#273
A First Shot Fired
Part 9
BREAKING NEWS: Group of Cardinals say if Pope starts reaching
towards the modern world his position will be rethought by those who put him
there. These comments come after the Pope surprisingly said, “We cannot let our
fear of Beyond Human separate us from our own humanity.”…
BREAKING NEWS: Heath care providers in some hospitals in
Seattle are saying if more laws are passed against treating Beyond Humans and
reporting them they will be forced to go against the law and will do so
willingly…
BREAKING NEWS: Woman whose husband was found to be a Beyond
Human while serving in the military goes to court to try and get information on
his location since being arrested by his fellow soldiers. Senator says her
pursuit of this information should be seen as treason in itself…
No matter how you want to twist the thinking when it comes
to law enforcement or being a soldier it is a life atmosphere in violence. This
is the reason why to survive in law enforcement, officers tend to develop
pretty twisted since of humors.
This is also why police and military love to tell stories
but here’s something most people don’t know. The stories they tell are to hide
the things they don’t want to talk about.
Living a life dipped in violence at any moment requires a
person to develop coping mechanisms whether they are fucked up jokes, drunken
stories, or even sometimes like something out of an old shore leave movie with a
bar fight or two.
If you asked Sergeant Luke what was the worst fight he had
ever been in, he would probably tell you about some fight when he was in the
police academy or during a football game in high school, but if he was honest this
story would be what he would tell you.
Also of course he was in the military and a mere private
during the time of this story so this is about Private Luke.
Private Luke was a young man with broad shoulders. He was
heavily recruited by a number of colleges to play football but he wanted to
join the military. To serve his country during very chaotic times was very
important to him.
He went into the military thinking it would be a lot like
football. Hard days training but also a building of lifelong friendships. He
thought it would be about people dedicated to one goal, and in the case of the
military he thought that goal would be the protection of freedom.
There were a lot of fellow soldiers who thought the same as
he did but what he never expected were the bloodlusting ones. The men and women
who were itching at the chance to kill people and not be arrested for it. Not
itching to get at some enemy but just whoever was placed in front of them.
He quickly learned this wasn’t the world of high school
football.
Or the world of John Wayne movie.
More like something by the overstuffed Oliver Stone.
The training of basic training wasn’t that bad for him. His
high school football coach had actually based their Two-A-Day practices during
the summer and after school during the school year on his own experiences in
the military.
But after only a few months Private Luke found out he was
among a bunch of very nasty people.
The ring leader of this bunch was one Private Saul.
Out of every group of new recruits there are usually one or
two real standouts. In this group the two were Private Luke and Private Saul.
This fact and the fact that Private Luke didn’t take part in their talk of
raping woman and killing like it was a sport, and not to mention the torturing
of lesser recruits, this put Saul and Luke in a direction heading right at each
other and it was only a matter of time.
Private Saul saw Luke as a threat to his own bullying of the
other recruits and a threat to him being the golden boy of their drill
sergeant, Sergeant Tucker.
Sergeant Tucker turned a blind eye to what Private Saul and
his underlings were doing, he saw it as survival training within the group. He
hoped Luke would step up and be one of the strong but had his doubts after
Private Luke reported some of what Saul had been doing and saying over Tucker’s
head.
So with that insult in mind Sergeant Tucker set up a lesson
to be taught, and one was taught, just not the one he was thinking.
Sergeant Tucker had forged papers that showed Saul was on
the other side of the base with him but in fact he was heading for a storage
unit with two of his cronies, a storage unit were Private Luke was taking
inventory after a break in two nights before.
Guess who did the break in?
The storage unit was about the size of good sized backyard
storage shed. It contained for the most part military manuals on everything
from kitchen equipment to personal weapon usage.
Luke was going through each box and counting against
inventory lists of what should be there when the door shut behind him. He
turned and in the small light of the shed spotted Saul.
Saul’s two friends where standing outside the storage shed
to make sure they could alert Saul in case someone not part of their plan
showed up.
Luke had watched Saul in training. He was well trained in
MMA hand to hand combat techniques. Sergeant Tucker had even started having
Saul show the other recruits a trick or two which Saul loved, he was shown
before the others to be superior to them and also got to break some bones on
order.
