Depthless, p.12
Depthless, page 12
As he said this a clash of thunder roared above, then the rain came. The President grabbed his face and roared. He turned around and reached to Grab the General.
“Tomas.”
At that moment Krantz is awoken to a strange splat of dark liquid doused over the left side of his face. At first, he doesn’t know what it is, till he turns around.
Soldiers diving for a decapitated body, bullets flying all over, the Vice President being dragged away.
Krantz’s mouth dangled as he stood in the center of the fire, yet he didn’t move, looking down at the brain matter of the President. He slowly picked his hand up, sliding some of the liquid off his face to see that same matter.
He hurled and took off to the end of the dock. Turning back, he sees the President’s Dodger cap lying in a pool of blood, as the soldiers pick the assassinated body up he saw a figure ahead, a sniper hidden amongst the mountain.
“RUN GENERAL, I’ll cover you!” Scott, a friend of his, says, pulling out his sidearm.
But before he can even move an inch, he’s blown to bits. Krantz wants to run back for his friend, yet the noise and sight of helicopters taking off, and cars blow away to leave him speechless. He stopped and twirled around avoiding death by a thin needle.
As he looked around, he spotted one final car making its descend from the dock. He rushed for it at the second fastest he had ever run. In a flick of dust, he called them, somebody peeps their head out and held the side open for just long enough for Krantz to slip in, he slid to the other side where he caught his breath, the man sliding the door shut.
The car blasted forward at the speed of light, driving through the barrage of bullets and bodies. Krantz breathed heavily as he rushed for to the window, he could only get a good look for a split-second at it all. The body of the president in the center of a dog pile of soldiers and dozens of vehicles splitting in all directions.
Out of the blue, he felt a finger tap him, Krantz looked over his shoulder in this ill-lit car coming to face with the Vice President. “Joe…”
Joe was in his youth the first VP of his kind, he whipped blood from his forehead and silently faced Krantz the moon reflecting in his eyes.
“We got to go back.” Krantz stated.
“No can do.” A mid-toned voice said.
Krantz peered up and squinted toward the front where there remained another person in the car. This was a man certainly, he had long strands of hair towering to his shoulders, though those wisps were gray, he was covered in blood and by the looks of it looked like an ordinary dispatch solider.
“We have to, its Eisenhower!”
“Eisenhower’s gone! And so, will be this country if we don’t act soon, you and john here are all that’s left, hell I don’t even know who made it out, sterling, the speaker of the house, all of them GONE! I need to do what’s right and get you to the strand.”
“The Strand? Why?”
“Cause it’s the only place they wouldn’t expect.”
“I–I” he stutters as he looked at the blood on his hands, aware that it was of his friends.
The car kept moving forward far from the treacherous dock however they were oblivious at this time that this was only the beginning of the Soviet's plan…
Joe and Krantz sat directly across one another, glum and quiet.
“I knew Scott since he was a boy, hell I told him to join…” Krantz rubs his welting eyes.
“You didn’t know, none of us did.”
“By killing those two assassins yesterday, we sent a message to the people of Russia that we meant business… Guess they don’t take business lightly.” He was referring to when at the ball two men attacked Baxter and that next day Krantz killed them.
Ben read something across his palm. 2-337. As he studies it Jerry the driver shrieked, alarming them.
“Jesus.” The VP and Krantz quickly attend to his notice rushing toward the front seats, where they saw a gust of smoke a flame and before long hail came, though not the hail Rambo had experienced instead flaring embers crashing down on them below.
Jerry tried his best to avoid the rain of fire yet made it short as a turbine engine crashed right before the car.
“AHHH!” The VP screamed.
He turned it around and went for a hidden road down to the shore, they drive through bumpy rocks and down a steep hill till suddenly there was a shake a thud, and a hissing noise below.
“Goddamnit!” Jerry yelled, slapping the wheel.
“Were flat!” he muttered looking up at the mess close by.
“Looks like the Soviets had more in store…” He kicked his door open and assisted Krantz out.
“This way!” Jerry gestured them toward the dark shoreline, a thin area of sand surrounded by rocky peaks. Without hesitation, they follow him digging their feet through the thick sand.
It was rough, the General groaned in agony as his knees vibrated.
“How much farther?” the General whispered trying to say his message over the gunfire. Jerry halted and looked around, he turned left shifting toward the rocky side of the ocean.
“Sir, I’d say we keep to the wall, keep our Vice President alive.”
The General slowed down and lolled behind Joe, using his body as a human shield. As they traversed the uneven ground, the General overheard the crash of waves and couldn’t help but wonder what is going on in that submarine, after all that’s all that mattered now.
The General cuffed his hand atop the VP’s back while Jerry held his arm, they tugged him forward as they heard soviet war cries. Without warning they were dropped to their feet, rocks falling from above, Krantz caught a bolt of red in his view.
“They’re dropping K’S!” Jerry yelled, avoiding the avalanche of rocks and pebbles tumbling their way. He pulled the VP up, then followed with Krantz they tried to go forward, but the way forward was blocked by a heavy rock.
