Dorothy: Locked & Loaded - Part 16 | Lion:
Never A Good Thing
Lanny stood staring at me as I hung up the telephone receiver. “Sir? Are you alright?”
I stared at the handset, trying to wrap my mind around the message. A call like that was never a good thing.
“Uh, yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just some unexpected news. I need to get to Bright Lettins to meet somebody. Find Cu’, tell him to get the heliwhomper ready.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Sir,” he sputtered.
“Why can’t you people just let the past be the past? What happened before, well, it was an accident. No one was supposed to get hurt, damn it!” I bellowed.
“No, Sir. I mean yes, I know what happened was an accident. But that isn’t why I’m stopping you. Turn on the tele, Sir. It seems a strange purple fog has descended over Bright Lettins. The little folk there have become spellbound and .... I don’t think it’s safe to go. Is it a spell? Is it the Wicked…you know?”
I clicked my remote and tuned in MLN15, the 24 hour Munchkinland news station- “No one knows where the fog is coming from. Authorities are urging all Munchkinlanders to evacuate Bright Lettins as this strange purple fog descends over the township. Do not, I repeat do not attempt to pass through the fog for any reason. The purple mass seems to be affecting any living being it comes in contact with. Stay tuned to MLN15 for updates every half hour.”
I clicked it off. It was Munchkinland, not Emerald City, and what happened out there in the middle of nowhere…only the call told me different. Were the two things connected? “This can only mean...” I sat heavily in my chair as memories of her came back to me. The long tresses, golden dresses. The softness of her skin. The way her hair flowed like a river. How I was so enamored by her, and how I’d grown to despise her. It had to be her, didn’t it? She made me like this. She made me do it. Poor strawhead. And yet…
We were all made murderers that day. The first of many kills for me, for her. Poor strawhead never had a chance. Hindsight is 20/20; if only we weren’t so foolish then. If only I’d been able to see the true evil glimmering in a sparkling gown behind an angelic face and a tight ass. What an ass! Like a peach. Ripe and juicy. I had to give credit to Glinda. She pulled our strings to get her way, and I’d helped her.
That gorgeous psycho bitch. I licked my chops thinking about her.
Taking the throne from strawhead was too easy for her. She’d spun her lies so they were easily believed, and we’d never thought to unbelieve them. If only we could go back, maybe things would’ve turned out differently. Now, what was this here? This fog? Was this her? A manifestation of her magic? Royal purple descending on the innocents…
I sat back, taking a deep breath.
Perhaps this is best left alone. I’m thinking too much. I don’t need trouble at my door again. I’m a king now, a king of my world, just as a Lion should be. I’m not risking myself again. The dark forest, a Wicked Witch — my first murder, but not my last. This is my life now, and I won’t let anyone take it from me. Fuck her! The last thing I need is Glinda breathing down my neck again. Although I do have something I’d like her to breathe down.
I feel a stir, an itch I need to scratch.
“Nothing but trouble, Lanny.” I repeated, the only words I could muster, “that’s what this is. Keep me posted on any news. Now leave me and find Cu’, tell him I want to talk to him.”
Lanny scurried out the door, perplexed by my mood swing. I leaned my head back on my chair and closed my eyes, letting images of her fill my mind.
How lovely she was, so very lovely with her bright eyes and creamy skin. I could have rocked your world, lovely. Rocked it hard. They say once you go lion, the rest will leave you cryin’. I’d become quite fond of having opposable thumbs. They’re good for things, for moments when a Lion just wants to be alone with his thoughts. Ahhh yes, you little tramp, come back to me, baby. I got something for you right here.
“Sir!” It was Lanny again, and I popped an eye open, grumbled, but the moment I saw his face…
“What?!”
“It’s Cu’. He went down to the main floor. Sir, those things. They’ve broken through!”
Here? The Emerald City? I stared at the black screen, the pictures they’d shown. What was that? Those things. They were in Munchkinland. How could they be here?
“He went to the lower levels, sir. It seems a group of deranged munchkins managed to breach the first floor,” Lanny shouted as he stepped through his office doorway. “Come look on the monitors. They’re everywhere! Lockdown! We need lockdown protocol now!”
No! I stormed out the office door, moving on all fours, sending the secretaries papers flying again. They’ll learn what paper weights are for some day. “Cu’!” I called as I ran down the corridor. “Cu’, damn it, where are you?”
I entered Lanny’s office and went around his desk to view the screens. “A group? You call that a group? There’s got to be at least forty of those freaky little dudes there. What are they doing?” I watched as three zombiekins grabbed one of the security guards, tackled him down, and started dragging him through the shattered glass strewn on the floor. There was no sound from the screens, but I could see the terrified look of the guard’s face as he was pulled kicking and fighting into the fog. “Fuck me, Lanny! I have to get down there. Did Cu’ see this?”
“Uh no, Sir. He just saw them break through the glass.” Lanny stammered.
“I’ve got to get to him.” I tore out of Lanny’s office and into the stairwell, bounding landing to landing. Being a lion has its advantages. At the bottom floor I slowed, carefully opening the stairwell door to assess the situation. Zombiekins were all over the place, and there in the middle of it, I saw Cu’ barrel into a hoard of them, gnashing his teeth and clawing them down like bits of kibble. The marble floor beneath him was covered in blood and gore.
I let out a ferocious roar and slammed through the door. The attack was immediate. I felt little hands grabbing at my fur trying to pull me down. I reared up striking out with my paw, claws fully extended, and took the heads cleanly off two of them. Two more replaced them, then three more, then six.
I made my way to Cu’, slashing and clawing, my nice clean shirt now tattered and bloody. Munchinlander blood is blue, and it doesn’t come out in the wash.
“Let’s go!” I said to Cu’, side-by-side as I watched more and more zombiekins enter through the opening, the purple fog trundling its way in behind. I turned to look at Cu’, but he had moved on viciously slaughtering anything in his path, disappearing into the purple mass.
“Cu’!” I screamed, “No!” and then he was gone.
“Boss, Boss! Wake up!” I startled awake with Cu’ standing over me, still dazed. ”You fell asleep, Boss. You must have been snoozing heavily; you were drooling. Did you have another of those dreams?”
I ran my right paw across my chin wiping away the saliva that had trickled out of my mouth. “Yeah, yeah it was a bad one too. You were gone. Just gone.”
Cu’ chuckled glancing down at my left paw and where it still was. “Gosh Boss, I never knew you cared for me that much!” I growled at him. He stepped back still laughing, and wandered into the office.
What were the dreams trying to tell me? They’d been happening more frequently, more vibrantly. Were they prophetic? Or was my guilt manifesting itself after all these years? And then the Munchkinland thing. What was that? Was that her? Wasn’t it always her? I was thinking of her too much, and that was never a good thing. She was never a good thing. But maybe it wasn’t a good thing that I needed.
Author’s Note: One thing I liked about Wicked was the politics. I can’t deny it. And the central theme was Animal Rights. There was nothing about the Animals in the Wizard of Oz to tell us why a Lion could talk. Of course, that original story was some 70+ years old by the time Gregory Maguire wrote Wicked.
The other part of the story I liked about Wicked is that Maguire turned the story on its head and gave us the “bad guy” as the wronged one and the bumbling Wizard as the enemy. I will tell you now that we’ll see Elphaba again in this story because I wanted to bring her back.
Which leads us to Glinda and how she went from bubbly sweetheart to evil queen. We don’t get into the why of it here, but as you saw two episodes ago, she’s got issues. And I love to write characters that have issues. What will we see from her and the Lion next?
There’s a lot more coming. I mean, this is only episode 16. So much more coming! Stay tuned!