by Javan Bonds
The cardiologist frowned. “We haven’t seen enough yet to know what the disease even is. I am not too hopeful for a cure for those already infected, though. A resistant antivirus to prevent further infections might be a possibility. When this particular subject is no longer functioning, I will be able to dissect the cardiac muscle and will be closer to my answer.”
“Well I’m glad you called me to come see it. I better go before the Misses locks me out of the house again.”
His cheek twitched when he realized that he had referred to the county courthouse as “home” yet again. The mayor pointed in the general direction of the other Phantoms as he stood. “One of your boys already filled me in on its capture. I’ll let you get to it.” Mayor Collins waved as he turned to walk out of the room.
Dr. George was reading over an EKG report. He spoke to the mayor’s back without looking up, “I will be sure to let you know of any developments.”
The mayor nodded and contemplated a possible vaccine as he walked to his vehicle. He could see humans rising to the top of the food chain once MORE.
28
Chief Engineer Gene Stanley’s Log 3
I KNOW IT’S near midnight, darker than a Minoc’s cave. This day has been packed with more work than any twenty-five hour Sera day should be. We finally got our first fast attack boat completed and can hopefully construct more in coming cycles. Maybe next I’ll try for a Halo Warthog or a Tie Fighter.
Hunter broke his arm today and really required as much comforting as would a troll, that is to say absolutely none. His mother was unbelievably devastated, spending more time blaming a person that is hundreds of miles away for a simple accident than the time Luke spent studying the Force. I am going to have to warn her that simply drinking her anger down is only leading her down a dark path. ‘Darth Georgia’ does not sound catchy; plus, black is not her color.
☠☠☠
I just got off the horn with the mayor and he bid me come to the courthouse in the morning. I believe, he has something to show me. It’s not my birthday, so I don’t know if I should be expecting a Marty McFly skateboard or a surprise like Joe Pesci’s in Goodfellas.
I think I just heard Georgia call me. I’ll continue this entry when I get back. Alas, the trials of being in a committed relationship with an insanely attractive PRINCESS.
29
Violence
EARL WALKED AND jogged for what seemed like hours in the direction of the courthouse. He was completely unimpeded and met nothing but the hum of the occasional gas powered generator for most of his trek. Suddenly a pair of headlights came into view; he jogged over to the ditch and lay down. The vehicle finally passed by leaving him undetected, free to continue his journey. Who could that have been? The tail lights appeared to turn, they were definitely not going to the causeway. At least, not yet.
If everything was black and white I would think this was fucking Mayberry, he thought. They might as well roll up the damn streets at night. He knew that this city’d had a nightlife pre-Armageddon, but now there wasn’t anything happening. It was like only senior citizens survived.
As he came to within a few blocks of his intended target, The Betrayer was verbally accosted by a clearly drunken female voice. “What the fuck are you doing, soldier?”
Holy shit, he almost swallowed his tongue. A human voice was the one thing he didn’t want to hear. He looked over to see a blonde girl sitting on the road, leaning back against the curb. She clutched a half-empty bottle of Early Times in her hand. Damn, this girl drank some manly whiskey. He was taking her full form in from top to bottom, admiring every curve. She had a perfect rack that was close to falling out of her tank top. This hot piece of ass was unsuccessfully hiding those gorgeous legs under what Daisy Duke could barely consider shorts.
He had clipped the helmet to the leg of his spacesuit, she could see the look on his face as he checked her out. She rose and began seductively walking towards him. “You want some of this big boy?” She smacked her ass as she drew up to him, “Well, let’s just walk on in here to where my tall, dark boyfriend is and we can–” her humor instantly turned to horror. “Are you bleeding? What the fuck?“ Because the armor was red, she had not noticed the drying blood covering the front until she got close.
The drunken woman turned back to the closest building. “Gene? Gene! There’s one of the storm trooper guys out here and–”
Earl gripped her arm and pulled her to him. He tried to keep his voice barely above a whisper. “Shut the fuck up, bitch!” This was not part of his plan and he had to improvise. “This was all a dream and you never saw me.”
He intended to render her unconscious by knocking her in the head and figured he would get a handful as he reached up. Damned armored gloves! She let out a bloodcurdling scream as his hand moved up. She tried to pull away from the freak as he pulled her closer. Quickly sobering up, Georgia desperately struggled to get away from this creep before he could really hurt her.
The Betrayer pulled the knife from the sheath attached to his rifle’s shoulder strap and attempted to scare her into silence. “Be quiet, you stupid cunt.” He smiled as she began futilely kicking his armored crotch. “Or we can have some fun with Mr. Bowie.”
The little bitch had some balls, still fighting like mad. His scare tactic obviously didn’t work. She was somehow still holding onto the bottle and brought it around and hit him across the face
Earl was surprised that the thick glass bottle simply shattered on impact rather than cracking his jaw. He had seen those things thrown into stop signs while driving ninety miles an hour down the road, they would just bounce off.
Now bleeding from multiple lacerations on his face, he was so angry that he jammed his knife to the hilt up under her ribcage. Soft squishing sounds could be heard as he drove the dagger deep into her chest, slicing open at least a lung. He gently shushed her and grabbed at her breasts as he lowered her to the pavement.
