Just then a bright flashlight lit up Tak’s face. Within the Night Vision Goggles the brightness was momentarily amplified before they completely shut down as a safety measure. However the damage had already been done. Tak reached up and ripped the goggles off his face as his latest victim fell forward, the sword still sticking through him. The pain from the sudden brightness stunned Tak so much that it caused an audible ringing in his ears and he couldn’t see a thing. As Tak covered his eyes with both hands, he knew he was momentarily defenseless but there wasn’t a thing he could do about it right now. Big Gunner kept his flashlight on Tak as he quickly processed the information. This sword wielding man was obviously an enemy disguised as a Son since he’d just seen him kill two of his men and he wore advanced military goggles; which none of the Sons had. No doubt it was his cohorts behind the automatic gunfire he heard near the front of the building. Gunner didn’t want to waste his advantage so he ran up to Tak and gave him a huge right cross to the face. Tak had been hit hard before in training, but never like this when he hadn’t even seen it coming. The blow launched him several feet back where he landed hard. He saw stars and grew light headed as he was on the verge of losing consciousness. Gunner stood over him and ripped the bandanna off of Tak’s face. The big man gasped at the realization “Ahh, You! You're that chink cop I’ve been looking for! You’ve been causing me a lot of trouble. I see you didn’t heed the warning I left at your house! Boy I’m gonna beat you till you’re chop suey!” With that he hammered Tak with another strong right cross, then a left, then another right. Blood shot out of his nose as it broke, his lips were cut and a large gash opened up over his right eye. Tak suddenly had no idea where he was… he was no longer fully conscious. He was swimming in the clouds of his mind, concussed and stunned. Gunner pulled his shotgun out and put it on Tak’s forehead and began to squeeze the trigger as the hammer traveled slowly to the rear. A smile spread across the big man’s face as he said “You messed with the wrong group, pig”.
CHAPTER 30: CLARITY
Percival hadn’t been taught right from wrong by his drunk of a father. The man he looked up to the most, Gunner, didn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities other than he seemed to like Percival. That’s what Percival had believed; but lately he had been beginning to suspect otherwise. After recent events he felt like Gunner had been using him just to gain access the armory, which he had been told the police had prevented. After Gunner hadn’t showed at the Armory at 11AM the day before, Percival had abandoned his post and gone to the Freedom Compound to find out what was going on. He had later gone with Gunner on the raid at Tak’s house. Percy had stood back in shock as the defenseless people there were slaughtered. Upon seeing their heads displayed on stakes, he knew he wanted out, but he didn’t know how. When they had returned to the Compound he had stayed in Gunner’s cabin, pretending to watch TV while he actually tried to think of what to say. Gunner had been in his bedroom the whole time partying with three of the female Sons of Freedom, until they had heard the blast and ran over to investigate.
Percival was about five feet from where Gunner hovered over Tak, about to blow his head off. For the first time in his life, he knew that he knew right from wrong. He had seen Gunner’s true colors, and that truth had set him free. This cop was a good man fighting against the evil that Gunner and the Sons represented. He wouldn’t be a part of this madness anymore. Before he could think about it his 9mm Beretta pistol was in his hands and pointing at Gunner. “STOP! THIS ISN’T RIGHT MAN… THIS JUST ISNT RIGHT! Gunner eased off of his trigger pull and cocked his head over at Percival as a look of disbelieve spread over his face. “Gunner, I’ve listened to you for years and tried to believe what you’ve told me, but you can’t just go around murdering good people. I can’t believe I was willing to help you kill my fellow soldiers. I’ve been talking to them man; They aren’t mindless drones! They are trying to make this country a better place!” Tears were streaming down Percival’s face as he shouted the words. Gunner stood up slowly and turned towards the boy. “Percival, are you out of your damn mind? These pigs killed over half of our men earlier today!” Percival’s hands were shaking, “Not our men Gunner…. YOUR MEN! I’m not going to have anything to do with the Sons of Freedom ever again!” As he finished Percival lowered his pistol… which would be the last mistake he’d ever make. Gunner seized the moment and wheeled his sawed off double barrel in Percival’s direction and jerked the trigger. At the short distance the blast into Percival’s midsection launched him off his feet and backwards through the air several feet. He landed with a thump that knocked the wind out of him; not that it mattered at that point. Gunner walked over to him and grabbed his shirt with his left hand and jammed the barrel of his shotgun in his mouth, shattering several teeth as he yelled in his face, “You’ve always been an idiot Percival! Who do you think made your daddy talk you into joining the Army anyway? That addict sold you out just to keep getting his fix!” Then Gunner laughed in Percival’s face as pain from the shotgun blast consumed him as his body wracked in pain. That pain quickly ended when gunner pulled the trigger of the other barrel, sending nine lead pellets of double ought buck out the back of Private Percival’s head.
