Midnight Squad: The Ties That Bind

by J. L. M. Visada

  It was all very straightforward. Grim and Penny first ran through a makeshift obstacle course to show the flexibility of the armor. Then Grim ran through a second course. This one was a shooting course. Gunfire interfered with Penny’s ability to echolocate. As a vampire she could sort of see the area around her using sound. Her hearing was amazing, but if she tried to fire a gun the sound of the gun firing so close to her interfered with her ability, and she would look a little drunk as she stumbled around trying to move. It was weird because normally she is so graceful, but once you interfere with her ability to process the sounds around her correctly, she really becomes awkward. She’d explained it to me once that the gun firing didn’t bother her; it was actually the fact that she was holding it that caused the problem. The sound of the gun in her hands would actually travel with the recoil through her body, and that’s what caused the disorientation.

  Grim rampaged through the gun course, and Penny did her part by doing some very suggestive stretching on the side. General Garrett was focused on Grim, but the others were all just drooling. Seriously, they were drooling over Penny. I gave her a quick glance. She was sprawled out on the ground. Her legs spread into the splits, and she had arched her back so that her chest was practically heaving up at our hosts. It practically screamed “come get some” Between Grim’s amazing performance on the gun range, and Penny’s “do-me” yoga poses, I could almost hear the cash register cha-chinging away.

  The final test was the live fire test. Two snipers sat up at one end of the hanger, while Grim and Penny stood right in the center with their backs to the snipers. Both snipers would be firing Denel NTW-20’s. I didn’t really know what they were, but Grim suggested them for the test. He said they were the most powerful sniper rifles made. That they fired twenty millimeter rounds. The round looked like it should be fired out of a tank, and then Grimmy explained that that’s pretty much what they were. They were basically small canon rounds.

  I knew the impact would probably hurt a bit, but the mass of the bullet wasn’t enough to make it dangerous to either of them. So I’d agreed. Besides, if taking a round in the back of the head and then laughing it off wouldn’t impress them then I couldn’t think of anything that would. I looked over to the snipers. Their guns looked as big as they were. The two barrels pointed down at Grim and Penny, and I felt my stomach clench. What if something went wrong? What if I messed up and left a weak point on the material. I started to call it off, when the two loudest booms I’d ever heard in my life nearly caused me to wet myself. The only way I could possibly explain it was to say it sounded like God coughing.

  I watched in horror as the rounds slammed into the back of Grim and Penny’s heads. The force of the shell actually drove Grim down to his knees. Penny barely even flinched. I breathed a sigh of relief as Grim slowly stood back up. Then he gave his head a shake to clear out the cobwebs, the test was over, and we just passed. I could hear Niki, Janine, Katy, and Danika celebrating, and giving high fives.

  General Garret seemed unfazed. “So, the specs you sent me said they can take an even larger canon round?”

  “Yes, but…” Before I could finish the General gave a nod.

  Another boom, louder than the first two, exploded through the hanger. I looked over towards where the sound came from. Hidden, behind some wooden crates was a huge tank gun. It must have been able to fire at least a hundred millimeter round. I gasped, “Oh God, no!” My eyes turned back to where Grim and Penny stood, but Grim was the only one standing. Penny was nowhere to be seen. Grim turned and started running. I watched frozen as he made his way to Penny. She was lying limp on the floor in the corner of the hangar.

  The other girls and I ran to Grim and Penny. He was crying, and I slid in beside him. The armor had held up, but I already knew that things had gone terribly wrong. Penny was bleeding from the nose, ears, and eyes. The impact of the shell had probably caused her head to snap violently forward and back. The suddenness with which it all happened probably rattled her brain until it was nothing but mush.

  “Is she?” I couldn’t even say it.

