The End Is Near

A rotten smell of decayed flesh filled the air, but I didn’t bother shielding my nose from the stench. I was used to it by now. The mountains of corpses reached the ceiling, for now anyway.

Once I’m done with this place, there will be room to breathe…not that the deceased really need that anymore. Without bothering to see if the coast was clear, I descended the metal staircase and stepped onto the platform.

“Is anyone here alive?” I asked flatly.

Upon hearing some faint groans in response, I rolled a cart toward the sounds, tossing the barely alive bodies onto the cart as if they were grocery items.

An associate was waiting near the back door with his Dodge Ram’s engine still running. The process needed to be completed quickly, and there was no room for fucking around.

I met the driver on the passenger’s side of the vehicle. “Damn, looks like this one’s gonna be a full load,” the driver observed.

“You would think that people would smarten up by now. It’s not like Shadows’ policy is that complicated,” I replied dully.

The driver nodded before dispensing a large wad of hundred dollar bills in my hand. “Pleasure doing business with you,” I snickered before making my way back toward the warehouse.

People will never smarten up. There will always be someone stupid enough to test their luck and risk their lives committing a crime. But Shadows will always know. And he will always kill those fools.

Should any of them manage to survive their own execution, well then at least I get to make a fat stack of cash on the side attempting to save them. I could give two shits whether they lived or died, so long as I benefit in one way or another.

Just before reaching the staircase, I stopped short with a smirk. “Don’t be such a stalker, Rev. It doesn’t suit you.”

The Rev was one of Shadows’ headmen and one of my good friends, from time to time. His tall, lanky form stepped out from behind a pile of bodies, wearing his trademark glare.

The Rev was what the formerly democratic Americans would call a “vice president.” He was naturally sadistic and violent which made him perfect for the job, I guess.

“I don’t believe my fucking eyes, man. Some dork in accounting told me that the number of bodies going into the ground didn’t match the number of people supposedly killed. I thought he was bullshitting me at first, but lo-and-behold here lays the truth!” he cackled. “Just whose side are you on? You know Shadows doesn’t take well to deceit.”

I leaned up against the wall and let a freshly lit cigarette dangle limply between my lips. I breathed in just enough smoke to fill my lungs before exhaling the cloud of smoke into the Rev’s face.

“You should know me better than that. Of course I’m on Shadows’ side. But you know I can’t resist doing whatever brings me the most benefits. What can I say, I’m a greedy son-of-a-bitch,” I shrugged.

“AH, so you’re handing over bodies for money, huh?” Rev sneered.

Instead of waiting for me to answer what I could only assume was a rhetorical question, he lunged forward and slammed me into the wall, shoving one of his favorite knives up against the flesh of my throat, right under the Adam’s apple. I wasn’t concerned, though.

“How about I kill you now so that our fucking corpses stop walking away? I don’t have any executions till later tonight. I could use some bloodshed.”

“That won’t be necessary, Rev,” Shadows announced from atop the stairs.

Rev growled before reluctantly distancing himself. We both turned to face Shadows with a straightened posture. Shadows took calculated steps down the staircase, staring straight ahead of him until he turned to face us at eyelevel.

“What’s going on, Vengeance? How am I supposed to maintain control of a country if one of my own men, one of my friends is going behind my back?” Shadows asked.

“Dude, I can’t really apologize. I have an addiction to drama.”

Shadows took a step forward and stared at me with flared eyes. “I will forget your misconduct on one condition.”

“And what might that be?”

“Aside from abandoning this project, I want you to reveal the location that you share business with. We need to pay them a…visit.”

I returned his hard stare as I contemplated the offer. I already made a huge amount of money from being a member of Shadows’ administration, but in addition to that, I also made a weekly sum of $10,000 by handing these half dead people over to the UTRC.

And just because Shadows and I were friends didn’t mean he’d let me go unpunished. I bit down hard on my lower lip before finally deciding to unveil the desired information.

“That last truckload was sent to St. Michael’s hospital.”

Shadows grinned, “See that wasn’t so hard, now was it? Let’s head back to the white house and give this information to Johnny so that we can begin strategizing. None of this, and I mean none of this will be leaked to the media.”

Rev and I nodded in compliance before racing to the top of the stairs and walking out to the waiting SUV.

Back at the white house, our two other comrades – Synyster and Johnny – were busy monitoring screens and taking notes of the ever-growing execution list.

Synyster had his custom made electric guitar in hand with his legs propped up on the desk. His fingers were running rapidly across the fret board as Johnny scrambled to write down names on the list.

“Check it out, Johnny’s being Syn’s bitch,” I chuckled, nudging the Rev.

“Oh come on short shit, when are you going to become a man?” Rev taunted, playfully whacking the back of Johnny’s head, causing his pen to go soaring off the paper.

“Why is everyone crowding up in my space?” Syn groaned, flicking his pick at the computer screen, no longer able to focus.

“I was dealing half dead bodies over to hospitals and Shads found out,” I said.

“Let me guess, he wants me to do all the research,” Johnny sighed.

“You are the computer whiz,” Syn noted, sliding his guitar into its bag before leaving Johnny alone with nothing more than a wall of computer screens and a cooling cup of coffee.

Shadows later suggested that we should all go out to a local bar and enjoy the Friday night, since we would have a mission coming up soon once Johnny’s research was completed. You may find it strange that a dictator and his men would be able to go to a bar like normal citizens.

Don’t worry, we have disguises.

In the public’s eye, Shadows requires that all of us be seen in black suits and that our piercings and tattoos are not seen. But, when we go out for a night on the town, we wear tattered band tees, bandanas, piercings, studded belts, eyeliner, hats, and sometimes even sunglasses.

We go from ‘respectable-yet-incredibly-murderous-politicians’ to a rock band just like that.

It also works out nicely because we can monitor places such as the bar where scumbags think that they can still get away with actions undetected. It was one of the Rev’s favorite places to go because it often held the most reasons for bloodshed.

Crazy bastard.

There weren’t many bars near Washington DC because that used to be a strictly political zone. Shadows plans on changing that very soon. But regardless, we drove a few miles out of the DC area and still found ourselves in a bar.

Smoke lingered in the air as we stepped inside to the sound of loud music, clinking glasses, and drunken laughter. We made our way through the crowd of people, finally reaching a fairly empty counter.

There were only two other girls sipping on some martinis, both of which noticeably attractive, one of which was sporting a wedding ring. I could see Shadows going after the married one.

He always likes a challenge.