“What do we do!” Joe, the vice president, muttered nervously.
Jerry hopped around, tearing for any space to jump through; he could see a crevice not far from them.
“Here!” he pushed Joe forward closer to the cave, and like that they made it inside just before a load of spiky rocks crashed inches from the entrance.
For a minute they stood in close corners, a narrow passage of space around them.
“Joe! How are you feeling?” Jerry said patting the man down.
“Fine, fine!”
“Were you hurt?”
“No, no I’m just fine…”
Joe looked at Krantz who seemed out of it, just as he was on the shore.
“Hey!”
Krantz didn’t bother to respond, glued to the side of the cave.
“Hey!” Joe snaps.
Krantz still ignored him.
“You!” he grabs Krantz by the shoulder with prone aggression. The General snapped yawing around and shoving the VP. Jerry acted quickly, catching the man before he slipped onto the hard rock ground.
In a moment he looked up at the weary General.
“Sir, we need you. We can’t be having this now! Strand isn’t far probably only a mile now, we wait out the attack and get there!”
“Well, what if strand is gone!”
Jerry mugged his face frozen for an interval.
“Don’t say that.”
“WHY NOT! I mean come on look around you, these soviets had a plan, it isn’t stopping with this. Were part one. They’re going to take out all leaders our entire government piece by piece person by person.”
Jerry shook his head as he assisted the VP onto his feet, he dusted off the man’s suit before turning back to Krantz. “Tomas, right?”
Krantz stared at him.
“Well, Ben, it’s too early to call it quits, at least for me it is….”
He walked forward peeking out of a thin crack in between to humongous boulders, “Look!” He stepped back and pushed Krantz forward.
Unwillingly he looked in, his palms go cold once he saw the horrific image outside. Bodies falling into the sea, government agents. He took his eyes from the creak and whirled down to yak.
“Why? Why did you make me see that?”
“See what?”
Krantz raised a brow stomping over to the creak. He pulled out a finger and points to the herd of bodies sinking into the ocean.
“Sir, there isn’t anything there.”
Krantz twisted his head back. “You must be kidding, the bodies!”
Jerry shook his head, things were eerily quiet, the gunfire ceased, and the sound of propellers gone.
“It’s time, we leave for strand now!”
“But we can’t, they might-”
He was cut off as Jerry grabbed the two men and pushed through the door like rocks. The outside wind presses against him as the smell of corpse and fire fronts with it.
“No!” Krantz says trying to get back in the den.
“Stop!” Jerry yelled pulling him.
“We have a duty, I have a duty, I’m getting you to strand if you’d like to or not! It’s my job!”
Krantz sighed uneasily about this idea yet he followed Jerry as they traversed onto the edge of the shoreline, they were now up fifty feet on a cliff with only a couple feet of width.
“Hold the walls!” Jerry ordered.
As they clattered ahead trying to make the least amount of noise as possible, Jerry’s walkie filled the air with static. He put up a finger suddenly stopping.
“What?” Tomas whispers.
He took off the talkie and presses it against his ear.
A voice on the line.
“President and the speaker gone everyone report to strand, strand, strand!” the line cut off before he can hear anything else.
They look at Jerry waiting for an answer.
“You heard the man! Strand it is.”
They pick up speed following through the beach boarding the highway. They go through the main road, faster and faster.
Strand is just ahead, and they could see it.
Something was off, Krantz just knew it. He spotted a Soviet troop car hid behind the building and stopped in cold sight.
At this point Jerry and the Vice-president are behind him, he stared at them sorrowfully.
“Come on Tomas, keep going…” Joe, the vice president, said pointing at the building.
It became apparent Joe didn’t seem concerned by the Soviet vehicle.
“Joe, this was you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Krantz. Let’s just keep moving.”
They gestured him to budge, but he didn’t.
“Move. Krantz, Move.”
It's slow, nothing happened. Until Jerry aimed his gun at Krantz.
“Shows over Krantz, you need to move.”
“Why?”
Joe looks saddened just like Krantz did as if he didn’t believe what he was about to say.
“Us and the Soviets are going to reshape this world.”
“There liars.”
“We’ll see.”
“This is a mistake,” Krantz says.
“No, I don’t think this was the mistake,” He leered him down.
Krantz sighed as they point him forward.
He moved, the vice president and Jerry following him as he slowly walked down the decimated street toward the place that once ruled the nation. S.T.R.A.N.D.
A step and another, Krantz was moving closer, to something he didn’t want to believe.
To be continued…
XII: You're Alive
THEN
2 years ago, in the submarine…
Back on the second day of the mission when Russell, or back then when he was still known as Rambo, was still very cold.
“Why us?”
Rambo glared across their room at Hudson, who had been conveying a look of agitation.
“Huh, boy?” Rambo asked.
Hudson whacked his head on the bottom of the bed dropping a copy of The Tale of Goobally, he makes a pinched expression before slumping to the floor, yet in the process of picking it up it slides across into the depths of the chink beneath their bunk bed.
He let out an exaggerated sigh while throwing his arms up giving up on retrieving it.
“I mean, why us.”
