Gunner was steaming mad as he addressed the group, “Listen up! Apparently there are still some pigs out there that weren’t at the Marion PD when we blew it up; and they are fighting back. Some chinky looking cop is leading them. Before we do anything else we need to finish them off... all of them. They hit us hard when we were enroute to the Armory. They must have gotten the info about our planned attack from Ghost. There ain’t no way they broke him with just talk, so they musta got medieval on his ass. They don’t know who they’re messing with... DO THEY SONS?!”
Cheers of “hell no!” and “Let’s kill em!” came from the crowd. Gunner went on, “The first thing were gonna have to do is find em. Where are these pigs hiding at?! There can’t be many of them left. Percival told me that the Armory is on high alert now, so they must have told them about our plans….”
One of the sons spoke up, interrupting Gunner. He was a mid-50’s redneck with wavy brown hair and a full beard who went by Ralphy. “Hey Gunner, you say the cop was a chink? Was his name Graves? My boy used to train at his dad’s martial arts school and go to training camps at his house years ago. If that’s the one, I know where he lives.” Gunner seemed to calm down as a grin grew over his face. “Come with me Ralphy; we’ve got some details to discuss.”
CHAPTER 26: SOMETHING’S WRONG
1AM, Day 3 of the new world
After having left their 2nd meeting with Major Medina, the officers had had a long meeting and made plans to finish off the Sons. It was agreed that since the Sons had superior numbers it would be best to hit them well into the dark of night when they were sleeping. They had left just after sunset to recon the freedom compound before conducting their planned assault. Amy had joined Tak and the other officers, unwilling to miss out on the attack and help in any way she could, even though she waited near the vehicles when they got near the Compound, at Tak’s persuading.
Tak sat next to Naff and peered through his Advanced Night Vision Goggles about 100 yards from the outermost building in the freedom compound. They were the same one’s he’d used in the Marine Corps. They could zoom in like a set of binoculars or a button could be hit multiple times to switch through their normal, night vision and heat detecting modes. Naff whispered, “We’ve only spotted one of them in the last three hours, and he’s manning their com center. Where the hell are they? Whatever looting or mischief they are up to should be over by now. I saw we go check on the Armory to see if they are OK. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went back to hit it.” Tak whispered back “The Armory should be OK now that they are expecting the attack. Certainly they would have a chance to at least radio us for assistance if they were hit. Go ahead and contact DeYoung and have him try and get ahold of them.”
Naff changed channels on his handheld and punched in the proper code. He spoke into his radio “Naff to DeYoung”. No answer came over his radio. Naff tried again several times and still, there was no answer. He reported to Tak, “Nobody’s answered from the PD. That’s not like DeYoung. Something’s wrong.” Tak replied “OK, let’s head back and check on things there.” They all quietly walked back to their vehicles where had been concealed a half mile away.
CHAPTER 27: THE UNTHINKABLE
11:45PM, Day 2 of the new world
DeYoung had been manning the com center at Tak’s house while the officer’s families were sleeping in the dojo, pole barn and bunkhouse out back. Unbeknownst to them, 43 Sons had surrounded Tak’s home and buildings. As the first wild criminal burst through the front door with more rushing in behind him, DeYoung picked his service pistol up off the desk and fired two shots into the madman before Gunner’s shotgun blast tore through his chest. He never got a chance to radio for help. Not a man, woman or child was spared in the massacre that ensued. The Sons left about an hour later as each building on Tak’s compound was engulfed in flames. The heads of over two dozen family members were left to be discovered, impaled on stakes around the front of the burning house.
