by Tim Miller
“Wow, they’re much smaller up close. Hahaha!”
Blood gushed from the wound below his penis as Terrance let go of his arms and he fell to the ground. Lee’s body was twitching as he lie there crying and whimpering before bleeding out.
“Well that was uneventful,” Mad Maxwell said. “I was expecting something much more fun. “Now, I suppose you’re wondering why you’re here. I’ve got some special things planned for you. Being here at Jericho, it’s like Disneyland for mad scientists. So, don’t fret about your missing teeth or body parts. All that can be fixed here.”
She thought of the abominations she’d seen at Jericho’s research labs in San Antonio. She’d rather be dead than turned into one of those things. They were people, but trapped in their own deformed and defiled bodies after the Jericho scientists had their fun.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be as good as new when we’re done! Hell, better than new! Hahaha! New and improved!”
She closed her eyes, and tried to will herself to die. Part of her had hoped April and Grant would come for her, but they hadn’t. Even if they did at this point, it would be too late. Since arriving at Jericho, Mad Maxwell proceeded to cut her stomach open and pull part of her intestines out and lay them onto her lap. He’d gouged out one of her eyes and poured the fluid down her throat, causing her to vomit yet again.
There was no coming back from her injuries, and she sure as hell didn’t want to undergo whatever it was Mad Maxwell had planned for her. She just wanted to die. It didn’t look like death would be coming for her any time soon. She weakly struggled against her restraints, but it was pointless.
“You look so sad my dear. You were such fighter earlier. Did I finally break you? I told you I would. Everyone breaks. Don’t feel bad. You lasted longer than most men do. I had one guy, he was a cop down in Florida. Really big muscular guy too. I had him crying like a baby. Like he was seriously bawling. It was pretty pathetic to watch. Want to know what I did to him?” Isis shook her head vigorously but he ignored it.
“Great! I’ll tell you. I took a knife, and cut into his asshole and cut out his prostate. It was quite messy and he didn’t take it well at all. Had tears running down his face. I think I even heard him cry out for his mom at one point. Just shameful. No, you Miss Isis are something special. It is almost as if you’ve somehow embraced pain. Made pain your ally and even now, bloody and broken beyond repair, I see the pain in your eyes…er…eye. You welcome it, you embrace it! Most of these goofballs working for me don’t have the guts you do, I mean, and I can see yours. Hahaha!”
She had no idea what he was talking about, but wished he would shut up. He started babbling again, when Terrance came running back into the room.
“Hey boss, I think those people are here. A car just pulled into the loading dock. Trying to get a visual now.”
“Oh great! Her friends did make it! Your friend April, she is something else, I tell you. Mmm!” Mad Maxwell rubbed his crotch as he made a circular, grinding motion. “Let’s try to get her alive. I have a date with her, she needs to meet the other special guest we have.” He raised his hands over his head and yelled. “Let’s turn this place into the world’s largest funhouse kids!”
Chapter 18
As soon as they stepped off the elevator, they were greeted by a small group of clowns. Krautenhammer opened fire before April could even react. Watching the minigun at work was pretty horrifying. The clowns exploded into a red mist as a plume of flame shot out from the minigun’s barrel.
“Holy shit,” she said.
“See?” Krautenhammer said. “I tell you. Good gun.” And headed down the hallway. They reached the main elevator without any further resistance.
“Where do you think they are?” she asked.
“Could be anywhere. If I had to guess, I’d say Mad Maxwell would take to the top floor. He sees himself a as king of sorts. He has an ego like one. So we might want to head to the top,” Grant said.
They climbed on and hit the button, but nothing happened.
“Great, he’s disabled it. Should have figured,” Grant said.
“I guess it’s the stairs,” April said as she headed down the hall. They found the stairwell and began the trek up countless flights. The building was forty-two stories tall. She just hoped she’d have legs to fight on once they got to the top.
The first several floors things were uneventful. At the fifth floor, the door flew open and a wave of clowns came running out. These guys all were carrying rifles and immediately opened fire. April dove through the railing as Grant and Krautenhammer retreated. She hung from the railing, her feet dangling ten feet from the flight of stairs below.
The sound was deafening as gunfire echoed through the stair well. She closed her eyes to focus until she could hear all the clowns moaning and grunting as they each ejaculated on themselves. She was sure one of them said, “Holy shit that felt good.”
She was glad something felt good, because he wouldn’t be feeling so hot in a minute.
“Jump! Now!” she yelled as the group of clowns each climbed the railing against their wills. They all protested and tried to resist, but it was fruitless. They were hers. As she pulled herself up and walked around, she could see there were seven or eight of them. Trembling and one of them crying, they each dove off the railing to their deaths.
“You kill them with your brain? Ya?” Krautenhammer said.
“Ya indeed,” April said as she headed up the next flight of stairs. They encountered more clowns as they got further and further up. Some of the groups were bigger, some were single clowns. In most cases, April was able to kill them fairly easily. As they neared the top though, things got weird.
The door swung open and these weird creatures came stumbling out. One man had no head, but he was carrying his head under his arm like a football. There was a single tube running from the head to his neck. Another had all the skin removed from his face. There were dozens of others. These were more of Jericho’s failed experiments. They posed no danger to any of them, but April felt they should be freed from their misery.
