 
Tin Universe Monthly #1

Copyright 2016 Brian Williams

Published by Brian Williams at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. The sale of this book without its cover....well, is, sort of, impossible since it really does not have a cover but let us go through the legal spray out anyways. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it was reported to the publisher as "unsold and destroyed." Hands up to you who have books like this in your collection? Now that I have put my hand down we can continue with the credits and copyright and legal and stuff that people just do not ever pay attention to unless it is pumping their own horn.

An Original Publication of **BLOODWASTE BOOKS** , A **Bloodwaste Books** book published by **System*Publishing** , a division of **System*Productions** , Melbourne, Florida

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead or living dead, is entirely and very much so in the coincidental.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. While unauthorized reproduction is sometimes needed, please remember us writers types are for the most part a poor lot just in search of a ways to tell our stories and enough money to add to our Doctor Who collections....well, at least that fits me.

Written/Edited by **Brian C. Williams**

1st Draft Edit on Original Edition by **Robbin Cochran**

Cover Artwork Pencils and Inks by **John Delmonte**

Author Photo by **Nancy Collins**

Tin Universe Logo by **Vinny Bove**

### PART ONE
### Chapter One

Long ago in the history of the planet Earth things were much simpler. Simpler doesn't mean better, but yes, simpler it was.

It was in fact so long ago that it was more towards the beginning of the planets lifespan than the end.

And everything has an end in time.

This man we are about to talk about, he was living a life and no he would not say it was a simple life. He was called Bran of The Raven Clan by his people. If you placed this uncomplicated hard working man against other types of people throughout history he would equally stand beside Appalachian coalminers, Canadian loggers, and Siberian farmers and be excepted as one of them. He was ordinary in how he was universal.

His people would later be referred to by many names including The Firbolg and The Tuatha De Danann. One of their early triumphs which became part of their passed down oral narrative was an encounter with a Spider God that came out of the sky that was so large it blacked out the sun.

The Spider God was devouring the people of these lands to feed the birth of its own children but these commonplace human beings refused to be meals and killed the spider who they found out was no God at all but a traveler from another reality.

The land of Bran's people would in time be known as Ireland but at this time it was called Lir. Lir, the Land of The God Killers.

That name of God Killers dyed out over time to be just another part of stories told as these people to their hearts were fishermen and had no desire to be anything else.

Bran was the last of his family, a young man pushed to be an adult at a very early age after his whole family- father, mother, and older sister died at sea during a trip to let his sickly sister see the sea she loved so much one more time before she died.

He survived the storm which smashed the boat they were traveling on and took away from him his family. And even though he has a great fear of the sea because of what it took from him, he has a place in the clan as one of its best fishermen.

On this day Bran was preparing a boat for an earlier morning trip out for the winter fishing season. During the winter the catch is scarce but to help feed the village the fishermen venture out in hopes of bringing enough back to feed one more member of the clan in case they run short of what they had stored away from the summer season for the harsh winter months.

Bran was always the first to the boats each day. He would have everything ready for all three of the villages fishing boats before anyone else arrived.

On this fogy morning which wiped away the sight of anything expect for what was right in front of him Bran thought he saw, could not have been, but he thought he saw a man walking towards him upon the waters of the beach line.

When the man was close enough for Bran to identify him as a stranger to the village he looked down at the man's feet and saw his boots were dry so the morning fog must have been playing tricks with his eyes?

Though there wasn't any sand on them either?

A lot of tribes and clans are closed off to strangers but The Raven Clan was open to all people. They welcomed all who are friendly, or in need into their lives and would give their last piece of bread to feed someone they had never seen before.

But as the stranger walked closer towards him in the fog Bran could not understand or fight a deep rooted hatred of this man within every thread of his person. Just by the sight of him Bran had something deep within him screaming that this man wasn't a man at all.

The stranger was dressed as Bran had been told in childhood stories by his father that the legendary warriors of Ard Righ dressed right before going into battle.

He was wearing body armor that appeared to be made of beaten, tightened, and stiffened animal skins. His other clothing appeared to be made of the wool of sheep and goat hair as was the clothing of Bran's people. The wool was dyed a bright color of red so dark Bran had never seen before and the stranger's boots were of a single piece and seemed to be made from Elven means as they appeared so perfect in measure of leather.

Bran instantly had something from within, something primal whisper the word Death to his soul.

He anchored down the last of the boat ropes in case the high winds kicked up like they normal did during the hours of the morning. He tightened up the last of the net bundles and looked back up to find the stranger was now face to face with him with his hand out to Bran in a friendly greeting.

'I am Donn. I have traveled a long way to meet with you Bran of The Raven Clan.'

'How do you know me? Are you from a relative clan of ours?'

'No, I know of the tragic events that have been laid upon your shoulders. I have come to offer you guidance and all I ask is your servitude.'

'Servitude is the most you can ask of any man, are you of royalty sir? You dress like those of Ard Righ?'

'Your father talked a lot about the warriors of Ard Righ didn't he? Do you know why he knew so much about of them?'

Bran just looked at the stranger half wondering about the questions which were just asked to him. He didn't have any sort of answer; which does raise even more questions.

He was wondering also why he had not already put his knife to this man's throat for speaking of his family this soon after their deaths, which is against the traditions of his clan.

'Your father was a warrior of Ard Righ.'

'My father was a hunter before his children were born and was a hunter up to his day of death.'

'What better occupation is there for an old warrior to take up? Is it not also the hunters of your clan who provide the food for your people as well as being the protectors?'

'My father was a warrior?'

Bran pulled out his knife which once belonged to his father and looked at the blade and then the stranger. Even though he still felt the pull to use it to kill this stranger, the new information he was just given about his father was taken in with such a force of truth that it was almost overwhelming.

'Does this mean you have come to make me into a warrior also?' asked Bran

'Nothing so mundane Bran of The Raven Clan.'

Bran looked at his blade again seeing his father's face in the shine of the blade. Then he put it away. As he put the knife away he felt a calming enter his heart that he hadn't felt since before the death of his family.

Donn put his arm around Bran grabbing him by the far shoulder but now he had a wide trickster smile on his face, 'I will make a firm deal offer many years from now. I see you could probably need an extra hand in one of your boats this morning. We could talk more.'

Bran looked at the stranger with a long face. The long face was filled with thoughts of a lost friend, 'We are short a hand. Egan of The Fire Clan died of the long fever two days from this day.'

'I know.' Donn said with a smile that was misplaced for the subject of their conversation.

That angered Bran.

As Donn climbed into the boat, 'I have been told I'm quite the fishermen of men.'

But before Bran could reply with the anger he was feeling the other fishermen of the village started to arrive. They were introduced to the stranger and soon boats are launched in search of fish for the village.

This would turn out to be one of the best winter fishing trips anyone in the village could remember, but when the subject of the stranger being a good luck charm came up Donn told each one in turn the same thing, 'That's a new one for me.'

### Chapter Two

Still in the past but later forward in the Past.

The tomb was located in the low lands at the bottom of a large group of hills. It was marked by three large standing stones with one large stone capping them on top. Most of the surrounding areas are Carnnogs, which are marshy lands. This was once part of a fishing village many years ago.

Within the Carnogs are old bridges. Some of them only stretching in a few feet of distance built for reaching from one dwelling to another without having to tread through the marsh.

Those marshes can be full of all kinds of nasty things.

A short distance from the tomb, which was the marker for the last of The Raven Clan, there now sits a larger in scoop village which has a new industry instead of fishing to feed their village.

The industry of war.

The people of this village, a village called Nabia, are blacksmiths for the current Kings campaign to hold off an advancing foreign army.

Within the village is an old holy man. Not holy in the way you may think but holy in that he is a teacher of the young, keeper of the town's history, counsel to all who needs his words of wisdom, and holy shit he's old holy. He is called Bran.

It has been many years. Many, many, many years since the time when Bran meet a stranger named Donn on an early winter morning before going out to sea.

At this moment he is sitting in his home writing down the history of his family, the stories of his old village, and the tales of his clan. These chronicles have become his life's work. Putting down truths and lies because what is any history of any people without some good lies.

Today he thinks of that day of fishing with the stranger but also the many days that followed. The long years he has lived beyond those of any normal human. He is not a lucky man just because of the long life span he has enjoyed but from the joy of his young wife and his soon to be born first child. It took him so long to find genuine love but now he has it.

His young wife, Aoife- the youngest daughter of the chief of the village, was barely surviving the pains of labor in the next room from where he was writing. Some had thought she would never find a man who could live up her standards of what she wanted but that was before she meet him. His mysterious nature and many stories of the past caught her attention like nothing any other man of her time could offer to her.

Though some saw her as totally rebellious to what a woman of her time was expected to do in life, she in fact had been trying for years to give her husband a child to continue his bloodline. Something that was very important to him.

Her cries of a ruthless labor were being heard throughout the village and between the shouts of his wife and the shouts of the village's midwife Bran almost didn't notice the sound of his own front door opening.

But he did notice and was stunned by the sight of Donn walking in.

Donn stood by the door for a while before turning to Bran as if he was getting us to his surroundings before getting on with what he was here to do.

Bran stood and reached out his hand in a way like he was greeting an old friend he had not seen in ages. And though time had been very good to Bran's appearance he could not help but look in wonder at a man who not only did not appear to have aged a day from that time so long ago but someone who also was wearing the same clothing, in the same manner, as if the wind had not blown a piece of cloth astray nor a bit of dirt or mud had ever touched any part of its surface.

He could even see a few fish scales on Donn's boots.

Bran grasped the arm of Donn in greeting, 'You come at a joyous time old friend. My wife Aoife is giving birth now to our first born.'

Donn looked towards the bedroom door where loud screams where growing in intensity. Some find it interesting that for the most part we come into the world screaming for our lives and we leave silent for Death.

He likes it that way.

'No, not first born of Bran.'

Bran suddenly starts thinking about the death and sickness that follows this man's words, actions, and appearance, and those thoughts turn him around to where the two men were facing each other. 'What do you mean Bringer of Waste?'

He was now angry at the appearance of this man in his home.

'Bringer of Waste? I have been called worse. Bran, Last of The Raven Clan, I have come to make you an offer. An offer I gave to you once years before. I can give you the life of your child but only if you pledge to be the keeper of my secrets and the chronicler of my walks through this world and others. What do you say to this offer?'

Bran grabs Donn with both hands by his chest piece, 'Are you a demon or just a harbinger?'

'A demon?' Donn rolled his eyes, 'No. I was once a part of the Heavens that are above all else but I then I joined The Fallen. That ancient story though has yet to reach your lands. I am here because I know within an hour you have the ability to make a choice that will save your child. You become the keeper of my library and I will grant through the powers of Death that your son who will be known as Nuada. He will be a man who will have a Kingship that will become legendary.'

Bran looked at this man and once again knew without reasoning that everything this man spoke of and moved toward was a truth so cold it entered his mouth and ached to his back teeth and choked him like having a small spear shoved down his throat.

Then with a swiftness that punched him hard in the chest he heard nothing but silence from the room where screams of birth had been emanating from for the past sixteen previous hours.

He let go of Donn and closed his eyes but when he opened them seconds later the man was preoccupied looking over the book that Bran had been writing in and with a wave of a finger erasing certain passages and another wave of a finger replacing them with even clearer words of storytelling.

### Chapter Three

This reality came to become known as The Tin Universe or The Tin for short by means of a traveler called Record. He was lost at the time when he stumbled upon it and then got extremely drunk with a group of Caspery scouts during a scientific expedition to a moon, not our moon, but a moon. He was depressed at being lost and when asked all the places he had travelled he went on a rant and when he got to where he was he said, "...and then you have this tin bit place.'

This Earth on which the stories of this book take place is much like our own but there are differences in a few noticeable ways. Different in the sort of ways brothers are different from one another and sisters are not. The way cats are different from one another but dogs are not.

One pretty noticeable difference is that there are no sharks in this reality. No sharks. The dolphins are fine, so take a deep breath and breathe Flipper fans.

Plenty of whooping cranes mucking about too, but no sharks; so, the "Jaws" theme music no longer strikes the fear in the hearts of half naked women on the beaches of Maine like it once did.

Speaking of Maine did you know it is the toothpick capital of the world? Good for them, it is always good to be a "Something of the world."

The reason for sharks being extinct is the same typical story of humanity acting with no respect to its harm on everything around it. The story, as I am writing or rewriting it, is like this: All sharks were killed off after a group of school children died while swimming in California.

I possibly should have made it Maine for a little pop culture tie-in but I did the California thing.

Maine was the location of the Jaws films, right? If it wasn't I've mentioned Maine too many times for no good reason.

The extinct sharks story goes in more detail as a scientist genetically engineered a poison that he naively, in a naive way scientists should not be naive, thought it would just kill sharks who got too close to the shores of beaches. Instead it infected the entire species and wiped them all off the face of the Earth.

It has affected the entire ecosystem to be totally precise but the signs of that are just starting to be seen. Though many just call that hippy liberal twaddle.

All Great Whites are dead as well as all hammerheads and all other kinds of sharks.

All sharks, died out, gone, forever.

Hold me to that if I screw up in a future story and have someone lost at sea and surrounded by sharks. You can watch me try to squirm up a reason for it.

The last group of sharks to die out was the freshwater sharks of Lake Nicaragua. This punch to the ecosystem of the sea also is slowly killing off all sea life. Didn't I mention it was having wide ranging effects? But human beings have not noticed and probably will not until it is too late to have a Discovery Channel special about it.

I want to say the scientist who caused all this met justice but in truth he went on to be a very rich man who later also invented a poison that killed the Bed Bugs off little children's beds.

Don't laugh these were alien bed bugs with a taste for the blood of young children that were attracted to Earth's atmosphere by a new bug spray released by a chemical company that also developed chemical weapons for the military.

Sort of a circle anti-life there wasn't it.

### Chapter Four

I might from time to time in this book delve into more of these the ways this reality is different from our own.

Things are also different in how there was never a Gulf War. The Iraqi Army was driven out of Kuwait by an unknown force the soldiers who faced it called- The Devil Made of Sand.

Some believe The Devil Made of Sand was an American Special Forces unit using chemical weapons but no proof exists to put fact to this theory.

A good deal of the rest of the world has taken up the belief that the Iraqi Army saw the mistake they were making and ran? They saw the outcry from the international community and they changed their minds?? Happens in war a lot???

Anyways that's not even the stupidest thing said about what caused those events to unfold. There's a small group of people in Texas who hold the belief that it was an angel named Ensorcell who drove them out. These people also believe all women are Succubus. These people need to be walked away from slowly without making eye contact.

The groups called The Nest as an F.Y.I.

With the Gulf War having never taken place the Iraq War never came into being at all. Though some of the fuels that ablazed that fire in our reality still exist and may ignite it in this one at any hour.

The leader of Iraq, that Saddam guy, was killed mysteriously in this reality. A coalition of Middle Eastern Nations now runs the government and its oil fields. This operation is supposedly with a heavy influence from the United States, or under heavy threat, depends on who you talk to.

Deep within Iraq though there are the wheels of turning plans which are taking place which soon will rock this ancient country to its core. Its destiny seems to be set in destruction no matter the reality. A war is coming.

The 9/11 attacks did happen, but in this reality the United States reacted to the good will from the rest of the world by creating closer partnership with other nations to fight terrorism worldwide and for the good of the worldwide community. The United Nations is actually something now and not just a mirage of hope.

Not saying everything is roses, not close to that, but at least on the surface of delusional living the world scene looks a little better than it does for us.

Yep, he was still the President during this time but made better choices.

Thus ends the an alternate history lesson.

### Chapter Five

Any storm in Florida is just different. It's not just a local feeling. It's a fact. And I'm not just talking about the storms of natural hurricanes and rains. Whenever anything rains down on this state it does it in cruel laughter. I guess when you look like a dick hanging off the crotch of America that's your lot in life.

Julie and Lindsay have lived in Florida for a long time and they love it here. Yes they complain about the bullshit ways the government operates and how ass hot it can be sometimes but they love it here. And the main reason for that is because both of them are here and they love each other.

It's that simple for them.

Julie rolled over looking at Lindsey face; which was danced in one of those childlike expressions of joy that only Lindsey could muster up.

She smiled a grin of her own, hers also had a large amount of joy in it, and it was for the most part a smile of sexual satisfaction. It was the same smile Julie gave Lindsey soon after they kissed for the first time, and she had a look of total fulfillment on her face this time also along with that smile of satisfaction.

With sweat dripping off her nose and down her face Lindsey winked at Julie, 'Yeah, I just gave you one of the best lays of your life.'

Lindsey reached over towards Julie and she held her hand up and started spreading her fingers as if she was going to circle all five of them around one of Julie's nipples but she swiftly started to mercilessly tickle the love of her life.

They both rolled around on the blanket they had brought with them, taken from the back of Julie's car, and laid down on the roof of the factory building where they both worked up until this morning.

Only an hour after they both left with "I quit" words of, "Fuck you!" and "You can take this mouse and shove it!"

Combined they had worked the factory life for nine years and were at the point of either killing a large number of fellow workers to relieve stress, or quitting, they chose the latter.

They were involved in the first about two years ago though.

