Monsters

by Daniel Greenwell

  “That’s the thing with age,” David said, “yeah you may have been able to beat me in your prime but you just don’t cut the mustard anymore old man.”

  Pushing his knuckles into the wood frame to raise himself back to a standing position, The Wolf stood back to his feet slowly.

  “Why?” David asked.

  “Cause I can’t let you,” Mal said, “I can’t let you keep this pain going, so I am going to end it.” Mal steadied himself as David attempted a barrage of fast punches.

  The Wolf wasn’t trying to win a quick fight.

  “Is that all you have? Seriously, never got a genetic test are you sure you’re my son?” The Wolf asked, attempting to invoke an emotional response.

  David kicked him back through the dining room table, as he mounted The Wolf and rained down blows onto Mal’s arms as he attempted to break through his defense. He began to hear deep breathing as Mal slipped under David’s full mount and back to the edge of the dining room window. Swinging wide and quickly, The Wolf swung under punches and protecting his body.

  “Is that it…” David said breathing heavily as he stepped back through the table he had just broke, “you talked all that…just to die…”

  Grabbing a broken shard of glass,to shove through The Wolf’s eye, all he felt was his fist hitting the window as the elder had spun around, wrapping his arm around his child’s elbow.

  “That’s what’s wrong with young men, you fight so hard. Too hard. You tire yourself out. That’s what people never understood about this part of me. Rage? Yes. Intelligence? Yes.”

  Spinning his hips, Mal spat out a five punch combo that would drop a skycraper, knocking down David. The Wolf dropped a knee across the face of his son, blood streaking across his face.

  “You take the title but, you don’t live up to it.” The Wolf said. “It disgusts me.”

  Trying to scramble back to his feet David got to his knees and was met with a thunderous kick to the face that knocked him out of the house and onto the front yard. Scrambling looking around from help, finding that his allies were dead, dying or not there.

  “This is over,” The Wolf spat holding back venomous intent, “You lost. Leave, go back to your side of the wall, never come back.”

  David spat blood out of his mouth as he clawed his way back to his feet. Mal grabbed his pistol and lodged a magazine back into the receiver.

  “There’s that weakness I was talking about, your little personality isn’t some kind of power boost because in reality, it’s fake. It’s you making excuses for yourself. ‘It’s The Wolf , not me’ ” David said mockingly, “after everything I have done and you’re really just going to let me go for some return to normalcy. I know you can’t do it so I am going to tell you how this will end. I am going to come back, I am going to kill all your little friends and pile them up here on your lawn. The legend of The Wolf, it’s just a myth. The man is a pathetic weak old man, a Wolf without any teeth anymore.”

  Mal almost slipped back to normal and thought about everything David just told him, about everything he had learned throughout this experience.

  “You know what?” Mal asked

  “What?”

  “I believe you,” He said spinning his MK12 Beretta out of his left handed thigh holster.

  BANG!

  A bullet between David’s eyes as this grim look of surprise spread across his face, shocked that his father had the guts to do it. Collapsing to his knees holding his deceased son in his arms, Mal cried out into the night as Jace braced Kyle but he stared at this man he had looked up to for all that time. At fifteen, this was a heavy moment for him watching the man next door lose everything he had ever had. Carter stared out with a stone face. She knew he had do something he didn’t want to do but that’s what had to be done.

  “Let’s give him some space,” Carter said as she cut Tim’s zip-ties.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Synthesis

  One day Later

  Mount Vernon, Indiana

  “Four hundred citizens dead and seven thousand Sons of Nathan Bedford Forrest dead throughout the city, needless to say without your aid: The city would have been lost, allowing them to use their chemical weapon,” Tim said to the regal red haired man, King Harold of the United Kingdom.

  “Where is the man who called for aid?”

  “Burying his son,” Tim said.

  “Someone killed his child?”

  “He did, kid was insane. Leading this attack.”

  The King grimaced at the reality of a man having to kill his own child.

