Monsters

by Daniel Greenwell

  “Give me one reason I should trust you?”

  “Because, this is kind of what I have always wanted on a personal level Mal. What I did wasn’t personal but I still want to show my troops and your own son that I am better than you. Also,” Quinn said while pointing to the entry way up the stairs to the six men he had left that were healthy, “if I wanted you dead by their hand or a bombs hand, you’d be dead. I knew you’d find a way in here Mal and I knew that your little hero heart couldn’t bear the idea of civilians being hurt or your now troops so you would come in here alone. You were never a Commander, Mal. You are a warrior, if someone’s life was at a stake, you would do it yourself.”

  Mal dropped his XM-24 rifle and unclipped his plate carrier system dropping them to the ground.

  “Fine,” Mal said, “have it your way.”

  “If anyone shoots him in this building while playing by the rules, I will personally kill that man.” Quinn said. “To be honest Mal, we were at push at best there. You could hit me in a spot from there that would cause my muscles to not let loose, not activating the Dead Man’s switch. So this could be a point where I say I lied but instead, I will do something you don’t, I will keep my word.”

  I love comic books but why is he talking like a comic book villain, this wasn’t a competition, it was a show. Who was the show for? The only person I can think of is Tim or David.

  Mal cracked his neck.

  “What are the rules?” Mal asked while stretching his arms back.

  “Fight to the death for me but I am guessing by your little act,” Quinn said, “You want to take me alive.”

  Quinn wasn’t wrong, Mal thought he would be an excellent prisoner to exchange for Tim and the possibility of getting the Reds to stay away.

  “Maybe, you have also pissed me off,” Mal said, “you killed the one kid I liked. For that, you will die.”

  Quinn took off the suicide vest and disarmed the Dead-Man’s switch, looking up .

  “You mean Kyle? He screamed for you Mal,” Quinn said, “he cried and I really enjoyed the totality of it. So did David.”

  That was enough for Mal as he pushed forward and lanced an elbow across Quinn’s eyebrow, cutting his head open as blood poured down.

  “Not bad, wacko.” Quinn said. Trying to get a rise out of Mal but, he isn’t hurt by that.

  “Umm yeah, I am crazy…” Mal said.

  Quinn stepped diagonally towards Mal and swung his left leg towards Mal’s knee. Mal’s weight wasn’t proportioned right because he was throwing a left straight that Quinn had dodged. It connected and Mal limped backwards.

  “Not bad yourself,” Mal said.

  Slowly but surely, Malcolm was on the edge of pure rage, he put his hands up to protect his hands and fainted pain in his left leg. Quinn stepped Diagonally right, just like Mal wanted. Mal as a stand up fighter was good but he was more at home on the ground. Mal stepped forward and grabbed Quinn while he was off balance and picked him up off the ground. Quinn pulled the pen knife out of his Frog shirt pockets and stabbed Mal in the shoulder. The puncture of pain was bad so Mal wanted to reciprocate.

  Face the pain, Asshole.

  Mal flipped his body weight forward and slammed Quinn onto his head.

  “Fuck…” Quinn said.

  Agreed on that sentiment, it hurts to drop a guy sometimes.

  Quinn wrapped his legs around Mal in a full Jiu-Jitsu guard. Mal pressed an elbow into Quinn’s right thigh, like a knife pressing into it, so Mal could pass his left leg over. Mal was in his element, a ground fighter through and through, no matter what condition he was in. Sweeping his leg around Quinn’s right leg, trapping it between his legs.

  Welcome to my element.

  Mal started with a vicious ground and pound display, something that the UFC would have wanted him recruited for back in the day. Quinn covered up but Mal was relentless, driving punch after punch into the bridge of Quinn’s nose. Quinn rolled over onto his stomach and Mal took the opportunity to wrap his legs around Quinn’s waist, spreading his legs. Malcolm wrapped his arm underneath Quinn’s neck before reaching into his right cargo pocket and feeling around.

  Come on, where is it? There it is!

  Mal pressed the button on the shape charge detonator.

