by C M Hoffmann
Trey, “NOTHING SAYS THANK YOU LIKE A BLOW JOB!” He lets out an uproarious laugh and catches the slightest bit of movement outside one of the few clear windows of the building. Careful not to draw attention to the movement as all eyes of the church are on him.
Preacher steps back in disgust, “You savage. You IMPUDENT, IMMATURE, MANNER-LESS SAVAGE!”
Trey, “Oh you’ll see savagery in about six seconds,” He smiles and winks before looking passed the preacher at the doorway.
_
Pops over channel five, “Addition Three.” A quiet clap is heard following quickly by the thud of an average sized human falling two stories to the ground below, “Two-Six, let’s ruin their nights, GO!”
_
Three doors of the building fly open revealing Legacy, Ninja, and Addition; while four windows simultaneously shatter as Spartan and Basher go in the hard way. The eleven members of Two-Six storm the building from three of the four walls and begin to issue verbal commands as they press towards the altar. They move like apparitions, vaulting over chairs, benches, and tables. The whole building erupts into a frenzy. Followers screaming, attempting to flee from the phantoms. Very few rounds of ammunition are expended. Some of the men try to retrieve their firearms and are quickly cut down. Within seconds of entry, all of the followers of the church are rounded up and either comply with the command to lie down, faces on the floor, or they are quickly put in the position by force. The preacher is the only one allowed to remain standing. Beau and Ronson cut Trey down and find his torn clothes behind him.
Trey dresses, “Bout fucking time.”
Gavin, “Not our fault you got got.”
“Trust me, I’m beyond pissed. Hey, where’s my mask?”
Wade pulls a mask from his back pocket, “Knew you’d get butt hurt not having one,” he tosses it to Trey who slides it gently over his head wounds.
Preacher, “You have no IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE RUINED, DO YOU? I WAS GOING TO SAV.....” His words are cut short by a much deserved uppercut from Trey. The punch lifts the preacher clean off the ground and throws him backward. He is allowed to tumble across the ground before Beau, Wyatt, and Gavin drag him to his feet and then force him to his knees.
Trey, “You, shut your fucking mouth, we’ll deal with you in a minute.”
Pops hugs Trey tightly, “Are you alright?”
“I’m good, Pops, thirsty and a splitting damn headache but I’m good. Bastards made it to the roof before I heard ‘em during the firefight. Baseball bats do a shit job of being comfortable. It was scary as shit watching y’all breach this place though. Wish I’da been on y’all’s side of it.”
Cane, “Next time you will be.”
Pops, “We’ll get you patched up soon. Now what to do about the preacher?”
Wade’s eyes light up, “I have an idea.” The preacher’s face pales as realization overcomes his resilience.
“And that would be?”
“Let’s just kill him. He’s nothing but a nuisance, too dangerous to be left alive and he’s not going to cut his shit. He’ll just round up more people and start over. I’ll be damned if I’m the next one to get snatched. Thankfully he was dumb enough to keep Trey alive.”
Trey, “Gee, thanks.”
Pops, “We can’t just kill him. We’ll take him with us and let the chief decide.”
Ronson, “What about his followers?”
“Good point. Listen up, your time under this preacher is done! You all have a choice, you can rejoin normal society or you can get out of this city. I don’t care which, but this bullshit is done. You want to do more crazy shit like this idiot, you do it in your own homes by yourself.”
Joshua hits the door handle of the rectory and seven lurkers come sprawling out.
Coll, “Seriously? You keep steve IN here? Are you insane?!”
The lurkers immediately target the closest warm body, which is Joshua, the one who released them. His screams quickly fill the room and just as fast the building falls silent, other than the sound of grinding teeth.
Dexter, “I knew the preacher was full of shit. They’re just as human hungry as ever.”
Another unseen follower yells, “Yea, screw this I’m out.”
Preacher, “You cannot just ABANDON me!”
Gavin quickly delivers a solid punch to the back of the preacher’s head causing him to break his nose on the base of the wooden cross.
