Gus found himself in a ditch by the side of the road. His head throbbed and sang in the high pitch of concussion. He got up to his knees and vomited on the grass. The Humvee that he had travelled in lied in ruins a few feet away. He must have been thrown some great distance by the blast. They probably set a landmine in the middle of the road knowing that they would drive over it.
A police cruiser pulled up beside the wreckage of the Humvee. Gus watched as four men in uniform examined the wreck. They found the driver still alive and trying to crawl to freedom. A bullet to the back of the head instantly stopped any progress he was making. Gus took a deep breath and reached for his sidearm. He laughed to himself as he thought – ‘Four guys. It's only four guys’. As they turned in his direction, he decided to lie down and play dead.
“Hey, there's another one over here,” said one of the cops, pointing at Gus' prone body. They were almost too casual in their approach, certain in their situation and their numbers. Gus let them get close and listened to the sound of their crunching footsteps to judge the distance. He counted to three and sprang into action, taking the first two by surprise and dropping them with a couple of well-placed shots. He made a run for the trees as the other two opened fire. He could hear the bullets narrowly whizzing past his head as he took cover behind a moss-covered cypress tree. The tree took a couple for the team before Gus emerged from behind it and returned fire at a run to the next nearest tree. He managed to clip one of them in the shoulder as he ran. That left only one of them still active. Gus could see the last man's gun was shaking as Gus ran from the cover of one tree to the next, gradually working his way closer. The cop fired off quick shots every time Gus stuck his head out, but he missed every single one. Then Gus was suddenly in open ground and charging like an offensive tackle. He collided with the cop before he could get another shot off and landed right on top of him. With a rock in his fist, Gus smashed the cop's face until he stopped moving. He gave a primal roar up to the darkening clouds after the deed was done and got back to his feet. The cop that he had clipped in the shoulder was crawling on his belly, trying to get away to safety. Gus walked up behind him and aimed the gun at the back of his head. He saw the body of the driver up ahead, the same driver that the cop beneath him had shot.
“If it's good for the goose,” Gus said before pulling the trigger. He allowed himself to breathe as he searched the dead cop. In one of the pockets, he found a pack of Marlboro Reds.
“Maybe there is a God after all.”
Gus helped himself to one of the smokes as he approached the wreckage of the Humvee and looked inside. All three of his travelling companions were dead, but Mr. Winks was somehow still intact. Gus rescued the teddy bear and climbed behind the wheel of the police cruiser. He sat Mr. Winks up on the dashboard and drove towards his friends.
A police bike overtook the Dodge Challenger with its siren wailing. The cop on the motorbike had no interest in Darnell or Karina. He was more focused on the Jeep in front that was towing an airboat behind it. The cop drove up alongside the boat, pulled a pin out of a grenade with his teeth and tossed it onto the deck. The explosion ripped the hull to shreds causing the Jeep to momentarily swerve dangerously before righting itself.
“They're after the boats,” said Karina.
“Smart,” said Darnell. “If we don't have any boats then we can't go into the swamps and attack them.”
“Yeah, well their smart is about to become a whole lot of stupid,” said Karina as she cocked her gun and put the top half of her body out the open window. Carefully, she took aim and fired shots at the cop on the bike. One shot managed to hit, and he was thrown from the bike at speed into a nearby tree. His body cracked in two.
“That had to hurt,” said Darnell.
Karina was thrown violently forward as she got back into her seat. A police cruiser had driven up behind and was ramming the Dodge with everything it had.
“No! Not the Dodge, you bastard,” cried Darnell.
One of the cops spoke scripture through the police cruiser's public speakers.
JEREMIAH 19:9
I WILL MAKE THEM EAT THE FLESH OF THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS, AND THEY WILL EAT ONE ANOTHER'S FLESH BECAUSE THEIR ENEMIES WILL PRESS SIEGE SO HARD AGAINST THEM TO DESTROY THEM.
“I've had about enough of these assholes,” said Karina as she started to climb onto the roof of the moving Dodge.
