Apocalypse Wow 2! Part 1, Chapter 1

Disclaimer

The following is a work of fiction. Any real names, real events, non-original content, or likeness of celebrities are used in a fictitious and parodic manner. All other character names and events are fictional and any resemblance to these names or events are purely coincidental.

PART ONE: EVERYTHING CHANGES

CHAPTER ONE: GLAMOROUS? OR, IN WHICH WE GET CAUGHT UP WITH THE WILLIAMSES IN HOLLYWOOD.

Los Angeles, California. June 30, 2010.

It was finally a clear and sunny day in the city of angels. A nice hot California morning. Perfect convertible driving weather in fact. That was the one thought that crossed the mind of Amy Benz as she drove down the street before receiving an incoming call on her cell phone. Utilizing the touchless technology recently improved upon by Daring Telecomm, Amy answered the incoming call: “Hello?... Unfortunately Mister Williams is going to be unavailable for the next week… He’s got a speaking engagement up in Canada and is taking some time off to recharge his creative juices… When will he be back? Two weeks from tomorrow… I’ll let him know the deadline has been moved up and I’ll let him know it’s now going to be a working vacation… okay, bye.”
“End call”, the automated system announced as Amy came up to a red-light and made a complete stop. Amy looked at her wrist watch to see what time it was. 10:30 a.m.
“Crap in a hat! We’re gonna be late!” Amy said out loud while another motorist who pulled alongside her cherry red convertible gave a perplexed look into her direction.
What? Never heard a black woman speak so crudely? Amy thought herself as the light turned green and she put the metal to the peddle.

This year has been quite the rollercoaster for Amy Benz working as the publicist and public relations representative for Dean Williams - a man who was once a manager of a small town movie rental store that has since gone out of business and now is Hollywood’s newest hit writer. All it took was a dramatization of the events that Dean lived through almost three years to this date and a modest 350 million dollar domestic box office take to catapult him into the limelight. When Doomtown: Surviving the End of the World hit the theatres in 2009, Dean wasn’t expecting much to come out of it. But now over a year later, the film landed him box office success the first time out and even a small devout following of fans in real life and on the internet, which still shocks Dean to this day. Then there were the feuds with gossip sites and celebrity bloggers, then someone posed as Dean on a web-based fan forum and chided them for being “virginal losers!”. Then his former co-worker Ryan Jeffries died in combat duty in the Middle East, just as Dean and Amy were attending the giant comic book convention in San Diego and Dean nearly had a meltdown right in front of everyone. Thank god for Amy and her spin doctoring which was able to save Dean’s sanity and his stake in an upcoming production called Crazy Diamond, a biopic on former Pink Floyd front man Syd Barrett. The project was up and down in turnaround as Dean dealt with his own issues. But now that seems to be behind him. The studio wants his final draft in ten days time so casting and shooting can begin right away. But right now Amy was focused on two things involving Dean Williams: one was to get him to his psychiatrist appointment on time. The second thing was getting him back to his home country of Canada to finish his script.

Amy pulled into the driveway of the modest by Hollywood standards home of Dean and Karen Williams. Karen had urged Dean to not go totally overboard with the excessive income that he dreamed he would never see. There was no guarantee that Crazy Diamond would be a financial success despite very early critical buzz, and fame in Hollywood could be everlasting or fleeting depending on how the fates wish to see things play out. So Karen had convinced Dean to save as much now in event of lean days, especially coming out of a global recession. That, and Dean had another life to be responsible for: his daughter Faith. She was the very shining light in Dean’s life.
Amy got out of the car, adjusted her light brown dress skirt as she stepped out of her car and made her way up the driveway towards the front doors of the fairly large two-storey home. She rang the doorbell and heard the faint barking of a dog as Karen opened the door, holding her two-year old daughter in her arms and trying calm Matilda – a very spirited Australian Shepherd - down.
“Matilda, shush!” Karen commanded to the dog while Faith mimicked her mom’s command the only way a toddler learning to communicate could – cutely. “Maddilla shush!” said Faith rather quietly as she acted shy around her father’s publicist.
Karen greeted their guest. “Hi Amy! Dean’s down in his office, hopefully writing.”
Amy made her way into the front porch. “I hope so too,” she replied back. “Studio moved the deadline for the final draft to July tenth.”
“But we’re still on vacation then.” Karen said disappointingly. “Depending on how much he’s got done, it’s not going to leave much time for us to relax.”
“Well, maybe he’s got it all done now.” Amy stated optimistically.
“I hope so too. Want me to go get him for you?” asked Karen.
“Nahh, it’s okay, I’ll go up and get him. He’s got his last appointment with the therapist and we’re gonna be late.” Amy said as she walked towards a flight of stairs that went upstairs.
“What’s a terapist?” Faith asked her mom.
“Well, she’s a type of doctor…” Karen answered back only to be interrupted by another question from her curious progeny:
“Daddy sick?”
Karen sighed “Not as sick as he lets on at times I think.”

