“Hold your fire!”
“Hold your fire!” The message was passed along the troops.
The shooting stopped.
“What’s happening down there?” Shane asked rudely and snatched the binocular from Talbot’s hands.
And she saw it as well. Hector was walking in the shattered main street followed by his group. He was carrying a white cloth attached to a stick.
“We’re all yours!” He screamed. “Just leave the rest of the residents be!”
“Great!” Shane said, giving the binocular back to Talbot. “That makes it easier. Colonel, tell your men to gather fifty people in the street, including the rebels that’s just surrendered. Make them kneel down and cross fingers behind their heads.”
“Y-yes madam.”
Talbot screamed the order to Major Henderson, his second in command down at the sidewalk, and he passed it along to his lieutenants, sergeants and privates.
In a few minutes, the fourteen who escaped the power plant plus thirty-six other residents were brought by the soldiers and organized in several rows along the street, all kneeling down, as per Shane’s orders.
“Good. I appreciate your expedition.” She said. “Now tell your soldiers to shoot them all dead. Then, gather another fifty and do the same until there’s nobody left in this dump.”
“But…” The colonel was sweating through every pore. “I can’t do that!”
“I’m sorry if I didn’t make myself clear when we first had this conversation. This is neither an invasion nor a raid. This is a cleaning and replacing operation. Now, do as I said, then we discuss with the Center of Refugees the best strategy to bring new people in.”
“You are aware of course we’re about to shoot unarmed civilians who want to surrender!”
“Well, they know why they are dying. We need people who follow the rules as they are. We can’t afford the kind of indiscipline they showed. Otherwise, we have no order. Otherwise, we have no peace.”
“Let me arrest them and give them a chance to answer for their crimes!”
“Too late for that, they were surely given more than a fair chance. Now follow orders, colonel.”
Talbot hardened his look.
“Colonel!” Shane insisted. “I’m not asking you again!”
“NO!” He retorted furiously. “I’m not doing this!”
“It will happen with or without you!”
“Then it’ll be without me! You know something… I’m sick of you and your ways! Like you said before, I guess I can stop kissing your ass now.” He ripped the military patches off his uniform sleeve and threw them on the floor, by Shane’s feet. “I resign my commission!”
Shane looked at him really disappointed and grabbed him by the neck. She fixed eyes on him and forced the man to return her look.
“You just listen to this, my dear mutineer.” She began reciting “The sunshine springs, happiness it brings. Those eyes you should follow… ah, what the heck!”
Shane decided to simply snap Talbot’s neck and toss him on the sidewalk. His dead body crashed against the ground, very close to his second in command.
“Major Henderson…” Shane spoke to the air and her words were carried by radio waves that emanated from her brain until they reached the major’s walkie-talkie.”
“Um… yes madam?” He responded stunned on the radio.
“It seems you’re in charge now. You see those people on the street?”
“Yes.”
“Tell your men to shoot them dead. Then, gather more fifty and do the same.”
The major hesitated.
“Do you want to end up like your colonel?” Shane pressed him.
Henderson looked at Talbot’s horridly twisted body on the sidewalk. He turned to his soldiers with a heavy face. They all stared back at him with anguished eyes.
“Weapons ready!” He finally gave the order.
His men obeyed him.
“Aim!” The major ordered after a brief pause.
All machine gun barrels pointed at the rows of human beings crowding the street. Hector didn’t take his eyes off his killers. Maria closed hers. She and Vince held hands.
“FIRE!”
“Stop everything you’re doing, please!” Susan’s voice resounded from the giant loudspeaker hanging right above the soldiers ready to shoot. “Please, stop whatever you’re doing! I’m talking to the ones doing the killing in the Industrial Zone. I beg you to stop and listen to me, please!”
“HOLD IT!” Major Henderson screamed.
The soldiers stood down. Maria opened her eyes.
Susan’s face was also on television sets all over Downtown, as well as on the big screens spread around Uptown.
Susan on TV:
“My name is Susan. I’m a teacher at Heavensville’s Elementary. If I’m getting through somebody, just know I’m addressing you all, but especially the people of the so called Heavensville. I plead you to listen to what I have to say. Shane is nothing more than a cruel and ruthless assassin and torturer. She’s been misleading and deceiving you all along…”
“I knew I should have killed that bird when I had the chance.” Shane spoke grinding teeth.
“I knew she was a good girl the moment I set my eyes on her.” Tess said to Mario, both watching the plasma TV on Fleur du Soir.
At the News TV Set, while Susan spoke, Nick, Paul and Becky walked around with weapons in hand to assure full cooperation of the audio and video crews. They only had to shoot at the ceiling once in awhile.
“I’ve always wanted to produce my own show.” Paul commented.
Susan continued on TV:
“…and when I found out the truth about the Industrial Zone, also called Downtown, I tried to take the problem to Shane, expecting that she would look into the matter in a fair and reasonable way.
