“Are you okay, Sir?” The medic asked as he approached Mal.
Mal waved that he was fine. There was nothing that this kid could do for him, at his age: every fall hurts really bad.
“You got any Mobic?” Mal asked. He regularly took the medication for the aches and pains that any operator would have later in life.
“Yeah,” the medic said as he shuffled through his bag, “Here you go, Sir.”
On the average, Mal really wasn’t that old at 49, it was the way he had lived his life that has made his body breakdown like he was at least ten years older. Mal put the pill in his mouth and then put his hand out for what he would usually expect to find a canteen but nothing was there. Mal looked at the Medic.
“Water?” He asked with a pill in his mouth and the Medic fumbled behind him to grab the Canteen on his pack.
Mal swung the canteen back and recognized the Medic, he was the one that he had berated back at the Ford Center who engaged the enemy instead of helping Mal with Trevor. Mal took a look behind the man’s pack and saw no rifle. Mal smiled. Maybe this guy was finally ready to just do his job.
“I am keeping these,” Mal said waving the bottle as he walked away.
“Sir, you can’t…” The Medic said as Mal started walking out of the Horse park towards a racing Humvee. Mal’s Humvee.
It came to a stop about 50 feet away from him as Tim hopped out of the passengers seat as his Assistant hopped out of the drivers seat.
“Wallis is going through the information on their cloud right now,” Tim said, “What’s the situation over there?”
“Bad,” Mal said, “it’s about to be really bad over here.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
It's a hunt
“So you are telling me that they found a Doctor who created a weapon that targets basically the people that they don’t think need to be around anymore?” Tim asked.
Mal raised his eyebrows because literally every thing there was factually correct.
“True but there’s one thing I don’t get here,” Mal said, “If they already have a weapon, why haven’t they used it? I mean even without that device, they could have found a way to disperse it,” Mal said while staring at the map, “there’s something here we are missing. It’s right in front of our faces Tim, but we are missing it.”
Tim put his hand on Mal’s shoulder.
“Nothing is going to happen for a few hours at least Mal, this is a good time for you to go home and grab some sleep,” Tim said, “I have a driver to send you home.”
A young man shows up and Mal follows him to the parking lot of the courthouse, they get into the car.
“I heard you are a real bad-ass,” the kid said from the drivers seat.
Mal rolled his eyes at that comment.
“No one’s a bad-ass,” Mal retorted, “we all bleed the same way, kiddo.”
Rolling through the pictures on his tablet, Mal was trying to put some information together.
Why so many test subjects? Were they trying to make a weapon that worked on some but not others? Were they testing the weapon to see if they could create a vaccine against it for those they chose were fine, like David?
Mal felt the left lean of a turn to the left that jolted him to life.
Left turn?
“Hey buddy, I think you may not know where we are going,” Mal said, “I am on Harmony Springfield road, not Springfield road.”
“Afraid not, Old man,” a voice from the back seat said as a silenced pistol pressed into his rib cage, “You know how easy it was to get one of my guys into Tim’s inner circle? Hilariously easy.”
Mal recognized the voice of his son.
“David, I don’t know what you think you are going to get from taking me hostage but I promise you,” Mal said while raising his hands, “you won’t get it.”
“We all bleed the same way, remember Dad?”
Mal reaches to the clicker in his palm and starts pressing SOS into it.
“Okay, what do you want?”
David sat back in his seat.
“I want answers on what happened on that bridge,” David demanded with his pistol jabbing into Mal’s side.
“I told you, Son,” Mal said, “I tried but, I failed.”
David was progressively getting more angry, the two had never spoken about what Mal was. He had never asked David if he struggled from the same thing he had. If he had Monster inside of him constantly trying to claw out but, this was the first time that Mal thought, it likely was genetic.
“Pull over the car!” David screamed
The spy drove the car to the side of the road as David stomped out to Mal’s side of the car. Slipping the letter opener into his left palm, Mal kept it covered: just in case. A little trick that his magician friend, Kevin Higdon had taught him.
