No Control

David staggered through the passageway towards the Mall entrance, he fell to his knees, his face was going red and he was sweating harder; his head was in agony, he gasped in pain. He crawled across the grimy floor, 10 meters to go. David fought his way to his feet and began to fight the pain; He was close, he dived and fell flat on his stomach; the pain began to dissipate, he looked up. He was a few feet inside the store. He looked at his hands and suit; the grime must have been dry as bone because he had not stained his suit, but he hands were a little starched.
‘Inside the mall I see…the signal is near full strength, I must ask a question’ her voice began
‘Go for it’ David responded with a groaning voice
‘Did you just suffer from an extremely painful headache; did you stumble or for to the floor, did you lose consciousness?’ She asked
‘All except the latter’ David replied rubbing his eyes as he proceeded through the store, the bright lights of the mall shone through the stores exit , it gave an impression that the Mall with a little slice of Commercial Heaven.
‘I see; you have just suffered a side effect of…going “out of range”’ She carefully worded her explanation
David ignored the obvious question, why antagonise someone who’d use you to kill yourself? David saw his hiding spot and climbed the scaffolding to reach it. At the top he chuckled, his hiding stop was a service vent without the cover. David carefully crawled backward until he was relatively snug. David opened the bag to see a new weapon; sleek black “carbine” rifle. A tab inside the case had M4A1. The rifle a small scope mounted on a rail above the trigger assembly, David investigated the bag further to find 3 large magazines; He loaded a magazine and aimed the rifle into the Mall.
‘I’m in place, what am I waiting for?’ David asked. There was a long pause; David began to come under the impression that he may be the “fall-guy”, and this test was there to see how far he’d go to remain out of harm’s way.
‘Good, soon, two groups of men will arrive, they are both hostile. They have taken and are dealing with a drug created months ago, this drug never got passed testing, however, it was illegally sold by members of the company’ She replied
‘So I am dealing with corruption, why not let the DEA handle it?’ David asked
‘Because we have had dealings with the drug before, and it ended…badly’ her vague response gave David a chilly feeling; he was in the middle if something far bigger than she led on to believe; David knew that before this was over, he’d be standing on a pile of corpses. And on the subject of killing, he thought about it; Killing addicts with the “ability to kill” didn’t seem so bad, neither did killing psychopaths and murderers. But killing an innocent that had been caught in the middle, he didn’t want that to happen; in the back of his head, he feared that by the time he’d shot his way through the bad guys, he wouldn’t be able to differentiate between the two sides, this gave him a chill down his spine that caused he to breath deeper and go pale.
David calmed himself, he was still far from the pile of corpses he predicted; he re-aimed his rifle and waited. The sound of shutters rising from the ground; two groups of around 7 men entered, one carried a single metal case, must have been filled with the drug. The second groups emerged with 4 men carrying two crates, those must be the weapons. He had no current orders, he waited, he watched the deal; David carefully scanned the faces of the dealers, the men who had brought the drug were calmer than those with the guns. David looked at the assortment of weapons both sides carried; the gun dealers were dressed in “smart-casual” clothing and came with Mac 10s and two shotguns, the drug dealers came simply in casual clothing and armed with Mac 10s. They looked like gang members. David found himself amused at an idea, the idea that the gun dealers would end up on top of the gang members; despite giving them guns, he assumed the gang members would eventually find themselves in a mouldy, abandoned apartment building; Shaking, sweating, pale, and starving while the gun dealers and their associates made them beg for the drugs.
His estimations disappeared when he saw that five men, better armed and dressed appeared’ they were taking cover behind the barriers on the level above the deal.
‘There are five gunmen on the level above’ David whispered, despite the distance, he didn’t want to be heard
‘Wearing black suits and carrying MP5s…?’ She paused ‘Advanced submachine guns to those below?’ she rephrased
‘Yes’ David responded, Anxious to leave, or the shoot them
‘Shoot the man farthest away, he will be armed with the same weapon as you and is the highest threat to you’ her words came with care, for some reason, his life was actually important to her.
David aimed, his first opponent was like him, hiding, and his death would be unseen. David pulled the trigger, the rifle discharged a single round, the noise echoed through the Mall; he watched as his opponent fell silent, a single line of blood trickled from the hole in his forehead, he noticed that a small chunk of the man’s skull had been blown off by his round. The echo of the confused and paranoid dealers weapons rang loud, David acted without orders, he fired three more shots, he dropped three of the classy dressed and well armed men above the dealers.
