Chapter Six
The team of men that had burned Demetria’s house and killed Marta reassembled to kidnap her from the farm. They were going to transport her to a dark and dingy hovel in the desert. They were four heavily armed, highly trained completely ruthless and psychopathic men. The leader of the team was an orthopedic surgeon for his day job. He’d been recruited into the brotherhood while doing his residency, and quite unexpectedly ended up in an elite commando team. His name was John Reney.
The team gave him an outlet for his dark side, which was proportioned like the beneath the water part of an iceberg to his light part. The men rarely encountered significant resistance in their operations. More often than not, they were sent in to clean up other people’s mistakes and screw-ups, usually by killing people--men, women, and children--and staging accidents or suicides. It was very rare for them to pursue a single target over multiple missions and John found it a very gratifying experience.
They observed the farm for a few hours before starting to move. As the full moon started to rise over the treetops on the eastern horizon, the radio crackled, “J-dog, we’re made.”
John acknowledged him, “Roger that, Gorilla, I don’t see any reaction. Let’s give it a few more minutes until it’s really dark and go in with night vision unless the target tries to leave.”
They didn’t expect much resistance from the people. They planned to kill everyone and make it look like a suicide cult. John liked the challenge of trying to contain such a large group since they were completely outnumbered. Two of his men were on ATVs. He and Skeet were on foot.
“They’re fucking singing or some shit.” Gorilla announced. He watched the temple through his binoculars. He was in the upper branches of a tree on the edge of the property. “This is some really hippy dippy shit.”
Tracy and Demetria crossed to the other side. They focused on the men. Demetria said flatly, “I will be their nightmare.”
She spoke to Gorilla in the ancient language. Tracy could only pick out a few words. She heard “father” and “betrayal”. Gorilla felt a chill. In his mind’s eye he imagined John was going to murder him when they were finished with the job. He tried to shake the thought, but couldn’t. Demetria closed her eyes and reached out to John. She could feel the darkness and corruption in him. All his evil deeds were encapsulated in calcified chambers and his consciousness was like a depraved little boy. She warmed him and melted the hardness in his mind.
John watched them through binoculars, but put them down. He felt tremendous sadness and discontent, like a thousand midlife crises hitting him all at once. In his mind’s eye he remembered being a boy and standing on a muddy creek bank behind their family home. He killed frogs with a pump BB gun. He remembered his glee at ending their stupid existence, but now saw their dead eyes and wrecked bodies staring back at him. He remembered killing a neighbor’s cat when he was eleven. He stabbed it in the neck with a barbecue fork. He remembered the cat’s pitiful attempts to escape his grasp, but now rather than feeling the sense of power he had at the time, he saw himself as sad, pathetic, and completely lame and twisted.
He sat down on the ground and gripped his head between his hands and started sobbing. He tried to stifle the weeping, but the memories kept flooding into his mind, like a non-stop horror show. He clicked the microphone, “Bros, I’m losing it. I’m out, useless.” He just dropped his gear on the ground and started stumbling away.
Skeet grabbed his shoulder, “J-dog, what the fuck?!”
“Bro, we’re useless pieces of shit.” John said. He howled, “You raped a thirteen year old girl while her mom watched, then killed them both. You sack of shit.”
Skeet was in shock. John was a hardened killer just like him. He’d participated in their crimes with glee. “Hell of a time to get a conscience, asshole. I’ve seen you do worse.” He clicked the radio, “J-dog’s losing it.”
Gorilla radioed back, “I don’t trust that fucker.”
John saw their fourth man running naked across the frozen field. Gorilla announced, “What the hell is going on? Hando just ran naked over here. He said I look like a dumb-ass in this tree and mooned me.”
Skeet announced, “Alright, something fucked up is going on, I’m taking command.”
BANG. John shot Skeet in the back of the head. John saw Gorilla shift in the tree and saw the glint of the scope. He took cover in a ditch. In spite of the adrenaline, the memories kept flooding his mind. He mumbled, “We are a malignancy. A cancer.” He thought about the man that gave them orders, the cold reptilian eyes and the gleeful delivery of the detailed instructions about killing innocents and raping women and children he had heard over the years.
He started jogging around the side of the field toward Gorilla. He heard a couple of rounds zing over his head and thud into the dirt. He stayed low and moved fast. John noticed Hondo was following him, miming his every move.
John asked, “Dude, aren’t you cold? What are you doing?”
Hondo spoke in riddles, “I’m warmer than the Earth and Sky! I’m unspoilt meat. I dance to stay warm.” He tap danced in the dirt.
John said, “You fool! You’re giving my position away.”
Hondo nodded gravely, “Dog against Ape. The contest must be fair.” He ran around to the other side of a line of trees that separated Gorilla and John.
Gorilla snarled, “What the fuck Hondo? Did you lose your mind?”
“Actually I found it. You are the lost one!” He snickered at the word play.
Gorilla said, “Get the fuck outta here, dude.”
Hondo danced backwards away from him. John lept out of the trees and shot and clipped Gorilla’s leg once, then shot again and caught him in the gut in his bulletproof vest. Gorilla crumpled onto his knee. His rifle was unwieldy for close quarters fighting, but he squeezed off a round that hit John’s left shoulder and destroyed the joint. John howled in agony. John tried to fire again but missed wildly and the gun jammed. Gorilla pointed the rifle along the ground and shot. The round shredded John’s internal organs and he died instantly.
Gorilla was bleeding profusely and couldn’t walk. “Help me bro.” He pleaded with Hondo who watched the whole incident with detached amusement.
Hondo said, “Help you and help continue the harvest of death? No.” He ran away across the field and into the woods.
Gorilla crawled back toward the ATV. He heard footsteps on the soil. He looked back over his shoulder at Amy.
He rolled onto his back and said, “Thank god! Can you help me lady?”
Amy said, “You were sent here to kill us all, right?”
He said, “It’s just business. We get a job and we do it.”
She said, “So I help you, then you come back here to finish it.”
He shook his head no, but grinned. “The people I work for are real hard asse…” BANG.
She shot him in the head with John’s gun.
“Fuck.” She said. Her hands were shaking. She dialed 911. “A few guys on my property started shooting each other. Seems like they went crazy. One of them is running around naked, but he seems harmless. The other three are dead.”
In a few minutes, she heard the howl of Sheriff’s sirens. She wiped the gun off with her T-shirt, then tossed it near John and jogged toward the house. Hondo followed her. She asked him, “Do you want my coat?”
“But then you will be cold.” He said.
Three black sheriff cars were parked in the drive. She hailed them, the deputies had their weapons drawn. She hollered, “Over here!”
They followed her to the scene of the carnage. The deputy said, “Who is this naked guy?”
“I was one of them, now I am not.” Hondo said.
“Alright, who are they?” The deputy asked.
“They are killers that killed each other.” Hondo said.
Amy said, “There’s another one up at the front of the property.”
“Jesus.” The deputy said. “What a mess!” He rubbed his hand o
ver his face. “I’ll start collecting statements from you and your people.”
Amy sighed, “Alright. We’ll be up in the main barn. How long will these bodies be here? This is gross...”
He shrugged, “I don’t know.”
She left him. Hondo ran off into the woods. The deputy shouted after him, “Hey! You can’t leave, get back here!” He heard Hondo laughing as he disappeared into the woods.
The Chardon Chronicles: Season Two --- The Winter Page 67