“I deal with her later.” Shane thought. “Major Henderson!” She called him again. “You got your orders! Follow them now!”
“Shut up, Shane!” He responded and turned off his walkie-talkie.
Susan continued on TV:
“But what she did instead was shooting my friend in the head. His name was Frank, a citizen like you and me. Then, she imprisoned, drugged and tortured me! Following her orders, some men injected something in my veins, threw me in a prison cell to later take me outside the city gates to be torn apart by those deranged drifters some of you call lamebrains.”
“Thank God Lily Master and her friend Mate Clarkson came and saved my life. But Shane betrayed them too, like she did to all of you!”
“This is a scheme, can’t you see?” Shane screamed with all the strength of her lungs from the garage two stories up. “It’s a dirty scheme plotted by these scumbags kneeling down before you! Shoot them, damn it!”
The soldiers turned to Shane in confusion, then back to the loudspeaker. One civilian kneeling on the street tried to stand up.
“Go back down!” A soldier shouted, pointing his rifle at him. “Go back down!”
Scared, the man knelt down again.
“Did you see that, bro?” Vince asked Hector.
“Yes. Susan is doing a good job, but it’s not enough. The soldiers are not killing us, but they’re divided. Some of them don’t trust her. We need something stronger on that TV, a face all people know and trust.”
However, it was clear no soldier would fire a single shot in the immediate future.
“Fine, if that’s the way you want!” Shane spoke, more determined than ever. “I’ll just kill them myself. Like they say, if you want a thing done well, do it yourself!”
Shane turned around to go back to the street, but froze in surprise before the woman standing in her way.
“You’ll have to go through me first, lab rat!” Lily said.
ACT 34
“Oh, look who’s here!” Shane smiled. “You’ve been better, sweet heart.”
“I can say the same about you.” Lily replied. “Looks like you’re fresh out of a Swiss cheese facto
ry, pardon the cliché.”
Lily walked to Shane, who was standing by the edge of the building. The Australian woman slightly limped on her left leg, also with a broken rib.
“Somehow I had a feeling we’d meet again.” Shane said with a smirk. “Isn’t this great?”
“And this is the last time we’ll ever meet, because I’m ending this right now.”
“Oh, make no mistake, sweetie. You’re a tough cat, but you definitely exhausted your nine lives.”
“I’m here to exhaust the only life you got.”
“What are you going to do, fight me?”
“And kill you.”
“You don’t even know if I can die.”
“I got a few ideas. I’ll have some fun testing them.”
“Such a powerful line, you heard that in a movie, or perhaps in a cartoon?”
“Nope, it was in a movie.”
“Always the daddy’s little girl, aren’t you?”
“Yes, guess I’ll always be. But at least I had a dad who loved me very much. What about you, lab rat?”
Shane frowned “You’re still powerless against my very particular skills.”
“Maybe, but we killed your coverage.”
“No, you merely reduced it. Just so you know, I have people working to repair the damages you did.”
“They can’t stop the virus installed in your systems. That much I know.”
“Even so, my personal sphere of influence covers a good fifty yards radius in all directions. And you’re well within range. I can control your mind as I please, very silly of you coming to me like this.”
“You’ll have to catch me first!”
Lily struck Shane with each and every kind of blow she knew from her martial-arts training, including several types of punches and even roundhouse kicks. But the blonde woman didn’t seem bothered at all by such attack.
When Lily finally got tired of punching and kicking, Shane said “Not bad for somebody who’s so wounded. Now, it’s my turn.”
Shane hit Lily with the back of her hand, and that was enough to toss Lily backwards like a tennis ball, making her collide against a concrete wall almost at the other end of the roof. Blood was pouring from her right eyebrow.
Shane came to her and said “This is a punch. Now, let me show you what a kick really is.”
And she kicked Lily right in the chest, causing the Australian girl to fly in a parabolic trajectory and crash violently against the windshield of her truck, which had just arrived. Lily groaned in pain, with yet another rib shattered.
“Goddamn it!” Clark said behind the wheel. “Are you sure you can handle this?”
“I’m exhausting her.” Lily talked breathlessly, a cutting pain hammering her thorax.
Mate’s left arm was broken and hanging in an improvised cast. And he needed such limb to shift gears.
“Ah, I can see your friend and your contraption also have nine lives!” Shane observed. “Thanks for dragging more people to my sphere.”
She walked to the truck.
“If I wasn’t such a sophisticated person, I’d separate your head from your shoulders right now.” Shane spoke as she went. “But as it is, I’ll just make you my slave and then I’ll smash the head of your little freckled friend, I have no use for him.”
“There are better ways to exhaust a super being.” Clark spoke. “Let’s do this Fast and Furious style.”
Still on the windshield, Lily said “What is Fast and Fu… AHHHHH!”
Clark stepped on the gas pedal with everything he got and the vehicle accelerated, hitting Shane with fury. The impact was such that she burst through a wall, disappearing somewhere into the construction.
