Monsters

by Daniel Greenwell

  Mal shook his head.

  “He wasn’t trying to burn down the building,” Mal said, “he was trying to keep us busy fighting the assault team and activate the buildings fire suppression systems: killing her. He would know that I would leave her somewhere where she couldn’t get out and turn herself in.”

  Mal walked over into the parking lot and looked at the blown open napalm barrel.

  “When did this barrel get here?” Mal asked.

  “It was here before I set up across the street,” Jace said.

  Wallis was fumbling on her tablet.

  “It’s been here a very long time,” Wallis said, “in fact, it’s been sitting there for over a month.”

  Someone put that barrel there but it could have honestly been anyone. Could have been one of the three moles we found.

  “Let’s not lose ourselves in this whole thing,” Mal stated, “let’s find ourselves a safe place to put her.”

  “Do you know of anywhere safer than than the HQ?” Wallis asked.

  Mal stared into the distance as Wallis paced back and forth. She snapped in front of Mal’s eyes to try and get his attention.

  “Hello, ya there?” Wallis asked.

  Jace grabbed her hand.

  “Just give him a minute,” Jace said as Mal eyes darted.

  “There’s an emergency bunker underneath the Water station next to the river,” Mal said.

  Wallis tapped away at her tablet.

  “No, there’s really not,” Wallis stated, “It’s not on any of the emergency bunker lists.”

  “I can’t tell you how I know this but I know it was upgraded in 2029 by FEMA, it was turned into an emergency escape point for VIPs in the area.”

  “Wait, why won’t you tell us how you know this?” Wallis asked.

  “Because I don’t know where I know this from,” Mal said.

  “What? Did God himself come down and bless you with it?” Wallis asked.

  Jace stepped in between the two.

  “Mal has a photographic memory, sometimes when he remembers something it could be an email or a list, he may not know where it came from. Imagine a bunch of random photographs taken: you know what’s in the photograph but do you remember where it was taken? Or who took it?”

  Wallis nodded. Mal turned and walked over to Carter who was receiving medical treatment to confirm she was in good health.

  “We got to go,” Mal said to her.

  “Give me a minute, Sir,” The Medic said.

  Mal turned and saw a young woman to the left of him, directing others as they made a perimeter around the area. Turning to her as he observed the command center as the smoke left the building, Mal looked at Rebecca.

  “Good work, kid,” He said with a smirk.

  “Thank you, sir!”

  “I worked for a living and I have a name,” He said as he took out his knife out of his right tricep holster.

  The knife danced in his hand as he leaned down to dirt covered ground next to the once command center.

  “They attacked here,” He stated while drawing on the ground a small grid, “which way did they retreat, Rebecca?”

  Leaning over she pointed east of the courthouse with an X in the dirty.

  “This way,” She pointed as he drew a line to the courthouse and then a circle.

  “Two miles in both directions, I want that area thoroughly searched,” Mal said, “All civilians into the bunkers or preferably out of the city to the fairgrounds. To the east, Wallis I need you to get transportation from Evansville on it.”

  “Commander Givens is emptying her Garrison, three hundred troops are headed here with her as well,” Said a young man on a radio away from Mal.

  Mal fingered to Wallis to walk over to where they were behind a barricade. She walked over towards him so he would stay out of the view of prying eyes.

  “Re-route her through New Harmony,” He said before patting Wallis on the back, “It will take longer but I have a feeling her response will cause all of them to die.”

  She nodded and walked to the radio as the medic finished with President Carter.

  “Madam President, We need to get you some place safe: My son is going to launch an all out attack on this town once he finds out his attack didn’t work.”

  Mal’s outreached hand was reciprocated by her as he lifted her to her feet. Mal looks at the two Medic’s with baseball caps and jackets on.

  “Jackets and hats,” Mal said as he put his hand on his gun on his leg, “I am not asking.”

  Carter looked at Mal as the two men frantically stripped.

  “That’s a bit much don’t you think?” Carter questioned.

