Mace of the Apocalypse

  MACE OF THE APOCALYPSE

  By

  Daniel J Williams

  DARK INFECTION PRESS

  Copyright 2011 Daniel J Williams

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  ISAIAH 24: 6

  “THEREFORE HATH THE CURSE DEVOURED THE EARTH, AND THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN ARE DESOLATE: THEREFORE THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH ARE BURNED, AND FEW MEN LEFT.

  Chapter 1

  Her voice was soft, low and whispery. It floated through the car like a leaf gently pushed by a breeze.

  “See anything” was all she asked? It so distracted him he had to lay the binoculars down on the seat between them.

  “Nothing,” he said, continuing to stare at the house, his heart palpitating in his chest. “It looks all clear.” He turned his face towards her and the way the shadows and light from the streetlight twenty feet away softly lit up her features, it made his heart pound even harder. “Jesus,” he thought to himself. “What am I doing?”

  They had been dating for a year and a half and he was a total wreck. He had never allowed anyone in before and she had so disarmed him that he’d poured out his whole pitiful life story and she had loved him all the more for it. She was the one. He knew it. They hadn’t dated more than three months before they were operating together. She had been drawn to his occupation like a magnet to metal and had proved herself in short order. It was more like she was the magnet and he was the metal.

  In the meantime he’d been carrying the damn ring in his pocket for two damn months. He just hadn’t yet gathered the balls to get down on one knee and ask the stupid question.

  A playful grin spread across his lips as he regained his composure. He teased her with his eyes. “Ready to play the hero, nab a fugitive, and save the world?”

  Even in the darkness of the car he could see the glint in her eye. “That means it must be Monday. Tuesday is reserved for sex.”

  His mouth dropped and he felt movement down below. Oh God, she is so sexy…

  Jade Hallgren was a tough, athletic, compact beauty. She had jet black, medium length hair with large brown eyes, a perfect nose, and large sensual lips. She was of half-Asian, half-Caucasian descent, and had an exotic look about her. In her teenage years she had been a golden gloves boxer.

  Mace stared at her lovingly. She was wearing tight black jeans with dark boots and a form fitting gray sweater under a black leather jacket that accentuated her small, supple breasts. She wore a protective vest strapped over the sweater, and a small array of law enforcement type tools attached to her belt.

  Mace leaned in towards her. “I’ve got a surprise. This time I’ve even got the key,” he said, lifting a key ring and dangling it before her.

  “What the hell? You got a hold of her mother?”

  “Last night. She wants him gone bad. Said he’s ruined the family. I’ve got it all on paper, legal like.”

  Jade reached for the door handle then paused for a second, turning back. “I read the full report on this guy. He’s no lightweight.”

  “Yeah, I noticed you were wearing the vest. I don’t like it. Hides your boobs.”

  She let out a brief chuckle. “Shut up. I always wear the vest. I get tired of you gawking, you pervert.”

  “I go to mass every Sunday.”

  “You need to go to confession more often.”

  “Only because you’re so damn sexy,” he said, squeezing her inner thigh.

  He smiled one more time before his face went blank. “Game time. Let’s get in and out. No stupid mistakes.”

  The fugitive they were after was Daniel Washington, a violent ex-con wanted for skipping bail on a drug possession and aggravated assault charge. Murray from Murray’s bail bonds had given them all the contact information, as well as a picture of Daniel and a copy of his extensive arrest record. From there Mace had tracked him down through some drug associates, which led to his girlfriend’s mother, who wanted him out of her daughter’s life and out of her home. She had recently decided to move out of her own house after things got too crazy.

  Mace and Jade exited the car on opposite sides, sharing a brief, nervous smile over the hood. They were both adrenaline junkies and the excitement of the hunt was building.

  Mace motioned for her to take the back as he squatted down and made a quick sprint for the front porch. He paused at the top of the steps, just right of the door and listened closely. No sound. He maneuvered to the front of the door, slid the key in, turned the knob and slipped inside, all in one swift motion. Waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he took a few slow, deep breaths to keep himself calm and concentrate on any sounds inside the house. It smelled like stale cigarettes and mildew, and he moved his hand over the butt of his 9mm for reassurance.

  Out back Jade waited anxiously to hear the yelling that would signal her entry. She looked nervously around in the pale light of a coming dawn but saw no signs of life. As she scanned the yard she noticed a big doghouse in the corner, and her heart beat a little faster.

  “Shit,” she whispered under her breath, hunching down to get a better view, but she couldn’t see inside. Nobody had mentioned a fucking dog.

  From around the corner she heard the growl and felt a small surge of panic. Things were about to get out of hand. As the dog turned the corner she could see it was a large Pit Bull; head raised, teeth showing and a low growl that sent her spine tingling.

  Jade slowly unclasped the can of pepper spray strapped to her belt, never taking her eyes off the beast. She could tell that at any moment it was going to charge. All of a sudden, a second, smaller dog appeared behind the first, and Jade realized that the situation had just become desperate.