  “Executing Mal,” Tye said.

  Mal rolled Quinn over onto his back and then swung back on top of Quinn in full mount. The most dangerous position a person could be in as the bottom half of the equation.

  “You win, Malcolm,” Quinn said while raising his hands, “just so you know, I am guessing you sent her back on that Osprey. Am I right?”

  “Does it matter?” Mal said before dropping a fist onto Quinn’s nose, the cartilage now springing from his nose like a rib tip.

  “It does because, as expected now there’s only our viewers from the other half of the militia,” Quinn said, “There’s no audio though and since we are the only people here, I will tell you why David running to me wasn’t luck. I am sure you want to know, don’t you?”

  He’s one sentence away from having a pen knife through his brain.

  “Think back to your wife’s death, Malcolm,” Quinn said, “wasn’t there something about it that just didn’t equate?”

  Malcolm analyzed the death of his wife in his mind, not as a husband but as a war-fighter. Malcolm was laying flat on his back as he felt the sting of the bullet wounds in his back and shoulder. He looked up to see his Wife running north towards the BANS border but she cradled her stomach as the blood spatter shot in the opposite direction.

  Wait, if the blood went towards the Reds side of the border, that kid couldn’t have killed her.

  Malcolm’s face changed to a knowing look.

  “I shot her, Mal,” Quinn said, “I knew she was the crutch that kept that monster from you taking over. I had hoped that I could take you but in all honesty, you were much more pathetic than I anticipated. So you ran off your son, which is even better because he will be able to march over all of the corpses after we break through the wall and go to Chicago. Leaving a trail of Colored folks corpses in the way, decimating the BANS military which was already Path-.”

  Quinn stopped talking as the first pen-knife blow struck him in the left lung, the second slashed across his spleen as he heard Mal’s primal roar. The Wolf in Mal was there now, the man was gone.

  “THANK YOU MALCOLM!” Quinn said as the blood bellowed out of his mouth and Mal brought the Pen-knife down into his eye. Mal brought it down again and again and again, until there was nothing left of Malcolm’s face.

  “MAL! STOP!”

  Tye pulled Mal off of him but Mal pushed Tye away as the pen knife scattered away. Mal climbed back on top of him and pounded ferociously until Quinn’s head was gone. Mal felt a Zap, and he fell to the ground blinking away consciousness.

  “Do not hurt him! He’s a friendly,” Tye screamed, “He just screwed up though.”

  Mal passed out.

  David Daniels stared at the camera as his father brutally murdered Quinn, he stood there quietly at the camera as each blow struck. David turned around and looked at Tim Carpenter.

  “I am not afraid to die, David.”

  “Good,” David said holding back anger, “You will.”

  “You can’t beat your Dad.” Tim said from the cell underneath the house near Mount Vernon, they had never really left.

  David turned on that comment, confused.

  “He’s old. He’s out of shape…what do you think is so great about him? Why are all of you so scared of him?”

  “Mal’s so dangerous, you don’t understand. Whatever Quinn told him when they were close? That sent your father over the edge, there’s only one thing I know that does that…” Tim said.

  David paused at that comment.

  “Probably my mom? Something about her death, maybe a truth or maybe a lie but…my father’s rage isn’t some sort of god. He’s just very angry.”

  Tim cackled.

  “Yeah. I though tha
t too, can’t blame ya. Then I saw your dad, when this girl died. She was obviously raped and mutilated. Not too much older than you at nineteen years old. He beat them to near death with his bare hands, one of his punches crashed through the hut. I could hear his punches, the contact was so strong it was audible. I don’t know if he’s a god or something but I know something for certain: The Wolf doesn’t love fights, if you fight him, you’ll lose.”

  David laughed right back.

  “Except one tiny little thing…I am The Wolf’s weakness.”

  Eight Years Earlier

  Mal had drawn off the Oathkeepers to save Jace. Tim and David chased behind as they shot the four men chasing him before being pinned down by two and eventually, the gun-fire stopped.

  “Go check on, Kevin.” Tim said as he heard the screams of pain.