  “I can’t tell. I mean she doesn’t breathe, and there’s no heartbeat.” Grim was sobbing. We were all panicking, and then I saw Penny’s fingers twitch. Then her lips moved a little. She spoke, but it was all gibberish. Grim crushed her to himself, “Oh thank you, Jesus.” He was bawling, and giving thanks that she was alive. When her eyes finally opened they were crossed, and one pupil was completely blown open, meaning that there was some severe brain damage. She kept trying to talk, but all she could do was make guttural baby sounds. Finally, she blinked a few times, and her pupils went back to normal. I realized then that she was slowly healing. Her brain had sustained massive damage, but it was slowly repairing itself. I’ve seen her take bullets to the brain before, and she always healed almost immediately. The impact probably liquefied her brain in her skull, but even still, she should have healed up much more quickly than this. It was then that I realized just how starved for blood she was. Her body was straining to repair itself.

  Grim was so worried, we all were. He kept asking her if she was alright, and she kept mumbling gibberish. After a few minutes her gibberish started to sound more like words. Eventually, she groaned, “I taste…purple?” Since she was actually forming words again we all knew she’d be okay. Grim held onto her like a scared child. The big man just seemed frail, like his whole world nearly just crumbled around him. The more Penny got back to normal, the more Grim relaxed his grip around her. Finally she had him help her to her feet. She was pretty shaky on her legs, and Grim decided to sweep her up into his arms. It would have been really romantic, but then she vomited blood all over his chest. Grim ignored the bloody mess and just held her tighter. Penny wiped her mouth and apologized for the mess.

  “I’m just glad you’re still with us.” Grim whispered as he held her and kissed her forehead.

  Seeing Penny like that did something to me. I stomped straight over to the General and without even thinking twice I punched him square on the jaw. Frankly, I did more damage to my hand than his head. I winced and shook my now throbbing hand. Well, fudge monkeys! Man he has a hard head. I screamed, “What the heck was that? We didn’t agree to anything like that. Penny could have been killed!” General Garret laughed, “Killed? Little Girl, I don’t know who you’re trying to kid, but all of the paperwork that Eisen provided us said she was a vampire. So how are we supposed to kill what is already dead?” Eisen had been the man the military had placed in charge of overseeing our old boss’ project. He was also the jerkwad that had attempted to overthrow the country. He was a jinn, and he was planning on killing his mate Alhambra, and replacing her with Elizabeth. Then she would serve him like a happy little lap dog, and together they’d rule the world. Of course, Grim and the others put a stop to all of that, and the Midnight Squad suddenly became household names.

  In hindsight, we should have made sure all the files on us were destroyed after we killed Eisen, but frankly I think everyone was just so happy we survived that none of us really considered the possibility that there would still be a paper trail on us all. Now this jerk had just tested the extreme limits of the body armor. He wouldn’t have done that if he’d just assumed two humans were out there, but with the knowledge that Penny was “something different”, he just took liberties with our vampire’s safety that no one else would have had to endure. Needless to say, we were all pretty angry.

  Grim let Penny down to her feet, and she immediately wobbled a little towards me. I caught her and carefully held her up. You could practically see the rage boiling off of Grim. He’s always been almost psychotically protective of Penny. I took a deep breath, and waited for him to blow up. Well, getting rich was overrated anyway. The General might overlook my pathetic attempt at a right cross, but nobody overlooks being killed with extreme prejudice, and Grim had murder in his eyes.

  The General glared at Grim, and even though my ears were ringing, we all heard the distinct click-cl
ack as the two snipers fed new rounds into their guns. It was a not so subtle warning. Grim would be perfectly safe in his armor, but I wasn’t sure about the rest of us. Grim got right in the General’s face, and I was expecting all kinds of horribleness, but suddenly Grim smiled, “Well, since you just decided to exceed the parameters of our test, I guess we’ll have to consider this a violation of good faith, and therefore erasing any prearranged agreement we might have. So, the way I see it...our price just doubled.”

  General Garrett’s eyes narrowed, “Now I don’t see it that way, son.”

  Grim smiled coolly and said, “Yeah, but the problem is that I do. Oh and by the way, the price just tripled.” The other Generals seemed to be doing the math in their heads, and some of them started looking a little queasy.

