Judgement Day

Through the cracks and crumbling mortar of the secret city of Kaiser Culverton something terrible began to happen. In between spindling hallways and curving staircases an evil awoke, one that had been consciously repressed deep within a foul and twisted man, unleashing itself upon the world. Culverton’s skin began to peel like the skin of a fruit. Vermillion red skin with black fingertips and nails exposed itself as he began to rake and claw strips of flesh from his arms, rendering him in a garb of half human and half monster skin. Teeth elongate to the size of daggers and become sharper than razors blades. Red lips turn black and yellow; his irises become liquid gold that seems to swirl with every move of his eyes. A monster from hell emerged within him.

He walks out with a fluid grace not demonstrated by any normal human being at any point in the history of man; a grace that contrasts with his garish appearance. Green slime drips occasionally from his elongating mouth, which begins to turn into a snout, hitting the floor and sizzling as it begins to burn a small hole in the metal floor plating.

Explosions that rock the buildings foundation mash with harmonic symphonies of the last breathes and screams of the dead and dying. Culverton closes his eyes to listen to his greatest requiem, choruses of hotshot bullets colliding with flesh to crackle and spark, knells of artillery shells smashing into bodies to break bone and rip sinew.

“They’ll remember, they’ll remember why they were scared of me. As surely as I will maintain my presence by forcing them to remember, to be forgotten would be the utter death of me.” Culverton cackles and moans in a voice that changes pitch, sounding like twenty people talking at once.

An unfortunate soldier walks up to the demon possessed Culverton, he begins to say something but Culverton impales him on his fingernails that had grown to the size of steak knives. The soldier dies and something similar to liquid silver begins to drip from his orifices.

“That’s what I’m talking about.” Culverton growls as the substance climbs up his body and into his mouth. With that his stance becomes more powerful, but only one person would be able to feed his hunger. “Andrew Grey, I will consume your very essence.” he growls as he walks to the entrance of his base. Waiting for the feast to begin.

*****
Andrew watched as the giant drilling tanks bore paths so the Judges' Lawmasters could trek through the crumbling and unkept ruins of the old city while lighting the way with giant lights attached to the sides and front of the drills. Night vision was needed but the lights made it harder to see at times, the drills kept drilling along.

Three hundred and thirty Judges were making this trip, each six or so made up a squad led by the senior Judges in the squad. Riding next to Andrew, and composing his squad, was Judges Yvaine, Smith, Dredd, Anderson, and Summers.

The Judges had launched this assault after Culverton had yelled to the whole city where he could be found and to come get him. Such a bold move for such a wanted man, it made Andrew furious that he had given up this easily. It seemed almost too obvious.

Andrew peeled off and rode over next to June. She looked like she had been trapped in Hell for a week and just got back.

"You know, you didn't have to come." Andrew told her over the low purr of his motorcycle.

"I set out to arrest Culverton, here I am to make the arrest,” she told him as she shot ahead, giving him the cold shoulder she had given everyone throughout their time at the academy.

Andrew sighed and moved over. He heard Yvaine pull up next to him, his eyes rolled, he really wasn’t in the mood to deal with her antics.

"You just can't reason with us can you?" she asked with a surprising amount of spunk for someone who came off of physical rehab early.

"I never could with you."

"You did that one night in bed. When are we trying that again?”

"Never. Focus."

"Rookies, I want two rows. We're on the outskirts of Culverton's base and we are approaching a tunnel." Dredd barked into his comm unit, making the rookies jump a little.

Andrew lined up behind Pete who was behind Anderson. Dredd led in front and to the left of him was Anderson. Behind Dredd was June followed by Yvaine. They slowed to a crawl as the drill in front began to bore a giant path for them to march through. Bits of dirt and debris flew back and into Andrew’s mouth, leaving a nasty taste of sulfur and burnt wood.

A few minutes of unbreakable tension later the drill pushed through and they came out onto a stretch of city. Ruined and falling buildings barely held together by mortar stood all around them. Culverton had transmitted from around here, so his army would be waiting.

"Anderson follow me, rookies stay behind with the drill." Dredd ordered as he moved forward with Anderson past the drill and onwards.

It took two minutes for a rocket to shoot off and destroy the drill and then for a building to collapse and separate the two groups. Two minutes before Andrew’s mind raced and left one little thought in his head between panic and reaction. Really?