By now Rambo had forgotten all about what the boy had even spoken up about, glancing up with a stern face.
“Why us?”
“I’m saying why us, out of everybody there was to choose from, we aren’t the brightest…”
Rambo, the grump, crossed his arms and took a gander at the kid. “Maybe you should just keep your mouth shut and be glad we're here.”
Hudson frowned while rubbing his neck. “I’m thankful, I am.”
“No!” He horned coming between Hudson’s train of thought.
“You should be thankful you’re here, away from that shit storm out there!”
“I, I”
“Boy!” He cuts him off.
“You got no idea what others had to do to get here, to get away!”
The conversation is suspended as Rambo caught his breath.
“Why? Why are you running? Who are you running from…” Hudson asked him.
He was surprised to see Rambo sniffle, keeping his head down, eyes red.
“Are you okay, man I wasn’t trying to –
Hudson attempted to reach for him but was pushed away, and without warning, Rambo fled in a hurry out of their dwelling and into the dim passageway.
∆ ∆ ∆
NOW
The burnished chestnut bullet which had grazed Hudson’s abdomen lies on the other end of him, only visible for a slim second before being brushed over by the flood of rose like blood.
The sudden clarity of the reality casts Russell into a short-sighted man, instead of helping the boy, he senselessly surges up barreling toward the already helpless Giovani. Tucker tried to step before him only to be knocked out of the way.
Russell focuses on Giovani’s drained look as he grabbed him by the throat.
“Stop! Stop!” Voices screamed, but Russell cared not about their pleas. His eyes went cold as he squeezes the man’s neck with the force to snap it into two.
“Rambo STOP!” Phillip yelled alongside Tucker.
He didn’t even flinch, tuning them out to finish the job with Giovani, the Mexican guy's eyes pop before closing, and with-it Russell is pushed off him. He snarled like a beast turning to return when he saw the faces of his crew, all of them in horror.
Tabitha had been holding onto the wall with Tucker and Phillip shaking.
“He, he shot him!”
“Don’t make it worse Rambo!” Tabitha said.
Russell chuckled, “Make it worse?” He toiled around, with a fist, but before he could slam his hand into Giovani, Tucker knocked him to his feet.
“Don’t!” Tucker told him, his face seemed frightened.
Russell looked around to see the same looks on their faces, horror.
“Me, you're scared of me? That man right there just shot him, tried to kill us all!” Russell is unaware of his bloody appearance and blaring voice, by now his people all crowded by the corner.
“Don’t be like this…” he whimpered.
“Please.”
Russell took a step closer sending a shockwave of distress on their faces.
“No one’s scared, just put away the gun!” Tucker stated his left leg shaking uncontrollably.
“I would never!” Yet, Russell’s face conveyed something else as if he were a madman.
“Just stand back!”
“Guys, I need your help…”
They shake their heads.
He pointed to Hudson’s unanimated expression and cannot take it.
“HELP HIM!” Russell pulled out Giovani’s gun flinging it around in the area.
“Rambo, man,” Phillip said slowly and steady as he cautiously stepped toward him.
“Put it down.”
Russell glanced at the gun where he feels stiff.
“No, no… Don’t call me that name.”
“Huh?”
“I’m Russell, my real name is Russell!”
They look at him with the same stare they gave to that eerie dock days ago.
“I’m not the bad guy.” Russell chocked.
“I’m-I’m–I’m just trying to save him…”
Tucker sighed breathless, unresponsive.
“We take him to the Millville, there’ll be some sort of help there!” Russell blurts not even thinking about how they still believe true help is coming for them. Phillip broke the crew’s silent withering looks between Russell and themselves.
“Help? Why would we go out for help, if help is coming for us?”
Russell realized at that moment he couldn’t hide it any longer.
With a stale look, they all begin to catch on.
“What is it!” Tucker called out.
“What are you hiding from us.”
Russell slowly looked up at them, posing a frown.
“THERE ISNT ANYONE ELSE!” he blurted.
Russell fell stiffly as Tucker erupted into uncomfortable laughter. He acted as if it were a hoax until he sees the sincere look on Russell’s face, out of all the times he spoke truth this was it.
“But you said….”
Russell lured his eyes from them, head down.
Tabitha ran at him, slapping Russell across the face.
“You!” She said holding back tears.
The woman ran back into Tucker's arms as the crew faced him mortified, all the while Hudson laid unconscious bleeding more and more.
“We’re alone?”
Russell looks away as he shoves the weapon into his slacks.
“I thought…” he muttered under his tongue picking Hudson from the ground.
He gave them a toned look as silence overcame them, the chaos of their tight space hitting them. The room suddenly became a whole lot smaller.
He looked at Hudson and then them, where he saw Tucker shaking his head.
Russell faced Lester, the man quickly hiding his face in his shirt, then Phillip.
He eyed Phillip hoping he could get him to sway on his side understand that he had to do lie to them.
Phillip just yelled at him. “Go! Just go, Rambo, Russell, whatever your stupid name is!”
Phillip turned away, and the remainder of the crew stand in quiet pondering this revelation.
