by Mark Harritt
Dr. Humphreys drew Mitchem’s attention away from the exchange between Weitz and Randall, “There’s a problem with your math, Landberg. There are still eight more men than there are women, even with Mike’s team missing,” Dr. Humphrey’s pointed out.
Landberg shrugged, “We’ll worry about that later. Right now, there are five available women for us. I have no doubt that this problem will resolve itself over the next few days.”
Mitchem shuddered. He knew how Landberg would probably try to resolve the excess amount of men. He knew he was probably on that list as well. Things weren’t going well for Mitchem. At this moment, he wasn’t sure if there was a way out of this problem for him. He was caught between Landberg’s group, who were ruthless in their pursuit of women, and the rest of the people in the compound.
Joan spoke, her voice ice, “How many are there of you?”
Landberg smiled at her, “There are six of us. Weitz, Joseph, Williams, Sustein, and us.” Landberg motioned at Mitchem, then himself.
Murphy yelled at Joseph, “Joseph, what the hell are you thinking? This ain’t you man!”
Joseph spoke over the loudspeakers, “What the hell do you know, Murph? You got a piece of tail.”
“Fuck you, Joseph. Laura ain’t a piece of tail. She’s my wife, you piece of shit.”
“What the hell’s wrong with you Murph? She ain’t your wife. They ain’t no priests around here. You can’t be married. Ain’t like you can go get a marriage certificate.”
Murphy shook his head, “Joseph, you’re an idiot. You never understood anything. How do you think people got married before there was priests, you dumb ass? A marriage certificate doesn’t mean shit. We don’t need it without a government lookin’ over our shoulder.”
Joseph continued, “You don’t understand. It ain’t the same no more. We used to have fun. We’d go to the bars, drink beer, kick ass, chase tail. I hate this place. There isn’t a damn thing to do!”
Murph’s face screwed up with a confused look, “Wait a minute. You’re doing this ‘cause you ain’t having fun no more? Are you fucking crazy?”
Joseph sounded depressed when he talked again, “You just don’t understand Murph.”
A deep sadness painted Murphy’s features, “We were friends, Brett. How could you do this to everybody?”
Joseph repeated his last statement, “You don’t understand, Murph.” It sounded like he was pleading with his old friend.
Murphy shook his head, “I guess you’re right. I don’t understand.”
In the sudden silence, Landberg spoke again, “So now, if you have a weapon, you need to take it out, and place it on the ground.”
“What are you going to do if we don’t? You going to start shooting us?” Jondreau asked.
“I don’t think you want to test me, Ken. Remember, the Mechs can be very precise when they target hostiles. I’d hate for you to get hurt.”
“Screw you, Russell.”
“No thank you, Ken, I prefer women.”
Jennifer’s temper was back under control, “So, it’s you, Joseph, Weitz, Williams and Sustein?”
Landberg’s eyes narrowed, “Yeah, why?”
Jennifer stared at him. She spoke one word, “Override.”
Mitchem heard the confusion in his earbud. Joseph was first, followed quickly by Weitz. Joseph was cursing and Weitz was panicking as he realized that he couldn’t control the mech anymore, “What the hell’s going on here? The mech isn’t responding. It’s starting to shut down. All the systems are shuttin . . .”
Panic spread over Landberg’s face, “Shoot them, fucking shoot them!”
People in the crowd started screaming. Many dropped to the ground. Murph drew and shot as Williams and Sustein raised their rifles. Drapier, Yee and Stein caught the two men in a crossfire over the heads of the others. Williams went down quick. Sustein was quick enough to pull the trigger on his rifle before he went down. The look on his face turned to horror as he realized that his rifle wouldn’t shoot. Bullets hit him in the chest, knocking him over.
Things were going south quicker than Mitchem could have anticipated. Landberg went for the gun holstered at his side. Mitchem didn’t have a choice. He drew his gun and started shooting.
