The Furiae
Martin Guiterrez
The cell he inhabited was a predominantly grey color, the blankets, the walls, the winter sky outside. It was the same grey as his eyes, the same grey of the sky when he learned of the untimely death of his wife. He had killed much of the party responsible for this, his highly trained eye behind the scope. The action of vengeance seemed inhuman, but as far as he was concerned, any humanity, any dignity was no longer his to own.
Oh there was once an MI trooper, but that had been lifetimes ago for the man inside the cell. He was now a number, not a name. He had a name once, a life once, happiness once, but it had all be snatched away, much the way his parents had in the accident at the Titan research facility when he was three years old. She had been all he had, but she was taken, and hatred and vengeance replaced the void.
"Cerd." came a voice. Yes, yes that was his name, he had once been called Jeremiah Cerd. Oh the name was still on file, but next to that was a sereis of numbers marking him as a man serving a life sentance in Fort Levenworth. For the first time in nearly a decade, Cerd saw the outside of the prison.
His jailer walked forth, next to him were two SICON officers and twice as many guards. "Come forward, Jeremiah Cerd." came the voice.
The MP's restrained him and took him to a car that took him to a shuttle heading toward the SICON HQ, Honolulu. He was being assigned to a unit, Rico's Roughnecks, for a special mission. Unfortunately, the nature of the mission was not to be revealed to him.
"Jeremiah Cerd?" said Rico, "Skymarshall, why are you assigning a convicted murderer to my squad?"
"Lieutenant," said Sanchez, reminding Rico of his rank, "Cerd can still serve a purpose for your unit. Don't worry, I'll have Jenkins watch his every move. Cerd, for all his duplicity and cleverness, is not psychic."
Rico didn't protest further, "Yes sir."
"Show him in." said Sanchez.
The guards brought him in, Prisoner #37785, once known as Sergeant Jeremiah Cerd, stripped of rank for the crimes of desertion, theft of military equipment, and six accusations of murder, only one of which he was convicted of. He was now reinstated as a private and put back behind the scope.
Jeremiah Cerd was a lightly built man, in his early thirties, with a grown in shaved head, grey eyes, and hawk faced profile. "The keys to his restraints." said Sanchez.
Sanchez handed Rico the orders and the squad boarded the skimmer with one extra man.
Cerd's transfer leaked into the squad like air from a punctured tire. Members of the squad watched their backs whenever Cerd was anywhere near them. But most of the time, Cerd kept to himself, saying nothing and cleaning his weapons and equipment. The Lindstradt sniper rifle, a bolt action firearm with an eighteen round magazine, and capable of mounting a 4X Lyman, 8X Weaver, or standard aperture sight, was a deadly tool in the hands of a man like Jeremiah Cerd.
Higgins was walking through the corridors and bumped into Cerd. He was visibly rattled. "Relax lad," said Cerd, with a pronounced English accent, "if I had wanted to kill you, I would have."
The squad reported for their briefing. "Listen up apes, we're being sent to Sheena Island. Umbrella's latest experiments with the T and G viruses, bug DNA hybrids, and other projects must be stopped. The Raccoon City and Siberia disasters convinced SICON to throw this squad into the breach." Rico said, "Dizzy, Carl, I want you two to pull the first watch on Cerd, if he tries anything, put him out of comission."
"Really sir," Cerd replied, "You don't need to speak of me as if I'm not in the room."
"Cerd," said Rico, "SICON shoved you down my throat. If I have to, I'll use you as extra armor if you don't obey me."
"And really, Lieutenant," Cerd said, almost flatly emotionless, "What would killing me accomplish?"
"Our back up squad will be Lieutenant Walker's squad inserting from the west." Rico refused to be baited, "Gear up apes."
"You heard the man," said Sergeant Zim, "Gear up!"
The suiting up was accomplished and now all that was left was the insertion via skimmer to avoid detection by Umbrella defenses. Higgins said, "Do you have a family?"
"No longer. They were taken away from me, either by circumstance, or by human hands." said Cerd, his tone an almost eerie monotone.
They landed on Sheena without incident but there was a pervasive stench in the air, the stench of rotted flesh was on the wind.
To Cerd, finishing of unfinished business was at hand, the reckoning was to begin, the furiae was to be unleashed. He climbed the observation tower with Flores and Jenkins behind him. Dizzy focused the visor on the moving shapes below. They were human only in appearance and in that department, vaguely. Inhuman moans were issuing from their mouths and the stench of rotted flesh had come from them. Cerd opened fire, killing off the zombie mob with single shot kills.
The task of Rico's squad was to provide cover while Walker's squad's task was to capture Commander Vincent Goldman, Sheena Island's commander and responsible for numerous experiments on living human beings. Vincent Goldman was captured and the squad fled the island, but the true danger was just begining.
In the SICON HQ building, where the two squads were to be debriefed, a message had arrived and it contained these words.
The Weak Shall Perish. The Dead Shall Be Avenged.
The Furiae.
Below those words was a Latin inscription that loosely translated into 'You will not escape.'
It was then that they noticed Dizzy, who had been guarding Cerd, had disappeared along with Cerd.
Rico was extremely worried that Dizzy's life was at stake. Two MP's ran and reported that they had found Dizzy. She was lying face down in an airduct, her hands and feet secured by nonconductive tape and a strip of it forced across her mouth. As evidenced by her struggling she was still alive.