CHAPTER 28: GRIEF
2AM, Day 3 of the new world
Amy kept trying to reach DeYoung back at Tak’s house as they drove back there. Once the house came into sight they saw that all the buildings were ablaze. As they pulled up in front of his house Tak saw the stakes with the heads of the officer’s family members on them. He wanted to stop them from seeing the gruesome sight of their loved one’s impaled heads, but it was too late. Tak, Amy and the two soldiers on loan were the only ones who hadn’t had immediate family members there. Upon seeing the carnage, the officers were stricken with grief. Lewis fell to his knees before his wife and five year old twin’s heads and wailed in horror as the tears streamed down his face. The sparkly pink beret was still in his little Mindy’s hair, moving with the breeze in her ponytail. Both her and her brother Drew’s eyes were still open and blood stained their beach blonde hair.
The other officers experienced shock, grief and extreme sorrow in much the same ways, as they looked upon the unthinkable and were consumed in their grief. The two soldiers, Tak and Amy stood behind them, as she threw her arms around him and sobbed into his chest. After a few minutes filled with the cries of the officers, Lewis turned and walked up to Tak; just a few inches in front of his face. Tak couldn’t read his intentions; he thought he might be about to get punched. He decided if that were the case; so be it. He’d let his friend hit him. He knew he couldn’t be in his right mind right now. Several long moments went by as they stared into each other’s eyes. Tak put his arm on his friend’s shoulder and quietly said, “I am so sorry”. Lewis slapped his hand off and his expression almost broke into rage, but he quickly brought it back to stone… except for his eyes. A fire was burning deep within them. Tak didn’t know what to say and couldn't imagine the pain he was going through. After a few moments Lewis suddenly spun on his heels and went straight to his squad car. Tak yelled after him, “Lewis, hold on! Let’s do this together as a team the right way.” Lewis wasn’t hearing any of it as he jumped in his cruiser and sped off.
Amy looked at Tak and said “What are we going to do?” Determination came over his face and he replied, “Stay here and do what you can to help our grieving friends. I’ll be back to help bury the dead and pick you up in a few hours. If I don’t return you should probably take your RV down to your parents in Florida.” Then he looked at the two soldiers “Men, I need your help. If you are ok with it, wait here for a few minutes and I’ll be right back; then were going to finish off the animals who did this. We’ll be greatly outnumbered so if you’d rather not go I understand.” The soldiers looked at each other for confirmation and then back to Tak and almost simultaneously said “Were in”.
Tak went to his hidden storm shelter in the woods behind his house, which still remained undiscovered by the Sons. He changed clothes into a set of olive drab military pants, t-shirt, jacket and a boonie hat. He opened the secret compartment in the wall and retrieved his sword and attached it through his belt on his left hip. He returned to his jeep and retrieved the camo bandana he had taken from Ghost and put it around his face, covering from just below his eyes down. Sergeant Allen and PFC Wright followed him as they drove to the Freedom Compound for the final time.
CHAPTER 29: SHOWDOWN
3:30AM, Day 3 of the new world
Tak peered through his Advanced Night Vision Goggles from about a hundred yards to the west of the large pole barn on the freedom compound. He could see through the large open garage doors as the Sons partied into the night. Loud noise was pumping from within. There were couple bunkhouses nearby where a few of them had retired to for the night, but most of them were still up celebrating. Several were half in and half out of the barn, watching a pair of them in a bare knuckle boxing match and several others watched a Son spinning in circles and doing burnouts on his motorcycle.
He instructed the two army soldiers lying on the ground next to him in front of their SAW machine guns, “Men, when you hear the explosions, open up on everyone who runs out of that barn. It might take 20 minutes or s
o before you hear it.” Sergeant Allen nodded “10-4. We’ll be waiting”.
