Darkest Drought

by Tai Goodman

  Then he found a golden Luger. "AHA!"

  Right when Franz discovered the weapon and had it in his hands, Phoenix had the soldier with his neck snapped, and used him as a human shield. Franz aimed for Phoenix's head, and missed, blowing off a piece of the soldier's cheek. "YOU MONGREL!"

  Franz unloaded his weapon on the corpse in random areas. One of the shots hit Phoenix in his shoulder. "MRRGH!"

  Franz checked the clip in his weapon. Only one bullet remained, as indicated by the miniscule screen with a "1" on it. Then when he paid attention to Phoenix approaching with rage and vengeance, Franz stuck the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. A splatter of blood and brains flew onto the wall behind him.

  "How's that gunpowder taste? Bet it tastes like the bitter and hard world you've created." Phoenix identified the door behind the chair. It lead into the mind control machine room. "Huh." Phoenix searched Franz's body for the keys, and all of a sudden, Phoenix watched Franz's head turn all the way around and laugh at him. "GAH WHAT THE FUCK?"

  But in reality, the corpse never came alive. Phoenix was already holding the keys in his hand. "Franz, you stay dead. That's the best favor you can do me, you Nazi bastard." Phoenix unlocked the door and headed inside. The machine was left isolated. And in front of it, lied a machine. A machine with a screen, a keyboard, mouse, and other technological devices. Phoenix walked over to the desktop and then stopped himself. "Nah, I should just destroy it."

  Then he shook his head. "Nevermind, I should actually TRY to do this." He clicked the mouse and the screen was covered in German language. "Alright scratch that, my way it is."

  Phoenix walked around the contraption. There was moving hydraulics, electricity soaring through transparently tubular pipes, and then one openable compartment. Phoenix felt the handle sticking out, and yanked out a slot. "Please insert a data packet," spoke the machine. Phoenix pulled out a spare hand grenade, pulled the pin, and then shoved it in, sending the slide back inside. Phoenix left the room, walking away casually. BOOM! Pieces of metal and electric parts flew everywhere. Phoenix ventured outside of the facility and looked around. Undesirables were pulling machinery off of their heads.

  "I'M FREE! OH MY GOD! i CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"

  "THANK. THE. LORD!"

  "¡Soy libre!"

  Phoenix was then hugged by a jewish woman and asked him, "Did you do that, Masked Terror?"

  He looked both ways and nodded to her. The woman then continued to hug him. The alarm system turned on and an announcer informed South Carolina: "ATTENTION, ALL RESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES AND SPECIFICALLY SOUTH CAROLINA. ALL UNDESIRABLES HAVE BEEN RELEASED DUE TO AN UNEXPECTED DISTURBANCE. PLEASE REPORT ALL UNDESIRABLES RUNNING AMUCK TO POLICE OR NAZI SOLDIERS. THANK YOU. ACHTUNG, ALLE WOHNER DER VEREINIGTEN STAATEN UND INSBESONDERE SÜD-CAROLINA. ALLE UNDESIRABLES SIND AUFGRUND EINER UNERWARTETEN STÖRUNG FREIGEGEBEN. BITTE BERICHTIGEN SIE ALLE UNDESIRABLES, DIE AM POLIZEI ODER NAZI SOLDATEN LAUFEN DANKE DIR."

  "Keep talking moron, that's all your good for."

  Chapter XII: The End of the Beginning

  "An offer to kill a special Nazi? That's an offer I cannot refuse. Anna Pultzei is a criminal mastermind, but she thinks she's the good guy. Heh, that's a funny joke. But all jokes have an end. And this one is hers. Delivered on a silver platter. Garnished with the remains of her Nazi friends. Served with the big red white and blue fury of this nation. Let's do this."

  Weißes Haus, WASHINGTON D.C

  Phoenix arrived on his motorcycle, and retracted it. He stood in front of the White House, and examined what it once was. People on the streets recognized him and had shocked facial expressions. Phoenix turned around to face the crowd.