As soon as Rico pulled the tape from her mouth she said, "Ow- Cerd! Cerd did this! He broke into the armory and..."
Over the PA system came Cerd's voice, "Lieutenant Rico, I assume by now you've found Flores. She's safe."
"What do you want, Cerd?" said Rico.
"What do I want?" Cerd said, "How arrogant are you to even know what I could possibly want."
"Cerd, stop toying with us." said Rico.
"In case you haven't noticed, I've cut power to the communication lines, so you can't call for reinforcements. I only have unfinished business to settle and this will be ended." Cerd said, the transmission concluded.
Lieutenant Earle Walker shouted, "Comb every inch of this building, find Cerd!"
"Wait, we have to go about this in an orderly fashion, Cerd can evade patrols in his sleep." said Rico, "We have to get inside his head. We know revenge was the motive for his crimes so we have to assume someone in this building is a target."
"That narrows it down." said Walker, "There are generals, the skymarshall..."
"Those are too obvious, Cerd would want us to think that way." Rico replied.
"Why else would Cerd go through all this trouble if his target isn't important." said Walker.
"One man's trash is another man's treasure." Doc quipped, "Cerd probably just pulled all this to buy himself time to launch his attack."
"Okay," said Diz, "What do we do, Rico?"
"What do we know about Cerd? What are his weaknesses? How can we wear him down to a point where we can stop him?" said Rico.
Gossard was at a portable computer, "LT, look at this."
The file was a personnel file on a deceased Intel operative, named Katharine Tyler Cerd. She was undercover on a mission against Umbrella and had her cover blown. She had been killed by a criminal gang lead by Red Barr, who used his truck driving job and farm as a base for his illicit activities of kidnapping and demand of ransom. Umbrella bribed enough police officials and politicians for Red to operate as their disposal for spies, whistle blowers, and the like. Katherine Tyler Cerd had been their last victim before her vengeful husband sent them all to their graves.
"LT." said Higgins, over the commlink, "Cerd was spotted in the archives room."
By the time the Roughnecks had reached there, Cerd was gone. A tape had disappeared and Walker looked nervous. "Report to the conference lounge, all of you." came Cerd's voice over the PA.
At the conference room every video screen turned on. "This has been collecting dust in the archives for years. It was taken by a security camera that had failed to be silenced during a secret negotiation. Very sloppy, I say to the officer who carried this out."
The tape showed Earle Walker negotiating with Commander Vincent and during the tape he had given the list of SICON Intelligence officers operating within Umbrella in order that Buenos Aires not be bombed with the T-Virus that would render the Latin Paradise into a Latin Necropolis, a city of the dead.
"See, Walker." said Cerd, "That Award of Meritorious service has the blood of eighteen people on it, including my wife. Katherine Tyler Cerd, also called Kitty to her friends, she trusted you, you betrayed her, and now I will exact the price..."
"What is the price, Cerd?" said Walker.
"You're life. And that is non-negotiable. Don't bother turning yourself in, I enjoy stalking you through the corridors, my trained eye behind the scope." Cerd replied and a peal of almost maniacal laughter followed. The laugh was that of a man driven insane by loss.
"Carl, get a trace on him." said Rico.
"Rico, there's something about me not included within my service record. I possess enough psychic ability to defend myself from psychic probes." said Cerd, "Now vengeance will be mine."
"Cerd," said Rico, "There's no need to kill Walker now. He'll never be able to walk with honor again, you've beaten him."
"That's not good enough." Cerd replied.
"You've taken his life." said Rico.
"I meant as in stopping the beating of his heart, Rico." Cerd replied.
"Carl, keep trying." said Rico.
"I can't focus." said Jenkins.
"All this psychic blocking must be draining on Cerd as well, we have to wear him down." said Rico.
"How?" said Walker.
"We need the use of live bait..." said Rico.
The crosshairs of the telescopic sight aligned on the figure of the man, focusing on the head. Squeezing the trigger the sniper squeezed of a round. "Got him." said Diz.
"Clever Rico, using the decoy system. I'll have you know I just probed the lure. I have triangulated Walker's exact position. Checkmate." Cerd said, using the PA system.
The moment was at hand. The moment that the circle of vengeance would be completed. The crosshairs centered in the middle of the hated face. The traitor, the one responsible for taking Kitty away and thus destroying without a trace the good man and potential citizen that had once been Jeremiah Cerd and turning him instead into Prisoner #37785. Savage elation began to fill him when suddenly hammerblows struck at his torso and abdomen. The trigger squeezed, and the round was fired, striking Walker in the abdomen.
Doc LaCroix went to treat him as Rico rushed toward the area where blood was leaking from the shattered airduct. Jeremiah Cerd was still alive and Rico disarmed him.
"Very good, Lieutenant Rico, much more than I expected from you." said Cerd, as he lay dying.
"Looks like you got a little sloppy, Cerd." said Rico.
"Sloppy, but still having the satisfaction of killing Walker." Cerd replied.
"You're dying Cerd, you don't have any more cards to play." said Rico.
"I may have played my final card, but I assure you, that it was a damn good final card." Cerd replied and his breathing became more labored and he eventually died.
Rico stood for a moment, looking down at the dead body of a man who had been driven to near insanity by hatred and revenge. The true tragedy was the loss of the loyal husband and potential citizen that had once been Jeremiah Cerd.
The End.