which makes
him stumble back on his heels. Omar, with his eyes still burning,
swings his arms wildly trying to grab hold of at least one of them.
“Again!”
Using every ounce of
energy they had left, Joseph and Mason hit Omar with another stiff
and forceful shoulder tackle. Omar staggers backwards and slips on
shards of broken glass, causing him to fall back on the exposed piece
of metal, penetrating straight through the back of his head, and
exiting the middle of his forehead. His body goes instantly limp and
his eyes fade back to their normal, human form and color.
“Wow,” pants Mason
holding his fractured arm delicately.
“Boys, alright?”
Joseph and Mason turn
around to see Ralph and Steward standing in the doorway leading to
the original transit car.
“Thank God, I’m off
this piece of shit.” said Mason rushing off.
Joseph takes one final
look at the deceased body of Omar, who has shrunken back down to his
normal size.
“What in the hell
happened in here?” asked Steward as he joins Joseph’s side.
“We couldn’t see a
damn thing,” added Ralph coming from the rear, “we could only
hear horrible sounds.”
“It was him.” said
Joseph still staring down at Omar. “He transformed into this
monster...and we had no choice, but to…kill him.”
“I wanted to kick the
little punk’s ass, but never to kill him,” said Ralph kneeling
down for a closer view.
“I didn’t want to do
it either, but he was not himself.” said Joseph walking away from
the dead body.
“What do you mean?”
questioned Steward.
“I'll explain in full
detail…we need to have a serious meeting,” said Joseph.
Joseph steps back onto car
number 187 and he is greeted directly by a worried Gloria, who is
clutching a half-eaten Snickers bar.
“Are you okay?” she
said twisting the wrapper around the candy bar to save it for later.
“Yeah, I’m fine,
little bumps and bruises here and there but I can handle it,” said
Joseph placing his hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I am fine,” she
said smiling slightly. “What was that terrifying roar we all
heard?”
“That’s what I want to
talk about.” said Joseph walking to the center of the car.
“Everyone, please, right now, we all need to gather around and
talk.”
“Once again, who put you
in charge, dammit?” said Sweet T popping her lips loudly.
“I’m guessing you
don’t want to figure out what’s going on here?” asked Mason as
Ralph helps assist him with his broken arm.
“Who told you to even
speak to me, honky?” snapped Sweet T.
“Look, I’m just
wanting to figure out what going on here myself,” Joseph said
extending his hand to usher the older woman to a sit close to him.
“Do you want to go back to hiding underneath the seats? Because
believe me lady, what I just witnessed in there is not a hoax.”
“Lady!” shouts Sweet
T. “Who are you calling lady? You don’t know me!”
“Well how about we call
you the scared, loud bitch, who hides like a coward when true trouble
happens and screams because she doesn’t understand the reality of
the situation we are all in,” said the teenage girl in the hoodie
still facing the window.
“Does that child think
she’s talking to me?” Sweet T said pointing to herself.
“I just want to know
what happened in there, guys,” said Steward sitting beside the
older woman.
“What happened to his
arm?” asked the young business woman standing with her arms crossed
over her chest.
“If we could have this
meeting, I’ll be glad to tell you about the monster on the other
side,” said Mason, while Ralph carefully wrapped his arm with one
of his sleeves from his dress shirt.
“A monster?”
questioned Sweet T with a perplexed look on her face.
“I’ve seen a lot of
monsters in my days, honey,’ said the older woman smiling to Ralph.
“Yeah, I smell one right
now and she happens to be the name of my grandmother’s favorite
drink,” stated the teenage girl looking in Sweet T’s direction.
“Strike two, little
girl,” said Sweet T pointing her long, blue polished fingernails at
the teenager. “I swear I’ll rip that hoodie apart and strangle
you with it.”
“Want to try?” said
the teenage girl grinning mischievously.
“Everyone please, let
discuss this, please!” shouted Joseph standing in one of the seat
columns.
Without warning, the car
vibrates violently and an ear-piercing hum saturates the air. The
strange buzz creates a stir of events that overtake the passenger’s
being. Sweet T is screeching in agony, her lengthy nails are clamped
around her ears, and bloods trickles down the side of her head. The
teenage girl is yanking her hoodie down past her face. Mason leans
back against the wall, eyes rolling in their sockets and blinking
extremely fast. Ralph faints and the back of his head bounces off
the floor from the abrupt collision. Steward is stretching and
ripping out of his shirt, while the young business woman is crying on
her side in the fetal position on the floor.
The white noise continues
to advance throughout the car and standing firmly and unfazed,
directly in the center of it all, is Joseph who is completely normal.
“What in the hell?”
said Joseph looking at everyone before his eyes locked with the older
woman, who is staring right back at him with vibrant, silvery eyes.
“Look,” she whispered
pointing to his reflection in the window. “Look at yourself.”
Joseph rotates his head
slowly to view himself and glowing back at him are the same pair of
eyes. Shaking his head in disbelief, he brings his attention back to
the older woman, and standing in from of her is the father of the
lost daughter aiming the lone gun directly at her head. She smiles
at Joseph once more and turns her head to face the whacked out
father.
“Wait!” cried Joseph.
BANG!
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