She Wore Black

by J L Park

  Several others were punished whilst I tried to find my way in Ferox. Lashes from a strap, a couple of lashes of a whip, never to the point of breaking skin. Unblemished skin left the stadium reddened, and bruised, but never broken. Minor incursions, major infractions - the women would leave with bruising, the men with a reddened hand, or back if the infraction called for a little more force. Never blood, never broken skin. It had become a regular deterrent session - those who weren’t on duty were made to watch punishment meted out to others. One afternoon, I was made to bear witness to the punishment of several women and one man from Ferox. Unable to hear exactly what it was they were being punished for due to the uproar of the crowd when it was announced, I stood fuming at the injustice. I watched as they beat the women until bruised, and the man given a couple of lashes of a leather strap from Maddox and allowed to leave. I glanced down at my hands and noticed I was clenching my hands so tightly I had put my nails through the skin on my palms, blood pooling around my fingertips. This was ridiculous.

  Maddox turned to address the crowd, when there was a commotion at the entrance to the lower area, one of the runners pushing his way into the centre with a note. I watched his face change as he looked up and shouted.

  “All members not currently on duties are now required to ship out to a mass incident in Luculentus. Now. Move!”

  I filed out with the others, in a more orderly fashion than I would have expected for so many people, and in such a hurry. Those who were designated Senior security and protection were escorted to a waiting helicopter and whisked off to Luculentus. Still considered a Junior Ferox despite having been well past my Rookie training now, I wasn’t required in the beginning. Those remaining on duty in Ferox were to stay to protect the children and the elderly.

  “Taylor” Maddox was ushering more people towards the helicopter for the next run. Flinching, I stopped in front of him, standing to attention. “At ease, Member.”

  I relaxed, still wary of him as he confused me with his unpredictable nature. “Sir?”

  “Taylor, I’ve been watching your progress over the last few months.” The look I could not prevent covering my face told him I was well aware of that fact, “Whilst you’ve been out on duty.” As though that made it any less weird.

  “Sir.”

  “I’d like you to take lead with this group,” My shocked look must have surprised him as he smirked, “You’ll need to prove yourself quickly.”

  “Sir, don’t I make reckless decisions?” I asked, recalling some of the things he had muttered that day.

  He sighed, a crinkle creasing his brow now, making him look uncomfortable with what he had to say next. “Yes, you do. But I think you have learnt your lesson. It also means you think outside the box, which is a skill you may need now.”

  I nodded, as I met his eyes. “Thank you, sir. I will try not to disappoint you. Can you please advise what is happening in Luculentus, so we can prepare?”

  “I hope you don’t. Check in with Kalvin when you land, he’ll send you where you’re needed. What’s happening? From the information I have to hand, a rogue programme has taken over the chips that Luculentus use to track and monitor their members, making most of them unpredictable and violent. They’d destroyed half the city before we got word from the Ferox stationed there. Good luck.” He smiled, and pushed me towards the chopper, leaning in as I buckled up. “I have promoted Member Taylor to Team Leader Taylor, respect her as such.” He allowed a cheeky smile, “Though, she’s new… help her out if, and ONLY if she needs it.”

  I looked up, to see the group I was leading staring at me. Ti was sitting opposite me, a shocked grin on her face as Maddox jogged away from the chopper. A shudder signalled we were about to take off. She winked at me, giving a mock salute. I grinned and waved her hand down, turning my attention to outside the chopper, and what the hell I would do when we got to Luculentus. The team I had felt like I fit in with were looking for guidance, guidance I wasn’t sure I was ready to give. I was now Team Leader to Tiarni Wilson, Force Jones, Finley Evans, Maverick Thistle, Tobias Fagan, and Shannon Totman.

  “Guys, I know it seems sudden, and I know it’s a little weird it wasn’t one of you. But I didn’t make the decision, Maddox did. If you have concerns, please air them now.” I paused, “Or, at least put them aside until we are through this?” Those I made eye contact with nodded, “We need to work together. You guys know how you all work together, you'll need to keep me in the loop! I’m open to anyone’s suggestions when we are out there, okay? Just don’t go off half-cocked, or you’ll get us all in the shit.”

