The Bloodless Read online

  “Do you know who you were working for?” Justice asked.

  “Never met the guy. He just gave orders to his assistants who passed ‘em down to us.” Tyler finished off his drink in one more swill then motioned to the waitress for another one. “Did hear some of the others talkin’ about how he was the head of some science lab, last name was somethin’ like Jetson, I don’t know.”

  “Jetson,” Crist said, confused.

  “Nah, that ain’t it. It was more presidential, I don’t know, I only heard it once,” Tyler explained.

  Something clicked in Justice’s head, “You mean Jefferson?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Tyler exclaimed, “that’s the name.”

  “Are you sure?” Crist asked him.

  “Yup.”

  Crist and Justice shared a significant look. They both knew that name, Justice, in particular, knew that name very well. But why the hell would Alexander Jefferson need his own private mercenary group, he thought to himself. “What kind of stuff did he have you guys doing?” he asked Tyler.

  “Mostly preparation work,” Tyler answered as the waitress set another drink in front of him. “Gave some of us special missions, but we was doin’ basically what everyone else was doin’, preparing for the end of the world, ya know? Except our work seemed a lot more, um, what’s the word,” Tyler stopped to think. He drank down his drink again, “Man, I can’t think of it.”

  “Fastidious,” Justice said.

  “Calculated,” Crist said.

  “Don’t know the first one, calculated sounds good though,” Tyler said, inclining his head towards Crist.

  “So what kind of special missions did he give you?” Justice asked. This seemed important because Alexander Jefferson wasn’t the type of person to take unnecessary risks. Anything he did, he did with a purpose and an end.

  “Some scoutin’ trips, but mostly assassinations,” Tyler said indifferently.

  “Assassinations?”

  “Yup,” he continued, “random men, some women, some families.”

  “You murdered families,” Justice said aghast, “like, as in children?”

  “Sometimes, yeah,” he said still indifferently. At that moment Justice felt very inclined to turn him away, thinking of his own wife and son. How could anyone willingly kill children? It’s just such an inhuman thing. But he thought about what Tyler had said when he first started talking. I ain’t proud ‘bout what I done, but a soldier follows orders, ya know? Justice figured there had to be at least some remorse there, even if Tyler didn’t outwardly display it. Still, he wasn’t as enthusiastic about him joining them as he was when Tyler first sat down.

  Justice got to thinking about another question that came across his mind while Tyler was talking: Why would Jefferson send people on assassination missions? Who would he have needed killed? He was only ever in his presence a couple times but he didn’t seem to be that kind of guy, but those kinds of guys never seem to be those kinds of guys until they do the things those kinds of guys do, right? “Were you ever able to make a connection in the missions you did?” he asked Tyler.

  He looked at Justice for a moment, took a sip of the backwash now at the bottom of his drink, and leaned on the table, “You askin’ lotsa questions about this guy, did you know him or somethin’?”

  “I used to work for him,” Justice said.

  “Hm,” he said, “well, I never did see no patterns, but, I ain’t really a thinkin’ man, see? Like I said, I’m a soldier, I follow orders.” He leaned back in his chair and motioned for another drink. “But,” he began again, “if I had to think about it, it all seemed very random. Then again, just about everything seems random to me, so, who knows, ya know?” Tyler was maddeningly ill-informed, but he did say a lot more than he even knows. “So,” Tyler said looking from Crist and then to Justice, “how did I do?”

  “What?” Justice asked, a little confused.

  “How did I do,” he said again, “did I pass?”

  “Pass? Oh! Yeah, I think so. What do you think Crist?”

  She had a wry look on her face but an uncertain glare in her eyes, “Y-yeah, I think he’ll do for your cause.”

  Something about her response made him uneasy, but Justice decided to ignore that feeling in favor of his newfound assault weapon that just meandered into his life. They three sat there for a couple more hours just talking and “shootin’ the shit,” as the old saying goes. The bar thinned out dramatically by the time conversation topics began to run out.