Pops, “Did anyone really believe this? Or was this just a safe place to be?” The followers nervously look around, “Alright, anyone who wants to be normal again raise your hand.” Every hand goes up, “Fine, then go to the police station and tell them what happened.”
The followers begin to leave and the steves turn to Two-Six. Their hunger not nearly satisfied after gorging themselves on Joshua.
Fitz draws his throwing knives and drops two with solid hits to the face in a quick flurry of hands. Joshua stands up, steve-ified, and is shot by Gavin. Two more are shot by Coll and Ronson; another is cut in half by Rapp’s sword. Beau slings his AR-15 and approaches the final two. They turn towards him and the rest of the Task Force watches with a mix of concern and curiosity. With Beau’s massive hands he grabs both the remaining steves by their foreheads, lifts them off the ground and slams them into the floor crushing both their skulls. Two-Six stares in amazement.
Fred, “Holy shit that was cool.”
Cane, “Damn, Bigger, even I didn’t think you could do that.”
Beau, “Guess you aren’t always right.”
Pops, “Alright, alright, let’s get the preacher to the complex.”
BOOM! The sound of a single gunshot rocks the cavernous interior of the ‘church’. Many of the female followers cry out and the men all cringe. The members of Two-Six grip their firearms tighter and turn to face the source of the interruption. They see Wade holding his Beretta at arm’s length just to the preacher’s right side. Or rather where the preacher had just been. The preacher now lies with half a head and gore scattered about.
Fitz, “Dude...”
Wade, “Always wanted to do that. Told you he was too dangerous.”
Pops, “What did I say!?”
Wade leans over and picks up a small subcompact pistol from the ground and tosses it in front of his brothers, “He pulled it off his ankle when y’all were playing with steve.”
“Guess you were right.”
“Someone had to pick up the slack when Cane was finally wrong.”
Rapp, “Well fuck, now what?”
Pops, “I think it’s time to go home.”
Trey rubs his head, “Yea, I could use a nap.”
Cane, “Maybe we should take the damsel in distress to the hospital first.”
“First off, screw you, little brother. Second, I agree, a hospital run is necessary.”
Pops, “Then mount up everyone,” over channel five, “Two-Six, Headquarters.”
Scarlett, “Two-Six.”
“Code four, Basher Two is alive, the preacher is ten-seven. We’re going to be en route to the hospital to get him checked out. And notify the chief he’ll have the remaining followers of the church heading’ to the complex.”
Scarlett, “Ten-four, will do.”
Trey, “When did I get demoted to number two?”
Beau, “When you got kidnapped like a two year old, Wade was promoted to Basher One and I was inducted as Addition Two.”
Coll, “And when I was brought in as Addition One, and Ronson Addition Three.”
Trey, “Well if this ain’t just the shit icing on the crap cake.”
They laugh and Cane throws an arm around Trey, “Come on, T, it’s just another day in paradise.”
Trey puts his arm around Cane, “Got that right.”
Wade, “And you can have number one back. I’m not much for leading.”
CLEAR SIGHT
The sun peeks over the horizon and lights the convoy in a cheerful orange glow. The ride back is quiet and filled with yawns. The drive i
s happy and lazy, just another Monday morning commute. At the hospital, Two-Six finds Chief and Wilcox in a secluded room.
Chief, “Glad to see the Task Force is back together, and it’s grown. Somehow I’m not surprised.”
Pops motions with his thumb to Trey, “Yea, had to do a little rescuing. Doc, you mind taking a look at this one.”
Wilcox, “Can do, follow me.”
Chief, “While he’s getting patched up, by some form a miracle Fred managed to get us almost exactly what we needed.”
Fred, “Almost?”
“Most of the intel you brought back was pointless paperwork, there was however a large amount of information on something called ‘Project: Darwin’.”
Cane, “Chief, not to be rude, but it’s been a hell of a night, can you lay it out in plain talk?”