“Feed… the… idiot… box!”
Dean Williams said that while staring at a turned-off television set. The set also had those same words on a sign that sat upon the set. In his office chair, he spun back to face his computer screen. He had Microsoft Word opened to a file called “diamondfinal.doc”. He went back to typing as he heard a light tapping on the door.
“Come in.”, Dean said as he spun his chair to see whom was entering his self-described fortress of solitude. “Ah, Amy! Good to see you! Just about done the final draft. Took me all night and double my dose of Klonopin, but it needs one more part.”
“Good, Mister Williams.” Amy said approvingly. “The studio moved the deadline up to the tenth as they want to start casting right away. Apparently the producers were worried that you would crack under the pressure.”
“Me? Crack? A guy who beat down Perez Hilton crack in Hollywood? Inconceivable!” Dean said jokingly.
“Well don’t slug Harry Knowles as he is pretty insistent that Jim Sturgess is going to be cast as Syd…”
“Yeah, and that fat bastard thought Doomtown was gonna bomb, so he’s oh-for-one in my books.”
“Yes. Anyways, on that subject, your last appointment with your therapist is in about an hours time.”
“Good.” Dean said, as hit the “save” option on the word processor and popped a flash drive out from his mainframe. “I’ll finish this on the way there, we send it off to the producers, and then off to Calgary with no more distractions. Speaking of which…”
Amy looked at Dean who had paused in mid sentence. “Oh, right,” she said as she pulled out a folder from her attaché case. “All security and boarding passes are here. Four seats in first class…”
Dean looked puzzled. “Four seats?” he asked.
“I’m coming with, just in case you decided to go crazy on some Canadian ‘Doomies’. Someone’s gotta keep an eye on you.” Amy said with a smile. “That and I have two weeks vacation coming up and I’ve never seen the wilds of Canada. Figured with a brother in the Oval Office and the sky not catching fire might as well take my first vacation in four years.”
Dean smiled as he got his coat on and began walking, motioning for Amy to follow behind him. “Ehh, Canada is not all that bad. If you can get past the fact that the Iranians decided to use my home province as target practice that is.”, he said to her as they made their way down the stairs.
Karen met Dean at the bottom and kissed him on the cheek. “Or dealing with mutant plants, giant cockroaches, and sausage-craving zombies.” Karen stated to the two of them.
Amy shook her head in disbelief. “Man, never thought any of that crazy stuff in that movie was actually true. Especially that Kevin dude.”
Karen looked at Dean and said “Yeah, remind me why Kevin didn’t follow us here after he and Donnie had their falling apart?”
Dean thought for a moment and said “Well, I remember him saying the whole entourage thing is played out. That and he was still insistent in being the first line of defense should the wolves decide to strike.”
Amy looked confused. “Wolves? What is his deal?” she asked.
Karen just smiled as Amy and Dean made their way out. “It’s a Kevin thing. You’ll see when you meet him.”