He slowly stood and backed away from the fading girl he had just murdered. He could hear an exclamation from the door of the building, “Georgia! The nerdy-looking man fixed his gaze on Earl. “What did you do, you son of a bantha?”
The thin figure began approaching Earl. The armored man then brought his rifle to bear. Before Gene could react and before Earl could pull the trigger, The Betrayer was suddenly beheaded. The man’s skull seem to vaporize, gray matter exploding and blood shooting like a fountain from the neck as the armor collapsed. It took a second for Gene to hear the report of the shot that dropped the man who murdered his lover. The Betrayer’s violence had finally brought him to his end.
☠☠☠
The tech was incredulous. He asked the man holding the rifle standing a few hundred yards behind where the headless body now lay, “Randy? Why aren’t you at the courthouse?”
The mayor walked closer and kicked the orb-less armor. “The doc has a peevie sedated in the clinic and he called me to come see it. I was just on my way back and this space marine must not have heard my Humvee.”
Gene cocked his head, briefly wondering how the older man knew of the suit’s universe of origin. “Who is–was he?”
“Hell if I know, I doubt we’ll find any of his teeth.” the mayor joked on dental records. A light bulb came on over Mayor Collins’s head. “Which causeway was this armor supposed to be at?”
The Tech had to think before replying. “The Blood Raven was at the south. Why?”
Gene slowly came to the realization as Mayor Collins lifted his radio. “Doc, emergency! Get The Phantoms to the southern causeway ASAP!”
As the mayor ran back to his vehicle he turned to the shocked engineer, still clad in his Transformers pajamas. He offered sympathetically, “I’m sorry I can’t stay. And sorry about Georgia. Wish there was something I could do!”
Randy did a U-turn and sped off into the night, leaving Gene alone in complete silence and utter shock. He could not decide if he had just flow walked (a Jedi time travel ability) at warp nine or if
any of this was real. He had to go back and think how he got to this point at this moment. When he and Georgia had returned with Hunter earlier tonight–that was already last night now–she kept blaming Smokes for all of her troubles and retrieved something that she said was Daniel’s, a half-gallon of bourbon. She stayed outside to drown her sorrows, Gene let her have her time. He had only been alerted a few minutes ago when she called for him. Had someone killed a bridge guard, stolen his uniform, and walked on foot all this way just to assassinate the woman of his dreams? The killer did not appear to be bald or have a barcode on the back of his head, when he had a head, so Gene was clueless. Georgia was dead, he was confident of this. He knew there was no reason to check for a pulse on her cooling form.
“There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force.” He calmed himself while repeating the Jedi code like a mantra. He knelt beside her still body. His was quivering inside like gelatin. But he had to remain serene, at least until he figured out what was going on.
As he grasped her pale hand, thoughts of his Mother flashed across his mind. He had lost the two most important women in his life within a month of each other. He made a promise to her stiffening form and to himself that he would take care of Hunter as if he were his own. This loss would haunt him for the rest of his life, but he did not have the luxury to fall apart. If the island was being attacked the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, or the ONE.
☠☠☠
30
Mo Journal Entry 12
I HAVE APPARENTLY grown accustomed to my torturous daily schedule of waking before sunrise. I blinked my eyes open right as the one eyed slave driver returned from the bathroom.
She stood there, completely suited up and ready for a glorious death. The labor boss looked over her victims of the day, determining the level of physical abuse each of us could withstand. She noticed that I was looking at her and The Expert cut her eye at me. Her drill instructor bellow grew in earth shattering intensity with each syllable, “Why are you still in the bed? Get up and get dressed! Sunrise is in three minutes!”
God Almighty, take it easy lady. I ain’t even took my morning piss yet. I rose, walked into the bathroom, and I’m not sorry I got it all over the seat that I didn’t raise and probably the floor. I was out in what was record time for me in my black scrub top and bullet proof vest, feeling as manly as any male can sporting women’s apparel.
Hammer had obviously rudely awakened the entire group, including my barely functional brother and his fiancée, while I was getting dressed. They were both wiping their eyes as the couple accepted caffeine pills from the expert. I don’t think I could’ve ingested contraband offered by her, God knows where she’s been hiding it for the past two days. I probably shouldn’t bring that up to Easy, he’s one of those people who refuses to get out of bed before noon, he needed the caffeine to keep him alert enough to not fall asleep as we ran to the plane. He was functioning, but I knew he would make sure everyone knew he wasn’t enjoying being awake at a decent hour. By all means, I enjoy my sleep, but I’m more of a morning person, at least after a cup of coffee. Hammer must have decided that more than six hours of rest is for lazy people. She nearly made Smokes cry as she screamed at him to hurry up.
“Shit white lady, you can’t rush summin’ so beautiful.” I wasn’t gonna think about what he could be implying as he sighed, grunted, and moaned in relief. It sounded like a weird porn movie I had seen before. “Dat’s ova now, hos.” I shuddered, picturing a darker version of Fat Bastard from Austin Powers lamenting, “I didn’t eat corn!”