“There’s still a lot to sort through but to keep it short,” he takes a deep breath, “The base in Laplace was evacuated two days after the first death. The first confirmed steve report wasn’t until three days after that, when an entire city had fallen. This tells us that not only did the government have an early warning of the incident; they also were very likely the cause of it. The doctor knows all the specifics of what we’ve found so far in reference to the medical stuff. I was worried this might have had a more underhanded beginning than just a natural pandemic. ‘Project: Darwin’... Is essentially the government’s plan to eradicate and I quote: the ‘weak minded’ portion of the population. We still don’t know exactly how the MRF Virus chooses its host while airborne. One report specifically says ‘weak minded,’ I’m not sure how they can choose that. Another report says the ‘criminal element.’ A third says ‘submissive.’ However it manages to choose, we don’t know how it manifests from simply killing people to turning them steve. A printed email spelled out that with the death of weak people, the strong will strive further. Fewer work forces, constitutes the remaining individuals to pick up the slack. It was a shit idea if I do say so myself.”
Gavin, “So the sheeple died, then got up and ate the people still breathing?”
Beau, “Sure as shit sounds like it.”
Cane, “Are they fucking nuts? Kill off a quarter of the world’s population because they’re ‘weak-minded’? Almost makes me miss when all we had to worry about was gun-control.”
Ronson, “Yea ‘almost’.”
Wyatt, “At least they failed with that idiotic plan. But this? I ain’t complaining, but how did they fuck up signing some laws in, but figure out how to target specific people in the population so that a virus could pick and choose its victims based on a brain response?”
Cane, “Government, brotha, really good at fucking shit up.”
Fitz, “Amen.”
Fred, “As we used to say in the army: ‘SNAFU’.”
Ronson, “‘System Normal: All Fucked Up,’ indeed.”
Pops, “Chief, so what does this mean for us?”
Chief, “As of now? Not a damn thing. According to the note left by the CIO of the base in Laplace there may be a contingency plan for a cure buried somewhere between the lines of all this nonsense. Until we find it, we continue testing steve and surviving.”
Coll, “Did you say testing?”
“Oh yes, there’s a reason I’m here, other than the paperwork that is. Follow me, I think y’all will enjoy this.” Chief leads the task force down a maze of hallways until they come to the labor and delivery area. Live steves can be seen through the glass in many of the rooms.
Beau, “You know steve is alive in there right?”
“Yes, yes, this area was fitted with one way mirrored heavy duty glass. Damn near unbreakable. So far as we can tell, if they can’t see us they just kinda sit around. Even the hunters.”
Cane, “Still tired, what’s the point of this?”
“Should be the next room, you should recognize the officer inside. He was actually quite excited to be part of the experiment.” Through the window, they can see two steves dangling from steel bars attached to the ceiling one facing the near wall the other the far wall. They see yet another old squad mate in the room with the steves, armed of course, but instead of holding a firearm, he has an X2 Taser aimed at the steves. “With the news of a possible cure, we’ve been entertaining less than lethal ways of stopping steve. If we can keep them alive long enough to get a cure, we may be able to revert the process.”
Wilcox catches up to the group with Trey in tow, “I’ve told you it doesn’t matter if we keep them in one piece. Their internal organs are too far gone. Even if we reversed the steve-ification their bodies would instantly die because their insides are nothing more than mush after a few days in this state.”
“Well if we can’t find a way to reverse it, maybe a vaccine to build immunity or we can at least treat the source as soon as the infection begins.”
“A cure brings a vaccine, I still say it’s futile, but it IS interesting to watch.”
Trey, “Why’s Legaux got his Taser out?”
Cane, “You gotta be shitting me. He’s not gonna... Yep he did it.”
Legaux fires the X2 Taser cartridge and both prongs hit their intended target: one in the lower back and one in the butt cheek, splitting the beltline. When the steve lets out a roar and its whole body goes rigid, Legaux does a small dance and grins from ear to ear. He switches the cartridge over and fires at the front of the other hanging steve. The same results; the same happy dance. After the full five second ride, Legaux exits and jumps at the sight of Two-Six, “Whoa! What up, Bink? You wanna try this? It’s fucking righteous.”