Bo had finished eight cans of beer since returning from the slaughter and had to go return some it to the earth. With a beer in hand he stumbled out of the light and over to a tree about 20 yards south of the pole barn, unzipped and began to relief himself. About mid-stream he saw a man walking towards him from the woods, who he recognized as a Son from his camouflage bandana around his face. He chuckled and said “Hey dork, I think it’s safe to take the colors off your face now, there ain't nobody…” “SWOOSH”; his sentence was suddenly cut off, just like his head. Tak had drawn his sword and decapitated the man in one smooth motion. He reached out and grabbed Bo’s shirt and helped his body fall quietly, wiped the sides of his sword on that same shirt, sheathed it and drug the body about 20 yards deeper into the woods. He then retrieved Bo’s head and tossed it next to his body. He grabbed Bo’s beer can and began stumbling towards the bunkhouses, simulating the unbalanced steps of a drunk. He kept his head down and stumbled by a group of several Sons who were drinking and smoking just outside of the barn. They didn’t pay him much attention. He passed by the southern wall of the barn and went to the nearest log bunkhouse, which was about 40 yards behind the barn to the east. Five other identical bunkhouses sat in a row going north and south.
Tak eased open the screen door and stepped in. It was dark with the only small amount of light coming through the front door behind him. He stepped to the right so he’d be out of the light and lifted his Advanced Night Vision Goggles up from his neck to over his eyes. He pushed a button on the upper right side and a green image filled his view. This was no grainy first generation night vision equipment he wore; he could make out every detail in the room almost as clearly as if it were daytime. It was a large open room with four sets of bunkbeds in it; two on each wall with an open walkway down the middle. Footlockers were at the feet of each bed and standing lockers were between then with foldable plastic tables and chairs to the left and right of the screen door and at the rear of the room. The floor was a simply large slab of concrete. A man was asleep and snoring on both bottom beds of the front bunks to his left and right. The bottom right bunk in the rear of the room contained a Son and his female companion who were busy bumping into each other and moaning. Tak quietly drew his sword. The dark, rippling glass-like blade picked up a small amount of the light in the room with an almost unperceivable inner glow. He wanted to act quickly, but still not rush it and wake anyone up. He moved to the sleeping man on the bunk in front of him. He looked over at the two going at it on the right rear bunk, and they were oblivious to anything but each other. He held the blade over the sleeping raider’s throat and held it there, an inch above making contact.
A tinge of guilt struck him as he realized that he was about to murder a helpless man. Murder? No… the guilt left as soon as it had come when the image of the heads of his friends’ family members impaled on stakes replaced it. He pushed the blade downward. He felt almost no resistance, but his attempt to sever the man’s arteries had gone all but an inch from being a full decapitation. The man only slightly twitched before his spinal cord was neatly separated and blood gushed from his throat. He walked over to the front left bunkbed and repeated the process on that snoring man, with the same results. He then looked to the couple in the right rear corner of the room. The woman was on all fours with the man thrusting behind her as he faced the far left wall of the room. He would be able to see Tak if he approached from the center aisle. Tak didn’t want to risk him making any noise before he could get close to him. He quietly walked back next to the front right bunk where the first man he had killed lay motionless. Blood was dripping off of the bed on to the floor. Tak lay down on his back on the concrete slab and began quietly crawling under that bed and towards the right rear bunk. His vertical profile never got higher than a foot as he inched undetected across the floor. He stopped directly under the bouncing bunk and put the rear of his sword’s blade straight up in front of his body and face; just a couple inches between him and the steel bedsprings. Once he was centered under the bunk with the woman directly above him, he simply twisted the sword forward in his hand in a downward motion, bring the tip from in front of his forehead down to in front of his beltline. With just the flick of a wrist the blade smoothly cut through the steel wires that supported the mattress, the 8-inch mattress itself, through the center of the woman’s head, down the middle of her entire body as it cut her neatly and completely in two pieces, and through the man from his groin to just below his stomach. Tak heard the man gasp for air and quickly rolled out from under the bed as the man fell forward and caught himself on his outstretched hands. Each of his legs extended outwards at an impossibly high angle that made him look like he was doing the splits as his guts started dumping out of the newly created opening through his midsection and groin. The sound of his guts plopping out of his bowels was like a bowl of spaghetti being poured out and landing on itself. Tak didn’t wait to see if the man would yell or scream during his final exhale, so he stabbed his wakizashi through from the left side of the man’s throat where the tip came out the right side. He held the man upright for a moment with the back of his blade before removing it and allowing him to collapse on top of the woman. A fitting end for them both, he thought.