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Chapter Seven
Mitchem had learned one thing in his confrontations with Mike, and that was the need to practice. After Ben was killed by the spawn, he drew a pistol out of the armory. He’d gotten some strange looks from Tom, but he’d explained when questioned, exasperated, “Don’t worry, I’m not going after Captain America. I just don’t want to be unable to defend myself ever again.”
Tom had studied him intently, and just when Mitchem thought he was about to be refused, Tom spoke over his shoulder to Joe, “Hey Joe, get Mitchem here one of the Berettas.”
Joe went to grab the Beretta. Latricia looked at Tom, looked at Mitchem, then asked, “Are you sure about that, Tom?”
Mitchem’s face colored, but Tom just nodded, “Yep.”
Latricia shook her head and Joe came over and put the pistol, three magazines, fifty rounds, and a holster on the table. Tom slid them over to Mitchem. Mitchem picked the pistol up, cleared the chamber, and slid the pistol into the holster.
“We have cleaning supplies when you need them. If you need practice or want some advice on shooting, come on back and I’ll give you some lessons. I’ve got some dry fire techniques that will help.” Tom told him.
Mitchem was shocked that Tom offered his help. Tom explained that away, “If you’re going to carry a tool, you have to know how to use it.”
Mitchem had practiced his draw every day after that. Today, that practice paid off. Landberg either hadn’t been practicing his draw, or he’d been surprised by the direction that the situation had taken. His pistol was stuck in the holster when he forgot to hit the button on the side.
Mitchem drew his pistol and shot Landberg. Mitchem shot center mass. Since Landberg was turned to the crowd, the first two bullets hit him in the right arm, turning him slightly. Three more bullets hit him in the chest on the right side. This caused him to spin, and two more bullets hit him center mass in the chest. Mitchem pulled the trigger until he was out of bullets.
Confusion was the overriding expression on Landberg’s face, even through the pain. The one thing he wasn’t expecting today was to be shot by Mitchem.
“Drop it! Drop the fucking gun!” Yee yelled at Mitchem, his gun covering his former commanding officer.
“Don’t shoot! Mitchem’s on our side!” Jennifer yelled. Yee looked confused.
Mitchem didn’t take any chances. He hit the magazine release, and the magazine slid out to clatter on the ground. He pointed the pistol away from the crowd and cleared the weapon. He slowly bent down and placed the weapon on the cobblestones. He stood back up, showed his empty hands, palm out, and put them on his head.
Daughtry walked over to Landberg, who was lying in an expanding pool of his own blood, and slapped Landberg’s hand away from the pistol he was still trying to pull from the holster. He took the pistol out and stepped away from Landberg. He cleared the weapon and stuck it in his pocket. Joan and Humphreys went in different directions to triage the wounded gunmen.
Throughout the crowd, people were in a state of shock. Some women were crying, one guy had thrown up, and everybody was dazed.
Murph looked around, “What the hell just happened?”
Jondreau and Jen walked up to Mitchem.
Jen spoke to him first, “Don’t worry, Greg, you can put your hands down now.” She patted his arm as she talked to him.
Mitchem slowly lowered his arms, still worried about being shot if he moved too quickly.
Jondreau turned and faced the crowd and raised his hands, “It’s okay, everything’s under control now. We’re all safe.” He turned to point at Mitchem, “Greg saved our lives.”
The crowd stood up slowly, wondering if it was all over.
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Jen turned to the crowd, “Greg saved us. He found out about a plot to take us all hostage. These men,” she pointed at Landberg, lying on the cobbles with blood bubbling out of his mouth. Dr. Humphreys was beside him trying to stem the flow of blood, “Were going to create a new order here. One in which they were in charge.”
She looked up at Mitchem, “Greg came to me, and told me what they were planning. We were able to make sure that they couldn’t do it.”
“Jesus Christ, Jen! We could have all been shot!” Billy Zane yelled from the back.
Joe Oaks shook his head, raising his voice so that he could be heard, “No, that wouldn’t have happened. Jen told me what was going on. I filed down their firing pins.”
Yee looked at Mitchem, “Why’d you shoot Landberg then?”
