The Third Ten

by Jacqueline Druga

  We estimated there were two thousand LEPS and we were sending in twenty men.

  Twenty men equipped with Billy’s weaponry.

  Of course, Jack Slagel was second in command for the raid.

  From the control station, we were able to monitor the entire hit and raid. We did this via headgear cameras, suit vitals signs, and headset monitoring.

  It was as if we were a part of it.

  “Jesus Christ,” Billy whispered out, looking over the satellite images laid upon the table.

  “What?” I asked, my concentration was on the raid that was imminent.

  “Did you look at these?”

  With a huh, I turned my head. “Um, yeah, Billy, that’s why we’re doing this.”

  “No, Uncle Dan, look at these images.”

  I did.

  I looked but still didn’t pick up on what Billy was hinting at.

  His hand smoothed across the topography of the Eastern U.S.

  His expression dropped. “I never really looked. Look what happened to our beautiful green world.”

  I finally looked. Good Lord, he was right.

  Gray areas were destroyed. And everywhere seemed brown.

  Billy looked at him. “If we don’t destroy them, Dan, they’ll destroy us. And the sad part is, the LEP aren’t doing this to our world. We are. We are burning out everything just to burn them.”

  He was right.

  The LEP needed trees. They needed foliage. They hid there.

  We burned them, flattened them, and made it impossible for things to grow again.

  The LEP only moved like locusts because they migrated to greener pastures.

  It was at that moment, when I pondered again if perhaps maybe Man was meant to be extinct.

  “This has to work,” Billy said. “We have to get a grip on them.”

  He called the weapon the Hitler.

  The Hitler was set in motion to perform genocide on a species that was no more than an abomination that we had created.

  It was exciting, even more so on this raid, because it was also large.

  Five of us monitored it. I didn’t have to be there, but I wanted to be there.

  Twenty monitors lined a wall, each measuring eight by eight inches. Underneath each monitor was the name of the person and their vitals.

  You could tell Johnny was not a young man any more. His voice gave that away.

  But for fifty-two he was strong and fit, following the path his father Frank had followed. Fighting every battle.

  Jack loved his father.

  That was evident by the jump in his heart rate when Johnny spoke of him.

  Their headset conversations were coming through the speakers. We saw Johnny in all of the monitors but his own as he lined up his men and was speaking to them.

  Through Johnny we saw the soldiers. The Elite. Not a single one of them looked scared. They looked determined.

  We ran a check on all their vitals, radios and so forth.

  Billy used the 'all call' feature to speak to them. “Gentlemen, remember you have ten charges. Use them before you use the pulse. Each pulse should take out three to four LEPS if needed. Also, remember to use the SD if you get into a bad situation. Switch to SD, drop the weapon and run. It will explode the remaining charges and the pulse. You have three seconds to get clear.”

  A round of Rogers rang out.

  Billy sat back and wiped his brow. He was just as bad on the first wave.

  We listened.

  “Jack, you take team one to the back area,” Johnny instructed. “They’re sleeping there now. On my call, open fire on them.”

  “Estimate?” Jack asked.

  “One seventy five.” Johnny replied. “Davidson, take team two and three to the east sleeping area. That’s a big one. On my call, open fire, then pulse.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Michaels, team three guards. Twenty of them on the perimeters and walls. Each of you position yourself for four each.”

  “Roger.”

  “I’ll take team four, we’re hitting the nesting and the big rest area. We’ll coordinate like last time gentlemen.”

  “Roger that.”

  I was proud. I swiped a finger over my top lip, rocking back, feeling somewhat arrogant and confident.

  Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so confident.

  “Sarge, something’s wrong,” Davidson spoke. “I don’t have anywhere near a hundred sleeping.”

  “Me either,” Added Jack.

  “Roger on that one, here,” Michaels said.

  Then I heard a ghost of the past ring out.

  The graveled, “fuck me,” from Johnny. “Intel fucked somewhere or these things moved. I got way too many in stasis to take out with one team.”