  “I would like to speak with him,” He said as they walked out to the vehicle caravan and sat in the back of the car with a long package, Tim entering behind him.

  Vehicles shot down the road and past the wreckage of the wall.

  “Tell me about him.” The King asked.

  “He’s…hairy?”

  “I mean about him as a human being.”

  “Malcolm Daniels is one of the toughest, strongest and smartest people I know. I have seen him do things that seem impossible and win battles with severe disadvantages. Honestly, his service record reads like an unimaginative writers understanding of what a hero is but he’s two sided. I am worried that he may become one-sided after this.”

  “You mean The Wolf ? Our intel says that has some form of Dissociative Identity Disorder…is it true?”

  “Yes…” Tim said. “A separate personality called The Wolf he learned to control at a very young age. Balancing it out, with…”

  “The Hero right?” The King asked.

  “Most people with DID, they have almost bi-polar disorder but, Mal he used it to turn himself into a warrior. The bad guy for all of our enemies. To drive fear into every person who would hurt someone he cares about, so they knew. They hurt America? They fight The Wolf.”

  Harold nodded back at Tim taking a look at him.

  “He turned something that could destroy his career, fine tuned it and made it an amazing advantage.” Harold said. “Brutal, but an advantage.”

  The vehicles rolled up on a cemetery, on Ole Beech road. The six foot one inch tall salt and pepper headed man sat on the freshly covered dirt and drank on a bottle of water. Malcolm Daniels was tired but he stood, wiping his hands on his jeans as the King walked towards him.

  “I understand you are Malcolm Daniels?” asked the King.

  Malcolm nodded.

  “Good,” He said drawing a sword from his scabbard, “Kneel.”

  Mal looked over at Tim, confused and then knelt in front of the king.

  “You know for many years I asked your military to send you to my country for an official visit and every time you claimed to be busy. Why is that?” Asked Harry.

  “Well for starters, I was busy. For seconds…” Mal said dropping the shovel, “not much for ceremony. I am not interested in a title.”

  Harold smiled at his distant cousin.

  “Well, all I ask is for you to do for me is what you asked of that Lieutenant in Evansville.” Mal tilted his head to Tim.

  “Man, don’t you look at me like that. That was hilarious and I had to share it.” Tim said.

  Mal took a knee as Harold turned to an attendant and pulled out a sword.

  “This blade was used by your ancestor, well our ancestor, Prince Eric of Wales. The Black Knight. Unfortunately, some of my ancestors decided to turn his tale into a story about how you shouldn’t dare stand against royalty. It’s really about how being Royal doesn’t make you special. He sacrificed everything, all of it, to protect a small village of people who were supposed to be murdered by Knights. I know there’s some people who think our bloodline is what makes guys like us great warriors.”

  Resting the blade on both shoulders individually, Harold muttered something then told Mal to rise.

  “I dub thee, Sir Malcolm Daniels, the Wolf.”

  “Thank you? Your Highness?” Mal retorted.

  Handing the greatsword to Malcolm Daniels.

>   “I believe this is a better blade than short sword of his you already own.” Harold said as Malcolm picked up the blade.

  It was long and heavy, sharp enough that it cuts grass.

  “Thank you…” Mal said.

  “I don’t blame you for having to kill him. I do have to say though, your fight isn’t over.” Harold said. “The actual threat went back to St. Louis.”

  Harold motioned Mal to get in the SUV with him.

  “The world needs you, Sir Malcolm.” The King said to Mal. “I look at this conflict in America, it’s tinder box.”

  Mal looked out the windows as they pulled into Mal’s own home, the burnt crisp that was Karl’s body was taken away along with Mal’s motorcycle but…there was a new gift he saw in his driveway.

  “What is this?” Mal asked looking at a sleak, custom motorcycle. It seemed to be a mix between a Harley Davidson and A Dodge Tomahawk with a sidecar attached to the side.

  “That’s your horse.” The King said. “I am sending the best Knight I know, to put an end to this. Finish it.”