Mitchem’s face colored, “I didn’t know about the firing pins. I thought he was going to shoot you guys. I couldn’t allow that to happen.”
People were looking at Mitchem with something he hadn’t seen in a while. It looked suspiciously like respect.
“You could have told us what was going on, dammit!” Luis yelled.
Mitchem cleared his throat, “Ah, no, they couldn’t.”
“Why not?” Billy Zaine asked.
“Because we didn’t know who all was involved in the coup,” Jen told them. “We had to find out who was involved. Otherwise, we could have been facing the exact same situation later down the road.”
“Did they actually think they could get away with this?” Willow asked.
Jen spread her hands, “You’re going to have to ask them that.”
The crowd looked over at Joel. He was holding Landberg’s hand. He shook his head. Landberg wasn’t going to make it. The crowd looked around toward the back of the crowd. Joan was standing there, her hands red with blood. She shook her head.
Murph pointed up at the mechs standing like silent sentinels, “What about them.”
“They won’t be going anywhere until we decide to let them out,” Bobby told him. “I rigged the software so that Jen just had to override the systems to lock them out and power down the armor.”
“What if she’d been shot? Or hurt?” Murph asked.
“Then I would have overridden the mechs,” Jondreau responded.
“Why?”
Mitchem looked Michelle Tomiko, who was studying him intently.
“What do you mean?” Mitchem asked.
“Why did you help us?” she asked.
Mitchem thought for a moment before he answered, “Look, I don’t like the team guy’s.’ I don’t like them, and I never will. There are some people here, also, that I don’t like.” He painstakingly made an effort not to look at Jessica Randall, “but at least Mike leaves me alone.” He pointed at Landberg’s corpse, “Once he started, I didn’t know where he would have finished, but I don’t think a lot of us would have survived if he’d been in charge. How long before he got tired of the woman he was with, and decided he wanted another one.”
Michelle studied him some more, “So you’re a hero?”
Mitchem didn’t know if it was the stress of the moment or the question that made him respond the way he did. He started laughing. He laughed so hard that tears came out of his eyes. Finally, he started shaking his head, “No. I’m definitely no hero. This was strictly to save my own skin.”
Some people in the crowd seemed to be considering that last statement intently.
Murph spoke, “Well, Ken, what do you want to do about those two?” Murph pointed at the mechs.
“Security, on me. We need to go and get them out,” Ken replied.
Murph shook his head, “No. What are we going to do about them?”
Understanding slowly made its way through the crowd. They had a closed society, and two members that were willing to use violence to get their way couldn’t be tolerated.
“Well, we can’t just let them go,” Will stated, “You want Josh programming the mechs? How can we trust him?”
Beside him, Randall replied, “I can’t stand the idea that Joseph might be running around out here free. You heard him. You heard Joel as well. They’re both delusional. It’s too dangerous just to let them run around.”
Jen shuddered as she thought back to her meeting with Joseph out in the woods. She didn’t agree on much with Randall, but this was one time that she did, “She’s right. We can’t just let them run around out here. We have to make a decision about what we’re going to do with them.”
The noise increased as people in the crowd started discussing the options available to them. It didn’t take long to come to a consensus.
“We have to finish them,” Hank Bethel said.
Murph looked at him, “You mean, kill them.”
Hank looked around at Murph, “Yeah, that’s what I mean. We have to kill them.”
Ed shook his head, “Guys, we can’t do this.”
Bob didn’t agree with his friend, “They were going to kill us. You heard Landberg. He told them to fire on us.” He pointed at the mechs, “If Mitchem hadn’t warned Jen, how many of us would have been marched out to the woods and shot? How many of us would have been inconvenient to keep around?”
Ed looked at Bob, then waved at the group, “How many of us are left? We’re too few to kill more of our own. Our species is almost extinct as it is.”
Bob nodded, then motioned at the mechs, “Yeah, and those two could hasten the demise of our species. We just can’t trust them.”