  I saw it. I couldn’t’ believe what I was witnessing through the monitors of Johnny and his team.

  The nest was on the side of a huge building, but instead of the two hundred we had predicted, it seemed that almost every LEP was there protecting the nest.

  Billy cut in, “Hey John, if you coordinate the pulses, you can hit them and take them out. You’re gonna need one just for the nest.”

  “Got it, Bill. All teams listen up, change of plan. Three from each team meet me out front. STAT. We’ll coordinate … fuck!”

  I saw it too, so did Billy and everyone else in the control room.

  Almost as if they were waiting, the LEP’s rose.

  “Back it up, back it up!” Johnny ordered.

  “Johnny get your men out of there,” I yelled.

  Billy added. “Back up, pulse and leave.”

  ”That’s the plan. “ Johnny said. He was obviously moving.

  “Dad, everything okay?” Jack asked.

  “Teams prepare!” Johnny barked.

  They knew. They had gotten more intelligent. Instead of lunging and attacking, two grabbed Johnny.

  Johnny struggled.

  Hundreds upon hundreds of them began to circle him and drag him near the nest.

  “Fire at will!” Johnny ordered.

  “Sarge!” a soldier called out.

  “Dad!” Jack Screamed.

  “Fire. I repeat. Fire at will. Pulse these bastards.”

  Heart rates rose. The order was not obeyed. There were screams, yelling, with voices meshing together along with Johnny calling out. Through Johnny’s vision we just saw LEPs, that was it, then he looked down.

  I could see it, the elite were trying to think of another way. I could see Johnny was up to something. The LEP’s knew the dedication of men. They knew it, that was why they grabbed Johnny. They banked on it. They banked that the elite would not fire.

  They didn’t bank on the man Johnny was.

  Click.

  Beep.

  “Fuck,” Billy whispered. “He activated the SD.” Billy grabbed the all call. “Back it up. Back it up. He activated the SD.”

  I whispered out. “Johnny no.”

  “Dad! No!” jack cried. “Dad. Get out of there!”

  “Jack,” Johnny’s voice was calm. “I love you.”

  “Dad! No!”

  Boom.

  27.

  Individual strategy

  Johnny’s self destructive strategy ended his life. It also eliminated 80% of the LEP in that camp.

  We lost two elite.

  Jack freaked out.

  The mission was finished, the camp was gone.

  I never really told you much about Joey Slagel. Although mentioned, it wasn’t in detail. And to get the full effect of what happened immediately following the raid and Johnny’s death, you need to know Joey.

  Though some in the community doubted Joey’s parentage via genetics, visually there was no doubt; Joey was Frank’s son.

  He was huge. Big and bulky, tall and strong as an ox. He had the bravery trait, feared nothing, was a loner, and was skilled beyond belief. He was an elite. A level five for fighting LEPs. I’d even go as far as to say he was better than Jack.

  So why
wasn’t Joey in command that day?

  Several factors.

  Joey was strong, skilled and brave, but Joey wasn’t the brightest bulb. He lacked the intellectual levels needed to be a leader. He just didn’t have that command instinct and military strategy gene every other Slagel had.

  He admitted it.

  Granted he could have been taught, but Joey didn’t want to lead his men, he wanted to be one of the men.

  He was a military grunt. Did what he was told, did it well, and loved it.

  Joey was a soldier and he lived that way.

  Period.

  Personality wise, he was rough around the edges. Gruff to be exact. Lacked tact and really could give a shit if people liked him or not. That wasn’t his job. His job was to protect people and kill threats.

  Again, he did his job well.

  The leader, the commander, the soldier in Jack disappeared after that raid. Distraught was an understatement.

  In a world where people took death for granted, where death was so commonplace, no one knew what mourning was. Jack lost it.

  We heard them return to headquarters.

  The silence of our control room was also filled with the tension. Billy sat silently, head down, staring at his folded hands for over two hours.