Damn frustrated geriatric set.

They looked into each other's eyes without blinking and did not even notice what some looking into the sky that night thought was a falling star. Those people could not be any more wrong.

But Lindsey and Julie just tasted each breath and each movement of each kiss, each touch and hardly anything could have snapped them out of the spell they were sharing between each other.

Hardly anything could have awoken them from the joyful moments they were giving to each other.

Hardly anything.

The hardly part was about to hit really hard into the waters off the coast of Florida.

### Chapter Six

Being in any branch or leaf of the military should make a person use to loud noises.

The alarm alert was so loud it shook them both awake and that was before it really turned up in volume. It would have driven the dog of the place to howl but there was not a dog in the place, just two with a bit of idiocy about them.

'What is this kenner?'

'Speak English you Durham Brit.'

The two men who live in this military instillation have developed a half asleep, half awake lifestyle over time since being assigned their current duties. When the penalty for negligence is death, you pay attention at all times.

Military life is bad enough on your nerves but dealing with the black operations side of military life is like a heart attack coming each and every hour as you wait for something to happen.

Something bad to happen.

It was only by luck that they did not have a heart attack when the alarm went off because the sound it created was a cross between a child's scream turned up a billion times on an airplane flight from New York to Australia and the most sleep waking car alarm you could imagine.

In the five years Sergeant Scott and Lieutenant Siders had been stationed at this black ops base, which is secretly under a United States Air Force base, somewhere, they never had one real alert and only a few false ones.

Most of the false alerts were planted stories thrown out every so often by the underclass black operation units. Reporters feed information to cause confusion in case something actually real did happen.

Like now.

They rushed out both barely dressed and jumped into their seats at their work stations. They instantly had one thought cross both of their minds: Damn, these leather seats are cold to a bare ass.

'The readings are real.' was the first spoken thing Sergeant Scott said, turning to look at his duties partner.

Siders in a very stereotypical cockney British accent said something along the lines of, 'Holy shit.'

This writer really needs to learn how to write accents one day.

But until then one "Holy shit" is as good as any other "Holy shit."

### Chapter Seven

The object raced through space and through the atmosphere and through any metaphors you could think of (if metaphors are the thing that are needed.) Through the skies of the Earth so fast that almost no machine could track its speed. It went so fast in fact that most of the machines on Earth built for spotting such things looked at it and ignored it because it looked like a human and even though that maybe possible it was highly unlikely.

One machine, a very expensive and very complicated piece of technology, was owned, built, and operated by The Space Development Division of Colin Ryan Industries.

The S.D. division of Colin Ryan Industries is very good at building such things. One such machine said to the nearest toaster as an iPod station eavesdropped: That is fast. I think I will ignore it. It may go away in time. It should. It is going really fast. Fast makes things go away. Plus it appears to be human and I don't care for them very much.

The object raced across the skies over Alaska, across the skies over Vancouver, above many American states focused on watching The Super Bowl; which is sad since this was something they will wish they had seen when their descendents are standing around talking to other descendents of other people and the descendents of still other people talk about this day and what their ancestors saw, these Super Bowl watching people's descendents will only be able to talk about how stupid the younger generation was for not paying attention.

The object raced across the skies of Florida, dipping downwards in its descent and then it crashed into the waters right near Melbourne.

Melbourne came really close to being wiped off the map.

Within minutes a wave of water was crashing onto the land. The Patrick Air Force base nearby was scrambling stuff they scramble thinking a bomb had just hit or something. And "or something" was actually what they called it. Nonetheless they went into the sort of panic that militaries do that tends to be really dangerous because they leave the likes of ordinary people hoping they do not do anything stupid.

Which militaries tend to do because it's just in their nature.

U.S. Air Force planes were in the air all over Florida within fifteen minutes of the objects impact. Even Canada offered help if needed despite all the anti-Canada jokes that have came from Florida over the years.

Only a few from me.

I love Canada, especially Winnipeg and Vancouver.

The whole United States was on the highest alert possible as this was seen as a possible beyond human terrorist attack. This was double high alert. Or at least the highest since the President locked himself into a bathroom at a fundraiser and the Secret Service could not find him for an hour.

No one was watching where they should have been watching this time. No eyes looking at the place where history was ready to walk out from the water to change the face of the world in a few very broad strokes from Death.

Though the first lady was spotted reading a book about a duck.

All is well.

### Chapter Eight

He opened his eyes. The trip was long and the landing a little unusual but otherwise it was just a dramatic entrance for a being that usually goes unnoticed to his presence until something ends. Modern times call for a little more flash. Appearing as ash or red eyes in the sky wouldn't do it for this generation. Too many good books have been written, too many special effects created.

There at all endings. From the end of every thought to the end of every form of life. From the end of every movement to the end of every light flicker. That is who he is.

The first thing he did after this landing was wiggle his toes. He smiled because he had toes. Some times that was not always the case and he rather liked toes. With toes the shoes he enjoyed wearing tended to fit better. There is nothing worse than trying to wear a nice pair of dress shoes when your feet are one-toed with a stump at the back for balance.

The first thing he noticed, besides the fact that he had toes, was how wet his socks felt. That also made him feel better because if he had socks to get wet he must be back into, by his judgment, a better set of clothes. The old fashions were never really to his liking and it seemed that throughout the entire universe the fashion was wearing togas or leather these days. Neither of which was to his liking.

Standing at the bottom of the sea at depths of water that would kill most things, even those aquatic, his dress pants moved back and forth with the movements of the ocean.

Glancing down the third thing he noticed was that somewhere on the way from Verda 7 he tore a hole into one side of one of his dress shoes. A shame he thought. He would have sighed but you know- he was under water. Not that he would or even could drown but having a rush of water fill your body just is not pleasant whether it will kill you or not.

He got the shoes during his last trip to London a few years ago. That visit of hope went very badly. It caused him to take a vacation for a few hundred years- his time.

The weight of the water pushed and pulled against him as he began to take steps forward. A jellyfish going by his face made him smile and think to himself that at least he was on Earth this time.

A few still believe in what this planet represents.

Even one who fell can believe and have faith.

### Chapter Nine

The both of them crawled out of bed to head to work with the radio playing in the back as a sound track to their asshole comments to each other.

The radio was stuck on an early morning news talk radio show but at least that nonsense doesn't send them into a full rage argument of what sort of songs are worth listening to. Just waking up next to each other causes enough problems, no use adding to it with who has the better taste in music.

Both of them still had too much early morning in their bodies to pay attention to the breaking news report on the radio. Plus it's hard for background noise to get your attention when you are throwing out "Fuck You" and "Go To Hell" like two dueling machine guns.

After a shower she headed into the kitchen to grab some breakfast before leaving for her job as a nurse. He had stopped by the couch and turned on the TV, not having to head for his job as a fast food cook for a few more hours he had time to just vegetate for a bit.

Both stopped dead, barely breathing, as the news report was caught mid-broadcast, '...still no word from the White House on the whereabouts of the President at this time. The Vice-President was in Virginia at the time of the impact on Florida trying to calm communities shaken by the sudden disappearance of two thousands family members, loved ones, and neighbors there one month ago. Right now he is said to be in a safe location. Let's go to Monica King in Melbourne, Florida, for the latest from the scene of the impact.'

Sabrena walked from the kitchen and stood beside Ken who had risen to his feet as a woman was shown on the newscast standing knee deep in water from the location of what appeared to have at one some sort of super shopping center.

'Monica, can you hear us? Any new information on the impact?'

The location reporter had a really frightened look on her face as she watched a blue vest float by in front of her...then a banjo...and then a rubber chicken but she was able to compose herself and remember her job, 'Mark, this is like nothing anyone in this area has ever seen before and those who live in Florida have seen their share of natural disasters. No one, from the grocer down the street, to scientists can explain why after the object impacted into the waters off the coast of Melbourne waves have continued to come one after the other, pounding the Space Coast.'

'Monica, any word on whether anyone has any idea what the object was?'

'Mark, military officials just about an hour and a half ago said they believe this was not any sort of attack by missile or other enemy technology on American soil. Nor do they think this is an act by any beyond human. And even though no radar machines detected the object approaching and entering or going through Earth's atmosphere, they are saying as of right now that they believe it was space debris of some kind. Most likely from a satellite or meteor.'

Sabrena sat down with her mouth opening as she began to cry.

'Ken,' she sobbed. 'Julie is...'

Ken wrapped his arm around her and pulled her to him. This was the first time they had actually touched each other in weeks that wasn't punches.

'I'm sure she is ok.' Ken told her but watching the story unfold on the news gave him pause to his own words.

### Chapter Ten

Julie held Lindsey's hand as another wave pounded against the outside of the factory building. The impact and water sent them sliding across the hard rooftop. The only thing that stopped them from going off the roof was hitting against the high ledge of the roof.

Julie was on her hands and knees as that wave passed. She was trying to catch her breath.

Lindsey had gotten to her feet and dropped water-soaked pants beside Julie, 'Put my pants on. I don't see yours anywhere. We have to get off the roof before another one of those waves hits and throws us off this time.'

Julie looked up at Lindsey. She was crying. Lindsey could tell though from the pained look in her eyes. She could separate the tears flowing down the cheeks of the woman she loved from the salty sea water.

'Lindsey?'

Lindsey knelt down. She brushed one hand against Julie's cheek while she handed her the pants with the other, 'I don't know. Tsunami maybe? Put those on lover because we're jumping off the roof together.'

### Chapter Eleven

Sergeant Scott and Lieutenant Siders stood by as the black ops agents entered one by one through the secret entrance on the Air Force base charging into their work room with no mention or mind to anything or anyone they knocked down.

They pushed Scott and Siders to the side and began looking at their instruments and checking the readings.

'I hate being treated like a bunch of articles by these black op milky pops.'

'I hate that I'm starting to understand you. Maybe next time you have a Russian salad party I will join in. If I ever figure out what it is, if I figure out what most of the things you say means?'

'You think I would get shot if I tried to go to the loo?'

'No but I wouldn't try to go to the shitter.'

'You're a prat.'

Black ops agents run around as our two favorite military men stand by scared. It was if they weren't even there and to these men they don't matter and not mattering means you don't exist.

One of the black ops soldiers turned to another, 'You've triple-checked their readings?'

'Yes, sir.'

The questioning black ops solider pulled out a small cell phone and spoke a number into it.

'51222B. We are a go. This is an Armageddon. Release The Dawgs.'

### Chapter Twelve

World War II ended with the help of an elite beyond human group formed from the allied nations codenamed The Raising. Just about any kid who has taken a history class has heard about these heroes but even with all the History Channel specials, which rehash the same things over and over, there still isn't much known about any of these heroes.

Those who would become the members of The Raising appeared as the first beyond human heroes during WWI. Each member of The Raising was the national beyond human hero of their individual countries.

Beyond human is a scientific term coined to describe those with "Superhuman" abilities. I did the whole quote unquote thingee because I think "Superhuman" maybe a copyrighted term.

Before WWI started, twelve people, one each in as many countries, were mysteriously granted superhuman powers and a very slow aging bioinorganic chemistry. Before the war started they battled criminals, saboteurs, enemy agents, and in some cases disobedient citizens.

These beyond human heroes hailed from America, Germany, Russia, Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, India, Egypt, Japan, China, and Scotland.

The heroes that made up The Raising were Musketoon from France, Garand from America, Cardiff from Great Britain, Kitel from Russia, Yukon from Canada, and Humid from Australia.

During WWII their fights went from being just for their countries and within their country to outside their countries for the world's freedom. They united to fight against Germany and Japan who had their own beyond human soldiers.

But I won't talk about those individuals yet. Just don't wish to. Writers prerogative.

The members of The Raising, whose identities were secret even before the war, disappeared and went underground after the war. For the most part they disappeared never to be heard from again.

Some say they were paid a large amount of money by their governments for their military service and retired after the war.

Others say they were forced into retirement by their own governments who had grown afraid of them.

Some weird conspiracy theorists, probably from Texas, years later would say their own governments captured them all after the war and did experiments on them to try and find out how they gained their powers.

No one really knows why the disappearance of these heroes happened, but treaties were signed by many nations and between many nations banning all beyond human activities; private, domestic, and national after WWII.

Although there are treaties, in many countries, vigilantes in costumes have appeared from time to time, with some people believing they may just be one of the original beyond humans or at least the descendents of those who first gained more than human abilities.

They usually don't' stick around for long with so much working against them, international treaties and the like.

More or less, the fact is, very few beyond humans have been active since WWII and that's what you should know.

But something else you might find interesting is that a former member of The Raising, Malcolm Steed, who went by the code name Cardiff, is now the Prime Minister of Great Britain,

Barely anyone knows of his secret past and hardly anyone suspect him of being the orchestrator in getting laws passed banning all beyond human activity in the United Kingdom.

Malcolm Steed is also the chief crafting of international laws when it comes to beyond humans and just one more reasons why he was elected Prime Minister in a landslide.

Something happened near the end of the war that made Cardiff quit The Rising and fear all those with beyond human powers and most of his direction and choices since have been influenced by that fear.

But there is so much more to Great Britain and The Raising. And someday it will take me whole books to even scratch the surface of those subjects.

### Chapter Thirteen

The waves were created from each footstep he was taking under the surface of the water. Offshore from the part of Florida that's called the Space Coast walked a never ending ancient.

The sand of the seabed moved away from his feet instead of his feet shuffling through the sand. The water seemed to even be reluctant to get him wet now that it recognized who he was but he allowed it to.

Some forms of life have just always been terrified of his presence.

Others just knew to show proper respect.

### Chapter Fourteen

Another powerful individual force was approaching in the same direction but this one was moving above the water.

He was a human male who in appearance seemed to be around 40 years of age. A mortal man who had become a force of nature through the study of ancient practices, prehistoric medicines, and primordial meditations.

Destiny tapped him into the nature of knowledge itself. He is a dam to those powers that should never appear in the world of human living or nothing but blood should follow.

Appearing from his personal dimension of balance and solitude to travel a long distance in search of someone even he should fear.

Now he floats in the air above the waters off the coast like an image out of some sort of Anime fairytale.

Like everyone, he has a story.

We will start a few years after his birth.

In the next chapter.

### Chapter Fifteen

At the age of five an orphaned boy who lived on the streets of 1765 Boston was kidnapped by slave traders and sold to European merchants who dealt in young boys. This was a very common twisted thing that happens in many countries.

Happens as in still happens.

The slave merchants sold the young boys they bought from the people they called Pickers to upper class men and women to be used as sex slaves.

Wait are little white boys sold still slaves are should I have said sex indentures?

I think I'm wrong and don't know what to go with but need to move on.

The boy's name was William Dexter. He was the child of a prostitute who was raped by several men in an alley while in Cambridge searching for work to try and find herself.

That kind of tragedy is not unique in the story of William Dexter. There are many who came into the world as a child of rape but only from tragedy does Destiny touch those like him.

His mother died giving birth to him and he was raised in an orphanage until he was five. At five is when he ran away while working at a mill run by the owner of the orphanage.

If you have watched many BBC dramas you will get the gist of what his life was like there and why he wanted to run escape.

The European slave merchants sold William to a family related to old French royalty. Related in the sense that they were distant cousins and being related to a Royal Family meant they were given lands and titles. But they actually had little wealth except from what they obtained from living off what they had been given.

Titles and lands. Even today that's more important than actual wealth.

The couple William was sold to tortured him in a hidden chamber in their estate. From the age of five to the age of eight he existed solely for their perverse pleasures. Each day something horrific would happen to him and the next day something even worse.

He was a slave to their every whim- be it labor, sexual impulse, or fulfillment of their thirst for power. They were only satisfied in life through inflicting pain on another human being.

William found his escape one night after a party as his tormentors were prone to have many social gatherings. Some to show and share.

As the couple who owned him was passed out among their guests William tried to sneak out of the house. He was just inches from reaching freedom when he was caught by the chamber maid in the gardens that surrounded the hellish prison he had to call home.

They forced him to call it home in one of many purely psychological tortures.

He was being beaten to the point of whispering prayers asking for his own death when a sword went through the chamber maids head.

William looked up to see four men and one woman all dressed very differently from anything he had ever seen before. It was very much a strange sight for him to see. Then he looked down and one of them pulled their sword from the chamber maids head with her eyes and mouth still open.

A swift kick from a boot closed her eyes.

It would be nice to say this was William's first time seeing death in person but it wasn't. Not by a long shot.

One of the men waved for the other males to follow him to the house, 'We end this den of sin tonight.'

'That wasn't part of our mission.'

'I don't care. I'm going to shard every inch of their flesh.'

'It won't pay back anything'

'I'll feel better about the world.'

William still hears those words echo whenever he sees cruelty in the world.

The female of the group picked William up and into her arms. He passed out from his injuries. Not just from the damage of the beating but from his whole life.

Another thing he will always remember is how peaceful he felt as she held him.

A day later William awoke in a castle in Hungary and discovered he had been saved from his life of torment by The Knights Templar. Their duty was and is to protect the sacred truths. One of those truths is that every thousand years or so a young man or woman is chosen to be educated in the old secrets of the world and become The Pledge of Solomon.

Over the centuries William moved toward becoming what he is but now he goes by a shorter title- The Pledge.

