[...Posted by Ted H]
Man, today feels awkward. Its still November and I feel I should still be writing, but I deserve a day off. Did a little editing though which ended up adding a whopping 3 words to my final count...so yeah.
So...is the book done? Not by a long shot. I'd say its anywhere between 1/3 and 2/5 done now...its gotten that complicated. It it now easily the longest thing Ive written already when you add the 50,000 to what I already had written before hand.
I dont know how long itll take for me to post everything Ive done through NaNoWriMo but it'll definatly last me a while...which means I wont be missing any updates for a long time. Ill keep posting multiple times a week, but Ill eventually go back to once a week once we get into December.
...And I'm pretty sure we're getting a new author...one that might actually post...
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[Sage Haven - Listening Party]
“I had a date,” Jezus complained “Who knew Janky would find him though, right?” Kendall ignored him and readied his rifle as he and Jezus got to the outskirts of the city. The meeting with The General went more or less as Kendall expected. He was in the middle of a lecture of how he and Will should have been more aware of their surroundings when the secretary busted in with news that Janky might have found Bell, or at least Bell’s radio.
Jezus’s request to let the two of them team up was approved to little care of The General, at least until Juan’s fate was determined. Thus began “the adventures of Taco and Slain” as Jezus put it…at least until he could come up with a new call sign since he claims the whole Bell-Taco thing was Juan’s idea.
He listened in as Janky enlisted RC and Mean as support for the investigation. Fitting, Kendal figured, since their carelessness of that girl kicked off the chain of events that killed Will. He allowed himself a moment to fantasize RC catching the girl and the Rogue killing Mean instead. Not many people liked Will and his impulsiveness, but nobody liked Mean and many ResEs would’ve preferred if Mean was killed instead of Will.
“Hey!” Jezus called out, breaking Kendall from his imagination “You need to start paying attention, man. You got ADD or some shit?” Kendall ignored him. “Anyway,” Jezus continued “Hope this don’t take too long. Bad enough I’m not getting that week off, the least I can do is not waste time finding my old partner.”
“You always this uninterested in your partners, or did you just not like Juan?”
“Us stereotypes gotta keep together, man!”
“You’re not a stereotype.”
“Are you kidding? Me and my partner walked around calling ourselves Bell and Taco!”
“You’re not a Mexican.”
“Juan was.”
“So why were YOU Taco?”
“We found it funny. Juan was originally Taco, but too many idiots kept assuming we were both Mexican. It was like The DR never existed or something and Everyone south of the US was immediately from Mexico. So we just decided to switch names and nobody noticed, cuz you’re all idiots.”
“That’s funny. We just assumed you two were the idiots who didn’t realize.”
“So why was Will named Double-D?”
“Ya know, he never got around to telling me.”
“Now that’s funny.”
“You two busy making out or what?” Mean said over the radio. “Almost there, you fucking monkey,” Jezus said. Kendall looked over and saw the two of them standing around in position. Kendall waved over to them and was promptly returned with a middle finger by Mean.
“Which one is it?” he asked as Jezus shrugged. “Building by building I guess,” he said as the two split up and started looking around blown out and crumbling buildings. The two would check in with each other every so often via radio and Janky would chime in if one of them was moving too far away from Juan’s signal on the radar. They weren’t even sure it was Juan’s radio, but it was the only signal Janky could find that never answered back, so the odds were good it was the one they were looking for.
They didn’t bother doing any major checking, just a quick check of any rooms. They were looking for a body, not just a radio and since Jezus didn’t seem to care for the fate of his old partner, Kendall decided not to concern himself too much over it either. What they really wanted to do was find that girl. In the meeting Jezus had theorized that maybe Juan had gone after the girl instead and was killed in pursuit. So if they find a body, there might be a clue as to who the girl was. It wasn’t much, but it was as good a starting point as any.
A few hours of fruitless checking had passed and Kendall was getting tired while RC and Mean were voicing their boredom. Kendall offered them an invitation to help search, but they said that wouldn’t do anything about the boredom. Kendall was beginning to think how long they were going to do this. Were they stuck out there until they find something? Would a second search team come in and relieve them? What if curfew hit? Would The General allow four ResEs to not be on duty at dusk, especially when four were already either dead or missing not even 24 hours ago?
