Monsters

by Daniel Greenwell

  “Lt. Givens, why?”

  “Givens, I need you to get together every person who wasn’t injured and take a census,” Mal said with Tim nodding behind him.

  That was the equivalent of shut the fuck up and do it.

  Givens fell back into action like she was just told by god herself to get up and get to work.

  “What about the members still in the building?” Tim asked.

  “I am assuming you brought a squad with you?”

  “Yes, why?”

  Mal made a circle with his finger pointed towards the sky.

  “You want me to round them up?”

  “There’s a good chance there’s another here,” Mal said, “You think these guys sent one guy here?”

  I think they sent two, that way if this still happened they would have someone on the inside.

  Mal waited and rethought the past few days. The radio communications error was his folly, which caused Trevor to die. He was at fault in a way but, he needed to stop letting these things repeat themselves.

  “You know that look you get when you are thinking too long?” Tim asked as he spat out a wad of chewing tobacco.

  “I do.”

  “You have had it too long, you look like you are trying to catch flies,” Tim said.

  That was uncommon for Mal recently, the logic of this whole attack was driving him nuts.

  “Walk them out here,” Mal said “and I will tell you how you can find your mole.”

  Mal watched as they all came outside and filed into rows.

  “What now, Sherlock?”

  “Take a census,” Mal said, “Find out who is missing, then do the math.”

  Givens turned around with a questioning look on her face.

  “And then?”

  “Elementary my dear Watson,” Mal said, “Of the people in that building: how many of them do you know?”

  “Almost all of them, why?”

  “So Givens, you would know who they hang out with, do the math here,” Mal stated as he watched the young woman’s face.

  These learning moments have always been something that Mal strives to do with any young person in the military, no one becomes an inventive problem solver without prodding and learning. It has always come across like Mal was trying to be sarcastic with people but he has never done it for a person he didn’t think could be good at what they do. Mal knew the second that woman didn’t have them shoot him on sight that she wasn’t the mole. She could have easily had a sharpshooter take him out and the backseat, thats what he would do if he was the Mole in that situation.

  “I get it…you want me to figure out the mole by who is missing. Since we were at Code red, everyone was at the facility, highly likely left their partner behind. Mole’s likely someone close to our missing person.”

  Mal nodded.

  “Good stuff,” Mal said, “You don’t need me for that Givens but I do need a ride south of the border.”

  “Ma’am,” a young Sergeant said as he walked up, “The commander is missing.”

  I didn’t see that shit coming, that’s new.

  “I didn’t see that shit coming,” Tim said.

  “He’s your first mole,” Mal said, “looks like this place needs a new commander then, Tim?”

  “I will send someone.”

  Mal rolled his eyes and pointed at Givens.

  “Kneel,” Mal said pointing at the ground.

  “Uhhh Mal, this is red-light behavior.”

  Mal and Tim chuckled at that notion. Red-light behavior was the old sexual harassment seminars that the military made them all sit through regularly.

  “You will like this,” Mal said while pulling his knife from his right leg holster, “I promise.”

  Pointing his knife at Givens he pointed to the ground.

  “Okay, but just to warn you: this is weird.”

  “Good,” Mal said as he noticed his knife was slick with blood and ran it across the sleeve of one of the dead men on the ground.

  “Keep it PG, please?” Tim asked.

  Mal put his knife flat against her left shoulder and looked at her.

  “By the right of…command and by the…will of the force, rise Commander Givens.”

  Givens looked over at Tim who shrugged back at her.

  “Wait, I am not ready to do this.”

  “Too bad,” Mal said, “We can’t keep doing the same shit over and over again. You are in charge of this city and all inside of her.”

  Tim pulled him away.

  “What the fuck are you thinking? She just turned 28.” Tim asked

  “Exactly, we can’t keep doing things exactly the same and expect different results, experience doesn’t mean good. She’s smart, she’s wise and we know she isn’t the Mole. She could have killed me and everyone in that car not named Raynor. She didn’t.”