First as a Templar Knight he traveled the world. Then through studying with hidden Templar teachers he gained knowledge of all the ancient secrets and in learning those secrets he gained powers that connected him with the universe and all of the fabrics of the realities.

### Chapter Sixteen

Back to the present as The Pledge was hovering for a few moments above the waters off the coast of Central Florida thinking about his past as his black cape blew in the wind. He knew the signs that being lost in your own past signal for your future but he has acted as he always has.

The wind really began to kick up and his cape wrapped itself around him like a comfortable shield. It was in this moment that he sensed something truly worrying.

Standing there in midair, floating above the water, a sight looking sort of like what would happen if Clive Barker designed the costumes for a Disney movie about wizards.

That sight was of one of the most powerful living beings in all of creation. His clothing was old but modern and I mean modern in the sense that leather was formed to look like metal.

The leather was brown, a dark brown outfit that was from head to toe. His boots resembled socks until you get a closer look at them. They were made from the thinnest of leathers. His body suit was one large piece. The only thing separating it from the rest of the outfit was the sign of Solomon burned into the brown leather at the center of his chest.

The sign was also set into the back of his cape.

Slowly he descended into the water. As the water contacted with his body he tried to connect with the world of the sea but something was interfering with the connection he had reached before.

Down into the depths of the ocean he went. As he sunk his lungs changed to fit need. His blood warped and his skin scaled up from the top of his bald head down like dropping rolled up window blinds.

Finally touching the bottom of the sea floor with the tips of his toes The Pledge was being bombarded with signals from the sea world trying to tell him what he would be facing. He wasn't able to decode these signals in time though because he wasn't use to being in this world so to him it just seemed like the ocean was singing to him.

He reached down and touched the sand at his feet as if to say hello.

In reply the sand was stirring trying to tell him to run.

The other powerful being walking through the water, the one who caused the impact and the exceedingly deadly series of waves crashing into the Florida Coast, was a being that The Pledge know instantly when he came face to face with him by the feeling he felt being in his presence.

The Pledge held out his gloved hand in the gesture for the individual to stop. He had already stopped; so the gesture was more for dramatic effect.

Dramatics are wasted on those who were there at the beginning.

As in there at the beginning of the universe.

Through thoughts The Pledge spoke, 'This is not the end time for humanity. Why have you returned in full glory?'

The creature stood in the water like an emotionless well dressed fresh corpse without even blinking, just staring straight ahead.

The Pledge pulled his cape behind his back, locking his hands together in an ancient gesture of power, 'I have been to The Gates of Hell. I have stood in the presence of The Great Black Bull. Your gaze will not move me. I have sworn The Pledge of Solomon to be the keeper of humanity's knowledge and I need to know why you are here?'

The individual is Death. This must be known now, because what happens next is what happens to those who try to obstruct Death.

The Pledge took half a step before Death lifted his hand and waved it out in front of his body as if he was swatting a fly. At that instant The Pledge's body burst...no, exploded into a million gold fish that swam off in all different directions before dying in the inhospitable salt water.

Death kept walking forward as if this encounter had never happen and the waves kept pounding Florida.

### Chapter Seventeen

The oomph that once was the powerful being known as The Pledge scatters across the planet to hide from the complete touch of Death. The individual personality is gone forever but the fundamental nature of what a Pledge is will live on.

Every living thing will contain some of that ancient power until a new Pledge comes to be embodied on Earth once again.

Don't get excited it's not going to turn everybody into a big beyond human orgasm orgy.

These portions of what the Pledge was are using living beings as hidey-holes.

The powers, spirits, tricks, secrets, thoughts, and essence of The Pledge may have been saved by transferring a small portion of his existence to every living thing on the planet but that wasn't just a chance nerve jerk reaction, it was in fact a safety spell that all Pledge's must learn.

That also includes single cell organisms such as the Archaea, Bacteria, and Protists.

Hate to leave anyone out of the fun.

To gain the knowledge of this spell a Pledge must travel to five unusual sites. Each of these locations contain within them portals to different realities. While within each reality they will find a word that forms the spoken casing of the spell.

In case you have interest and like to travel and for me when I get to this in a future story the five locations are The Antelope Canyon, the Moeraki Boulders, the Stone Forests, Rio Tinto, and the Dallol Volcano.

Those journeys are one of the most taxing walks any Pledge must take.

The very nature of the universe would shift if the line of The Pledge were to end so the one who has chosen learns this spell as soon as possible and integrates it into their spoken memory.

Part of that spell as it spreads the Pledge's energies across the planet is a search for potentials. They are the ones who will be asked to make the choice and possibly become the next Pledge.

There will be others looking for these potentials as there always are and so more than a small portion of what The Pledge was goes to each one of these potentials to help them remain safe until the moment of realization.

More than a small portion to a hospital in Florida and Destiny puts a circle around three others to stand by her side.

More than a small portion to Savannah Georgia but what happens to it is a little clouded as that state contains as many ancient uncanny maneuvers and mystical secrets as just about anywhere else in North America.

Right there with New Orleans, Florida, and Tweed.

That's in Ontario.

A nice threatre village which has a really small jail.

Elvis lives there too.

And a more than small portion was meant to go to a preparatory school in England but a powerful mind knocked it off course and it ended up hitting the backroom of a pub in Ireland.

### Chapter Eighteen

Pretty much the only beyond human who has been active long term between the time period of the aftermath of WWII and the present day goes by the name Pulpy. Though as always with most things there were a lot of things going on in the shadows that never even touched any light, be it sun or moon shine.

Pulpy is the very powerful hero who calls New York City home because New York and the United States as a whole naturally attract beyond humans or at least that's what a childhood of reading comics has taught me.

First appearing a few years after the end of the Korean War he was at first a thing of legend and then a thing of conspiracy theorists and lastly a pop culture icon before he started to finally be caught on camera fully.

Pulpy gained the trust of many world governments and was deputized and given citizenship by the United States. And the United Nations called him an agent of the world in 1982 after he held off an alien invasion almost single-handedly and nearly died trying.

Before that day of the alien invasion he said he was just traveling the world trying to learn about it. We know that not to be true by some of the sightings that are now fully contributed to him. The question that springs from that time has to be asked. If he was working for anyone, who? The United States says they had no idea he was around.

Now you can either believe the U.S. government is really stupid or they are lying. Many will tell you thinking a government is stupid as a reply to explaining its actions is a most dangerous thing to do.

The limit of his powers is unknown as is where he came from but many governments are tracking his every movement in attempts to find out more about this very powerful alien who looks so very human at times.

And that's one of the main reasons they fear him so much.

Just like America itself Pulpy is a symbol for most of the world. The only thing is that symbol symbolizes different things to different people. Just as when you look at a loyal soldier or a by the book police officer, many people see different things when viewing Pulpy.

### Chapter Nineteen

Sabrena and Ken rushed out to get to the truck with both of them nearly falling on their asses a few times. They weren't in a total panic- it was panic mixed with fear, mixed with mixed feelings, mixed with reasons.

Dressed in mismatched outfits quickly grabbed from the closet this scene was one of two people in pure go mode. GO!

GO!

GO!

As they descended the steps from their apartment Sabrena almost broke her ankle with a stumble as she tried to get one arm through a Green Day hoodie which belonged to Ken.

Ken steadied her unbalanced predicament while also taking the keys from her hands and guiding them both from the apartment steps into the parking lot area.

They ran across the parking lot to Ken's truck. Well, it was their truck now but he was the one who bought it, now she's making payments. It's complicated and the hostility is the sort of thing that happens when a couple really doesn't like each other very much but are tied together by circumstances.

Right now circumstances have them in the middle of a dash.

He turned to look at Sabrena as they both got into their seats and clicked their safety belts into the locked position, 'So we're heading to Florida?' Ken said without it really being a question.

Sabrena started to cry as she dropped her head and looked at her hands, 'Julie's my only family.'

Ken got the truck started after a couple of failed tries. Cursing while grinding the gears a little, which is a feat with an automatic, he pulled them out of the parking lot nearly taking out a couple of their hipster stoner neighbors walking over from the complex pool not paying attention.

Then they nearly hit a cat crossing over to the complex's tennis courts for a bird snack that was waiting for him but Ken swerved just in time and hit a parked car instead crushing side panels. He raced away as the alarm rang out from the car and a fat old man came out of his apartment screaming profanities in a language unknown to either of them.

They really didn't care what happen to get them on their way and on the road. They had been looking for any excuse to leave this place for a long time and a cosmic crisis fits the bill. They didn't have to say it but the feeling was there, they weren't coming back here no matter what. It was time to move on.

Settling down wasn't for them anyways.

The fat man a month later would die in an accident involving two horses and a wood chipper.

Don't ask.

As they pulled out of the apartment complex Ken reached over and touched Sabrena's shoulder. She looked up. She looked into his eyes and smiled which made him smile as he raced down the street.

But twelve minutes after that they were pissed at themselves for giving out those smiles.

And in a nutshell that explains their relationship.

Except for the part I'm not going to tell you about yet.

As his truck was starting to gather speed Sabrena picked up a book that had been on the floor of the truck since she bought it at a library book sale two weeks ago.

She started flipping through pages not really reading thinking about how when things were straight, and she knew Julie was safe, she was going to try and break up with Ken again. She did not love him and probably never did. No matter the destruction it might bring, no matter how risky it might be to her life she needed to try again.

But she needed him right now. He was a tool she could not throw away at the moment. The last time they tried to break up it didn't turn out too good for either of them and also wasn't great for a block of West Virginia homes.

They hooked back up to try living in the settled down mode but that wasn't working either. Ken was perfectly fine with it. Sabrena was getting more and more tired of it and now she's only fine with it being good for him to be with her for this trip. Then she would try again.

### Chapter Twenty

Both of them were lucky they didn't break their necks jumping off the factory roof. It's not like Lindsey and Julie have come close to doing anything like this before. When it came to foolhardy crazy stupid leaps of faith they saved that for unrestricted sexual encounters and street bought pills.

Luck or chance didn't seem to be with anyone on this day.

Weather forecasts for the future, not so good either.

Lindsey held Julie as she was bracing them both against a wall outside the factory building, only inches from where they landed, as another wave hit.

They were on the opposite side from which the waves were coming but they could feel the power and force of each wave hitting nonetheless. Each one pounded with all the fear they had ever felt in their lives all at once.

There was just something about this storm that told everyone caught in the middle of it that it wasn't just another big storm.

Lindsey looked around to see bodies in the parking lot. Most of them were people who had died trying to get to their cars after the first wave hit. Killed trying to get home to their families and loved ones.

Some of the vehicles in the parking lot had been toppled by the waves. The whole scene looked like God had spit on the place over and over again.

Lindsey could see other workers who had ran out since the last wave and were trying to help the still alive but injured back into the building. She thought to herself that in the past she had always looked at these people as the worst people she had ever met; the worst humanity had to offer.

Maybe she had been wrong.

Another wave crashed down.

Julie started to slide down the wall beside Lindsey but her girlfriend pulled her back up to her feet by her shoulders and held her face in her hands, 'We need to get over to the cafeteria door. Julie, we can't stay out here.'

'But...' Julie was looking out at the bodies of people who earlier that morning had been working alongside them. Just this morning she had been trash talking with some of those people about how fucked up the company was and how much they hated working there.

'But...' Julie said again in a low voice.

'We have to try.' Lindsey told her.

Julie looked at Lindsey with panicked fear in her eyes, 'There's too much shit flying around out here. Nothing will get us here. We're safe here. We're behind the building.'

'That doesn't mean much. Remember they just built this part of the building. Remember all the corners they cut? I don't think it will hold up to much more of this.'

Julie slid down again but Lindsey pulled her up once more this time with more force. She grabbed her hand so tightly Julie jumped at the pain.

'We're going. Right after the next wave. I'm not losing you now.'

When the next wave crashed down Lindsey took the first step for them both. The fear was coming again already. It was building, creating itself anew. It was coming to hit again. All they had to do was win this foot race with a big fucking wave. Their future together sort of depended on it.

### Chapter

### Twenty-One

To be completely honest the truck was a piece of shit. It had been nothing but problems for Ken since his father turned over the payments to him.

To be fair to the truck, if there is ever a need to be fair to a truck, most of the problems for how it ran were Ken's own fault.

The truck was given to him in good shape. Beyond good shape, almost new but see Ken is what is, especially around this part of the world, referred to as a dumbass when it comes to vehicle maintenance.

This is the guy who once went two years without having to have his oil changed. Well, it wasn't as much that he didn't have to have his oil changed as he didn't have it changed. No forgetting or otherwise busy, just didn't do it.

Some people would not even believe it was possible to drive a truck around for two years without changing the oil but I guess Ken proved them wrong.

The truck has been towed away to many a garage for belts, the alternator, the ignition, the steering column, brakes, and the battery and now it's sitting on the side of the road not far from where Ken and Sabrena live but far enough away from anywhere else to be in the middle of nowhere.

The hood was up and Ken's head was under it looking around for the reason behind the sudden stoppage. Knowing nothing about his truck or any other truck, besides the fact that he had to put gas in it to make it run, the image of him looking under the hood was only another example of a man dancing in the thick refusal to be stupid.

But Ken just isn't the normal sort of stupid guy. He's his own special kind of stupid guy. If you knew him you would understand it was not a matter of ego but of him honestly trying to make things right.

A quality others liked about him.

But not the quality you would normally associate with someone who has a secret life where he has robbed a few banks and turned a few profits that rub up against the law.

And not in the special touch way of rubbing up against the law that gets the law wound up.

Even if Ken knew he did not have a chance in hell of doing something right he still tried. But it was also just another thing about him that pissed Sabrena off. You can't wear a Rogues costume while spouting the philosophy of Barry Allen.

They have been together for all of the "against the law" stuff and his refusal to look at himself for what he is drives her crazy. "This is what we are." "But we can do things a different way." "This is our way."

Sabrena was sitting in the back of the truck searching the news on her phone looking for information on the disaster in Florida. She wasn't finding much luck because most of the information was of a speculative fashion coming from outside the disaster area. So much of the area is totally without power and communication in and out isn't that smooth.

While doing that she was giving glances through the front window, through the open space between the hood and the truck, watching the movements of someone who is in her life because he's a tool she needs.

Whether she gives a shit about that tool or not it's now attached to her hand.

A pair of conjoined twins has a better chance of being safely separated than they do.

'What do you think you're doing? You don't know anything about fixing this thing.'

She shouted not as much to Ken but to let everyone around, if anyone was around, and there wasn't anyone around, know how stupid he was.

Ken once went off about how if the only living thing around was an ant and she saw a chance to make him look bad in front of that ant she would. Criticize magnifying glass holding abilities or something.

He moved his head around the side of the propped up hood, 'We're fucking stuck. What else do you want me to do?'

Sabrena whispered to herself, 'Fucking retard. Go retard yourself.'

Whispering to herself was actually Sabrena being nice; which meant she really was distracted by worrying thoughts about Julie.

### Chapter

### Twenty-Two

'Now!'

Lindsey pulled again for Julie to run but she resisted because she was so consumed with fear as she had been the first time Lindsey started out.

'Shit Julie!'

The sudden pull and resistance nearly pulled both of their arms out of their sockets.

Lindsey was still holding onto Julie's arm with one hand when she grabbed her by the face with the other very tightly, cuffing her fingers around her ear pulling on it with her fingernails.

'Come on, you stupid bitch!'

Lindsey pulled Julie this time so hard she caused a mild dislocation of her arm. The pain and the harsh words instantly startled Julie from her fit of fear, a little anger pushed that fear away, and after a few steps she started running on her own without being pulled.

They dashed across a walkway now almost completed covered with water and mud which had washed over it. It was starting to get hard to see where the sidewalks where at all.

Both of them skidded like a synchronized ice skating team as they ran across patches of uprooted loose grass.

Workers from the inside the building saw them racing toward the entrance and quickly un-barricaded a door and opened it for them. They had gotten use to doing it as they've rushed out to try and help people between waves.

Lindsey could see them waving for her and Julie to hurry. She knew they were shouting but she couldn't hear them. The truth was she could barely hear Julie who had taken a hold of her hand again over the roar coming roaring up from behind them.

Her quickened heartbeat told her what that roar was.

Julie slipped from Lindsey's grasp but continued on her own towards the cafeteria entrance. Lindsey stopped just in front of the patio outside the cafeteria and turned just in time to get a quick glance of the wave at its greatest height before she ran a few more feet and dove through the door.

She slid across the slippery floor of the cafeteria and before she could move she was tackled by Julie kissing and hugging her. No one noticed them lying there holding each other not wanting to ever let go, one without clothes and the other half-naked because the remaining survivors in the building were too busy bracing the doorway again as another eight-story wave crashed down onto the building.

There was a little calm. Lindsey took in a few bits of air during that calm and with each bit she was identifying the people she knew in the room and wondering about the people who she got along with who weren't in the room. What happen to them?

The other survivors starting talking to Lindsey and Julie to find out where they had been when it started and how they survived. No one was making up modest stories, the truth just came out, and no one cared that there wasn't any modest stories given

I admit using the word modest there might not have been the best choices but it what came out and wouldn't be replaced.

