The Government: Dark Days

by Joseph Storm

  The public never witnessed a moment of it.

  ******

  Joe Striker and Becky Fox treaded across the cold, rock-filled ground of the Virginia forest. They followed the smart phone’s GPS satellite map, leading the way through Sorka’s land.

  The last poplar leaves of the season hung onto the trees, trying to avoid the natural cycle of death. Though much like humanity, the fresh skin of yellow had long withered away, leaving a wrinkled, weathered surface in the last moments of life.

  “We’re close,” Joe Striker said, as a puff of chilled air sailed from his mouth. He zeroed in on the spot identified as the relative wasteland.

  “I wish I had worn a jacket,” Becky replied. “In addition to boots...actually...I would even welcome the heels I left back in D.C.”

  “You mean the one stuck in that guy’s head? I think it’s better suited there.”

  “I’m not complaining...it’s just uncomfortable, that’s all. Bare feet weren’t intended for this kind of terrain.”

  Striker felt bad at his insensitivity toward her. “Take my shoes...they’re big, but better than nothing.”

  “I can take care of myself! A man isn’t the only one who can handle the outdoors.”

  “I hate to break this to you...but rocks don’t give a shit if you’re a man or a woman, so get over it,” Joe said, as the two continued walking quietly.

  Becky darted around the ground obstacles, fighting back grunts of pain. She was also fighting back words she wanted to speak in the car. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

  “Fire away.”

  “You said we are going to a funeral.”

  “You heard me correctly.”

  “Whose funeral are we going to? Not to be rude...I mean, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

  “My wife’s funeral,” Striker said in a pained voice. Sadness filled his tired eyes, along with waves of tears.

  A shocked look came across Becky’s face. “You mean...the government? They had your wife killed? What did she have to do with them?”

  “I’m a congressman...that’s what! You know how the elected officials all went missing? The only info released was that they are in a safe place?”

  “Yes, I assumed in some jail...”

  “That safe place is deep in the ground.”

  “The congress? Even the president?”

  “Anyone with the power to get in their way.”

  A look of terror came across Becky’s face. “Get in the way of what?”

  “The total destruction of America.”

  “I can’t believe what you’re telling me. Cold blooded murderers! The public must know. If they can get to the President of the United States...they can get to all of us.”

  “Yeah...well...they got to my wife and unborn son. They got to me,” Joe said, sighing deeply.

  Tears filled Becky Fox’s eyes. “My god...these animals,” she said. “This is real. I mean, I expected corruption...though I didn’t think they would go that far...be so ruthless.”

  “According to the information I hold in my hand...I’m the reason.”

  “You?”

  “It has to be me. The plan was to jail us all...unless, something went wrong.”

  “What went wrong?”

  “A leak. The microchip in my phone was sent to me by mail. Why me? I have no idea.”

  “Who could have sent it?”

  “Someone who clearly wanted revenge. Whoever it was...wanted me to get it before the party could take power...bring down the regime before it got started. It fingers them all...Judas, ole’ one-eye, and some man named Sorka...among others.”

  “Mika Sorka?”

  “A friend of yours?”

  “That’s the mysterious trillionaire I mentioned...the one that purchased our station! Actually, the one that’s been purchasing every station. With the info on that chip, we can take him down...take them all down!”

  “How? A news station? newspaper? There’s no longer such a thing...that’s not government run. Do we shout it out loud on a street corner? The goons in black will have us gone in seconds. It’s too late.”

  “So we just do nothing? I’m sorry, but this reporter doesn’t give up that easy.”

  “What do you suggest? Call your friends at WFTV?”

  “I don’t know...yet. But it has to count for something...the information you have. It’s incriminating for God’s sake!”

  “To incriminate...you need a court to convict, a police force to carry out the sentence, and a jail meant to hold more than political prisoners. Those things are dead.”