  "ALRIGHT. YEAH, I'M THE BAD GUY. BUT LEMME ASK YOU ALL THIS: DOES THE BAD GUY TRY AND HELP HIS FELLOW CITIZENS, EVEN IF THEY ARE DIFFERENT?"

  Everybody stopped panicking to ponder his dialogue.

  "IS THE BAD GUY THE PERSON WHO MAKES SACRIFICES INCLUDING HIMSELF AND OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES FOR THE GREATER GOOD? ARE BAD GUYS ALL BAD? NO. I'M NOT. I HAVE A GOOD SIDE. EVERYBODY HAS A GOOD AND BAD SIDE, WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT. I'M HERE TO DECLARE YOUR FREEDOM. I'M HERE TO TELL YOU ALL YOU'VE BEEN BRAINWASHED BY THESE PUNK-ASS, RACIST PLEBIAN... GODDAMNED COWARDOUS TRAITORS! Now let me do what has to be DONE."

  Phoenix transformed the handlebars into the choppercycle and proceeded with his mission. Phoenix drove through the White House gates and entered the property. He swerved around the fountain outside, and drove up the steps, rocking up and down and up and down. After all of those obstacles, one last one: The two front doors. Phoenix crashed through them. At this point, they're not even doors, they're wooden debris. Phoenix fell off his vehicle while retracting it at the same time.

  White House security with bigger armor appeared out in the hallways. "Let's do this." Phoenix pulled the slide back on his cyberpistole and fired one bullet at one of the guards, killing them with a shot to the throat. Then he did the same with the other one besides him, shooting him through the cheeks. A bigger, more armed soldier busted out of a room and shoved aside a more lower ranked soldier.

  "MASKED TERROR!"

  Phoenix identified the man's weapon as an automatic shotgun. "Oh, SHIT!"

  The Nazi started firing, popping pieces off of the wall and surrounding objects. The head of a bust was destroyed, and turned into stone pieces. Phoenix took cover behind a piece of furniture. One slug hit Phoenix in his back. "AAAH!"

  Phoenix pulled out his shotgun and held it with his other hand. "YOU BETTER GET READY, BITCH!"

  Phoenix bolted out from cover, firing both weapons in his hands, hitting the supersoldier from all over. Once he was in punching range, Phoenix kicked the man backwards while stealing his shotgun. "You ain't gonna need this no more!"

  Phoenix threw it aside, and then shoved his knife into a weakspot in the man's armor. "HOW DOES IT FEEL? The pain and suffering in your neck? You deserved it, well and fair." Phoenix yanked the knife out, getting blood all over his clothes. The two mediocre Nazis reappeared, firing in short controlled bursts. "This guys are plebians. No need for guns. All the guns you need are in your hands."

  Phoenix dropped his guns and sprinted into the two, knocking them down like a bowling ball hitting pins. As they were down on the ground, one decided to fire directly in Phoenix's direction. He stole a bust off of a placement statue and threw it into the line of fire as a bullet pincushion. He then pressed his foot against the one missing his weapon, and snapped his neck four times in a circle. Then he removed his skull from his neck, swinging it like a lasso. Phoenix slammed the skull-on-a-spine onto the other Nazi's helmet, blinding his vision. "AHHH! ACHTUNG!"

  Phoenix sat on the man's chest, slamming his head down repeatedly on the floor to crack his skull open. A pool of blood started staining the red carpet. Letting the corpse go, he started going upstairs. Two guards with a battering ram knocked Phoenix into the wall, cratering him. "MMMRGH!"

  The veins on his muscles started glowing.

  "You still got it old man."

  Then the muscles themselves glowed yellow.

  "Take all your anger out on the enemy."

  Phoenix's mask had a boxing ring's bell being rung on it. A ding-ding! sound effect echoed through Phoenix's ears.

  "All I gotta say is:"

  "WANNA FIGHT?"

