Rise of Chaos 2

by Griffin Smith

  He glanced over the side to see a flock of seagulls fishing, and taking turns picking off some of the Atlantic flying fish that were following them. He admired the precision and organization that these birds were able to use as they swooped down and took this tube like, long tailed fin fish expertly out of the water, one by one. These fish didn’t stand a chance as these birds mercilessly plucked them out of the water as soon as they showed themselves.

  “What, you wanna go fishing now, Mason?” Kalen said as he joined him at the bow.

  “No, not really. I’ve never been much of a fisherman actually. I’m just amazed at how these birds can catch their prey perfectly, almost every time,” Mason said, thoroughly enjoying the show he was witnessing.

  “Survival of the fittest, right? If these birds don’t eat they die. Kinda like us in a way, if we get caught or trapped, we die. I don’t know what’s worse, Feeders, The League of Islam, or these fucking Pirates,” Kalen said, sadly.

  “Well, they are all equally bad in their own ways, I guess. I’m not going out like those goddamn fish, that’s for sure. We won’t win if we try to run or if we try to fight them on their terms. We have to hunt them; we have to become predators like these birds. We have to stalk them and when they show themselves we strike, swiftly and violently.

  “Are you OK with that, Kalen? I know you can kill feeders, but can you kill men? Even these subhuman Islamic radicals, they are, in fact, still human,” Mason asked, sizing up Kalen’s commitment to the reality of the new dystopian world that they were now part of.

  “What the hell kind of question is that, Mason?” Kalen said, angrily. “I’ve got nothing left except my father and Camp Freedom. I put a bullet in my mother’s head before she ate my father, and I saw my five younger sisters cannibalized, in my house. I want what you want,” Kalen said, eyeing Mason evenly.

  “And what’s that? What is it that you think I want Kalen?” Mason shot back at his younger companion.

  “To fucking kill them all,” Kalen said, unemotionally.

  Mason smiled as he put his hand on Kalen’s shoulder and said, “You're right, let’s kill them all.”

  “Uh… are you guys done having your man moment? Cap’n Tony wants you on the bridge,” Brody said to Mason.

  “Yeah, we’re done. Thanks,” Mason said to Brody as he turned to climb up the bridge ladder.

  “What’s going on, Tony?” Mason asked as he opened the door to the bridge and stepped inside.

  “Check it out,” Cap’n Tony said, pointing directly in front of him. The first thing Mason saw was a black flag with a crescent and a star on it. It was a League of Islam Patrol boat, Mason thought. He counted four heavily armed men wearing green berets and camouflage. The patrol boat looked like an artifact or some type of Soviet era refurbished piece of floating junk. He saw a cage on the main deck, and it looked like a cage for transporting large animals, until it dawned on him what that cage was for.

  “Do you think they saw us?” Mason asked Tony in a low voice.

  “I don’t think so,” Tony replied as he slowed down the tugboat and veered off course to hide it behind some shoals that were protruding out of the ocean.

  “Let’s go get those mother fuckers,” Mason said, impatiently.

  “We should wait to see where they’re going and follow them. I have a feeling they’ll lead us to Pualani and the others,” Cap’n Tony said as he took out binoculars to get a better look at his prey.

  Tony studied the patrol boat and confirmed that there were four armed men, and not one but two cages on the boat. One cage was empty, but the other one had about six men in it. Tony focused his attention on the occupied cage and realized that it wasn’t men in there, but feeders. There was no mistaking their zombie-like body movement. They were filthy, blood stained and trying to reach through their cage to feast on their captors.

  “They’re transporting those feeders like animals,” Tony said as he handed Mason the binoculars.

  “This is really strange; I don’t know why they’re doing this,” Cap’n Tony contemplated aloud.

  “Let’s just lay low and follow them, I think you’re right. I think they’re going to lead us right to those fucking pirates, and then we’ll have the element of surprise,” Mason said, as he devilishly planned out his next move.

  They stuck to the plan and followed them at a good distance for a couple of hours, and then watched them turn into a cove that was surrounded by a steep cliff on all sides.

  “That must be it,” Mason said to Tony as he locked and loaded his clip into his MP5 machine gun.