  “Including you?” Finley muttered, a sly smirk curling his lip.

  “Including me. I’ve learnt that lesson the hard way.”

  He nodded.

  “We need to meet Kalvin when we land, and we’ll go from there.” A squeal sounded in my headset, signalling that the pilot needed to speak with me.

  “Taylor, we are coming into land.” The pilot’s voice echoed in my headset.

  “Thanks.” I looked up at the others, who were looking to me for instructions. “Right, when we get to ground, follow my lead. We need to find Kalvin first, he will direct me where we are best suited to be, and what the situation involves. We’ll go from there. Okay?” Heads bobbed, a few wary glances at me, not sure if they trusted me as a leader or not, I smiled, continuing “Again, if you have any ideas, run them by me okay? I know I’ve been here less time than most of you, I get it if you are annoyed. But right now, the outcome of our task depends on you being willing to work with me - I will take any advice I can get!”

  The landing was a little rough, as the pilot had tried to land away from the growing incident, to let us out safely. We were motioned to by another Ferox, beside a crumbling building where we could view the main site of the incident without being harmed. I glanced around as we jogged over to the motioning Ferox. What the hell had happened here? Buildings were in various stages of disrepair, and some looked completely trashed, and fairly recently.

  “Leader?” I waved my hand, the Ferox who was as yet unnamed allowed a small quizzical look to run across his face before getting it under control, because of a scowl I gave him, “Right, Taylor. Kalvin is in a building a few streets up. You need to find him, and he’ll send you and your team where you need to go. But to get there, you need to stay hidden.”

  “What's happening? Why hidden?” I asked, trying to formulate a plan to keep my group safe.

  “We’re not completely sure yet, but it looks like either a lone Luculentus or a small group of them has been developing an enhancement in secret they tried out without testing.” I frowned. “Instead of being an enhancement, they’ve all become violent. Almost like zombies, they stumble around until they see someone then just rage-run at them, attacking.”

  “How did it get this big?”

  He shrugged, “We don’t know. What we know is it started with a small group, but it’s expanded to others. We don’t know how it spreads, or even if it does.”

  “Any way of stopping them, if they find us?” He grimaced, holding his baton.

  “Swift crack to the head. Unless you have a gun?” I shook my head. “Then baton swinging is a good start. You should move off now before another chopper arrives. Good luck.”

  I nodded my thanks and motioned the group to follow me.

  We crept forward, trying to stick to the shadows. The other members had been on duty, working for Ferox for longer than I had, so several took the lead moving forward, making sure it was safe and signalling us to move. How the hell had I landed a Team Leader job when I had no idea what the hell I was doing? I glanced around at the members, sneaking in the shadows, and vowed to myself to just try my best, be open to ideas, and get these guys out of here alive.

  “Taylor,” Ti murmured, coming back towards me, “Kalvin’s in the next building. Jones is just making sure no one shoots at us as we approach.”

  “Thanks.” I snuck up to the front of the group, aside from F
orce, awaiting his signal that the coast was clear. A brown-haired young man poked his head around the corner, grinned and poked his tongue out at me before motioning it was safe. Cheeky shit. We rounded the corner to find Kalvin waiting for us.

  “Team Leader Taylor?” he asked, unsure who I was.

  “That's me, ah… Leader…” I stumbled, both Maddox and the member we had run into at the beginning had only called him Kalvin. He grinned.

  “Team Leader Kalvin. Eric Kalvin.” I breathed a sigh of relief, and smiled, “They always forget to tell you my full name… but I prefer Kalvin.”

  “Team Leader Kalvin. Thank you. We were instructed to meet you before setting out.”

  He nodded, handing me a headset, showing me the buttons I needed to communicate with him and other Team Leaders.