  It was quiet for a moment and when Justice looked around the bar he noticed they were the last few remaining. He stretched and said, “Well, I think it’s about time we wrap this up.” He got on his feet and looked around the bar again, just to get a feel for his muscles that had certainly atrophied during the time he spent on his ass. “Tyler, you have all the information you need. We’re going to meet up in a few weeks’ time, do you live around here?”

  “I do,” Tyler said.

  “Good, then when the time comes I’ll be around and I’ll find you. Sound good?” Justice said and he extended his hand to Tyler.

  Tyler rose to his feet too, “Sure does boss,” and shook Justice’s hand. He nodded in Crist’s direction and his eyes lingered on her face for a moment longer than average, in apparent admiration. He then turned around and left the bar.

  “Where are you off to?” Justice asked turning to Crist.

  “Oh, I was just going to go for a walk,” she responded apprehensively. “Care to join me?” she added.

  “Um,” he thought about it for a moment, it was kind of an odd question for him to hear since they hardly knew each other. “Yeah, sure,” he finally agreed. He opened the main door and allowed her to exit first. He was kind of drunk and was feeling lucky at the time so he was thinking with the wrong head.

  They stepped out into the quiet, putrid night and Justice followed Crist as she headed east away from the bar. He was still getting used to the all post-apocalyptic garb that draped the surrounding buildings of this town, the ones still standing that is. It was weird because if you were able to travel to the nearest metropolitan location it would be like nothing ever happened. This was such an isolated incident, but it was decided that it would be best if it were kept that way.

  The reason for the decision was because they felt there to be no indication that the damage radius would increase since The Cloud had ceased any and all expansion. It even appeared to be receding for some time. Justice knew this wasn’t the situation and tried to plead the case to the Senate but they didn’t want to hear anything about it. Out of sight, out of mind, basically. He knew whatever was happening was not going to be content for very long since evil is never content with just a small portion. Evil usually wants the whole thing. That’s what makes it evil.

  “Man, I hate this smell,” Crist said as she lead him down the street.

  “It always smells this bad these days,” Justice responded listlessly. “Not much we can do anymore except get used it I guess.”

  “Jesus Justice, you’re a real bummer to be around, you know that,” Crist said. She gave him a playful push, “It’s a wonder you’ve been able to recruit anyone to be on your side, shit personality like yours.”

  “Yeah, well, obviously it’s not that bad if it lured you in,” he responded. She inched her way a little closer to him as they walked which sent a small jolt through his stomach.

  “Ah, you’re not that bad, I suppose,” she said and her arm brushed up against his sending another jolt through his twitching belly. Chills ran up his spine as she rubbed her hand right over the middle of his back.

  Justice looked over at her as she removed her hand from his back and smiled. She returned the smile. Then he started to lean in but she didn’t. Playing hard to get, he thought and continued to lean in as an electric surge rose up all over his body. Then he fell to the ground, stunned, literally. He writhed and twitched uncontrollably, urine leaked down his pant leg, and he tilted his head up. Crist stoo
d over him as she holstered her stun gun. He couldn’t understand it, was he that repulsive?

  “Nothing personal Justice, you’re just a really hard man to capture these days apparently. We had to use some new methods,” Crist said it but it wasn’t her usual voice, it was a bit lower and more controlled, more monotone. Justice tried to respond but everything in his body had seized up. “Don’t struggle, it’ll only make things worse,” Crist continued, “all of this will be over before you know it.”

  She forced his stiff arms behind him and bound them together. As she dragged him to his feet Justice could feel his muscles start to relax and go back to normal. “Where are you taking me?” he finally said as she began to drag him down an alley.

  “There are some people who want to talk to you,” she responded vaguely.

  Oh shit, he thought, not this again. Justice was too weak to resist and she continued to drag him down the alley. As they neared the end of it he saw a black SUV pull up and park, but before they got any closer they were knocked to ground by the large solid mass of something and for probably the first time in a long time, he managed to not hit anything vital on the way down. After he stopped moving he rolled over and looked up to see Tyler fighting off Crist, which didn’t take much as he was considerably larger than she and she had zero hand to hand combat techniques.

