Welcome To The Jungle

by Michael Todd

  There was no longer anything in that world for her, and now that she had a better sense of self and better control over her abilities, she didn’t feel like she needed to have a secret hideaway anymore.

  She was more than happy to give it to her team.

  “So, what does Korbin think about this bill?” Joshua asked. “I know he isn’t a big fan of massive spending.”

  Stephanie smirked. “Who said we told him what the bill was going to be?”

  “This team is pretty extensive,” John said, looking at Damian and Katie. “There is a lot going on here the higher-ups don’t really understand. Sometimes we have to work with the military, sometimes we are too late, and sometimes we don’t get the call at all. It can be a hassle.”

  “I can’t even imagine running one team, much less three, in an area like this,” Katie admitted.

  “It definitely gets busy.” John chuckled. “We rarely go three nights without a call. There was only that exorcism last night, which was a very light night. Usually we would be racing from that call right over to another one, but luckily it didn’t happen that way. They told me how well you guys did with that call, by the way. I appreciate you taking it. I know it had to be a pain getting off a plane and rolling right into something like that.”

  “It’s all part of the job,” Damian assured him. “I have to say, though, you have some pretty angry demons here.”

  “Yeah.” John nodded. “They get really rowdy.”

  “So, what’s next?” Katie asked. “You have us for a few days to help wherever we can.”

  “I was actually going to ask if you wouldn’t mind going to the New Jersey side.” John raised an eyebrow. “I am pretty low over there right now team-wise, and we have missed some pretty big calls. There might be some false alarms, but it’s better to check them out than let them go and end up with a demon running loose.”

  “Absolutely,” Damian told him. “And sure. We are up for that, right, Katie?”

  Katie nodded. “Definitely.”

  “Would you take Ella with you?” John asked. “Let her get a real-world feeling for everything. I know she saw the exorcism yesterday, but I don’t think that’s a good representation of what we normally do. It was more like an introduction than anything else.”

  “Absolutely,” Katie replied. “I think the girl needs some serious training, and taking her out with us might give that to her. I can go over the signs and what to look for, and keep her as safe as possible if we have to do any fighting.”

  “Perfect,” John said, standing up from his desk. “Take any of the SUVs you want. There is GPS, just like at home. Call in when you get to Jersey City and we will go from there.”

  “Great.” Katie stood up and shook his hand.

  Katie and Damian grabbed Ella, who was standing near the office waiting for them to come back out, and headed to the garage.

  They hopped into the SUV and programmed the GPS to get them to Jersey City from downtown Manhattan. It took them a bit to get a handle on things, since New York traffic was a bit different than anywhere else.

  Damian squeezed the steering wheel tightly as they entered the tunnel and cruised toward the bridge.

  When they finally made it to the Jersey base the place was bustling, but there were only five men instead of seven. They introduced themselves and were directed to the intake rooms, where they were handed vests and shown the way to the armory. When they were ready they sat down in a large glass room, waiting to be shown back up to the main area.

  “You know, I’ve never been a redshirt before.” Damian chuckled.

  “Me either,” Katie said.

  “Why did they call us ‘the redshirts’ anyway?” Ella asked.

  “Well, on Star Trek the redshirts were the people who were probably going to die,” Damian explained with a smirk. “It’s a morbid-sense-of-humor type of thing. We do that from time to time to keep our sanity. It’s not like we believe it jinxes you—or at least I don’t think so. There are people who refuse to be on redshirt teams; they won’t take the assignment because they are superstitious in that way. I personally never have because the priest is usually the last to be picked for something like that. It is usually the standbys or the extra members who end up as redshirts, and since I don’t leave Vegas much unless I’m on official business, I don’t get called on for things like this. In reality, the shirts simply distinguish us from the others, since our faces are unknown and they don’t want any friendly-fire situations. But like I said, it’s not a jinx, just a joke.”

  “Except for those two in Los Angeles,” Katie reminded him.

  “You weren’t supposed to mention that.” Damian rolled his eyes and smacked Katie.

  “Oh, sorry.” She chuckled.

  Ella sat there listening with her hands clasped in her lap as her nervousness got worse.

  She had thought about the fighting, the demons, and the exorcism, but she hadn’t thought about the danger. She hadn’t thought about the fact that by returning to New York, she would be put on a team where people died long before the others.

  She didn’t want to be a redshirt. She wanted to go back to the main island and continue training.

  These guys are seriously yanking your chain, Melneck assured her. You are freaking out for no reason. It’s just a damn shirt. There is no such thing as a jinx.

  I thought that about demons, too, Ella shot back. But here I am with one inside me and many who want to kill me and eat my body.

  Relax. He chuckled. Besides, you aren’t the redshirt. This is your team’s home base. Those two idiots across from you are the expendables.

  18

  Katie sat down at the table in the main area of the base, looking over her shoulder at one of the other team members. He had just asked her on a date, and he hadn’t been the first to do so.

  Three guys had asked her out so far, and although she turned them all down, the phenomenon did intrigue her a bit. It was a surprise; she wasn’t used to it. When she had been in college she’d gotten hit on all the time, but that was because she’d had a volleyball body and long flowing hair.

