by R. P. Wolff
Three shots fired that made Lance’s ears ring. Then there were two thumps hitting the ground.
Oh no, they shot the couple, Lance thought. Then, he heard four quick knocks on the side fake door. Hector unlocked the door and opened it.
Lance whispered to Hector, “What are you doing?”
Hector ignored him and exited the small space. Hector said, “Wow, you shot them? Are you okay?”
Lance then heard the beautiful voice of Martha whispering. “Yes, we’re okay. We had to shoot them and that annoying dog.”
Hector sighed and muttered, “Now, what the fuck do we do?”
◆◆◆
Austin and Lance shuffled their way out of the hiding spot only to see two men in white uniforms sprawled on the floor lifeless along with a motionless dog. Blood spilled out of both heads of the guards and miraculously hardly any blood was on their spotless white uniforms.
Martha held one hand to her stomach like she was going puke with her other hand pressed against her forehead. Her husband, Daniel, wrapped his arm around her trying to console her.
Hector turned on the bathroom light because it was dark outside now.
Lance was numb. He had never seen people die like this. He could barely breath. This was the day from hell.
Hector mumbled to the couple, “Holy fuck, I was shitting in my pants. Man, you two are brave motherfuckers. Thank you, but what the hell are we going to do?”
“Call our guy right away,” Daniel said. “See what he says.”
Hector replied, “Okay. Austin and Governor, help them clean up but don’t get any blood on yourselves.”
Hector went into the bedroom and closed the bathroom door.
Lance and Austin did what Hector said. Lance wondered who our guy was. Lance could hear Hector relaying the status of the situation which was dangerous. The guards certainly had Freedom Chips. The Maters will know their location. Hell, they probably knew that they were dead now. How could they get rid of the bodies without the Mater’s discovering them? What about their squad car that was probably one of those bigger ones that could house a dog? What if there were more guards in the car or even in the vicinity? Maybe they should make a run for it, but Lance had no idea of how to navigate this underworld without the Mater’s catching him. The only good thing going for them was that it was now dark outside. Will this day ever end?
Hector came out and exhaled. He faced Daniel. “Okay, we have a lot to do, and we have to it quickly.”
Everyone nodded their heads.
“Austin, you and I are going to change into their uniforms. We have to do it quickly.”
“Okay,” Austin replied.
“Take their chips out, and we will put them inside their gloves that we will wear as part of their uniform. You go to the car and move the car up while I pretend to check two houses. I will knock on the doors and briefly ask the neighbors to watch out for the Governor. This way when they go back and investigate, Martha and Daniel’s house wasn’t the last one that the guards looked at.”
“That perfect,” Marth interjected, “the neighbors two doors down are a pain in the ass and diehard Mater fanatics.”
Lance asked, “But how do we get rid of the bodies?”
Hector replied, “Good question, but the guy already thought about that.”
“Who’s the guy?” Lance asked.
“Enough questions,” Hector grunted. “You’ll soon find out. Now, you three need to wrap these bodies and the dog in something and drag them to your garage. Try not to get any blood on the wooden floors.”
Lance thought this was an impossible task.
“Daniel, text them when you’re ready, and a vehicle will come by to pick up the bodies, the dog, and Lance.”
Everyone momentarily froze.
Hector snapped his fingers. “Come on, let’s go. We only have a few minutes before they will suspect Martha and Daniel.”
Everyone snapped into motion doing their jobs.
Hector whispered to Martha and Daniel, “If they come back, be prepared for the worst. Keep your weapons on you at all times even when you sleep.”
“Sleep?” Martha said sarcastically, “You think we’re going to be able to sleep tonight?”
Hector shook his head and hurriedly took off one of the guard’s uniforms and put it on himself over his clothes. Austin did the same with the other guard. Martha took out a large band aid and affixed it to Austin’s forehead covering the “C.” Up close, it looked obvious that he was covering his forehead, but at a distance in the dark, nobody should notice.
Within minutes, Hector and Austin dressed and looked like intimidating Mater guards. The only problem was the black hats were drenched with blood, but because of the black color, the hats might pass for being considered wet from a few feet away in the dark. They tried to rub it dry, but it only helped a little bit.
Hector spoke, “We’ll just have to wing it with the hats and hope no one notices. If they do notice, we’ll shoot the bastards.”
They grabbed the guards’ assault rifles, draped them around their shoulders like the arrogant guards do and headed towards the front door.
“Wait,” Lance said, “what are you going to do with the car? How are you going to get rid of it.?”
“We’re going to drive it to one of our secret facilities. It’s a warehouse location. A few miles before we get there, we’ll ditch the Freedom Chips and disable their GPS system in the car. Then, we’ll have ourselves a new Mater car that might come in handy.”
“Good luck, guys,” Lance said.
Austin held Lance’s arm and said, “Governor Hampton, if I don’t survive and you do, please tell Becca I love her.”
“You’re going to survive, and we will both tell her that we love her when we all get out of this.”
Lance couldn’t believe his sudden optimism.
Austin nodded and the two brave men left on their extremely, dangerous, crazy mission.
