Black Parade (15 page)

So Billy had to work on that.

Finally he did it.

I had heard it before. He had it. He had it. So I was less than enthusiastic when he called to say he had it.

Billy was sick and twisted and reminded me every bit of both of the men who raised him.

There was a chamber. I saw the blood on the walls, but that wasn’t unusual.

The chamber was padded, square and about twenty-five feet long.

The observation room was above the chamber. I had been there many times positioned behind the protective walls. There was a weapons port in the glass. Billy would place the laser weapon there, ask for the release of the LEP, and then fire from behind the protective wall.

On that particular day, Billy had the weapon in his hands.

“What are you doing, Bill?” I asked.

“I’ll be back.” Billy walked to the door.

“Bill … wait.”

Before I could say anything else, he left. What was he doing? Then I saw him go into the chamber.

Was he insane? Twenty-five feet was nothing. Especially for a waiting LEP. They would lunge and Billy probably might only have three seconds at the most.

A second for the door to lift, a second for his presence to register with the LEP, and a second for it to get to him.

I pressed the intercom. “Billy, what the fuck are you doing?”

Billy waved out his hand as if to say don’t worry.

He waved me off?

Worry? I was scared to death.

Yeah, this forty-year-old man was the best mind that we had, but he was also like family.

My heart beat so hard, I feared my aged pumper would stop.

Billy placed on a headset. “Test, one.. two.” He spoke through the speaker. “Am I coming in?’

“Roger that, Doctor Hayes.” Another man said.

Billy raised his weapon.

My hands went to the glass. I begged in my mind. Please don’t. Please don’t.

Billy instructed, “Lift the door.”

Here it was.

Three seconds.

Thump. Thump. My heart pounded.

One second …the door lifted.

Two seconds… the beast eyed Billy.

Three seconds … it lunged.

A mighty growl rang out as it lunged.

Fire!

One shot, dead center of its chest, ripped the torso in two.

Billy shouted. “Holy Fuck! Did you see that?” He grinned. “Uncle Dan, did you see that? Was that fucking beautiful or what?”

A few more ‘who hoo’s’ and self celebration squeals and cheers, and Billy gloated in his own inventive glory.

The look upon his face was one I’d never forget.

The feel of that moment was also one I’d never forget. Billy felt Victory, I felt, for the first time in a long time … hope.

It took a year to manufacture enough laser weapons and pulses, along with cartridges, to arm out elite LEP forces.

We didn’t have many that were classified as Elites, but enough for Johnny’s plan.

We still had access to working satellites, one was close to a hundred years old but the images told us where the LEPS lived.

It was easy. They killed everything and moved on. Like Locusts.

They were always down south.

Finally we had an offensive plan.

Johnny estimated our ammunition and how we to hit their camps.

Just north of Savannah was probably one of the biggest LEP communities. Johnny wanted to hit that one. They had been successful with four smaller ones.

In protective suits, unable to be detected, we sent in spies and saw the nest.

We estimated there were two thousand LEPS and we were sending in twenty men.

Twenty men equipped with Billy’s weaponry.

Of course, Jack Slagel was second in command for the raid.

From the control station, we were able to monitor the entire hit and raid. We did this via headgear cameras, suit vitals signs, and headset monitoring.

It was as if we were a part of it.

“Jesus Christ,” Billy whispered out, looking over the satellite images laid upon the table.

“What?” I asked, my concentration was on the raid that was imminent.

“Did you look at these?”

With a huh, I turned my head. “Um, yeah, Billy, that’s why we’re doing this.”

“No, Uncle Dan, look at these images.”

I did.

I looked but still didn’t pick up on what Billy was hinting at.

His hand smoothed across the topography of the Eastern U.S.

His expression dropped. “I never really looked. Look what happened to our beautiful green world.”

I finally looked. Good Lord, he was right.

Gray areas were destroyed. And everywhere seemed brown.

Billy looked at him. “If we don’t destroy them, Dan, they’ll destroy us. And the sad part is, the LEP aren’t doing this to our world. We are. We are burning out everything just to burn them.”

He was right.

The LEP needed trees. They needed foliage. They hid there.

We burned them, flattened them, and made it impossible for things to grow again.

The LEP only moved like locusts because they migrated to greener pastures.

It was at that moment, when I pondered again if perhaps maybe Man was meant to be extinct.

“This has to work,” Billy said. “We have to get a grip on them.”

He called the weapon the Hitler.

The Hitler was set in motion to perform genocide on a species that was no more than an abomination that we had created.

It was exciting, even more so on this raid, because it was also large.

Five of us monitored it. I didn’t have to be there, but I wanted to be there.

Twenty monitors lined a wall, each measuring eight by eight inches. Underneath each monitor was the name of the person and their vitals.

You could tell Johnny was not a young man any more. His voice gave that away.

But for fifty-two he was strong and fit, following the path his father Frank had followed. Fighting every battle.

Jack loved his father.

That was evident by the jump in his heart rate when Johnny spoke of him.

Their headset conversations were coming through the speakers. We saw Johnny in all of the monitors but his own as he lined up his men and was speaking to them.

Through Johnny we saw the soldiers. The Elite. Not a single one of them looked scared. They looked determined.