The whole time Gunner had been preoccupied with Percival, Tak had been recovering; trying to pull himself back to consciousness. While part of him had so wanted to just close his eyes and give into the pull to sleep, somewhere deep in his mind he knew he had to fight it and wake up. “WAKE UP!” he told himself, and it sounded like a voice far removed. “GET UP NOW OR YOU’RE DEAD!” He began to hear Allen and Wright’s automatic gunfire again in the background, as he realized what that noise was. However he was hurting and his head was spinning through a mental daze. When Gunner’s first shotgun blast had hit Percival in the gut, Tak had been shocked back towards consciousness. He had begun his meditation exercise. He calmed himself and cleared his mind of all thoughts with practiced discipline. The pain and dizziness were distractions that he could overcome. He could allow them to disappear by simply observing them and letting them drift away from his focus as he stayed centered in the moment. He controlled his mind as he refused to give that power to anything else.
The 2nd shotgun blast brought Tak fully back to reality. He looked over at Gunner, who stood over the soldier who was now headless from the lower jaw on up… the soldier who had just saved his life. Tak rolled to his knees towards the big man and shot his left foot out into the side of his right knee, driving it inward in a painful kick that ripped a good bit of cartilage, but didn’t completely destroy it. Gunner; no stranger to fights or injuries and amped up on coke, fell to his knees but still kept his head in the fight. He growled through the pain and drew his combat knife from his belt. Tak was already standing to face him. The big man forced himself back to standing and started stalking forward towards Tak, limping badly on his right leg.
They say an animal is most dangerous when it is wounded, and that was the case with Gunner. While his right knee did hurt, it wasn’t as severely injured as he pretended it was and the coke and adrenaline in his system more than took the edge off. He planned to use that to his advantage. He was desperate to kill this man in front of him. He looked around for help but didn’t see or hear any of his men. The gunfire towards the front of the barn had completely stopped. He continued forward with the exaggerated limp of a severe knee injury; apparently almost unable to even take a step. When he got in range just close enough he lunged at Tak’s sternum, leading with the tip of his blade. It was a surprisingly quick attack that would have certainly killed most men and almost did kill Tak... almost. Tak focused on the incoming blade just before it would have stabbed through his xiphoid process. The black pupils of his eyes started to dilate, but his brain was concussed and would need to rest before he could move at superhuman speeds again. But still, Tak’s regular reactions were faster than most men on their best day. As the tip of the Cold Steel combat knife poked through his jacket and started to slice open the skin on his ch
est, he reached up and grabbed Gunner’s right blade-wielding hand at the wrist with both of his hands and pulled it to his own right and twisted his body as he stepped in towards Gunner just to the outside of his extended arm. The tip of the blade laid Tak’s chest open from sternum to just past his right nipple, but the wound was only a half an inch at the deepest. As he pulled Gunner’s arm to his right and stepped in deeply behind it, he threw his entire body weight on and through Gunner’s right elbow while pulling the right wrist up with both hands, breaking the elbow with a painful ripping and popping of cartilage that sounded like several twigs snapping all at once, as the knife fell to the ground. Gunner’s right arm bent almost 90 degrees in the wrong direction and he yelled out in a painful cry. Still, the big man; fueled by rage and the drugs coursing through his body, wasn’t giving up the fight. He spun to his right to get out of the painful joint lock as he threw a monstrous haymaker with his giant left fist. The wallop had enough force behind it to smash through a concrete cinderblock and would certainly knock Tak unconscious if it landed.
Tak had been boxing and kickboxing on a regular basis for longer than he could remember. His defenses to strikes were finely tuned into his muscle memory. While a big hook punch is a powerful strike that results in many knockouts in street confrontations, it is just about the easiest strike to defend, especially when it is telegraphed. The two basic defensive options are to either put your hands up high and tight to your head, which makes a defensive barrier that will block most strikes, or to bend your knees as you drop straight down, allowing it to pass harmlessly overhead as you bob under the strike. Knowing that such a strike could still knock him down or do damage even if he blocked it, he choose to use both basic defenses simultaneously. As Gunner’s wild telegraphed haymaker came around, Tak simply bobbed and weaved under it while keeping his arms high, allowing the punch to pass by harmlessly overhead.