  She had been surrounded by college guys then—back in what she called the “real world”—but she hadn’t even been looked at sideways since she had become Damned. Even the cops in Los Angeles hadn’t hit on her, although in all fairness they had been terrified.

  “Hey,” Katie murmured to Damian as he ate his sandwich.

  “Yes?” He looked up at her.

  “So, several of the guys here have hit on me.” Katie leaned forward. “I’m not used to that. No one back home hits on me, like at all.”

  “Yeah, it was bound to happen.” Damian smirked. “In Las Vegas they see you as a teammate, even more like a sister. These guys don’t know you, which makes you fresh meat.”

  “Oh.” Katie grimaced at the analogy.

  She went back to eating her food and thought about what Damian had said. While she was very thankful that the guys on her team thought of her that way, she never had realized there might be a possibility of a relationship inside their world. Her mind went to Korbin and Stephanie and their more-than-obvious attraction. Maybe there was a possibility for more with them, which was something Katie felt they both needed desperately in their lives. Just as Korbin ran through her head her phone rang, and it was him.

  “Hey, boss,” she answered, licking a thumb and wiping it on her napkin.

  “Is Damian with you?” he asked. The question produced a sinking feeling in her chest.

  “Yeah.” She swallowed hard.

  “Put this on speaker,” he directed.

  “Damian.” She nodded to the phone in the center of the table. “Okay, Korbin go ahead. We are here.”

  “I got an interesting email yesterday from the DEA,” he started. “Attached were three videos from the bank in Los Angeles that you two decided to play superhero in. They have been squashed, but the two of you need to be more careful when you decide to go all vigilante. If these video
s had spread you could have been outed, and that would be bad for all of us.”

  Katie didn’t like being accused of playing superhero, but she understood the gravity of the situation—especially if those tapes had been released.

  It was obvious from Korbin’s tone that their identities had not been concealed at all. She started to think about her mother; about what it would have done to her to see her “deceased” child on a video fighting crime.

  “Sorry, Korbin,” Katie told him sincerely.

  “It won’t happen again,” Damian agreed, glancing at Katie.

  “See that it doesn’t,” he ordered, and disconnected.

  Damian didn’t say a word, just raised his eyebrows as he picked up his plate and walked away. Katie sighed and did the same, realizing that this was the first time in a week she had thought about her mom and her previous life.

  Her brain hurt from it all, so she wandered around the house until she found the main TV area. It was empty and the lights had been dimmed.

  She plopped down in a chair and pulled up the online archives of her soap opera. Pressing Play, she tossed the remote to the side and leaned her head back against the chair.

  Before the opening credits had even finished, she heard someone enter the room. She lifted her head and looked over to find Ella in the doorway. She ran her hand down the doorframe and sauntered over, falling onto the couch. She propped her head up and looked at the screen and back at Katie, one eyebrow raised. Katie turned back to the soap and watched the show as the first scene played out.

  Ella sat up on the couch and squinted at the television.

  “I don’t get what’s going on,” Ella complained. “And I don’t understand why people even watch television anymore. Seriously, everything you would ever want to see is on YouTube. Sure, they’ve censored a lot of stuff lately, made it hard to watch full shows and movies, but if you have the money you can buy them on there too. Cable, in my opinion, is a complete waste of money.”

  Katie looked at her briefly and smiled, turning back to the show. Ella shrugged and sank back down in the couch, trying her best to follow the plot. It was ridiculous to her—a bunch of rich assholes and slutty women in weird love triangles.

  “So, if she loves him and he loves her, why aren’t they together?” Ella asked.

  “That’s Martin,” Katie explained. “He is married to Melissa, but only because their fathers made them get married. They are both in love with other people.”

  This is fucking fascinating, Melneck told Ella. Seriously, it’s a total clusterfuck of humanity right there for the world to see…and I can’t stop watching.

  Neither can I, Ella agreed, entranced. It’s like the worst train wreck ever, and you can’t turn your eyes away. Do people actually live their lives like this?

  I don’t know. Melneck scoffed. It’s been a while since I was last topside, but I sure as hell hope they do because this is the exact reason our kind is doomed to the flames. This, and your ridiculous shady-ass government systems…but that is a whole different topic.

  General Brushwood straightened his jacket as he leaned over the maps on his desk. Colonel Jehovivich stood by his side, waiting for him to speak.

  They were back in their lair—or office—in the main headquarters of the military incursion base. Behind his chair was a large American flag, beside it the Army’s, and on the other side a special flag designed specifically for their unit.

  On the screen in front of them was a live feed of a group of men and women in military garb. They were gathered around a massive oak table in DC, ready to hear what the general had to say.

  He was studying the map of the United States on his desk, on which red circles indicated the sites of the largest incursions. Next to him was a world map with the same markings.