After a few minutes everyone went back to bracing the doorway. They were further reinforcing the damage caused by the latest wave. They had no idea how many more were coming and this wave by wave combat was all they had. They knew though somehow with the instinct all human beings have in these moments that this was not over yet.

Another wave was coming and another and they had to continue to survive. That's what human beings do pretty well. We tend to be obstinate in that regard.

### Chapter

### Twenty-Three

Do you want to hear something strange? Sabrena and Kent first met at a protest rally protesting, as protest rallies do, a proposal in the Texas Legislature that would create a prison intended to harbor beyond humans for life if they ever used their powers for any reason against any "regular" humans in the state of Texas.

This was the first step in America's series of Beyond Human Laws. It's one of the most dividing hot bed issues in the country to this day. These laws are also one of the few issues that are a blister boils on the rest of the world as well since a good deal of countries are following the United States lead on this.

Half of the country thinks it's the worst things to ever happen to America, another group thinks the laws still haven't gone far enough, and then you have the ones who are just ignoring what is going on.

That makes them feel better doing that.

Then Ken and Sabrena were in that phase most college students go through were you think the world can be shifted with a well worded protest sign. Those are the times you are surprised by hatred and intolerance and get excited to the point of being overwhelmed when someone agrees with something you say.

At the time when they first met both of them were attending the University of Texas. And at this time the state had become the hotbed of conservative power plays which turned a number of universities into bastions of young liberal thinking.

Sabrena was majoring in Nursing and Child Health Care. Ken was majoring in English. Those two facts just show how ordinary they started out their academic lives.

He was also the starting first baseman for the college baseball team. And that's a pretty big deal starting for the Texas baseball team. Football might be the religion of Texas but the Universities baseball team has taken its bite also.

Maybe if football is Texas religion then baseball is its poetry.

Lined up to be a four year starter and a professional prospect Ken was kicked off the baseball team for attending the rally and Sabrena was part of the group who later pushed to get him reinstated.

They pushed but failed.

But all of this was before they discovered their special beyond human connection. Ken and Sabrena might be the argument to some people being destined to be together even if they are the very worst person for the other to be with.

After the law in Texas passed Sabrena and Ken moved away with a few friends to live out of state. Getting away from the "Mecca of the Right Wing" some would say. That statement alone contains a lot of youthful stupidity.

For about a year Ken, Sabrena, and their friends all lived together in a small three bedroom house. The house had belonged to someone's mom or dad or grandma who had abandoned it because it really wasn't in good enough shape to try and fix up and sale. They were allowed to stay there rent free until it fell down around them.

Only a few of them worked any sort of job but all of them fucked. These weren't triangle or V relationships. The lines drawn between all the fucking going on resembled an Etch-A-Sketch in the hands of baby.

But it was home for Sabrena and Ken and also the nearest thing to a hippie house you would or could ever find in a state like Virginia. Even Texas can have its hippies. Virginia only has freshly run out of state hippies.

It was during their time living in the house that some might call a commune that they started dating outside of just being fuck buddies as had been the case up to that point.

Sabrena and Ken, as most of the others in the house, traded sexual partners to the point where everyone had done just about everything with everyone else.

Bored with this lifestyle Sabrena asked Ken if he wanted to start dating her and just her. Ken went with his heart right there and smiled at her. They had lots of sex that night.

They also discovered on that night something weird and powerful about their connection.

The house did fall down around them.

### Chapter

### Twenty-Four

Luckily they were able to flag down a friendly cop, with a friendly cop being more of a rarity than finding someone at all on the middle of nowhere stretch of road the truck had decided to breakdown on.

Their biggest fear was that this would be a skilled cop who might somehow recognize them. But that couldn't possibly be the case because no one has ever even seen their face. They're a masked couple on many Most Wanted lists. They had been off the job for long enough to make most people forget about them. They've even taken them off a few of those lists.

Though when you spent a few years robbing banks any kind of law enforcement can get you on edge a bit. Hell, every time Pulpy is reported in a nearby area they both tense up so much neither of them can shit.

More for the reasons why Sabrena thinks they should be do what they are good at.

Sabrena though has another skill that is very human, nothing beyond about it, but one she is more skilled at than most people. She can talk people into believing her stories. She most defiantly is a silver tongued devil in that regard.

Ken has told her he thinks it's a not so ordinary skill but then again he's pretty good at the sit and talk cons also.

Together they dropped a well formed and delivered hardship story to the police about needing to get to Florida because they had a kid in Melbourne on a school trip

They were taken on a fast ride with the officer and his partner to the nearest airport; which is where they were headed with Sabrena having purchased tickets by phone on the drive before the breakdown.

### Chapter

### Twenty-Five

Before catching an early morning flight Sabrena and Ken rented a room at a cheap hotel near the airport. Usually the hotels near airports are anything but cheap but this one is ancient to standards. It was built a deadening six years ago and didn't have any sort of internet connection.

Cheap being not what they could afford but rather what Sabrena was willing to pay for a night she would be spending with Ken. She had no problem with the idea of spending a lot of money on a hotel stay but for some spiteful reason she would not spend that kind of money when it would also benefit Ken.

Even if the only benefits would be good porn on demand channels, access to BitTorrent sites, and a free continental breakfast.

During their settled down period they lived in a cheap craptastic apartment so they could put money away in a number of bank accounts.

A number of bank accounts under several different names to give the last detail of that information.

All of this was in case of a Big Go. A Big Go being when con artists decide or are forced to hit the road without warning.

Ken was sitting by the window in the cheap hotel room looking outside at the empty parking lot across the street which was filled with cars. A newer hotel had been built and now no one wanted to stay at the Private 9 anymore.

He sat there by the window in a wobbly chair and every so often he would turn to look at Sabrena sleeping. Ken knew she did not love him anymore. Maybe she never did really but he still loved her. He still loved her and he would still stand beside her wherever she took them.

And not just for the power or the fact that neither of them really had a choice being together.

### Chapter

### Twenty-Six

Operating out of the walled off city of Houston the only other currently active beyond human besides Pulpy is the vigilante hero Dniknam Mask. And when I say currently active I mean that people know of. With beyond humans there are always rumors here and talk there all over the place. Some science nerds have suggested that there maybe thousands of beyond humans operating in every city but they just haven't drawn attention to themselves yet.

Pulpy hasn't even been able to check on this man's beyond human status to verify it because he as with any other military or law enforcement operative are not allowed to set foot in Houston under Houston Act M.L. 78J.

No one in, no one out, only supplies.

Most people think he is just an urban legend anyways or just a bunch of fake stories created by people within Houston to stir up interest from the rest of the country or maybe that he's even a U.S. government propaganda ploy to try and keep even criminals from trying to enter the city.

But he is real, as real as a kick in the nuts.

With Houston the United Nations is silent. You would think they would be kicking up a stink considering this is the type of thing they are there to kick up a stink about. Though they have always tended to be less kicking and more sitting when it comes to things the United States does.

In this case the U.S. basically said we will allow Pulpy to work with the U.N. from time to time if you forget about Houston.

People think Dniknam Mask is a beyond human because of all of the reports of things he's supposedly done that have leaked out of Houston. The internet is fast becoming one big spreader of his exploits.

And then there's the fan fiction.

Don't get me started on the Dniknam Mask and Pulpy slash fiction.

Also back there when I used the word "hero" in talking about him, well, that have been the wrong word to use when describing the metal masked vigilante and so called protector of Houston.

This government labeled whacked out crazy in orange camouflage isn't going to be on any cereal boxes because being any kind of hero in Houston Texas screams "You're Nuts!"

Texas alone is crazy big hats with all its guns, talk of becoming it own nation, beyond human prisons, and Jesus riding dinosaurs books.

But Houston? Best of luck to you in all of your heroic comings and goings.

Reports are Dniknam Mask handles criminals who cross his path with a high level of violence and that might just be the thing needed in a city that has become one of the most violent in the country since all those chemicals were "accidently" dropped on Houston by a government cargo plane five years ago turning the city into a metropolis that is 40% insane and 50% crazy.

The other 10% aren't all there in the head either.

Then the government closed its borders, declared it off limits, and finally built the wall and for the most part washed it hands of the city and its people.

But with Houston's defender it is only a matter of time before his past catches up with him.

Right now Dniknam Mask's creators see Houston as a good sort of prison for him until they decide to reclaim their weapon. When that happens it's going to be hell and a lot of people are going to die- innocent and guilty alike.

The situation in Houston was one of the first signs of a greater coming chaos and in the middle of that future will be a man in a metal mask as Houston will be a training ground for the choices he alone will have to make some day.

### Chapter

### Twenty-Seven

And speaking of weird government things; which I was sort of doing in that last chapter.

It's called a poorly written segue.

Move on people, nothing more to see here.

### Chapter

### Twenty-Eight

Their code name is- The Dawgs of War. They are a United States government black operations unit that has only one mission and one reason to be called. That only reason they have to be called is to attack and kill a beyond human threat that has been judged that it has to be stopped dead at any cost. They have been training for a very long time for this day.

The American government was terrified of possible rogue beyond human activities on a large power scale. This team is the government's fears put into flesh. The Dawgs of War are a team created to protect the United States from country size threats.

And they are there to be at the ready if that threat would someday come from within their own ranks.

Hello Pulpy.

In a way the U.S. government sees Pulpy as stop gap measure until they can create weapons that want to act like weapons. He follows orders fine, like a good soldier, but total free will really isn't ever a part of the strategy a military wants to be part of.

There may be nothing more dangerous to the transparency of freedom than a government floating in fear of the future.

The U.S. government's first attempt at creating a human weapon went mad and escaped. They could always try to capture him but right now they are fine with him being out of sight and out of their hair.

Though to be honest most hope that he will somehow just disappear because they fear the day they will have to confront him and try to bring him in.

Most are planning on asking for that day off.

Pulpy joined the military so he wouldn't be considered a vigilante and the government secretly laughs at his Boy Scout ethics and how easily they can manipulate him. His nickname in black ops circles is The Big Youth Nazi.

A leak to a journalist caused a bestselling book, titled Big Youth Nazi, to hit bookstores everywhere that described him as such and now that nickname is used by most people who don't care for him.

The code to release The Dawgs of War is "This is Armageddon"

That code rang through an underground base setting into sight twelve soldiers who ran from their living quarters into a briefing room which for the most part had been used for training only.

All twelve stood nude at attention since the code first rang out. All of them in front of a huge monitor for over an hour waiting for orders. No clothing, no identities- besides those provided in tattoos on their backs, and all that to help create a better fighting machine.

At least that's the theory. The screen finally powered up, phased on, filled with screen snow, and then nothing but a code number displayed. 51222B flashed on the screen. A way for them to know who in the government was contacting them.

A voice came out from the screen's speakers. A distorted, mechanically altered voice.

'A crisis object has struck off the coast of Florida. It is causing untold amounts of damage and loss of life. You are to use your training to track down the object through the chaos. Find it and eliminate it.'

The leader of the Dawgs stepped forward from the ranks and spoke.

'What about the allowed sir?'

'Knight Book is still off the radar and Pulpy has been properly distracted. This is a chance to test your metal men. Our chance to stand without the help of outsiders.'

### Chapter

### Twenty-Nine

Scott and Siders were what is called in military life, in military circles, in military terms- being pushed around and bullied.

Basic military operations in other words.

Black operations agents are loading everything from their base into large crates and taking them away. Not just the data but also the machines, the furniture- even the urinal cakes.

Scott was standing in one corner of the room watching as all of this as it unfolded; while in the another corner of the room across from him Siders stood watching also but with a more intelligent British look on his face.

Siders was scratching his chin as he always did when he was worried, 'I think we are doss from here mate. What do you think happens to us?'

Scott looked at one of the black operations soldiers as he was packing his uniforms away into a crate and wondered if that was their fate also and nodded to his partner.

Siders scratched his head, a sign he was getting even more nervous, 'You think?'

Scott shrugged his shoulders.

The last object in the place was crated and taken away leaving the two of them standing in an empty room.

'They took my porn.'

'They took my toys.'

'They took my car keys.'

'They took my hoggers.'

'They even took my Bender bobble head. What kind of secrets could that have hidden in it?'

'I will miss my collection of WC miniatures.'

'I'll miss my extra pair of underwear.'

'You only had one extra pair of Y fronts?'

One of the black ops agents returned and handed Siders a cell phone.

The phone was not ringing. That was advance warning.

'It's for you.' He told Siders. Then he left.

Siders looked at the phone and turned to Scott, 'But it's not ringing?'

Scott shook his head, 'And everyone thinks the British are smarter about everything.'

### Chapter Thirty

As I've said before this universe is very much like our own. Only with slight differences that are spicy mined launch pads to things I hope are worth reading about.

Mainly just a few people with powers flying around and causing huge amounts of property damage.

And one day I will write about that thing buried in China.

There is only one other beyond human hero who is known by the public at large who was accepted and respected as a hero.

That hero went by the name Knight Book but he disappeared two years ago; so don't expect any help from him with the current situation going down.

Knight Book was the only friendly being from a world not our own that humanity has ever encountered.

Well, the only person that humanity knows is alien and seems to be friendly.

The fact that Pulpy is alien isn't official but you know it's like when Elton John or Anderson Cooper came out.

Yea, really, those were huge surprises.

One other thing, no humans have brown eyes. Take that note of information and put it in your pocket for future stories.

And speaking of eyes and eye colour and so on, right now in East Mississippi, as Florida is spit upon by Death, a girl named Robin West is sneaking out of her house running away from an abusive stepfather. She will go on one day to save the world because she has purple eyes because having purple are that fucking cool.

### Chapter

### Thirty-One

On one side you have Death.

Death is the only being that knows where the true grave of Mozart is and pays homage to the burial site once a year.

Or was that Poe?

Moving on.

Fourteen million people were killed in World War I and twenty million died in the flu epidemic that followed it. Death cried constantly during that time period but was also happy knowing what would follow.

Death is always trying to help but in the only way Death knows how. Walking to do what must be done but feeling each step as he walks. Not all knowing but all feeling.

Then you have this one opening her eyes standing on the ground of storytellers and she just watches. She has been called many things in her time but since her birth from the womb of creation she has watched.

She is me and me is she but no Walrus is involved.

She is the storyteller of Heaven, the Watcher of God's Creations. Most know of her as the Angel Who Watches. She hates her given name and has taken another name to cut down on all the laughs if people ever write about her in any stupid religious texts.

She further named herself Stis.

Stis stands on one of the hills of what was once the mythical land of Olympus. A land that sits quietly as people say all of its Gods died out long ago but in fact they just left for a better promised land.

Stis watches history happen. She watched them leave and she will watch the day this planet burns.

She is the first to know when things are about to hit another gear.

Things are about to hit another gear.

Stis watches Death's footsteps.

### Chapter

### Thirty-Two

Sabrena has always told people that one of her biggest problems with Ken is his inability to be romantic, though to be perfectly honest and all fair to Ken Sabrena's idea of something romantic is fucking in the theatre while watching a Disney film with children watching them as an extra turn on.

Here are a few examples of how Ken is not romantic:

Example One: Ken once decorated up their apartment to celebrate their anniversary being together. He bought florescent paint and a lot of poster board. He turned off all the lights in the apartment. Then he lined off the floor with poster board that lead big arrows into the bathroom.

In the bathroom he had drawn a hot bath and within the bath he placed floating candles and yellow rose pedals.

He had incense burning throughout the apartment and playing on the radio was a recording of him reading poetry that he had written for her.

Sabrena came into the apartment, the recording started and she turned right around and left, "I'm heading out to have drinks with someone from work. Don't wait up."

Example Two: Once during a Christmas vacation in Florida Sabrena and Ken where staying at a hotel near Disney. Ken arranged while they were out eating for the hotel to bring yellow roses into their room and hang them up all.

If you wonder, yes, Sabrena's favorite flower is yellow roses. When they got back to the hotel Sabrena just got angry because the hotel TV did not have HBO and when Ken asked her about the roses she said, "Why don't you try and be a man in some real way."

Example Three: On his first official couple date with Sabrena Ken rented out a restaurant and had waiters place on each table a portable TV which was playing each one of Sabrena's favorite movies. All the waiters and waitresses where wearing old stereotypical Asian styles of dress which Sabrena really liked.

When they walked in and were seated Sabrena looked around and saw what Ken had done for her and did nothing but complain about the food for the rest of the night.

Example Four: Once after Sabrena had called and said her day of work that really sucked Ken cleaned their whole apartment- doing laundry, dishes, sweep, mopped, and vacuumed.

When Sabrena got home from her hard day of work she went straight into the kitchen for a drink and because they had run out of Natty Ice she got really pissed threw something and left.

Example Five: One Halloween... well, I don't know if I should mention that incident... Ok...?... No. I don't think so. Let's just say it involves a costume party in Sabrena's honor and ended up with Sabrena making fun of Ken's costume and his love making skills and later going down on one of Ken's friends in the bathroom while everyone, including Ken, could hear.

Example Six: Last Thanksgiving....Oh, this is getting ridicules. Sabrena's just a bitch. No way around it. No other way of saying it.

But then again she never set fire to a bank after locking over thirty people inside.