  “Gailbraith you mean?” Mal said. “The Kentucky fried Chicken looking Mother Fucker? He’s not worth my time, I know child soldiers who could easily kill that idiot.”

  Mal turned and walked towards the door.

  “Yeah…but Gailbraith he isn’t your real enemy. You already met your real enemy.”

  Walking forward with a confused look on his face, Mal tilted an ear forward. Tim looked on with a surprised face, that a royal court member would come to America with secret intelligence. Looking at the Old SEAL’s eyes, Tim saw something return. Something he hadn’t seen come back in person for a long time, the Wolf and The Hero were back but…balanced, he was the man he was before when he had purpose. The version of Malcolm that shot his own son, without reservation but with grief.

  “No…no one’s that stupid…” He said to the King.

  Harry nodded, confirming it was true. Looking to Tim, Mal turned around and stomped towards his garage and into his firearms locker.

  “Mal, what are you doing?” Tim asked.

  Tim knew what he was going to do.

  “I am going to kill them all, every last one of them. No mercy. No retreat. I swear…I will beat every last one of them, until they know what I know.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Pain.” Mal grabbed his pack and slid the Rifle into the side holster of His motorcycle.

  Tim grabbed Mal’s arm, as for the first time he saw Malcolm Daniels, the old Malcolm Daniels that is,starring back at him. A monster prepared to kill a bunch of people, maybe for a good reason but: still kill them. He was completely in control again, making him one of the most dangerous human beings the Earth has on it currently. Malcolm Daniels, without looking, shoved one of his oldest friends to the ground.

  “MAL! If you go out there, I can’t guarantee you a way back across the wall.” Tim said.

  “Good. Target Rich environment over there, I have work to do.” Mal said, as he shot off into the distance.

  “You’re going to get him killed!” Screamed Tim to the King of the U.K.

  “Tell me, if that was your son…would you be standing here?” Asked Harry.

  “I…I don’t know.” Tim said.

  Harry got into the SUV and looked out the window at Tim.

  “Commander Carpenter, knowing as much as I do about you, I doubt you would be. You know who would be riding with you?” Harry asked.

  Tim nodded.

  Malcolm Daniels would be riding with Tim.

  Because no amount of blood lust makes him a worse than person than me sometimes.

  Mal shot down the road as he remembered all of his choices that brought him here, to the point that he would willingly go to war against these people and feel…excited. Shooting through the Mount Vernon city-side, he came to a stop at the wall. Two women standing between him and revenge. Jace was standing there with a Sniper Rifle on her back, a wrapped, bandaged shoulder from the knife wound from David and Carter with her arms crossed.

  “I know you’re not going out there…” Jace said. “This is what they want!”

  “He’s going out there.” Carter said, “You’re going with him.”

  Carter looked at Jace, a surprised look on her face.

  “Aren’t ya?” Carter asked.

  Jace nodded as she slid into the side car. Walking forward to Mal, as she saw him trembling. He was never good with Emotions when he was truly balanced, a perfect version of himself. Carter wrapped her hand around his as the broken man in front of her, shot off to New Orleans.

  “I need you to do me a favor, well it’s technically an order.” She said. “Take ‘em out but…don’t lose yourself in the process.”

  Poking Mal in the chest almost in an aggressive manner.

  “This guy in here? He’s good. Whole. The Wolf? He doesn’t change that equation, don’t go down there and make someone else be inspired to do what you’re about to do. End the Circle, make it a straight line, feel me?”

  Malcolm Daniels nodded back at her.

  “Come back here, when it’s done. I want to hear of your adventure. I am hoping this wall won’t be here when you get back…” She said looking at a man in a uniform in the rubble of the war.

  “KEVIN!” Jace exclaimed to her friend.

  “I came when I heard, I had been chasing for a while. I tried to capture David a year ago but I found, they have many, many moles in my network.” Kevin said to Carter.

  Mal stared at Kevin, fire in his eyes.

  “Hi boss…” Kevin said but was stopped by Mal shooting off into Reds territory, “I had a feeling it would be like that, I may have deserved that one.”

