Chapter 14.B

As soon as Jimmy was sure Dractus was clear he opened fire on Bertha’s face again. The same pattern repeated, every shot he landed caused the stained-humans to have a spasm. Then finally he did it, he landed a shot right in one of her eyes. While Dractus was dancing around her taking shallow cuts with his ax and avoiding the blows from her one free arm. Bertha roared in defiance and held her gushing and split eye that was shooting out a jet of black sludge thanks to Jimmy. All of the stained-humans went into a continuous spasm and then immediately stopped. The stained humans all turned in one direction, their eyes were focused on one point: Jimmy.

“Oh farts...” said Jimmy.

Half of the remaining stained-humans left the protective perimeter around Bertha to chase Jimmy. His first thought was to take cover at the bulldozer, but Hank and Cerulean were still there and he didn’t want to drag danger their way. So instead he took off down an alley between two buildings. Once he was about 100 feet down it he turned around to check if he was being followed… A tidal wave of stained-humans fought to get into the alley entrance. All of them had pure hatred on their faces, and they were all trying to get to Jimmy.

“DOUBLE SHIT!” he shouted before running again. He saw a large building in the distance so he headed towards it. He glanced once behind himself to see at least 35 adults running like Kenyan sprinters to get after him. These weren’t George Romero style shamblers, the fuckers could run. Jimmy ran towards the two plane double doors on the front of the plane brick building and threw them open. He headed inside, into darkness, he had to crack a door back open when it closed behind him to get enough light to see his surroundings. One thing he saw was a blue plastic chair with metal legs resting against the nearest wall, the kind they keep in schools. He grabbed it and ran it through the handles of the door. He wasn’t sure if that would hold so he took his belt off and ran it through the handles as well cinching it tight. The second he was finished fists started pounding on the door.

He had to put some space between him and this angry mob. He turned around and looked down the dark hallway. There was an open door somewhere down the corridor with sunshine coming through it. He headed that way at a jog. He ripped around the corner and ran into the room. It was a sunlit classroom complete with children's drawings hanging everywhere and the alphabet painted at the top of every wall. There was 16 school desks in four rows of four and the standard teacher’s desk and chalkboard at the front of the classroom. He went and sat at the teacher’s desk to catch his breath. The chair should have been a dead give away that he was in some kind of school.

He was exhausted after the whole ordeal, and being chased through town. He leaned back and laid down on top of the desk and closed his eyes for just a second to collect his thoughts. That was when he heard the very distinctive sound of a basketball being dribbled from inside the room he was in. He shot up lightning quick and brought the AR15 to shoulder. There was five kids in the classroom now, he hadn’t ever heard them come in. One of them who looked about nine was wearing basketball shorts and a jersey, he was dribbling a basketball. The one next to him was a girl of about seven, she was expertly doing tricks with a yo-yo even though her eyes never left Jimmy’s face. The next one in line was a 12-year-old girl in thick glasses. She had a meter long ruler that she began to smack against one of her hands. The last two were identical ten-year-old twin girls in stained floral dresses with long blonde pigtails. They both had a pencil and a pencil sharpener in each of their hands. They were meticulously sharpening the pencils until they were razor sharp.

“Oh you gotta be shitting me.”

The twins were the ones who responded. In perfect unison of course, “You hurt Big Bertha mister, now you gotta pay.”

All of the children wielding their impromptu weapons advanced on him at once.

***

Cerulean was hard at work directing her smart cables to grab the rest of the civilians when she saw the last half of them break off to chase Jimmy. What had that man done? Oh well, less for her to worry about. She was just about finished clearing the last of them. Dractus was still busy dodging and weaving. Scoring blow after blow on Bertha. Cerulean glanced up from her work to check on Hank. His body was gone… She looked around and couldn’t find him, she was worried but her mission was to clear the civilians and she couldn’t fail. Some of them she was setting on rooftops with no easy ways to get down. A few she had shoved in dumpsters and set heavy things on top of them to make it hard to get out. She was having to get really creative to keep these people back. They were dead set on protecting Bertha. The faster she secured this area the faster she could evacuate her people and launch a bunker buster right down Bertha’s throat.

Dractus was running out of stamina. Even with one arm, Bertha was one of the most dangerous opponents he had ever faced. He was waiting for her to get sloppy so he could score a fatal wound, but it hadn’t happened yet. He dodges in under one of her arms as she swung at him, but he didn’t have time to swing his ax so he simply extended one arm mid-run and dragged it along her ankle opening a thin angry wound. Then he rolled out of her range as her giant fist flew forward to grab him. He had cut her more times then he could count but her body was massive and powerful now. If death by a thousand cuts was a real thing he still had about 900 more to go… Bertha roared directly at him knowing she wasn’t quick enough to grab him. Dractus surprised her by roaring right back. Then she did something that Dractus wasn’t expecting. She ripped a stop sign out of the ground and threw it at him.