Lily rolled down the vehicle hood and fell right in front of it. Mate hit the break with both feet, bringing the truck to a stop, only inches from the Australian’s head, after burning a good amount of rubber.
“Jesus!” Clark said. “Are you alright, Lily?”
“Yes.” She grunted. “Nice driving. Only next time you decide to test metal efficiency against a super being, let me know first.”
“Sorry about this. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. Besides, I’m not comfortable driving on the right side.”
On the street, soldiers were still pointing weapons at civilians kneeling on the asphalt.
Down at the station, a mildly attractive middle aged woman stepped into the News TV Set and went to Susan. Immediately, Becky, Paul and Nick pointed machine guns at her.
“Hold it! Don’t shoot!” Susan screamed. “This is my boss.”
“Far from me to shoot a boss and save the world for democracy” Nick commented.
“Turn off the camera for a minute, will you?” Susan told the camera operator and he obeyed. “What can I do for you, Missus Hildenbrandt?”
“Call me Agnes, my darling. I’m here with some parents. They’re waiting in the lobby. Now that you got everybody’s attention, I just thought I might add something to your little speech, if you don’t mind. You see, Shane called me a fool in front of the whole city. Now, there’re a few things I want to say about her as well.”
“Be my guess, Missus… I mean, Agnes.”
Susan stood up, so Agnes could sit down on the anchor’s chair. She adjusted her glasses, organized her hair and nodded at the camera operator. In a matter of seconds, she was on the air.
Agnes Hildenbrandt on TV:
“Hello citizens of Heavensville and Industrial Zone. Most of you know me, but for those who don’t, my name is Agnes Hildenbrandt and I’m the principal at Heavensville’s Elementary. Susan here is one of my teachers and a darn good one by the way. And I’m here now not only to confirm, but also to emphasize each and every word she’s just said to you.”
Soldiers at Downtown gazed at the loudspeaker, although they could only hear a voice. Hector and Vince exchanged meaningful looks.
Agnes Hildenbrandt on TV:
“After Shane delivered her speech in this very network, I did some research on my own. And I found out everything she said is a filthy lie. For starters, Mister Hector Dryland is by no means a criminal. On the contrary, he’s a good, law abiding, hard working man who bravely tried to put an end to Shane’s reign of terror. If some bloodbath was committed, it wasn’t by the hands of Hector or his friends. Shane and her henchmen did all the killing and slaughter!”
“You brought it all on yourself, Shane.” Minister Robert Hedgiest talked to himself in an undisclosed location.
He turned off the television and sat down by his desk, with a monitor screen and keyboard protruding from it. Hedgiest typed some commands and grabbed the phone.
“Hello Harland, it’s me. Yes, I’m ready. You can give me the final codes now.”
Agnes Hildenbrandt continued on TV:
“And I was about to start a research on Lily Master, but I didn’t have to actually. Some parents came looking for me. And they told me some of my students, their sons and daughters, once studied at that very elementary school that was attacked by a huge horde of those dead creatures roaming outside the gates. Oh yes, these children were eye witnesses of everything that happened in there. And they said Lily Master indeed saved their lives, also saving teachers and law enforcement officers. If it wasn’t for her, they would all be dead.”
“I am now addressing the soldiers who are attacking the Industrial Zone at this very moment. It came to my knowledge that some of your kids also studied at that elementary school and they were rescued by Lily as well. Yes, you heard me! You’re trying to find and kill the woman who saved the lives of your sons and daughters! But the powers of Shane were somehow clouding your minds, stopping you from remembering this.”
“However, I was told such powers were rendered useless. Just search your memories and you’ll find the truth.”
By hearing those words, one private, also father of two, threw his weapon on the floor. One by one, the other military men followed his example, including Major Henderson. They helped the people kneeli
ng on the street standing up and introductions took place.
“Hi, I’m Sergeant Arthur O’Herlith.” He said to a citizen. “If you need anything, just let me know.”
“Thank you boy” the man replied, shaking hands with him. “I’m Jake Harper, former sergeant of the United States Army. What’s your division, son?”
“None actually” He answered embarrassed. “All ranks in here are complimentary. We were taught how to deal with weapons and this sort of thing, but that’s pretty much it.”
“Then you got a lot to learn what being in the military is really all about. And believe me, it’s not only fighting, shooting, going into battle or to a war. Most of all, we protect people that can’t stand for themselves.”
“Yes sir.”
“And you don’t just go ahead and shoot unarmed folks who are surrendering to you, son!”
“I know that now.” He whispered.
The hospital in Downtown was already full, all beds occupied either by patients recovering from cyanide poisoning, or by those wounded in the invasion. Nevertheless, Heavensville Hospital agreed to have some patients moved there, as per request of Major Henderson.
Apocalily Series (Book 1): The Sunshine Dame of Doom Page 23