“I just lost the signal,” Janky said over the radio. “How?” Kendall asked as Mean broke in “We give the cripple one job and he fucks it up.” Kendall looked over to Jezus who wasn’t even stopping as he continued to another building to search. “Are we at least where we need to be?” Kendall asked, ready to just give up and go home. “You were both right on top of it,” Janky said. “A lot of good that does us,” Kendall said to himself. Him and Jezus were at least thirty yards apart and were both apparently right on top of Juan’s signal.
“One more building,” he said as he approached a pair of twin office buildings. “Eeny menny miny moe,” he said as he moved his finger in the air between the identical buildings. “Left one it is,” he said as he finished and walked into the building. It wasn’t that tall, maybe three floors depending on what damage had been done to the roof. He decided to work his way up starting from the basement but found the door locked. “Better use my key,” he said as he stepped back and kicked the door down. It was dark down the stairs and Kendall needed a moment to adjust his eyes before going down.
“We’ve got movement!” RC screamed. Kendall didn’t pay much mind. When he heard gunfire though, he was running back outside in a heartbeat. “Which way?” Kendall asked but another round of semi-auto fire was a good hint. “Who is shooting?” Kendall screamed.
“It’s not one of ours!” Jezus said.
“Fucking Rogue Whooooooo!” Mean shouted.
“It’s not a Rogue, it’s a civi,” RC said
“Yeah, cuz all civis carry rifles, fuck you,” Mean responded.
Kendal sprinted while the two idiots bickered. He caught sight of the person as they turned around and sprayed bullets back at the pursuing ResEs. “That’s not a Rogue,” Kendall said as he took aim and fired. “What I wouldn’t give for a sniper,” he said as his shots went wide and the person took off behind cover.
“We have a runner with an unauthorized weapon,” Kendall called in as he started running again “Large male, carrying a semi-auto-” he stopped as he turned around. “Taco,” he said again into his radio “That guy has Bell’s gun! RC, where did that guy pop out from?” RC didn’t answer him though so Kendall took up running again. He had no chance of catching the runner, but maybe the other ResEs won’t kill him so Kendall can interrogate him, mainly about how he got a hold of Juan’s gun.
****************
The only way John could be more proud of Cayra was if she was his own child. That still didn’t diminish the amount of pride he had for her as she showed him and Kate the remains of the ResE she said she killed last night. “Holy shit, you fucked this kid up!” Kate exclaimed “John, are you crying?” John hadn’t stopped smiling since he arrived to the basement of a crumbling office complex and didn’t bother responding to Kate, but he did pretend to wipe a tear from his eye.
“We can’t leave him here like this, can we?” Cayra asked. Kate shook her head. “I forget what Jezus said exactly, I’m not even sure he knew what he was talking about,” she said “But they do have a way to track their people with the radios.” John walked over to the body and pulled out the radio. “Can’t turn it off either,” Kate explained “Unless its battery dies.” John listened in on the radio. “I can hear them!” he said with another smile on his face.
“If it’s that easy to listen in on the ResEs, why don’t the Rogues just steal a radio?” Cayra asked as John held up a finger so he could hear better. “ResEs keep a check on every person they employ,” Kate whispered “A radio goes missing or a ResE dies, they can track it. John said one of them told him that they prefer to be undetectable, which is hard if you have a GPS on you the ResEs can reference.”
John stood up quickly and put down the radio. “What?” Kate asked as he walked over to the nearby stairs. “The door there is locked. Trust me,” Cayra said as John silently turned and went for the other staircase. “What’s wrong?” Kate asked and John shushed her. “I’ll be right back,” he said as he crossed the basement and disappeared up the stairs. “I don’t like this,” Kate said as she grabbed the radio and inserted the earpiece to listen.
John snuck up the stairs slowly and crept to where he could look out into the streets. Sure enough, there were two ResEs walking up, no doubt looking for the body in the basement. They split up and entered different buildings. They were far enough away that if the plan was to go building by building, then it would take them a while to make it to John’s building. He could wait things out and hope they never check this particular building, or run for it when they both are busy inside other buildings.
John returned to the basement and found the girls huddled next to the dead ResE. Kate was listening to the radio so John knew she knew that ResEs were around as well. “We can run for it,” John said “Two of them, that’s all, and they’re both preoccupied searching elsewhere. We can slip passed them.” Kate shook her head as she put the radio down “No way. Two more of them on watch duty. They’re bored as hell, but they’re observant.” John swore, then went over and pulled the rifle from the corpse. “You can’t take four of them,” Kate said “Not spread out like that and backup being one radio call away.”