  “Well, we’re not dead. As long as we stay alive, we’ll find someone who will listen,” she said, stepping on a large stick, losing her balance. She spilled forward, about to take a dive into the rough, undulating ground. Joe spun around, catching her into his secure arms.

  The two came face to face, each catching a whiff of the other’s natural scent. Becky’s comforting scent resembled that of vanilla bean. Joe’s of manly musk. Each pheromone provided a moment of what the other needed, though awkwardness and personal circumstance stole that moment away. The gaze was broken, and Striker helped Fox onto her feet.

  “I said I can handle it. Despite what you may think...girls don’t break. They get back up,” Becky said in a proud, yet embarrassed tone.

  “I’ll take that as your way of declaring us even,” Joe said, breaking from the momentary trance, returning to the misery which plagued him.

  The clearing came into view. It was a large area of crashed trees and re-earthed ground, similar to the one he crawled from. He stopped frozen in his tracks, looking upon the site with a fear he never experienced.

  The man that once faced the enemy head on, trembled like a child. Becky watched him, looking down in pain, feeling Joe’s heartbreak as if it were her own. She went to place a hand on his shoulder, though couldn’t bring herself to such intimacy with a man she didn’t know. In fact, she couldn’t connect emotionally to any man in any way. Becky withdrew her hand, rationalizing the act by telling herself, it’s his moment, I would only impose.

  “I’ll give you some privacy. Let me take that,” she assured him, removing the information-filled smart phone from his shivering hand. He barely noticed, continuing to move straight ahead.

  Becky exited behind a tree, watching Joe move in a zombie-like fashion. I don’t want this to be the end, Striker thought to himself, facing the fact that he never had time to deal with her death.

  Such a situation could be compared to losing a loved one in a sudden car accident, opposed to the long, struggle of cancer. A long-term illness breeds many torturous moments, with the end benefit of preparing a person to let go. It is almost finding relief in watching mercy replace misery. An unexpected death is sudden, swift, void of closure. The sight of the deceased’s body could be equal to holding a live power-line, causing a shock that reverberates through every inch of one’s inner being. He wasn’t ready for closure, though he knew that the inevitable had to happen whether he was ready or not.

  Joe Striker approached the cold, mortar-thick dirt. He dropped to his knees, flinging ground behind him. Anger boiled up from his soul. Energy had long left him, but he wasn’t going to lose steam and give up. In Striker’s mind, he continued to debate whether he wanted to find his family. The desperate man created some mythical hope that they were being held in the comforts of safety. However, he realized that if they were alive, they wouldn’t be safe in the governments' hands.

  Becky watched in disbelief, as Joe frantically dug. Her heart ached, not only for Striker’s loss, but for the first time in her life, she saw what true love was. It was obvious she hadn’t experienced it before. Deep down inside, Becky Fox was guarded. She protected herself from the pain of heartbreak, stemming from abuse experienced long before she was ready to deal with it. Does he realize how lucky he is to have loved at all? she wondered.

  Joe dug with reckless abandonment, finally striking a cold,
lifeless corpse. He continued in a desperate search, unearthing a friend’s wife. She was one-half of a couple whom he had dinner with many times in the past. The woman’s face was corroded with dirt. A disturbing sight of an earth worm sailed down from deep within the nostril’s cavity.

  Striker looked away in disgust, forcing himself to banish the horror that Jenny’s face could present him with. He moved on, having no time to grieve friends and colleagues. His next find was the teenage daughter of the deceased woman. The young lady had just entered high school, having aspirations of becoming the first female president. Her goal was to inspire politicians to return to serving the people, as opposed to having the people serve them. That goal would never be realized.

  “Damn you!” he called out, continuing on, searching for his wife. He kept digging to exhaustion, finally revealing a ringed hand. The jewel was struck by the breaking sunlight, which busted through the white, overcast clouds.

  The small, half-carrot diamond ring, out-shined the slick slime coating it. Joe immediately knew that he found his wife. He broke down, recalling the struggle that it took to afford such a purchase. He was about to leave for the military. “If I never return home, I won’t deny myself the pleasure of being Jenny’s husband.”