Tak went from bunkhouse to bunkhouse, clearing each of them in similar fashion. Each had two to four Sons in them. As he exited the 5th bunkhouse he was splattered in blood from the 14 lives he’d just ended.
He made his way back to the pole barn. About halfway there the music stopped and he heard someone yelling loudly inside. He looked through the window on the rear door on the eastern side of the barn, which was next to a large plastic conduit pipe. At least 30 Sons stood motionless, their attention directed towards the center of the room. Tak made sure his boonie hat was down low and his bandana covered his face well as he quietly walked in the rear door. What he heard and saw inside took his breath away. Lewis was in the center of the room yelling and had a grenade in each hand with their pins pulled. “ANY ONE OF YOU RUNS FOR THE DOOR YOU'RE ALL DEAD!! I'M ONLY HERE FOR YOUR LEADER, THE REST OF YOU CAN LIVE IF YOU GIVE HIM TO ME!”
Tak thought fast… the image of the large plastic conduit pipe just outside of the door came to him. One that size most likely held the power for this entire building. But to cut it with a blade that conducted electricity would be suicide. Did his sword conduct electricity? He wasn’t sure, but decided to risk it and hoped that if it did that he’d be through the wiring before he took too much of a shock. He drew his sword and quickly sliced through the wall from the inside where he knew the pipe ran up on the outside. It severed with a spark but Tak did not feel any shock at all. The lights instantly went out. Not wasting a moment, Tak put his ANVG’s back up over his eyes and turned them on. He heard Lewis yell above the screams of the others “DIE YOU BASTARDS!!” as he began to laugh loudly. Tak knew what he had done and dove to the floor and covered his ears. The explosions from the two grenades tore through the crowd of gathered sons and rocked the building. Those who weren’t killed or maimed screamed and ran for the doors in complete disorientation. There were two exits to the pole barn; the two large garage doors on the western side and the single rear door on the eastern side; where Tak lay next to. In total darkness the remaining living Sons couldn’t see a thing as they panicked and trampled each other. Most of them ran towards the large garage doors. Tak sprang to his feet, and while his ears rang from the blasts he was otherwise fine. As a few Sons stumbled towards him in the darkness with outstretched arms to feel where they were going, he burst into a flurry of action. He lifted his sword in an upward strike with the blade sideways in front of him from left to right and removed a reaching woman’s arms at the elbows. He continued the arc of the blade up and around to the right to cleave a charging man through his left clavicle bone down through his torso and out of his right hip. The man’s upper body slid off of his lower body before both halves hit the floor. As
another thug behind that one came charging forward in the darkness and tripped over the severed torso, Tak let the tip of his blade catch him as it entered near the top of his head and went completely down the center of his spine. Tak held the man up for a moment as the rear of the blade supported his weight before twisting it upwards so the edge… that cruel semi-translucent edge… allowed the man to fall to the ground as it effortlessly sliced through the bones of his spine and out of his back simply due to his weight pulling down on it.
Tak heard full auto gunfire open up from the east as several Sons ran out of the front door on that side. A dozen of them were cut down within the first few seconds of them exiting the pole barn. He could hear the rounds impacting vehicles parked outside as well; figuring that any who made it to them wouldn’t have been allowed to escape. Just then two more Sons were running past Tak on their way to the back door, and he couldn’t allow them to escape. He spun to his left and sliced the nearest man from behind on the right side of his neck. His head flew off with the strike and his body fell forward into the open doorway that the other raider had just ran through. Tak sprinted through the door, taking a large jump over the headless body. He chased the man for a few steps before catching up to him and impaled him through his lower back. The man stood motionless as Tak’s blade stuck out of his lower abdomen by more than a foot.
HOSHOKU_IN THE APOCALYPSE, A HERO RISES Page 11