  Tyler knocked her to the ground and quickly helped Justice to his feet, “You okay?” he yelled. As stunned as Justice was all he could do was nod. He heard some car doors slam followed by some shouts and then gun shots. Tyler got in front of Justice and started shooting at the men coming towards them, taking out their legs which gave Tyler and Justice time to make a break for it. Justice started to regain a bit of himself and was able to look back as they ran, usually a big no-no. However, he saw that the men were still coming after them, crawling on the ground.

  “Fuck! It’s them, Tyler,” Justice yelled turning back around.

  “Who?” he yelled back.

  “People who want us dead!”

  “That’s not good,” he said and continued running.

  It wasn’t easy running at full tilt with his hands tied behind his back. Whoever said they were able to do things like this had obviously never actually been in this situation. What a stupid thing to say. He could feel the men gaining ground on them as the men had clearly regained the use of their legs. Sure enough, when Justice turned around to look, the men were right on their heels, the skinnier one reaching out a bony hand for him.

  Tyler suddenly fell back to fight them off. He whipped around, dug his heels in and brought the men to a jarring halt. They began to fight furiously with each other, fists and feet flying in every direction one could imagine and then some. He looked back again briefly to see Tyler holding his own against the men but he didn’t dare stay there. He continued to run as fast as he could considering his situation and soon he was clear of any perceived danger.

  Justice slipped in through an open door and into a darkened building. It seemed to be an apartment building, probably the back entrance to it. There was a little alcove where the entrance to the mechanical room was and he squatted down in front of the door. He started looking around for something to cut the binds on his hands but it was near impossible to see anything. He groped around with his foot for any foreign object that existed within his immediate vicinity. It was imperative that he removed the ties on his hands.

  As he searched he heard a *thump* against the outside of the building. He looked around and noticed the door hadn’t closed all the way. His heart began to race and he jammed myself into the furthest, darkest corner from the door. The shadows would be his only ally if the men had overpowered Tyler. They wouldn’t be a staunch ally however, as he was still easily visible. The door burst open and he condensed himself as much as he could into a crouching fetal position, but it was no good. A hand came down and clamped itself upon his shoulder, “Are you okay?”

  Justice had never been so relieved to hear a stranger’s voice in his entire life. Tyler pulled him up to his feet and cut his hands free with a knife. “Thanks,” Justice said breathlessly. “How the hell did you find me?” he asked Tyler as he rubbed his wrists.

  “I followed you,” he responded.

  “Why would you follow me?”

  “I had to. Didn’t like the look on that girl’s face.”

  “Crist? What do you mean,” at this point Justice was very confused.

  “Just the way she was lookin’ at you, man, like you wronged her somehow. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain,” Tyler said as he checked himself over. “Those fuckers are strong, ya know?”

  “Yeah,” Justice laughed, “I do know, trust me.” He ran a hand through his hair and then down his face. He had no idea what had just happened or why it happened, his mind was racing. “You followed me? Us?”

  “She just gave me a bad feelin’ all night, Justice, I had to, I’m tellin’ ya. As soon as I left the bar I went around the corner and waited for ya’ll to come out, then when you went the same way as her I started to follow you guys. Good thing I did too, ‘cuz as soon as I seen her stun you I ran to help.”

  “Well,” Justice started, “good thing you did. I can’t thank you enough, Tyler, I’m lucky you came in tonight.”

  Tyler nodded, “Not lucky, man, it’s the way it’s supposed to be. The universe brought us together and this is the reason why. You need someone to watch out for you when you’re doin’ all your thinkin’ with your pecker.”