Jen looked over at Murph as they talked. Murph looked sad as the conversation continued. It would be tough on him if Joseph was executed. They’d been good friends. Still, this wasn’t a decision that she need to make for the group. There was one thing she could do though. Jen got the crowd’s attention, ““Look, right now is not the time to make the decision. How about we make this decision later? We’re all on edge right now. We’re too angry, too emotional to make this decision. Some of us are still in shock. How about we wait until we can put our emotions aside? I say we pull them out of the mechs, and then we can decide how we want to handle this.”
Bob crossed his arms, shaking his head, “It’s just going to be harder the longer we wait. If we do it now, it’s done, and we can move on.”
Jen glanced back over at Murph, “Yeah, but I think we owe it to some of our group to take the time to make a wise decision. We could regret it if we end up making a hasty one. I say we just take a little time.”
No matter what happened, the crowd wouldn’t be completely happy with the outcome. Wiser head prevailed though, and they decided that they would wait.
The crowd started to disperse. Mitchem turned to walk away as well, but then he felt Jen’s hand on his arm. He stopped and looked back at her. She took his hand in hers, and he could see the appreciation in her face, “Thank you, Greg.”
He looked down, not willing to meet her eyes, “It’s nothing.”
Jen felt his hand slip out of hers as he turned away. She watched his back retreat as he moved through the crowd toward the smoke house. A few others thanked him as he walked away.
Murph walked over to Ken and Jen, pointing up at the mechs, “Well, how do you want to do this?”
She turned her attention back to Joseph and Weitz. Jen looked up at the mechs, “Well, they aren’t causing any harm right now. How about we leave them in there for a while longer, then they may be more willing to come out.”
Ken looked at Murph. Murph nodded.
Ken looked back at Jen, “That’s actually a pretty good idea. We could leave them in there for maybe two days. When we open up the mechs, hopefully they’ll be too weak to do anything.”
Jen suddenly had another idea. She looked through the crowd and found who she wanted. She waved, “Bobby, can you come over here please?”
Bobby stopped talking to John and walked over to her, “Yeah, what’s up?”
“Can we monitor Joseph and Weitz in the mechs without them knowing what we’re doing?” she asked.
&nbs
p; He grinned, “I can make those systems do anything you want them to do. It won’t be a problem for us to monitor them.”
Two days later, after Joseph and Weitz had settled into deep REM cycles, the suits were opened and they were pulled out. Joseph didn’t say a thing, but Weitz was crying.
----------------------------------------------------
The aircraft took an hour and a half to get to a landing zone that would have taken Mike and the team ten to fifteen days of humping to get to. The aircraft landed five miles away from the village. Mike and the team would walk the rest of the way in with Caul. The aircraft landed, and the back ramp lowered to the ground.
“Mike, please find my family, find my tribe,” Matki pleaded from the floor of the aircraft.
Mike gripped Matki’s shoulder, “Don’t worry, Matki. I think we’re well ahead of your tribe. We’ll go into the village, warn them, then we can back track and find the others. We’ll find Balia and your family.”
Matki gripped Mike’s arm, “Thank you.” He looked at the rest of the team, “Thank you all.”
Everett smiled at Matki, “Don’t worry. I know you’d do the same thing for Joan, or any of our wives. You’re family. We take care of family.”
Caul and Geonti were talking. Geonti was unhappy. Matki, Jendi, and Geonti were going to stay with Shar at the aircraft. Geonti wanted to go with them, but with Matki wounded, Mike didn’t want to take any chances that Shar would try to take advantage. Jendi was just too young to pull security.
Mike looked at Matki, and indicated Geonti by hooking his thumb in Geonti’s direction, “What’s eating him?”
Matki turned from the spirited conversation and grinned at Mike, “Geonti is ‘butt hurt’ that Caul gets to go into the village and he has to stay here. He is interested in one of the unmarried women there, a girl named Retha.”
Mike grinned back at Matki, then looked over at Geonti and back again, “Well, tell him if everything’s well there, we can make sure he gets a chance to go in and tell her hello.”
Matki relayed the information to Geonti, and he settled down, even though he was still sulking.