### Chapter

### Thirty-Three

The Angel of the Sword of God...

Okay, I need to stop for a second.

How come all angels have to have names like that? Makes a writer's life hell. Do you think the guys writing ancient biblical text were on some sort of word count? Will someone someday discover that NaNoWriMo is actually a very ancient writing tradition?

Okay, back to where we left off.

The Angel of the Sword of God walked out from the Gates of the City of Paradise into the Gates of Hell for a meeting arranged by the Archangel Michael.

That sentence just triggered a migraine headache writing it.

Usually the Angel of the Sword sits in the Eternal Library reading the Forbidden Bibles but today he was sent out from the City of Paradise on a mission because of current Earthly events unfolding.

A meeting had been requested to decide what place Heaven and Hell would have in the before mentioned current events unfolding on Earth. Meeting him just inside the gates was the Demon of Dreams.

After introductions of "I am the Angel of" and "I am the Demon of" the two powerful creatures sat down on a park-bench-like structure made from the bones of fallen warriors from ancient Caspery.

'The Angel Michael is the only one who could call a meeting like this. Even in this second rate universe he is respected.' the Demon

'Demons have respect for an Angel of Heaven?' the Angel

'The Morningstar respects him and so does most of Hell unless we face his fury. Plus he is the Archangel Michael. That is just cool.'

'So you have respect and show respect out of fear from your master and because He of the Archangels is 'cool'?'

'I have respect for an individual who is one of only two beings in all of creation that has questioned God. That takes balls the size of Heaven itself.'

The Demon paused and thought for a second as something occurred to him. 'Though you guys don't _have_ balls, do you?'

The Angel of the Sword stood. He was surprised by what this Demon just said to him.

The Demon stood too, slowly laughing.

'Hey, you lot have wings and we have balls. Two of one thing, two of another.'

The Angel's face turned red in anger as the Demon sat back down on the bone bench and causally crossed his legs.

'Calm yourself Angel. We're here to discuss what is about to happen to God's favorite creations. Hell is pleased to just ignore it. I would suspect Heaven will do the same even if one of the Fallen is involved?'

The Angel nodded his head in agreement.

'Heaven will only watch also.'

The Angel of the Sword turned to walk away as the Demon of Dreams laid down and stretched out on the bench.

'With that sense of love, humanity has always been screwed.'

### Chapter

### Thirty-Four

And just a little bit of information for your edification. In every reality slash universe, and boy are there a lot of those suckers out there in creation, but in every reality there is a different Heaven.

Well, in some realities it's not even called Heaven but you get the gist of my limited brain pane as it is thinking along this subject line. But in all of reality, all of creation, there is only one Hell. Now you know why Demons tend to be so cocky. They know more about creation than most Angels could even think about knowing.

And another thing unique in all of creation is Death.

In this universe Death is embodied in the form of a former Angel. Embodiments of something are always so much more interesting than "It's just life."

The Angel Choirs have in the past called Death The Compassion but that was a very long time ago. He let them know he didn't like that very much so they stopped doing it.

The Archangels refer to him now as "One of the Fallen." The Demon Hordes scream his name as The Bringing of Light.

He has more aliases than my last editor.

Ever since a trip to London which was sort of a love story he likes to be called simply "Jack." Throughout creation that was the name he has been trying to get everyone to call him. I guess everyone will just have to try and deal with it. He is Death after all. Who is going to argue a name with him?

Jack reached the beach shore and began walking onto the beach proper with his suit drying itself with every step he took.

He looked up, down, and around as the skies cleared and it was suddenly a hundred degrees on the beach.

It would probably start to rain again at any moment, though.

This was Florida after all.

Jack straightened his jacket and buttoned it as twelve people dressed all in black military uniforms drifted down from the sky and landed in front of him. It was The Dawgs of War. All of them could do the flying thing.

Jack waved his hand again and all twelve of them disappeared.

Simple as that.

All a part of unfolding destiny.

'You young warriors are needed elsewhere.'

Jack walked from the beach up a set of steps and onto the deck of a beach house. Then he calmly knocked on the sliding glass doors.

### Chapter

### Thirty-Five

The waves have stopped.

Here is what comes next.

### Chapter

### Thirty-Six

It was hours after the waves had stopped when Emergency Personnel finally got to the factory. After wounds and injuries were addressed the emergency crews started trying to help people get back to their homes.

Katrina was America's first hydrometropolis. I wouldn't go that far with Melbourne Florida but the place sure is a little waterlogged after the waves that have pounded down on it.

Most of the houses and other structures in Melbourne are still standing, damaged but still standing, but places nearest to the water got hit pretty hard.

Julie and Lindsey owned a beach house together. They purchased it about two months ago from a friend of Lindsey's. The friend's husband had passed away and she wanted to move back to her hometown in Kentucky so she sold it to Lindsey and Julie for only a few hundred dollars.

Two National Guardsmen in a jeep dropped them off at their house and from the outside it did not look too bad. All Guardsmen were told to inspect all structures before letting anyone go in but this house looked pretty much untouched except for a lot of seaweed on top of the roof and a few windows knocked out so they left the ladies to get on with their lives.

Plus both of them wanted to find out if their own houses were still standing.

Julie wanted to smile but when she looked at Lindsey and saw in her face what she knew in her own heart was probably the truth. They had not seen the inside.

The Guardsmen speeded off and Julie and Lindsey walked up to their home. Compared to the houses on either side of them, theirs did seem okay. Windows had been knocked out like I wrote and nothing was left of their front yard but that sometimes happened in Florida normal storms.

Lindsey put her key in and opened the front door and water poured out like someone has just opened the door to a huge fish tank.

Lindsey grabbed Julie by the arm to keep her from falling off the front steps. After the water came to ankle deep level they entered. Amazingly the back sliding glass doors where still standing. Though that only helped keep so much water in their living room. Seeing this Lindsey also knew how bad the other rooms must be because the house was a split level and had steps down into the bedrooms. Both of them loved that feature when they first bought the place.

First they went into Lindsey's bedroom. All of her trophies, all of her stuffed animals, and all of her clothes were gone. No, not looters, they had been washed out of the bedroom window. She looked outside after treading through the waist-deep water to the window and saw all of her stuff scattered beside the house.

Lindsey struggled back through the water and Julie helped her up into the doorway to the living room. Julie hugged her and Lindsey kissed her on the cheek.

'Maybe your room is better?'

They walked over to the other side of the house. It took both of them to force the bedroom door open. They both knew that was not a good sign but when they finally got it open they found the room in perfect condition. Well, not perfect because Julie had a boy band poster on her wall. But nothing was wrecked. Nothing was even wet. The window was not broken. Nothing was out of place. Except for the guy sitting on Julie's bed. No guy had ever been near Julie's bed. He was most definitely out of place.

'Who the fuck are you?' That was Lindsey.

Jack put down the photography magazine he was reading and stood up from the bed.

'I thought I'd fix things up a bit. Cushion the blow.'

Julie looked at Lindsey with confused thoughts and then looked back to Jack.

'Who are you? Were you just trying to get away from the storm? It's okay if that's why you broke in. We understand."

Lindsey, on the other hand did not think any of this was okay. 'Please leave. Now.'

Jack turned his back to them as if they did not matter and looked out the bedroom window.

'Sorry for the rest of the mess. I couldn't really help it. The path must be walked. Bridges must be destroyed. Waters must run their course. I am here to offer you two jobs in my service.'

Lindsey picked up a lamp. She was moving to whack him in the back of the head when all three of them disappeared into thin air.

### PART TWO

### Chapter

### Thirty-Seven

'Remember to just call me Scott and I'll call you Siders. We are no longer uniform in any way and we're not supposed to reveal in any way that we're soldiers.'

'How did we get into a black operation?'

'Don't know and don't care. Just happy I don't have an untraceable bullet in my brain.'

These two former soldiers were definitely out of uniform. Siders was wearing a Cubs jersey; while Scott was decked out in a Bulls jersey. Both of them were not pulling off the flowery shorts thing- especially with low top tennis shoes as part of the quick assemble.

Kogo Pizza is the best pizza place in Chicago and these two are enjoying a good meal. Better than the far too long they spent eating nothing but microwave foods.

The place was decorated in steam punk art from the comic book series the owner's son created. The floor was deck plates from an old aircraft carrier and each booth was made from old industry ovens stripped and reformed.

'Yeah, like that's going to be a problem for us with what we are wearing' Siders

'Why did you join the service?' Scott

'My father. You?'

'Same.'

'How did you get involved in this sort of stuff? All of this spy boy bullshit?'

'I was computer savvy when computers first became big with the government's inner communities. They recruited me out of high school.'

'I was a Royal Naval officer before joining Special Forces. Can I get some chips here?'

'No, so you are actually in the Navy?'

'Yep, the R.A.F. dress uniforms are nicer though. How about crisps?'

'No, but there is a loo and you can put your trash in the dustbin and if need be we can take a coach ride.'

The conversation ended with the arrival of their pizzas. Just in time also because Siders would have probably killed Scott in the next few seconds.

### Chapter

### Thirty-Eight

Ken and Sabrena caught the earliest flight to get them to Florida. A little fact about Sabrena for shits and giggles is that she was a vegan and had been all her life and Ken told her he was when they first meet but after having sex with Ken and reading the book Vegansexual: The High Cost of Fucking A Meat Eater she gave up on it and blamed Ken for her now eating meat.

As she told a friend once, "When you have fucked someone who is made of basically nothing but dead animals it is hard to go back to saying you shouldn't eat any animal product. I might as well fuck a dead deer. Would have been the same, though probably more satisfying?"

Ken remembers the last time he and Sabrena visited Lindsey and Julie. Lindsey was throwing a surprise party for Julie and had invited and paid the way for about sixty people to fly in. She had just gotten her big promotion and bonus contract signing money so she wanted to go all out on surprising Julie.

Lindsey and Ken together planned the whole thing. Everyone was going to fly in the day before and meet up to finalize plans. Lindsey would take Julie out for dinner for her birthday leading her to believe that was all there was to the celebration.

Then the next day Lindsey would ask Julie to come to a local hotel with her to pick up a transfer employee for work. She would say they were in charge of greeting this new person and showing him around and then spring the surprise when they arrived at the hotel.

This is what actually happened against their best laid plans.

The day everyone was supposed to fly down was the day the 9/11 terrorist attacks took place.

Some people got stuck at airports and others like Ken and Sabrena were diverted once they were already in the air. Ken and Sabrena ended up in California.

Their plane landed at an airport in Oakland. Ken sat in a hotel watching news coverage while Sabrena called a friend in the area and proceeded to spend a week mostly partying.

In time they rented a car and drove back home, an excursion that competes with breaking his arm for being the worst experience of Ken's entire life. The whole trip from Oakland all the way back to Virginia Sabrena did nothing but fuss about how she did not get to go visit Julie. Julie called Ken and said how thankful she was to find out they where okay.

This was when Sabrena and Julie stopped talking because Julie went off on Sabrena over the phone about family, friends, and being grateful for what you have in your life. This was the first time Ken actually saw for himself why so many people did not like Sabrena. In the past he had been stupidly blind to it for the most part.

He thought the partying in Oakland was her way of coping with the fact that six of their mutual friends died in the plane that hit the Pentagon.

He knew he was in a relationship with someone he loved more than anything in the world but after that he did not fool himself in the slightest into thinking she was the type of person most people would like.

### Chapter

### Thirty-Nine

In the past the name Colin Ryan has been known for two things: One, wild parties and Two, even wilder secret parties that are mainly spoken of only in whispers.

One urban legend story about him involves a party in Mexico City at an underground sex club called We Aren't Free. The tale goes that he was there celebrating the birthday of one of his favorite prostitutes. Things got out of hand when the South African diplomats arrived followed by a group of civil servants from New York City who brought along with them a panda bear from a private collection.

Don't ask what happen with the panda bear.

That was just one example of the many stories that have seeped into the worlds thoughts when they think of his name.

His family is also known for two things: One, making large amounts of money and Two, making even larger amounts of money and acting like they are being treated unfairly by the government for the taxes they have to pay personally and for their businesses.

Colin Ryan has a skyscraper in Chicago which is the location of his home living station. It's called Ryan's Way by the citizens of the city. The buildings official name is the Ryan Industries Tower.

Ryan's Way also contains all of the primary business offices of Colin Ryan Industries, Inc. With so many variations of business spread out all over the world this building is needed to house the most important big heads and the most vital information for the running of all of their diverse operations.

William Ryan, Colin's father, founded the company first as supply chain management and control company. The company grew and he bought more and more small companies and grew them also. There really isn't an industry that Colin Ryan Industries, Inc doesn't have at least a toe in, particularly when it comes to government contracts.

He named the company after his newly born son who was the only thing he cared more for than the business.

Colin Ryan has been able to keep up the Ryan family's obsessions for growing the business, keeping alive old traditions, and showing off symbols of wealth.

A lot of those traditions and symbols he showcases at Ryan's Way. It contains all the play things the very well off, also known as the rich persons, could wish for.

And speaking of traditions being kept alive tonight is Hellfire Night. You may have heard of the Hellfire Club before from its other uses in popular storytelling. Research shows that the truth behind the fiction goes to one extreme or the other. Either stories are overblown and for the most part total fiction or some people were up to things that would make even modern eyes flinch and recoil.

This gathering at Ryan's Way is an invitation only secret party. A tradition started by Colin's father after he researched his family line and found out one of his ancestors was one of the founders of the original Hellfire Club.

William Ryan painstakingly honored the original Club by creating a ballroom in the tower that resembles the original meeting hall and required all members and guests to dress time period appropriate. All clothing is provided after you enter so you don't show up dressed in a fashion to attract photographers and nosey looking lookers.

The current Hellfire Club sees most if not all of this ceremonial traditional stuff as a big joke but they are afraid to cross Colin Ryan on the subject. Even though he has always been his own man away from the footsteps his family had taken, Colin knows he father was a very intelligent man in so many ways and he's not going to try and drown out those things in a foolhardy attempt to walk his own road out of his father's shadow.

Colin was greeting guests with half of them being people he did not know anything about other than that they were very powerful people in their fields. He would go over files later on all of the people who showed up.

Another thing, those people who know about this party also know it would be professional or political suicide to turn down an invitation to a club occasion.

This celebration is one of sex, sin, death, and drink, and with the disaster that just struck Florida there is no better time for the traditions of the Hellfire Club to be reenacted.

### Chapter Forty

Lindsey was turning around slowly and looking over the field she was now standing in. She couldn't believe her eyes taking it all in. Not only because she had just been standing in Julie's bedroom just a minute ago before being magically transported elsewhere but also because she found herself smack in the middle of a huge field of... 'It's pot.'

Lindsey continued to turn around in circles looking at the huge field and couldn't help but repeat herself thinking about her brother, 'Pot.'

'Pot? Well, yes, I suppose that is what your time period and culture call it.'

Lindsey turned to see the man who called himself Jack standing beside her. Then her rational mind clicked back in and fear flooded through her body.

'Julie!' She shouted as loud as she could.

'She's safe.' He said calmly

Lindsey grabbed Jack with one hand by his tie and pulled him towards her, 'Where is she?'

She did not know how but he got loose from her grip and was suddenly standing behind her.

'She was in no state to be startled into finding herself here so I took care to help her along. She's sleeping in my home. We can go there now if you wish. Or we can talk about both of your futures and my offer.'

Lindsey stepped to stand nose to nose with Death.

'I do not know what is going on but I want to see Julie now.'

Jack turned and started walking through the marijuana field, 'Then we will talk as we go to see your love.'

Lindsey followed him still trying to figure out what the hell was going on. They trudged through the field for what seemed like over an hour to her.

They were at the edge of the field when Jack stopped for a second, 'All of this is a lot simpler than where I come from but I like the simplicity of it.'

Jack stepped through the edge of the field and Lindsey followed. She found herself then standing on a walkway in what looked like a rundown apartment complex. Sort of like the ones college students who live off campus rented. Well, college students, crack dealers, and terrorist landlords.

Lindsey thought everything looked like someone had picked it up from one place and put it here; which is factual what happen. Nothing looked like it had strung up naturally during the course of time. It all had the looks of Gods at play.

Jack started up the steps to one of the apartment buildings. He stopped halfway up the steps and turned back to locate Lindsey who was looking down a breezeway that separated one of the buildings from another.

'Is that a baseball field back there?'

'Yes, the greatest game in creation. On the right is a construction site and the field wraps around the other side.'

Lindsey started up the stairs behind him, 'What's being built at the construction site?'

'I'm still thinking on that one. I have to spend the rest of creation here so I don't want to jump into something I have to live with and then end up hating it. I was living in a tent for millennia until I decided on the apartment complex.'

When they got to the top of the steps they were four stories high and on the top floor of a building that had four apartments on each level. Lindsey thought the top floor where they stood seemed to be an exception with only one doorway.

'One door?' Lindsey said, puzzled but still very much in a total daze. Matter of fact she was surprised to find she was calm enough to even speak.

'Each building has one door as a main entrance. You can enter the other apartments from this door.'

Jack knocked on the door.

'Isn't this your home?'