We ran a check on all their vitals, radios and so forth.

Billy used the 'all call' feature to speak to them. “Gentlemen, remember you have ten charges. Use them before you use the pulse. Each pulse should take out three to four LEPS if needed. Also, remember to use the SD if you get into a bad situation. Switch to SD, drop the weapon and run. It will explode the remaining charges and the pulse. You have three seconds to get clear.”

A round of Rogers rang out.

Billy sat back and wiped his brow. He was just as bad on the first wave.

We listened.

“Jack, you take team one to the back area,” Johnny instructed. “They’re sleeping there now. On my call, open fire on them.”

“Estimate?” Jack asked.

“One seventy five.” Johnny replied. “Davidson, take team two and three to the east sleeping area. That’s a big one. On my call, open fire, then pulse.”

“Roger that.”

“Michaels, team three guards. Twenty of them on the perimeters and walls. Each of you position yourself for four each.”

“Roger.”

“I’ll take team four, we’re hitting the nesting and the big rest area. We’ll coordinate like last time gentlemen.”

“Roger that.”

I was proud. I swiped a finger over my top lip, rocking back, feeling somewhat arrogant and confident.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so confident.

“Sarge, something’s wrong,” Davidson spoke. “I don’t have anywhere near a hundred sleeping.”

“Me either,” Added Jack.

“Roger on that one, here,” Michaels said.

Then I heard a ghost of the past ring out.

The graveled, “fuck me,” from Johnny. “Intel fucked somewhere or these things moved. I got way too many in stasis to take out with one team.”

I saw it. I couldn’t’ believe what I was witnessing through the monitors of Johnny and his team.

The nest was on the side of a huge building, but instead of the two hundred we had predicted, it seemed that almost every LEP was there protecting the nest.

Billy cut in, “Hey John, if you coordinate the pulses, you can hit them and take them out. You’re gonna need one just for the nest.”

“Got it, Bill. All teams listen up, change of plan. Three from each team meet me out front. STAT. We’ll coordinate … fuck!”

I saw it too, so did Billy and everyone else in the control room.

Almost as if they were waiting, the LEP’s rose.

“Back it up, back it up!” Johnny ordered.

“Johnny get your men out of there,” I yelled.

Billy added. “Back up, pulse and leave.”

”That’s the plan. “ Johnny said. He was obviously moving.

“Dad, everything okay?” Jack asked.

“Teams prepare!” Johnny barked.

They knew. They had gotten more intelligent. Instead of lunging and attacking, two grabbed Johnny.

Johnny struggled.

Hundreds upon hundreds of them began to circle him and drag him near the nest.

“Fire at will!” Johnny ordered.

“Sarge!” a soldier called out.

“Dad!” Jack Screamed.

“Fire. I repeat. Fire at will. Pulse these bastards.”

Heart rates rose. The order was not obeyed. There were screams, yelling, with voices meshing together along with Johnny calling out. Through Johnny’s vision we just saw LEPs, that was it, then he looked down.

I could see it, the elite were trying to think of another way. I could see Johnny was up to something. The LEP’s knew the dedication of men. They knew it, that was why they grabbed Johnny. They banked on it. They banked that the elite would not fire.

They didn’t bank on the man Johnny was.

Click.

Beep.

“Fuck,” Billy whispered. “He activated the SD.” Billy grabbed the all call. “Back it up. Back it up. He activated the SD.”

I whispered out. “Johnny no.”

“Dad! No!” jack cried. “Dad. Get out of there!”

“Jack,” Johnny’s voice was calm. “I love you.”

“Dad! No!”

Boom.

Johnny’s self destructive strategy ended his life. It also eliminated 80% of the LEP in that camp.

We lost two elite.

Jack freaked out.

The mission was finished, the camp was gone.

I never really told you much about Joey Slagel. Although mentioned, it wasn’t in detail. And to get the full effect of what happened immediately following the raid and Johnny’s death, you need to know Joey.

Though some in the community doubted Joey’s parentage via genetics, visually there was no doubt; Joey was Frank’s son.

He was huge. Big and bulky, tall and strong as an ox. He had the bravery trait, feared nothing, was a loner, and was skilled beyond belief. He was an elite. A level five for fighting LEPs. I’d even go as far as to say he was better than Jack.

So why wasn’t Joey in command that day?

Several factors.

Joey was strong, skilled and brave, but Joey wasn’t the brightest bulb. He lacked the intellectual levels needed to be a leader. He just didn’t have that command instinct and military strategy gene every other Slagel had.

He admitted it.

Granted he could have been taught, but Joey didn’t want to lead his men, he wanted to be one of the men.

He was a military grunt. Did what he was told, did it well, and loved it.

Joey was a soldier and he lived that way.

Period.

Personality wise, he was rough around the edges. Gruff to be exact. Lacked tact and really could give a shit if people liked him or not. That wasn’t his job. His job was to protect people and kill threats.

Again, he did his job well.

The leader, the commander, the soldier in Jack disappeared after that raid. Distraught was an understatement.

In a world where people took death for granted, where death was so commonplace, no one knew what mourning was. Jack lost it.

We heard them return to headquarters.

The silence of our control room was also filled with the tension. Billy sat silently, head down, staring at his folded hands for over two hours.