Krautenhammer apparently thought so too as he opened up with the minigun, blowing all of them to shreds. April jumped and covered her ears until he stopped firing. It was then another group of clowns came running out. There was some yelling below as another group of clowns raced up from below. She reached out and was able to get control of a couple clowns while the two men began shooting. Krautenhammer ran out of ammo and was shot in the shoulder and fell to a knee.
Grant went to grab him as another shot caught Krautenhammer in the chest. He flew backward, tumbling down the stairs as the minigun banged and clanged against the steps. Krautenhammer landed in the group of clowns on the lower stairwell. The clowns took their rifles and began beating him with the rifle butts.
April looked away as Grant turned and opened fire on the clown mob. There had to be hundreds this time. As quickly as they went down, more came through the doors. The bulk of them coming from the next floor up. They were being pushed back down.
“What should we do?” Grant asked.
“Let’s get on this last floor!” April called out. “We’ll find another way up.”
Grant nodded as they doubled down the stairs and through the door. She wasn’t sure what floor they were on, but her legs were screaming in pain after that climb. She sat on a bench in the hallway catching her breath.
“Did you get hit?” Grant asked.
“No, just tired.”
“Did you even use your gun out there?”
“Nope. Didn’t need to.” She stood and started down the hallway. The entire floor seemed far too quiet. Looking into the various rooms, there were offices and conference rooms, all empty.
“Why do you think they wanted us in here? Anything on this floor?” April asked.
“Nothing I can remember. I don’t like this though.”
They reached the end of the hall when they got their answer. A door at the end of the hall swu
ng open and two large clowns emerged. They were so tall they had to duck to keep their heads from hitting the ceiling. Both were so deformed and disgusting looking it was as if a clown, a bearded lady, and strong man all had one big orgy and these two things were the result.
“I thought you said there weren’t any other real clowns here,” April said.
“I may have been mistaken,” Grant said, stating the obvious.
April held up her gun and began firing as the clowns charged them. She fired though a whole magazine, she’d even hit one of them in the face, but it just kept coming. She threw the rifle at the clown, but it batted it away as if it were nothing. April drew the machete from its sheath and charged at the giant, hideous clown. As it got closer, she jumped up, swinging the machete in an arch toward the top of its head. Before she reached the clown, she heard Grant screaming.
Chapter 19
April buried the machete into the top of the clown’s head. The clown put her in a bear hug, knocking the air out of her lungs as she tried to pull the machete free. It placed its hand over her face and began to squeeze. The thing’s hand was so huge, it was holding her head like it was a baseball. She kicked and wiggled to break its grip before she finally slid free.
She kept her grip on the machete and got it loose as she fell to the ground. Landing on her ass, she could see Grant’s body lying off to the side, there was a pool of blood around his legs. She turned away, not wanting to see exactly how they killed him. The second clown charged at her with its huge arms out. This time she shifted to her knee and pivoted, chopping the clown’s knee with the machete.
Its leg gave way as it stumbled but stayed on its feet. She rolled to her right and waited for it to come at her again. On the second run, she chopped at the same knee again as she dove clear. The first clown came up behind her and she slide to her left also chopping at his knee. The only sounds the two clowns made was some ridiculous laugh. You’d expect two big guys to have a deep voice, but these two laughter was a high pitched screech.
She repeated this between the two clowns as they both lumbered at her feet. Finally, the second clown’s leg broke off. Its blood was like a thick, green syrup as it oozed out of the thing’s stump. It toppled to the ground as the other clown stepped over it. As it did so, April jumped in and took some final hacks at his knee as his leg fell off. He fell to the ground face first. The second one was trying to stand, but the first clown was half on top of him.
April ran up and hacked off the first one’s head in four or five swings. It took only three to get the second one’s head off. She stood and looked around as she tried to catch her breath. She wiped off the machete on the clown’s cloths and headed the rest of the way down the hall. As she neared the end, a bell sounded behind her. Turning around, the elevator doors slid open.
“Nice. Now you want work,” she said to no one. She knew Mad Maxwell was the reason why it was working now. He’s orchestrating all of this. He knew they were coming and has been ready for them. Even more so than she or Grant had realized. As she stepped in, the button for the top floor lit up on its own. She leaned against the back wall and crossed her arms as the doors slid shut.
In just over a minute, the doors slid open as she stepped out onto the top floor. This was where Jericho executives would have normally been. They were an arrogant bunch. They literally had red carpet coming off the elevator and leading to the CEO’s office. The desks were all handmade oak and she was sure the light fixtures weren’t brass. Walking up and touching one she was right. They were gold. What a bunch of wealthy douchebags. Part of her wondered if she should thank Mad Maxwell for killing them all.
She moved into the main hall when a man was standing there. Not a clown, but a man. His hands were tied in front of him and he had a pillowcase over his head. April walked up to the man and ripped the pillowcase free and took a step back when she saw his face.
“Daddy?”
“Hey sweetie. I’m sorry.”
“Why are you here?” Her last two encounters with her own dad were in a Jericho building. This didn’t look at all good.