'Yes, but it is always polite to knock.' He said this with a wry smile that creeped Lindsey out a little. Well, actually more than a little but Lindsey did not let it show.

The door opened by itself and he walked in with Lindsey following behind him.

As she entered she saw a living room with a large television and several bookshelves filled with DVDs, VHS tapes, laser discs, and beta tapes.

'This is the movie apartment. There's a small kitchen to the side over there.'

Lindsey looked where he was pointing and did see what could be called a kitchen. It was basically a very old looking wooden table with a microwave and a hot plate on it and beside the table sat a mini refrigerator.

'But right in front of you is the bedroom and that is where your love sleeps.'

Lindsey turned her head quickly from the kitchen area and ran for the bedroom. Jack stuck his hand out and for some reason it stopped Lindsey in her tracks.

'Go quietly. She is resting. I think it would be best if we talk before you wake her and talk to her about everything that is happening. She has already been through a lot on this day.'

Lindsey stared first at his arm and then right into the eyes of Death, 'Yes she has.'

She then walked over and gently opened the bedroom door and peeked inside to see Julie sleeping peacefully on a bed. She watched her long enough to see her chest rising and falling under the covers before she smiled, closed the door, and turned to face Jack.

'Okay, what is this offer you keep talking about?'

'Let's talk over some wine.'

Lindsey raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Jack smiled.

'I have beer for you waiting in the ice box. Budweiser, Right?'

### Chapter

### Forty-One

Lindsey was sitting on one side of a big couch in the middle of the living room holding a can of beer. The couch was shaped like a half circle. On the other side sat Jack, drinking wine from a goblet.

What else would Death drink from, a plastic cup?

'Feed me the whole story.'

'I am Death.'

'Yeah, that's not all?'

'Well, it has to be stated. There have been three others who in time have paraded around pretending to be me: Julunggul, Brahma, and Inanna. Last I heard though they had been given sanctuary somewhere in Hell away from my grasp. But you can call me Jack if it would cut down on any historical inaccuracy confusion or the like. I've come to think Jack suits me.'

'Really? Kind of gay don't you think?'

Jack smiled a wide smile at her cocky ease of being able to talk to him.

'Yes, your family has taught you about the old ways. Though you have chosen a different path for yourself from the paths they walked. Have you forsaken your family's knowledge?'

'My father's first lesson to me was that knowledge is power.'

'Did you know humans have been burying their dead for 350,000 years? That's knowledge.'

'That's history. I'm bored.'

'Well, then I can go into the full story with you to save us both from boredom if you would like?'

'Fire away Death.' Lindsey took a swig of her beer. 'I mean Jack.'

'In the approaching future there will be three Ages of Death which will come to pass. Harsh times in which countless lives will be lost in numbers never before seen by anyone, especially by human eyes. I am offering you and your partner not only service as librarians in my library to chronicle these lives passing from one point of existence to the other but I also offer protection from these times of great suffering.'

'My mother was the one who taught me about the old ways. The myths, the legends, the ways of the Goddess, and the structure of Life and Death were a major part of my childhood. One of the stories she used to tell me was about Death's Library and its Librarian...its keeper.... What was his name...?' Lindsey searched her memory, 'Usef?'

'Yes, but Usef is not just my Librarian. He is my oldest and dearest friend. But immortal as he has become he is also bound to the life of the Earth and his health depends on its health. I offer you a life like no other in existence. To be a human connected to the outer parts of Creation.'

'He's dying?'

Jack placed his goblet on the floor beside the couch.

'Yes. He is dying as so is this world of man.'

Lindsey looked over her shoulder toward the bedroom and knew she would accept anything to protect Julie. She would do anything to protect the woman she loved.

'How long will Julie sleep undisturbed?'

'For a day.'

Lindsey downed the rest of her beer, 'Okay then. Show me the library and I'll talk to her about what she wants. I will not make any decisions for the both of us.'

Jack stood up, 'The library is in one of the dugouts of the baseball field. Follow me. I know a shortcut.'

'Out of curiosity, what's in the other dugout?'

'A doorway to Hell.'

### Chapter

### Forty-Two

The morning sky was just rising over Chicago when Jack appeared on the roof of Ryan's Way. He stopped for a second standing so he could look at the sunrise. No other place in the universe has sunrises like those on Earth.

Now to the scientist set out there that may seem like a stupid statement. Plenty of different kinds of sunrises out there in creation but none like those on this planet. You see the thing is a sunrise is basically like the fingerprint of a planet so all of them are unique but with sunrises on Earth the unique is actually in its simplicity and the minimalism of those viewing it.

But even that does not make it special enough to stop Death for more than a little viewing period.

Slowly Jack started walking across the rooftop of the building and drifted down into the roof like a ghost and finally totally through it.

He phased down through a stairway that led to the roof, through a gym that took up the top floor of the building, through a floor containing a gallery of art, through another gallery that contained nothing that could be considered art, through a storage floor safekeeping a collection of sexual tools from throughout the ages, and came to rest in a more solid state in the living room of Colin Ryan's home in the skyscraper.

The living room was decorated with a mixture of stolen priceless Middle Eastern works of art and some fake pieces that were supposed to have been stolen from Japan and China. Colin use to have possession of the originals of those fakes but he didn't like the originals as much so he returned them and keep the fakes.

Inside a dark bedroom with wall-to-wall black paint and no windows was a sleeping Colin Ryan. Resting from a night spent drinking and eating too much and sleeping with a good selection of women and men.

Then here comes Death.

Jack walked through the door of the bedroom. He stood there perfectly still for over thirty minutes thinking about how he has never gotten use to being in two places at once. He was in one location for a beginning and another for the beginning of an end.

All the roads that would be taken.

All the lives that would be lost.

All the destinies that would be born.

Jack walked over to one side of Colin's bed. He leaned down and kissed him gently on the forehead.

### Chapter

### Forty-Three

Colin awoke from what should have been a very restless sleep but instead it was a calm and peaceful slumber. He felt more alive than he had in years but knew deep down it had nothing to do with the sacrificial masturbation circle last night.

Though if Colin had been paying close attention he might have differentiated his state of mind from genuine calm and recognized it as the type that bugs you out a little deep inside. The kind of calm that wakes you up and has you feeling a little question coming up from your soul asking if you actually exist at all.

Climbing out of bed he walked over to one of several laptops sitting in a line of about twenty arranged across a very long white marble table that lined one side of the bedroom. 'Halo Light.' And with those words lights came on above each laptop, clicking on one at a time, going down the roll of the table.

'Danger Width.' With that code word all the laptops powered up. Each one displayed a video feed from one of his companies. The laptop screens changed every few seconds to display different areas of each location. All of this was giving him a full visual of everything he owned.

Which was a lot of stuff to keep an eye on.

Colin grinned and slowly gave a yawn out, 'Boring.' before he walked over and pushed an intercom button on his bedside phone.

'Envision, are you there?'

From the intercom, 'Yes sir. Do you need something, sir?'

'Call Edward in Accounts, Jackson in Future Science, and Davidson in my think tank department. I want specs on everything related to Future Science on my desk by 10:00 a.m.'

'It's 9 a.m. now, sir.'

'Then make it 10:10'

'Yes, sir.'

Colin grabbed a towel from a drawer and walked into his bathroom, stepped into the shower which turned on at a preset temperature as soon as the foot hit the tiles, and then he turned the hot water up more to a point where it hurt a little.

As the water fell across his back and the steam began to fill the bathroom he chuckled a small laugh to himself because knew he was alive.

Takes a little pain each day to remind you of that fact.

Well, at least that's how it works for me.

It's 9:30a.m. in the very large living room area. You know those large living rooms that rich and beyond rich people have. Some call them dens I think.

The room was decorated in paintings that really have no appearance of even a little artistic talent but were purchased for prices that would make the masters roll over in their graves and say, "Damn."

Decorated in a sense of non-decoration but shiny all around. There were plenty of shiny things in this living room. Shiny trims on furniture and shiny frames on paintings and shiny things hanging from the ceiling.

Sitting in his large, very huge, the size of most people's living room, Colin was watching news broadcasts on the damage the waves hitting Florida caused.

The news channels were trying to get angles on the loss of life and property. The way people are trying to cope and what is being said by the so-called experts and those who do not call themselves experts but are more intelligent in speaking and thought than the former about what the cause is behind the disaster.

Still the king of the run on sentence.

'Envision.'

Colin's personal assistant, a slick looking young man in a tailored suit walked into the room, 'Sir.'

'I want a million dollars donated to relief efforts in Florida. Also tell Clinton in P.R. that he needs to let slip a bit about me not thinking the government is acting quickly enough.'

'Yes sir.'

Envision left the room as Colin changed channels.

'I need to start letting everyone know I am alive and in the game,' he added to himself.

### Chapter

### Forty-Four

6:30p.m. in the large meeting room inside Colin's even bigger than his living room personal library. Some might find it funny that so many people would kill to have a large personal library in their home but those who end up having them for the most part don't use them that often.

We all know the rich like having larger and bigger things even if they don't use these larger and bigger things. I will try not to use larger or bigger to describe Colin's stuff again.

In the middle of the meeting room within the library was a lar... hefty table. The table seated thirty people and the room was decorated in business charts, graphs, and reports that Envision updated every morning.

One thing about Colin Ryan was that he wanted to know everything about the way his quote unquote empire was running. Most people don't think he has much to do with the day to day running of the company. That line of thinking is totally wrong.

Colin was sitting alone at the table in one of the handmade chairs with boxes of files, data disks, and DVDs scattered in front of him.

After just spending hours going through all the information he was in a deep think just staring at the materials on all of his company's future technology projects.

His concentration was broken by Envision entering the room.

'Sir, Dr. Stray is here to see you per your request.'

'Show him in.'

Envision left the room and in a few minutes a short, chubby, almost hunchbacked old man came in. He looked to be in his fifties. But those fifty years must have really kicked his ass because his body was more in line with the shape of someone in his nineties.

Colin rose from his chair and greeted Dr. Stray with a handshake, 'William, how are you doing these days?'

Dr. Stray answered sheepishly as Colin offered him a chair and they both sat down.

'Fine sir. You wanted to see me about the project my team is running right now?'

'Yes, I wanted to discuss the Gene Throw Project.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Don't worry. Everything is fine with the work you're doing for me.' Colin smiled and Dr. Stray finally exhaled. 'The work itself worries me though, William.'

'How so sir?'

'It scares me actually. This is the time when those behind the scientists and the scientist make a decision. Research into anything is pure in my eyes but once that research births something maybe the genie should be put back into the bottle and the bottle destroyed.'

'Sir, I'm a little confused.' Stray was visibly uncomfortable.

'You and your team have created genetic grenades.'

'You could call them that.'

'Humanity William. Human decency. Love for your fellow man... or woman.'

'Sir, we have no leaks. No one will get their hands on these I promise.'

'I will not have my father's name attached to a possible weapon such as this. These things always start with people saying they will never be used but they always end up being used. Don't they Dr. Stray?'

'Usually sir.'

'Your genetic grenades alter the human genome and mutate people into something we are not. Something we are not meant to be. Your work is appreciated but I see no positive use for these devices. Apply your knowledge to other endeavors within the company. I am ending Project Gene Throw as of now. Ryan Industries is moving away from projects such as these. Clean your lab. Gather up your records. Your team is already being transferred to other projects as we speak. A clean up team will be in your lab tomorrow to help you.'

'Mr. Ryan?'

'Yes?'

Dr. Stray stood up, reached out and shook Colin's hand.

'I think your father would be very proud of you right now. I always believed there was a lot of him in you.'

Dr. Stray left. He had always been worried about Colin. Always thought he cared more about power than making the world better. Now he was walking out into the world thinking differently about the son of one of his best friends.

A few minutes after Dr. Stray exited Colin stood and walked out of the meeting room, 'Father, we do have one thing in common. We aren't afraid to leap.'

### Chapter

### Forty-Five

When Colin Ryan was a teenager he went through a phase rich boys often do of wanting to hang out with the poor kids. One of those kids was someone he called his best friend until he got bored and moved on to collecting stamps. This young man's name was Ted Hunter. Colin's nickname for Ted was Nebbish which was something he picked up on a trip to London once with a distant relative that the family had basically hired to be family for him for a few months.

After his time being friends and romping with the rich Ted finished high school and earned a scholarship playing baseball at a local university. An injury destroyed his dreams of playing professional ball. After losing his scholarship because of his injury and being completely unable to play baseball Ted fell back in with some old friends from the neighborhood and became a bodyguard for a group of small time drug dealers. After multiple arrests and almost going to prison for a murder committed by one of his employers Ted decided to get a job at a local restaurant and leave his past behind. His dreams were gone, his chance at a good life was gone, and now he just wanted to live.

And that is all he wanted to do.

So when someone knocked on his apartment door Ted never expected to find Colin Ryan standing outside on the other side dressed in an eight thousand dollar suit and holding his arms out like Christ for one of his sheep.

Later in the day in the laboratories of Colin Ryan Industries Dr. Stray was boxing up everything involving Project Gene Throw. He agreed with his boss 100% on the decision to halt the project cold.

They could use what they learned from Project Gene Throw and implement it in other projects that would benefit the world and not add more suffering to it.

Colin walked into the lab startling Dr. Stray who was not expecting to see him.

'Mr. Ryan we're almost finished with the cleanup operation. I have only a couple more boxes of files to shred and one box of sphere units left to destroy.' Colin walked over, took his gloves off, and opened a box sitting on a lab table.

'Those are the units sir. They are activated by keys and have three minute adjustable timers. I'm so happy to know they won't be doing anyone any harm.'

Colin looked at the sphere he was holding in his hand. Looking it over seeing the sunlight from the lab windows reflected off its shiny surface and he thought about how much now was needed for a step in the right direction.

Dr. Stray was returning from an adjoining room. 'Sir, I just destroyed the last of the files. Only the units remain.'

Colin looked at the sphere he was still holding. Then he looked up and smiled at Dr. Stray, 'Could you get me some water? The moment has me dry mouthed.'

Dr. Stray smiled, nodded, and walked over to the lab's food refrigerator, thinking that even if Colin had changed from the over privileged rich boy who only cared about profits, he was still a spoiled brat in a lot of ways. He reached into the back of the refrigerator for a bottle of water and pulled it out.

The impact of the bullet wiped away, well blew away, half of Dr. William Stray's face and splattered it against the white refrigerator behind him. He fell to the floor with a thud. He was dead before his impact against the cold tiles that lined the floor of the lab sounded out.

Envision slowly entered the room and picked the bottle of water off the floor. He wiped some blood spots and brain bits off of it and handed it to his boss.

Colin unscrewed the top off the bottle and downed it in one try. He replaced the screw cap and handed the bottle back to Envision who was putting away his pistol. 'Make sure this goes into a recycling bin.' He put his gloves back on and picked up the box of gene spheres. 'I have another appointment. Handle the rest of this.'

'Yes sir.'

### Chapter

### Forty-Six

Scott and Siders have come to find themselves in the smallest airport in Florida. Well, not the smallest, which would be the one in Palm Bay, but that one is only used for the most part by some rich asshole that lives in Chicago as the local community likes to say.

Sitting in an expensive airport restaurant the two former military men are now awaiting the announcement of the next plane to Chicago. Their flight was canceled and they were supposed to be in Vancouver in a day.

Scott was digging into a huge plate of French Fries while Siders was trying to enjoy a salad that had passed its prime date long before it was served to him.

'What do you think they'll have us doing next?'

'Hopefully I get assigned to be a janitor somewhere because I'm tired of all of this super secret information diving.'

'Come on. You don't get off a little on this secret shit?'

'You Americans do.'

'Fuck you Brit.'

They smiled at each other and started laughing quietly to avoid attracting attention.

'Maybe they'll send us to London.'

'I hope not. My ex-wife lives there.'

Sitting behind Scott and Siders were Sabrena and Ken. They actually got on Siders and Scott's nerves so much with their loud arguing that our two newly christened black ops agents got up and left without finishing their meals.

### Chapter

### Forty-Seven

Humans are the only beings who can go out to synthesize an elixir of immortality and end up with gunpowder.

I think I read that in a dream once on the back of trading card wrapper.

On top of one of the tallest buildings in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago Ted Hunter stood beside an air circulation system where minutes before he placed a box labeled Colin Ryan Industries.

He had been slowly finishing off one bottle of gin and was ready to start another. He took a big swig from a fresh bottle and without putting down the bottle he opens the box he was standing beside. He takes out one of the spheres from the box. He took another long drink and set it down next to the box.

Pulling a key from his pants pocket he inserted it into the sphere and a timing clock readout clicked on and started a countdown. Ted turned and slung the sphere off the roof and watched it sail through the air.

It descended toward the street below.

The minutes before destruction are always poetry.

Scott and Siders really loathed airlines now. Doesn't help really that they were stuck in one spot for a very long time and when they get out and about it seems like nothing is going right in their traveling.

It doesn't take much travel to put a hate on for airlines thought in most people's heads though.

When they finally arrived in Chicago the airport was shut down because of a terrorist threat or some idiot left a bag filled with duty free crap at the airport unattended; which is normally the case.

Now both of them were standing in another line but this time the line was for a restaurant called Sidewalk Dogs which an airline magazine said was the most popular hot dog joint in all of Chicago.