  “Now, we need you guys to head to the East side of Luculentus, there are reports of someone left behind.” He smirked when Force and Maverick sighed. “I know it seems like a rescue mission when you want to bang heads together, but from what I can gather it’s pretty beaten up over there, a lot of good hiding spots for the… recently insane. You’ll need to be careful. The person, or people, over there aren’t trained to protect themselves like we are. They need us to help them out. He pointed out where he wanted us to go on a map I folded and put into my zip up jacket pocket.

  We set out back along part of the area we had just come through, veering off part way back. Eric had been right, it was particularly bad here, buildings had been destroyed in the effort to stop the spread of the “recently insane” as he had called them. It was like something out of a war zone which I guess we possibly were. I remembered similar scenes in the few history books we had been allowed to see, regarding the World Wars in the Before. The rubble, the absolute destruction, and to all have happened in the afternoon, rather than over weeks of repeated bombings. Apparently, we’d just got more efficient at destroying ourselves. I shook my head, I needed to keep my head in the game, not wonder about how they were going to rebuild. I glanced ahead, to see where Force and Maverick had got to, only to find they were close. We had arrived at a particularly difficult area to cross without being out in the open for far too long. I stood, hand on a building, or at least what was left of the building, thinking in the shadows.

  “Fuck, you actually did it,” an extremely familiar voice coming from the shadows startled me out of my thoughts, a slight clattering signalling several batons had been drawn behind me.

  “Stand down,” I commanded, “I know this one.”

  “Christ, a leader already? Must have made you hard quick.” He stepped out of the shadows, grinning, so I could see him properly, a quiet communal sigh of relief behind me when they realised we were related. His grin faded as he glimpsed the scar that traced my cheek and jaw, down my neck, took in the darkness in my eyes.

  “Hey, Jameson,” I sighed, “PLEASE tell me this isn’t one of your stupid ideas, this… thing?”

  Shaking his head, he ran a tired hand over his face. “Nah, I know the guys who were designing it, though,” He still looked a little shocked or in awe of my uniform, or at least it’s presence with me in it, “Ferox though, Mum said you were going to try, and you bloody did it.” I allowed a small upward curl of my lip, not quite a smile, “I’d love to have seen Dad’s face when you told him you made it.”

  I let the semi-smile leave my face and just looked at Jameson, saying nothing.

  “Oh… he doesn’t know?”

  I could feel Ti and the rest of the group watching me as very few people knew anything about my story. “Doesn’t care. They disowned me after I disappeared on Selection Day.”

  “Fuck…” A blast sounded close to our position, making everyone jump.

  “Shit. Jameson, this catch up is lovely and all, but we need to do this another time. We’re supposed to be trying to rescue someone who was left behind when they evacuated this area,” I frowned, “Actually, what the hell are you still doing here?”

  “Meet the person who was left behind.” He at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

  “How the hell did you manage that?” Shaking my head, as he went to speak, “No, never mind, we don’t have time for you to explain, we’ve got to figure out how to stop this virus before they wipe the whole section out.”

  I watched his face as he thought quickly, “I know where they kept the code, I might be able to hack it and switch it off?” He grimaced, looking behind me, “but I can’t get back there yet.” He glanced up and gasped. One of the Ferox behind me swung round, and delivered a sharp crack to the mad Lucu’s head, dropping him like a stone.

  “Taylor?” Ti spoke up, smiling when both Jameson and I looked at her, until Jameson grunted realising she meant me for the first time in his life.

  “Yeah?”

  “What if we helped get your brother to where the code is, or to a computer at least? We could protect him, let him try to stop the madness?”

  I grinned at her, then turned to Jameson. “That could work. Jam, is it far?”

  “No, just too dangerous to do on my own.”

  Calling the rest of the group into a huddle we split into two groups - one to scout ahead a little, and the other to help protect Jameson. Tapping my headset, I spoke to Kalvin, putting him on a quiet speaker so the others could hear in the huddle.

