Midnight Squad: The Grim (27 page)

           
Katy growled at me, and it wasn’t long before she slammed
her piece over mine, “Take that oh dickless wonder, impotent king of all things
that like it in the butt.” We looked down. Shit, we just tied again. We got up
in one another’s faces and kept talking smack. “Sure you can keep up with me
here, but I’d own you in a real game!” Katy finished each word by poking me in
the chest.

           
“Well then bring it!” I went to poke her, but then
realized it might not go over so well to poke a nineteen-year-old Goth girl in
the chest. Katy led me out of the room and down to her level. When we got
there, she took me to a big television, and tossed me a controller, “You’re
gonna play under my alternative gamer tag.” She took her controller and powered
up her Xbox. It wasn’t long before we were playing. My gamer tag was Sex E
Witch, and Katy’s gamer tag was Mistress Witch. If she thought she had an
advantage here, she was wrong. It may have been a few months since I’d played
videogames, but we had a lot of free time in the hospital. I chuckled to myself
and pretended I didn’t know what I was doing.

           
Call of Duty started up and we both played on her big
screen. There were other players, but we were both really going after one
another. We both kept peeking at each other’s screen so that we’d be able to
find each other more quickly. It was cheating, but I’m not apologizing about
it. We kept talking trash, and shoving each other back and forth. There was a
little blip sound and the Xbox announced that Fluffenstein was online. Katy
grumbled, “Oh crap!” It wasn’t long before Fluffenstein joined us. I soon
figured out why Katy wasn’t happy. Fluffenstein wasn’t just good. They were
awesome. After the first game I’d killed ten, Katy killed ten, and Fluffenstein
killed twenty-five. Fluffenstein had only played about half of that game. When
the game restarted, Fluffenstein dominated us. When it was over Fluffenstein
had thirty kills, and had reached the score limit. She hadn’t died even once.

           
We played again, and this time Katy and I made an uneasy
truce in order to beat Fluffenstein. No matter what we tried, Fluffenstein just
rolled right over us. It was brutal. Fluffenstein even started taunting us by
crouching, or tea bagging, us every time they killed one of us. It was
embarrassing. With just a few seconds left, Katy and I were covering both
directions down a hallway. A flash bang grenade bounced down the hallway and
exploded blinding us. The screen went white, and before the screen returned to
normal we were dead. Fluffenstein reached the score limit by killing both of
us. Katy and I both let out a frustrated groan. We never stood a chance. Call
of duty cut back to the final kill cam, showing the last kill in the game. It
showed Fluffenstein toss a flash bang, then run up in the confusion, jump, spin
three hundred and sixty degrees shooting one Katy with a sniper rifle, and
while still spinning Fluffenstein punctuated it all by stabbing me. It was all
done in one motion. As the camera showed our deaths Penny’s voice came from the
speaker in our headset, “You just got owned bitches!” Katy threw her controller
on the ground and started cursing. I wasn’t far behind. We could still hear
Penny’s laughs.

           
The game reset and was getting ready to start again when
I turned off my mic. I leaned over to Katy, “Keep her busy, and play for me. I
have a plan. Vengeance is ours.” With that, I ran off. I had roughly a minute
to make my way to Penny before the game started. I was in the elevator by the
time the game started, and stepped out on her floor twenty seconds after that.
The doors dinged and I snuck into Penny’s room. I could only hope she was so
tied up in the game that she wouldn’t notice me. I could hear Penny taunting
someone, I assumed it was either Katy, or she still thought I was there. I
slipped up behind her. Penny was standing in front of the TV. She had changed
into something more comfortable than her normal walking around clothes. She was
wearing a pair of silk boxers, and a Snoopy t-shirt that was at least two sizes
too large. Clearly, she was not expecting visitors. The neck hole alone was so
large it hung over one of her shoulders. If it were any larger, she’d have been
able to completely slip through the neck hole. I crept up. Penny hopped up and
down every time she killed someone. Parts of her jiggled, and I froze for a
moment. She is just so beautiful that it’s hard to concentrate. Penny killed my
character and shook her booty in celebration. I had a brief brain fart and
pinched Penny’s butt. Everything slowed to a crawl. Penny screamed in fright,
turned towards me with fangs extended. Her arm slammed against my chest. I felt
myself hit the wall, and everything went black.

