by Genevi Engle
A blast of gunfire erupted through the casino, sending the mass crowd in a panicked craze. The assemblage of casino customers hit the floor, leaving my trio standing and as I focused on the ones that pursued us, Linda led the large group of armed men and women. She walked towards us, firmly pointing her pistols. Her crew pointed their weapons as well while a few of them formed a circle around the casino floor, surrounding us tightly.
“Three of you. Twenty five of us.” She said.
“I wasn't expecting a welcoming committee.” I smiled. “There's no need to be hostile.”
“I can't believe you're fucking us. Blowing up our warehouse. That takes balls.”
“For the longest I've had the bigger balls.”
“I heard they sent you to be executed.”
“That was the plan.”
“How did you escape?”
“Grabbed a few pals and got out. Ran into some trouble as result from one of your bad decisions but we pulled out of that too and now here we are, listening to you talk about getting fucked over.”
“I gave you the opportunity to leave and what did I find?”
“You found me living my life.”
“No!” Linda shouted and suddenly the mood in the room drastically shifted. “I found you being the bitch of the very person we vowed together to take down. Once I saw that, I felt it was just time to stop stabbing at the body and move to cutting off of the head.”
“And frame me in the process.”
“Why kill you when you could just stand in place for me.”
“Just like old times.” I smiled.
“So what are we going to do now?” Linda asked. “Get the police here. Blame this whole fiasco on you and your fuck buddies.”
“There's no need to get the police.” I said, the smile not leaving my face.
“FREEZE!” A scream echoed from the crowd and a mass of undercover officers stood from the crowd, raising pistols; overpowering Linda's numbers. Linda and her crew dropped their weapons. Linda stood still.
“What the fuck is this?”
“A very long story.” I said. I looked at Babe and Ellie, who slowly raised their arms. “Relax.”
The officers moved in and cuffed Linda as well as her crew.
“It's a lot to explain but take into account that I've been ahead of you from the start Linda.” I said pulling a badge from the inside of my bra. I held it up proudly. “From the very fucking beginning.”
CHAPTER 12 - THE TRUTH
Present
I walked through the doors of the maximum security center and made my way toward the installation's interrogation room. I busted into the room to see Linda, seated at a table with her hands behind her back. I stopped and looked at the officers who had escorted me.
“Can we talk alone?” I requested. The officers nodded and left the over sized room for making inmates shit their fucking pants while in conversation. I made my way to the seat across from Linda and sat down, looking into her maddened eyes.
“You look different in a red jumpsuit.” I said.
“It's the latest and greatest when you're locked up.”
“I really feel it's necessary to say that this is where you need to be. That this is where you deserve to be.”
“Go ahead. Kick me while I'm down. I can take it.”
“I wanted to run away with you but you refused. What you did next was unacceptable?”
“I did you a favor by not killing you.”
“And you fucked yourself by not killing me.” I said. “When I left, President Holden took me in. Made me his assistant based on the position that I was in. Holden was smart though. When I told him that you were the top priority target, he instantly came up with a plan.
A plan that predicted your next move. Over the course of a few years, President Holden set me up with intense training to turn me into an undercover agent and a personal guard for him.” I explained.
“You did a really shitty job at being his guard.”
“Yeah. You got us on a bad day. But offing his wife and kid; ballsy. No matter what way you did it, not killing me was where you went wrong.”
I stopped talking for a moment, and locked my eyes onto Linda's mouth for a moment.
“Janice your new pussy?”
February 15th, 2145
Janice was the one who muscled me in place where the President and his family was killed. They kept their hands off of me. They made sure there were no bruises on me as they tossed me near the dead bodies. My lips trembled and tears fell from my eyes as I stared at Penelope's dead body. Kelly's motionless body and President Holden's body.
“Linda sends her regards.” Janice said, passing me a pistol from her gloved hand. “She'll be delighted to know you didn't put up a fight. Made this easier for us.”
I watched as Janice moved her armed crew out. She left me sitting next to the dead first family. After I grieved for the first few hours, a smile slowly graced my face as the enforcement officers made their way into area. The plan was set, and Linda and their crew had officially fucked themselves over.
Present
“She's good at what she does.” Linda said. “I won't be here long. I don't care what side you're deciding to stay on anymore. The punishment for betrayal is death.”
“You betrayed me!” I shouted angrily, nearly on the brink of crying. “We could have avoided this entire debacle. We could have ran off to a distant fucking island and just lived and fucked in paradise but your drive for power consumed you.”
“And what about your drive for revenge?”
“You thought I was there to try and kill you right?” I laughed. “There are methods of retaliation that are so much sweeter and there are things worse than death. Believe me, I've seen it.”
I rose from my seat keeping a confident smile on my face.
“This place isn't going to hold me. The message is not finished.”
“The message that I started.”