“Get out!”
Mal stepped out of the car very calmly, careful not to reach for his pistol still on his upper leg
“Just calm down, Son,” Mal said, “breathe.”
This was a test for Mal, to see if David was like him. When The Wolf was in the driver’s seat, being told to calm down would just make it worse. David’s anger didn’t get better or worse though as he continued to just be pissed.
“What happened that night?”
“You want to hear it again? Okay.”
Eight Years earlier
St. Louis, Missouri
Near Busch Stadium
Mal was running as fast as he could at 41 years old, with Tim right behind him.
“How many?” Tim asked.
“Jace said that her and Selena were grabbing meds-”
“They were banging.” Tim corrected Mal stated.
“Okay, they were banging and someone tried to ambush them. She took up a position south of the Walgreen’s.”
Tim followed behind Mal as they turned down to the street that runs perpendicular to the river but Mal got eyes on four hostiles. Mal put a fist up and stopped at the corner, the clap of gunfire . Mal pulled out the his snake-cam from his cargo pocket and turned the corner.
“Eight hostiles,” Mal said while going to his tip-toes to look over the cars, seeing the men were in cover and keeping themselves from the clap of Jace’s gunfire, “Jace and Selena are holed up across the street.”
“If you guys would just chill, I got this.” Jace said. “These guys are very, very stupid.”
Mal took a look around at the six bodies on the ground, she had shot six of the fourteen men.
“You killed six of them? Not bad.” Tim said.
“Ten. Four of them tried to come in.” Jace said.
“Like I said, Jace is considerably more dangerous than us.” Mal said with a chuckle. “We are going to end this because it looks like those idiots are calling friends and we have to end this.”
Tim nodded, pulling down his eye piece, that was attached via bluetooth to the snake cam. Mal marked four targets for himself and switched to his last magazine of Smart rounds.
Mal rolled forward and come up with his rifle as his eye piece exclaimed, “LOCK ON TARGET.”
Tim ran to the left, got a lock on his targets and as they both exhaled.
“Execute,” Mal said under his breath as they both shot a burst out of their rifles.
Neither had a clean look at their targets but that is the magic of a SMART Bullet. The bullets had small little jets on them to change their trajectory, to get them to their actual target. One-by-one all eight men fell to the ground.
“CLEAR?” Tim asked.
“CLEAR!” Mal responded.
Mal ran over to the store as Jace and Selena left the pharmacy. M.
“You two weren’t just looking for meds were ya?”
“Hey, I have needs,” Jace explained, “We weren’t taken hostage this time at least. Where’s my guy, Kevin?”
“He’s back with everyone else, he’s working with the Illinois National guard to get us across the bridge, they’re sending a fifty cal to cover our egress.” M
al said.
“There’s about twenty of them on the way,” Selina said before she started running.
Mal took out what was left of his SMART rounds and put them back into his holster. He went over to one of the bodies of a man carrying an AK-47 and pulled all of the clips out of his carrier. Tossing half to Tim.
“You two run and make the trip across the bridge with everyone else,” Mal said.
“What do you say, Mal? Who wants to live forever?” Tim asked.
“Not me,” Mal as the two ran security behind Jace and Selina.
Mal could see there was an exit back up onto the highway that led to the bridge. He turned to run up onto the entrance ramp before he saw a kid pop out of the storefront next to the stadium exit. Holding an AK-47
“DROP IT NOW!” Tim said.
“DROP IT!” Mal said.
The kid couldn’t be older than sixteen years old, covered in sweat and switching targets between the two professional killers in front of him. To him, the two looked like they belonged in a movie, not on his streets.
KILL HIM! He will get Lisa and David killed. He is a threat to our family. The Wolf screamed inside of Mal, his finger curling from straight to on the trigger but still conflicted.