Once Gunner’s arm was clear Tak had a free shot to strike at his body or face, but roided up Gunner was so muscle bound that Tak decided to choose a softer target and finish off what he’d started earlier. Tak lifted his right open hand up and momentarily held it in front of Gunner’s eyes. Gunner leaned back and threw his left arm up instinctively, thinking it was an incoming strike to his face; but that hadn’t been Tak’s real attack. His hand was there only to shield Gunner’s eyes from even being able to react to his true attack, which was to turn his left foot outwards and stomp down and through Gunner’s right knee. The stomp kick blasted completely through the knee, hyperextending it backwards with the nauseating sound of ripping soft tissue. Gunner yelled in pain as he fell backwards. His right leg below his knee was sticking up at an impossible angle. He landed on his butt and tried to grab his right knee protectively with his hands, but he only had control of his left since his right hand wasn’t able to serve his will. His useless right arm dangled at his side with the ligaments and cartilage of his elbow completely destroyed and unable to move. He looked down at the knife on the ground a few feet in front of him where it lay at Tak’s feet and knew he had no way to grab it quickly.
He had one ace left up his sleeve. His yells of pain turned to psychotic laughter as he looked up at Tak, who stood right in front of him. Hatred burned in Gunner’s eyes as he stared at Tak. “You think you’ve won? Arrest me then pig. Do your damn job. You ain’t seen the last o’ me. Ya that’s right… take me to jail! HA HA HAAA!” Feigning that the officer had now won the altercation and had nothing to fear; at the same time he spoke he had been inching his left hand back to his waistband at the rear of his pants. Just as he finished his words, he wheeled around with a 45 caliber baby Glock 36 pistol in his hand. He could feel his victory at hand; he was going to blast six big holes in this cop… this pig who had caused him so much trouble.
Tak hadn’t assumed anything and had watched this dangerous man like a hawk. He saw his left arm inching behind him, and when it began to wheel around in his direction, Tak was already in motion. With Gunner sitting in front of him on his butt, the Glock was about at Tak’s thigh level. Tak through a soccer kick that cracked Gunner’s left wrist with his own boot, sending the pistol flying in the air. Before Gunner could make another move Tak grabbed the back of his head to hold it still with his left hand. He then reached down and with no hesitation jammed his right pointer finger into the outer edge of his left eye socket, quickly drove it in two knuckles deep, bent and hooked it around behind Gunner’s left eyeball. He brought his right thumb around and into the right side of the eye socket and pinched his fingers together behind that eyeball, completely encircling it. He then gripped tightly and ripped his hand backwards, pulling the eyeball and several inches of the optic nerve dangling behind it completely free of Gunner’s head as it disconnected with a “pop”.
Gunner began to scream and shake in all consuming agony as he covered his freshly hollowed eye socket with his left palm. He continued to scream as Tak walked over and retrieved his sword from the back of the man it stuck in. Tak spoke as he held the dark glass-like blade behind the back of Gunner’s thick neck, “This is for all the good people you murdered”. He continued to scream right up until he was smoothly decapitated. As his head rolled to a stop on the ground Tak could see a visage of horror frozen onto his face. Gunner’s right eye then moved to stare directly into Tak’s.
EPILOGUE
Tak returned to his burning home where his fellow officers still grieved over their recently slain loved ones. They buried their remains in the woods behind Tak’s home before the sun even came up. They held a small, unofficial ceremony at the freshly dug graves. Graves… As he looked upon them he scoffed at the irony of his name; he had sent so many people to their early graves recently. He had unintentionally caused his fellow officers’ families to meet their graves in an untimely manner. Would they ever forgive him? Or even should they? Could he forgive himself? Had he violated the Bushido code and not respected life? He didn’t know the answers to those questions right now but in his heart he felt that he had done the right thing. With the families of his fellow officers’ deaths so recent he took little solace in the fact that the Sons of Freedom were no more. What did the coming weeks and months have in store for the people of Marion… the people of Southern Illinois… the people of the country even and the world? His homestead burned before his eyes. He could rebuild, but there would always be such a painful memory here now that he doubted he would.