  “Hey, if you say so,” Justice said. His heart rate was finally starting to fall back to normal. “I have no problems with that at all.” It was a good moment. Finally he had the little extra protection that he definitely needed since apparently there was a price on his head. Normally he doesn’t like strangers, but with what just happened he couldn’t help but actually appreciate people. It was a weird feeling, short lived, but weird. “All right, let’s get out of here,” he said to Tyler, feeling like lingering anywhere at that time would be a mistake. He gathered himself then led Tyler out through the door.

  “Well what have we here,” said a voice that was vaguely familiar to Justice. His heart skipped several beats as Justice looked around to find they were surrounded by at least six men. The face where the voice issued from was unknown to him, so why the voice sounded familiar was far beyond his understanding. This man was tall, fair skin, dark blue eyes that had an unmistakable yellow glow to them. He was a bit thin and wiry so nothing about him said “Superman strength.” The other men were varied in size but all had a mean look about them and they too exhibited yellowish glowing eyes.

  “Thought you were home free, huh?” he asked with a gratified smile on his face.

  “Kinda, yeah,” Justice responded with as much cheek as he could muster. He wasn’t even worried how the man knew his name. That was the least of his problems.

  “Almost, I will admit,” the man continued, “you gave us a bit of a scare. We didn’t expect you to have such inflated friends,” he gestured towards Tyler.

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  The man gave another chuckle and slowly started walking towards Tyler. “My friend,” he said dangerously, “I am your worst fucking nightmare.” Tyler scoffed at the thought and the man looked at his apparent henchmen who sprang into action.

  They all rushed Tyler at the same time and jumped on him. One came over to Justice and pinned him back, but he had zero intentions of fighting. He was far too tired. Tyler fought hard for a short amount of time, punching, kicking, throwing, and doing anything else he could to free himself. The six men were too much for him however and they soon overpowered him. They beat him pretty good, striking him multiple times in the head and torso in order to subdue him. At last they were able to hold him up without much struggle on his end. Two of the men held his arms and supported his weight to keep him on his feet.

  The thinner man walked up to Tyler and put his left hand around his neck, then with his right he sank a very solid fist into Ty
ler’s abdomen, doubling him over and ejecting blood from his mouth. He then kneeled down and looked up at Tyler, “Helping this man was a very bad choice, very bad. You see, Mendel really wants to talk to our friend here,” he said nodding his head in Justice’s direction.

  That name rang a couple bells in Justice’s head, however all he cared about was getting out of that situation alive, though it didn’t seem like that was going to happen. “Look,” he said, and the thin man looked over in his direction, “who are you and what do you want with me?”

  “You don’t remember me?” he asked. “I’m actually slightly insulted.”

  “Wha-,” Justice looked over at the man and into his eyes. There was a familiarity there, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

  “Don’t know, huh? Well if you don’t know then I’m not going to tell you,” he said in a mock offended voice.

  “Fine,” Justice said and he held up his hands, “I’ll go with you, just let him go. He has nothing to do with this.”

  The thin man stood up and walked over to Justice. He ran a hand over his brow and looked him dead in the eye, “So you just want me to let him go, no harm no foul?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Yes,” Justice said again.

  The man nodded and walked back over to Tyler. He looked at Justice and then pointed at Tyler as if to confirm his wishes. Justice nodded. He nodded. He then jammed his fore and middle fingers into Tyler’s eyes, gripped the top of his head and proceeded to tear Tyler’s head clean off his body. He did this in one fluid motion and as easy as if tearing a sheet of paper from a spiral notebook.

  “Oh god,” Justice moaned and he caught a glimpse of Tyler’s head rolling towards him as he closed his eyes.

  “Sure,” he heard the man say, “He’s free to go.” The other men laughed and Justice heard Tyler’s body collapse to the ground. He opened his eyes just in time to see the thin man come up to him and knock him out.

  “Wake up!”

  Whoever was carrying Justice dropped him to the ground and walked away from him. After a moment to focus on his surroundings he wiped his nose on his shoulder. There wasn’t much in the way of surroundings this time as he found himself in a tiny shack, maybe about one hundred square feet in size. It was run down and dark, a perfect place to torture and kill someone without anyone else finding out, ever.