Mal, he’s a kid. You don’t kill kids if you don’t have to. He’s just scared. You’re scared. The Hero said. Show him some empathy.
Come grab this Great Value brand Superman please, he can come back after everyone is in safe territory but for now, NO MERCY! The Wolf exclaimed.
Mal slowly pointed his rifle towards the ground.
“Go, Tim.” Mal said.
“Mal-”
“Go…” Mal reiterated.
Walking slowly over to the boy, Mal put his hands up. He didn’t want to fight.
“I know how you’re feeling. You’re scared. I know how that is, fear can take you over and control you but, you don’t have to let it,” Mal said pushing the boy’s rifle down to the ground. “You don’t have to let fear rule you. You need to be better than me, or my friend. Now do you have somewhere to go?”
The kid dropped his rifle and looked into Mal’s face. Tim kept his rifle locked on the kid. Mal pushed his rifle down with his hand.
“He will give away our position, Mal.”
Mal knew he may very well do that but, he didn’t want to be the monster. He joined the Navy, not really wanting to kill people. Mal found the most joy in overseas tours playing soccer with the local kids or video games. He was one of his command’s best hearts and minds guy.
“If you want to kill an unarmed boy running away from us, go ahead,” Mal said.
“Your bleeding heart shit is going to get me killed one day,” Tim said.
“I will probably be laying right next to you,” Mal joked as they climbed the exit back to the highway.
Mal ran up to the bus that was holding everyone in their party. They were going to hold until nightfall for fear that the sighting of people attempting to cross the border would cause those watching the bridge to rush towards it but at this point, that was happening anyways. The Illinois National Guard was across the bridge and was holding the line. That was the safest place currently in this shooting war. Mal saw Lisa and stopped at the top of the bridge. Lisa Redhouse-Daniels was Malcolm’s wife. Her long flowing hair and brown skin shown in the sunlight.
“We need to roll,” Mal said to Quinn who was driving the Bus.
“We are going to have to leave the bus,” Quinn said, “it’s not working but your belongings are already across with David.”
David Daniels was now a SEAL with just a couple of months on the job before the war started.
“Everybody has to hoof it,” Mal said.
Lisa came out of the bus and hugged Mal’s broad shoulders and kissed him on the cheek.
“I do love you, Malcolm Daniels,’ She said, “Please be careful.”
Lisa ran to cross the bridge as Mal saw a technical racing down the highway towards the bridge. Mal ran down the bridge and turned, throwing a grenade into the path of truck. Mal braced as the fifty caliber bullets peppered the car he was taking cover behind.
1…
2…
3…
“BAM!”
Mal took a firing position and shot at the truck, first shooting the gunner and then spraying the cabin. The gunner fell off the top of the truck from a gunshot in the jaw. Tim shot him in the chest four times.
“That went better than I thought,” Tim said.
“Let’s catch up to the others,” Mal retorted.
Mal ran to catch up to Lisa but that’s when he felt pinch in his right shoulder, just below the blade. The sound of gunfire quickly followed. Mal fell to the ground. He felt the burning of the Gunshot wound in his right shoulder, Mal turned over and raised his rifle towards the source of the shot, it was the kid. The kid he let run away. Mal shot the kid in the upper chest as he fell to the ground firing four rounds off after. Mal got up from the ground to see Lisa, standing there pointed towards St. Louis. The plop of a bullet and blood splatter, from a gunshot wound that exited her stomach
Lisa stopped and touched her stomach, the wet brick colored effect of blood was on her stomach cupping.
“NO!!” Mal screamed as she fell to the ground.
Mal crawled to her side.
“It’s okay, honey you are going to be okay,” Mal said.
Lisa was a nurse before all of this and knew her situation.
“No, I am not going to be fine,” Lisa said, gasping for air after being shot in her solarplexes, “you will be, you need to take care of our son. Take care of David.”