  General Garrett growled, “Now why on earth would we pay that price?”

  Grim laughed, “It’s simple. This project wasn’t designed by the military, and so we’re able to enjoy all the beautiful benefits of the free enterprise system. We gave you all a very good deal. Our price was actually on par with current body armor costs. That’s because we love America, but since you wanted to screw with us…well, we can still love America, and get filthy rich.”

  “Boy, where’s your patriotism?” General growled.

  “Over there where the woman I love slid to a stop…right after you fired a fucking canon at her. Now call me boy one more time and we quadruple the price.” Grim sneered.

  “You’ve got to be kidding?” The old General was actually shocked that Grim would talk to him like that.

  “I like a joke just like anyone else, but here’s something that isn’t funny. You decided to fuck with us, so now it’s our turn. We were planning on being here for a few more days. We were going to wait and let you make your decision. We’ll still give you the same time frame, but when we leave, the designs and plans will be sold to the highest bidder, and China has some pretty deep pockets. How much do you think they’d pay to have soldiers that can take a sniper round to the forehead and keep coming?” Grim was grinning with evil glee. General Garrett looked like he was about to be sick.

  “What’s wrong there, Chuckles? Did things not go according to plan?” Niki snickered.

  General Garrett started to scream, but caught himself. He coughed a few times and then looked back and forth at Grim and Niki, “Your father wouldn’t approve of you two talking to an officer like this.”

  Niki laughed even louder, “You don’t know our father that well if you think that. If someone tried to pull a stunt on him like you just tried with us, they’d be eating the business end of his boot. Daddy has a low tolerance for stupidity.”

  “This discussion is complete; we’ll be showing ourselves out.” Grim growled.

  “It isn’t over, not until I say so.” General Garret raised his hand, and both snipers started taking aim. “Now if you want to leave, all you have to do is say “please”. Oh, and I think we’ll be taking the project at its original price.”

  Grim started walking backwards. The black smoke started coming out of his skin. In no time at all the smoke covered him like a cocoon. You couldn’t even see him through the inky blackness. Then, the black smoke collapsed on itself, and he was gone. Then we heard agonizing screams coming from the snipers. We all looked up to them, and Grim was standing over one of the snipers. Grim had the man’s legs twisted up like a pretzel, and he was screaming at a pitch most dogs would have trouble hearing. The other sniper was out cold. Grim twisted once, and the man’s scream became something primal. A few seconds later, the man was quiet. Then, Grim disappeared into smoke just like before.

  Shortly thereafter we heard screams coming from behind the crates. Whatever Grim was doing to the men that operated the tank gun didn’t sound pretty. They screamed, howled, and one of them just kept begging for him to stop. Eventually, there was nothing but silence. General Garrett, and the other military men were staring wide eyed in shock. They kept staring at the crates, expecting Grim to come walking out from behind. They never noticed that black smoke started to come up from the ground behind General Garret. I expected a column of smoke, but instead it was just a swirling cloud of blackness that never grew more than an inch or two off the floor.

  Grim began to rise up out of the smoke; it was like he was being lifted up by an elevator. I watched as he reached out and gripped General Garrett by the back of the neck. The man screamed like a teenage girl in a B-movie slasher flick. I watched as Grim tightened his grip, “So who is responsible for making the call on our body armor if something happens to this douchebag?”

  The other generals sputtered, and stuttered. Eventually one of the men stepped forward, “It’s a committee decision, but General Garrett is responsible for the recommendation. If he isn’t able to fulfill his duties, then I’d be in charge.” There was this greedy glint in the man’s eyes, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one that noticed it.

  General Garrett started cursing, and demanding to be let go. Grim pulled the man back and they sank down into the dark cloud of smoke. Everyone gasped. Ten seconds later Grim rose back out with General Garrett curled up in the fetal position. The smoke faded away, and Grim asked, “Anyone else have a problem with us leaving?” The consensus from the men left was no.