  “You really think this is smart?”

  “I don’t think this can get any worse, Tim.”

  Tim rolled his hands through his hair.

  “You’re overcooking my eggs, Mal.”

  Tim turned around to a still kneeling and shocked Givens.

  “You’re in charge, Commander Givens.” Tim said looking over Mal’s shoulder.

  Tim walked back to the line.

  “Are you fuckin’ kidding me you dumbass, I am not even 30 how am I supposed to lead all of these people?”

  “You do the same thing you are doing now, just bigger,” Tim said as he smiled, “in my experience: the best leaders just listen and resolve issues in war just like how they resolve issues in their personal life. Point being is that compassion goes a long way.”

  “Why don’t you do this then?”

  “Old men making decisions that only effect young people is how we got here in the first place,” Mal said, “I think it’s about time you choose your own destiny. Can I borrow your Osprey?”

  Givens stared around the area, no idea how to respond.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Death comes for us all

  “So, you want him to fly directly over the border and land you on the outskirts of the City,” Givens asked “Land and then wait for you to return?”

  Mal leaned back in his chair.

  “Yes?”

  “You realize how absolutely insane that sounds, right?” Givens asked

  “Look, they don’t have traditional Anti-air over there, if we go over south-east of Ellis Park and hug the Tree-line, we will absolutely be fine,” Mal said.

  “I am calling in our pilot,” Givens says, “If he says he can do it, we will move forward with it.”

  Jace looked out the window as the pilot arrives, “Holy shit, Jack?”

  “Jace! Long time no see!” Jack Morse, the former Pilot for the Air Force said.

  “You two know each other?”

  “Yeah, he was one of the pilots who would fly us in and out of the shit,” Jace said.

  “Perfect,” Mal said.

  Mal laid out the plan like he said it to Jefferson with Jace smiling during this whole plan, a bit like a schoolgirl who just saw her crush for the first time.

  “I think I can pull it off,” Jack said, “I will just need to hide the Osprey behind the City’s superstructure as we fly out. The Reds keep a close eye on when this thing goes up, so let’s fly like we are headed to MV, do an about face swing back around and fly about 50 feet off of Lloyd Expressway.”

  Mal and Jace did the mental calculus in their minds of how high 50 feet was.

  “Jack, you are sure you can pull this off?” Givens asked.

  “I am,” he said, “but no landing, only fast rope. I will fly back over and… actually, I think we should consider using a Fulton Parachute drop for your return. If you come out hot, I won’t be able to fly back in.”

  The fulton delivery system was created in the 70s to extract people out of hot spots, it had mostly been abandoned because it relied on a pilot making a really tough nose first catch of the balloon that shoots up the person up in the air. These
days it is mostly used to gain altitude for wing-suit usage or parachutes in this case.

  “How far from the river would we have to be for that to work?” Mal asked.

  “About a mile and a half at least,” Jack said, “I have a few in the Osprey since my last dump-off across the river a few months ago. I offered to give them one just in case. They didn’t come back.”

  “That’s comforting,” Mal said.

  They grabbed Tye on their way out of the office and explained to him what was about to happen. If he wasn’t scared about his reputation, Mal is 100 percent certain he would pull out. They walked back out onto the Helipad where the Osprey sat.

  “Jace, it’s kind of weird you got the hots for Jack,” Mal said, “I thought you have always been a lesbian? Not that it’s my place to define what that is but I am just wondering.”

  “Jack, used to be Jackie,” Jace said.

  She watched the expression of Tye and Mal’s face as they went through the moments of understanding what she meant by that.

  “Oh,” Mal said his eyebrows perched and mouth clenched, “That’s fine. None of my business, just curious.”

  Mal sat down in the Osprey and strapped in.

  “Prepare yourself guys this will be rough,” Mal said as the Osprey picked up speed heading towards Mount Vernon.

