Judgement Day

The elevator rattled and clanked as it climbed further and further to the top of the block. Andrew swallowed nervously as numbers rose steadily towards level two hundred, the last level and place that the leader of the block maniacs could hide. The four Judges had fought and shot their way through one hundred and eighty nine floors of heavily armed maniacs, the end was in sight.

"Remember Peach Trees Dredd?" Anderson asked as she nudged Dredd with a wink.

"Affirmative." Dredd responded dryly.

"So what is it with you that you make rookies have to shoot through two hundred floors of heavily armed psychos hellbent on killing us?"

"We don't get to be picky about our jobs Anderson. We just do them, that is our creed. We are the law."

Andrew smirked he had always found it a bit humorous when the Judges would scream out their battle cry “I am the law”! He hadn't gotten to do it yet, but he was looking forward to it. The doors opened with a ding, checking first if the hallways were clear, the four Judges walked out into the hall.

"This is easy. I don't like it." Yvaine pointed out as she looked up and down the hallway.

There was a noise metallic shuffling sound; Andrew frowned for a microsecond until he realized what the noise was. He grabbed Yvaine from the middle of the hall and slammed on the ground behind an over turned table nearby. Bullets filled the air with machine guns rounds as they zipped overhead.

"You had to say something didn't you!" Andrew yelled.

"Of course I did bongo head!" Yvaine yelled back in response.

"Don't call me names from the academy, we just graduated! That thing that happened in Holo Room B doesn't count!"

"I'll call you whatever I want, especially after what that monkey did to you!"

Andrew growled and grabbed his Lawgiver from his holster. He gave the weapon a kiss and then sat it on the edge of the table; he aimed it down a little so that it would have a greater chance of stopping where he wanted.

"Hi-Ex!" he yelled as he pulled the trigger and a slightly bigger bullet shot of out his gun.

Andrew pulled his gun back down and counted from five. When he reached zero there was an explosion and the sounds of shells hitting the ground.

Yvaine began to get up but Andrew yanked her back down. Hang on, he mouthed as he pulled an overturned fake tree towards himself. Grabbing a branch and snapping it off he pulled his helmet off and stuck it on the branch. Slowly he raised it up until it cleared the table. Holding it there for a moment or two before raising it higher. When the helmet wasn't shot up he put it back on and glanced around the side of the table. The coast was clear.

"So that's what your face looks like." Anderson said in mild shock.

Andrew's head snapped around to see Dredd putting his helmet back on. He had missed a golden opportunity to see Dredd's face, a sight sought after by many and actually witnessed by few.

Cursing under his breath Andrew stood up and helped Yvaine up on her feet. He was about to ask what their next move was when there was a hiss and a yellow gas began to emit from the air vents.

"Rebreathers!" Andrew yelled as he tapped a button on the side of his helmet and a small plastic piece dropped over his mouth and unleashed clean air into his system. He could use his radio with this thing on thankfully.

"I found a way out!” Yvaine yelled as she threw a door open.

“Rookie wait…” Anderson began to yell as a sharp spike pierced through Yvaine’s armor and went out the back. Blood began to pour from the wound as Yvaine cupped it and fell to the ground as the spike was withdrawn from her.

“NO!” Andrew yelled as he ran over and grabbed the perp before he could get away. The smell of rotten meat splayed over his nostrils as he slammed it into the wall. His eyes bulged out of his head when he saw it was the spider thing that he had killed on the beginning floors. This one was just as ugly but had sharp spikes instead of clawed hands.

“Attempted murder of a Judge, the sentence is death.” he said with rage and pulled the trigger on his Lawgiver. Shooting it in the head, causing it to fall to the ground dead.

Andrew turned around to see Anderson carrying Yvaine, she was in bad shape, blood poured from her mouth with every wet cough. She was looking paler and paler by the minute. Dredd just stared at her with that same rage filled look that always draped his features.

“I’ll stay here and tend to her wounds, if the design specs we picked up are correct then the leader shouldn’t be far from here. Go.” Anderson ordered.

Andrew nodded and ejected his clip from his Lawgiver, slamming a new clip into the gun and looking at Dredd.

“Let’s move.” Andrew said to the older Judge as he readied his nerves and progressed further.

A million thoughts raced through Andrew’s mind, how had that spider thing come back to life? Was there more of them? If so who was creating them and why? Shoving his racing thoughts to the back of his head he calmed down and focused on the mission at hand.

He pushed the door to the next room open, checking to make sure no elaborate death traps were present. The room was pitch black and had a terrible smell to it; he would have to use the night vision aspect on his helmet.

“Night vision.” he warned Dredd as the room came into view in a green tint. Immediately he wished that he hadn’t done that.

The room was crawling with the spider things of varying kinds. Some had twenty arms, others had three heads, while some had ten ears. It was a motley assortment of the macabre.

The group was huddled in close quarters at the top of the large domed shaped room, they appeared to be sleeping but could at any moment wake up and be upon them. Andrew gulped and looked around the room, one could hold its own against a Judge but the hundreds in here would over power them. Being silent would prove an obstacle as most of the room was covered in bones of varying sizes, it would take accidently stepping on a delicate finger bone with his heavy steel toed boots and the whole room would be a mess of miscounted limbs and rotten meat smell.