Chapter 27
Lance figured it must be close to midnight on the longest and arguably the worst day of his life—the day the Maters tortured and humiliated his daughter because of him. He was blindfolded and lay on the back-seat floor of the car. The driver and his companion said it was in the Establishment’s best interest that he didn’t know where they were going. They said that very few Establishees knew the secret location.
As planned earlier, Lance helped Martha and Daniel – he still didn’t know their last names – move the bodies and the dog to the garage. They used outdoor rugs from their patio. They had two of them, so they wrapped one guard in one, the bigger one, and the other guard along with the dog in the other rug. They put garbage bags over the dead guards’ heads to capture the blood. Fortunately, there did not appear to be any blood that spilled onto the floor leading up to the garage.
Once they had the bodies and the dog safely in the garage, Daniel texted a message for a crew to get Lance and the dead bodies. The crew arrived about fifteen minutes after the text. Daniel opened the door, and a white Yukon pulled into the garage. Daniel immediately closed the overhead garage door once they parked. Out came two huge guys, the size of offensive linemen—one black, one white—that Lance had never seen before.
“Hey,” Daniel said, seeming to purposely not call them by their names.
They nodded.
“Okay, let’s get going,” said the black guy. “Where’s the bodies?”
Daniel pointed to the two wound up rugs.
“Good move,” said the black guy.
There was no small talk and no introductions. All men hurriedly but carefully loaded the rugs filled with the dead-bodies and a dog. They had to trim the rugs in order to for them to fit into the Yukon.
They gave Lance an automatic rifle and quickly showed him how to operate it. They blindfolded him and told him to lie in the back.
Before they left the garage, the crew gave Lance some stern instructions. “If we get stopped, we’re doomed. We don’t have any fake Freedom
Chips, so if the Mater police pulls us over, we are going to come out blasting. You need to use your weapon. You understand?”
Lance nodded wearily.
They drove for about twenty minutes. The Establishees, as they were called, notified Lance once they were out of the Farmers Branch area, which was where the Mater police had set up a perimeter. They told Lance that they had Mater police spies that created weak spots in the perimeter and notified them ahead of time.
The more Lance learned of the Establishment, the more he was impressed. Lance estimated that he was near downtown based on the direction he could feel the car going. They went west, then must have turned going south.
Once they reached their intended location, Lance could feel the vehicle going downwards in a spiral, several stories down. Then they entered an opening followed by a garage door closing behind them. They drove another twenty yards and came to a stop.
“Okay, Governor, you can come out,” the driver said.
Someone from the outside opened the door for Lance. Lance took off his blindfold and squinted his eyes to the string of florescent lights shining in the massive area. Lance scanned the facility. It was huge, with hundreds of people, most of them dressed in army fatigues, getting up from makeshift computer stations, chairs, and cots. There were about ten SUVs, some military-type vehicles, and stacks of rifles and other weapons. Many of the people carried assault rifles. About half of them had their foreheads branded with their chosen religion.
The place was a massive underground facility that was the size of many football fields. The place seemed familiar to Lance, but he couldn’t figure out how. It was about as large as the convention center where the Maters first imprisoned him.
A group of people opened the Yukon’s rear door and started unloaded the rugs into a flatbed and wheeled it away.
A curious crowd gathered around Lance.
A tall, muscular man who looked to be in his sixties dressed in army fatigues emerged from the crowd and walked up to Lance. “Well, well, if it isn’t the famous, former Governor Hampton,” the man said. “Welcome to the Establishment. My name is Victor Cook, General Cook is my rank.”
Lance shook his hand.
“I’m in charge of the Texas Establishment. I worked for the asshole and former President Max Tillman since the Awakening. I served as his head of Secret Service until I retired after the evil Zelda Mater took over.”
Lance stood there stunned, trying to grasp all the events and news he was hearing and witnessing. It was too much to comprehend in one day. He had suspected and hoped that there was a resistance, but to see that it was way more organized and bigger than he ever imagined, was overwhelming.
General Cook continued, “You and I need to have a talk, Governor. I have many secrets of Max Tillman and Zelda Mater.” Victor scanned the crowd and whispered into Lance’s ear, “In case you didn’t know, Zelda is an imposter. She’s not the Mother of all the Gods. She’s not a virgin either. She’s a whore, and we’re going to let everyone know.”
Chapter 28
Zelda woke up the next morning with the same two Secret Service agents as the day before. She had stopped trying to conceal her escapades. She made it clear to everyone around her that she would take care of anyone who gossiped about her.
She nudged the two sleeping agents. “Get out of here,” she said. “Both of you. Now.”
They promptly got up, almost stumbled getting their pants on, and left the room.
Colin, fearing for Zelda’s safety, had increased the security around the mansion. Besides the six Secret Service agents, about fifteen additional Mater policemen also established a wider perimeter around the mansion.
The additional security did not go unnoticed. Soon, hundreds of loyal Maters flocked to the mansion and started a vigil outside, begging to see the Mother of all the Gods. They knelt and prayed. This started the previous evening. Many people camped out overnight.
