Once a month Caul, Bryant, and their buddies drove into the city, sometimes New Orleans, sometimes Baton Rouge, sometimes Biloxi, didn't matter where as long as it was a very large city with a huge tourist base. They took turns luring the women in so they could keep it changed up — not the same guy all the time. They’d go to the clubs, casinos, concerts, wherever there were a lot of drunk, partying people. And inevitably, they’d come away with at least one woman, drunk — and by the time they’d finished their job, drugged — and hand her off to the military guys. Sometimes they’d fuck ‘em first, sometimes not. Just depended on how hot the bitch was. Then Caul and Bryant made contact, letting the men know they had one for them. They’d drive to a deserted field on the outskirts of backwoods Arkansas. They’d open the trunk of whatever rental car they used that week, the military guys would haul the unconscious woman out of the trunk and they’d be on their way home. The next day five thousand dollars would arrive in their bank accounts. They’d give each of their three buddies a small share of the money and then they’d wait until they heard from the doctor again, letting them know they needed another one. They didn’t ask questions, and neither did the military guys.
Caul thought about it. He really didn’t want to get caught. For fuck’s sake, this was human trafficking. It was frowned on, even if the bitches weren’t white. He took off his ball cap and wiped a hand over his sweaty shaved head. He thought about Nina. He’d wanted to fuck her since he’d first laid eyes on her in 10th grade. Only Bryant had swooped in and claimed her first. And now Bryant was going to let him fuck her before they sold her off. He nudged at his already swelling dick, squeezed uncomfortably in his jeans.
To hell with it. This would be his only chance, and he was taking it. Caul put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. His younger brother watching from the side of the cornfield stood up and waited to see what he wanted. “I gotta go! Somethin’ came up; you finish for me I give you fifty bucks!” Caul called to him across the field.
“Deal!” his brother yelled back, running toward the tractor. His brother climbed up on the tractor, and Caul jumped down.
“Keep straight so Paw don’t bitch me out for not making straight rows,” Caul instructed.
“I always do,” his brother said, irritatedly.
Caul jumped down and jogged away, thoughts of finally getting to fuck Nina rolling around in his mind. He thought of dragging his tongue up her pussy. “Aw, fuck. I get to taste her, too. This is my fucking day,” he said aloud, a grin on his face as he jumped in his bright red truck with the rebel flag across the back window and drove like a bat outta hell to get to Bryant’s house.
Chapter 2
Lieutenant Maddox Larsen snarled like a wild animal at the soldiers on either side of him, each with an iron grip on his biceps as they led him from the nondescript, white, windowless van into what could only be described as a prison, a holding facility, for those men of the special forces and dark ops that could no longer be trusted to carry out their orders. Those that had crossed the line into near insanity. Those that no longer saw black and white, good and bad. Those that now only saw themselves and what they personally saw as necessity, losing all trust the government had placed in them. Some had become uncontrollable - deemed a danger to themselves, their superiors and their fellow soldiers. Some had simply gone off the grid and sold their services to the highest bidder, others were simply here for disciplinary reasons, and yet others were here because they stepped on the wrong toes. Someone, somewhere had been offended or been threatened by a man stronger than he. And this was their vengeance. This was a last stop before death. If you were court martialed, declared guilty and sentenced to death, you were sometimes unlucky enough to be offered an option. This top secret facility was their option. It was also the choice Lieutenant Larsen had made.
He’d lost control and beaten his commanding officer to death. Given the chance, he’d do it again, and again, and again. To Larsen, there was no excuse for slaughtering women and children. There was no excuse for friendly fire rained down on their own squadrons. So, after enduring his orders albeit begrudgingly for some time, when they’d ordered him to exterminate a military squad so it could be blamed on opposing forces, he’d questioned his commanders. And when he received no answer, he questioned again and again. Finally, refusing to carry out the orders, he gave the word for his own squad to stand down.
That was when the real trouble started. His immediate commander thought to make a show of his disobedience, and arrived on site in the field to show Larsen what was what. He got off the helicopter, confident, pompous, and marched right over, thinking to punch Larsen in the face in front of all on duty at the time. Larsen blocked, and broke his jaw while Larsen’s men held the team that escorted his commander at gun point while Larsen continued to beat the commander to death.
Shortly after, several more teams arrived, no doubt called in by the one held at gunpoint. They took Larsen into custody, which he did not resist. He was offered a deal — either he gave himself up, or they moved their focus to his men. He wouldn’t have that, so he went with them willingly. He was court martialed, deemed guilty and given a choice. Death. Execution for murder for attacking without provocation and killing his commanding officer, or voluntary enrollment in an experimental program. The program was to test different strength, mind and recovery enhancing drugs, to determine which warranted the best results and ultimately just how far the human body could go, before it collapsed — supposedly.
Lieutenant Larsen, not being particularly fond of death, opted for the experimental program. Which is what brought him here. To this day. Handcuffed with his hands behind his back, snarling and hurling threats at the soldiers who ‘escorted’ him into the facility in the middle of nowhere, surrounded with eleven foot high stone walls, looped with three feet of curling razor wire, and armed guards at their tops. This was his only choice to continue breathing. He was theirs now. He would not ever be the man he’d once been.