  He took her on a hike to a familiar waterfall, one deep in the middle of thick woods. Few people inhabited the area, as it was not even officially named on the maps. Joe named it Jenny falls. It was there that he proposed to her. “I know this isn’t a huge ring that you can show off to your friends, and I know we don’t have much money, but if you will allow me to be your husband...I’ll be the richest man in the world.”

  “All the rings in the world couldn’t buy what we have,” Jenny said. “Of course I’ll be your wife!”

  The two of them embraced. Jenny slipped the ring on her finger. “Perfect fit,” she assured him. Afterward, the two lovers repeated an act they had done many times before. The two made love in the deep, greenish pool at the waterfall’s base.

  Emotions overtook Striker. He lifted his head, preparing for the oncoming sight. He dug his hand into the dirt, beginning the downward journey to freeing his wife and son from a nameless, mass grave.

  Becky wiped the tears from her eyes. She decided not to let Joe be alone during such a moment. She started to approach him, when a sound screeched from the sky. It caused Joe to stop his action immediately.

  A military helicopter tore through the air, circling the gaping hole in the trees like a hawk circling a field mouse.

  A squad of mercenaries appeared from the forest, heading towards Joe at a frantic pace. In a panic, Striker tried digging franticly. He wanted to at least see his wife’s face, saying a final goodbye before his own fate was decided.

  Commander Xavier Sin arrived on the scene, unleashing a big smile. “Exactly where I thought he would go...love is for the weak-minded. Take him down!” he yelled, as a team of mercenaries lunged at Joe Striker. They knocked him to the ground, tying his hands with sharp steel wire before he could look upon his wife’s face one last time.

  Becky watched in horror. Quick thinking caused her to hide the phone in the base of a hollowed out tree, leaving no sign of disturbed dirt. She barely stood up, before she was spotted by Commander Xavier Sin. “Get the bitch!”

  The mercenaries in black pursued Fox. She guided her soft feet through the sharp terrain of the outdoors. The girl didn’t get far, before the weight of a mercenary landed on her, knocking her to the ground.

  “No!” she cried out, as a steel tie was placed around her hands and feet. One of the mercenaries flung her over his shoulder, carrying her towards Striker.

  “Let me bury my wife...you son of a bitch!” Joe Striker cried out.

  Commander Sin leaned in to him, whispering softly, “You don’t have to see her...to know that she’s worm food now. Your son too,” he said in an evil way, laughing loudly.

  Joe broke away, running towards his wife again. The commander tripped him, causing him to land face first in the dirt. Xavier gripped Striker by the neck. He dragged him away from the most important purpose left in his life: to give his wife and son a proper burial.

  “Jenny!” he called out, as the mass grave drifted farther in the distance. The last sight he saw was Jenny’s stiff hand rising from the depths of death. It was almost reaching out for his help. He felt like he failed his family once again. They were the two people he was supposed to protect more than anyone in the world.

  “Joe!” Becky Fox called out, as the two of them were reunited side by side. “At least let him have a moment of dignity! A moment of closure!”

  “Closure’s coming...for you both,” Commander Xavier said with an evil smile.

  A government issued SUV pulled up beside them. It left a rough-roaded trail of tire marks through the forest. Striker and Fox were hooded, and loaded into the back of the SUV.

  “To the warehouse,” Xavier ordered the mercenary at the wheel. The car barreled its way to a place that would be familiar to Joe Striker. It was a place he would love to forget.

  ******

  The loud clanking of heavy doors filled the muffled ears of Joe Striker and Becky Fox. They dropped onto a sticky floor. The hoods were yanked off their heads. Each one took a moment to break from the maddening, near-suffocating cloth to breathe some air.

  Unfortunately for them both, the air was fouled with the stench of blood. The mere sight of the streaked floors provided evidence as to why it smelled that way.