“MAL! WE HAVE TO GO!” Tim screamed.
“You need to go,” Lisa said, running her hands through Mal’s long hair, “I will always be there for you, waiting….”
The life in her eyes were drained as she passed. Mal kissed her forehead and attempted to start dragging her body. Before he was hit in the left hip with another bullet. Mal wraps her arms around his neck, and starts crawling with her body wrapped around his body
“Got to go, Mal!” Tim screamed as he grabbed Mal and drug him down the bridge.
Mal began to lose consciousness as he reached out and lost grip on Lisa. Tim drug him further down the bridge until the Illinois National Guard met them at the border. David ran up to meet Tim and Mal.
“What happened?” David asked.
Tim shook his head as Mal lost consciousness.
PRESENT DAY
“That’s everything that happened?” David asked.
“To my recollection, yeah. I would like to remind you, that I was bleeding almost to death during most of this,” Mal responded.
David was almost more angry at this point.
“That’s not exactly the story that Quinn told,” David said, “He told me she was shot by you, on accident then you ran before she died.”
Mal heard his ear-piece pipe to life.
“Two hostiles lined up, Mal,” Jace said, “Just give me a sign.”
Mal flattened out his hand to tell her to wait.
“That’s a fucking lie,” Mal said, “He’s messing with your head, kid.”
“Maybe. So let’s talk about some undeniable truth then,” David asked. “After mom died, who did you seemingly blame for her dying? Not literally, but figuratively by running him away from you?”
“I blamed you and I was wrong. David,” Mal said, “I was in a bad place and I put that pain on you. You didn’t see her die in your arms, Son.”
“Mal, I have a shot,” Jace reminded him.
Mal clicked once to remind Jace that no shot was to be taken. David pulled his pistol and pressed it to Mal’s forehead.
“I could solve a lot of problems just by applying just a bit of pressure,” Dave said, expecting Mal to flinch at the idea that a bullet could be buried in his forehead at any moment.
Mal grabbed David’s pistol but didn’t yank it away.
“Go ahead, David,” Mal said, “if you thi
nk killing me will solve all of your problems go ahead. I want you to pull the trigger but, I want to ask you: what do you think your mother would think about your genocide here? Your people had genocide committed against them here, your grandparents lived on a reservation in Central Indiana. Your grandpa’s pain from that, it never ends.”
“It’s a sacrifice to stave off bigger problems, eventually the Blues and the Reds armies will be back at each others throats and it will destroy this country,” David retorted, “it’s the only solution. We will break the line by either surrender or by breaking the BANS numbers, then the actual Reds Army will be on our side eventually.”
“So, they move the line by what? A couple hundred miles? Eventually it’s stalemate all over again.”
“Except the weapon we are using, actually we have a pretty big supply of it,” David said as he pulled his pistol away from Mal.
“About that,” Mal pointed at the spy and then made a fist, “Execute.”
Jace shot straight through the man’s eye.
“That doctor, whose family you murdered for looking different, he blew up all your reserves of that weapon.” Mal said.
David walked backwards grabbing Mal’s shoulder placing him between him and Jace. The spy on the ground stirred to life.
“What type of shooter just hits me in my eye?” The spy asked.
A second bullet hit him in the achilles tendon as he writhed in pain, a third in his left kneecap while a fourth hit the apple in the left shoulder.
“FUCK! Who the fuck is that?”
“The best sniper left,” David said, “She’s so good at that, I am surprised she hasn’t killed you.”
“Tell David to put the gun down,” Jace said, “I just wanted to show him all the non-lethal ways I know to drop a person.”
“Jace wanted me to tell you to drop it, or she will go to town on you like that.”
“You want me to believe that Jace is going to shoot through you to hit me?”
“That’s a rookie mistake, David,” Mal said.
Tim approached from behind them and pressed his barrel into the back of David’s head.
“Rule one, never lose three-sixty-five awareness, David.” Tim said.
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