‘They all appear to be dead’ he spoke
‘Leave the rifle, and check the them, If any gun dealers survived…ignore them, but make sure the drug dealers don’t leave alive’ chilling words, the plan made him sound like a perfect contract killer, cleaning up; but why was he to leave the gun dealers? David reached the ground and pulled out his sidearm, he carefully approached the man, a pool of blood covered the tiled floor around each dealer, large spots were visible on the torsos and a few had a drop dripping down their chin. He looked up, none had survived, looking around, he saw blood splatter smeared in the walls and store shutters.
A shutter slammed open, David spun to his left, Armed Police swarmed in, and initially they paid no attention to David and instead scanned the dead. One armed with and MP5 stopped feet from David. ’Get on the ground’ David ignored in confusion and the fact he’d ignored the Glock in his hand, another armed with a pistol approached David on his right, he looked at David hands free set and shouted ‘Put the gun down and put your hands on the head!’, This man made more sense and David instantly obeyed. As he placed his hands on his head, he noticed the policeman with a pistol had two empty holders; he then proceeded to place David face front on the ground and pulled out the headset. David’s ear stung slightly and felt as if a small piece of the device had been left within his ear. The policeman liberally aimed his sidearm at David’s head and put the hands free in his ear.
‘We have him sir’ he appeared unaware that David’s Controller was a woman. It then occurred to David that these men did not have any official Police badges of insignia on their uniforms. David wondered if this was the end, had he passed his tests, had he failed, in a few minutes, he’d know if he was about to die or be set free. Suddenly, he was lifted from the ground and walked with the policemen; they walked through a clothes store and into the back, there were back passages linking the shops to a storage and supply area hidden behind the Mall. When they arrived, they found a clean-up crew waiting to go in; they had obviously rerouted emergency service calls to the police during and after the gun battle in the Mall. David was led into the back of an armoured truck; once aboard, David found himself with more questions, this time he was far more eerie about asking them, there was asking a woman in control of certain aspects of your movement a question and “punching yourself”, and there was asking a group of fake armed police a question at the risk of being gunned down in the back of the armoured truck.
The journey to an unknown, un-see able location began, they rocked slightly; they sat in silence. David wasn’t fearful now, these men, armed “soldiers” seemed to be protecting him; they didn’t look at him though. One leaned over to his partners.
‘This one’s unique, not like the other three’
‘Four dipshit, other four’
‘There were three bro…’ he was interrupted
‘Yeah, there were three, three failures; now we got five new testis, we find out how many passed and failed at the base’
Three other testes, three failures, he’d been informed of the other four, they were doing the same as him, or there about. But three previous testes had not been mentioned, perhaps they the reason he was now involved with these tests, was he meant to find out what happened, why they failed? He could tell one of the fake policemen wanted to know more, but his teammate opposite waved “no” with his finger. As David sat there quietly, the officer opposite armed with his pistol gave David his hands free set back, David put it back into his ear.
‘I'm back’ he said sharply
‘Welcome back David, I’m glad you’re safe. The armed police are there to protect you, I would have informed you; but it was deemed you would not complete you objective as efficiently as we hoped you would’ she explained
‘So, these men aren’t going to kill me, doesn’t tell if I failed’ He questioned
‘Oh David’ she said with a bizarre kinky sounding voice ‘You passed with…flying colours’
David didn’t smile at the news, he had no confirmation this was over; he just knew he’d remain alive a little longer. The truck slowed down dramatically and took and sharp turn; David was swung sharply across but held by several officers. ‘Can’t have you getting hurt now David’ One spoke, they knew his name; David sat back, he felt strangely safe with them, despite not knowing them, but they had saved him from any possible police enquiry.
‘So what’s happening with the drugs and guns?’ David asked casually hoping to get a normal answer out of his controller rather than the cryptic, puzzle answers he had got before.
‘The drugs will be destroyed, they’ve already caused enough damage in this city, we’ve also stopped them being exported’ she answered part of his question
‘And the guns?’ he asked again, he felt he was trying his luck.
‘We will keep them in a safe locked down location and will sell them to suitable buyers; that’s the police and army…not private sectors’ she finished
David was about to ask another question, when the truck stopped, the officer opposite took the hands free and pressed a button presumably ending the call, the rear doors opened and a flash of bright light shone into the truck. The officers disembarked, David being slowly pushed out; once outside, David looked out, he believed he was deeper inside the derelict and seemingly empty part of town, he enjoyed to fresh air he could smell, it was nothing like the dusty and damp air he had breathed in hours earlier. David was tapped on the shoulder and turned around, he saw a large warehouse in rather good condition, and then he looked down to see a single officer looked at him.
‘I'm sorry but we need to put this bag over your head, you’re still safe, it’s just for privacy and safety of all personnel’ he explained, David nodded as the officer placed the bag over his head; the fresh air was replaced by a musky smell, this bag had been worn numerous times before and not washed out.