  “Yup, it’s almost exactly where the Admiral said they’d be. We have to be smart about this Mason, we just can’t go charging in there like some bad World War Two movie. We have the element of surprise but we are going to be outnumbered. They chose a great spot, that cove is incredibly defensible. We’ll have to enter it from the beach,” Tony said, rubbing his forehead, trying to think of an idea.

  “I have an idea; is Kalen a good swimmer?” Mason asked Tony, with a crooked smile.

  Mason brought everyone up onto the bridge and told them about his plan. It was a heated debate for a while, and they had to make some changes to Mason’s original idea, but in the end they all agreed and were ready to act.

  “You’re one crazy son of a bitch, Mason, but I think it’ll work,” Brody said as they walked to the edge of the boat and sat on the gunwale.

  “Crazy is as crazy does,” Kalen said, trying to make a joke.

  Mason and Brody looked at Kalen, without laughing, until Brody said, “Where did we find this retard again?”

  “He was part of a package deal, he came with his father,” Mason said, as they all started laughing. “Seriously though, Kalen, I’m gonna need you out there today. You better not freeze up on me. Just stick to the plan,” Mason said as Kalen nodded his agreement.

  “Alright boys, this is as close as I’m going to be able to get without being seen. Good luck,” Cap’n Tony said as Mambo joined him on the main deck to watch Mason, Brody and Kalen go over the side and start swimming into the cove.

  It was only a mile or so as they swam into the cove. The water was warm, almost like bath water, but with sharks. They swam with their rifles over their heads and side stroked into shore. The sun was rising from the East as they approached the beach, giving them great cover as it cloaked them coming into shore. They abruptly halted and clung to the rock jetty as Brody held up his hand.

  “Look at this shit!” Brody said as he pointed to the beach. The outgoing tide had revealed one of the pirates’ main defenses of the cove. There were dozens of feeder heads buried up to their necks, and sticking out of the sand. Some were still alive or animated, and were just chomping at nothing, while others were just lifeless heads being ravaged by the tide.

  “Is that what I think it is? Eww, what the fuck?” Kalen said, in horror, as he looked at the disgusting array of feeder heads protruding from the sand.

  “There is no way I’m going to walk through that shit,” Brody said as he mashed his boot through the eye socket of one of the feeder heads. The soft, mushy head caved in easily and yellowish goo—from what was left of its brains—started floating on the water.

  “This is the only way in. We’ll have to carve a trail,” Mason said as he slung his MP5 sub machine gun, and brought out his ax. Mason started hacking away at the feeder heads, using his ax like a scythe. Brody got the idea and brought out his ball-peen hammer, joining the feeder head free-for-all and carving his own path into shore.

  The trio made it onto the beach undetected, leaving a trail of zombie-like carnage in their wake. They hid behind a thick row of palm trees, and sized up their situation. Mason saw four women dressed in black Burkhas tied to a tree, the Islamic patrol boat, and a couple of speedboats beached on the cove. He counted about twenty men all together, including Billy Boy and Vinnie the Guinea, who he recognized instantly. They were all congregating inside the shack, which seemed to be their makeshift
headquarters.

  “This is good. They’re all in one spot. Remember, stick to the plan,” Mason said, as Brody and Kalen took their positions and surrounded the shack. Mason stealthily crept over to the tree where the women were being kept and cut their bonds, freeing them.

  “Hello ladies,” Mason whispered, “I need you to be quiet, and get as far away from here as possible. We are about to unleash hell on these motherfuckers.”

  “Mason, is that you?” Pualani asked as she tore off her ridiculous Burkha. “Oh my god, thank you, I knew you’d come for me,” she said as she jumped up and threw her arms around Mason’s neck.

  “Ssshhh. Save it for later, get these girls outta here and hide until this is over,” Mason said as he gently pushed Pualani off of him.

  “Ok, Ok, I got it,” she said as she motioned for the girls to follow her, and they took off, running.

  Mason crouched down and made sure Kalen and Brody were in position and the women were far enough away, before he brought out his flare gun, and aimed it towards the tugboat. It was prearranged with Mambo and Tony that the red smoking flare was a signal to start firing the 81mm mortars, and bombard an area close to the cove. He had made sure that they knew not to bomb the cove directly, this was just to be a distraction.