He was also twice the size of Luke, nothing but muscle, and
every move he made was about strength, about large strikes.
He had made a mistake choosing this as the place to confront
Luke.
Despite his MMA training Luke had seen Saul fight, and he
was always thinking about maneuvers. He could see when a weakness came up it
was because people had made him face something he wouldn’t normally face in
training or a MMA match.
Saul started moving towards Luke but Luke quickly jumped up
and punched the free hanging light bulb and when it went out he know what his
next move was going to be before his feet hit the ground.
He knew Saul would be trying to grab him in a standing
position so he landed not on his feet but his knees and immediately punched his
enemy in the nuts as hard as he could.
He could hear Saul stumble back against the door and
shouting profanities so he knew his punches hit the spot really nice.
Outside Saul’s cronies were smiling thinking their friend
was kicking the shit out of Luke.
Saul charged across the dark storage unit in a rage and with
all the profanity Luke was able to pretty accurately time an elbow right to the
face which dislocated his elbow but shattered Saul’s face into many broken
pieces. A shattered nose, broken orbital bone, and split jaw.
In a couple minutes Private Saul passed out from the pain
but that was only after Luke stomped on his face a couple more times.
Then Private Luke had to decide what he was going to do about
the guys waiting outside. He knew how Saul and his bunch operated and knew they
had to be at least a couple of them out there waiting for their friend to
emerge and talk about how much pain he had put Luke through.
Luke reached to push the door open and get this over with
when he was grabbed from behind. He had a quick thought of Saul being one tough
mother fucker but throwing back some head butts to already shattered face make
him let go and collapse to his knees and then face first onto the floor.
Luke kicked the door open and started dragging Saul out. The
two buddies just looked on. They wanted to attack but the sight of Saul in that
sort of shape scared them so they watched as Luke dragged him across the
grounds, three buildings down to Sergeant Tucker’s quarters.
Luke dropped him there and knocked on the door and walked to
the stockade and waited.
The trail found Luke innocent of an attempted murder charge
that Sergeant Tucker had pushed for. Further investigation uncovered Sergeant
Tucker’s involved in the incident and he was dishonorably discharged.
The worst fight Luke ever was ever in was the fight he
fought every day in the military after going against the grain but it was a
lesson he did learn. Authority and law are not always right.
What’s about to happen will probably be one of those moments
that Sergeant Luke and Chris keep for the most part to themselves. It’s going
to get really personal because make no bones about it violence is always
personal, otherwise you would end up dead trying to play moral standard
playset.
Sergeant Luke and Chris were riding down in a freight
elevator to the training floor of Pompeys Pillar. The elevator was playing old
big band tunes. They have tried to track the wiring to find out where the music
came from but so far they had no luck.
Sergeant Luke had just explained to Chris the next stage in
their plan and you would expect them to be tense but they actually weren’t.
Sergeant Luke noticed that and was happy Chris’s training was coming along to
the point where he was able to be calm right now.
‘No holds barred?’ Chris asked.
‘Until one of us taps out, says no more.’ Sergeant Luke make
the point clear with his words.
‘So is this my coming out party?’ Chris
‘More like one of several final tests.’ Sergeant Luke told
him.
‘And if I fail any of them?’ Chris
‘It’s over before it starts.’ Sergeant Luke
‘No holds barred?’ Chris
‘Yep.’ Sergeant Luke
Chris went for an elbow strike to the head but Luke ducked
and the elbow hit the elevator. By the time that happen Luke had taken Chris’s
legs out from under him with a shin kick.
Luke tried to gain a mount position on Chris but the door
had opened and Chris rolled out into the training area.
Sergeant Luke noted in his own head how Chris’s scramble instincts
were improving.
They both returned to a standing position smiling at each
other. It takes a certain kind of person to get a kick out of this sort of
thing.
‘Are you sure you really want to do this?’ Chris asked, yes
still smiling.
‘Are you scared Banks won’t be able to patch you up?’
Sergeant Luke asked the young man he was training.
‘Trying to jolt me old man?’
‘Trying to get me pissed kid? You don’t have any moves I didn’t
teach you.’
They moved in towards each other.
Luke knew this was the answer to his question. Will this end
before it even got started? If Chris can’t stand against him then he isn’t the
man for this mission. If he can’t get through this, he would just get them
killed at a later point because he wasn’t good enough.