“What the hell are you doing? Are you crazy?”
“Yep,” she said with a smile and a wink.
“Okay. Guess we're doing this.”
Karina climbed on top of the car and held onto the roof for dear life as the high-speed winds whipped her hair all around.
“I immediately regret this,” she said to mostly herself.
The cop on the passenger's side started shooting at her from his window. She could hear the pings as the bullets hit spots close to her head. She got to her feet and ran into a jump that bridged the gap between the cars. She landed straight on their roof and had to scramble for grip before she tumbled off to the road. She caught onto the flashing blue lights on top of the car as the cops started shooting holes up into their own roof. Karina did her best to anticipate the shots and avoid them, but she knew it was only a matter of time before her luck ran out if she didn't act quickly enough. She unbuckled her belt and whipped it off as fast as she could, tying one end to the flashing lights and holding firmly onto the other end. Karina moved before she could give herself time to reconsider and threw herself off the side of the car. The belt went slack with her falling weight, and she gripped onto the side of the car to help relieve the strain. The two cops were shocked to see Karina appear at their flank, but the expression didn't last long as she once more put her weight on the belt momentarily, drew her gun and fired a single shot that went through both of their skulls.
The car swerved left and right as she pulled herself back onto the roof. She was preparing for a crash landing when yet another car came up from behind and rammed the cruiser, shunting it a few feet forward ahead of its pace. Karina was thrown, but her grip on the belt saved her and brought her crashing back down to the roof with an impact that was sure to leave a nasty bruise. She looked behind to see the Corvette closing the distance with Gary Chambers behind the wheel.
“Son of a bitch!”
There was no time for caution. Karina got to her feet once more and rode the out of control police cruiser as if it were a bull at a rodeo. She jumped as it finally hit a bump in the road and tumbled with a spin into the air. Karina fired shots into Gary's windshield while still in mid-air and landed with a dropkick through the compromised glass, kicking Gary right in the face. He spat teeth as blood ran from his broken nose. Karina took aim and shot him in the chest over and over until she had no more bullets left to shoot. Gary's corpse kept its foot pressed down on the accelerator, and the Corvette collided with the wreck of the police cruiser. Karina was thrown rapidly through the air and landed with a heavy roll on the grass by the side of the road. She finally came to a stop and let out a scream of disbelief that she was still alive. The Dodge Challenger doubled back and pulled to a stop beside her. Darnell opened the passenger side door.
“Need a ride, pretty lady?”
Karina got up and dusted herself off.
“Shut up, dork.”
She got in the car, and they drove to re-join the others who were busy finishing off the last of the ambushers without them.
“Cormac's dead,” said Karina.
Darnell's jaw clenched as he gripped tightly to the steering wheel, but still, he focused on the road like it was the only thing in existence.
“I know,” was the only thing he said on the matter. They drove on in silence.
CHAPTER TEN
Nancy walked down the streets of New Sodom with her clipboard in hand as people approached her from the left and right. This was a common occurrence, as people knew that if they could get Nancy to write something down on her clipboard, it was as good as done. Ted Diaz was the
first to grab her attention.
“My son's medication...”
“It arrived yesterday. Go see Doctor Chang, and she will see that you get what you need.”
“Thanks, Nancy.”
“No problem, Ted.”
Angela Bradbury was up next.
“I need to move. Those Murphy boys were playing loud music until 4am last night. That's the fifth night in a row.”
Nancy scribbled a reminder onto her clipboard.
“I'll check the available housing list and find something suitable for you and your family to move into by the end of the day. I'll get back to you.”
“Thanks, Nancy.”
“No problem, Angela.”
“Nancy! Nancy, I need a word.”
It was Wally Walters. Nancy hated Wally Walters. He was a mean-faced old man who always looked like he was sucking on a lemon. She started walking in the opposite direction as fast as she could, but he was already jogging to meet her.