"Take cover!" June yelled as her front tire was blown out and her bike crashed into a pillar. The sound made Andrew’s stomach lurch.

Andrew jumped off his Lawmaster as a rocket was shot at him. It crashed into it and blew the bike sky high. He winced as he crashed onto the ground, his helmet and shoulder pads taking the brunt of the force, but a stray rock cutting a thin horizontal line across his cheek.

"So that's what they're for." he groaned as he ran behind a wall for cover.

"June report." Andrew spoke into his comm.

"Lawmaster fell on top of me and has me pinned. Can't push it off, haven't been seen yet but that may not be true for long. Need help."

"Thanks for asking how the other two are. We're fine by the way." Yvaine piped in.

"Pete, shut her up." Andrew ordered.

"Will do." Pete replied before the comm went silent.

Andrew peeked around the corner of the wall. June had managed to fall behind a piece of rubble. Much to her word June lay trapped underneath her motorcycle and was, unsuccessfully, attempting to push it off of her. Several of Culverton's goons sat on the second story of a bombed out building that overlooked their current position. They hadn't noticed June through the sheer miracle that they thought she was dead, but he couldn't dash out and push the bike off of her. He would be torn to shreds.

Further beyond them where the drill was heading had a giant roadblock after several buildings had been demolished to separate Dredd and Anderson from Andrew and the others. It looked like they were on their own once again.

Drawing back behind the cover of the wall Andrew spoke into his comm unit.

"Pete, Yvaine, what is your location?" Andrew whispered.

"We have the flank on the nest of cronies, Hi-ex?" Yvaine asked.

"No, that building is barely stable as is. If we shoot a Hi-Ex round off, the building could crumble and the pieces could crush June." Andrew said as he peeked around the corner again. There were five cronies, one with a heavy machine gun, one with a rocket launcher, and three with average assault rifles.

"Pete, give me covering fire. Once I'm out of the blast zone bring it down, hotshot the heavy and the ordinance first and then I'll move. I need at least two to three minutes."

"Rodger, over and out."

Andrew stood and drew his Lawgiver, bringing the cold steel up to his lips he gave it that little kiss for good luck. Treat your rifle like a man or a lady and they'll guarantee many long years of service. For you and it. They had told him in the Academy.

Andrew heard two shots fire off and the smell of cooking flesh made his stomach turn, even though he was exposed to it a lot it always seemed to make him physically ill. Dashing from behind the wall and breaking into a roll he managed to get to June unseen. She lay in the dirt trying to push the heavy bike off of her body.

“Damn it man, get it off of me,” she whispered as her muscles strained as they attempted to get the object off of the lower half of her body.

Andrew nodded and put his hands underneath the bike, his muscles began to scream for him to drop the five hundred pound utility almost immediately after he began pulling it upwards. The metal groaned and squeaked as the two began to bring the bike up enough that June could begin to wriggle free of the crushing weight. Sweat began to bead and drip down Andrew’s face, the strain along with the warm temperatures causing this natural body reaction.

“Stop! You’re dripping your sweat on me!” June complained as she tried to get her boot free.

“That’s what you’re complaining about?” Andrew said through clenched teeth. “Grud you’re such a girl!”

“Last time we checked the hardware together I was. It’s still gross.”

“Drokk it, just shut up and wriggle free already, I can only hold five hundred pounds of dead weight for so damn long.”

June was quite after that, managing to pull her foot free. Andrew tried to gently let the bike back down, only for it to slip through his fingers and crash loudly onto the ground. If Andrew was attempting to avoid attention he truly made himself known when he made that little racket.

“Hey, more Judges! Kill them!” one of the cronies yelled as their heads turned towards the pair and opened fire on them. Bullets scattered all around them as Andrew and June ran for cover behind the wall.

June’s leg had been smashed a little and she was limping, Andrew groaned and flung her arm around his shoulders and helped her behind the wall. When they reached cover after dodging another wave of bullets, Andrew reached up and pressed his comm unit.

“Blow it,” he said coldly.

A Hi-Ex bullet streaked across the air and collided into the side of building, the guns fell silent as brick and concrete fell into a pile, crushing bone and squishing muscle. Andrew looked over at June who was leaning against the wall. The bottom half of her face that was visible was curled up in pain.

“You okay?” he asked, face twitching with care that he tried to suppress.

“Fine, lets go.” she told him while walking away from him and towards Pete and Yvaine. Andrew clenched his teeth together in suppressed rage, this woman was almost too difficult to work with.

