Alan Dale - Death Nation's Army 01 (10 page)

Especially one young man, named Shad Alexi.

He told his family only hours after he reunited with them over chicken, mashed potatoes and corn-on-the-cob, on a rare, humidity-free night in Oak Lawn. Of course, his choice of clothing upon arriving – a tight white work out shirt and camouflage pants may have been his passive aggressive way to give Norman and the girls a hint.

“
Wow. My son…a soldier for a government run by so many pussies they would rather make the people kill themselves off than do it themselves,” Norman guffawed, drunk as usual. Drunk and disappointed, more than usual.

“
That’s enough, Norman.” Shad commanded, even from a sitting position his authority seemed to have grown in his aire. He was a changed man and Bridjett could see it.

“
How did you even keep your grades up when you were busy becoming a communist,” Norman walked around the table in their backyard and moved around to close in on his son. “The crew cut was a dead giveaway too, you know. Fucking communist.”

“
The NWO takes care of its own,” Shad said as he stood up slowly, his frame was obviously much bulkier and even with the excess muscle mass he was as sleek and lean as ever. His obvious recent workouts made an impression on Shad’s perception as he took note of his sister’s also improving build by telling her moments after arriving, “kick boxing has treated you well.”

“
Norman, sit down, you are drunk.” Shad put his left palm out, facing his father, commanding the older man to stop.

“
I am not Norman you ungrateful prick, I am your father,” Norman slurred, tears beginning to develop. He began to move toward his son with an aggressiveness neither Jean or Bridjett had ever seen initiated against any member of the Alexi family.

He was going to hit his son.

“
I wouldn’t advise you to do that…
dad,”
Shad ordered Norman, his tone as patronizing as Bridjett ever heard.

Norman’s face reddened and he started to lunge at Shad who took up a protective defensive stance. The older of the two men was within striking range when a loud snap, click sound of a gun being engaged could be heard from behind the entire family, in the direction of the back gate that led to the yard.

Shad looked past his father and saw two men dressed in NWO gear move toward the table, rifles trained on Norman, who turned to see who breached his family’s privacy.

“
What the Hell?”

“
I’ve got it, gentlemen,” Shad told the two men. “Relax, Norman.”

“
Are you sure, Sergeant Alexi?” One of the men, a young, blue-eyed, intense individual asked.

Norman turned to look at his son. “Sergeant?”

“
They say I showed uncanny leadership and learning abilities,” Shad told his father proudly. “Guess you did do some things right.”

He winked over to Norman who continued to seethe.

“
Um, Shad, your boyfriends have two rifles pointed at our father,” Bridjett interjected as she rose to her feet.

The sudden movement startled the blonde solider who trained his weapon on Bridjett, who froze. She looked down to see Jean. Her mother began to cry and buried her face in her hands.

“
Don’t you dare point that gun at my daughter!” Norman challenged the soldier and took a step toward them, but the other NWO grunt engaged his weapon.

“
That wouldn’t be advisable.”

Shad, seeing the tension, chuckled and raised his hands toward the two eager members of his new fraternity, his new way of life. His new family.

“
Stand down, men,” he ordered with a smile in his voice, trying to calm the situation. He remembered how staunchly his dad would fight to defend his kids. Shad recalled when he was 11 and they found out a serial child rapist lived in the vicinity. Once they caught the man, they found out the sicko – Kenny Schneider – actually volunteered to help Shad with his batting stance during summer ball, thankfully with other kids around. Norman proceeded to get a few moments of ‘private time’ to educate the man about ever getting near his son.

Shad smiled, if only briefly, at the memory. He saw Norman had not relaxed and the situation remained tense.

“
What the fuck, Shad?!” Bridjett was yelling at him. “Look at what this is doing to mom?! Why the hell are these scumbags here?”

Shad turned to his sister and saw her rage calling out to him. If she could, he knew she would tear him to shreds. He only saw her angrier than this once before and that was when they were in grade school and were walking home to find the school bully kicking a tiny pug puppy in the street.

Once Bridjett got a hold of the kid, the pug was saved and the bully would never touch another human being again. The kid also may have lost a nut in the process.

“
Norman Alexi,” the blonde soldier called out while his weapon remained trained on Bridjett. “You are under arrest.”

“
Under arrest?” Bridjett screamed as Jean continued to sob. “For fucking what? Shad?”

It was then where Shad Alexi awoke from his slumber but it was too late. He couldn’t look at his sister anymore and turned away. He could hear Norman’s breathing turn into a ragged song of rage.

“
You sonofabitch!” Bridjett took another aggressive step toward her brother and the blonde soldier locked and loaded. She was a squeeze of a trigger from having her head blown off. “What did you do, Shad?”

“
Stand down, ma’am,” the soldier ordered her. “Your father, Norman Alexi, is being taken in for treason. He is being called to answer for speaking out against the authority of the New World Order.”

It took a moment, but Shad could make out, just barely as he watched from the corner of her eye, his sister figure it all out in her mind. Norman had a lot of opinions but he only shared it with his family. They were all that mattered and everything he said and shared with them was for the sake of their health and welfare. No one else would have known the true, hard and fast facts of her father’s angst toward the new government. There was only one way they could have found out.

And she was looking right at the source.

“
How could you?!” Bridjett curled both hands into fists and her eyes blazed as she moved closer.

“
I order you to stand down, miss!” the blonde solider barked and it wasn’t a second later when Norman did what any good father would do.

“
Don’t you dare…” Norman turned to face the blonde soldier and sprung at him.