  “Oh my God!” Becky shouted. “There’s blood all over these floors!”

  “This is where it happened.”

  “What happened?”

  “The murders...the largest act of treason ever committed on American soil. They blindly executed everyone.”

  “NOT everyone,” the commander chimed in. “But don’t fret...the job will be complete very soon.”

  “Do it,” Striker said in a stubborn manner.

  “Excuse me?” Becky asked him. “Have you lost your mind...these people are serious!”

  “If they wanted us dead, they would have added us to the pile of bodies already in the ground. They want something.”

  Commander Sin let out a sinister laugh. “This boy may not be the retard I thought he was.”

  “And I’m not going to give it to him.”

  “We’ll get it...you can be sure of that. Search them both for the microchip.”

  The mercenaries in black began roughly searching Striker. They only found the long barreled Smith & Wesson tucked into the back of his pants.

  “I’ll take that,” Commander Xavier said, as he removed his own gun. He replaced it with the powerful weapon.

  The mercenaries next moved to Becky Fox, seeming to take a much longer time. They felt every inch of her body, both over and under her clothes. Becky screamed with unimaginable dread, touching her beyond just an invasion of privacy. Clearly, it wasn’t the first time she had been violated in such a manner.

  “No find,” the mercenary said.

  “You’re not getting anything,” Striker barked in defiance. He realized that Becky hid the phone. “We’re much more valuable to you alive than dead...I see that now.”

  “Don’t be so sure of that.”

  “You’ll never break me.”

  The commander stopped in cold thought, as a smile came to his face. “For once in your life, you might be right.”

  “You know I am, that’s what eats you inside. I spit in the face of death itself...and I’ll take whatever you got coming.”

  “What can I say...when he’s right...he’s right,” he said, looking in the eyes of Becky Fox. “That is why, I’m going to break you.”

  “Joe, don’t let him do this!” she called out.

  “She knows nothing... damn you...you know it! This has to do with me...and only me. Let her go.”

  “True. But the one way to get a man talking...is to get a woman screaming,” he said, laughing.

  “No!” she screamed.


  “Don’t you touch her!” he yelled.

  “Take them to the holding cell, while I prepare for the show,” he said in a creepy manner, his eyes lighting up with lust.

  They both struggled, as they were dragged into the hall of prison cells.

  “Let us go!” they both continued to yell, as their cries were interrupted by another.

  “Let me outta here!” Officer Gunner Shoman yelled from his own captivity. He stared in wonderment, realizing that he was not the only one on the government’s shit list.

  Joe and Becky were placed in separate cells, Striker’s adjacent to Gunner’s. Two mercenaries in black flung them into the jail, slamming the steel doors shut.

  “Doctor be with you soon,” a mercenaries said. Both men in black laughed. They exited the hallway, leaving the three captives to ponder their fate.

  “Are you, ok?” Joe asked Becky.

  “That’s a loaded question,” she responded.

  “No matter what happens in the next few minutes, stay focused.”

  “On what?”

  “Me,” he said.

  A worried look came across Becky Fox’s face. The usually strong woman was showing signs of fear.

  “Who are you people?” Gunner called out from his cell.

  “I’m congressman...ex-congressman Joe Striker. That’s Becky Fox...reporter...ex-reporter.”

  “Congressman? They sure take ‘em young these days. You’re just a kid.”

  “And just who are you, grandpa?”

  “Gunner Shoman...and I’m a cop.”

  “I thought cops were supposed to be in front of the bars...not behind them.”

  “Well...our new president decided to send the entire police force into early retirement. I wasn’t up for getting paid to sit around...you know...like a congressman.”

  “Drop the sarcasm, congress is my second career...I was a Marine.”

  “Sure...next you’ll tell me that you can resurrect yourself from the dead.”

  Joe decided not to engage the comment. “Clearly you’re the type that had more enemies in your life...than friends.”

  “I have a dog, a gun, and a bottle of booze...anything else is just baggage.”