Both of them were tired of airports and had to get away from them for at least a little while. Their flight was canceled for at least a day so they had nothing better to do anyways so a little food exploring was called for.

'Hot dogs are more of an American thing really. I grew up on bangers & mash.' Siders commented.

'You my friend are a stereotype of your people. Though to be honest I like bangers & mash too. But there is nothing like a Chicago dog.'

'So you keep saying over and over.'

'Not like we have anything el...'

Scott's words were cut short by a sudden explosion from across the street. The explosion put a bomb sized crater in the street and killed anyone within five yards of it. Take how big a bomb sized crater actually is and see the force of the blast sent Scott, Siders, and others who were standing in line for Sidewalk Dogs flying through the window of the restaurant.

The whole outlook had already turned into a chaos blurred scene of human perception. Very few people have what it takes inside to control their minds and hearts from a chaos such as this to actually doing something in a situation like this.

Scott regained consciousness first and slowly got to his feet. All around him people were unconscious or dead and the restaurant was filled with glass, blood, and debris. And here and there body chunks.

He turned to one side and saw Siders starting to move. His partner took more of the explosion than he did. Scott moved slowly over still dizzy himself and started helping his partner to his feet.

Siders was a little weak in the legs but after a few minutes regained his firm footing, 'What happened?'

'Some sort o...'

But again before Scott could finish his thought another blast shook everything on the street.

Siders and Scott hit the glass covered floor instantly without any thoughts of the glass now pressing into their chest and hands.

'That sounded like it came from down the street.'

'Terrorist, maybe beyond human?'

'Isn't everyone these days? That or someone just really pissed. Either way we need to see about the people in here and then check on the ones outside.'

Siders gave his partner a- Are You Insane, look.

Scott sighed, 'Listen. You know as well as I do that in a terrorist situation, sniper situation, or whatever this is, that the police won't allow ambulances into the scene until they know the location is secure. We might be these people's only hope for survival.'

'Poor fuckers.'

For an hour that seemed like a day more explosions rang out through the streets of Chicago causing death and destruction.

Ted picked up the last of the gene grenades, staggered a little, and almost fell off the roof of the building. He steadied himself and pulled up to stand straight on the edge of the roof. He took another drink from the bottle and a police sniper rifle bullet went straight through his neck. Slowly the grenade rolled out from Ted's hand and off his fingertips.

Down Ted and the grenade fell off the roof toward the street below. About halfway down the grenade exploded blowing one hand off of Ted's body. Ted watched almost in slow motion in horror as the last bit of life drifted out of him the sight of a few of his fingers flying away.

Bones from his hand traveled through a window of the building across the street and landed in the trash in a telecommunications office. The rest of his body hit on the street below along with glass and debris and particles from the grenade explosion. Everything except Ted's left hand rained down on a group of police officers on the empty street below.

The images continued to flood the television channels as Colin watched from his office, 'We all need to grow stronger.'

Scott and Siders were helping emergency crews load the injured and dying into vehicles to get them to local hospitals for treatment. The explosions have stopped with a sniper taking out the attacker but everyone was still on the edge of knowing that in these situations sometimes a calm period is a set up for more destruction.

Scott got into a police car to catch a ride to get checked out also. The ambulances were so filled with the very injured so police and fire where loading up on the merely injured.

Siders was ready to get into the other side of the car when Pulpy came down from the sky and landed beside him. Siders looked at him and moved to continue getting in the car but then he stopped, got back out, and stepped right in front of Pulpy. Scott and the police officer got out of the car also wondering what was going to happen.

Pulpy looked at the man who was nowhere as potent as he was in presence, appearance, or power, and Siders moved a little closer to his face to make sure the what he had to say would be heard, 'Just because you can fly does not mean you can't walk among us. Maybe if you did you would have been here to help. Just about the only thing you would be good for now is if you grabbed a broom.'

The three non-beyond human men got into the car and it pulled away leaving Pulpy standing in the street that had seen so much death on that day. The only signs remaining were debris, blood splatters, and smoke from formerly burning wreckage.

What Siders did not know was that Pulpy hadn't just been flying around but was in fact fighting the good fight somewhere else. A fight created to distract him. And it did distract him from other things not of its design.

Pulpy flew back up into the sky and soared above the city knowing he could never do enough. He flew above some clouds so he did not have to see the cities of humanity and floated in the air there for a time thinking.

Colin had spent the whole day watching television and he caught a report describing Pulpy arriving after the crisis was over, 'Too bad you do not live here hero. This city is about to get a whole lot more interesting. We have had mobsters, the Cubs, and Ozzie Gullien. They haven't seen anything yet. This city knows how to survive. Now it will learn how to grow from survival to strength.'

'Sir?'

'Yes, Envision.'

'Were you saying something to me, sir?'

'No, just talking to myself.'

### Chapter

### Forty-Eight

Neil Brown Hospital is where most of those injured by the grenade attacks were rushed. It is the best hospital in Chicago and also the largest. It was named after the first person to be killed by a beyond human serial killer named ISO.

Neil Brown was a member of one of the richest families in Chicago. He died on the streets of New York. ISO almost ripped his head off his shoulders while strangling him to death. His killer was brought to justice by Pulpy a week later but only after seven more people died.

When Pulpy fought ISO he flew them both up into the skies above New York City and ISO was never seen again. Officially the government said he was being held in an undisclosed location for the benefit of the rest of society.

Remind me to tell you about what really happened some other time because that's some fucked up shit son.

Scott and Siders were sitting in the ER waiting room drinking a couple of sodas bought for them by hospital staff members who were grateful to them for helping with the other victims. Every so often so one walks by and pats one of them on the back.

They actually treated each other's minor injuries with the hospital staff having more severe cases to focus on. They had offered their services as both have EMT level training but the hospital staff thought they looked whipped enough.

Right now they were just trying to rest while wondering where this sudden burst of heroism they had showed came from. The phone the black ops officer gave Scott and Siders had been in Siders's back pocket so long they had both forgotten about it and it scared the shit out of them when it started to ring.

Both men snapped to attention.

That's training there.

Siders tried to give Scott the phone, 'You answer it.'

Scott waved him off holding his hands in the air, 'You have it. You answer it.'

Siders pushed the green button and put the phone to his ear. He did not say a word out of total abstract fear and just listened for over an hour to the other side of the phone until he said, 'Yes sir.' He hit the red button and put the phone back into his pocket.

'What did they say?'

'Wrong number,' Siders said. Then he took a drink of his soda and turned to Scott, 'Actually, they're curious to know why we're sitting here drinking Pepsi in a waiting room when we should be on our way. I, on the other hand, am curious to know how they know that's what we're doing. Know what I'm saying?'

Both men started looking around as if they would see something with a sign saying- Big Brother Is Watching.

'So I guess we'd better get on the road again?'

'You guess right. And you will never believe where they're sending us now.'

Our two favorite career military men slowly left the hospital after saying a few goodbyes to hospital staff. As they went through the main double doors to the emergency room Scott turned back and said to his friend, 'Well, at least those people will get a couple of good night's sleep even if we won't.'

### Chapter

### Forty-Nine

Two nights later as most of Neil Brown Hospital slept stuff of destiny was ready to unfold.

Down deep below the other floors of the building, past the places of healing and even the dark places of billing, you find where the bodies of the dead inside the morgue.

In a section of the morgue that has been set aside for quarantined corpses a sort of military waiting room set up for military agents arriving to examine the bodies that died by the grenade attacks.

The bodies from the attacks were laying on twelve old black marble slabs that dated back to when the lower levels of the hospital were actually the lower levels of a slaughterhouse.

The media was going full tilt and without many questions with the military's story reporting that the grenade attacks were the action of a lone crazy man who had stolen a box of grenades from a military reserve base nearby.

Not totally a lie but a significant part of the puzzle was unknown to any living soul. That is with the exceptions being Colin Ryan and his personal servant. The grenades were spheres of gene altering chemicals and all of it was a plan of purposeful chaos.

On one of the marble slaughter tables a hand twitched.

In a movie that would have been much better bit. The camera would have zoomed in slowly on the hand and then a quick twitch would hopefully get the viewers heart beating.

### Chapter Fifty

Usef was itching to put Lindsey and Julie to hard work. He was old and frankly he had a good healthy hate for the young but before he could crack the whip, so to speak, and not just so to speak, because he does actually have a whip, by orders from his master he had to introduce them first to the others Death employees to keep his home running smoothly.

Megan and Eaves were a punk couple that worked in the processing area of Death's realm. One was the savior sibling, one was just around.

Usef led Lindsey and Julie into one of the apartments that served as the waiting room for Death processing. Death processing is nothing like it sounds and everything like it sounds, and far too complicated to get into here when a lesser writer is doing the writing.

Maybe I will hire a quality writer to explain it in the future.

The room they first walked into when entering the apartment was about the size of most master bedrooms. It contained one large couch that lined every wall of the waiting room and was only broken in two places: the front door and the door into the main processing area, into which Usef ushered Lindsey and Julie.

Inside they saw two young people sitting on a bed playing old video games. Each one of the pair appeared to be around twenty-five years old. The video games were a lot older than that.

These were the type of old games were tennis was two bars and a dot.

Remember those?.... Stop making me feel old.

Megan turned seeing them in the doorway and nodded with her yellow teeth and wide smile. She was a lanky, skinny young woman dressed in thrift store punk style.

She was sitting cross legged on the bed beside Eaves, who did not even acknowledge the presence of Usef, Lindsey, and Julie.

Eaves looked like he walked out of the nearest mall after being forced to buy one thing from each and every store. His style was a mixture of female and male clothing. Throw in a mohawk and you had Megan's lover in black makeup.

Usef fake coughed, trying to get their full attention.

Usef fake coughed again and the video game system they were playing exploded suddenly.

They both stood up from the far side of the bed picking each other up after falling to the floor during the small explosion.

'Hey Usef. What's up?' Megan said with an even wider smile than before but this time with a slight hint of fear.

Eaves crawled over to the smoldering game system, 'Man, you know he won't get us another one. Fucking living here without games is hardly bearable.'

Usef straightened his shoulders and tilted his head slightly in an I-have-no-time-for-this manner.

'Megan, Eaves, this is Lindsey and Julie. They will be working with me in the master's library. Lindsey, Julie, this is Megan and Eaves they work in death processing and I have no idea why he keeps them around.'

Megan walked over and greeted Lindsey and Julie while Eaves just sat on the floor sulking.

'That's harsh, Usef,' Megan said.

'He appointed us to these positions.' Eaves added.

Usef bent down like a wooden toy soldier leaning over to be face to face with Eaves, 'Only after you two flunked out as my assistants. You have no further to fall, just remember that.'

Eaves lip began to twitch a little. He did not care for Usef, 'What about Baumgardner and Seely?'

'Who are Baumgardner and Seely?' Lindsey asked.

Julie was still in a state of trying to wrap her mind around everything that was happening so she wasn't saying much at all; which was worrying Lindsey a little.

Usef stood back upright, 'They are the groundskeepers. I guess you should meet them also before starting work. Follow me.' And with that he ushered Lindsey and Julie out from the death processing area.

Once they had all left Megan kicked Eaves in the back of the head.

'Hey!'

'You stupid idiot. Do you want to be sent to Hell?'

'Usef can't do that.'

'No, but Jack can and I have never seen him in the mood he's been in lately.'

Eaves shrugged, 'I agree with you there sis.'

### Chapter

### Fifty-One

Baumgardner and Seely are stoners. I do not have it within me and I do not think any writer does to describe them better than with that one word.

A pair of misfits is also appropriate when talking about them but in a way that is how you could describe all of those who have come to work for Death.

They also were chosen by Jack to train under Usef but they got busted for trying to sneak into a forbidden area where only Death and Usef were allowed to go; so they were relegated to being groundskeepers for the whole realm but mostly on the baseball field and the area surrounding the dwellings of Death's home; which is separate from the rest of the realm.

Today they were dragging the infield of the baseball field when Usef came walking from one of the dugouts with Lindsey and Julie following him.

Baumgardner was the first to spot them, 'Damn. Look at the hot pie with Usef.'

Seely looked up from racking the dirt, 'Shit, man, you think they belong to Usef?'

Baumgardner hit Seely across the face, 'When have you ever known Usef to have any visitors or to have any sort of activities besides that fucking library?'

By this time Usef, Lindsey, and Julie had reached where Baumgardner and Seely were standing.

Let me describe the two groundskeepers a bit. Seely and Baumgardner are twin brothers. Same mom, different fathers, and no idea who the fathers are at that. The truth is their mother was a witch, and that is how they were twins but born separately, with no father whatsoever, ever, will, or could exist, and going beyond that would be a waste of your time because I do not believe I will ever mention their parentage again in the future.

They basically both looked like side-of-the-road prison workers.

Seely was the more friendly of the two and he went up to shake Usef's hand, 'Good to see you Mr. Usef. Nice day isn't it?'

Usef just sneered and gave him a look, 'The day is not nice when I have to venture outside my books to be among the other help.'

Baumgardner walked up and joined his brother, 'Just remember you're help just as much as we are.'

Usef shunned Baumgardner in the sort of way someone does when he cannot be bothered with further talk between himself and the person he is speaking with. In this case he could not be bothered with Baumgardner and in the case of most everyone else he could not either, unless it was Jack.

Seely smiling shook the hands of Lindsey and Julie who smiled back at the younger of the brothers.

Baumgardner demonstrated that Seely was also the nicer of the two by the way he greeted them, 'Bout time we got more women around here to look at besides that whore in processing.'

Lindsey took him out with one punch knocking him cold. That was some saved up aggression that need to get out.

Seely, Usef, and Julie stood over him.

'That's my brother,' Seely said sounding slightly scandalized.

'He has never looked better,' said Usef.

'That's my woman.' Julie

### Chapter

### Fifty-Two

Zombies are supposed to be slow and drag a leg behind them like in the old mummy movies. I might be mistaken, because I am not a huge fan, but aren't they supposed to move slowly? Isn't that what they teach us in all those movies and comics?

......................... So I guess you're telling me there are movies and such with "Fast moving zombies"? Isn't that like saying "Honest politician" It's so not fitting into the shape that you should just subcategory it into a new species?

These zombies I'm about to write about probably aren't like any notion of what a zombie should be but for the sake of laziness I'm going to call them zombies nonetheless. I mean that's how people come to refer to the living dead as zombies in the first place when a real zombie isn't dead at all. I walk myself into a rich tradition of lazy writing.

These zombies are showing great athletic skill and agility as they attack patients and staff throughout Neil Brown Hospital. They came from deep down within the hospital and are now running amok as the deep night moves on.

I think the highlight of my writing career may be one day looking back and know that I found a way of fitting "running amok" somewhere in a story.

Not the first of the patients the zombies attacked, but more like the twentieth, counting hospital staff, was a young woman who lost her right arm in one of the grenade attacks.

My sentence structure borders on the insane.

She had been out running as she was just starting a new health kick. She needed to get into better shape after two years sitting in an office trying to track down pedophiles on the internet.

She pulled her right arm out from the chest of the zombie who had started attacking her a few minutes before. She punched a clean hole right through it.

And aside is the fact that she didn't have a right arm a few minutes ago.

She had been sleeping away in her hospital bed enjoying some dream about some English footballer when she suddenly awoke with an intense pain in her right arm. Her first thought was basic. But I don't have a right arm anymore? But when she pulled the sheets back she found growing from her shoulder a new arm that appeared to be made completely of bone.

Though before she could even start to think any more questions about her current situation her current situation changed as that now holed out zombie burst into her room.

After the drama of an attacking zombie she ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. Smart girl as most hospital doors are pretty solid. Too bad most of the people in this hospital would not show such intelligence. She planned on staying in the bathroom forever if need be.

Ready to eating soap and shampoo until things changed.

Her name is Sarah Heap.

Way to be smart, Sarah Heap.

### Chapter

### Fifty-Three

In other parts of the hospital zombies continued to attack killing and creating more zombies. The zombie fest was now in full gear.

Pull up a bucket as this may get a bit gross.

Jeff Stanford was caught right in the middle of one of the grenade explosions. More to the point, he was quite plainly at ground zero point for one of them. It hit literally at his feet while he was chaining his bike to a trash can. He was on his way home from another day in the retail game selling women's underwear. He was very good at his job.

It disturbs his mother, his skill at his job.

Only a week into his life living in Chicago, after moving from Indiana where he grew up as a country boy, he was now laying in a coma in the hospital.

Walking with crawling legs into the room where Jeff slept came three zombies. As the zombies slowly approached Jeff's bed, a miracle, or what would appear to be a miracle, happened as Jeff suddenly and for no reason medically or otherwise awoke from his coma.

The zombies were climbing onto his bed. One of them grabbed him with both hands by the throat and began choking him while the other two started chewing on his arms.

With a flash of light the zombies were thrown away from Jeff's bed and onto the floor of his room with a loud thud.

When they stood again in the manner only zombies can stand and regained their dead footing the zombies were dazed and you know something has to be pretty fucking amazing to stun zombies. They stood still and just looked on as the body of Jeff Stanford slowly, brightly, and violently split into two people who now stood beside the bed.