I stepped out of the interrogation room and into the front offices. I looked around the office and Ellie and Babe were nowhere to be found. I went to one of the officers that sat at the main clerk desk.
“The two women who came in with me. Where are they?” I asked.
“Oh. You mean the two wanted women you came in here with.” The officer smart mouthed.
“They're with me. Protected under my jurisdiction.”
“Right now, your jurisdiction doesn't mean shit when it comes to those women.”
“Until told otherwise by an equal level official, I am still appointed as President Holden's assistant and lead of his protective detail, so your say means nothing!
So where ever you decided to stash them in for the night, let them out because they've aided my escape which was essential to completing this operation and they are part of the reason why your most wanted fugitive is behind the glass.” I said firmly, my eyes staring deeply into the officer's.
“Let them out yourself.” the officer said smugly, tossing me a key card. “Cell levels 546 and 547.”
I took the elevator down to a maximum security level, located deep underground. I wandered the block levels until I came to the cells holding Babe and Ellie.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Babe asked.
“Sorry ladies. I had no idea they were going to swoop you up that fast.”
“Are we stuck in here for all eternity?” Ellie asked, walking up to the glass wall.
“No. You ladies are with me. Free women.”
“Thank the lord!”
“There is a catch though.”
“Shit.” Babe said firmly.”
“You are free within my jurisdiction and the most solid way I can protect you both from incarceration, I must deem you two officers.”
“So we went from criminals to enforcement officers?”
“Technically my assistants so you're not really in the books but you're definitely required to assist me in any further investigations I'd be involved in.”
/> “Which would be?”
“Taking down the rest of Linda's cult.”
“So there are more numbers out there?”
“A lot more. You help me get here. I assume you could help me further.”
“I've got nothing planned. I'd rather die doing this than anything else I suppose.” Ellie said.
“So what's next?”
CHAPTER 13 – RATS IN THE TRAP
Present
The ladies were beyond jubilant to have their slates wiped clean. They were on the far side of blissful to have been free from persecution despite their heinous crimes of the past. Ellie and Babe had two separate rooms down the hall of the hide-out house President Holden had set up for me a while back. Holden kept a prepped mind. He set everything into place like pieces to a puzzle depicting another puzzle with intersecting lines. He knew where everything needed to be and even estimated the time of when certain events were going to fall into place. I had to admit that he was very close to being dead set on time.
My body ached, and it was so intense, I wasn't sleep. As I sat up, I felt nauseous. I was ready to spill some stomach art onto the clean wooden floor. I blasted out of the room and perched in front of the toilet on my knees, puking my fucking brains out.
“Bad shrimp?” I heard Babe ask as I pulled my head up for a distasteful breather.
“I ate a bowl of fruit cocktail.” I said breathing heavy.
“I'm starting to worry about you.”
“I don't see why?” I asked.
“Just with that incident that happened up there.”
“If you're expecting me to cry about the sanctity of my body, then you're talking to the wrong type.?”
“Well I'm just looking out for your well being. All of ours. We're in this together.”
“Well I'm alive.” said. “And so are you, so we're good.” I asked wiping a bit of vomit from my lip.
“Don't you think they'll pursue once this is all over? For killing those observers and escorts?”
“They were expendable assets to the territories.”
“Are we expendable?”
I wasn't going to lie to her. Yeah they were technically officers but no one really gave a shit about their well being. Hell, probably not even mine.
“Yes.”
“Well before I get murdered by any of your former fuck-buddies, I'm gonna go stock up on some fatty unhealthy stuff and munch.” she said before she shutting the door.
I couldn't figure out what was next. Everything from here was free game. Then again this whole plan was technically an organized mess. From the moment President Holden was killed, everything that happened was going to happen and no one was to step in and stop it unless it was me. President Holden's mission was twenty percent planning. The rest was all on me and my decisions were to effect the completion of that mission. I wasn't truly expecting for them to escalate my sentence all the way to the sun, but Holden had a plan for that. I wasn't expecting to be chased through the district but Holden had a planned rendezvous for that as well.
I stood up from the porcelain throne and made my way to the kitchen. As I flicked on the light, there I saw Ellie standing in front of the window, staring out.
“Nice night.” I said.
“This isn't over.” Ellie said. Her voice sounded worried.
“We're working on finishing this. Once it's done, you both will be officially freed.”
“I feel the numbers are gonna make a gain on us, and the end will be near.”
“Don't start this Ellie.”
“No!” Ellie shouted turning around. “You listen to me!”
“I'm listening.”
“You offered to help us escape only to bring us back on a wild death pursuit and you expect to be all happy go-lucky about it?”
“Listen. If I could change the circumstances, I would but right now this set up is the only reason I'm alive, and the only reason you weren't burnt to a crisp on the sun.”
“The end is near and a new beginning will ensue.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I don't know.” Ellie said, turning to look back out the window. “I'm just a messenger with messages from God and now he has a warning for us.”
