Jose now was a changed person, he was a contrast of his old
petulant and childish self, he was now haggard, his face sunken and waxy, his
character had changed entirely. Jose now had the cold-blooded mind of a killer
and a rage so deep and black that it was like an obsession. The obsession of
finding and killing that blasted Cybersix, if she was still alive.
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The chief prison warden for Block C, Master Sergeant Dale
Gurney, walked past the activated sentry gun and placed his hand in front of an
infrared scanner. The scanner emitted a beep to signal that he was cleared. The
heavy electrified blast door slid away to reveal a metal-gray corridor. Gurney
proceeded and looked through the view ports of each of the dormitory to make
sure the prisoners were asleep. However, when he looked through the view port
of Dormitory 4A, he saw the biggest free-far-all fight he had ever laid his
eyes on. Following the standard emergency procedure, the sergeant smashed the
alarm unit outside the door with the handle of his sidearm and blew his whistle
that reached the far corners of the prison. After the whistle came the ear
splitting siren that alerted whoever did not manage to hear the whistle.
Seconds later, fully armed troopers came pouring out of the barracks. The
sentry guns came to life and started sweeping the area when suddenly…
…the sentry guns powered down and the lights went off.
"What the hell?" hollered the Gurney as the lights
shut off, turning the corridors pitch black. In the chaos that ensured, nobody
noticed a small figure crawling his way under the fence and running into the
dark desert wastelands.
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Meridiana
27th May 2021
Time: 0701hrs (all dates and times local)
The sun's rays illuminated the cobbled streets and buildings
of Meridiana that had stood there for 20 years. People had come and gone, but
its occupants continued staying in the old city, their daily routines as
constant as Time's stately march. Today's morning was a bright and welcoming
one, the light slowly flooding the land, darkness giving way to light. Everyone
accepted another new day, another day of life. Almost everyone…
"Caryn! If your not going to get up now, you're going
to be late for school!" A woman's
voice wafted from downstairs. "I'm coming mom!" Replied the teen as
she hoped out of bed and jammed on some jeans and a sweater. She then grabbed
her bag and dashed down the steps, two at a time to the kitchen. Her mother was
already there preparing coffee for breakfast. "Caryn, your breakfast is on
the table." Her mother motioned to a pile of sandwiches on the kitchen
table as Caryn bolted past her. Grabbing a stack of sandwiches, she dashed out
of the house and across the road, heading towards Meridiana High.
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The Pentagon, Washington D.C
27th May 2021
Time: 0915hrs (all dates and times local)
"On the twenty-sixth of May, 2021, at 1832hrs, Jose Von
Richter broke out of the Arizona State Penitentiary. He devised a plan of
escape by short-circuiting a power point with a wet towel, causing the prison's
power panel to trip, switching off the security system. He then made off into
the Arizona desert," Announced General Jack H. Cooper, United States Army.
Cooper was tall and thin with an unmistakable air of command. He and several
other high-ranking officers were currently attending an intelligence briefing
in a conference room in the Pentagon's 'E' block, which only officers with the
highest level of security clearance in the Department of Defense could access.
"So what the fucks' so special about this bastard that
all of us had to be called up?" Asked Admiral Richard Collins, US Navy,
who was slurping down liberal amounts of black coffee. Collins was a large,
beefy Texan with a bushy mustache and a tendency to ingest more than his fair
share of alcohol. Earlier on, the Admiral had been pulled off his flagship in
the middle of a typhoon in the Pacific Ocean just to attend the meeting.
"Well, Richard, Jose is not your average terrorist. He
is not even fucking human. The late Von Richter in Meridiana created Jose Von
Richter from a chemical/biological substance called "Sustenance".
Anyway, the late Von Richter was some kind Mafia chief/terrorist
leader/godfather. His minions weren't not hired, but were CREATED using
knowledge gained from his experience in Nazi camp experiments in WWII. With an
army of Mutants, he later terrorized the Argentinean coastal city of
Meridiana." Explained the Major general seriously as he looked around at
the other grim high-ranking officers sitting at the table. They all looked
haggard, their uniforms rumpled, but not surprisingly as they had been awake
since 3 a.m.
"Also, I am not allowed to disclose the names of any
outside agents nor the way the operation was carried out to capture Von
Richter. I am only allowed to inform you gentlemen that Major General Fredrick
Williams was in charge of the operation."
"Fred? He caught that son of a bitch? I'm not
surprised." Laughed General Alexander Bennett, United States Marine Corps.
Unlike Cooper or Collins, Bennett was a stout, harsh man with thick, deep-set
eyes. "So what the hell's so great
about him?" Asked Collins, who was now slightly put-off, his mustache now
bristling like a hyperactive squirrel on caffeine.
"Oh, if the Department of Defense ever paid a dollar
for every hour of combat time, Fred would be fucking rich. He has commanded
almost every single covert, urbanized mission that the United States Armed
Forces has conducted in the last 20 years. Virtually every Veteran Marine in
the United States has been under him as well as every piece of military
hardware the DoD has in stock, from guns to tanks." Replied Bennett
firmly.