  When these Plane-Helicopter hybrids were made, they were terrible death traps but a seasoned pilot like Jack knew when he could drop his propellers and when he couldn’t.

  “We are going to pull a G or two on this turn,” Mal said over the headphones, “Tye, if you have never done this, just breathe.”

  Mal felt the turn in his stomach before anything else, like every other G he has every pulled in his lifetime. It feels like your stomach is shrinking in size and forcing everything out at once. Like you have to poop and vomit at the same time. Tye threw up on the ground.

  “That’s okay buddy,” Mal said patting him on his back, “Everybody does that the first time, you didn’t shit yourself did you?”

  “Nope, no shit,” Tye said.

  The Jump master was still standing like this was the most annoying thing that Tye threw up. Mal waived at the Jump-master.

  “Our bad,” Mal said to him.

  Mal awaited the final turn towards the border, they were currently traveling around 280 MPH directly over the Lloyd expressway that cuts through the middle of Evansville like an artery through the body.

  “Hold onto your butts!” Jack yelled through the microphone.

  “Jurassic park references, they find a way,” Jace said.

  Every person in the cabin chuckled at the comment. Samuel L Jackson famously said that before attempting to restart the power in the 1995 film about Dinosaurs coming back to life.

  “Well, I am a bit worried considering I am in a VTOL with a dinosaur,” Tye joked.

  Mal turned slowly to Tye, with a look of pure ire in his eyes.

  “I am not old,” Mal said, “I am experienced.”

  Mal felt the VTOL tilt left to prepare for the turn right.

  “Hold on,” Mal said.

  The Osprey slammed right into the wind as it battered the side of the Osprey, they were on the East side of Evansville now that was mostly abandoned. The Reds watchmen would be advising the Mount Vernon Reds guards to keep an eye out for the Osprey. Mal felt his stomach drop as they completed the turn. The Osprey evened out and the three of them stood up. Tye turned to Mal pulling something out of his pocket. He handed a USB drive to Mal.

  “Wallis told me to give you this in case of emergency,” Tye said, “what is it?”

  Mal examined the USB drive.

  Probably a rip drive with infrared Satellite connection, that way she can take whatever we find there.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Mal said grabbed Tye’s shoulder as they blazed over the wall separating the northern and southern contingents.

  Mal turned to the back of the osprey as they osprey switched to the Vertical mode so that they could hover over the forest East of Henderson. Mal grabbed his parachute pack and Fulton device, which was a small pack that attached to the front of his parachute vest. Mal attached it to his d-ring on his tactical vests and grabbed the fast rope.

  “I will go first,” Mal said, “wave you two in.”

  Mal grabbed the rope and slid down the rope through the canopy of trees and down into the forest floor below, Mal realized he wouldn’t be able to wave down Jace and Tye. Mal swings his pistol around to prepare for any attackers in the area. No one was there. Mal took a deep breath and grabbed his radio ear-piece, switched the knob to turn it on.

  “All clear down here,” Mal said, “Jack, swerve out to the east side but run up the border, then swing up north.”

  Mal knew that no one in that direction could catch him but that would draw several units out of Henderson. They needed to keep things quiet to survive on this side of the border. Mal looked up to see Jace and Tye sliding down the rope into the forest.

  “Whats the plan?” Jace asked as she grabbed her parachute and fulton delivery device, throwing it over her shoulder.

  Mal looked up as the Osprey takes off into to the east, raising it’s altitude and taking off. Mal could hear the vehicles revving to life and driving off into the distance to follow the Osprey.

  “We are at the distance required to take off after wards but we are into the forest here,” Mal stated, “There’s an opening about a quarter of a mile north of the base. We take our packs there and drop them, then slowly move into the base. Jace, you take an overwatch position up on the billboard to the north. Tye you will come with me as we enter into the facility. According to Intelligence, this building is their most protected area and seems to be a research facility.”