Andrew turned the corner to see Pete going through the computer on the Lawmaster. His face looked shrunken in disappointment as he typed and tapped away.

“Can’t get the battle schematics up, I’d rather not run into any more of Culverton’s cronies if I could help it.” Pete told the other two as they walked up.

“Good thought, but I have a bigger concern to address right now.” Andrew growled as he turned to June. “I don’t know who the Drokk you think you are, but the whole time we’ve been together on this case you’ve acted like a level ten punk. What are you better than us? Are we not fit to walk beside you and dispense justice like we’ve all been trained to do? Answer me!”

June stood there, her head started to drop towards the ground. Her shoulders sagged; the tightly knitted composure that she always held was coming undone around her. She leaned back against a broken pillar and put her shaking hands on her helmet and pulled it off of her head.

Andrew and the other two Judges stifled a gasp, what he saw didn’t make him any less angry but it was surprising still, June had changed. Her skin had paled and turned the color of alabaster. Something Andrew pondered one how he didn’t notice before now. Her eyes had undergone a transformation as well, turning a bright violet. All three Judges were speechless.

“Drokk, what happened to you?” Pete asked as he walked over and strangely began to touch June’s skin. June smiled; something was different about her, almost like she had been acting since the assault on Culverton’s fortress.

“That magic little shot Culverton gave me? Messed with my genes and my brain chemistry. I recovered at double the rate I should have and woke to my head nearly being split open when I found I could probe the minds of other human beings. But my real change came while I was comatose. I can’t explain what I saw, but I saw everything. In my state of ultimate awakening I realized that my attitude towards my fellow Judge had been completely unnecessary. Especially towards my partner, I didn’t quite think you would accept the new me as easily as the Hall of Justice did when they found that they had a psychic that could take the pills and drugs to keep us younger for longer with no ill effect on my psychic abilities. But that aside I realized that I’ve been a bit of a bitch.”

“Ya think?” Yvaine sniped, breaking June’s incredibly long monologue.
“I don’t know you that well so I can’t say.” Pete said as he looked down and went back to the computer.

“All I want to ask is if I am allowed to have a second chance? I see things differently now and while I was planning on revealing myself after the fact I see no reason I should hold a grudge against a group of people that have done nothing to wrong me.”

Andrew was shocked. People didn’t do this; he turned around and looked at the other for guidance.

“I say we let her in, even if it does seem like she is turning a complete one eighty in the course of five seconds.” Yvaine said.

“Agreed. Now that we are done debating you guys want to get over here and look at this shit?” Pete asked with a lot of panic in his voice.

Andrew, who still had a confused look at the sudden change in June’s behavior shrugged it off and walked over to the computer. Pete was madly clicking around as Andrew heard the screams for backup and support cry out over the radio. A map of the road to Culverton’s fortress had been drawn up. A bunch of green, yellow, and red dots littered the map. Green meant a Judge in peak condition, yellow meant they were in trouble, and red meant either wounded, in serious trouble, or dead.

“This is the map five minutes ago.” Pete said and pointed to the screen. “See how everyone is green? Here it is now.” he clicked and suddenly half the dots turned red or yellow.

“Shit.” Yvaine said as she punched a piece of rubble.

“Looks like they were dug in better than expected, where are we on the map?” June asked.

Pete pointed to a spot on the map, it was about two or three miles away from Culverton’s stronghold. But that was two or three miles full of fanatics armed to the teeth with a vengeance against Judges. But as of then they were the closest to his stronghold.

“Pete where’s Dredd and Anderson?” Andrew asked.

Pete typed their names in and they were circled. Somehow they had gotten backtracked, but it appeared they were moving towards a group of twelve Judges whose dots were turning quickly from green to yellow and red.

“Looks like we’re going to have to kill tens to hundreds of heavily armed fanatics, trek over two miles of uneven ground, and then breach a fortress which will no doubt have more defenses to kill a man that threatens to destroy any sort of standing order and protection we can offer. Let’s go.” Andrew ordered as he began to climb over the rubble that separated them from their goal.

*****

Culverton sat on a throne of flesh and bones with his dagger teeth in a smile. He took a deep breath in to smell the air, fear and cowardice drifted in and traveled up his nostrils. Fear, it gave him power. It smelled sweet like rain drops off of a strawberry, the taste more savory than human food that could be concocted. It gave him power, sweet power that he would use to remind the humans why the demons of hell ruled their planet after god forsake them in a rain of atomic fire and radiation.