  “No…I need to see him.” David said.

  David had heard the stories of the brutal, dangerous side of his father.

  “Don’t piss him off.” Tim advised, running off as David turned.

  The Oathkeeper that had pinned them down was limp and dead, the K-bar knife was impaled through the man’s brain, leaving him pinned through the wall. David heard the screams of the man, being drug through the warehouse in a trail of blood, David followed as he watched his father brutally beat one of the four men left, their achilles tendons all snapped.

  “Dad…” David said as Mal turned around.

  Watching his father’s head as he trembled, the kind eyes of his affable father weren’t there.

  “Dad…it’s me. This isn’t you.” David said slinging his rifle behind as his father beat the man to death and then turned, looking his son in the eye.

  Almost instantly, his whole body slunk almost relaxing as his son wrapped his arms around him.

  “It’s okay…” David said. “It’s okay…I am here pops.”

  Later with his Mother, David told her what had happened.

  “Oh! You can do that too huh?” She asked. “Your father caught a man trying to rape me once when we were out, the only reason he didn’t beat him to death was me stopping him.”

  “Guess that makes me special huh? Who else is like that?” David asked.

  “Living?” She asked with the cup of coffee up to her lips as they rode in the RV camper. “Just you and me. Grandma could also do that but, she’s been gone a while. I always think he’s scared of having no one to stop him.”

  David sat back on the couch and leaned back, looking at his mother.

  “Why?” He asked.

  The memory faded from David’s mind.

  Present Day

  Mount Vernon, Indiana

  “Why do you stop him from raging though?” Tim asked. “You’re missing the forest for the trees here.”

  David searched his brain, finding nothing.

  “Probably because, he’s weak.”

  Tim smiled.

  “No, it’s because he loves you, very much. He cares about you, cares about you not seeing that side of him and wants to protect you from it.”

  David laughed.

  “That’s not true…”David said, almost fighting himself, “If it was he wouldn’t have treated me the way he did.”

  Slamming the door to the large cell that Tim was in, Tim turned to the child behind him.

  “Kyle, you okay?” Tim asked.

  The small child was grabbed by David during the attack after Tim and him were separated from the rest of the class.

  “Where’s Mal?” Kyle asked. “His son is here and he was acting like friends when I saw them.”

  Why would David grab this kid out of the classroom? This one random kid, if he wasn’t a monster like he wanted us to believe.

  “Is it true what they said about Mal?” Kyle asked.

  “Well…”Tim said, “that’s complicated. Mal is a man of intense rage and he has his own issues but, he’s not a bad man.”

  “My mom said that he’s a killer.

  “He is. So am I.” Tim stated.

  Kyle looked at Tim with an awareness to his last statement.

  “Why did you kill people?” Kyle asked.

  “Imagine that someone had a gun pointed to a friend of yours head and you have a rifle pointed at their head. Will you pull the trigger?” Tim asked.

  “Yes.” Kyle stated.

  “Oh no…you’re a killer, Kyle.” Tim said sarcastically. “Look, the world that Mal and I live in, it’s not black and white. It’s very gray. Sometimes you have to do very, very bad things, for good reasons. Kill people you like or admire because they are going to commit mass murder. Save people you hate because it’s the only way to find peace. It’s hard. There’s a reason that there isn’t very many people our age in our profession, it takes too much out of you.”

  Kyle grabbed a hold of Tim as the large men at the gate stared inside.

  “They won’t touch you.” Tim said. “I promise.”

  “How do you know?” Kyle asked.

  Tim smirked at the teenager and cleared his throat, making sure they heard this statement.

  “I know because, anyone who harms you, Kyle? They get The Wolf , not Malcolm Daniels. No, they get the man feared on every continent on the Earth. He will brutalize them, if they touch you. The Wolf will also brutalize every person who was here who could stop it…” Tim stated looking at the mirror, the men went about their way, the teenager looked shocked, “that’s the type of fear your next door neighbor inspires in people who kill others for a living. The fear of not only death but, a long and painful death.”

  “Mal’s the good guy though right?”