  “Sir. I’ve located the local we were tasked to find. He appears to be unaffected.”

  “Great work, Taylor. Head on back.”

  “Sir, if I may, he’s an IT speciali-”

  “It’s Luculentus, Taylor, they all are.” Kalvin interrupted, sounding strained.

  “Yes, but this one knows the people working on the code that’s gone awry. He thinks he may be able to hack in and shut it down if we can get him to the computer.”

  There was silence on Kalvin’s end as he thought about it.

  “If you can do it safely, please do,” A slight pause and a tired sigh, “I bloody hope he can help, we’re getting overrun out here. I’ve got teams and leaders down all over the place.”

  “Paige?” I muttered, forgetting for a moment that the mike was on.

  “She’s one of them, Taylor.” He grunted, “Good luck.”

  I stood, silent, in shock. I couldn’t make my brain function past the thought she was injured, or dead. Every time I tried, my thoughts skipped back to her. I shook my head as Ti touched my arm. I tapped the communication between Kalvin and me off.

  “I’m okay.” I needed my head in the game right now, I’d have to worry about Paige after this, or there may be nothing left to worry about, “Let’s get moving”.

  Jameson frowned at me, confused. Solving his confusion would have to wait. We needed to get this code hacked and Luculentus back to it a normal state. Another explosion rocked the building we were hiding behind.

  Moving off, we stuck to the shadows. The front group sneaking forward, peering around corners watching for affected Lucu’s. The occasional lone, mad Lucu would surprise us, the batons getting a good work out. We crept forward, trying not to give away our position. I paused, to check around a corner before we moved off, slowing the rest of the group down. As I was about to motion it was safe to move, I heard a startled grunt behind me. Spinning around, feet crunching in the gravel, I found a mad Lucu with Tobias in its clutches, trying to drag them away from us. I pulled out my baton, running back towards them, leaping over broken concrete, sliding in the gravel. I signalled to Tobias, the restrained team member, to stay as still as they could as I swung my baton as hard as I could towards the mad Lucu’s head. It seemed to grab him tighter, as I smashed the baton into its face repeatedly, reducing it to a bloody pulp, before it finally let Tobias go, falling to the ground finally unconscious. Gasping, Tobias fell to the ground, rubbing his neck, coughing.

  “Thanks.” I nodded, wiping my baton on the Lucu’s uniform, and sliding back into position on my belt, walking back to my position in the group, shrugging at Jameson when he gaped at me. We continued on
a little further before Jameson tapped me on the shoulder, scaring the life out of me.

  “Up there.” He pointed to a building that looked deserted, and I motioned to the others that this was the place we needed to be. Filing quickly across the road, trying to keep to the shadows, we ducked into the open doors of the building.

  “How many floors up, Jam?”

  “Four, but we’ll need to take the stairs.” He pointed the way, the lead group heading up, as we waited for Ti to give me the signal, then followed. We arrived at the 4th floor without too much trouble and snuck along the hallway until Jameson found the door to his apartment. He fished around under the doormat, grinning triumphantly as he pulled a key out from beneath it. I made everyone hang back, checking out the apartment first, to make sure it was safe, before signalling everyone in, leaving one member near the door to alert us to any problems. Jameson found the laptop he was looking for, and started it up, tapping in a long password, muttering to himself what sounded like instructions. He logged in and out of things so fast, I had no idea what he was doing, and couldn’t follow it as his fingers flew over the keys. The occasional curse word was all that let on how difficult it was to do.

  “Damn it! That should have… ohhhh, you cheeky buggers.”

  I shook my head at his random conversations with the laptop and himself and looked around the apartment. If Luculentus was in a decent shape, he would have had a nice view from where he was. He had a great view of a destroyed city at the moment though. GreyBrook was resilient, though and Luculentus would rebuild.

  “Oh… you morons. How did you miss that? That's what fucked it up.” He tapped a few more keys, and slammed his finger down on the enter key, and looked up. “There. That should do something.”