Something distasteful entered his stream. Fouler than the pus that erupted from Bezobab’s pus filled sores, repulsive as his thorned cock shoved into the flesh of a virgin, it gave hope. An emotion that he had abandoned when he stepped over the line separating heaven from hell during the fall of angels years ago.

A deep growl welled from deep within his stomach and whistled through his dagger like teeth, breaking any glass within a mile radius. Courage, he smelled courage. Nothing could be more infectious and vile than courage when someone displayed it. It was like a sneeze in a crowd of people, it took one person before it spread to everyone.

His vision extended from his room onto the battlefield. It was that damned Andrew Grey. He stood atop a small pile of his fanatics, daystick in one hand and Lawgiver in the other, motioning for the Judges to follow him. Culverton started to feel weaker, fear gave him strength but courage sapped it. When he made an example of Grey the Judges would remember why they dared not intrude on his territory. He relaxed and let them come. The clock in the corner ticking and counting down to their arrival.

*****

Andrew shot a bullet between the eyes of an oncoming fanatic. The bullet stopped his advance immediately. The further the four had charged the more fanatics they had encountered. They hadn’t even begun to scratch their ammo reserves as they kept finding dead Judges which they would pilfer the remaining unused clips from their cold corpses as they proceeded through the maze of trenches leading to the bunker that Culverton used as his hide out.

Since June’s sudden change in character she and Yvaine had managed to work together quite well. They flowed and meshed gracefully like two dancers in a complex ballet. June would pull out her daystick and swing it at a fanatic, causing him/her to reel in pain for a moment so that Yvaine could shoot and kill the fanatic before they moved onto the next one. Pete was taking cover behind a sandbag, using the computer that they had ripped off of the Lawmaster to guide their way.

“Pete, how much farther?” Andrew yelled back as he shot a few more incoming guards.

“Well, according to the map it should be another three trenches.” Pete told him as he flipped the computer onto his back and pulled his Lawgiver out.

“That’s what you said eighteen trenches ago!” Yvaine yelled as she rolled to avoid a hailstorm of bullets.

“This time I’m sure of it!”

“Nine trenches ago!”

“Shut up and let’s move!” Andrew yelled as she motioned for Pete to lead the way. Right down the
alley the fanatics were swarming out of.

“Rapid fire!” June yelled and pressed the trigger, letting loose a fine stream of bullets to mow the hoard running towards them with nothing but knives and pieces of wood.

Andrew was bewildered; these people worshipped a man who seemed to be the devil himself. They laid down their lives like they were nothing but wheat being cut down by a scythe. No morale lost as they died and their corpses started to stack up into huge piles of bleeding, broken bodies.

The human wave started to trickle down until it was a stream, and then a drop, then to nothing. Exhausting their numbers until nothing remained but the scent of blood and gunpowder. The four Judges had been moving against the tide until they had reached the inside of Culverton’s headquarters. The wave had stopped once they arrived at the front door.

Andrew stood there and was about to open the door when it opened itself with a hiss. Rather ominous for anyone in this position. The room beyond was pitch black, even the light from outside seemed like it wouldn’t penetrate the inky darkness.

“Night vision.” Andrew ordered as he heard a click and it didn’t work. “Anyone else having trouble with their night vision?” he asked, trying to make sure his helmet wasn’t damaged.

“Yes.” came three other voices in unison.

“Flashlights then, looks like stealth is going to be more of a chore than per usual.” Andrew said as he flicked his flashlight on. The room illuminated, there was something wrong already.

“Is it just me, or does it look like everything is in black and white?” Pete asked as their beams of light flashed every which way.

Andrew held his hand up to the beam of light to notice that his hand was gray. Not green, gray. He spun his flashlight over to Yvaine whose uniform was black, white, and varying shades of gray.

“What the Drokk is going on?” Yvaine yelled.

“I don’t fuc-“ Pete yelled before he was tackled onto the ground.

Andrew sprang into action; he ran up and attempted to yank the thing off of Pete. Pete screamed loudly as he shoved against the thing on top of him. Sweat began to bead on Andrew’s brow. Whatever it was had six long furry arms that were latched onto Pete with a grip of iron.

“June, I’m going to pull it back. Shoot it, when you, get the, angle.” Andrew said strained.
Planting his feet he called upon every last measure of his strength to winch the thing up a little more so June could place the Lawgiver in between the things fourteen eyes.