           
When I woke up, I was laying in a soft bed. Silk sheets,
and the softest comforter I ever felt had me drifting around barely conscious.
I felt something lapping against my forehead. When I finally looked up, I saw a
tongue and fangs playing peek-a-boo with the two softest, fullest, most
kissable lips I could remember ever seeing. “Sorry, but I thought this would be
more comfortable than calling the doctor down to take care of you. I hope you
don’t mind.” I reached up and touched my forehead. Penny smiled, “You cut your
head. I healed it. You really are delicious.” I felt my stomach tighten. Ok, I
admit it, hearing a vampire tell me I was delicious is a little disquieting.
“Thanks, and I’m sorry. Katy and I thought we could play a joke on you, but I
guess the joke was on me. Next time I try and surprise you I’m wearing a
football helmet.” I laughed. Penny smiled, “That’s ok, because the next time
you grab my ass I’m going to kick your nuts up into your eye sockets.” I froze
in fear for my dangly bits.

           
“Grim, I’m kidding.” I relaxed, and smiled up at her. It
was so nice laying here while she took care of me. I really didn’t want to get
up. Penny touched my chest and said, “Now that you’re ok why don’t you go back
to your room. I have to think over what you told me.” I stared up at her confused.
Penny tried to calm me, “Sometimes, when I concentrate, I can see inside a
person when I drink from them. I wasn’t trying to pry, but I wanted to know
what made you sneak into my room and do what you did. I saw what you were
thinking, and yes, I think something is strange about this place. I’ve thought
something was wrong for a while, but like you, I can’t figure out what it is.
So how about you leave me alone for a while. I need to mull it all over.
Besides, my World of Warcraft clan is about to go dungeon crawling, and I don’t
want to be distracted by you staring at my booty while I’m working on my
paladin.”

           
I just nodded and stumbled out of the room. As I made my
way up to my room, I felt sore and I just wanted to go to sleep. When I stepped
out of the elevator, my cell phone buzzed. I looked down and saw I had a
picture sent to me. I hit the button to view it, and there I was spread eagle
on Penny’s bed with my weenie flopped over like a windsock without a breeze. I
heard DD scream from her room in laughter. She ran out and headed to the
security room, “DD?” I questioned. DD turned around and took one look at me
before falling to the floor laughing. I kept asking about why she was laughing,
but DD could barely breathe because she was laughing so hard. Then my phone
buzzed again. I checked it, and there was a second photo. I opened it, and
there I was in all my glory,
laying
on her bed with
all my clothes on backward, and my own penis superimposed over my face. I think
I may have invented a new curse word, or possibly several. Still every time I
tried to get angry about it, I kept seeing her shaking her ass.
Yeah, totally worth it.
 

           
I woke up a half hour later than normal. It was the first
day that I’d have to go without Janine’s morning wakeup, and I have to admit
that already I missed it. The nightmares were still coming. This time I was an
ice cream man working my route. Slowly but surely it got weird. Near the end of
the dream, I was handing out ice cream to little kids. It was like chocolate
chocolate chip, but with bullets instead of the chips. Every time a kid took a
lick one of the bullets would go off and tear through them leaving gaping,
bloody wounds. Oh what I wouldn’t give to be an insomniac.

           
We had been training hard, and today DD had a surprise
for us. She gave us a quick overview once we got ready. “Ok, we’ve finally
finished our upgrades on the new synthetic combatants. They’re ready to go.
They should be a huge upgrade over what we’ve been using. We’ve improved the technology,
and using our new genetic model we have improved all capabilities. We’ve
increased their capacity for firepower significantly, and added some padded
armor to several areas making them much more durable. With the increased size
and strength of our new clones we have ample room to improve their weapons, and
even have more options for armor and weapons to increase their flexibility to
undreamt of proportions. Coupled with a new neural network that lets them
actually learn collectively as they fight, I’m fairly confident you’ll have an
enemy that is both adaptable, and durable. Now get ready, and above all be
careful.” We prepared for whatever came out. I felt a slight buzzing all over
my body, but I suppose that it
was
 
a
case of the jitters.