  Phoenix bent the battering ram into an arch-shaped object, then slammed a Nazi's head deep down into his chest. Blood squirted out of the ridges of the crater. The other Nazi stopped panicking, and then held two fists up, British style. "PUT UP YOUR FISTS, DUMMKOPF!"

  Phoenix shook his head, and leaned forwards in on the Nazi, shaking in his boots. Phoenix simply said, "BOO!"

  The Nazi sprinted away in fear, yelling, "AAAAAAHHHH!"

  Phoenix arrived upstairs, right when a tank arrived. The general outside managing it, commanded, "He's on the..." He checked the surveillance cameras. "...SECOND FLOOR. FIRE UP THERE!"

  Phoenix traversed the hall, and an explosion blo
wing open the left wall sent him into the right one. "Ugh.... My head..."

  He then corrected himself, stepped off of the crater, and proceeded to the main office. Phoenix sprinted through the lobby and arrived at Anna Pultzei's office. "Moment of truth."

  Phoenix kicked the doors open. Anna Pultzei had a pistol, firing at Phoenix. All Phoenix did was continue to walk casually through gunfire until her magazine was empty. "Lady, are you kidding me? Is that really all you got to try to kill me?"

  On the desk were a cactus plant, a small knife, and a copy of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf." Phoenix grabbed the potted cactus and shoved the thick spiny pricks into her skull.

  "Feel that? The spikes in your brain. Bet they itch, don't they? But you just can't scratch it. That's how we all feel after you assholes came. Feels like bugs under your skin, huh? While we were lying in the mud, you all came to taunt us so. Well guess what? We're all out of it." Then Phoenix grabbed the knife and stabbed her in her stomach. He started twisting it around. "AAAH!"

  "WHAT'S WRONG? WHAT'S THAT I HEAR FROM A HIGH LEVEL NAZI- CRYING LIKE A FIVE YEAR OLD? YOU SHOULD'VE SAW THIS COMING, IF THE PROPAGANDA CROWD DON'T KILL YOU, SOMEONE WAS GONNA. And I filled that spot."

  Phoenix grabbed the copy of "Mein Kampf" and smacked her in the side of the head with it. Anna landed on the floor, groaning and trying to crawl away. Phoenix's mask displayed a series of things: A mushroom cloud from an explosion, a steam train's rain gauge going off the limit, and a thermometer breaking. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?"

  Phoenix kicked the cactus plant out of the wounds on Anna's head, and slammed the book as hard as he could into her head.

  "Anna Pultzei and her husband are now dead. Mission accomplished. After this, the Fuhrer's next. Pretty sure the whole country's looking for me. I leave plenty of evidence, none of it tracing back to me. Phoenix Leopard is never gonna be heard of again. And I've always got a way out."

  Phoenix finished turning Pultzei's skull into a pancake, and fell on his bottom. "Well... Time to fight the crowd."

  Chapter XIII: The Day The Leopard Ran

  PHOENIX'S RESIDENCE

  Phoenix arrived home, all covered in blood, and retracted his choppercycle. "Gonna miss this place the most." Phoenix entered the house where everybody was doing their usual jobs. Then Tyler noticed Phoenix walk in. "Guys, the big man's back!"

  He approached Phoenix and asked him, "So, Pultzei's dead?"

  "You bet."

  He laughed and did a fist-pump. "Now we're on to Hitler, right?"

  Phoenix stopped him there. "Actually... That's what I wanted to talk about.. Ummm... Could I talk to you all as a group?"

  Abhy sprinted over to Phoenix and wrapped her arms around Phoenix, just to hug him for about a few seconds. Everybody sat down in the living room, where Phoenix was about to break the news. "So... Pultzei's dead. Adolf's gonna need a replacement, but that's where we stop that. I'm gonna kill Adolf once and for all-"

  Everybody cheered, then Phoenix said, "STOP! STOP! This isn't all good news..." Phoenix ordered. Peter threw his hands up, and murmurred, "Well... Spit it out, what's the bad news?"

  Phoenix sighed, placing his hands on his face to cover them for a split second. And once he removed them, he revealed the terrible truth:

  "None of you are coming with me."