Cane, “Legaux, why are you frying steve?”
Legaux, “‘Cause Doctor Volt’s in the house, bra. Just ‘cause it’s the end of the world, don’t mean we can’t still fry a motherfucker. When all this shit happened, I didn’t think I’d ever get to tase somebody again, especially since you weren’t ten-eight to get punched in the face.”
Everyone laughs remembering the good times, before the Turn, when Cane would get hit in some way, shape or form giving Legaux the green light to tase someone.
Cane, “No tasing for me, brotha. I’m looking to get a nap, ya know some ten-fifty time.”
Legaux, “Word, you know Schoen should be around here somewhere.”
Schoen, “Present.”
Fitz, “And here I thought things couldn’t get any worse.”
Schoen, “Life’s an adventure, it’s like a living breathing thing all its own. Shit keeps evolving and changing and no one knows where it’s going next. Gotta be around to keep up with the times.”
Coll, “Philosophical much?”
Schoen, “Just gotta put my two sense in. Been a hot minute since I was graced with the presence of so many Hollanns in one place.”
Pops, “Good to see some old faces, but now that Trey’s patched up. I think it’s time we got to heading home.”
Chief, “Always did love happy reunions.”
Fire Commander over the radio, “Fire to Chief.”
Chief, “Well that was short lived,” over the radio, “Whatcha got?”
Fire Commander, “A problem, there’s too many houses, not enough of us. We’ve got to change the plan.”
Chief, “Two-Six, I understand you need a break, God knows you’ve earned more than a few days, but I need you for just a few more. Give me some other way to get our clear field of view.”
Pops, “Just bulldoze everything. Flatten what you can and spread the debris out.”
Rapp, “That could work, it would be its own booby trap. Making steve or whoever else might wander over take their time or eat shit.”
Chief, “Works for me, those fire trucks could probably do most of the work.”
Wade, “You know I do love to destroy shit.”
Cane, “Yea I think we could all do with some stress relief after the past few weeks.”
Chief, “You may not like to scatter debris though.”
Gavin, “Gotta be easier than lugging all this gear around, sometime
s you gotta mix the good deed with some bad ones. Destruction being the inherently bad deed.”
“Then it’s settled. Get y’all a few hours rest and we’ll take a break from hunting. I’ll need you to go in between the fire trucks; around the people still living on the perimeter and knock down what you can. Get furniture out, major appliances, anything that may impede the flow of the work. If we’ve got a clear space we’ll burn what we can. Destroying around the people on the outskirts would also reduce the risk of the fire jumping where we don’t want it to.”
Pops, “You work out the details, for now we’re going to rest sun up or not.”
Chief, “Enjoy your naps, Two-Six. You boys did a hell of a job.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Firefighter, “Commander, we got a problem.”
Fire Commander rubs his forehead in exasperation, “What is it now?”
“We can’t keep it contained. There are too many houses, each one takes too long to go completely down. This was a bad idea from the start.”
“Alright, alright, I’ve already told the chief. Let me get him on the radio and see if we can’t figure something else out.”
Chief over the radio, “Chief to Commander.”
Fire Commander, “Go ‘head, Chief.”
“Pack up your hoses for today. Whatever is burning now let it finish and douse it. We’ve got another plan. We’re going to get some more people out to you shortly.”
“Thank God. This isn’t going to work.”
“Well it seemed like a good idea at the time. And we didn’t have much else to go with. Later today we’re going to get back to it. We’re going to burn down certain places and bulldoze the rest.”
“Well yea that might work. We’re going to need plenty of space for burning though. Some of these places are really close together and making it hard to contain.”
“Roger that. See you in a while.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Cane over channel five, “Spartan One to Headquarters.”
Scarlett, “Spartan One?”
“Clear from the hospital, Two-Six is en route home for the morning. Ten-Four?”
“Ten four. Headquarters to Legacy Two.”