It took all of his agility to avoid the missile with a mighty leap in which he had to twist his body in mid-air to fully avoid the projectile. As soon as he landed Bertha threw a loose handful of wood and brick at him that she had pulled off of the corner of a building. Dractus knew he didn’t have time to run or dodge. So he centered himself and channeled his energy into his axe creating a temporary force-field. The debris bounced off of it, but visibly shoved him backwards. Bertha had a strategy that would keep him on the defense now, SHIT! All she had to do was keep throwing things at Dractus that were big enough to maim him and he couldn’t attack.

All of a sudden fire sprung up along Bertha’s shoulders. Then more fire exploded at her feet. A figure came running down the road. It was Hank! He had two black eyes and every inch of his exposed skin was beet red. He had a sledge hammer in one hand braced over his shoulder, and a bottle with a rag on fire in it in the other hand. He threw the bottle just as Bertha turned to assess the new threat. The bottle hit her squarely in the chest and exploded covering her in sticky flames. Dractus knew he wouldn’t have another opportunity like this so he rushed in as Bertha tried to brush off the flames. Hank rushed in from the other side. She had to decide what the bigger threat was which was hard to do while on fire. She picked Dractus. She backhanded him so hard that he went flying through a glass storefront nearby. This meant the path was wide open for Hank who was running with a sledgehammer held high over head.

The only target on her that he could even come close to reaching was her knee. So that’s what he went for. Hank had been breaking things with a sledgehammer his whole life. He used every ounce of strength he had and all of his years of experience. The sledgehammer connected with her knee and blew right through her skin and muscle, slamming dead on the bone. The shock of the hit reverberated up Hank’s arms and he felt something crunch. Bertha screamed and fell over, parts of her still on fire. Hank has just enough time to yank his sledgehammer out and get out of the way of her fall. The sledgehammer made a very disturbing sucking sound when he pulled it out. As she screamed and thrashed Hank walked carefully up to her head. She was in a world of pain, so much so that she couldn’t even focus on Hank’s position. That didn’t mean a flailing limb couldn’t cripple him though, he knew that and was careful to avoid them.

Hank raised his sledgehammer high and waited for an opening. As soon as he saw one he ran forward and brought it down on Bertha’s sizable head that was now as big as a large microwave. The sledgehammer landed squarely and punctured part of her skull, silencing her.

“Nice shot,” said Cerulean who was standing about ten feet away.

Hank noticed that he hadn’t felt or seen an evil soul leave her body, “I should hit her again, I think she is still breathing.”

“Don’t, we will take her alive. She will be questioned and disposed of at The Hall of Arbiters.”

“Well should I put her out, she is still on fire,” said Hank who pointed at a portion of Bertha’s shoulder that was still burning.

“Give it a few minutes to burn, we don’t want her getting unruly during the trip.”

“Are Dractus and Jimmy alive?”

“Yep.”

“How can you tell?”

“I’ve got their vitals here. I have transponders in both of their suits,” she said as she held up her tablet.

“Of course you do.”

“You did good here Hank. You helped save a lot of lives.”

“Where are Eugene and Obsidian?”

“I’ve got a satellite tracking Eugene. You know I actually thought he was a robot at first. He is crawling his broke-ass mech a few miles from here through the woods. I have no idea where Obsidian is.”

“Well let’s collect our team and go hunt those fuckers down.”

“That’s what makes you a good Arbiter Hank. You are beat to shit, you just had your organs partially liquefied, and you still want to hunt demons.”

An explosion in the forest behind town drew their attention. Some kind of giant rocky spear was flying straight up out of the atmosphere.

“Well, that’s Obsidian's ship.”

“Shit is Eugene with him?”

“No.”

“I have one request, no, one demand. Eugene is mine.”

***

As soon as Hank had gotten back up to the ship he limped over to med-bay and passed out. He woke up in the morning covered head to toe in the transparent medical wrap with the blue lines running through it. Literally even his face was covered in it. Cerulean had been kind of enough to cut holes for his eyes and mouth in it, which was thoughtful. Hank tested his feet and found that he could move with only minimal pain. Which was good since yesterday he had felt like he was a few minutes from death’s door. Hank found Cerulean drinking coffee in her pilot’s chair.

“Is that Earth coffee?”

“Yep, giving it a try. Want some?”

“Take me to Eugene. It’s time to finish this.”

This was a feud years in the making. Eugene had hurt too many people. He needed to pay. Cerulean understood without Hank having to say more. She flew the ship over Eugene’s location and told Hank to meet her at the back ramp once he had pants on. He looked down and realized he was still only wearing the transparent medical wrap, whoops. Hank went back to the med-bay where his backpack full of clothes were. He threw on some pants and boots, he didn’t even spend the time to find a shirt. He met Cerulean at the back ramp. They were hundreds of feet in the air. Cerulean tapped a few things on her tablet and a smart cable came up into the back ramp and hovered in the air a few inches off of the deck next to Hank. The end of the smart cable had a handle like device on it.