  Inside the house, Mace’s eyes had adjusted and he was silently moving forward, scanning the house, looking for the bedrooms. It was an open one-story, which made it easier to scope out. The place was filthy, with junk food wrappers and empty booze bottles everywhere, and he was trying to determine if any of the lumps on the floor were people sleeping or just mounds of dirty clothes. He knew the element of surprise was everything in this business, but was now questioning his thinking by the disarray before him.

  He jumped as the back door suddenly burst open, wood splinters flying as the door jam broke loose. Jade flew inside with the can of pepper spray discharging full blast behind her. As she slammed the door hard, a second slam signaled someone, or something coming after her. She knelt down, holding the door shut, whispering “Shit! Shit! Shit!” under her breath as the dogs charged the door and barked in rage.

  From out of a doorway in front and to the left of Mace a gun appeared, followed by a towering Daniel Washington in nothing but red boxer shorts. Daniel looked surprised as he made eye contact with Mace, but before he could react Mace rushed him and slammed his arm hard against the door jam. Daniel yelped as he dropped the gun. Mace swung a hard elbow up into Daniel’s jaw, snapping his head back, then turned and gave him an open palmed shot to the throat, sending him reeling back gasping for air. Two hard, punishing rights to the body sent Daniel to the ground trying to cover up.

  The dogs were going berserk and slamming the door with their body weight. Jade wasn’t sure she could continue to hold it. “Hurry!” she screamed.

  Mace yanked one of Daniel’s arms back as he unhooked the handcuffs off his belt and swiftly clasped one firmly around the wris
t. Daniel cried out in pain and struggled to rise. Mace could feel the power of the man so he jabbed his knee into the small of Daniel’s back as he grabbed him by the hair, slamming his head against the floor and stunning him long enough to slip on the other handcuff. It was then that he heard the woman in the bedroom screaming at him. He screamed back, low and loud.

  “Shut the fuck up, bitch and don’t move or I will take you out right now!”

  Mace knew how to intimidate. He grabbed Daniel Washington by the hair and handcuffs and pulled him to his feet, the man groaning from the exertion and pain. The woman continued to scream a string of obscenities. He pulled back on Daniel’s hair to get his attention and said angrily in his ear, “Tell that bitch to shut up or I am going to fuck you up.”

  Daniel was panting heavily as he said, “Shut up, bitch, or he’s going to fuck me up!”

  Mace backed Daniel out of the bedroom towards Jade, who was still holding the door against the attack of the dogs.

  “Don’t you move!” he yelled to the woman.

  “Get the dogs to stop, now!” he yelled at Daniel.

  He whirled Daniel around to face the back door.

  “Isaac, Tupac, shut up!”

  The dogs immediately stopped barking and the back door grew silent.

  Mace turned Daniel back towards the front door and started moving in that direction. “You jumped bail, man. You gave us no choice. Now let’s just make this easy from here on out.”

  Daniel put up no resistance as they headed towards the front exit.

  Mace motioned Jade towards the bedroom. “Get him some clothes. We’ll let him get dressed once we get him out of here.”

  Jade moved towards the room where his girlfriend, who had overheard, was slowly picking his clothes up off the floor. She looked to Jade to be in a state of shock.

  Jade took the clothes from the girl and handed her a card, saying softly, “Here’s my card. Call me in a couple of hours and I’ll let you know what’s going on. He’s going to go away. There’s nothing you can do about that.”

  The girl took the card and remained silent.

  They could see curtains moving from across the street as they moved Daniel towards their car, but no one came out of their homes.

  “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  They put Daniel in the back seat of Mace’s classic 1968 Ford Mustang GT and Mace climbed in after him, Jade taking over as driver.

  “Go.”

  Jade fired up the car and peeled rubber as she fishtailed down the street. She threw her head back and screamed in jubilation, “Yeah, yeah, yeah!”

  In the backseat, Mace calmly talked to Daniel Washington. “I’m sorry it came down like this. You fucked up. You gotta pay the price. You get through this and you can start your life over right. You weren’t meant to be a failure.”

  Daniel Washington stared at Mace Marconi as if he was high on crack. “What the fuck are you talking about, man? You just jacked me up and now you want to preach to me? Fuck you!”

  Mace just smiled. “You weren’t meant to always be a failure, man.”

  *****

  Lisa was late for work again and rushing. Chelsea was still finishing her cereal and watching Sesame Street on the small television set in the kitchen of their one bedroom apartment. Lisa poked her head out of the bathroom, toothbrush in her hand, and snapped at her with a mouth full of toothpaste, spitting toothpaste as she yelled. “Chelsea! We have to leave in five minutes. Finish your cereal, turn off the TV, and come brush your teeth!”

  It was the third time she had scolded her and Chelsea still wasn’t listening. She was frazzled and in need of another cup of coffee. Toothpaste was foaming around her mouth as she went back to the sink and stuck her mouth under the faucet, rinsing quickly.

