The Social Media Murder Corp

by Stephen Signorelli

  “Besides we had the greatest dad who ever lived, he taught us everything.”

  “Enough to take down your organization that’s for damn sure.”

  “You can’t………..stop all the drugs……..CIA…….money laundering…….will never stop…you failed.”

  “We aren’t after that.”

  “Only you.”

  “Time to die asshole, enjoy the trip to hell!”

  Danger took aim at Boss Sanchez’s head and squeezed the trigger, blowing his head off and splattering brain matter all inside the upturned BMW.

  “Balance is achieved,” Danger said.

  The twins walked up to the side of the highway and looked out towards the city.

  “It’s a long walk back to the safe house,” Destruction sighed.

  “Yeah and it’s gonna suck with us all banged up.”

  The two girls stripped off their robes and body armor and put it into their backpacks. Holding hands, they began the log walk back to San Diego and their safe house.

  “This was a rough one,” Danger admitted.

  “They can’t all be easy, but we always come out on top,” Destruction said.

  “I just want to get back to the safe house and get on top of you and fall asleep,” Danger sighed.

  “Me too,” Destruction said softly.

  The twins continued to walk.

  “Well at least this night can’t get any worse,” Danger joked.

  Just then, rain began to fall, drenching the twins.

  “How many times have I asked you not to say stuff like that?” Destruction said shaking her head.

  “DAMMIT I am sorry,” Danger said sadly.

  The girls continued to walk in the rain.

  “The rain falls upon the just and the unjust,” Danger said.

  “Matthew 5:45,” Destruction smiled.

  The safe house

  “OWWW wat the fuck!” Danger cried as her sister taped her ribs.

  “Oh my God you big baby, hold still. You don’t want to go to the hospital to get these ribs taped do you?”

  “NO! Hospitals are icky! Just be careful.”

  Destruction finished taping up her sister’s ribs as Danger winced and bit her lip several times. She gingerly pulled her shirt back on and carefully sat back in the recliner.

  “This sucks, I never get hurt,” Danger complained.

  “It happens, and that guy was huge. You still kicked his ass though.”

  “Yeah, I am a total ass kicker. How is your head?”

  “Meh, it’s ok. The cut wasn’t too bad, it just looked worse because of the sweat. Probably leave a small scar above my hairline though.”

  “Aww, you will still be uber sexy.”

  “You are too sweet sis.”

  “So this little operation was rough, but we pulled it off. What do we do next?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that and I have a rather unusual idea.”

  Danger smiled and shook her head.

  “Oh I love when you get unusual ideas, let’s hear it.”

  Destruction leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

  “How about this: We reveal ourselves to the world.”

  Danger blinked.

  “Wait what? What do you mean ‘reveal ourselves’ to the world?”

  “Think about this: How awesome would it be to upload stuff to social media, like You Tube or Live Leak, and show people the things we do. Hell, we already wear masks and robes, we can use that to create some sort of uber spooky personas, angels of death or something.”

  “So you want us to record when we take down drug dealers and stuff?”

  “No, I think we should start kidnapping people and murdering them on video, along with commentary, and upload it to social media. People will go nuts! Can you imagine the public reaction?”

  “But just kidnap ordinary people for no reason? Isn’t that against the rules?”

  “I don’t mean just random people, I mean people who deserve it. Unpunished criminals, perverts, real scum bags, that sort of thing.”

  “Whoah, yeah, I can see it! Oh God people will lose their shit over it! Fucking awesome!”

  “I know right!? We can bring them somewhere and tie them to a chair and have them confess their crimes then we do em in! Then we just upload it to social media and watch the lulzy reactons!”

  “Ok but how do we upload stuff without being caught?”

  “Tor.”

  “Tor?”

  “Tor is a totally anonymous software program that allows connection to the Internet with total anonymity. The way I understand it, it sorta layers the connections, like an Onion, making it impossible to see the real identities of the people using it.”