  Alright Mambo, it’s your turn, Mason thought as he fired the flare gun into the sky. Cap’n Tony and Mambo were on the tugboat, anxiously waiting for the signal to unleash hell. Mambo didn’t hesitate once he saw the traces of red smoke in the air; he opened fire.

  There was no mistaking the sound of those mortars, you could hear the loud swish and pop, and see the explosions, dangerously close to the beach. The mortars were having the desired effect, bringing all of the men outside of the shack to see what was happening.

  This was Mason’s cue as he pulled the pin out of his flash bang grenade and lobbed it at the men. Almost in unison, two more flash bang grenades were lobbed in by Brody and Kalen, catching the men by total surprise. The smoke and flash had blinded and disorientated the men. They were like fish in a barrel, Mason thought as he opened fire with his MP5 submachine gun.

  The men didn’t stand a chance and were being cut down as the trio advanced on them. They were walking in and firing from three different directions with murderously accurate precision. Some of them tried to feebly return fire, but they were cut down like grass. Mason saw a few men running towards the speedboat, and he turned to them to concentrate his fire there. He easily cut down the first two, shooting them in the back, when he recognized Billy Boy was among them. He brought his rifle in tight, looking for a head shot when he pulled the trigger.

  “Click, Click,” Mason heard, as he pulled the trigger and realized he was out of ammo. Damn it, he thought to himself, angrily, as he fumbled to load another clip, but it was too late. Billy Boy had gotten underway in the speedboat and was out of range. Mason thought for a moment about blindly charging into the water after him, but changed his mind, and turned to join his comrades on the beach.

  Kalen and Brody had the remaining seven or so men kneeling in the sand, begging for their lives, when he walked up. The carnage of their assault was surreal, it was a total massacre. There were at least a dozen dead, and several more wounded, moaning and bleeding on the beach. Kalen had a murderous look in his eyes as he walked behind one of the captured prisoners and fired three slugs into the back of his head, exploding it like an old pumpkin.

  “Kalen, wait!” Mason shouted to him over the smoke rising from his barrel as he moved down the line to execute the next prisoner.

  “Huh? … What do you mean wait? Kill them all, remember?” Kalen said as he kicked the next captive in the small of his back, sending him screaming and falling forward.

  “We are going to kill them all, but we can be creative about it,” Mason said as he pulled out his flare gun and fired the green flare, giving the all clear signal to Cap’n Tony and Mambo. “We can let everyone enjoy the show. Let’s wait until they’re all here. In the meantime, you can finish off all of the wounded. Save your ammo, you can use my ax, and make it as personal as you like,” Mason said, tossing Kalen his ax.

  Kalen caught the ax, and turned to stare at the wounded for a long second before he released an Indian type of fury as he started to hack and scalp the wounded that were dying to pieces.

  “That’s one sick kid,” Brody said as he watched Kalen in macabre fascination.

  “Well, lookie who we found,” Pualani said as she and the other captive girls walked up, dragging Vinnie the Guinea.

  “This day just keeps getting better and better,” Mason said as he eyed his new captive.

  ****

  After the tugboat beached on the shore, there was a tearful reunion before they started to discuss what they were going to do with the remaining prisoners. There were three of the League of Islam soldiers remaining and two pirates, not counting Vinnie the Guinea.

  “We could take them back to Camp Freedom, and try them for murder?” Cap’n Tony suggested.

  “What’s the point in that? They’d just be found guilty, and we’d have to take them all of the way there just to kill them,” Brody said.

  “You don’t have to kill us, we can help you. We‘re human beings, and we are not infected,” Vinnie cried, pleading for his life.

  “Fuck this shit,” Pualani said as she picked up her newly recovered Beretta, and shot Vinnie in the groin. Vinnie collapsed, screaming in pain, as Pualani shouted, “How do you like that shit, cunt? How does it feel, you sick, fucking rapist?” Pualani raised her gun to fire again before Luanne gently grabbed her wrist and said, “Wait,please… He is my husband.”