“Put your foot through there and hold on tight. It will lower you to the ground. When you are ready put your foot back through and it will pull you back up here a few seconds later. Make sure you have a good grip,”

Hank nodded and did as instructed. He soon found himself descending dozens of feet per second. He was too pissed off at Eugene to be afraid of the stunt he was pulling. Images of Eugene cutting Suzie flashed through his head as he headed towards the alpine forest below. Hank idly wondered how many people Eugene had hurt and murdered since then. The two teenagers from Winthrop town hall… Bile rose in Hank’s throat he was so angry. The smart cable started slowing as it neared the ground. Hank could see Eugene’s broken mech laying a few feet from a pond. He must have used the arms on it to drag it this far. Eugene was sitting on the shore with his feet in the water, he didn’t know Hank was coming. Once the cable was about 12 feet up and still falling Hank jumped and landed hard.

“EUGENE!”

Eugene’s head spun around and his eyes opened wide in fear.

“That’s right Eugene, you should be afraid! I’m going to make you pay for everything!” Hank felt tears on his face and he wasn’t sure why. His face felt hot and his body was shaking. Eugene got up and tried to limp away from Hank. Eugene’s leg still had a hole through it from the rail gun so he couldn’t move fast.

“YOU FUCKING COWARD,” Hank yelled. Hank took off after Eugene with long strides and shoved him into the mud at the edge of the pond. Hank shoved Eugene’s head into the water and held it there. Eugene struggled to breathe, but Hank wouldn’t let him up. When Eugene’s struggles begin to feel weaker Hank pulled him out and threw him onto the pond’s shore. Eugene sputtered and rolled onto his side, coughing up water. Hank only gave him enough time to take ten good breaths and then he was on him again, hitting him. He broke his nose first, then a few of his fingers, before he gave Eugene another minute to rest.

“Those kids in the town hall, WHAT WERE YOU DOING TO THEM?” Hank shouted.

Eugene’s eyes were wild, looking around for some way to get himself out of this situation. Hank smacked him across the face a couple of times.

“YOU TELL ME OR I’LL KILL YOU!”

“I raped them, I raped them Hank. I’m a sick man, I need help. I-” Eugene sputtered out.

Teenagers… Kids… he had raped them.. Hank got up and kicked Eugene a few times until blood shot out of Eugene’s mouth. Hank walked away crying. He had done that… to kids…. Hank knew he should take Eugene alive to face whatever brand of justice the Arbiter’s practiced. He knew the Arbiters were straight shooters, he knew there would be a fair trial. Fuck that. He had hurt kids. Hank stormed back over to Eugene who was trying to crawl away.

“I can’t give all of the people you hurt justice, but I can make you pay.”

“No Hank don’t. You are an Arbiter, Obsidian told me about your kind. Arrest me! ARREST ME!!! PLEASEE!!!”

“No.”

Hank grabbed one of Eugene’s arms and put one of his feet on Eugene’s chest, and then began pulling and pulling. Eugene’s screams only got louder and more feral the longer Hank pulled, but Hank never stopped pulling. Hank felt several pops and a crack, he was sure he had ripped the arm out of its socket. Hank walked off and sat on a large rock as Eugene continued to scream. When Eugene finally stopped screaming and was just gently crying Hank walked back over to him.

“Time for the other one.”

***

Cerulean was waiting at the back ramp when Hank came back. Hank had jumped in the lake to get the copious amounts of blood and mud off of him so he was soaking wet. Cerulean surprised him by wrapping him up in a giant hug that he didn’t realize he needed. She pulled his head close and whispered in his ear.

“Justice isn’t always pretty. If you ever need to talk, I’m here.”

He nodded and left her to go get dry clothes and to visit his friends. Dractus and Jimmy were laying in med-bay beds a few feet from each other talking and laughing about something when Hank came into the room.

“God damn it’s good to see you guys,” said Hank. “Even you, you french-kissin son of a bitch,” he said to Dractus. Drac of course just smiled and sent his lizard tongue flying around a few times. Everyone in the room laughed.

“So I know what happened to him,” said Hank pointing at Dractus. “But what happened to you?” he said while pointing at Jimmy.

Jimmy looked around a bit and seemed nervous to answer, “Oh you know, I fought off twenty of those enthralled humans. Big ones, they were lumberjacks complete with axes and saws.”

“Don’t believe this lying bastard,” Dractus said while laughing. “Cerulean told me she found him in a school surrounded by beat up children.”

“Oh it wasn’t like that! Those fuckers stabbed me with pencils and tried to choke me out with a yo-yo string. What was I supposed to do, they were kids!”

Hank couldn’t respond for a while because he was laughing so hard. “A yo-yo string? What other weapons of mass destruction did they use on you, a kazoo?” Dractus and Hank erupted into a new round of laughter.

“Oh fuck you guys,” said Jimmy.