           
The starting horn went off, and we all made our way to
the target location. We were careful, taking our time so that we could get a
visual on the enemy. The buzzing sensation kept getting stronger, and I started
worrying that something was wrong with me. We finally got a look at the first
two synthetics, and they were impressive. First, they were big, very big. I
mean I’m a big guy, and these guys had at least thirty pounds of muscle on me.
To add to their intimidation factor, they were dressed in black fatigues. I
couldn’t see their faces because they were wearing black helmets that covered
their faces completely. DD had really upgraded. These big bastards had two
shoulder mounted Gatling guns. Whenever they turned their heads, the guns moved
and locked onto whatever they saw. It was some creepy combination of man and
machine. We came to a stop a safe distance away, and I whispered, “We need to
flank these two. If we go at them head on then they’ll cut us in half with
those guns.” Katy and I were going to draw their fire, and then Danika and
Penny could take them out.

           
To be safe Janine hopped into my body and I became
intangible. My teeth were already chattering from the cold. The clones hadn’t
seen us, but they looked to be moving around uncomfortably. It was as though
they were getting ready for us. Katy used a spell to shield herself before our
attack. She wouldn’t be able to attack while hiding inside her protective
bubble, but we weren’t really leading the attack. We were just supposed to lead
the distraction. I took aim and fired one round. The bullet smacked the helmet
and kicked the clone’s head back violently. The helmet didn’t break, and the
bullet ricocheted off. I knew right then something was wrong. My forehead and
neck throbbed, and my vision blurred so badly that I nearly fell over. Before I
could figure out what the problem was the Gatling guns started spinning.
Thankfully Janine had turned me intangible because I could hardly move. Their
guns opened up and a sea of lead bullets tore through the air. They passed
through me, and hammered into Katy’s shield. It knocked Katy flat on her ass.
Penny and Danika moved in from the sides to attack. Penny’s slash went from the
first clone’s throat to just above where his belly button should have been.

           
I couldn’t breath. A horrible rending pain ripped across
my body. I don’t remember falling to the ground, but I must have because I was
curled up in the fetal position. Something felt like it just slammed into my
chest, and my back throbbed. Screaming just wasn’t an option, and all I could
do was
give
a long silent gasp. When I could finally
look up, I saw Danika’s arm had impaled the second clone. Tunnel vision and an
inky black unconsciousness were clawing me down. It took everything I had to
keep from blacking out. Then I heard the whirr of other guns spinning as they
got ready to fire. DD screamed, “Halt!”

The
whirring continued, but no shots followed. I used what little strength I had to
look around. The other eight clones had surrounded us. They froze in place just
at the moment prior to firing their weapons. We were beat, and we hadn’t even
gotten started. They’d used two of their clones as decoys while the others got
in position. It was crushing to be defeated by our own plan. I heard Alhambra
in my headset still casting a spell. The spell settled on each of the clones
like a fine dusting. They ignited like a match. Clone flesh bubbled and charred
and the special body armor popped and exploded out of their bodies like
popcorn. They eventually started melting to the ground. My skin burned, I know
I must have screamed because everyone ran to me. Janine hopped out of me and
started begging for someone to help. When I was able to gather some
self-control I’d look at my arms. There wasn’t anything wrong with them from
what I could see, but they felt like they were melting off the bone. It was
like I felt the
enemies
pain. Shock, and agony
eventually got the better of me, and I lost consciousness.

           
I woke up in the med lab with everybody was watching over
me. Even Penny was there. “What happened?” I asked. I felt perfectly fine
again. DD sniffled and sobbed, “I’m sorry Grim,
I
had
no idea. We created those clones from your DNA, and I modeled their thinking
patterns after you. I didn’t know that the psychic feedback would affect you
like it did. You were feeling everything that happened to those synthetics
because they operate on the same brainwave that you do. You finally had a
seizure and then blacked out.” My stomach lurched and I rolled off the table to
vomit in a nearby sink.