“Shoot it! I can’t hold much longer!” Andrew groaned out.

June jammed her weapon farther into the creatures face and pulled the trigger. It didn’t let go, so June kept shooting it until the things six arms fell limp and Andrew went flying backwards and crashed into a wall. His head slamming back onto the hard surface, which he felt reverberate through his helmet causing him to become dazed for a few moments.

After clearing the tweeting birds and stars that were circling around his head he looked down at the six-armed demon monkey. Its blank fourteen eyes still pierced Andrew with a look of fury and hatred, eyes that never knew kindness or compassion. Fangs that extended out a good seven inches from its gum line looked like they had been yanked from a vampire and drilled into its mouth. It was truly horrifying to look at.

Andrew shuddered and threw the demon monkey away from him. Standing up he looked at Pete who had a few bite marks on him from the monkey’s teeth.

“If I get some sort of weird demon virus and die, I’m haunting you.” Pete said as he pointed at Andrew.

“Suck it up, you’ll live.”

June walked over and helped Pete to his feet, giving a little smirk about the whole ordeal. Yvaine cleared her throat and looked around at everyone.

“What I want to know is why we look like cartoon characters from the 1960’s? Can someone explain that to me?” she asked as she spread her arms and shrugged her shoulders.

“I guess it’s due to the fact that nothing we have actually faced has had any sort of logical reasoning to it and therefore we need to assume that nothing will actually make any sort of sense until we sort this giant mess out.” Pete said while brushing himself off.
Yvaine started to say something but paused and thought about what Pete had just told her. “You know, that makes a lot of sense.” she replied with a head nod.

“You are boring me.” came a voice from somewhere in the room. I was going to make you go through my base of horrors. But now I just want to kill you. See you momentarily.”
“What?” Yvaine asked before the floor opened beneath each of their feet and dropped them into the black pits below.

Andrew dropped, his hand reached out to grab the edge but his hand slipped and he dropped. He felt like he was being pushed through a tight tube as if he was being birthed once again and he had to push through in order to come into the light once again. He could see nothing in the pitch black that surrounded him. Andrew must have been in there for hours, for seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours. Soon he was shot out onto a hard metal floor, his body and uniform drenched in sweat.

The other three Judges popped out behind him, just as sweat drenched as he was and moaning in disgust. Andrew looked up, Culverton stood there, but it wasn’t him. It looked like a demon had infused himself with Culverton and this is what was left.

“Welcome,” Culverton spoke in that stereotypical echoing voice all demons had, which made it that much creepier. “Sorry about the delay, actually no I’m not. You were uncomfortable and that makes me happy. Looks like I have to kill you now. But I’ll start with you and July or whatever month the bitch named after.”

Andrew watched as Culverton charged them, June and him managed to roll out of the way but Yvaine and Pete were knocked out of the way and they collided into the walls with a sickening crack. They fell to the ground lifelessly, June gasped.

Andrew filled with rage. He stood up and grabbed his daystick from his hip. He spat on the ground as he stared Culverton down.

“I’ll going to drokking kill you. Rapid fire.” Andrew growled as he ran towards Culverton, roaring a blood curling battle cry.

“Andrew wait!” June yelled but Andrew didn’t hear her cry.

Andrew brought his Lawgiver up and sprayed a burst of bullets into Culverton’s body. They seemed to ping off of Culverton but he paid them no mind. When Andrew was close enough, he started to swing his daystick like a mad man at Culverton. Culverton blocked it with ease as he let out a throaty chuckle.

“You don’t get it do you? You’re feeding me, all that hate, all that rage, just makes me stronger.” he growled as he grabbed Andrew by the throat and held him in the air, he was an inch or two of pressure away from collapsing Andrew’s windpipe. Andrew raised his Lawgiver but Culverton melted it with a touch of one long claw. “These last few weeks? I planned it. Wonder why no Judge would come near me? Look at me stop looking away. My power caused all of this, the Judge’s fear, them assigning you to hunt me down, the only reason that you got this far was because I let you. The Judges are nothing, I rule Mega City One, I am the law.”

Culverton screamed suddenly, something had pierced his thick hide and was burning him. Andrew tried to turn his head; he could barely see June standing there with a smoking Lawgiver.

“Exorcist bullets, wish I had found more than one clip.” June smirked as she shot the hand holding Andrew.

