![\"Serenity\"](\"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/StockSnap_BBACA335F2.jpg\")
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Somewhere close, way too close behind them in the traffic, a horn honked. <\/p>\n WTF? No one in the city had a car with a horn anymore. Those that did had the things rendered inoperable. —<\/p>\n
\nTwice.
\n\u201cThat wasn\u2019t what I think it was, was it?\u201d said Beth.
\nKevin shifted in the driving seat. \u201cJesus. Couldn\u2019t have been.\u201d
\nBeth killed the radio.
\nKevin checked his mirrors.
\nThey chanced glances left and right, looking at the occupants of the vehicles around them. Their expressions were all fixed with the same disbelief, the same incredulity.
\nThe same fear<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nNo sense tempting fate.
\nChrist, most vehicles here were electric now, just so the temptation to rev the engine wasn\u2019t there.
\nTheir speeds were even limited to thirty miles an hour.
\nYou needed to get somewhere on time? Then you left with plenty of time to spare.
\nYou screwed up, took a wrong turn, got stuck in traffic? Your problem.
\nThose were the new rules now.
\nEveryone here had to stay on an even keel, at all costs.
\nNobody wanted to show any sign of-
\nThe horn honked again. Sounded like it was only three or four cars back.
\n\u201cStop,\u201d said Beth under her breath, wringing her hands. \u201cPlease stop.\u201d She reached into her pocket and came out with the pink inhaler, swallowing down a quick puff.
\n\u201cI thought you got rid of that thing,\u201d said Kevin.
\n\u201cI hung on to it. Just in case,\u201d she said, her voice racked\u00a0with anxiety.
\nThe horn sounded once more, this time for three very long seconds.
\n\u201cRight, that\u2019s it,\u201d said Kevin, pushing open his door and stepping out into the road.
\nThe weight of what he found himself doing was not lost on him.
\nJaws literally dropped inside the vehicles as the other commuters watched him walk back along the freeway. Expressions implored him to stop, to reassess his actions.
\nTo chill the fuck out<\/em>.
\nThe driver of the Chrysler sat with his left arm resting on the open window, his right hand planted on the center of the steering wheel. He angled his head at Kevin and smiled.
\n\u201cWould you please stop that?\u201d said Kevin.
\nThe driver shook his head.
\n\u201cDo you know what you\u2019re doing?\u201d
\nThe driver nodded, now honking the horn repeatedly in short bursts. \u201cYep. Shoveling chum into this here water to bring in the big fella.\u201d
\nIf Kevin had to guess, by the accent, the guy was Australian.
\n\u201cYou really don\u2019t want to do that,\u201d said Kevin, reaching in to remove the man\u2019s hand from the wheel.
\nThe driver grabbed his arm with his other hand and twisted it violently, bending it far past the point nature intended. One more millimeter and Kevin\u2019s arm was going to break.
\n\u201cOf course, I want to do it,\u201d said the driver through clenched teeth. \u201cIt\u2019s the whole reason I\u2019m here.\u201d He patted the passenger seat. On it sat the biggest gun, the only gun, Kevin had ever seen in his life.
\n\u201cI\u2019m a big game hunter. And I\u2019ve come here to hunt the biggest, gamest trophy of them all. The only beast of its kind. Serenity<\/em>. What a poncey name to give such a magnificent beast.\u201d
\nKevin\u2019s arm was still in the man\u2019s vise-like grip and there was no sign of his easing it. \u201cI\u2019ve heard tell the city gave birth to it. The people here, I mean. The Rat Race. All that stress, all that pent-up frustration somehow brought it into being. Society\u2019s anger generating its own anger management, creating its own \u2018anger manager\u2019, you might say.\u201d
\nTears formed in Kevin\u2019s eyes with the pain, pain that was fueling an emotion he thought he had put to bed forever.