  “No. He’s not bad guy though either…he’s the judge. He’s on neither side and both at the same time. I have seen that man smile ear-to-ear all day, everyday, while playing soccer with some Afghani kids, our Admiral actually called him the Command’s best Hearts and Minds guy. I have also seen him slowly break every bone in a person’s body, when he raped and murdered one of those children.”

  “Rule One: Don’t piss off Malcolm Daniels.” Kyle said as Tim chuckled.

  “That’s all the rules but…he’s also my best friend. He’s the best uncle, my kids ever had and he was a really good father…losing Lisa did him in.”

  “His wife?” Kyle asked as Tim nodded. “My mom thought about asking him out once, she went down there and saw him through the window, passed out on the floor covered in puke on the wood floor. She cleaned him up and asked him why he did that to himself…he pointed to the calendar. It was their wedding anniversary the night before. That point, she knew: He was broken.”

  “You knew this and you still, went to see him all the time?” Tim asked.

  “Jace said that he has a good heart. He’s a…” Kyle stated as he searched for the word, “she told me to tell him he was a…which of course was code for me to never call him that…Edgelord.”

  Tim let out a good hearty laugh. A long, deep laugh, something the two of them needed especially with what is coming.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Due south

  Mal blinked for the first time. It felt like he had a severe concussion before because, he couldn’t even open his eyes without a struggle.

  “He killed Quinn,” An voice Malcolm didn’t recognize from the left side of whatever they were in, “guy was defenseless Tye. What type of person does that?”

  “He had to have a good reason,” Tye said, “I know this guy and he’s the rash type but he’s not insane.”

  Mal was able to open his left eye to see they were on-board a van, headed somewhere.

  This is odd.

  Mal looked out the windows to find the sun, setting in the west.

  Never eat SOUR watermelons. We are due south at approximately 85 miles per hour.

  “Looks like he’s awake,” The mystery voice said, “thank god we zip-tied him.”

  “If he wanted you or me dead,” Tye said, “we would be dead. Guy has killed more guys than I can count.”

  Mal pulled at the
his hands zip-tied behind his back. Zip ties are great for holding non-experienced folk but for people who are experienced: not a great option. Mal begin by pulling against the back of his belt where he usually carried two spare magazines, with the plate carrier gone there was a sharp corner on from his body armor. Scraping away until he felt just the tiniest bit of them loosening and a pop, from a slight cut ending up in them..

  “It’s not like he can get out of those,” The voice said.

  Mal pushed his hands in opposite directions as the zip-ties came apart and he sat up in the van. The look on the passenger’s face: like The Terminator got up at the end of the movie.

  “Sir, please calm down,” the Twenty-two year old soldier said as he tried to reload his stun-gun from the seat in front of him.

  “If you want him to be calm I would stop acting like you are going to shoot him again,” Tye said from the driver seat.

  Malcolm ripped the stun gun out of the younger soldier’s hands, then reached with his right hand and pulled away his stun gun ammo. He hadn’t seen one of these in years but he was pretty certain how they worked.

  “You slide the ammo in,” Mal stated, instructing the soldier how to reload the weapon he had shot Mal with, “it doesn’t pop.”

  Mal slipped the cartridge into the front of the stun gun and then grabbed slide handing it back to the young soldier.

  “Thank you, Commander?”

  Mal smiled back.

  “What happened back there, Sir?” The young man asked.

  “He told me two things that made me lose my cool,” Malcolm said, “I am guessing that’s exactly what he wanted me to do as well.”

  “We cut the broadcast a couple of minutes afterwards,” Tye said, “I guess they still had active equipment on site from when they used to broadcast basketball games there. Why the hell did you beat his face into non-existence?”

  “You married Tye?”

  “I am,” he retorted.

  “Imagine someone murdered your wife,” Mal said, “and for years you thought you killed the person who did it when in reality, he was walking free. He was out there scheming against you. You blamed yourself because you thought you could have prevented it. You destroyed your own son and sent him to that man because, you wanted to share that pain for some reason. Then turned your son against you. How would that make you feel?’