Zelda peeked out the window to see if the crowd had dispersed. There were more people than yesterday. “Damn,” she said aloud. “Why don’t these fuckers go home.” Fortunately, no one was in the room to hear her.
She hadn’t spoken to Colin yet, but she hoped that they had caught the former governor. Now, that she had more time to think about the incident, she had some additional concerns and observations. She thought there was no way for Lance Hampton to have escaped without help. She figured that Mater guards must have helped him. She directed Secretary Grant to find and interrogate all the guards that were on that train, with a focus on the ones who were nearest to the front train. If they didn’t talk, Zelda would step in. She would get them to tell her everything.
She called Colin on the phone to get an update.
Colin answered, “Good morning, Madam President, how are you doing today?”
His pleasant greeting, like nothing was wrong, perturbed Zelda. “Stop with the small talk and give me some good news.”
Colin hesitated. “Well, unfortunately, I mostly have bad news.”
“Who do you think you are to talk to me this way?”
“I’m sorry, Madam President, I’m telling it the way it is.”
“Did you find him?”
“No, not yet.”
Zelda gritted her teeth. “What’s going on?”
Colin sighed. “We’re still checking the neighborhood surrounding the Farmers Branch station.” Colin paused and exhaled. “We have some alarming news. Two Mater policemen and their dog are missing along with their patrol car.”
Zelda snorted. “Wait, how did this happen?”
“They were supposed to search the whole block, but they only went down half the block. This was based on the GPS on the Freedom Chip and the patrol car’s hidden GPS. Then, they drove away. They drove to a strip mall but didn’t go into any stores. Suddenly, they left there, but there was no GPS and no tracking device on the car.”
“Was there video?” Zelda asked.
“Yes, we did see video. We did see the car leave. We’re checking right now for video feeds from all along the potential routes. It’s a painstaking task, but we are going to find out where that car went.”
Zelda sat frozen listening to the frightening news. After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Zelda barked, “You imbecile! I have an idiot running the Defense Department. Why can’t you find this stupid former governor?”
“We’re going to find him.” Colin said.
Zelda sighed. “What do you think happened?”
“Um, I don’t know if the missing guards are spies or if someone killed them. You know, the search dog is missing too. There’s no trace of any of them.”
Zelda said, “Let me digest this for a minute. You’re still searching the houses in the neighborhood for this prick Hampton.” Zelda paused. “By the way, we’re going to torture that daughter of his tonight again. We need to step it up a bit. This is crazy. He has to turn himself in.”
“Okay, Madam President.”
“You really screwed this up, Colin. I’m so mad at you.” She paused and realized again that she couldn’t exert any pain on him over the phone. Damn, she was showing her weaknesses. She continued, “How many houses have you searched?”
“We have about ninety percent of them searched. We should finish within the hour.”
Zelda replied, “That missing patrol car is troublesome. You need to search the last house that they visited and maybe the last few houses. We need to interrogate those people. Find out from the neighbors if they saw anything funny. We need to get to the bottom of this.”
“Will do.”
“Colin, you said that there was mostly bad news. Is there some good news that you haven’t mentioned?”
“Oh, yes, there is some glimmer of good news. You asked me to check about the guards that were on the train where Hampton escaped.”
“Yes.”
“Well, we found out that there were only two guards on that train. We have both guards in custody. We’re going to try to get them to talk.
We think that one or both are spies, especially the one that was stationed closest to Hampton. He is our number one suspect. If we can’t get them to talk, we probably need you to come in and do your magic and make them talk.”
“Of course, I would love to torture anyone who jeopardizes Materism.”
“Madam President, when are you planning on returning to D.C.? I’m not sure if it is safe for you here.”
Colin annoyed Zelda. She wished she could inflict pain on him. She replied, “I’ll go back when I damn well please. If you think I’m in any danger, then increase my security detail. Now, go out there and get me some spies for me to torture.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, and don’t forget to torture that little bitch.”
Chapter 29
Lance woke up on a cot in an isolated make-shift room after what seemed like days. He couldn’t remember when he was more exhausted. The emotional toll of the previous day had worn him out. Fearing for his life while escaping, hiding out in a house while guards tracked him, and seeing the Maters torturing his daughter on TV was just too much for one long miserable day.
He went out to the main area and ate food. He saw that it was 1 p.m. Wow, he had slept over twelve hours. He found out why the place seemed familiar. It was the underground facility of the Dallas Convention Center, the place where he had been originally imprisoned. The massive space was about the same size as he remembered the convention center, and that was why it may have triggered his memory. He wondered if the Establishment had been here while Maters imprisoned him at the convention center. This group had balls. They were hiding right under the noses of the pompous Maters.
While he was eating his lunch at the group table, Lance wondered how he was going to get his daughter back. Would these men help him? He sniffled. It seemed like an impossible situation. His poor daughter.
General Cook approached Lance. “Hey, sleepyhead. We didn’t think you would ever get up.”
Lance shrugged.
“When you are done eating, come into my office. I need to get you up to speed on a lot of things.”