Tak and Amy drove to the Armory to return the Major’s weapons and debrief him. As they sit in his office Major Medina listened quietly as Tak recounted the events of the day. Finally he said “Under Martial Law local law enforcement officers around the country are working with the military. I’m hearing reports from all over of looting and rioting. Big cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York are burning, and things aren't much better in many smaller cities we’ve gotten reports of. Nationwide it seems to be a problem with getting enough local law enforcement and military personal to show up to police their cities. Well... anyway, what will you do now officer Graves?”
“Well Major, with our local PD destroyed, most of the officers dead and those who still live unable to work as they mourn last night’s murders of their family members, it looks like the security of Marion will fall on you and your men for the time being. Amy and I have decided to head down to Florida to try to get her mom, dad and 12 year old sister and bring them back to their home just outside of Marion in the country. Amy is worried about them and honestly the change of scenery would do me good right now. Plus, I figure if we are going to travel during these tumultuous times we should do it sooner than later. I’m sure you’ll have your issues to deal with like any other city, but with the Sons gone, things should be a lot better than they would have been otherwise. Hopefully you can recruit some volunteer police officers. When and if I return I’ll come help out however I can.”
The major considered his words as he stood up and looked out of his rear window at his yard full of military vehicles. “I’ll tell you wh
at Officer Graves; I understand that you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, but I expect that once you return with officer Braxton’s family you’ll report back to me and fill the role of chief of police. You can go ahead and keep one of the SAW’s and the grenades for the time being, and I’ll send you off with another 5,000 rounds for your trip. Things are getting rough out there and you never know what you’ll need. Keep me updated over the radio on our secure frequency, we have an officer monitoring it 24/7 here.” Tak and Amy stood as he replied “Thank you Major, I appreciate your help and we’ll keep in touch. One more thing; can you send a few soldiers with me now to go to the Sons’ Compound to secure the weapons and stolen items from the banks they’ve robbed? If you have room we’ll keep all that stuff here until it can be returned to the rightful owners.” The major replied “Of course; no problem.” They shook hands; neither man knowing that they’d never see each other again.
After collecting the weapons and loot from the Freedom Compound and burning the criminal’s bodies in a large pile, they dropped it off at the armory. Then they took the Jeep and went to the homes of their fellow officers and updated them on the trip they planned to leave on in the morning, and said their good-byes. Then they stopped by Tak’s hidden storm shelter and retrieved several items. Tak grabbed his Dad’s black “get out of Dodge” bag and several emergency supplies. In addition to some survival supplies and their passports, the bag contained a silenced 9mm pistol, two extra magazines, a couple boxes of ammo, five thousand dollars cash, and something even more valuable; a half dozen one-ounce gold coins. Thinking it the safest place for it, he left his family history book hidden in the cubby hole in the wall, but kept his sword with him. They went to Amy’s parents’ home and she opened up their storage barn that held the RV they would be taking. It was an old white Coachmen Leprechaun motorhome that was in excellent condition. It was 30 feet long and built on a Ford F-450 chassis with a powerful V-10 engine. Inside it had most of the comforts of home to include central heat and air, a queen sized bed, a hot shower, oven, microwave, fridge and freezer and dinette. It even had a working satellite system connected to a TV with several hundred movies on a flash drive. It had a couch that converted into a bed and another sleeping or storage area above the cab. A few solar panels on the roof kept its batteries topped off. Tak looked it over and said “Hey... this is nicer than I expected. Several people could stay in here comfortably.” Amy said “Ya, my parents used it years ago and always maintained it, but they upgraded to a luxury class A motorhome instead. I have great memories of this beast from when I was a little girl. We used to take it to the same RV park near St Petersburg Florida where my parents are now.” Tak chuckled “Beast huh? That would be a good nickname for her.” Amy laughed back “Sounds good to me.” Then she put her arms around his neck and looked into his eyes seriously. “I can’t thank you enough for doing this for me. I know you are hurting and feel like the deaths of our fellow officer’s family members are on you, but that isn’t the case at all. Please don't ever think that. Everything you’ve done was out of the goodness of your heart with the best of intentions. Our friends know that. You made the best choices you could with the information you had. You tried to protect them… their murders are on the Sons. The world is a much better place now that you’ve wiped those scum off the planet. I admire you Tak. You are a great man and I feel truly lucky to be with you. I love you.” Tak choked down a lump in his throat as he considered her words. He replied “Thank you Amy. I’m lucky to have you as well. I love you too.” They kissed deeply for some time after that.
HOSHOKU: IN THE APOCALYPSE, A HERO RISES (The Hoshoku Chronicles Book 1) Page 12