  Pualani met Luanne’s gaze and understood what she wanted, she handed the Beretta to her. Without saying a word, Luanne walked up to her husband and shot him in the face until the clip was empty.

  The group watched the homicide in a quiet trance, until the silence was broken. “I like her idea,” Brody said as he walked over to one of the prisoners and leveled his rifle at the back of the man’s head.

  “Wait, Brody. I have a better idea,” Mason said, motioning to Brody to lower his weapon. “Pualani, do you still have those Burkhas?”

  “Yeah, they’re over by the tree… Why?” she asked, not understanding why he wanted them.

  “I have an idea that reeks of karmic justice,” Mason said as he told the group about his plan.

  Mambo and Brody went to dig out one of the feeders from the beach that was still animated and hungry, while the girls were dressing the four remaining prisoners in the Burkhas that they were issued earlier. There were six prisoners left, but Kalen accidentally shot two of them.

  They led the remaining captives to the patrol boat, and threw them in head first, before tying them to each other and to the boat, so that they couldn’t move. Cap’n Tony maneuvered the patrol boat, so that it would drift out to sea with a little push. They waited in silence for a good half an hour before Mambo and Brody came back with a newly dug up feeder.

  It was a freakish sight as they led the zombie-type creature on a crude leash they made out of palm tree fronds. It was bald, and its half-missing tongue was hanging out of its mouth still trying to chomp on anything that was flesh. It had cuts and welts all over its yellowish-gray wrinkled skin, and it hobbled with an undead gait, arms outstretched, as it was led to the patrol boat.

  “Oh my god, I can’t watch this,” Tracy said to Simone as she tried to cover her face.

  “You need to see this, what they would’ve done to us, would have been far worse.” Simone replied, pulling Tracy’s hand down from her face, and forcing her to watch.

  They led the feeder right to the patrol boat and, in one fluid motion, Mambo grabbed the feeder and threw him into the boat as Cap’n Tony and the others pushed the patrol boat out of the cove to let it drift into the Atlantic. The group stood in waist high water, and clearly heard the bloodthirsty screams of the cannibalistic creature as he feasted on the flesh of his helpless prey.

 
; “That is karmic justice,” Mason said, gravely. “Alright, let’s get the fuck off this rock. Grab all of the weapons, ammo and supplies you can find, and let’s go home.” Mason turned to look at the dead bodies littering the cove, and picked up his ax before he joined the others and helped to collect supplies.

  ****

  As the pimped out tugboat approached Camp Freedom, they fired their remaining flares to announce their arrival. They pulled into the harbor, and received a heroes’ welcome. All of the soldiers had lined the walls to watch them enter. The Admiral was impatiently waiting at the dock for the tugboat to moor. As the group started to disembark the boat, Tracy saw her grandfather and ran into his arms, crying. He was so happy to see her, so relieved she was still alive.

  Mason was helping Pualani onto the dock when he was nearly knocked into the water by a flying dog. Cujo had somehow realized that Pualani was there and started running at mach speed before launching himself through the air to land in her arms. It was a sappy sight as the Admiral turned to each member of the group, and personally shook their hand and thanked them, before he invited them all into the camp.

  They were only inside the camp gate for a minute or so, when the first explosion happened. It seemed to be mortar fire. Another explosion landed a direct hit and blew up five soldiers, sending their dismembered limbs flying through the camp. Gunfire erupted from the walls as all Mason could hear was Brody shouting, “Get up here, you’ve gotta see this!”

  Mason was trying to get onto the scaffolding to climb up the walls, when another explosion and then another went off, landing a direct hit on the camp. Mason looked for Pualani as he tried to make it up to the wall, but all he saw when he looked back was Tracy, cradling the lifeless body of her grandfather, the Admiral.

  Mason climbed up to the wall and found Brody; he followed his line of sight and saw dozens of ships flying that black flag with a crescent and a star on it. He also noticed amphibious troop transports, releasing hundreds of soldiers to storm the walls. Wait a minute, Mason thought. These aren’t soldiers, they’re fucking feeders. The League of Islam has unleashed hundreds of these monsters to overrun the camp and infect us.