  They started running to the opening a quarter a mile away but Mal saw there was a truck there. Mal went to a knee and put a finger to his mouth. Mal swung his rifle around and looked down his scope and saw two Reds Militia members in a big cargo truck as it stopped in the middle of the opening in the field and opening the back of the truck. The first member hopped out of the cargo truck and began to unhooking the back of the truck as sacks fell out of the back.

  “I got the guy outside the truck scoped,” Jace whispered.

  Mal moved forward and snuck up to the drop site. Motioning with his other hand, she squeezed the trigger as the man’s body straightened as he fell into a hole they had dug into the ground. A suppressed rifle from this distance is like the hand of god deciding someone was done.

  “I got the other one scoped, Mal.”

  Mal took a look at the man who seemed to be reading something in his hands. Mal motioned to the two of them to stay where they were with a fist in the air. Jace stared down her scope at the man. Mal got off his belly and started walking out into the night time air towards the man sitting in the truck. Careful to mask his approach, Mal swung around the truck and approached from the opposite side of the vehicle as they positioned towards the front of the truck. He approached through the tall grass and kept his XM-24 rifle trained on the man’s head. The Man was flipping through the pages of a pamphlet or book. Mal slipped next to the door of the truck and swung his rifle behind him before pulling out his pistol. Mal swung open the door as the man clamored to grab at his rifle but the strap was stuck in the door. Mal leveled his pistol at the man’s head.

  “Let’s not move shall we?” Mal asked.

  “What do you want?” The Man asked while raising his hands quickly.

  “What are you dumping back there?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, “I am not allowed outside the truck.”

  Mal grabbed a zip cuffs out of his cargo pockets and slipped the mans wrists into them and around the steering wheel. Before Mal grabs the keys.

  “Do me a favor and stay right there,” Mal said before removing the radio from the CB set up in the truck.

  “MAL, YOU ARE GOING TO WANT TO SEE THIS!” Tye screamed to Mal.

  Hopping out and running to
the back of the truck where Tye was standing with a lot of bags that were see through bags that were bunched up and filled with…

  “What the fuck…” Mal said while looking in the vacuum sealed bags filled with bodies of all different sizes.

  Mal looked up and into the hole to see that it was almost filled to the brim with bodies.

  “Tye grab that guy in the front seat, leave him with me, then go join Jace,” Mal said as Tye tried to tell him he should stay where he is, “You two don’t want to see this side of me.”

  Jace ran up behind the two of them.

  “You know old man, I am so fucking tired of your nonsense like you are some sort of dark avenger or some shit but these are my people too..” Tye said before Jace stepped in front of him.

  “Just calm down and do what he says, Tye,” Jace said, “I will explain on our walk back.”

  Tye grabbed the man out of the front of the truck and cut his zip ties before throwing him onto the ground.

  “You better know what the fuck you are doing,” Tye said as he started walking back to the edge of the forest.

  Mal grabbed him, not caring that he wasn’t handcuffed anymore, lifting him off the ground like he was an infant and throwing him towards the stack of bodies. The Man drew a knife and swung it at Mal side-to-side like he would stab right through him. Mal stepped backwards and allowed the man’s arm to pass him before he grabbed it, driving his elbow into the man’s elbow.

  SNAP!

  The sound of a bone crunching blow could be heard by Tye and Jace all the way back in the forest.

  “What the fuck was that?” Tye said as he could hear the man scream out in pain.

  Jace grabbed his shoulder as Tye walked forward.

  “You are an officer in BANS,” Jace said, “You have to play by the rules. Mal doesn’t. If you are there, you have to attempt to stop him but if you don’t know, you can’t stop him.”

  “So, he’s protecting me?” Tye asked.

  “Yes,” Jace said, “He’s keeping you out of it because he’s going to do something not very nice. He’s also protecting you from the other him…”

  “The other him?”

  Jace stopped as they re-entered the forest and looked back at Tye.

  “Do you know why they call him The Wolf ?” Jace Asked.