Chris swung, Luke spun away from the punch and in the same
second he went for a spin kick but Chris hit his knees to duck it and then got
on his back to dodge another kick.
Chris kicked up from his back going for Luke’s knees but
Luke deflected the series of quick kicks.
Luke went in for a punch but Chris rolled away, the punch
hit the floor, and quickly both men were back to their feet.
A restart and more smiles to try and psyche out the other
one but they knew it wouldn’t work on each other. The smiles were more a are
you getting into this because I’m really getting into this.
Luke walked over to one of the walls in the training room
and pulled down two daggers. The room was decorated with all kinds of handheld
weapons.
He slid one of the daggers on the floor over to Chris.
‘Your hand to hand unarmed is good but this is America, no
one comes at you with bad intentions unarmed,’ Sergeant Luke
Chris picked up the dagger, ‘Blades?’
‘You can use a blade to cut, disable, torture, or kill. You
make those choices in a moment.’
Chris watched Luke as they sized each other up. He knew Luke
was going for the kill. This was an end lesson he needed to survive to pass.
This wasn’t about them not being able to do this and going their separate ways,
there was this or failure for both of them.
Luke went for a stabbing thrust with his dagger. Chris was distracted
blocking that blow so that allowed Luck the opportunity to sneak in a kick to
the ribs.
Chris thought he heard a crack but tried not to give
anything away in case Luke didn’t hear it.
As he moved Chris thought he could feel part of his ribs
rubbing up against other parts and it hurt.
‘That was probably a rib. Even a small crack will take your
breathing down ten percent,’ Sergeant Luke explained to his acolyte.
He did notice.
This wasn’t good for the student.
Chris tosses away the dagger knowing he needed to change
things up and go for something blunter so he pulled two maces off a wall. He
dropped one and backed away from it.
‘Maces don’t give you much wiggle room?’ Sergeant Luke
‘Most final exams don’t have a do over or did I miss hear
and you’re grading on a curve?’ Chris
‘I thought for a while this is when it was going to end. That
you couldn’t take these steps,’ Sergeant Luke
‘I’m flattered you thought I would fail,’ Chris said, no
longer smiling.
‘I didn’t think you were going to fail, just that you wouldn’t
take the next step against another human being.’
‘So you trained me and pushed me into a situation where I will
bash your head in?’
‘What you should have said is, try to bash my head in.’
They run at each other, maces in hand, but Chris jumps in
the air dropkicking Luke in the face Brad Armstrong style.
He learned almost everything he knows from Sergeant Luke but
he also watched a lot of Smokey Mountain Wrestling.
As Sergeant Luke tumbled backward from the dropkick his mace
flew out of his hand hitting the ground with a big thud. Chris had totally
caught him off guard.
Chris picked up the other mace without hesitation. Then he ran
over to Luke and started trying to take out his legs slamming them down one
after the other.
Luke scrambled and dove under a table covered in throwing
knives. He kicked the table up sending knives and the table flying hard against
Chris.
They both stood up, but now both were tired, but Chris more
so. Swinging both of those maces took a lot out of him.
‘Control your breathing during a fight, especially if you
have a cracked rib,’ Sergeant Luke told him.
‘No more toys?’ Chris asked his teacher.
‘Ok with me.’ Sergeant Luke answered.
Luke ran over and tackled Chris. He was going to see how his
student could handle pure brutality and how much he was willing to give back to
someone.
Here endth this lesson.
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we can continue with the credits and copyright and legal and stuff that people
just don’t ever pay attention to unless it is pumping their own horn.
An Original Publication of System* Publishing,
a Tin Universe book published by System*Publishing, a
division of System*Productions, Melbourne, Florida. This book is a
work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events
or locales or persons, living or dead or living dead, is entirely and very much
so in the coincidental.
Smashwords Edition Copyright © 2015, Brian
C. Williams, System*Productions. Tin Universe Daily, and
all related titles, characters, and elements are trademarks of System*Productions.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
thereof in any form whatsoever. While unauthorized reproduction is sometimes
needed, please remember us writers types are for the most part a poor lot just
in search of a ways to tell our stories and enough money to add to our Doctor
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Written by Brian C. Williams
Edited by Brian
C. Williams
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