“I guess I need to explain some things.”
“Yeah, I’d say you do.”
“Excellent!” A voice called from behind her dad, Bobby Kennedy. It was Mad Maxwell walking down the hall, still wearing the yellow suit.
“I just love family reunions! I would like to have one sometime. Too bad I killed my family. Hahaha!”
April jumped back and held the machete back as if she were going to throw it. Her dad held up his hands and shook his head.
“Are you fucking high?” She held up the machete and held it out in front of her, pointing it at Mad Maxwell. “Where is Isis?” she asked.
“Who?” Mad Maxwell said.
“You know who. Isis. My friend your fake clowns took.”
“Oh yes! Isis! Indeed. Lovely girl she is.”
“Where is she? I’m not in the mood to fuck around with you.”
“Oh she’s totally fine. Good as new if I say so myself. We had some good bonding time. I think I might have rubbed off on her. Enough of her for now! Step inside.” He opened one of the office doors that opened into a conference room. “Please, we need to talk this out.”
“Its ok April. Let’s go inside.”
“What is going on?”
“I’ll explain everything. I promise. Let’s just go in.”
“Explain what?” she was as confused now as ever. She walked in and sat down along the table. Her dad sat down across from her as Mad Maxwell sat at the head of the table. The whole thing was too bizarre. This was not at all how she thought this raid was going to go.
Mad Maxwell banged on the table with his cane.
“I call this meeting to order! Hahaha! Oh shit, sorry. I’m so funny I just crack myself up too much sometimes. Ok, so why are we here? Well why not! Hahaha! Seriously though. I think you two have some father/daughter issues to work out. Consider this your therapy. Besides I like to watch big fat liars confess to their loved ones. I can’t wait to see the look on your pretty face April.” Mad Maxwell leaned back in the chair and put his feet up on the table. “Go ahead dad! Spill yer guts!”
Chapter 20
Bobby shifted in his seat and looked at April. She could tell he was uncomfortable and she was glad. Chances are he was about to tell her something she didn’t want to hear.
“April, honey…its…I…Dammit. I work for Jericho. I have for a long time.”
At this point, she wasn’t incredibly shocked, but it was still upsetting to hear.
“What about the FBI?” she asked.
“They recruited me from the FBI a few years ago. Like right after you discovered your abilities. Well, before that, but I moved up a lot after your um…situation”
“How exactly did I get my abilities? You never did explain that. I thought it was from that swamp. Grant said I was born with it.”
Bobby hung his head.
“He’s right. Your ability just took longer to show up. The whole abduction thing triggered it. Your mom was a neuro. She managed to keep it from me for years. Hell, I didn’t even know what a neuro was.”
“Mom?” her stomach tightened immediately. She didn’t like where this was going. April’s mom died when she was sixteen in a car accident. After the funeral she hadn’t thought much of it. Her and her mom had never been extremely close. The funeral was a closed casket so April never did see the body, not that she’d wanted to.
“Yes. She was able to move objects with her mind. And I don’t mean bend spoons. She could pick up a car and hurl it at you. It was incredible. Sad she lived her whole life and barely used it. She knew if she were found out it would be dangerous for her.”
“One night when you were at your grandma’s, you must have been fourteen or fifteen. We were on the way home from a movie on one of our date nights when we rolled up on an accident. Some lady had lost control of her van and flipped it over. The woman’s husband had been thrown, but the van had
rolled onto his leg. He was screaming in pain and people were trying to push the van off him, but it wouldn’t budge.
“The way it was all bent up, it just wouldn’t roll off. Your mom walked over and put her hand on the bottom and lifted it right up. She wouldn’t have even needed to touch it. Maybe she thought everyone would think she was that strong, who knows. She was barely touching it. It was as if the thing floated off the ground, which it technically did.”
“Damn,” April said, trying to picture her mom lifting the van of some poor guy’s legs.
“Yeah. It was pretty remarkable. That was the first I’d known about it. After that, she told me everything about her ability. Hers came about when she was in her teens. Her dad had been a neuro, and helped her keep it hidden. Even though at the accident, once the man was free we hurried off before anyone could ask questions. Someone had gotten our plate number and went to the police and media about the super woman who lifted up the van. It was a few weeks later when they sent me to a meeting at Jericho.”
“I get there and there’s these big wigs telling me everything they do. They thought you might be a neuro also, but you hadn’t shown anything yet. They said this would be an opportunity to study a neuro before they develop abilities. Cut you open and see what makes you tick. Then watch you develop and study you more as your abilities take hold. I told them no way. So they made me a deal. They said they would settle for your mom, if I reported to them if you ever show abilities. If I didn’t agree, they’d just take you both. I guess they could have anyway, so I’m not sure why they chose to give me any choice in the matter. Maybe with my field experience and with you two, they figured they cold groom me while you grew up.”
“So you gave them over to mom?” April asked.
“I’m sorry sweetie. I really am. I had no choice,” tears ran down his face as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I saw what they did to her. They told me they’d just run some tests. They exposed her to high levels of radiation until her skin was melting off. They injected her with bleach. I heard her screams, saw her face.” He buried his face in his hands.