"So you're saying that if he captured Jose before, he
can capture him again?" asked the Admiral skeptically.
"I am not saying anything Richard, I am just giving
background info on a good soldier under my command. If he wants to take on this
mission, it is his decision." Replied Bennett, with just a hint of anger
in his voice.
"Whoa! Hold your horses, gentlemen. Fighting among
ourselves over such small thing won't solve the situation. We need a plan, not
a fight." Said General Cooper. On hearing this, Bennett cooled down.
"So what now?" Collins continued, smirking
sarcastically. "We don't even know whether Jose Von Richter has made it
out of the desert yet, yet alone Continental United States."
"Hell, he could be vulture lunch for all we know," added
Bennett, hardly smiling.
"Right now, the only way we'll know that Jose made it
is through our CIA field agents." Explained General Cooper.
"Until then, we wait. Dismissed."
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Meridiana High School
27th May 2021
Time: 1100hrs (all dates and times local)
"Miss Caryn Amato! If you continue to sleep in my
class, I will personally drag you to the principal's office and make sure you
grow gray in detention!" screeched Caryn's biology teacher, Ms.
Lori Anderson. "Sorry Mrs. Anderson, didn't get much sleep last night, I
was doing my English project." lied Caryn as she got her head off her
desk, rubbing her eyes.
In actual fact, Caryn had slept early that night; somehow,
without watching any gruesome or violent movies, she had managed to have
nightmares. She had dreamt that she was in a large, dark room. Along the walls
were tubes filled with neon green substance and… monsters. The other parts of
her nightmare were vague, indistinct, but every time there was a black haired
old man with a cruel voice and a high-pitched laugh, and sending the monsters
at her.
Suddenly, Caryn felt a lump of wet paper hit the back of her
head. She immediately spun her around. She had been hit by a small wet paper
ball the size of a marble. It had been propelled had her from the resident
class bully, Brittney Madison. A second later, Caryn was peppered with a small
hail of used chewing gum, no doubt from Brittney's gang.
Caryn turned back to face the board, plucking the balls of
chewing gum off her face as she heard the following taunts, "Caryn the
wierdo!" "No guy wants her because of her dorky hairstyle!" "Yeah, go home and sleep you baby!" and
variations thereof.
Caryn was too tired to be angry. A moment later, she had
sunk into another stupor. Actually, Caryn didn't know that she was being
bullied because she had the internal and external beauty that the girls in her
class didn't. When a person looked at Caryn, he or she would have a feeling
that she was someone special. Caryn was kind, loving and smart but the only
disadvantage was that she preferred to be alone and she always looked
depressed, sort of like a wallflower. This disadvantage prevented her from
making more friends and sadly, generated more enemies among the jealous girls
in the class.
The last bell rang and the final lesson was over. Relieved
students filed out of the class. Caryn's best friend, Mary Allen, nudged Caryn
awake. "You seem tired Caryn, what's up?" asked Mary as they strolled
down the corridor later. "Well Mary, I had this nightmare…" she
began.
After Caryn had explained, Mary gave the following bit of
advice. "Sounds like another psycho killer movie to me. I think you should
try to cut down on horror movies." She warned as they reached a road
junction. "Anyways, I got to get home early today, Caryn, " said
Mary. "Okay then, bye, see you tomorrow." Replied Caryn. With one
final wave, Mary disappeared around the corner.
As Caryn turned around another corner, she saw Brittney and
her gang, waiting. "Oh, there she is, I thought she had lost her
way." Said Brittney, her voice dripping with sarcasm, eyes full of malice.
"Get out of the way, Brittney, I don't need a shadow to follow me
around." Caryn retorted, her green eyes staring into Brittney's brown
ones. "Ohh, the baby is asking me to stand down, say, let's give her a
reminder, girls." Brittney advanced to hit Caryn but Caryn dodged it as if
she knew that it was coming. Caryn was now running through her options. Stay
and fight and get expelled from school or run and show that she was a coward.
Caryn choose option no. 2 and she was off, running in the opposite direction.
"After her!" Screamed Brittney as she pursued Caryn.
While Caryn was running, she felt like she had did this many
times before but Caryn never ran so much, either had she during her childhood
days. Caryn turned around a corner and she came to a dead end. "What am I
going to do now?" she thought desperately. Again, Caryn felt an impulse to
jump onto the roof and before she knew it, she soared into the air and landed
onto the roof.
"What the…" gasped Brittney, who was watching this
from below. "Huh?" said Caryn under her breath as she turned to look
back down at the Brittney. "Let's get out of here!" Shouted Brittney
and she and her gang scampered off. Caryn looked around the rooftops. They
looked and felt familiar, but Caryn began to wonder when and where she had
learned to run and jump from rooftop to rooftop.
To be continued…