Amy and Dean waited inside the lobby of the offices of Doctor Kimberly Reese-Shaw. A muzzak version of Fergie’s “Glamorous” polluted the office radio while Dean waited for his appointment.
“How long do you think she can do it?” asked Amy.
"Excuse me?” Dean asked back. “What are you talking about?”
“Karen. How long can she keep up the June Cleaver stay-at-home mommy act?”
“Well, she wanted the first year to bond with Faith. That and there isn’t a lot of work for her profession here. Always figured a violent place like L.A. would need paramedics.”
“Things aren’t as bas as they used to be. Work was pretty hard to find anyways what with the economy in the shitter for the last two years.” Amy said.
“Yeah.”, replied Dean.
The receptionist got up and spoke “Mister Williams? Doctor Shaw will see you now.”

Doctor Kimberly Reese-Shaw sat in her usual chair and crossed her legs as Dean made his way into the office and took a seat across from here.
“Mister Williams.”, Dr. Shaw said cordially.” Glad to see you looking well.”
“Thanks, doc”, Dean said rather informally. “Looking forward to this last session.”
“Yes, about that. While you have successfully completed your anger management courses, I feel there is more I would like to work with you.”
“Such as?” asked Dean.
“Well for starters, you still seem to carry around a lot of guilt in regards to the events that happened to you three years ago.”, Dr. Shaw stated. “Also there is still your issues with your estranged family.”
“Well, in defense of the first concern, what I went through is something I can never really ever get over. A woman who I spurned many years ago because she couldn’t get my name right gives up her life to save ours? Not something one can easily get over. As for the family, it is hard to reconnect when they are still missing and unaccounted for.”, Dean replied back.
“All right, then there are the issues of you dealing with you fans.”
“I am slowly getting used to the obsessive ones. Even not getting freaked out by the slashfics as much any more. Kept one that involved my wife, my ex, and my friend’s wife in a secret folder…” Dean said with a smirk.
“That is good progress,” Dr. Shaw stated while noticing a slight nervous twitch in Dean’s hand. “How is your medication situation?” she asked bluntly.
Dean sighed. “Went a little crazy to meet a script deadline. Took double the dosage.”
“That worries me,” Dr. Shaw said. “Because as a family man, you now need to realize you have more than your own life to be concerned about. How would you feel if your little girl walked in and found her daddy dead from an overdose?”
“That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?” Dean said defensively.
“Just giving you something to consider Mister Williams. One cannot simply be selfish in his actions and should seek help when needed. I run a support group for people in your situation and I would like you to attend our next meeting.” Dr. Shaw handed Dean a business card, which he promptly placed in his pocket.
“We meet every Monday at seven at the address there. I hope to see you next week.”
Dean smiled and said “Will have to be in two weeks time. Going home for the first time since Ryan’s funeral.” Dean looked at his watch and noticed he still had some time to kill. “Can we talk about that?” he asked Dr. Shaw.
“Of course we can.” Dr. Shaw said with a smile.

Amy Benz stood outside the professional building. She lit a cigarette while she patiently waited for Dean to be done his appointment. A short bald man, somewhere in his late 60s and looking disoriented approached Amy.
“I know your daughter!” the man exclaimed to Amy.
Looking shocked and confused, Amy retorted back. “Excuse me? You must have me confused with someone else…”
The man placed his hands on Amy’s shoulders. “You don’t exist no more! Why am I here? The chain needs to break in the present!”
Amy shoved the man away and began to quickly one back into the building’s lobby when two men in black trench coats arrived and grabbed the old man.
The man screamed and protested. “No! The black coats will run us all down! Someone needs to break the chain! Get the Angels of Mercy!” he cried out as the two men fought to restrain him.
A third black-coated man approached Amy from behind.
“Relax ma’am”, he told Amy. “He’s going to a better place.”
“You don’t look like mental hospital workers.” Amy said with a little concern in her voice.
“We’re a private institution, ma’am.”, the man in black said. “He’s in good hands. Also none of this happened, got it?” he said in an almost threatening tone.
Amy gulped and nodded her head in agreement as he walked away with the other two who had carried off the old man. “Fucking L.A.”, Amy said in disgust. “Gets weirder every day!”