Andrew looked at Dredd and the two proceeded carefully. Tip toeing around giant and small bones protruding from the floor and proceeding to the door with relative ease. That was until Dredd accidently stepped on a small pile of bones hidden by an odd amount of sand that covered the ground.

“Drokk.” Andrew said as the room filled with screeches and the sound of scurrying.

‘Run!” Dredd yelled and Andrew took off, racing for the door.

The crowd of spider things crawled after them; Dredd turned and aimed his Lawgiver at them. “Incendiary!” he yelled and shot the bullet at the crowd following them. They lit up like a candle and began to run around screeching as they burned. Even if a sizeable chunk of them had been caught on fire that wouldn’t be enough to stop all of them.

The door was in sight, Andrew rolled to avoid a swipe at his head by a spider thing with a meat clever attachment. His hand grasped the door and pushed it open. Running through the door and slamming it shut once Dredd was clear. Andrew pushed against the door as he grabbed a spare chair and jammed it underneath the door handle.

“What do we do now?”

“We don’t do anything, you’re going to get through to the leader. I’ll hold them off.” Dredd told him as he walked over and picked up a minigun, conveniently lying right where one would need it.

“But there are too many!” Andrew tried to argue.

“Don’t argue rookie, you’re in danger of failing your assessment.”

“Fine, sir.”

Andrew began to walk off. Leaving his idol to die at the hands of these freaks.

“Rookie?” Dredd called out.

“Yeah?” Andrew said as he half turned to face him.

“If you eliminate the leader in this building, then you’ve passed your final assessment.”

Andrew smiled a little as he began to run off towards the last room. Dispatching a few remaining guards with ease as he walked into the penthouse apartment that was the head quarters for this whole giant block war, Andrew looked at his gun and gave it the good luck kiss that always calmed his nerves. The door was made of cheap wood, Andrew walked up and kicked the door down with relative ease. An oddity as normal doors didn’t do that, he wanted to try that more for show as his nerves were near spent and he needed to seem as intimidating as possible.

Walking in the room was decorated with an elegant grace that was odd, Andrew had been expecting a lot more guns and corpses and well anything but a record player finishing up the last part of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony. Candle’s illuminated the room from a silver chandelier. The room smelled of strawberries and kiwi’s, pleasant after all the rotten meat smell that he had been subjected to all day.

At the back of the room there was a desk. At the desk a man wearing a white mask that went up to his hairline and stopped at his jaws sat there drinking a glass of white wine. Andrew frowned as he held his Lawgiver up to point at the man.

“Hello there young Judge.” the man said to him with a slight British accent.

“Are you in charge of this, this, massacre?” Andrew questioned as he walked closer to him.

“I will admit to concocting the idea.”

“You’re crimes include the starting of a block war, the attempted murder of four Judges, the murder of civilian life, and willful destruction of public property, The sentence is death, how do you plead?” Andrew asked as he stood a foot from him, aiming his Lawgiver right in the center of the man’s forehead.

“Guilty. I would note that killing me wouldn’t stop me.”

“I’m pretty sure a bullet in your head won’t exactly improve your situation.” Andrew told him as he pulled the trigger and a bullet embedded itself into the man’s skull.

Andrew pulled a chair up and sat down, it had been a hell of a first day. He was hoping he could call it in and they would pass him. Then he could go to the apartment that he would be getting as a servant to the city and go to sleep.

A painting that had been hanging behind the man’s desk pulled up to reveal a small television. It turned on to reveal a picture of the man.

“Hello there young Judge. I would figure that you would probably shoot me before letting me explain that shooting me would be pointless. The thing that you have shot is nothing more than an android. I was never present at all in the block during the block war; instead I am far away planning my next masterstroke for this city. I hope you know that I have taken a very special interest in you Judge Grey. I will be in touch soon, best wishes until then.”

Andrew stood up and pounded his fist into the desk, causing a rather large indention. He tried his radio again, it was now free and clear.

“Control this is Rookie Judge Grey. The perp was never at the scene. He had fled once the block war had started, request H-Wagon extraction.”

“Affirmative Judge Grey. Sending H-Wagon for pick up.” a woman at control chirped in his ear.

There was a sound of rustling and Andrew turned around, one of the spider things had gotten in. Before he could react it sunk a blade into his chest. Not now, he wouldn’t fall now. Andrew grabbed the things head and snapped its neck with a dry crack. It fell over as Andrew began to fall to the floor. The room began to go dark as he saw three other Judges enter the room.

“Rookie!” one of them yelled, but they sounded like they were miles away.

He reached a hand out to one of them; it fell limply as he slipped into unconsciousness. Someone picked him up and started to carry him off, he awoke a few times here and there. Seeing a team of medics patching him up, Dredd arguing with some other Judges.

Andrew awoke again to see Dredd standing over him. He peered at the man through half open eyes.

“Rookie, your assessment is complete. Welcome, Judge Grey.” Dredd told him stiffly before walking off.

Andrew smiled as he fell into unconsciousness again. Hoping he would wake up again soon, his one dream had been accomplished. Now it was time to live the dream he had been waiting for all of his life.