His escorts dragged him down a corridor, with him fighting back the whole way. Finally reaching the end of the corridor, one of the men beside him reached into his back pocket. “That’s it. I’ve had enough. You signed up for this, dumb ass, you don’t get to change your mind.”
“I signed up for experimentation. I didn’t sign up to be handled like a prisoner,” Maddox shot back.
“You’ll learn respect one way or another,” the man answered, punching him in the gut, causing him to grunt out a protest and bunch his stomach muscles to keep from falling over. He panted his breath a time or two then straightened, grinning at the man who’d punched him. “You earn respect, pencil-dick, you don’t just decide you deserve it.”
“We’ll see about that,” the man answered, jabbing a needle in Lieutenant Larsen’s neck. He lost consciousness almost instantly. His two escorts carried him into the elevator and dropped him unceremoniously to the floor.
“This one’s a pain in the fucking ass,” the first man commented.
“Yeah, but he’s what it’s about. Take the worst, make them human weapons — no thoughts, no wants, no needs — just kill.”
“I hope they fucking kill this one,” the first man answered. “In fact, I may do it for them. He’s an arrogant prick.”
“Oh, come on, you’re just pissed off he called you pencil dick, Pencil-dick.”
“Fuck you!” Pencil-dick snapped out. It was too late, Pencil-dick already had a new nickname.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
“Pssst. Pssst! Lieutenant! Lieutenant, wake up!”
Lieutenant Maddox Larsen vaguely became aware of slight noises going on around him. He tried to open his eyes, but the pain made him decide to keep them closed. He swallowed and licked his lips, the metallic tang of medicine left in his mouth making him squinch his face up in disgust. And that hurt.
“Lieutenant!” a voice called again.
Maddox slowly sat up, using his arms to push himself up. He waited until he was upright to fully open his eyes
. He looked around the cell he found himself in. Three dark-gray cinder block walls and cement floors surrounded him. Thick, iron bars just wide enough to shove an arm through finished his cell, and they were only across the front of it.
“I knew it! I knew that was you,” a voice called from a cell across from his.
Maddox looked over and did his best to focus through the drugs still in his system. “Conley? Is that you?” he asked.
“Yep! It’s me. Man, am I glad to see you. Maybe now we can find a way to get the hell out of here.”
“What are you doing in here?” Maddox asked, confused about why one of his men was locked in here, when he’d given himself up for their freedom.
“We’re all here. The whole squad. They took us all into custody the minute your chopper left the ground.”
“The fuck? Why didn’t you fight?” Maddox asked.
“They threatened our families, so here we sit,” Conley explained.
“Is that him?” another voice called from the next cell over.
“Yeah!” Conley called back.
Maddox tried to get up off the floor. “Everybody is here?” he asked, walking gingerly over to the bars and trying to angle his head to see down toward the other voices he heard calling out to him.
“Yeah,” Conley answered.
Maddox tried to stretch his body, but the pain had him wincing. “The fuck happened to me?” he asked, more to himself than to anyone else.
“They dumped you in there and beat your ass while you were out. Got in a few good kicks.”
“Fuckers,” Maddox mumbled. “So, is this actually an experimental facility or is it just a prison?” he asked.
“Little of both. Only the five of us here now. There were more, but they’ve been moved. Or killed, who knows?”
“You allowed to see your families?” Maddox asked.
“No. But they told us they were being advised that we’d been sent on a mission suddenly, we’d be in touch as soon as we were able.”
“Doesn’t sound good, Con,” Maddox said.
“I know. But as long as they’re safe, I’m good. Someday, they’ll let me out of here and I’ll finally get to hold Becky again and meet my little girl. I can make it ‘til then,” Con said.
Just then a double set of doors at the end of the cell block were thrown open. A very large, very pissed off man, or what used to be a man, with a steel collar around his neck and chains leading from it was forced through the doors. It took four big soldiers to control him — one on each end of the chains. They forced him past the cells, and down to the opposite end of the room.
They could hear keys opening a cell, and the snarling and cursing of both the man, and those handling him, as he was pushed into the cell, then the clank of metal as it was slammed shut.
Maddox and Conley stood silently watching as best they could from their own cells. Three walls of each cell were cinder block, only the front had bars, so their field of vision was limited. They waited until the four men left the cell block and slammed the double doors shut, noisily locking them from the outside.
The roars of the man they’d just locked in the end cell were not human. They were animalistic at best. He was close to seven feet tall and his eyes were amber, like a wolf when he’d glared at Maddox on the way by.
“The fuck was that?” Conley asked.
Maddox took as deep a breath as he could with his ribs hurting. He looked over at Conley. “An experiment, I’m guessing.”
“You mean he used to be like us? I didn’t sign up for this shit, man! Fuck this!” Conley said, becoming unnerved.
“Hey! Get yourself together, soldier! That’s an order!” Maddox snapped.
In his own cell across the way, Conley snapped his eyes to Lieutenant Larsen’s. “Lieutenant…” he started.