  Nobody said anything. Hans discontinued fiddling with his robotic leg and paid attention. "...Vhat? Vhy not?"

  "Hans, the whole city and the rest of the United States are lookin' for me. I can't act like a citizen anymore, everybody sees me as this innuendo, a masked man who I don't wanna be. But I am anyways. If you all come with me, you might as well be killed on sight. They'll kill accomplices too. You all stay here... Make a life out of it... Forget I ever existed. But don't forget that I was the one who killed the mad man who started all this. And if you don't get it by now, I'm going on a mission to kill Hitler and get myself killed. And if that don't work, I might as well just be killing more Nazis EVERY SINGLE DAY. I'm heading off today. There's no time to screw around. Hitler's gotta be stopped, and apparently I'm the only man who's gonna do this shit. Go ahead, say your goodbyes. They might be your last. I'm sorry, but it's gotta be this way."

  Peter pointed his finger up in the air. "Well hold on, I got something for ya!" he excitedly added in, heading to the garage. When he reentered, he brought three things inside with him. "Put these on your wrists." Phoenix slapped all three things on his arms. "So these two that look the same- These are beam-blades, made them myself while you were gone. Press that green button and it extends the blade, and this thing can cut through EVERY thing that isn't hard as bedrock or the Earth's core... Not like I tried it on that. And the second thing is a weapon duplicator. Press it, and it spawns a weapon out of quickly materialized resources that is an exact replica of the one you have in your right hand. Pretty useful."

  Phoenix pressed the green button, and a huge blade with a heated beam along the edges stuck out. "Holy shit, this thing's cool!" he said, rotating it and examining the heat radiating off of it. Peter also put an earpiece on Phoenix's ear. "This won't be our last goodbye. We'll communicate with you frequently, if you need it."

  Phoenix nodded, as him and everybody else headed outside. Tyler offered Phoenix a handshake. With his right hand, he grabbed the palm of Tyler's hand and shook it with a great grasp. "You're brave. You're kind. Tyler, don't change man. And don't go too over your head." Tyler chuckled and said, "Trust me, I learned from my mistake." Phoenix looked at all of the bandages on Tyler's bare-naked chest. Bloody spots and coagulated blood circles left a vivid set of marks.

  Then Hans walked over to him and hugged him. When the two separated, Hans gave him a badge. "I made it from spare tools. It is un swastika, crossed out." Made from gold, the symbol was a swastika with a cross-out symbol over it. Phoenix attached it to his shirt. "Thanks, man." Hans saluted him and said, "HEIL PHOENIX!"

  Everybody else did the same and said, "HEIL PHOENIX!"

  Peter walked over to him and patted Phoenix on the shoulder. "You don't waste them things, you hear? Made them just for you, and the blades were made to melt Nazi faces." He nodded to Peter. "Farewell, Phoenix. You were like family to me, man. Don't forget about me and all the good times we had."

  Phoenix nodded and said, "Those were the best moments. I can't let go of those." Peter laughed and said, "Do what you gotta do."

  Abhy was last, and she was crying her eyes out in rivers of tears. "Phoenix... Please... Don't leave... We can live in this world..."

  Phoenix shook his head and said, "No. Everybody in America deserves better. That's what they're gonna get. I'm sorry, Abhy, but this is something I gotta do." Abhy sniffled, and then hugged Phoenix. "Please... Don't leave me..."

  Phoenix's mask displayed a crying face, as he was also crying. "I know, baby, I know." The two spent the next two minutes hugging each other, and gave one last kiss on the lips before Phoenix departed on his choppercycle.

  "What've I done? I've killed so many Nazis, probably left so many children up to be adopted now that they ain't got no parents. And now what? More death and destruction and mayhem? Probably. The United States deserves a free government, free nation, free land. I hope I get my mission done. Now let's do this shit."

  CREATED, AND WRITTEN BY TAI GOODMAN

  Publication Date: May 3rd 2019

  https://www.bookrix.com/-ev62d6e51057ea5