Apes Chapter 10

 

Episode 3

 

10.

Lance stood there looking at the body parts on the morgue table. He was summoned in by Coroner that a Doctor Lopez had turned up there, or parts of the doctor.

“We got parts of the deceased here. The left arm and chest and both legs but you could see the limbs are not …complete. We could not find the head but from the marks on the neck, we believed it was crushed there. The bite marks are probably from the other creatures at the drop site.”

“I read here that the body was a Doctor Lopez.” Lance looked at the report. “Cause of death was the head was crushed but you did not find the head.”

“We knew from the marks on the neck. It was not a blow but the head crushed. We have seen similar wounds on the other deaths. Its head was crushed ala the servant style.” The Coroner replied. He glared at Lances.

“Please don’t ever doubt my results.” The Coroner added. “The last fiasco with the servants has given me several cases to refer by. More than I want to handle. If you guys have done your task, we won’t have this issue now.”

Lance was to leave the Coroner when he was told of another similar case.

“I got another named Carlos Santia. He is in the freezer waiting for me. There is a serial killer out there.” Lances stopped then. He knew who Carlos was and approached the Coroner. The dead man was an informer and held a long list of minor crimes that the Enforcers choose to ignore for his information.

“Looks like the same MO. That’s all I have now.”

With that Lances then left the morgue with the uneasy feeling. He had known of Carlos who was a tough guy on the block but of late had been said to be trading on the servants. It was an illegal trade with these servants traded to do works in the meth labs or the illegal mining out of the city.

One of these infamous areas was named Sector Five in the Outlands.

“Control, this is Senior Officer Lances. Authorization Code Zero One Niner Beta Alpha Niner. I am updating that I am to leave for the Outlands to check on a suspect. I will be in Sector Five.” It was protocol to call in and advise on the location in case he does not return. Then a Search and Rescue task will be conducted but the stats reveal not more than one in five gets rescued or recovered their remains.

The Outlands were the stretch of land surrounding the city and its inhabitants were the discards or those serving the penal sentences. It was cheaper to place them there than to build holding cells. It was not a nice piece of place to be in unless you are affiliated with a group or an individual killer who could hold the turf. The soil there was barren due to the war but years had passed and some of it had replenished with the vegetation growing back in strength. There was where the settlements formed and then grew in size. The bigger settlement soon gained notoriety and with numbers, the settlement became towns. One was named the Purgatory in Sector Five.

It was hellish what Juanico did to the servant which was hung with chains onto the wall. The servant was unmoving with most of its body covered with blood. There were the signs of the broken bones added to the one that Juanico had earlier broken.

“The servant told us nothing.” Juanico removed the gloves from her hands before she looked at the officer there.

 “Bernice, we have learned nothing,” Juanico replied to Bernice. The proper method of torture was to communicate with the servant with the pictograms of the evidence. The mode was to watch the servants for their reaction. If they responded to a pictogram, then the move to show more of the similar evidence until a trail of it was established. Juanico did that with some improvisation.

“You have done nothing except showed the servants the pictogram of the dead doctor. The servant does not recognize the doctor.” Bernice spat out of her reply. “You have wasted the suspect on our case.”

“What would you do? Feed it with fruits.” Juanico hit back. “The ape is lowly in the ranks. It does not know much. We have to ask the Janitor. He may know more.”

“Not necessary. I have one other suspect. The Enforcers guys called me to report on Senior Officer Lances. He was on general duties but his investigations have led him to be on surveillance. Whom he meets and speaks to?” Bernice smiled. “And we learned some new developments.”

“On whose authorization did you do that?” Bernice asked. She was unsure of her partner but before she could question further, they were interrupted.

“Mine alone and it will help us,” Bernice told the other. The sound of the doorway to the cell opened and a junior aide walked in. The aide whispered towards Bernice. She nodded in reply and then turned to Juanico.

“Lances have left the city.”

At that moment, Griff and Tony had stepped into the Maintenance Section and met the Janitor. They had convened in the Janitor’s Room. They were there on the curiosity of Griff on the dead servant taken in by the Enforcers. They got their news from the usual informers and with his harsh treatment, he was told of the janitor’s fate. That drove them there not before they heard the others have questioned the janitor’s servant. They then proceeded to see the Janitor. It was a good chance of getting promoted.

“Janitor, I want to speak to you on your servant. You called it Mechanic.” The janitor's first reaction was to deny owning the servant.

“It’s not mine. There are two of them here. I was just here that day when they asked for the servant. I directed them to the servant named Mechanic. I did not know why they sought the servant.” The janitor babbled out. “My other servant is named Bernard. It’s below.”

Bernard was seen later in the lower basement among the pipes and cables in a dark environment. The other janitor was dressed in the blue overalls and yellow rubber boots bent over the console there. The servant saw the approaching janitor with the two others. Its instinct told it to run.

“Runner!” Griff called out. The runner was an elderly chimpanzee man with the limbs more suited to the crawling than climbing. It went straight for the nearby conduit of cables in the tunnel there. The ape pulled itself forward with the metal rungs that held the cables in place. It went down in a jiffy.  

“Darn! I am not going in there.” Griff cursed at the ape having crawl down below there.

“There is another way ahead.” The Janitor told Griff. “It’s up ahead.”

Griff ran to the spot and noticed the tunnel ends ahead and there was the way up. He then looked up and saw the junction ahead.

“Take the junction. In case the ape run past me.” Griff then crouched down and leveled his right arm in the tunnel. He tapped the trigger on the vambrace to shoot the mini dart when he sees the ape. It was then he saw the ape climbing out. He shot the dart at it. The dart hit the runner in the back of the neck. the back of his neck.

It ended the run but the worst was to come.

“Ape, if you want to die please do so after you tell us of the other servants.” Griff pulled the ape’s face up. The later was bloodied on the face from the harsh treatment by Griff.  They were still in the Maintenance Section. “We will be merciful with your death.”

“I do not think we can get much done here.” Griff looked around and saw the other janitor was not there. “Where is the other janitor? He was here just now.”

Griff's reply was answered than when the noise of rushing feet to the section. He knew from experiences that it meant trouble. He looked at Tony who had then prepared himself. The danger came in the form of five armed men including the errant janitor.

“I guess we are done then,” Griff spoke to Tony while he fired the darts but it was ineffective for the attackers wore some armored vests. The battle came to physical fists which the Enforcers took to their baton but the others held iron bars or pipes.

Griff blocked the swinging pipe with his baton but he could not do to block the next blow on his back. He fell forward into the one he blocked and both of them went down. Next before Griff could roll free, he was showered with more blows on the chest and legs. He screamed out for his partner but the other was also in a tight situation with two attackers.

Tony stole a glance over while he kept his attackers at bay with his baton, He blocked the right attacker jabbing with the iron bar and then sidestepped on the second attacker doing a downward swing then. He took his right leg to kick at the second attacker when the later lurched forward. He missed the kick and also found himself off balance. He fell to the right and lost his baton then. Instinctively he raised his hands to block his face.

The blows did not come then but instead, there were some loud shots. The two attackers on Tony went down with the heads blown up. The second round of shots killed the other two attackers on Griff while the last was taken down by Griff himself with a solid punch into the face.

“You boys are lucky we were around in the other tower doing the follow-up investigation.” The ones who called in were the Sniper Squad led by another Senior Officer. The officer approached the two relieved Enforcers.

“We got your panic call.” Griff had depressed the panic button during the fight. It will trigger for assistance from officers nearby.

“Officer Griff and Tony, you are wanted by the Colonel. For your fuck up, I heard he is sending both of you to the Outland. You have been bad boys.”