  “I don’t understand all that but if you say it works then ok.”

  “It’s not hard, I will show you some stuff on it. Knowing you, you will become an expert at it in weeks. Basically using Tor and a few IP blockers and filters we can totally be anonymous online, so much so even the damn NSA can’t find us.”

  “That is awesome. But, what do we call ourselves? We need some cool name like The Legion of Doom or The Sharknados or something.”

  “I think those names are trademarked,” Destruction laughed.

  “We need an uber cool name, something that will be memorable and strike fear into people. A name that, when you hear it, will make people tremble.”

  “The Ice Queens?”

  “Killer kitties!”

  “The Necromancers?”

  “Psycho kitty killers!”

  “Agents of Punishment?”

  “Fluffykiller bunny girls!”

  “Ok look, sis, those names are really precious but they do not exactly say anything about what we are doing.”

  “Oh, ok. Well, since this is all social media stuff, why not use that term somehow? Like Social Media bitches.”

  “Social Media killers?”

  “Social Media murderers.”

  “Wait, there are two of us, aren’t we like an organization technically?”

  “I guess, like a Corporation.”

  Danger thought for a few minutes.

  “Social Media killing corporation.”

  “Too clumsy, it needs to flow off the tongue,” Destruction stated.

  “Hmm….Social Media killing corp.”

  Destruction shook her head.

  “I don’t like the word killing.”

  “Social Media Murder Corp,” Danger replied.

  The twins looked at each other for a minute then burst out laughing.

  “That is AWESOME! That is a cool ass name!”

  “OMG Fuck yeah! The Social Media Murder Corp! We will be famous!”

  “Totally, I bet we get our own action figures!”

  “You think? That’d be awesome!”

  “Maybe even a video game!”

  “Oh my God what if they make a movie about us?”

  “And it was an anime!”

  The twins stared at each other for a moment.

  “YES!!!!” they both cried out in unison.

  Later that evening, the twins lay in bed, Danger still in pain from her injured ribs.

  “I can’t sleep, it hurts too much”

  “My poor demon goddess, I wish I could take that pain from you”

  “You make it bearable just by being with me”

  The twins lay snuggled together and stared into each other’s glowing red eyes for a long time.

  “When I saw you motionless on that floor, for a moment, I was scared I had lost you.”

  “I will never leave you, ever.”

  “You better not, without you I am incomplete.”

  “We are one being, we cannot exist apart.”

  “We bring balance and order to the universe.”

  “It speaks to us.”

  “I love you Destruction, I am yours.”

  “I love you Danger, I am yours.”

  Danger leaned in and wrapped her arms carefully around her s
ister. She looked into her eyes and smiled. Leaning in, she kissed her deeply.

  And the stars shined and the universe turned.

  Rwanda 1992

  “You got anyone worth shit this time?”

  “Yeah I got someone, little Tutsi shit stain. Good fighter, real scrapper.”

  “Really? Because the last kid you bright me pissed his pants and cried and died in 5 seconds.”

  “This kid is not like that, he is a real scrapper.”

  “He better be, they don’t pay good money to see some one sided slaughter. They can get that on the battlefield. This is sport, it is meant to let them blow off steam. They cannot blow off steam if the kids die inside of ten seconds!”

  “I am telling you, this kid is a real scrapper. He will do good.”

  “Right then, put him in the pens with the others. We will give him a warm up fight before the main event.”

  “Real scrapper he is, you will see.”

  “Stop saying scrapper, makes you sound retarded.”

  The small Tutsi child, barely 12 year old, was forcefully led to a crudely built wooden holding pen and thrown in. The guard locked the door and grinned at him.

  “Don’t let me down little Ajani, not until I make a lot of money off you.”

  Ajani looked up at the guard with sad reservation in his eyes then looked down at the ground.

  “Good boy, don’t ever look a Hutu God in the eyes.”