“I'm kind of busy right now, Wally, but if you make an appointment, I'll hear out whatever it is that you have to say.”
“We need to talk about cigarettes.”
“Is this really important?”
“Of course it's important. Everyone knows that I only smoke Marlboro Reds, but what did the supply team bring back? Pall Malls. Nothing but Pall Malls. I can't smoke that crap. What are you going to do about this, Nancy? How about you tell me.”
Nancy arrived at her office building and rested her hand on the door handle as she turned back towards Wally.
“Me? I'm not going to do a thing, but you're more than welcome to go beyond the walls and scavenge for a pack yourself.”
She entered the building as Wally shouted after her.
“Write it down on your clipboard, Nancy. Marlboro Reds. Marlboro...”
Nancy shut the door in his face and leaned back against it, taking a moment to close her eyes and catch her breath.
“Nancy,” shouted a voice. “Nancy, a moment of your time.”
She stood in a waiting room that was full to capacity. Every voice was shouting for her attention, but all that she heard was a babbled noise as one voice strained to be heard over the other. She made haste towards her office, speeding past the volunteer receptionist who tried to hand her the queue order.
“I'll be with you all in just a moment,” she said with her best-practiced smile before putting another door between herself and the petitioners. In the common area between offices was Beth Thompson with a file in her hand.
“It never ends, does it?” said Nancy. Beth's laugh was dry and brief.
“Welcome to public service, kid. It takes more than the threat of extinction to stop humans demanding things. We even used to give people on death row last meals so that they could get one last demand before they went. Provide these people with safety and community, and they say 'Sure, but what else?'. So, no, it never does end. Are you regretting your decision to become my assistant?”
“Someone has to put the needs of others before themselves, right? We get nowhere if we all take from each other.”
“Sane minds do prevail after all. To be honest, it would be impossible for me to handle this workload on my own. Everyone wants to have a say, but no one wants to do the work. Most of them half believe that the end really is coming and don't think that they should burden themselves with responsibility in their final days. Even Remy rolls his eyes at the thought of doing any administrative work. That leaves people like you and me with too much of the responsibility and too little of the thanks. So, we might as well get to it since no one else is going to do it for us. What's on the agenda for today?”
Beth moved towards her office as Nancy followed behind and consulted the notes on her clipboard.
“There's been a sighting of a whole pride of lions roaming outside the walls.”
“You're kidding me,” said Beth as she sat behind her desk and massaged her aching stump.
“I'm afraid not. They must have escaped from a zoo somewhere a long time ago, but we'll probably have to deal with them in some way before they become a nuisance.”
“I'm not sanctioning the murder of lions. Do we have any tranquiliser guns?”
“We have a few, yes.”
“We'll put a team together to knock them out and drive them somewhere far away from here. Anything else?”
“There's some unrest about the water rationing...”
Nancy stopped speaking as the sound of gunfire intruded on their conversation. Beth's eyes went wide as she scrambled for her crutches. The shots were coming from inside the building, with screams heard from the people sitting out in the waiting room.
“There's no way out that isn't through that waiting room,” said Beth with a tone of panic creeping into her voice.
“Then we'll make another way,” said Nancy as she took an office chair and smashed it against one of the windows. She put Beth’s arm over her shoulders and tried to hurry her over to the open window. The gun in the waiting room kept firing until the screams stopped, and then it was suddenly very quiet. Beth froze on the spot, knowing that she no longer had enough time to escape. Her disability would be the death of them both if they kept on running. Beth separated herself from Nancy and gave her a shove towards the window.
“Go!” she said, but Nancy shook her head and stepped away from the window.
“I'm not going anywhere.”
They hugged each other tightly as the door opened with a prolonged creak. There stood Officer Greg. A much-changed man from the one they had seen before. Nails still protruded from his blood-crusted head as he aimed his gun at the two women. Every moment for him was agony, but a fierce determination still burned in his eyes.
“Wuh-wuh-where's Rah-Raimond?”
“I'm right here,” said a cold voice from behind.