I stowed the walkie-talkie almost hidden in the armor, it was on my chest, close enough that I would be able to hear the chime just in case it was to buzz. Even so, I wasn’t expecting any calls. I would either need to call my dad and tell him we were on our way or at least send a final message as I fall under a rain of bullets. I questioned The Oracle, “So we got everything we need, right?”
The assembled group nodded their readiness. It was clear that most of them were working themselves up mentally for what was coming. The Expert felt at her pocket of grenades before answering, “Looks like it. Those KGB hippies won’t know what hit ’em.” She stopped before being the first out of the door and turned to the lovers. To reassure the unarmored pair, she added: “I’m sure we’ll find some extra vests in the armory. You will have some protection before we start our run.”
☠☠☠
Our band moved in the general direction of the cafeteria. We slunk into the large building to our left. This was the administration building where everything would go down before our escape. Once inside, Hammer communicated to us through hand signals. She gestured for my brother to move upstairs, Aka to go find that desperate guard, Tychus to accompany her to one of the upper floors, and I was to lead Smokes by grabbing his shoulder. The two of us were to wait near the armory. I really need to get Hammer to go over the meaning of hand signals with my overly large friend. Perhaps she could teach a class on tactical movements when we get back to the island. That class would immediately follow her lessons in Soviet Slaying 101. Of course, it would lead up to Crow’s home economics lessons on cooking bland, unseasoned fish. Gene should have a class on mechanical engineering or something. I might have a weekly seminar on how to be a worthless jackass, if I feel like it.
☠☠☠
We watched from around the corner as the African princess pleaded with the guard. I nearly laughed at her suggestions about “touching big guns.” The cop shakily fumbled to get his key into the lock as the blood rushed away from his cranium.
I could clearly understand his frustration and sympathize, a piece of literal chocolate was being bounced in front of him and he was starving. Any heterosexual man with a penis would be having the same problem.
It looked like he was about to start crying at his inability to find the key. If something didn’t happen soon, I was afraid he might burst into flames. I got a tap on my shoulder and almost screamed. “The warden is done,” Easy whispered.
I snickered, “Done? How long did you put her in the microwave?”
He deadpanned questioningly, “No. I mean she was taken care of.”
He didn’t even seem shaken up, I was actually proud of my brother. I mean, killing a person with your bare hands is pretty badass in itself, but he did not seem phased that he had just broken a human’s neck. I’ve only killed peevies to this date; I don’t think I would want to be in Easy’s shoes. Hell, I might be found later, crying in the fetal position because I took a life. I like to think I’m as big a man as my younger brother.
I’m not one of those perverts that gets off on those stories about men brutalizing women, but I had to have the gory details in case I ever needed to murder someone with my excessive STRENGTH.
31
Bound
Prophecy from The Book of Smokes:
The Protector is calm, does not tend to show deep emotions, and may even appear dimwitted to some. When the need arises and other main protagonists are in jeopardy, the character will seem to transform into a lunatic berserker. The Protector will always defend those that cannot defend themselves. Will never start the fight, but always makes sure it gets finished.
☠☠☠
HE RAPPED HIS knuckles on the door. “It’s open,” could be heard from the other side. Easy closed the door behind him as he walked to the desk. Warden Slice faced him from the opposite side, her gaze warm for her favorite detainee.
After the niceties were out of the way she got down to business. “How is everything going with our new citizens?” The Dictator continued, “Are they acclimating well to our command structure?”
A look of worry crossed her face as The Protector exhaled with a hint of sadness. He answered, “Well, that’s what I came here to talk to you about.”
She stood and turned to face the window
. She watched as loyal citizens filed into the cafeteria before starting their daily chores. “They are not content to be safe?”
“I don’t think they like being forced to stay here,” he began from his seat on the other side of the desk. She gasped, spinning around to face him with her hands still behind her back. He was nearly on top of her in the blink of an eye. “And neither do I.”
The bodybuilder slammed his full weight into her, crashing her back into the floor-to-ceiling window. Her skull bounced off the bulletproof glass and her eyes simultaneously closed. He was thankful the glass was one-way, mirrored on the other side. If anyone had seen what he’d done, he would already have been swarmed by guards. The Protector really didn’t want to be on the wrong side of a hostage situation using the unconscious warden as a shield.
He was just as thankful the glass was thick. Not that he would’ve been brokenhearted if she fell out of the building, but someone may have noticed it was raining humans.
She was out cold and now he had to think on what to do with her. While strategizing with his brother’s crew, he had intended to kill the warden. The Protector had just acted spontaneously upon entering the room. Now the younger Collins was not sure he was psychologically prepared to murder a helpless and unconscious person. Maybe he could just put her out of action for the foreseeable future. In her desk, he found a few zip ties and enough tape to keep her quiet for a while. He looked around the room for a place to stow her concussed form. “That’ll Work!” He zip-tied her hands and feet before taping her mouth shut, she wouldn’t be going anywhere at least for the rest of the day. The bodybuilder lifter her, throwing her arms over the moose rack, satisfied her arms would be sore when she woke. Easy opened the door, locked it, and then broke said lock before heading downstairs so no one could enter and find the WARDEN.