  “Why’s that?” Carter asked.

  “He blames me for not having control over these Monsters. Probably a fair criticism. I’ve…” Kevin thought back to his long attempts at keeping the peace, “failed him in so many ways.”

  Carter gripped Kevin’s shoulders as she saw the battalion of construction forces he had brought with him, not a single gun on them.

  “Madame President, I believe that we could take the tragedy here and make something better.” Kevin said. “Together.”

  Kevin put his hand out, she had studied the young commander of all Reds forces. He was a genuine man. Not interested in the culture wars or wedge issues that caused the Country to shatter in half in the first place. She grabbed his hand and squeezed, firmly. Not in a way to scare Kevin but as a firm handshake.

  “I agree.” She said.

  “Good, I think we should make this a gate, so that our people can talk. Imagine how frightening it is to just regular people when they can’t see the other side, can’t hear from it.”

  “I am sure Tim is…”Carter stopped mid-sentence as a humvee came to a stop, Commander Carpenter limped out of it.

  “Hey buddy…” Tim said. “It would have been great if you showed up…yesterday.”

  Kevin cackled as the two embraced.

  Two Days later

  Saint Louis, Missouri

  Sons of Nathan Bedford Forrest headquarters

  The man struggled up the stairs as the sole survivor of the group that encountered a lone Malcolm Daniels at the Deli on Mount Vernon’s Main street. Entering what was once City hall, the young man saw a large white man with a big grey beard.

  “Report…” Said a voice in the corner of the room, seated and shrouded in darkness.

  “We…we failed. Reports are that Ares is dead and so is Karl.” Said the young man as he pawed at his left shoulder, soaked in blood.

  Gailbraith stopped eating the chicken just long enough to look up at the bloodied man.

  “Who could have possibly killed that boy?” Asked Marvin Gailbraith, a rotund man with an almost white beard.

  “There was a guy, he was a legend supposedly. The Wolf they called-” The young man began to say but the voice in the shadows interjected.

  “Malcolm Daniels, welcome back to the game…”
Said the voice in darkness to another voice to Strait, Mal’s old Lieutenant, “You going out there to fight your former Subordinate, Stevey?”

  Strait sat there with a hardened face on but he didn’t say a word.

  “I can’t beat him…you know why.” Strait said.

  “Cause he’s a Monster, Steven.” Said the voice from the shadows before Gailbraith intejected.

  “He’s not a problem, we can kill him and I am guessing good old Commander Carpenter survived too?” Asked Gailbraith.

  “From reports on the ground yes.” The Young man said.

  “Get yourself as many men as you need, go back before they rebuild and bring me this Wolf’s head.”

  The man looked around shocked.

  “The Reds army has made a perimeter around the area, there’s no getting there-” Said the Young man.”

  “Really? You think the Reds don’t have people who agree with us?” Asked Strait.

  The young man looked at Strait, another Former Navy SEAL.

  “You don’t get it, Commander Higdon is here. All of the Reds, they look at him like he’s a god because to them, he is a god. Always fighting both sides of the aisle in a lot of ways but-”

  “ENOUGH!” Gailbraith exclaimed. “At least, slip a few past there to kill Malcolm Daniels. Four guys and it’s over.”

  “I don’t think you understand sir, Malcolm Daniels is one of the most dangerous human beings I have ever seen and I have seen a lot. We had him cornered with no firearm, seven-on-one and he killed all of them with nothing but a knife…” The man said with a dangerously, almost psychotic tone, “No, not a K-bar or anything like that, it was a butter knife. That led him to a pistol that he shot at us while using my friend’s bodies as a bullet sponge, while it danced in his hands like a butterfly knife! He’s death incarnate, if you get in his way, you’re dead. You’re just-” The young man stopped and touched the back of his head.

  The Young man stumbled side-to-side a little as Gailbraith stared at the boy as a spot of blood came out of the corner of his mouth, the Young man spun around and pawed at the K-bar in the back of his head.