  He said nothing.

  I stood when I saw the truck return, and laid a hand on Billy’s shoulder.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  He nodded, exhaled and stood.

  We were to head down to the deck, where the soldiers would be in formation.

  The double click of the doors to the open gymnasium echoed, and the command of ‘Fall in.” rang out.

  But it wasn’t Jack’s voice.

  “I said …” Joey ordered again. “Fall in!”

  The fifteen soldiers were in line. So why was Joey ordering again?

  Jack.

  He stood in the back. He wore his black uniform, but his protective suit, ammo, everything else was on the floor.

  “Soldier, pick up your gear and join the line. Now.” Joey barked. He paused then barked again. “Now.”

  With no energy, Jack grabbed his things, walked slowly to the line, and then dropped them hard.

  I winced. Not only from the sound, but because of the look on Joey’s face. He had inherited that jaw twitch and vein thing Frank had.

  I was his uncle, but I was also President, and when in the presence of the men, Joey always was the uptight soldier and treated me like the President, never Uncle Dan.

  He pivoted and faced me. “All present and accounted for, Sir.”

  Jack mumbled. “Not all.”

  Joey shot a glare Jack’s way, then returned to me. “I have spoken with the men dealing with his … this loss, sir.”

  I nodded.

  “But it wasn’t a total loss, Sir.” He stepped forward and handed me a disk. “As you are aware, Sav 13, was wiped cleaned. Mission accomplished, Sir.”

  A slight huff came from Jack.

  I took the disk and faced the men. “You should all be proud. We have suffered a great loss today. But the loss was a sacrifice for you and this country. Sgt. Slagel did what he believed in, and I know for a fact that he would want you to be proud of finishing the mission. Thank you for your service today. We owe you our gratitude.”

  “What about the next time? Are you gonna thank us then too when we lose lives?” Jack asked.

  “Soldier!” Joey yelled.

  Jack continued. “When we kill more just to have them breed…”

  “Soldier!”

  “When we destroy more cities for what?”

  “Soldier!”

  Jack turned to Joey. “Do not take that tone with me Sergeant. I am in command.”

  “Then act like it!”

  Silence.

  Joey turned to the men. “Fall out. Dismissed. Good job.”

  I watched.

  The men fell out, grabbed their gear and proceeded to leave the gymnasium. But Joey and Jack faced each other.

  “How dare you?” Jack growled. “Do not take that tone with me again. You hear me? I am your superior. I am an officer!”

  ”And I’ll wipe my ass with your commission for all I give a shit.” Joey said. “You wanna be in command. Then take command. You want to whine and cry, then do so, but don’t preach authority when you can’t utter the word.”

  “I lost my father!”

  “And I lost my brother today!” Joey blasted. “We didn’t kill him. They didn’t kill him. He sacrificed his life for the mission. That was my brother. That was who he was and he would be damn disappointed in your for your piss poor reaction to his heroic final stand.”

  “Heroic final stand?”

  “Are you not proud of your father?”

  “I’m proud of my father.”

  “Then act it! Mourn, yes, but in front of his men, act it!”

  Jack clenched his jaws. “I can’t. I can’t believe in what we doing right now.”

  “You took an oath. An oath to protect, serve, fight and defend this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This war …”

  “Is not winnable.”

  “Excuse me?” Joey stepped to him.

  “We can’t win this. Not like this. We can’t beat them. I don’t believe in this cause. I never did. I fought for my father, because he said this is what we had to do. He’s gone. This cause killed him. I don’t know if what we’re doing is the right thing.”

  “Then step down, mother fucker, because we believe. If you don’t believe in the fight, then you’re no good to us. Step down.”

  Jack inhaled deeply though his nose. Loudly, too. He nodded. “You’re right. You’re right. I will step down.”

  And with that, he turned and walked away.