Culverton dropped Andrew as he rubbed his wounded hand. Andrew stepped back and clutched his daystick. They had a weapon to use against him.

“How many of those clips did you bring?” Andrew asked.

“I only have one, I found it on one of the dead Judges.” June replied grimly, one clip wouldn’t be enough to kill Culverton. They were running out of options.

“Looks like your ace in the hole is a dunce. Oh well, time to die.” Culverton roared as a stream of fire erupted from his mouth.

Andrew ran over to June and tackled her behind an overturned table. They lay there as the flames began to burn the table away. In their darkest moment the wheels in Andrew’s head began to turn. He had an idea. Andrew took his helmet off and looked at June.

“June. Read my mind. On three shoot a bullet into that mother drokker, then follow what I am thinking to the letter.” Andrew yelled over the blazing inferno.

June paused for a minute. “You can’t be serious!” she yelled. “That’s suicide!”

“Maybe. On three. One…two…three!” Andrew yelled and rolled out from behind the table. June shot a bullet into Culverton and the flames stopped.

Andrew had his window of opportunity; he ran up to Culverton and jumped onto him. Grabbing ahold of two spikes that jutted out of his shoulders. He was face to face with the demon/human, his breath smelled of damned souls and fear.

“I have one thing to say to you Culverton.” Andrew sneered as he stared directly into Culverton’s eyes. “Everything you did, every life you took, every moment of suffering. Thank you.” Andrew finished sincerely.

“What?” Culverton asked he didn’t see that one coming either.

“You know I’ve fallen in love with you. Not a love for a leader but a lover. The most purest, sincerest, and meaningful emotion I can give you. I hope you take this as a worthy sacrifice.”

Andrew then did the one thing that would be remembered forever, tales would be sung and poems written. He leaned forward and kissed the devil straight on his maggot-infested lips. Culverton shrieked as he felt the pure emotion drain into him. He couldn’t take it, it was draining all of his power, how could one child defeat an immortal like him?

Andrew tried to hang on and keep the kiss sincere, he poured every good memory, every meaningful touch, every last emotion he could pump into Culverton to destroy him, and it was working. Andrew felt the demon start to recede and tear apart. He swelled and bulged until he exploded, sending Andrew flying back a few dozen feet. Soon nothing but a ghost of Culverton was left standing. He began to wisp up and attempt to escape.

“June now!” Andrew yelled.

“On it.” June told him as she pumped her exorcist bullets into Culverton’s ghost. She put a hand to her temple. “I don’t know many tricks yet, but I do know how to cancel out your psychic wavelength. Immortal or not it still consists of vibrations, and every vibration can be canceled out with a counter vibration.”

Culverton began to scream as June threw her Lawgiver onto the ground and pulled her helmet off. She put two of her fingers on each temple and then began to think. Culverton spun and groaned as he slowly began to fade from existence. Soon he disappeared, not a trace of him left but the momentary echoes of the final screams of Culverton’s spirit.

June slumped and fell to the ground; Andrew stood up and walked over to her.

“Well partner, we did it.” he told her as he helped her up. “It’s all over.”

June gave Andrew a small hug, a sign of affection that was rare between Judges. Andrew returned it before walking over and checking on Pete and Yvaine, barely conscious, but still alive.

“Let’s get out of here.” Andrew told June as he slung Pete over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. June did the same to Yvaine and then they started to walk out of Culverton’s base.

*****

Andrew and June walked out onto the battlefield. Medical wagons and various other vehicles were driving around, collecting the dead, tending to the wounded, anything that could be done to help.
Andrew heard a Lawmaster and a medical wagon stop next to him. He turned to see Dredd and Anderson sitting there. Anderson looked happy and gave him a silent nod, Dredd just kept his mouth in a straight line, the closest thing that Andrew would ever get to a smile or a sign of approval from him.

“Rookie, good work. Medical wagon is right behind me, get in and get your wounds taken care of then report to the Hall of Justice tomorrow at 0900.” Dredd ordered before driving off.
Andrew and June made their way to the medical wagon and got into the back of the vehicle. Two fussy medics took Yvaine and Pete off their hands and set them on stretchers in the back. Andrew sat down on one of the seats on the side of the wall and leaned his head back. June sat next to him and did something similar. Andrew smirked and clasped her shoulder.

“Great working with you partner.” Andrew told her before he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Letting the medical wagon drive off to take them to a hospital for a well earned rest.