Apes Chapter 16

 

16.

Lances lowered the cage without taking his eyes off Roberto then. He knew there was no escape there and death was imminent with how many he can take then. They were cornered outside the Tribal Room. It was then Mel stepped out and pleaded with Roberto.

“Hey, Roberto. We were trying to save the …creature.” It was not for Lances. He had decided that the avenue available was to fight. He was without any and borrowed the small sidearm from Mel. He saw the approaching enemy which one of Roberto’s men armed with a rifle. The guy was leveling the rifle at Mel when Lances shot him in the face. He rushed over and retrieved the rifle. On the guy was a belt with the double sidearm.

“Guns!” Lances shouted towards Mel. The other turned towards Lances and was given the belt with the two sidearms. Lances then fired at Roberto who had then ducked for cover but hit the other guy standing behind. It was all Mel needed to take down his own selected target with the twin sidearm at the two guys. The two guys went down with their faces blown off.

“Okay, you can keep the creature.” Roberto stood up with his hands raised. “I ….”

His head was blown from the rear by the returning shave heads’ which had then were equipped with sidearm and rifles. There were five of them and the Enforcers were once more outnumbered.

“Do we leave the cage now?” Mel asked and the reply came with more shots, not by the shave heads but the surviving Independence’s guys who wanted their fight too. Two shave heads went down but the Independences were not the only fighting ones. The Tribal came back with more of their numbers led by their other leaders.

“Move it, Mel. We aren’t got all day.” Lances pulled the cage along and then helped by Mel. “They are fighting each other.”

They made it outside but the place was a chaotic firefight. Four of the tribal gangs were at it and soon the Land Warriors were in the fight too.

“We can’t make it out.” Lances told Mel while behind cover on the steel beams. “We got to ditch the cage.”

“Hold on.” Mel motioned to Lances and reached into the cage with his arm still armed with two darts. He fired the two-remaining darts into the servant.

“Now you can carry the servant.” Mel indicated to the heavily sedated creature. “And passed me your spare projectiles and rifle.”

“I got one in the sidearm and four in the rifle.” Lances passed the small sidearm and rifle. He then reached for the servant. He slung the creature on his back and then moved behind Mel. They took the run on the same path descending to the ground level. It was an adventurous one for the paths were narrow and uneven. They ran and anyone in their path was pushed or knocked senseless. Mel was conserving the projectiles.

“Mel, do you do this often?” Lances were heaving with deep breaths holding onto his prized servant. They reached the end of their run at the ground level when they saw the cruiser. There were no guards there. Above them at the Tribal Room, they heard the shooting have not let up yet. Everyone must have gone to the fight. Both of them approached the cruiser where Lances dumped the creature into the storage area while Mel was reloading his projectiles in the two sidearm and his belt. He had discarded the rifle. He then turned towards Lances who was stepping into the cruiser.

“You are not leaving here.” Mel leveled the sidearm at Lances. Soon to appear at the rear of Mel were five guys. They were the Independences led by a Mohican styled leader.

“Are you selling me out?” Lances asked Mel. “How did you know ….”

“No, they bought me to get the creature. You were just in the wrong place and the wrong time. Most of us are with them. It was a matter of time and opportunity.”

So was the Colonel then when he met Doctor Julius at the rendezvous point. It was at Doctor Julius’s lab. Griff was also Julius’s cousin on the other side of the family.

“I got to know. Why did you do that? Was it the Senate? It doesn’t matter what Griff do but you should not have sent him over there. He is a …”

“Maniac? Yes, Julius, he was but I did not expect him to be killed there.” The Colonel sighed. “I made a mistake there. The Senate had reprimanded me. So, don’t berate me on it. It was the bitch Bernice to blame. So how goes our progress?”

“Fuck!” Doctor Julius cursed out. He then looked at the Colonel. He had met the Senate before. The existence of the people under the Senate was expandable. Only the task progress was the concern of the Senate. He rebuked back in anger.

“You don’t push me on my progress. You however fumbled your part. You were to be the link to the Senate and hold the Enforcers from us but you had to screw it.” Doctor Julius placed the glassware he was holding onto the table but his fingers still clenched on it. The Colonel looked away as if in anger but it was his idea that brought them together. It was his idea to get the servants to be soldiers but the progress was slower than expected. The defiant Doctor Lanceston had refused to listen to the reasoning for it and was left out. He had finally the Doctor there to do it.

“Julius, I have my works outlined for me. You have yours. Do it or you will end up like Lopez. I need you to focus on.” The Colonel was persuasive. Julius then brief me on the task.

“The progress is there. I have managed to code in the new routines. The few test subject which we have tried on have shown their aggression when we call for it. Lopez was the experiment. We are doing it mass at the breeding centers but we subdue the testing of the routines for now. No point alarming the doctors there and then Lanceston will be informed. It will create a panic and the Council will step in. Our field works are on-going with selected servants.” Doctor Julius took to brief the Colonel. “The Technician handling Mack had got it to do fieldwork.”

“I know Mack. He was one of the leaders and was an aggressive one.” The Colonel nodded. “Sadly, we lost the twenty-five in the riot. It was not concluded the cause of the riot. We had it reported that the servant screamed and it could have triggered it. Then I had to take Senior Officer Lances out to the General Tasks and now he is at the Outlands.”

“Senior Officer Lances won’t let go if he has a lead. Like his uncle who was trying to look at my records.” Julius looked towards the Colonel.

“We need more assurance and either he is not involved in any of the incidents or he becomes an incident.” Doctor Julius laid it out plainly. “Just like how I will handle Doctor Lanceston. He remains out or soon to become a specimen.”

“Leave the Enforcer issues to myself.” The Colonel drew his boundary. “I did not come here for a discussion on my position as the Head of the Enforcers and not being reprimanded for being a failure. I came here to check on your progress.”

The communicator in the unit then vibrated and the image appeared on the console screen.

“Both of you screw up. I am thinking of new avenues to tackle this issue. For now, your rank and positions are status quo, and believe me if you …fumbled one more time, the reprimand will be dire. I am telling you now if I may say so.” The image was the man with the breathing apparatus. The image then flickered off.

“How…” The Colonel turned to whisper. “How did he hear us?”

“He is the Big Brother. He is the Emperor. The Senate is always watching us.”

 So was Juanico watching then her partner stepped out of the cruiser on the left side of the cruiser? She knew the Outpost Three was one of theirs but there were no female officers sent there. It was not a protocol issue and the female gender had no such issue to justify a transfer there. It was just that the rejection rate was absolute. So, the few visits by the female to the place was considered a novelty. They were all rejected until then.

“Hello, Officer…. Oops, Senior Officer Bernice. Senior Officer Mel is away in Purgatory.” Officer Percy Jones Woodward was second in command of the Outpost. He was a slim chap and shorter in height but was a fist fighter of the best. That was his penance when he injured five fellow officers in a dispute over some personal issue.

“I was advised that Senior Officer Lances was in the area.” Bernice went straight to the cause of her visit. “I want…. “

“He is in Purgatory with Senior Officer Mel.”

“What the hell!” Bernice cursed then. She stepped back to her cruiser. She was going to follow Lances. Even to Hell if need be.

“Hey, PJ.” An officer rushed over and called the Officer in charge. “It’s Purgatory. There is some fighting going on there.”

“What kind of fighting?” PJ asked back but the other fellow officers were reaching to check on their sidearm.

“So, we have now a riot and we will settle it with our own?” PJ asked. “Well, count me in. I am not too old to fight.”