Monday, November 16, 2009

Short (Inconsistencies Continued, Part 13)

The second APC came to a screeching halt, swerving sideways to present its side to the Telekinetic, rather than the vulnerable and lightly armored front end. The Telekinetic flicked the remains of a cigarette to the gravel strewn ground and winked conspiratorially at the driver of the APC before lifting a sharp-edge piece of gravel from the ground and cracking the sound barrier as he rocketed it through the driver’s face.


Bullets began flying as the soldiers exited their ride and the Telekinetic winced as several round smacked into his body armor, their force lessened but not totally absorbed by the armor and his mental shielding. His response was to lift a fistful of gravel from the ground and lob the impromptu weapon at his enemies, once more making the tremendous crack of breaking the sound barrier.


He let go a third volley and when the gravel and bodies clattered to the ground there was a single soldier left with a shattered kneecap. He stalked towards the fallen American, hurling German expletives and screaming his rage at the man. A mental thrust knocked the man’s sidearm away and the German put his palm to the soldier’s face, his mind vibrating the molecules of his hand so fast that the appendage shimmered like a heat haze as it burned a handprint into the soldier’s face. The Telekinetic rose to his feet and spat at the dead man’s face as a final insult, before moving to join the Brick.


Meanwhile, another APC had rolled into the yard in front of the Immortal; it hadn’t stopped and had almost pancaked him.


“The good doctor has brought each of a present my brothers,” said the Immortal in German. No one responded, other than the soldiers of the APC, who were firing at him.


The Immortal spread his arms wide, challenging the soldiers to bring him down and laughing as their rounds sent him stumbling and put holes in his perfect pale skin.


“You cannot end me,” he roared, and they kept firing.


The guns of the soldiers clicked empty of ammunition and the whole squad set to reloading, the Immortal ran at them. He reached them just as the first soldier finished slamming a clip home and put three bullets into the Immortal’s heart. The wound affected him no more than the various other already healing wounds had, and he smiled as he knocked the gun aside with a strong slap and pressed his other hand to the soldier’s neck.


The Immortal’s hand and arm, up to the elbow, discorporated into a grey-green cloud of particles that wound their way up the soldier’s neck and slipped into his mouth, nose, ears, and even his tear ducts. The soldier began chocking as the biomass of the Immortal clogged his lungs and cut off his air supply, this was not the end the Immortal had in mind for him though. The Immortal’s flesh began eating away at that of the soldier’s, acting like a razor against the cell walls of the man’s flesh, he unzipped the man and what was left after he reclaimed his limb was nothing but a pile of melted looking bones surrounding by pink goo that stank like meat left too long in the sun. The rest of the squad fared no better.


The Brick had everything well under control when the Telekinetic joined him. His unfeeling flesh was cracked and bloody in several places from the impact of the truck, but the bullets of the soldiers were having no more effect on his flesh than a bb gun on a two by four. He roared and bellowed like a great bear, flinging men into the air like cabers where the Telekinetic plucked them from gravity’s grip with his mind and accelerated them past the speed of sound directly into the pavement.


A short ranged comm device beeped in the Brick’s ear and he acknowledged it. It was the Doctor.


“Should one be left alive to answer questions?”


The Brick shook his head and hefted another soldier into the air while his other massive fist reached to take a gun from one nearby.


“No. These are no masterminds or members of command structure, they are peons. Cannon fodder. They have been sent like insects from the hive to harass us with their buzzing. Let them die like the drones they are.”


“I see your point, but any information-“


“No. I will not discuss with you like the man of metal. I will do as I see fit. If you see fit to take action, then do so before I tear the head from the shoulders of the last of these little insects.”


One giant finger reached up to his ear and crushed the earbud before the Doctor could issue a reply. He spoke to the Telekinetic.


“These Americans, always talking and thinking and asking question, they are diplomats and politicians, not warriors.”


The Telekinetic said “You speak truth my brother,” and then he crushed the heart of a soldier about to put a storm rifle to the back of the Brick’s neck.


When there was nothing left of all the soldiers but battered meat and gunsmoke, bravo team met in the center of the yard. The Brick produced a cigar and the Telekinetic produced cigarettes for himself and the Immortal, lighting all three tobacco products with a vibrating fingertip. Bravo team sighed as one as they enjoyed a pleasant post battle smoke.


Cigarettes and cigars were outlawed in their native land, and addiction to tobacco was considered as shameful as any other addiction or weakness, the same was true of the North here in America. The Immortal and Telekinetic smoked expensive cigarettes, not the cheap ones the Gangster and Driver shared. The Brick smoked thick cigars smuggled north from Cuba because his mangled insides and resilient organs could not even tell he was inhaling tobacco smoke or feeding it nicotine if he smoked as he Immortal and Telekinetic did, so only the most potent and thick cigars had any effect on him. It was expensive and difficult to obtain cigarettes, and more so to provide the Brick with cigars, but they smoked because it was another way to separate themselves from the country and government that had betrayed them.


With the tenets of their ritual observed, team bravo entered the fire station to confer with team alpha.

No comments:

Post a Comment