Officer Greg seized hold of Nancy and spun to face Raimond with her as his hostage. Greg whimpered as he watched Raimond step over the bodies of people that Greg had just killed. Raimond was armed with only a hammer that hung casually by his side.
“I heard all this noise, and I thought to myself, that must be my dear friend, Gregory. Looks like I nailed it if you'll forgive me an insensitive pun.”
“You duh-did this to muh-me,” said Greg with drool falling from his drooping lip.
“Yes, I did,” said Raimond as he held up the hammer for Greg to see. “My only mistake was not finishing the job. I thought we had shared some intimate understanding, but I guess not.”
Raimond started to walk forward, hammer held high. There was no fear in his eyes, and there was no rage. There was only a coldness that almost froze Greg in his place as he stared deep into Raimond’s soul.
“I'll kuh-kill her,” Greg warned as he pressed the gun to Nancy's temple.
“Why do that when you could kill me instead? I'm going to run at you now and you can either kill me or kill her, but I promise that you won't have time for both unless you choose me.”
“Are you kuh-kuh-crazy?”
Raimond let his actions answer that question. He charged with the hammer and Greg decided to shoot at him instead of Nancy. Greg put two bullets right in Raimond's chest and dropped him onto the carpet floor. Raimond was still and motionless. Greg threw Nancy aside and pointed his gun at her and Beth.
“Buh-both of you. In the corner.”
They went back to hugging each other as they moved to comply. Greg approached Raimond's body with his gun still raised. He approached like he was a child confronting the monster that lurked inside his closet. The hairs stood up at the back of his neck as he drew close enough to tap the body with his foot. Raimond's eyes shot open, and the hammer smashed into Greg's ankle. The swing of the hammer was rewarded with a loud snapping sound as Greg screamed in agony on his way down to the floor. Greg tried to aim his gun again, but Raimond moved quickly to strike the hammer at his hand. Greg screamed again as the weapon flew from his shattered grip.
“Kevlar, motherfucker!” said R
aimond as he climbed on top of the whimpering Greg. “Every nail needs a good hammer.”
Raimond thumped the first nail further into Greg's brain, and then he thumped the second nail. Greg started to spasm and suck all of the oxygen out of the room with a pained inhale.
“Stuh-stuh-stuh-stop...”
Nancy and Beth turned their heads away as Raimond kept hammering until nothing of the nails protruded outside of the brain. Greg still lived, but only the whites of his eyes were visible as he loudly mumbled incoherent gibberish.
“Finish it, Raimond,” said Beth from her corner. “Finish it, please.”
“No,” he said as he dropped the hammer and got back to his feet. He rubbed at the places where bullets had struck Kevlar. “He ain't going to no paradise that he hasn't earned. We're gonna keep him like this. The doctor is going to pull those nails out of his head and do her very best to keep him alive for as long as possible.”
“Why? Why would we do something like that?”
“When people don't fear death, make them fear life.”
THE FOUNDING OF NEW SODOM
The end of the world was nothing new to Remy Laveau. He had already seen it once before on the day that Hurricane Katrina came to visit New Orleans. He was not a man back then. Just a young thug that got mixed up with the wrong people and didn't know any better. The waters of Katrina killed that naive thug and brought a Voodoo King back from the dead with all the lessons his mother had taught him. There was no turning away from the things that he had witnessed on that fateful week. All that it took to bring the worst out of civilised human beings was one crisis. When the levees broke, the entire lower ninth ward drowned in the waters. Remy could still remember the screams from one of his neighbours as the water rose too fast for him to escape his own home. They later marked his house with a Katrina cross so that Remy had a permanent reminder of that scream. Remy himself was not untouched by the devastation. He tried to get to his mother in time, but she was swept away. If she didn't hit the street lamp, he might have lost her for good. The street lamp saved her, but the impact also took away the use of her legs. Remy thought that was as bad as it could get for him and his mother, but he was wrong. The days that followed were much worse.
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