One of the former one and now two was a much younger looking Jeff Stanford, as he would have looked at an early age, maybe around twenty-two, and beside him stood a young female who was his sister. A sister that had been dormant inside his body since he was born.

Now they were connected for life, by spirit, and with great power all thanks to a grenade.

The zombies got over the sight of what had just happened and moved forward to attack Jeff and his sister.

Let's call her Jennifer because it will make things easier for me.

As the zombies approached Jeff and Jennifer's eyes began to glow orange. The whole room also started to smell like freshly bakes bread for unknown reasons.

Jeff leapt over the bed tackling one of the zombies.

Jennifer approached the other two zombies in the room and shoved her hands through their chests. The zombies just stared down as she pulled her hands out from their chests. She grabbed one of the zombies by one ear and rammed its head into the wall until its ear came off in her hand. Then suddenly she shoved it down the throat of the other zombie and pulled out its windpipe while there.

Jennifer turned to see Jeff beating the third zombie with its own arm until it was a bloody zombie mess of meat on the floor.

### Chapter

### Fifty-Four

In another room as zombies roamed the hospital one particular zombie was eating the arm of a screaming cancer patient. Guess the cancer wasn't that bad, comparatively speaking.

And is my bad tasteless zombie joke for this book. Every zombie story needs at least one.

Though now thinking it really wasn't a tasteless joke but more a tasteless comparison?

### Chapter

### Fifty-Five

In the maternity ward little zombies were going out in search of their mothers.

It's not to the facts but I liked the way it sounded when I wrote it.

Got to merchandise that image though.

Packs of them where crawling through hallways and along corridors. Little hands were slapping fat palms against the cold floors in search of warmth because warmth means life and that's what they are hungry for.

All of their skin cover is geared towards seeking out warmth; while their eyes look for movements and their ears for sounds of things looking to escape. It's a design with a purpose. A purpose of chaos.

A baby zombie is the same as an adult one. Once things tick over for them they know to the fibers of their being what to do. Caught at the moment before death that is when the new gene coding rapidly consumes the old.

So take in the sight of this group crawling into a dark office where a doctor was catching a quick hours sleep with music playing into his ears to keep hospital noises from waking him up between his double shift in surgery.

### Chapter

### Fifty-Six

In the emergency room, the ER, the only place without bad tasting zombie writing.

Wait, was that in bad taste or just a bad pun?

These zombies are so much more than just semi organized blood blobs of dead flesh. They are perfect to what they were supposed to be. They think as well as convert and kill and eat.

Let's hope they don't form a religion.

Wait...

Ok, I'm not going there because this story needs to move on quick.

Within a few hours the zombies had all of the exits blocked and as the night went on more and more zombies were created. They had made this a contained nightmare still unfolding.

### Chapter

### Fifty-Seven

Sarah opened the bathroom door just a little. The little being enough for her to barely see out into her hospital room. Barely seeing gave out a little comfort. I said a little because she next shut the door, braced it with more metal objects, and climbed back into the shower to make the world go away for a while.

Hospital shower heads can be good relaxing.

I bet nobody has ever thought if they were ever to come face to face with a bunch of walking dead zombies they would distract themselves from the horror with masturbation but Sarah has found it is one of the few things that can take her mind off life.

May seem strange to others but what the hell, I say whatever works for you.

### Chapter

### Fifty-Eight

Jeff and his newly reborn sister Jennifer weren't self-satisfying or anything like that. They were just sitting against the back wall of Jeff's hospital room. Over twenty more zombies had tried to attack and kill this brother and sister one...two ma....two person zombie killing team.

Inside the room there were scattered dismembered zombie parts. Any other zombie passing by got a sixth zombie sense to let it know to just keep walking or it could lose an arm, leg, finger, group of fingers or something else because even to a zombie being dismembered was not cool.

Part of the job description but still not cool.

### Chapter

### Fifty-Nine

The remaining members of the ER staff and the surviving patients finally fought off the zombies that were attacking the ER and had been able to seal off the area from the rest of the hospital.

The front double doors to the ER had already been sealed off by a group of zombies when they sneak attacked the ER through them.

The only members of the ER staff still alive were Dr. Ward, the front desk receptionist Megan Anthony, and a nurse named Diana Stone.

The surviving ER staff was trapped with Johnny Lee, Orlando Keith, Neka Post, Preston Gates, and Francine Pop. Here is a kicker of information: all of them are survivors from the grenade attacks who only received mild injuries and were treated and ready to leave the hospital when the zombies attacked and blocked off the only escape route.

Dr. Ward was sitting on the receptionist's desk having just come back with Orlando and Preston from safely storing away the bodies of victims from the zombie attacks who did not turn into zombies themselves.

I guess not everyone is good enough to be a zombie.

I bit I would be turned down from being zombiefied.

'Well, that is at least something we know.' Dr. Ward.

'What?' asked Megan.

'It seems like only one out of every four or five of those killed by these zombies becomes a zombie itself. Maybe each one only has so much venom or a kind of egg count?'

'Could it be some kind of virus?' asked Diana.

'That would be my guess just by what I have seen but it could be anything. It could be some sort of reanimation of corpses, some sort of sub-life after death we did not know about, and then it could just be something we will never know the answer to.'

'Doctor?' whispered Neka as she sat on the floor across from the him.

'Yes, Ms. Post?'

'These things can't be movie zombies. I mean they planned things like the barricade on the ER doors and cutting phones and electricity. Do you think maybe they aren't dead?'

'Could be? Maybe I'm just seeing zombies because that is what they appear to be.'

'Doesn't really matter does it,' asked Johnny as he walked over and sat on the floor beside Neka.

'Why?' replied Neka.

'Survival. No matter what these things are. We just need to survive long enough for someone to notice the largest hospital in the city is shut down.'

'He has a point,' said Dr. Ward.

And you may ask- What about fucking cell phones? Well, they are scrambled within this hospital because this particular hospital is listed as a hospital under Homeland Security and thus cell phones are not allowed in case the government needs to take over the hospital for matters of National Security.

But phones like the one Scott and Siders used early do work because they are specially coded.

Now that that is out of the way let's get on with the emergency room drama.

Dr. Ward has Johnny, Orlando, Preston and Francine helping him mix up a bunch of chemicals to use as a weapon while Megan, Diana, and Neka get medical supplies ready for burn injuries.

The zombies have been pounding on the hospital inner doors for hours and the doors were getting ready to give and just as they did Dr. Ward was waiting with a bucket of chemicals. He threw it on the group of zombies first through and at this moment also Johnny flipped a lighter and threw it at the zombies and they burst into flames but a lesson learned here is that in this story when zombies catch fire they explode.

So they exploded one by one while running around on fire. A sight that would have probably sent many a kid into fits of laughter.

After the last of the torched zombies went to pieces all of the ER survivors looked up to see another group of zombies pouring through the doors.

Dr. Ward, Johnny, Orlando, Preston, Francine, Megan, Diana, and Neka all looked up at the same time and said simultaneously in a feat of coincidence that has never been seen before in history, 'We are so screwed.'

There was a bit here with lots of action and zombie gore centered within a ironed out poetic brutality but I think I may be locked up if I release the thoughts that came into my head when writing that bit so let's just skip ahead to about an hour later in the ER.

### Chapter Sixty

Dr. Ward was looking at Johnny, Orlando, Neka, Preston, and Francine to see if they had changed in other ways besides the extraordinary abilities and powers they seemed to have shown when they kicked the living crap out of the zombies swarming into the ER.

It was so indescribable and so violent that I cannot pull myself to a point where I can describe it to you as I mentioned above so please do not make me relive it.

Badgering will not help.

So please, apologies and everything, just take my word for it that it was cool.

In a nice sick sort of way.

While the good doctor was playing touch the beyond humans and see if they bleed, Diana and Megan were talking as they added the last bit to the new barricade cutting off the ER just in case more zombies were walking around dragging legs inside the hospital somewhere.

The newly built barricade blew just as Diana and Megan were walking to where the others were in the waiting room area, which had been turned into a treatment and exam area, and standing in the place where the barricade had been was Jeff.

Then the barricade which the zombies placed to block off the outside world blew also and in the ashes of what was once a set of double doors to the ER from outside stood Jennifer.

The new reborn siblings walked through the smoke to each other.

Jennifer grabbed Jeff by the hand and led him out of the hospital and into the streets. In unison they went out into the world. The siblings walked into the city and down the street just as Pulpy landed in the ER parking lot just outside the doorway. He walked into the ER and looked around.

Francine was the only one with any words left in her system, 'We have our own heroes here. It's done scout leader.'

Pulpy sighed, he received a signal on his communication disc, sighed again and left.

He flew up into the sky as fully armed National Guardsmen pulled into the parking lot too late also.

### Chapter

### Sixty-One

Scott and Siders were driven miles into the mountains of Canada where they found themselves in a clearing the size of two American football fields. A helicopter was waiting on their arrival primed to leave on quick notice.

Yes, it was a black helicopter. It also had cool yellow stripes on it. Black helicopters shouldn't worry you if you see them flying through the sky but if they have yellow stripes, well, then something is up.

Soldiers in blue and green camouflage escorted Scott and Siders from the jeeps which they traveled in to the helicopter where they were meet with soldiers dressed in orange and green camouflage.

That's some colour coded black ops stuff there.

'Where are these guys blending in?' Scott said to Siders as they climbed into the helicopter.

Siders shrugged, 'A war zone in a crayon box?'

A quite boring hour and a half later Scott and Siders were arriving at their new home where they would be spending most of their future.

The black helicopter was a ride of excitement. About the amount of excitement you always felt when you were in the principal's office not because you did anything wrong but for another reason. You still felt like at any moment you would be convicted of something you could have done wrong at some point in your life.

As the copter was descending down the former Sergeant and former Lieutenant could see the base. The base appeared to be around six football fields in length, Canadian football fields, and as wide as two aircraft carriers parked side by side awaiting a new group of young sea legs.

The building seemed to have no roads that led to or from it and was painted black with yellow stripes.

Hey, maybe the black ops people are actually alien bubble bees....I was joking...Really....Though?

Scott and Siders will learn to call this place by the name is known in the black operations circles. It was Blackbase-51222 and as they were told this Scott wondered if that would be on their checks.

On the checks for their last assignment it said he was getting paid 750 dollars an hour to work for a well known taco joint who use nothing but the best grade D meat.

### Chapter

### Sixty-Two

Sabrena simply collapsed in terror when she saw the bodies of Julie and Lindsey floating in the standing water in Julie's beach house bedroom. She was on her knees which put the water level just below her throat.

Ken scooped Sabrena up out of the water and into his arms. He looked for a second at the floating bodies of two of his best friends and then treaded water slowly moving out of the house and stepping through the broken glass doors onto the back porch.

He walked out onto the beach scattered with debris. He found a clear spot of sand and laid Sabrena down.

She slowly started crying and Ken knelt down and held her tight to his chest.

### Chapter

### Sixty-Three

Colin Ryan woke up to the sight of Envision standing over him with a cell phone in his hand.

Colin rolled over, facing away, and knocked on the forehead of a fully unclothed female.

'Yes, Envision, what do you want?'

'Euagles has a report for you sir. Do you wish to call him back to discuss?'

'What does my pay roll G-Man have to report for me today?'

'Sir?'

'All of my agents know they can speak of anything to you, Envision. Did he report to you?'

'Yes sir. But sir?' Envision pointed to the female.

'If she is lucky she will not awake for hours. Did he report to you?'

'Yes.'

'Then I have no reason to speak to him myself. What did he say?'

'Last night a whole hospital of people were killed in what the government is calling a gas attack.'

'Which hospital would this be?'

'Neil Brown Hospital.'

Colin smiled and closed his eyes, 'I love when a plan starts to really move. You may leave now Envision.'

Envision left the bedroom.

Colin turned to the female in his bed. Then he pulls a small knife out from under his pillow and pokes her slowly and shallowly in the ass but she does not move a muscle.

'I guess she is having a good day also.'

### Chapter

### Sixty-Four

Sarah Heap was sitting on the cold wooden floor of her apartment crying in the dark. She had been able to sneak by all the government agents who combed the hospital for survivors, surviving zombies, and anyone who looked like they might have abnormal powers.

She accomplished this slick escape by saying someone locked her in the bathroom of her hospital room and she actually did not see anything that happen. She told them it must have been a nurse.

They most definitely would have dragged her away to look her over if they knew she grew back an arm totally made up of bone that was both hard but also flexible. She signed it with as many names as she could recall with a Sharpie an intern had used to mark her chart to make it look like a cast.

A bright young lady she is. And so she was not the one they were saying could now heal almost any wound and she was not the one with super strength nor was she the one with agility and not the one with mind powers and another nor were they saying she was the one with a sonic scream.

She was the one in her apartment alone, sitting in the dark, crying and scared for her future because it just got more complicated than almost anyone else could imagine.

The government covered up what happened at the hospital and they gained some people of great interest to study. What they could not create and control just fell right into their laps and they could not really care how, by who, by what, or any other question on how this came to be.

### Chapter

### Sixty-Five

Jack and Usef were walking across the baseball field in the realm of Death.

This was Jack's favorite place to walk and think and there was no one else in creation he trusted more with his thoughts than one of his oldest friends.

'What do you have to say about Lindsey and Julie old friend?' Jack said this to Usef while kicking dust over second base.

'They will fit in nicely, sir. A lot better than the last two sets you brought to me.'

'All are here for a reason Usef as are you and even I.'

Jack sat down in the infield grass near third base and motioned for his friend to sit down beside him. Usef reluctantly joined him sitting on the ground.

'Everything is going to change' Jack rubbed his neck, 'So much so fast amd for all of creation.'

'Is that not the way of life sir?'

'No my friend. That is the way of Death.'

Later the two friends continued their walk around the field quietly chatting as two friends like to do on lazy days- about wine, old legends, future legends, old loves, old lusts, and whether major league baseball will ever smarten up and eliminate both the designated hitter and interleague play.

### Chapter

### Sixty-Six

Imagine you walk into your study, if you have a study, most people in the world are not in the "I have a study" category but if you did have a study and you did walk into it the biggest surprise you could get would be a shaved headed Brittney Spears kissing your youth minister who touched you in that special secret way or maybe even something scarier like your best lust celebrity having sex with your mom.

Those things would cause your brain and hormones to go into such a confused state your head would explode. Another thing that would make your head explode would be if you walked into your study to find the Archangel Michael standing by your desk shaking the snow globe you recently brought back from a trip to Mexico.

Well, recently being a hundred years ago.

And yes they did have snow globes then. They first appeared in the 1800's, so there!

Jack walked into his study to find the Archangel Michael shaking his Mexican snow globe. Michael noticed he had different one the last time he was here. He picked it up for him in South Korea for his old friend and brought it to him on a more social sort of visit to Death's realm.

If Angels, and Archangels even more so, ever make a social visit there is always an agenda there somewhere.

'Michael.'

'Death.'

'You can call me Ja...'

'Death.'

'Okay, I forgot Angels have a thing about sticking to official titles.'

'I see you have chosen a new dealer Death.'

'Right to the point tonight, hey? You know the only thing I do not miss about Heaven? The total lack of prolonged conversations. That and the shiny of it all gave me an eternal headache.'

'He was an interesting choice.'

'He was just pushed a little towards a direction he was heading to in due time. Everything is changing beyond the scope of even you and me. They have to change with everything else.'

'He is as you have moved him towards. He would not have taken these steps without your involvement. Neither Heaven nor Hell will have anything to do with the actions you have set into motion.'

'I am as creation has birthed me and I do as he Destiny cries for me to do. You see me, I see you, and we are all marionettes.'

'All Angels will cry for the suffering humanity will face because of your dedication to your position.'

Death snapped the snow globe from the Archangel's hands with quick anger, 'For Christ's sake and what of your dog trail at the feet of God?'

Michael's wings burst out from his robes in insulted fury. Two of the most powerful beings in all of creation, who once were friends, comrades in arms, were now inches from conflict with each other.

'You are of the Fallen. To pay for your past actions against God you are placed now as you must walk until the end of all.'

'Yes and remember this Archangel this position also has me with power enough to face you.' Suddenly Death was completely calm and started playing with the snow globe himself turning away from Michael with a child like grin on his face, 'But remember also that my place, my actions are watched by God at all times. So do not judge me without judging God.'

Jack turned back around to see Michael had left. His smile disappears and he throws the snow globe into the air in frustration and walks out of the study, 'And to think I use to let him kiss me.'

### AUTHOR'S NOTE

When I decided to do a revision and re-edit on Stereo forming what is now Tin Universe Monthly #1 I asked a number of people what they liked and didn't like about the original. Besides correcting the bad spelling and grammar, probably replaced with different bad spelling and grammar, a lot of people thought overall the chapters needed to be fattened up more in some places and stream lined in others. I've cut a few chapters complete but they will show up again in other releases.

I hope the changes I've made not only make Tin Universe Monthly #1 a better story than the original Stereo but also show the hard work I've put in the last few years to get better at telling stories.

Thanks for reading,

Brian C. Williams

https://twitter.com/hangofwednesday

http://underthetrainingbook.blogspot.com/