“
Dad…” Shad whispered. “No.”

“…
point…”

“
Sir, I order you,” the blonde solider turned his rifle on Norman as the retired cop turned to fight for his kids like he did time and time again.

“
..a gun...”

“
Oh, dad…” Shad tried to shout, but was too stunned to do anything. “Men…don’t.”

Bridjett screamed as she realized the result of her near assault on her brother would have on her family’s life. Jean looked up, eyes wide with terror as she stood up quickly, hitting her knee on the table.

“…
at my daughter!”

By this time Norman was within three lengths of grabbing the soldier who dared to threaten his daughter’s wellbeing. It was a second later when four bullets, two from each soldiers’ gun struck home in his chest, knocking the old man backwards to land right at the feet of his son, who looked down at his father’s face.

Norman’s eyes wide, scared, told the story. He knew he was about to die.

Shad felt himself pushed aside by Bridjett as he heard the wails of shock from behind him as Jean collapsed. As his sister began to hold their father and quickly found herself covered in blood, all Shad could do was look down into his father’s eyes.

He didn’t remember when he told the two soldiers to stand down, but he could recall seeing them lower their weapons. The only thing he could remember from those fateful last moments of his last visit home was of Norman’s eyes, never leaving his son’s. Even as Bridjett jostled him, held him, and tried to comfort him, their father knew he had one last thing left to do.

Shad remembered as the light slowly left Norman’s eyes, his final words, over and over again, never wavering, said with dying conviction, so many times:

“
I love you, son…I love you, son…I love you, son…”

Norman Alexi died moments later. Shad Alexi would leave the home he grew up in moments later with his heartbeat, brain waves, and basic functions of living man intact.

But, Shad Alexi died a lot that day too…

It would be quite easy for the NWO to impose its might across the globe. Norman’s fears proved itself in America, as the dummying down and political correctness of the past decades proved its worth as millions of able bodied men and women crumbled under the force of will the government imposed. For too long these ‘adults’ had been fooled during their formative years that expressing their feelings would guarantee results. When push came to shove they learned the hard way how results were the only things guaranteeing results.

So be it through governmental edict or military might being exerted in the maroon and black uniforms of the NWO, the people crumbled like a deck of cards. In other nations like Russia, Germany, and England, the financial infrastructure and silent years of hording munitions was enough to turn even the staunchest fighters into conformists quite easily.

In the third-world nations control was easily exerted over the poor, indigent citizens and their societies were the first to crumble under the duress of political pressure.

Shad never could admit it to himself for years after the shooting of his father, but he only stayed with the NWO despite it all for one simple, selfish, fundamental reason:

If the NWO could gun down the strongest man, I have ever known, and pay nary the price for it…what side do I have to be on to guarantee survival?

But, deep down, Shad knew the true reason why he would stay loyal to the NWO. Yet, he could never dare think or say it aloud for just the concept was too large for him to accept. The thought itself could crush such an idea. So it would slumber in the deep abyss of his soul until the right moment would come.

What the women in his family never understood during those earlier times was Shad’s decision to stay with the NWO despite what they all witnessed. Shad could completely agree with their sadness toward his decision, but how could he tell them the truth? How could he tell them he was too scared to stay on the losing side?

But how else could he tell them he had other, grander, reasons to do it as well? If he told them, not only would Shad, but both women would die, for those reasons.

Deep in the abyss go you…

He couldn’t risk that happening. He already killed his father without pulling the trigger.

“
You killed our father and you have the nerve to come back here?” Bridjett stood at the doorway of the Alexi house, two months after Norman’s death, keeping her brother from seeing their mourning mother.

“
I…I…just…want…to see how mom is doing,” Shad stammered.

“
Fuck you! Fuck you, you coward,” Bridjett advanced on him and Shad stepped back out of true fear. “You kill dad, you basically have killed ma. She doesn’t do anything, anymore. She sees what’s going on now. The riots are worse, the NWO pogroms are advancing, and she lost her son! If aunt Tandy weren’t here I wouldn’t be doing what I am about to do.”

Shad tilted his head, he wanted to ask, he wanted to know. He wanted to be there for his sister. His little sister, who he adored, admired, protected and worshipped all at the same time.

The same sister who hated him.

“
Don’t you dare ask me what I am about to do,” Bridjett poked him hard in the chest and Shad fell back. “You are no longer a part of this family. You no longer count. We don’t need you. Mom is going to die and I accept that. She has given up. She saw the love of her life get gunned down by her own son. Sure, you didn’t pull the trigger but you stood there. You…let…it…happen!”

Shad watched as Bridjett stared up at him, her gaze intent, she would kill him if she had to in that very moment.

And he knew she would do it.

“
You take one step toward that door, Shad Alexi,” Bridjett said, much calmer, colder. “I will end you right here. Right now.”

She turned around and stalked back toward the house. Shad didn’t follow. Once she got back inside she placed one hand on the door and flashed her brother one last look.

“
Oh, but I can guarantee you this.”

Shad could barely look at her. He wanted to tell her so bad, but he couldn’t. The look she gave him killed him even more. He just let her go on.

“
The next time I see you, I
will
kill you,” Bridjett said. “I can promise you. The only reason why I won’t do it? Because mom’s too close. So I will count to ten to give you a head start. From then on out, you are public enemy number one, two, three, four, and fifty.

“
You…are
dead
to me.”

She slammed the door and out of respect for her words, Shad turned and moved quickly away from the Alexi home.

He wiped away the tears that came as he turned down a few more blocks to run away from the life he created for himself.