  “I don’t trust any of these fuckers right now,” Mal stated.

  The two men raised their hands placing them on the back of their heads as Mal Zip tied their hands and threw both of them into the back of the truck. They put on the hats and jackets as Mal noticed Carter had gotten into the truck.

  “Nope,” He said, “you’re going by foot.”

  “What type of security will I get on foot?” She asked.

  “The best kind: Anonymity,” He said.

  “And you.” She said.

  “I am not bad,” he said as they began walking towards the waterway.

  The town wasn’t really that large but sprawled around multiple miles but considering the circumstances was in good condition. Carter was endlessly talking about how things had changed since she was this far south but, Mal’s mouth was on auto-pilot. Checking every floor of every building for the glare of a scope or the reflection of eyeballs.

  I wish there was honestly another way to do this but, this city’s underground accessway won’t get us any closer to this place and it seems to be crawling with these assholes every day.

  As they approached a large crowd with people.

  “PEACE!”

  Mal naturally rolled his eyes.

  “Don’t like protests?” Carter chided.

  “I don’t mind protests, just not stupid protests,” Mal said.

  “How’s this one stupid?” She asked.

  “We didn’t start this,” Mal said noticing they would have to cross the crowd to reach the water station across the street, “we’re just finishing it.”

  Austin pulled something from his right leg of his pants and slipped it into his palm of his left hand, putting his right arm out to make a hole through the group.

  “Excuse me,” he said as the young man stepped to the side as they entered the group.

  “Fuck the Police!” Carter screamed as Mal’s eyes squinted on her comment.

  “While I may agree, that may be the whitest form of protest in human history,” Mal said as they reached the middle of the crowd.

  Something gnawed at the back of his brain, that this wasn’t quite right. Mal stopped walking immediately with her and turned to a man in his early twenties to his left:

  “What are you guys doing here?” Mal asked.

  “Somebody shot that guy a couple of minutes ago,” The guy said, “It was out of nowhere and totally uncalled for.”

  Mal looked at the officers up and down as he felt Carter’s hand squeeze. She put her hand up to cover her mouth as she talked in his ear.

  “There’s a cop behind us, who has a hole in his body armor,” She whispered as Mal looked with his peripheral eye line at the man.

  No rifle, no holster for a pistol Those are the two parts of the BANS uniform I look for, those are things you can’t take off of a dead body very quickly.

  Mal whispered put his hand up to her ear.

  “They obviously haven’t made us yet,” He said, “Get out of the crowd, take cover across the street behind the building.”

  “I can’t just leave you…” She started to say as she saw the look in his eyes change.

  It wasn’t a request.

  “Okay.” She said as she turned while tucking her mask over her face.

  Mal slipped his coat over his pistol and then slipped the k
nife into his left palm as he walked through the crowd. The man ahead of him was about his size and weight, his brown hair shown as he didn’t wear a hat.

  “Hey buddy, can I ask you a question here?” Mal said as he leaned in.

  The man’s teeth were brown and dark from decay.

  Not BANS.

  Leaning over to Mal, the man closed his eyes and then opened them as Mal walked past him and towards the front of the crowd. The man stumbled left to right, almost drunk on his feet as he touched his chest: A knife sunken into it’s hilt, directly into his chest. Falling over, he died instantaneously as another man ran over a deep southern draw in his voice.

  “Craig, you dead man? Which one of you faggots did…” The man never finished his sentence as a band of civilians rushed by, the final man of their three man surveillance team at the front of the crowd lost sight of him until a moment later.

  A small Japanese Kunai knife, gifted to him by his friend Kevin Higdon, slashed through his windpipe and into his spine. The Sons soldier raised his rifle but it was well to late as Malcolm ran forward and cut the rifle from off the Sons soldier’s shoulder, as the soldier’s pistol was being drawn out of the small of his back. Pushing his leg forward he kicked the pistol out of his hand and fell forward into him wrapping his hands around the soldier’s body and slammed him into the ground as Mal put his hands on both sides of his head and snapped the soldier’s neck as the body went limp on the ground.