“I can’t be caught,” Cayra cried out “Why’d I even come back? Why didn’t you tell me they could track themselves!?” Kate ignored her as she pulled out her handgun. John dug out another handgun from the corpse and offered it to Cayra. Cayra shook her head and pushed the gun away. “If shit goes down I’m not gonna worry about you,” John said “So take it.” Cayra reached under her coat and revealed a handgun of her own. “That’s the Rogue’s gun?” Kate asked and Cayra nodded.
“Whatever,” John mumbled as he put the ResEs handgun behind his belt next to his magnum, then went to retrieve the ResE’s knife and spare ammo clips. Kate went back to listening to the radio as John headed back for the stairs. “John, seriously,” Kate pleaded “You’ll just bring more down and we’ll be fucked. Our best bet is they don’t bother looking down here and get tired of looking.” John shook his head “That’s a shitty plan,” he said. “Yeah, and it’s all we got,” Kate said.
The next few hours crawled by as John went back and forth going upstairs and watching the ResEs, occasionally going back down to update the girls to their location. Kate would spend the time nervously listening in on the dead ResE’s radio. John noticed one of the ResEs making his way, building by building, in a direction that would miss the office complex, but the other one was picking buildings to search almost at random, hitting two or three consecutive buildings before skipping around to a different area. What didn’t help was there were two buildings with access to the same basement and a locked door wasn’t going to deter anything.
John heard a gunshot ring out from the basement and he immediately crouched low, readying his rifle. It wasn’t that loud of a shot from where he was, but he wanted to make sure none of the ResEs out there had bat ears and would suddenly come rushing over. One of them walked out of his previous building, but wasn’t in any particular rush. John then snuck back to the stairs and went to figure out what the gunshot was from.
“I figure they wouldn’t know where to look anymore,” Kate said as he observed that someone had put a bullet in the ResE’s radio. “And you think they’ll just stop looking if they can’t track the radio?” John asked as Kate shrugged. John let out a sigh and walked back to the staircase. “Try not to shoot anything else,” he said “There’s one not too far from here.”
John returned to the first floor again and tried to sneak a look outside to find that nearby ResE. When he couldn’t find him, he switched to a different part of the building that offered a different view outside and almost shit himself when he saw the ResE right outside, trying to decide between both of the twin complexes. When he picked the other building, John quickly snuck back to the stairs and ran down.
“Your plan failed,” John said as he pulled the girls away from the other staircase. That fucker’ll come down that way and immediately see his dead friend.” The three of them went up to the first floor of the building. “There’s only three out there-” John said, imagining a battle plan. “We need a diversion,” Kate said in a panic “Something so we can sneak out while they’re preoccupied.”
“Yeah, we got a great diversion in the basement,” John said “Too bad it’ll bring every fucking ResE right on top of our position.” John looked about and tried to find the ResE from before. “I don’t know where he went,” he stated as he stood up and cocked the rifle. “What are you doing?” Kate asked. “For all we know he could be in the other building about to enter the basement,” John said “Or he might be in this one. Either way, we need to move. Wait for me to clear them out and run afterwards.”
“John, please,” Kate pleaded. “I’m not gonna try to kill them,” John said as he took off running. He wasn’t sure where the other ResE was searching, but he had a good beat on where the other two sere standing. When he saw one, he let off a stream of bullets in his direction to get his attention. After that he full on sprinted behind cover and in the direction of the city.
He checked back and saw three ResEs in pursuit. “Not good enough,” he said as he turned and fired again at the ResEs. They all took cover and John caught a glimpse of the fourth running up. “That’s all of ‘em,” John said as he started running again. Bullets flew in his direction but he wasn‘t about to let that unnerve him, they were all too far away to make any accurate shots. He only hoped Kate had enough sense not to try and follow. This whole plan was to give her and Cayra an exit. Now it was time for John to safely disappear.
“Out of my way!” John screamed as he entered the city and blew passed random people. He was still two blocks from where he needed to be and now he couldn’t risk shooting wildly behind himself now lest he hit someone else. Citizens of Safe Haven will look the other way if you fuck with the ResEs but they wont hesitate to turn you over if you’re a threat to them as well.