  We started walking toward the doorway. General Garrett kept screaming, “The Darkness is coming! The Darkness is coming!” He actually wet himself.

  Grim turned around, “You’ve got our number. Call us, or else when we leave the city it goes to the highest bidder. Oh and don’t worry, he’ll be fine in a day or two.” Then he turned around and walked out without a glance back. We followed him out. General Garrett’s screams eventually faded behind us. No one said anything. I think we were all still too shocked by Grim’s display of power.

  Finally, we slipped into the van, and Grim started driving. “Who wants burgers?” Grim said nervously.

  “Burgers? I’d like a big helping of what the fuck did you just do, and a side order of when were you going to bother telling us you could do that?” Niki screamed.

  Grim sighed and turned into a parking lot, “It’s one of my powers. I can sort of…teleport. I don’t have much range though. I was about at my limits.”

  “How often can you do that?” Niki questioned.

  “Not too much. When I pulled that jackass down with me I nearly puked my insides up. Using that power is pretty disorienting: it’s like having the world’s worst case of vertigo.” Grim’s words sounded nervous. He wasn’t comfortable discussing this with us, and his voice gave it away.

  “So, when were you going to tell us?” Janine asked.

  “I really wasn’t planning on it.” Grim grumbled.

  “What do you mean you weren’t planning on it?” Danika sputtered.

  “Guys, these powers, they aren’t exactly something to brag about. I know you all like the horse rides, but the other stuff I do…they aren’t exactly the type of things I’d want to really dwell on.” Grim was drumming the steering wheel nervously.

  “Grim, God gave you those powers. Didn’t you say he wanted you to use them?” Janine asked.

  “Yeah, but that’s just it. I want to use them, but I’m just not sure how to use them in a way that glorifies God. My predecessor abused the powers God gave him, and Jesus cut his head off and replaced Death with me. So I’m worried that I’ll screw up and find my head on the chopping block.” Grim exhaled slowly. He was just a bundle of nerves.

  Janine reached over and touched Grim’s shoulder, “Joseph? We use the gifts God has given us, or we dishonor God. He gave them for a reason.”

  Grim’s shoulders sagged, “Yeah, I know. I’m just nervous. I mean…what if I end up like the original Death? Maybe it was the power that made him like he was?”

  Penny laughed, “Honey, so far your power really isn’t that…powerful.” She said it sweetly, but still firmly enough to make sure her words sank in.

  Niki chirped, “But he’s death. Do
esn’t that mean he has like death vision or something?”

  Penny snickered, “Death vision? Grim…tell them what your powers really are.”

  Grim looked a little embarrassed, “Well you all know about the horse. Now you know about the teleporting, or whatever it is. Well I can also “feel” people dying.”

  “What does that mean?” Janine said. She flickered a little in anticipation.

  “Well, maybe “feel” is a bit strong. It’s really more like I hear them dying.” Grim sighed.

  “Hear them? What does that mean?” Niki’s words were nervous. I looked over at Penny, and she was almost ready to bust out laughing. She was covering her face, and fighting the urge for all she was worth. I’m not sure what was so funny, but Penny was fighting a losing battle against laughter.

  “I hear them.” Grim wasn’t very forthcoming.

  Penny nudged him, “How exactly do you hear them, honey?” Grim glared at her, but Penny just bit her lower lip and kept fighting off the laughter. Grim turned back to the front.

  “So about those burgers?” Grim was trying to change the subject, but all of us had caught on that there was something really significant about how Grim “heard” people dying.

  “Burgers shmurgers…how do you hear people dying?” Danika questioned.

  “Fine! I hear music. When someone is getting near death I hear music, okay?” Grim was clenching the steering wheel and gritting his teeth.

  “So you hear music…what’s the big deal.” Niki said as she stared at the back of her brother’s head.

  Grim growled, “Exactly.”

  “Not exactly…ask your brother what song he hears when people are about to die.” Penny sputtered, she was still holding back her laughter, but it was starting to squeak out.