  “Show me your hands!” Screamed a man behind Mal.

  Mal couldn’t tell how close he was or which way he was, the neutral accent of the man screamed of BANS.

  Probably an actual BANS guard who just rolled up.

  “I SAID SHOW ME YOUR HANDS ASSHOLE!” Screamed the officer as Mal felt the barrel of the officer’s pistol press into the back his head.

  Huge mistake.

  Mal slipped his head to the side and pushed the pistol down into the ground as it fired and Mal grabbed the slide, pulling it off the M-9 Berretta, not allowing him to add another round into the receiver.

  “Relax,” Mal said as he slowly pushed up the man on the ground’s coat with his foot, exposing the AK-74U a compact Sub machine gun version of the Russian made weapon.

  The man saw the AK but kept his gun pointed at Mal, obviously unaware that without the slide pushing forward in the receiver, there would be no round in the chamber..

  “SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!” Screamed the BANS guard as Mal saw Carter shrug to him from behind the guard, pointing something into his back.

  “Actually, why don’t you show me your hands,” said the active President of the United States as the guard dropped his useless firearm and put his hands on his head.

  Mal pulled his pistol, careful not to aim it at the man who was clearly unaware of the situation.

  “If the slide doesn’t return after fired, there’s no round in the chamber: Dumbass,” Mal said as he disassembled the 9MM firearm in his hands until he got to the firing pin and put it in his pocket.

  Mal grabbed a zip tie from the officer’s side pocket as he glanced at Carter’s hands and chuckled.

  “I think I got it from here,” He said as Carter pointed the object up to her mouth and the peeled it’s yellow sides, biting into the banana’s white side as Mal restrained the man’s hands and feet, “this weapon is loaded with Potassium.”

  Mal gave the guard a push and he fell to his side as Mal walked towards the water treatment plants only entrance, his weapon pointed towards the door. The door opened to the outside making it impossible for a singular clear.

  “Get the door,” Mal said as he cracked his neck prepared to shoot.

  Carter put her hand on the door and ripped it open, making Mal breached the entrance way looking with his right eye with the dead end.

  “Clear right,” He muttered to himself as he put himself in a shooting position to the left.

  It was an empty hallway, staring back at him while Mal took a deep breath.

  “Yeah, that’s some dangerous oxygen,” Carter said as she finished chewing on the banana in her mouth.

  They walked down the hallway and into another small room at the end of the hallway, set of stairs that headed down into an open area where the Water treatment facility actually did it’s job. Mal whips his head around the room: there was no exit or stairwell.

  “That’s just fucking great,” Mal said, “I know it’s here but it doesn’t tell me where it’s at.”

  Mal felt his way down the wall frame until he felt a slight breeze, probably from an Air conditioning unit inside the hallway to the bunker. Rubbing his hands down the seam in the wall, a panel opened to the left of the door seam.

  “Please identify,” Said the robotic AI voice.

  “Malcolm Daniels, USN,” Mal said.

  “Callsign and phrase confirmation,” Said the disembodied voice.

  “Wolf-1 and…” Mal looked over his shoulder to see the President not overly interested, “Go beyond, Plus Ultra.”

  “Identity Confirmed 054901, Malcolm Daniels, USN SEAL: How can I help you Senior Chief Daniels?”

  “I am delivering Overlord for protection,” Mal said.

  Carter was cackling behind him, unending laughter and almost trying to stop but, she just couldn’t.

  “You’re telling me that you, the baddest man on the planet, loves My Hero Academia? I didn’t get weeb energy from you.” Said Carter in reference to the Japanese Anime and Manga created by Kohei Horikoshi.

  Malcolm Daniels wasn’t just a little bit of a fan of the famous Manga and other Manga, he was a super fan. Inside his home in New Harmony there were many autographed photos with his favorite creators or voice actors, that he hadn’t had anywhere else. Since they had moved back, he hadn’t unpacked them yet.