“That was an order!” Maddox insisted. “I cannot find a way out of this if we lose our heads. Just keep it together. We’ll figure this shit out.”
Conley nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“You hear me down there?” Maddox asked, raising his voice.
“Yes, sir,” Santiago answered.
“Yes, sir, I did,” Phelps added.
Snarls and roars sounded from the man their captors had just added to their cell block. He was apparently holding onto the bars and doing his best to bend them and break free.
“This motherfucker is nuts down here,” Santiago added.
“Just try not to piss him off any further. We may want to be his friend later on,” Maddox said.
Santiago looked at the thing across from him, who looked back and snapped his teeth at him. This was not a man — not anymore. “If you say so, Lieutenant.”
“I say so,” Maddox answered.
Maddox nodded to himself. He walked over to his bunk. A solid metal shelf built into the wall. It had one thin blanket on it. He sat down and calmly started to look over his cell. There had to be a way to get out of it. There always was. He just needed to figure out what it was.
He looked over at Conley, who’d retreated to his own bunk. “I’m so fucking sorry you’re all here. The whole point of me giving up without a fight was so you’d all be left alone, no targets on your backs,” he said resignedly.
“Wasn’t your doing, sir,” Conley said, shrugging his shoulders in the shadows.
“We were loyal to you. They had to do something with us or word would get out what they’d done,” Santiago added.
“Still are loyal,” Phelps said.
“Hell, yeah. We been in worse,” Santiago said. “We’ll figure this shit out, too.”
“Yes, we will,” Maddox agreed. “Yes, we will.”
The doors opened again and a man in a white coat came through them, flanked by two men in military fatigues, holding automatic assault weapons. They came to a stop outside Maddox’s cell.
“Welcome, Lieutenant Larsen,” the man said.
Maddox looked over at the doctor flanked by the heavily armed soldiers. “It’s a bit of overkill don’t you think?”
The doctor looked to his left and then to his right. “Not exactly. One never knows how violently our subjects may react to their injections. We must always be prepared in the event of adverse reactions.”
“Like your test down on the end?” Maddox asked, one eyebrow raised.
The doctor leaned back a bit and glanced down the cells to the end. He smiled. “Oh, no. Not him. He’s coming along just as planned, no adverse reactions at all.”
“Just fucking lovely for him,” Maddox snarked.
“It is, isn’t it.”
“Well, I’d say you have everything covered,” Maddox said, looking disinterestedly away.
“You’ve noticed we’ve brought your friends to keep you company, I trust,” the doctor said tauntingly.
“Yeah. I see that. I noticed you broke your end of the bargain.” Maddox shook his head and looked condescendingly at the doctor. “Not starting off in a good place for our future working relationship, Doc. Just saying. You make a deal, you keep it. Otherwise the men you make deals with stop trusting your ass,” Maddox finished.
“First, I made no deal with you, the government did. Therefore I had no deal to break. Second, I don’t care what you think of me. Trust me or not. Either way, you will do what I say, when I say. I do not need your agreement. You belong to me now. I own you. I own all of you.”
“Fuck you!” Maddox shot out, getting to his feet despite the pain in his ribs and his head.
“No, Lieutenant. Fuck you. You will address me properly. You will do what is expected of you. You will comply with all our testing procedures, or you will not be fed. You will not be watered. You will be left to die. And if that doesn’t sway you to comply with our requests, perhaps the same being done to your friends will sway you.”
Maddox stood at the bars, his fists white from gripping them. He was furious.
“Have a good evening, Lieutenant. Your testing begins tomorrow morning. I suggest you give us no trouble,” the
doctor said before turning on his heel and striding angrily out of the holding cells. His heels clicked on the cement floor with each step he took.
Maddox looked over at Conley.
Conley looked back.
“We are so fucked,” Conley said.
“For now. But as it goes on, we’ll figure this shit out,” Maddox replied.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Hours later the doors opened again, and two men came through it, pulling a naked woman along with them. “Come on, you know you love fucking these big bastards! Stop acting like you don’t,” one of them said to her when she hesitated and tried to pull away.
“Besides,” the other one said. “We already warmed you up for him. Shouldn’t be that much of a problem to open your legs for him. One suggestion, though. Don’t fight him. You fight him, he might just fuck you to death to prove he can.”
As they started to walk her down toward the last cell on the right, another man stuck his head through the door and shouted at them. “Hey! Hose her off. If he smells us on her, he won’t touch her.”
“Come on!” one of them answered.
“Do it, hose to the pussy. Then give her to him,” the male shouting through the doors ordered.
“Fine,” they answered in unison. They dragged her over to the far end of the cell block. High up in that area of the room was a camera, and below it a shower head. There were collars chained to the wall, and about knee height was a water pipe with a spigot on the top with a hose attached to it. One of the men shackled a collar around the woman’s neck to hold her in place. The other turned on the water to the hose full blast and stood back pointing it at her.
The woman shrieked and turned her back to it. She immediately started shivering and trying to cover herself with her hands.
“Let her the fuck go!” Conley shouted at the men.
“Shut the fuck up,” one of guards yelled back.
“You’re a piece of fucking shit!” Maddox screamed at them.
Beginnings Page 2