\n\u201cNow look at you all ,\u201d the driver said, gesturing at the people staring right back at them. \u201cAll on your best behavior, all minding your p\u2019s and q\u2019s, afraid of raising your voice, of getting even the littlest bit bent out of shape.\u201d
\nThe man honked out a little tune on the car\u2019s horn. \u201cHere kitty, kitty, kitty. Or whatever the hell you are. Daddy\u2019s got a little treat for you.\u201d
\nThe window of the BMW behind Kevin buzzed down.
\n\u201cHey, Mister,\u201d the voice came. \u201cLay off the god damn horn, and give the man back his arm.\u201d
\n\u201cOr what?\u201d said the driver.
\n\u201cPlease. Stop,\u201d a small, frightened voice said.
\n\u201cBeth.\u201d Kevin growled. \u201cGo back to the car. Please.\u201d
\n\u201cNo,\u201d she said, defiance in her voice.
\n\u201cOh-oh,\u201d said the driver with a laugh.
\nThere was a hiss of pneumatics as the door of the bus in the next lane over opened. The driver got off. \u201cMan, if you don\u2019t knock it off, I’m going to stick my hand right down your throat and pull you inside out.\u201d
\n\u201cYes!\u201d hollered the Chrysler driver in celebration. \u201cThat\u2019s the spirit. That’s what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d
\nA palpable hush descended upon them all at once, as if the very oxygen had been sucked out of the atmosphere.
\nKevin, Beth, the BMW driver, the bus driver all spoke as one: \u201cNo. You have no idea what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d
\nThe doors of the vehicles all around opened and the occupants climbed out like robots to join them.
\n\u201cWe tried to warn you,\u201d everyone said simultaneously. \u201cTo not provoke us. To induce the rage.\u201d
\nThe driver released Kevin\u2019s arm, who no longer seeming pained from the arm lock he\u2019d been in, and reached for his weapon.
\n\u201cBut it\u2019s going to be all right,\u201d said the assembly. \u201cSerenity is coming.\u201d
\nWith that, the hundreds standing on the road bowed their heads, slipping into some shared meditation, and vanished, their clothes, their hats, their scarves, their watches, their jewelry falling to the ground around their empty shoes.
\nRight as that ground\u00a0started to shake.
\nCracks opened in the asphalt, hairline at first, growing into great fissures.
\nThe ground heaved upward and dove like a humpback whale after an intake of breath. The wave catapulted\u00a0the Chrysler twenty feet into the air. It came back to earth with a crash, on its side.
\nStruggling to regain his senses, the driver grabbed his weapon and clambered over the seats out onto the side of the vehicle, right as the asphalt rose again.
\nOnly this time it was not simply concrete and tarmacadam.
\nIt was alive.<\/em>
\nA fist the size of a Mini Cooper climbed into the air and crashed right down on the Chrysler as the driver jumped clear. Clear into the palm of a second massive asphalt hand that closed around him like a cage and began to contract.
\nHe shouldered his weapon and started firing into the walls of the concrete death chamber. Emptying the entire magazine of high caliber bullets, however, had little effect.
\nAs he prepared to reload, the cage stopped shrinking and he was lifted high into the air, until he was brought eye to massive, empty, black pit of an eye with Serenity itself.
\n\u201cSssh,\u201d the titanic being said, putting its finger to its cavernous mouth and looking out across the city. \u201cYou hear that?\u201d
\nThe driver listened a moment and shook his head.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d said Serenity, its concrete tongue grinding across those tombstone-sized teeth. \u201cNothing. Silence. All is calm.\u201d The monster spoke with that same unified voice of the city\u2019s population, of those who had vanished only moments before. \u201cThat\u2019s just the way we like it.\u201d
\nThe driver slammed home his next magazine and prepared to fire.
\nSerenity shook its head, tutted, and closed its fist tight.
\n\u201cAnd that\u2019s the way it\u2019s going to stay,\u201d the titan said, sinking back down into the underworld, returning its subjects to their sedate, unperturbed daily lives as it went.<\/p>\n