TV LAND

The News:

"Shock. Terror. Chaos. Those words describe a reality that New Yorkers are all too familiar with. The wounds of 9/11 are barely healing and this pulls out the stitches. And America bleeds all over again. As the city reels from the latest blow to its heart, authorities are still baffled by the string of bombings that have hit New York and New Jersey. The death toll is still uncertain, but it's been said that it could be in the thousands."

Another channel

"One Police Plaza, the newest victim to terror, is now a ruin. Hundreds of police officers and federal agents have fallen in this latest shocking attack on American soil."

Another channel still:

"We've asked people on the street what their reaction was to this new crisis. This was what they had to say."

Young white man in his late teens, early 20s:

"This has to be the BLEEP ragheads again. Those BLEEP are BLEEP retards. We should BLEEP those BLEEP into pieces. Send down some porn and some drugs, give them something to occupy themselves. BLEEP."

Middle aged black man:

"This is horrible. When it's not nature lashing out at us, it's our fellow man. When does it stop ? When does it ever stop?"

Middle aged white preacher:

"This is time for Sodoma and Gomorrah to change its sinful ways. The Lord has spoken! Wiping out sin with its cleansing fire! People of New York, that was but a warning!"

White man in his forties, Slavic accent:

"I come to America to run from ethnic cleansing in my country. America is great place. Why people attack it?"

Bearded man in his 40s:

"This is it. It's the fascists? Remember those militias? Oaklahoma 1995? We all thought we'd seen the last of those guys, huh? WELL, GUESS WHO'S BACK, HUH?"

Young white woman in her early 20s:

"Before we all get, like, caught up in anger, we should think about the people that died and how we can help their families."

Middle aged middle eastern man:

"I fear for my people. We will be blamed for this. After 9/11, my business almost went bankrupt. Now, I will get the hate mail again, the threats, the vandalism. This is not good for anyone."

Middle aged Black man:

"Man, I blame Canadians. Yeah, I blame those hockey lovin, maple syrup suckin' motherBLEEP. It's true. They let all them damn foreigners in their country, then they get all up in our country and they do this BLEEP. What? Racist assumptions? Who the BLEEP you callin' racist, you cracker? What, you Hispanic? Then who the BLEEP you callin' racist you spic BLEEP!"

Yet another channel

"We now have word that The President Of The United States will make a statement. He has accepted to cut short his three month vacation on his Texas Ranch to speak out."

CNN

"My fellow Americans. Once again, we have been attacked by evil cowards. Once again, one of our great symbols, has been struck down.

Once again, we have been wounded at our very core. We have been blindsided. And we should all send condolences and prayers to the families of those who have fallen during this tragic, tragic event.

But I am ALSO here to tell you this: America will not bow down to terror. America will NOT surrender to these evil men desperately trying to change our way of life.

Our troops overseas will still fight to liberate peoples from all sorts of tyrants.

Let me be perfectly clear: the law enforcement agents, who have seen their brothers and sisters fall during this cruel onslaught, America's fighting men and women, the Intelligence community will make sure that the men who did this will be hunted, apprehended and brought to justice. And I assure that this justice will be swift and unwavering.

I urge you all, I urge all Americans to keep faith. It is in these dark times that both a people and its leader must trust each other: America must trust her leader and her allies to make sure that this wrong is avenged, and the leader have faith in their fellow citizens to keep on living their lives so we can show these cowardly murderers what the American spirit truly is. Its strength. Its beauty. Its unflinching courage.

Remember: America and Americans have God on their side. Have faith in the Lord. Have faith in America.

Thank you. Good night.

God bless you and God bless America."

TEXAS

The President left as camera flashes lit up the podium where he was standing a second before.

"How was that?" The President asked one of his advisors. He couldn't remember the name. They all looked alike. Nervous white guys aged 35 to 60 in expensive suits.

"Excellent delivery, Mister President." One of them said.

"Perfect." Another said.

"Good." The President said. "I only have one question."

"Yes?" One of the drones asked.

"Who the hell was it that hit us?" POTUS asked.

WAREHOUSE

HQ OF TATAMOVICH AND RASTOVILICH

They were watching television.

"Amazing." Rastovilich said. "I thought the communists had good propagandists. That was incredible."

"They think we're terrorists." Tatamovich said. "Nobody has made the connection between the gang wars and the bombings."

"Why would they?" Rastovilich said. "Gangsters don't blow up buildings like that. That's what Al Qaeda does."

"Fuckin' brilliant." Tatamovich said.

"Now." Rastovlich said. "You are rid of your competition. If you're lucky, the cops that were on your case are either dead or working on this string terrorist attacks. You're almost there."

"Almost is the key word, Viktor." Tatamovich said. "The Punisher is still out there. He's defeated us at every turn. I will not rest until I see that fucker dead."

2212 HOURS

Cleveland Franklin went home. Spent. Depressed. Smelling like death and ashes. He went to the bathroom.

He showered.

He had images popping in his head.

Charred bodies. Screaming. Endless, endless, screaming. He'd stayed at the site for as long as he could. Paramedics ordered him home.

Screaming. Charred bodies. Smoke. Blood. Burnt cars.

This was Hell. Franklin had taken a trip to Hell. He'd never seen death and suffering at such a scale. He'd seen pictures, read bout it, all of it, but to actually see it.

And, for a second, his heart was full of hate, back there. For a few seconds, Franklin had the urge to kill. He repressed it.

He'd seen enough death and carnage to last for decades.

Blood.

Bodies. Nothing but bodies. Hundreds. Thousands Screams.

Feinstein. O'Reilly. All the cops on the Russian mob case. Dead.

Fire. Death. Screams.

Thousands.

People on fire. Screaming. Running.

The images were flooding Franklin's mind. He was losing it. He was losing. He had to focus. Focus. FOCUS. THINK.

Think. Think.

But he couldn't. He was exhausted. And the images came again.

Death. Misery. Pain. Fire.

Hell.

He would need to rest and sleep to figure this out. But how could he sleep with that in his head.

His bosses would probably yank him out and tell him to forget the Punisher, the Russian gang and-

Wait. Gang war. High death toll. What are the odds of all the violence peeking at the same time? Punisher…Gang war…

Could it all be linked? Could it be that the gangsters were behind the bombings? Franklin remembered Danko's words, the first time he met him at the beginning of this madness. "They are animals. They will kill anyone who stands in their way." The blasts, they took out cops, casinos, apartment buildings…

Mob hang outs. Had to be. The blasts…did they kill innocent people at random or some were rivals for Tatamovich?

If so, what could he do?

Brighton Beach might bring the answer. Maybe.

Franklin went on his bed. He sat. Still thinking. Until victims popped in his mind. And he watched all those people suffer and die. He tried to help a few, but more were hurting and screaming for help. He absorbed all their pain and despair.

He watched dozens of people die. Several in his arms. It all came to him at once.

And US Marshal Cleveland Franklin, 10 year veteran in the United States Marshal service, ex-Marine, cried softly, alone, in his dark bedroom.