  The guard spit on Ajani and walked away, leaving the boy in the cage. Ajani looked around, assembled with him in the cage were other boys around his age, all skinny, all scared, all doomed. This local military ‘base’, such as it was, was the hub for a fighting ring of sorts. Soldiers would take ethnic Tutsi children and give them basic weapons and a bit of rudimentary training, and send them out to a perverse style of gladiatorial combat. Soldiers would bet on the outcomes, and the fights were always to the death. The Rwandan officials who ran this combat network hoped it would allow their more aggressive troops the chance to blow off steam, as well as to purge the hated Tutsi ethnicity.

  Ajani had been fighting in these contests for a few weeks, which was an insanely long survival time. As such, he was given better training with better weapons and put against tougher opposition. Now, his ‘handler’ had brought him to the main base in the region, which had a reputation of having the toughest fights against the toughest opponents, but for far better money. Ajani’s handler didn’t care if the boy was killed at this point, he would make good money off him regardless, and part of him wanted an even slightly dangerous Tutsi to be killed.

  Ajani stared out into the base from behind his bars, he sensed this was probably the end of the line for him, even if he did survive the combat in the arena, they would surely execute him afterwards. As Ajani looked out into the base he noticed a boy about his age standing off to the side of the cage looking at him. The boy didn’t look too different from Ajani himself, except a little shorter. Ajani regarded the boy for a moment, then nodded at him. The boy smiled and nodded back. The boy then walked toward the cage where Ajani and the other children were being held.

  Ajani watched him approach with a sense of dread, he suspected he was a Hutu child soldier, who was probably coming to harass or even torture himself and the others. What happened though, was something totally unexpected.

  “Banga,” the boy said pointing to himself.

  “Ajani,” Ajani said pointing to himself.

  “Francais?” Banga asked.

  “Oui,” Ajani answered.

  “Hello. Are you fighting in the arena?”

  “Yes, I think that is what they have planned for me.”

  “I am too, I am the champion.”

  Ajani’s eyes narrowed.

  “I assume they plan for us to fight.”

  “Are you a champion?”

  “I don’t know, no one has ever asked.”

  Banga regarded Ajani for a minute.

  “You are Tutsi?”

  “Yes.”

  “They keep telling us you are animals, that you are not like us, but you look like me.”

  “I do not look like you, you look like me.”

  Banga laughed.

  “You are funny. I do not like fighting Tutsi anymore, I do not want to kill Tutsi anymore.”

  “You may not have a choice.”

  “When we fight, follow my lead, you will understand, brother.”

  Banga walked away leaving Ajani confused. Did this Hutu boy just call him brother? He suspected this was all mind games, that is was some sort of psychological mind games. The arena, the arena would tell the truth.

  Ajani stood in the middle of the ‘arena’, which in reality was nothing more than a chalk outline on an old basketball court in the base. He was surrounded by about 50 armed soldiers, most of them drunk or high, all shouting obscenities are him and waving money in the air. Two other soldiers went around taking bets for the evening and collecting money. He was stripped to just his shorts, and was brandishing a machete. Insults were hurled at him as the Hutu soldiers laughed and placed their bets on how fast he would die.

  Across the arena, Banga stood, his arms crossed. He was wearing a small trench coat, which Ajani thought unusual due to the heat. The base commander pushed his way through the crowd of drunken and high soldiers and stood before Ajani.

  “Time to see if you will piss your pants or if you are, indeed, a scrapper.”

  The commander held his arms in the air and motioned for the soldiers to be quiet.

  “Soldiers of the 4th division, welcome to ARENA NIGHT! We have a rare fight for you, a Tutsi dog who can actually fight back!”

  The soldiers laughed and hurled insults.

  “I have been assured this particular Tutsi dog is quality opposition. Nevertheless, he IS a Tutsi animal, so do not get too near or you will catch a disease!”

  Multitudes of laughter and provocation were hurled at Ajani.

  “And fighting for us again, our glorious base champion, with 18 kills to his credit, my nephew, BANGA!”