  Jack resigned his commission. It wasn’t a spur of the moment, emotional thing. He wrote me a letter that day. I didn’t argue with it. I couldn’t. Because I felt in my heart like Joey. If Jack didn’t believe, he wouldn’t be any good. He wouldn’t have the passion that the others had.

  For a fight like this, we needed passion and conviction.

  That evening in our own mourning, Billy and I sipped drinks and sat by the window over looking the small city.

  A knock came at the door, and in stepped Jack.

  “Uncle Dan, Uncle Bill, can I speak to you guys?” Jack walked closer.

  “Absolutely,” I said. “Did you want a drink?’

  Sadly, he shook his head no. He pulled a chair closer to us and sat down.

  I reached over laying my hand on his knees. “How are you?”

  “Doing. Not well. But doing.”

  I nodded.

  “I’m sorry,” Jack said. “I am so sorry.”

  Billy asked. “For what?”

  “For disappointing you. For stepping down. For not believing …”

  I interrupted with a shake of my head. “Don’t apologize for how you feel. I understand.”

  “I didn’t do it,” he said. “Because I was angry or sad. I did it because I truly feel we are doing this the wrong way. I’ve been wrestling with this for a while. But now I really am firm on it.”

  Billy asked. "What do you mean?”

  “You know it, I know it,” Jack said. “These things. Or rather this war with the LEP is destroying our planet. They settle and we blow them up. We destroy this, they move on so we destroy that. It’s a never ending thing.”

  “We have to kill them,” I said. “They are an abomination. They will kill us if we don’t kill them.”

  Jack shook his head. “No, I disagree. I think if we leave them alone, we preserve our life. If we fight them they’ll fight us.”

  I chuckled some. “If we don’t fight them Jack, they will hunt us and kill us.”

  Jack held up a finger. He had a look on his face that said I had a point. “Not if we migrate to a place where they won’t go.”

  “There’s not a place on earth like that, except maybe across the ocean. But that’s a dead world,�
� I said. “The meteor made that into Arctic for hundreds of years.”

  “Here.”

  “Where?”

  “In America.” Jack stated.

  “Wrong,” I argued.

  Billy interjected. “Jack, these things need meat. When they kill all the animals, which they have begun to do, we are next.”

  “That’s why I want to go where they aren’t. Go where they can’t get to us.”

  “And hide? Live in seclusion?” I asked.

  “Protect ourselves and make a new start.”

  I didn’t want to argue any further. I stood. “We created them. They aren’t acts of nature. This isn’t some course of life. This was man made and it will take man to take them out. Nothing you can do except fight the fight and take them out.”

  “I want to try,” Jack stated. “Everything we have is under lock and key. Every provision. I want you and the council to authorize me supplies and weapons.”

  “For what?” I asked.

  “To make an expedition to find a place we can go.”

  After staring at him for a moment, I sat back down. “You want me to supply you like Christopher Columbus to cross the world to find a place to go. Supplies we need for you …”

  “And whoever wants to go. I plan on leading a group of people.”

  Billy shook his head. “Lead them like Moses? You’re insane. Jack, I love you. But this … this is the only way to preserve mankind. We have to render these things extinct. We have diseases we can’t battle brought on by their bites. We are losing population because when they get hungry they attack like we’re a dinner plate. Leaving them alone is not an option.”

  “We can’t win this war, Uncle Bill. Not yet. Not at this time. By my estimates, by yours … at our current rate ... when will we eliminate them?”

  “I’ve said it before,” Billy replied. “It’s not gonna just be our fight. It’ll be the fight of our children, their children ….”

  “And if there are no children left to fight?” Jack stared at us both. “Issue me the supplies, the equipment and weapons, Uncle Dan. Please. Let me do this. Let me try.”

  “It’s sending you and the others to your deaths,” I said.

  “We don’t know that.” Jack argued. “We only know now what our satellites tell us and what we have behind secured walls, and they aren’t even all that secure. I’ve looked at those pictures, I have a plan.”