  Lisa Hutchins was a single mother who was raising her small daughter, Chelsea, three, all alone. Chelsea’s father had abandoned Lisa when he’d found out she was pregnant, but Lisa had decided to keep her baby anyway. It was what she had always wanted: Something to love and feel love from in return.

  Lisa’s parents had divorced when she was thirteen and she had a strained relationship with both of them. They had married when they were too young and Lisa had borne the brunt of their mistake. Neglected and emotionally abused, she grew up with an inferiority complex that kept her quiet and feeling invisible most of the time.

  She had a brother she’d been close with who had committed suicide after her parent’s divorce, and after that she pretty much resigned herself to a lonely and unhappy life. The birth of her daughter had changed her, as it instilled in her a purpose and love that had been missing all along. The past was not entirely forgotten though, as on the inside she was still a scared and fragile little girl who was constantly unsure of herself.

  She finished rinsing and stuck her head back out of the bathroom. “Chelsea, get in here now!”

  Chelsea came scrambling, carrying her still unfinished bowl of cereal.

  Lisa worked as a legal secretary for a small law firm in downtown San Francisco on Vallejo Street, and she’d already missed her BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train. She grabbed the bowl out of Chelsea’s hand and handed her a toothbrush. “Make it quick, kiddo, I am soo late!” She rushed out of the bathroom and headed to the bedroom where she started throwing herself together.

  Chelsea stuck her head out of the bathroom and mumbled through a toothpaste mouth, “Mommy, are you going to pick me up late again? I hate getting stuck with Roger. He’s a pig.”

  Lisa barely heard her as she attempted to put on her shoes and earrings at the same time. “Yes, honey, I’ll be there. Just hurry, Okay?”

  Chelsea stuck her head back in the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth and hummed a Sesame Street song.

  As the BART train sped downtown, Lisa glanced at her watch and winced. She was going to be late again. She’d been late three times last week after losing her regular sitter, and knew she was looking at trouble if she didn’t rectify the situation soon. She looked at her daughter who was busy brushing her Barbie’s hair with a tiny comb.

  “Doesn’t she look beautiful, Mommy?” Chelsea quipped, looking up at her once she’d felt the attention. “She looks just like an actress.”

  Lisa smiled nervously, not wanting her daughter to sense her unease. “She looks just like a movie star, honey. She’s gorgeous.”

  Chelsea, her attention back on the doll, grinned from ear to ear. Lisa studied her own reflection in the darkened BART train windows and wondered what she was going to do.

  *****

  Fifteen hours straight in a car had left Khalid in a foul mood. Seventeen hours earlier he’d received a coded message explaining his final activation; including travel instructions and meeting place. This was it. His training and patience were finally paying off.

  He pulled into a transmission shop in a rundown section of Oakland, CA and was greeted by a suspicious Arab mechanic. “Can I help you?”

  Khalid got stiffly out of the car and stretched his back, avoiding eye contact with the man. “I need my tires changed.”

  The man eyeballed him closely. “We’re a transmission shop.”

  Khalid, not bothering to hide his displeasure from the ride, gruffly responded with the appropriate phrase: “So your sign says.”

  There was a brief silence before the man looked quickly around, “This way.”

  He led him to a back room and pointed to a chair. Khalid sat down and the mechanic disappeared.

  Twenty-five minutes later another man entered the room carrying a briefcase, locking the door behind him.

  “So, you are the man looking for the tires.

  “I need four right away,” Khalid said dryly.

  The man nodded and sat down, placing the briefcase on the table. He flipped the latch, opened the case and turned it around to face Khalid. Khalid felt his blood pressure rise immediately. The case was empty except for a deflated balloon and a small helium canister. />
  “What is this, a joke?” He pushed the case away from him.

  The man smiled, pushing the case back. “Look closer, brother. Do you not see the markings on the balloon? It is not of regular quality. It is made of a lightweight polyethylene film. It is what is contained inside it that needs to be discussed.”

  Khalid’s head cocked. “And what exactly is that?”

  The smile grew wider. “Devastation to the highest degree. America is about to be brought to its knees.” The man leaned forward and whispered, “Have you ever heard of a meteorite called the Murchison stone?”

  Khalid looked at him intently. “No. What is it?”

  “It contains foreign amino acids, actually alien amino acids, as old as the solar system itself. It landed in Australia in 1969.” He paused, leaned back again, and tried to gather his thoughts. “Let me explain from the beginning. Loaded inside this balloon is a highly effective toxin purchased off the black market from a Cuban physician. It was part of Castro’s arsenal. We have taken that original toxin and injected it with the life forms contained within this meteorite.” He leaned forward again and his expression conveyed deathly seriousness. “It kills quickly and then reanimates the dead.”

  Khalid’s head began to spin and the color left his cheeks. “What did you just say?”

  The man leaned forward further and said in a hushed tone, “The helium is the final ingredient. Once it is activated and dispersed, it leaves nothing but absolute destruction in its wake. Two days from now, brother, you will release it on a train bound for San Francisco. Your martyrdom will be remembered for eternity. America is finished.”