  Ajani’s heart raced at the revelation that Banga was the commander’s nephew. His soul sank as he realized it had been a set up all along, no Hutu would ever call him brother, the thought bored a hole in his heart.

  Banga walked to the middle of the arena and raised his hands, both fists clasped together, soaking in the adoration of the crowd.

  “What is with the trench coat?” the Commander asked.

  “For effect, I am going to look like Darth Vader!” Banga said with a smile.

  “Darth Vader? I do not understand children these days. Make the fight last long please, the soldiers need to be entertained.”

  “It will all be over soon enough Uncle,” Banga laughed.

  Shaking his head, the Commander walked back into the crowd.

  “Arena combat…BEGIN!”

  The assembled soldiers hollered and screamed, some shooting into the air, gleefully anticipating the bloody combat that was about to commence.

  Banga stood in front of Ajani and grinned.

  “I am sorry brother, I have to tackle you. Please stay beneath me and do not struggle, I swear before Gold almighty I am not going to harm you.”

  Ajani’s mind raced, every nerve in his body screamed it was a trap. But somewhere, deep within him, something sparked for an instant, something he had not felt in his entire wretched life: trust. Ajani held his arms open as if waiting for an embrace.

  “I trust you brother,” he said, closing his eyes and freeing his mind.

  Banga flung off his trench coat and twirled it around his head, releasing the dozens of small fragmentation grenades he had hidden in its various pockets into the crowd of soldiers. He charged Ajani and tackled him, throwing his body on top of the boy, and pulling the trench coat on top of both of them.

  The stunned soldiers had an instant to realize they were all dead as the fragmentation grenades all went off, sending their pieces of shrapnel into the assembled crowd at supersonic
speed. The shrapnel tore through flesh and bone, killing dozens instantly. The concussive force of the grenade blasts killed a few more, and horribly injured the rest, bits of bine and blood and body parts were flung everywhere, landing with wet splashes onto the ground.

  Ajani opened his eyes and saw Banga grinning demonically, laughing. Ajani looked down and saw Banga was wearing a Kevlar vest and was using it and his body to shield the unprotected Ajani. Banga rolled off Ajani and stood up, brandishing a 9mm handgun.

  “Brother, they will recover in a moment and we have to shoot our way out of here, grab as many guns as you can and follow me.”

  Ajani stood up and watched as Banga began to fire into the surviving groups of soldiers, picking them off one by one. Ajani raced to a corpse and grabbed an Ak-47 and two ammo belts, flinging them over his chest. He released the safety of the rifle and began to fire at the soldiers, killing them as they tried to stand up. He followed Banga as he killed every soldier that tried to fight back. Finally the two boys stopped at the cowering base Commander.

  “BANGA! What have you done? You have betrayed your people, your FAMILY!! For what? Some Tutsi dog?”

  “I would rather have a dog as a brother than you or any person who looks upon another as an animal. Your war is madness, we are the same peoples.”

  “They are DOGS!!!!!!! KILL HIM BANGA I ORDER YOU!!”

  “No Uncle, but I will kill all your soldiers, I will kill your entire army to stop this war. And if I have to, I will kill the entire nation.”

  Banga pointed the gun at his Uncle’s head and pulled the trigger, blowing the man’s brains into the ground.

  Banga bowed his head for a moment.

  “He was my only blood relative, I am the last of my line.”

  Ajani put his hand on Banga’s shoulder.

  “No, you have a brother.”

  That evening the two boys sat on a small hill, staring into the night sky, the echoes of the jungle all around them. They had managed to steal some rations, water, and ammunition from the base camp they destroyed, and now they rested. They had made a good 10 miles, and Banga thought they would be safe for a while.

  “Now what?” Ajani asked.

  “We have to get as far away from the conflict as we can, there are refugee camps in Uganda, most of the UN workers cannot tell a Hutu from a Tutsi, so it will be easy to fit in. Then, I don’t know, but at least we will be out of here,” Banga replied.