  He sighed and tapped his finger on Nevada. “There. That incursion in Nevada was the sixth-largest in as many weeks. With one major incursion taking place per week, we are being sorely tested by these demons. The events have increased by one major incursion per month just in the last three years. If you add in the demon who showed up in San Diego and then Los Angeles, these creatures are definitely upping their game—and at an alarming rate. All it will take at this point is for one major demon to be on the news and get shown all over the globe. That will provide the public with irrefutable facts we cannot deny, and our societies will uncover the truth about this secret war that we have managed to keep hidden for centuries.”

  “Sir, if I may speak freely?” Colonel Jehovivich requested.

  “Go on.”

  “There have been numerous eyewitness accounts, including several sworn police statements, discussing a brand of weapon unrecognizable to the public,” she explained. “These weapons are said to do more harm to demons than any weapon we possess—or that anyone else possesses, really. It is rumored that Korbin’s Killers hold the weapons’ patent, and that they have recently been handing them out to the teams. What, if anything, do you plan to do about this new weaponry?”

  “At the moment?” He shrugged. “Absolutely nothing, to be honest with you.”

  “But sir…” The colonel stopped as the general shook his head.

  “Look, it is obvious that they are trying to keep what they know to themselves,” he continued. “If the government needs those weapons at some point, then the government will obtain them. I’m not above seizing them, just to make that clear. That being said, I would like to try using a little honey first. I don’t want to make enemies of these people, and that is exactly what would happen.”

  Colonel Jehovivich nodded as the general turned to the screen in front of him.

  “As much as I hate to admit it, there is a reason these mercenary groups exist,” he began. “We don’t have enough Damned on our teams to make a significant difference. We recruit anyone we can, but to be honest, those teams are capable of a lot more than we are at this point in time. They need to operate outside the military and political culture in order to do what they do. Recently the President signed off on an increase of more than fifty percent to our research division’s budget. They are giving us the background we need to try to understand our enemy. This information is also pertinent because it offers us the possibility of taking the fight to them in the future—maybe even the near future.”

  “I’m sorry, sir.” The colonel smirked. “Did you say ‘taking the fight to them?’ As in, taking our forces to hell?”

  “That’s where our military always ends up.” The general glanced at her. “We go to Hell and back for the safety of this country.”

  Korbin picked up his cellphone, seeing Eric’s name on the screen. The man was on the roof running security, but things had been quiet all day. They didn’t think demons would come back to the base, but they weren’t taking any chances. They wouldn’t leave the compound unguarded until they could get everything transferred over to the new property. They were vulnerable here; out in the open, not disguised, not shielded—just sitting ducks for anything the demons might throw their way. It was anything but an ideal situation, that was for damn sure.

  “How’s it going up there?” Korbin asked.

  Eric was lying on the roof with his sniper rifle propped on the parapet. He pressed his earpiece, directing the call through his headset while he squinted through the infrared scope into the distance. It was a dark night, but the sensors on his scope would show him any approaching heat signatures.

  “I see what appears to be a gray wolf, sir,” he told Korbin, looking at the animal’s markings. “It seems to be alone, not in a pack like they usually are—though we don’t see wolves around this area very often.”

  “A wolf?” Korbin asked. “I’ve heard that they have been creeping in, but all the way out here?”

  “It could be a demon,” Eric suggested.

  “It could be, but I have never known them to have much interaction with that species. They are too wild and unpredictable,” Korbin mused. “I could be wrong…and I don’t want to be wrong a
bout this, so snuff it. I’ll take care of the reporting later.”

  “Yes, sir.” Eric clicked off the call.

  He leaned forward, watching the animal as it trotted across the desert with its beautiful gray fur blowing gently in the wind.

  It reminded him of his dog back at home, the Husky that had been his first love. He shook the thought from his head, knowing that it wasn’t healthy and would only make killing this animal that much harder.

  Eric had seen people die; had shot people before, but he had never had to kill an animal, and for some reason the idea bothered him. He just wanted a sign, something that told him positively that the animal was a threat—and that was when he saw the flash of its red eyes.

  Silly humans. The demon laughed. They underestimate us all the time. Isn’t that right, little poochie?

  The wolf’s paws pranced through the warm sand as the demon inside him controlled where he went. The lights ahead would normally have scared the wolf off, but he was no longer in there; no longer controlling his own instincts. The demon, though relatively low-level, thought for sure he had found the key to success.

  “You’ll never do anything with your demon self.” He snickered. That’s what they have always told me. I wasn’t smart enough to kill a human, much less infiltrate the Killers’ base. Ha! I’ll show them. Sure, it was a little hard to wrestle this one down, but now I have the upper hand.

  The wolf stopped for a moment, squinting through the dark before starting to walk forward again. The wind blew from behind him, making it impossible to smell what was ahead. The demon didn’t care, though. He found his vehicle of choice, one he thought would not be detected by the ignorant humans.

  This time next week I’ll be sitting in T’Chezz’s office getting the accolades I deserve, he boasted to himself. With these sniffing capabilities, the stealthy way it moves, and the ability to hear anything in the surrounding area, it’s pretty much foolproof. I have this in the bag. I’ll show them who the smart one is.