  “Your devotion to your son is a little Naruto and Sasuke,” Said Carter, referencing Naruto by legendary Mangaka Masashi Kishimoto.

  “Yeah…I hope it has the same result.”

  Naruto saved Sasuke from himself, Mal wasn’t sure he would get the same results.

  The door opened and it was empty inside but Mal had his pistol pointed straight out, ready for confrontation.

  “There are no lifeforms inside of here, Senior Chief Daniels,” Said the Artificial Intelligence system.

  A set of doors open at the end of the small hallway.

  “Good, Ma’am, go down there and relax for a bit,” Mal said as he pulled the small Walther PPK pistol from his ankle, handing it out to her, “just in case. Remember, RHF.”

  Run.

  Hide.

  Fight.

  These were the rules for what non-combatants should do before engaging in a firefight. She nodded back to Mal as he turned to walk away.

  “What are you going to do?” She asked.

  “Finish it,” Mal said as he disappeared behind the closing the door.

  Mal ran up the stores and into the outside air, past the bodies Reds as they lay in pools of blood and Mal ran into a different section of town before turning his radio back on.

  “Wallis, Wolf-1,” Mal said into the radio, “ I need you to meet me downstairs.”

  “Yes sir,” she said as Mal began to jog the about three block run back to the center of the city, “I need to show you something as well.”

  Running a little faster than normal she saw Mal come up the street past the Coliseum and ran to meet him as the Halon gas that was deployed was entirely clear at this point.

  “Sir, that group forming outside the wall? They are moving. Satellite thermal imagery…” She said as Mal raised his hand.

  “It’s the Sons, they are coming to Mount Vernon: We have a lot of work to do. Did the Demo team finish their job?”

  “They are in process,” Wallis said as Mal slipped his kevlar vest over his chest and pulled out the XM-24 rifle, “Sir, we can’t repel them if they get in the wall. We could run though?”

  Mal stopped mid-clearing procedure on his rifle and turned to look at Wallis.

 
“First, if we run: they will run us down. They will kill every single person in this town, whether with their gas or their guns. Genocide to the next degree. Then they will kill everyone in Evansville. They would probably reach Indy before they had any sort of stopping. You willing to let all of those people die?”

  “Sir, it’s not…” she started to say before Mal raised his hand again.

  “No, I don’t think you get it. I think many people joined the police or the military to live out some sort of fantasy of being a war hero and staring down evil. Honestly: most of the things I did weren’t directly saving American lives. Today’s different. We have to stand and fight…” Wallis put a finger to his lips and it befuddled him.

  “Sir, I love the pep talk and it’s awesome but, you should really give that to everyone else,” She said smirking, “I am trying to ask that from a purely academic perspective.”

  Mal blushed, he had always struggled with social understandings.

  “Sorry…I-”

  “I know, that’s why you’re my favorite.” Wallis said rubbing Mal’s long black and Grey hair, “You don’t know how to not give one hundred percent of yourself.”

  Mal and Wallis meet Tye in the hallway, outside of operations, fully loaded for war.

  “They’re here already, aren’t they?” Tye asked.

  “They are.”

  “I picked up and scrubbed some bodies down by the water treatment plant,” Tye said, “They looked like your handiwork. Knife wounds at close quarters.”

  “They were,” Mal said.

  “Why didn’t you call for backup?” Tye asked.

  Mal stopped and pushed Tye into the third floor courtroom.

  “Buddy…I can’t answer that. I am sorry, but I can’t. I need you to trust me.”

  “I need you to trust me. I am supposed to be learning from you but you don’t trust me for shit. Why is that?”

  Mal took a deep breath and looked at the wall behind Tye.

  “President Carter is in the bunker, ten stories underneath the water treatment plant. The Sons were directly outside the entrance in the clothes of BANS police. You’re right, if there’s anyone that is BANS here: I should trust you. You never needed to earn my trust, it should have been your’s to lose, I fucked it up. I won’t anymore.”

  Tye tilted his head in surprise, shocked that Malcolm Daniels admitted fault.