Babe made her way into the kitchen. She threw a bag full of items in front of me on the table.
“Picked up a few supplies I felt you'd need.” she said.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Just a few goodies and tools.”
Suddenly my cell phone went off. I pulled it from my back boxer's pocket and brought it to my ear.
I paused from talking to hear out the lead Enforcement Chief give me sudden information. I brought down the phone from my ear.
“What's wrong?” Babe asked.
“They need me to talk to Linda. She's losing her fucking mind.”
I found myself back at the security facility Linda was housed in and I was escorted to her cell. I stood behind the glass wall and observed Linda, who was laid out on the floor.
“Liking the new bed?” I asked.
“It has it's perks.” Linda smiled, rotating her head my way.
“They told me you wanted to talk.”
“I'm surprised you came.”
“I'm surprised I came too.”
“You know I still love you right.” she said sitting up. She clung to her feet and walked up to the glass. We were now staring face to face.
“You call this love?” I asked
“Unconditional.”
“I call this preventable nonsense. We could have gotten past this a long time ago.”
“I don't want to dwell on the past. That's your problem.”
“It's what got us here in the first place.”
“Yeah but it's not going to get me out of here.” Linda said. “The only thing about the past I care about is how it's destined to repeat itself.”
“You requested me here for this bullshit of a talk?” I asked, suddenly becoming frustrated.
“No. I asked you here because I wanted a visitor.”
“I'm not a visitor.” I spat.
“I know. That's why I asked her to come here.” Linda pointed to the direction of the block hall, and as I turned my head, I saw Janice walking towards us in a blue enforcement uniform. She pulled a pistol from her holster and pointed at me.
“Make a move, and I blow your fucking head off.” She brought the pistol to my head.
“The cell opens with a hand scanner.” Linda said. “You have access to it.”
“Move.” Janice said, nudging the gun against my head. I slid down the panel hatch on the cell access panel, revealing the hand scanner. I placed my hand on the scanner and the glass door to Linda's cell slid open. As Linda walked out, Janice handed her a pistol.
“The crew has the staff of enforcement officers on the floor.” Janice said, keeping the pistol against my head.
“How many are there?” I asked.
“Why would it matter to you anymore?”
“Because it wouldn't be enough.” I spun and gripped Janice's full arm, pulling myself to her shoulder. I threw a punch to her face and slid the gun from her grip, quickly kicking her back and pointing the gun at Linda. My eyes gazed into Linda's as my finger tip kissed the trigger. I then quickly took off and headed for the stair case. I heard a gunshot go off which had me ducking while running through the staircase door. I pulled onto the first flight of stairs and jumped a bit after a shot ricochet off of the stair railing, just a cunt hair away from my hand.
I stomped up the stairs and as I peaked below, I could see Linda and Janice, hot on my trail, followed by a dozen of her crew, pistols in hand.
I made way up another floor and before could I hit the next flight of stairs, someone blew a fucking hole through my shoulder. The impact of the round threw me off balance and sent me through a window behind me. My body went into a dive, and my stomach was in a rattle as I was dropping to a solid flat of steel and concrete surface. I began t
o brace and in the corner of my eye, a floater had slipped in beneath me. I slammed onto the hover vehicle hard and slid off the back, landing with a roll onto a pedestrian sidewalk. Scratched up and bruised, with a bullet in my shoulder, I ran as far as I could to the hideout.
I blasted through the front door, startling Babe and Ellie who were sitting on the floor in the living room, counting ammunition.
“What the fuck happened to you?!” Babe jumped up.
I was out of breath and it was hard to speak. “We have to leave!”
“Why?” Ellie asked.
I grasped my bleeding shoulder. “Linda and her crew, they're coming!”
I watched Linda and Ellie, scramble to their feet. They started packing the guns and ammo as I moved into the kitchen. I went into the top cabinet and pulled out a small medicine jar that had tiny white pills encased. These tiny white pills were provided to me from President Holden himself. Special medication that you literally needed a license to own here in the Territories, and Holden gave me a vial in case of emergencies. It's a shame he wasn't able to use any on himself, then again Linda's crew didn't even give him a chance to endure his injuries before death. These amazing pills contained a special protein that sends a jolt of energy through the body and causes rapid healing. I called it the ICU pill. I swallowed one down and as the pill started to settle in my stomach, the bleeding in my shoulder began to stop. I then pulled two more out and shoved them into my front pocket. I held the vial over the sink and dumped the rest of the ICU pills down the drain. I could risk getting more injuries but I couldn't risk these pills getting into the wrong hands and then that person going all Terminator on me. That was the last thing I needed right now. I chucked the vial across the kitchen and opened the back door. I then pulled a black pill from my back pocket and swallowed that down as well. This little black tool, was much needed for the not too distant future.
“Let's go!” I said charging out of the door. I looked back and saw Ellie and Babe running behind me. We eventually cut out of the woods and ran to an open field.