“One more block,” he said as he turned the corner and ran for the other end of the street. He could hear the ResEs screaming after in and he was sure help was on the way from God knows where. He spotted two more ResEs coming out of an alleyway so he fired his rifle, making them duck for cover before they got a good look at him. He fired until he ran empty and ditched the rifle. He had the other clips but he didn’t have time to reload.
He turned another corner and ran halfway down the next street unopposed to where he needed to be. He all but kicked down the door as he entered. “Mr. Joooooooooohn!” Perry called out as he stepped out from behind a counter. Perry ran the only brothel in Safe Haven and was a good friend of John. “What brings you down here?” he asked as he went over to hug but John stopped him.
“I need to disappear, NOW!” he screamed as he pulled out his magnum and the other handgun. “Hide these for me too,” he said as he shoved the guns into Perry’s hands. “What’s going on?” he asked as he examined the guns. “Is that a ResE’s gun? Shit, John, what did you do now?” John quickly turned and locked the front doors. “There a back door?” he asked as he took off his shirt. “Yeah, you know that,” Perry said as he handed the weapons to a nearby girl and said to hide them as well as John’s shirt.
“Any empty rooms?” John asked as he grabbed another girl and led her to the stairs. “A couple,” Perry said “John, are they coming here? Why are they coming here, John?” John didn’t answer as he kicked off his pants and sprinted upstairs with the woman. Perry grabbed the pants and tossed them to another woman and instructed her to hide them as well. “I think there’s a knife in there, be careful,” he said as someone tried to open the front door, then pounded on it furiously.
“Residential Enforcers! Open up!” someone on the other side screamed. Perry told the rest of the girls to exit the room as he approached the door to let in the ResEs.
*****************
“Go go go!” Kate said as she watched the last ResE run after John. She led Cayra along as they ran for the city. “What about John?” Cayra asked as Kate ignored her. John was on his own. Should he get caught or killed though, Kate had to make sure that the Rogues shipment remained hidden, meaning she had to get a hold of John’s map.
Back in the city proper, the girls slowed up but didn’t stop. Kate spotted the occasional ResE rushing to where she could hear gunfire. By time they made it to where John’s apartment was, there was no more gunfire, but Kate couldn’t stop to think of what happened. John never locked his doors and Kate made it in without issue.
“Close the door,” she said as she and Cayra entered the bedroom. “Help me,” she then said as the two barely were able to move the dresser away from the wall. Kate dropped to the ground and removed the floorboards. She retrieved the map, grabbed all the ammo left behind from before and attempted to replace the boards. Kate, why are we rushing?” Cayra asked as Kate gave up on the boards.
“I don’t know!” she screamed “This is just so fucked up! I’ve never been hunted before!” Cayra took the floorboards away from Kate and started putting them back for her. “They’re not hunting you,” she said “They’re after John right now and they’re after me for last night. They have no idea you’re involved.”
“Kate stood up and laid down on the bed. Cayra was right but Kate knew that if John was out of the picture, then there was no one else to deal with the shipment distribution. She knew Cayra wouldn’t touch that type of stuff and after so much time of insisting on being known as John’s partner, it was now time for Kate to show it.
She helped Cayra move the dresser back and the two of them got out of dodge as fast as possible. After a couple of blocks of walking together, Kate finally stopped. “We need to split up,” she said “Jezus will probably visit me and I don’t want you anywhere near there. In fact, try to stay away from me entirely.”
“What? Cayra asked with an eyebrow arched. “The man you killed was named Juan, Jezus’ partner,” Kate said “He saw your face last night, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then he’d know you if he saw you. You need to stay away from me.”
“But-”
“I promise I’ll help you but I can’t do anything for you if Jezus sees you.”
“What do I do now?”
“Go stay with Laura tonight and I’ll visit tomorrow when I know Jezus won’t be around.”
“Ok. But what about-”
“Just GO! It’s almost curfew and the streets are already crawling with ResEs.”
Kate then turned and took off towards home. Of all the ResEs Cayra had to kill, she just had to kill Juan. Not only that, but she’d be willing to bet Jezus was one of the ResEs chasing John, the two probably shooting at each other. All this was too much for her to deal with at the moment, especially with the sun setting.
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