Chapter 2 of Wrath of the Lion

Chapter 2

“Me first! Me first!” David states as he grabs the rope swing in the back of his home.
“Now, now David, you know you always cry when it gets high. Let me show you, then you can go,” replies the always protective Lydia. David, who has on sandals, blue jean shorts, and a now very dirty white t-shirt is always a very active child. He is much like his father William was at his age. Lydia, though, is much more like her mother. She is always careful and watchful of the other children she is around. She has long curly brown hair and the sweetest smile. Many times David has fallen and hurt himself while they were playing and all Lydia had to do was smile at him, and David would be laughing in no time. It’s not that Michelle wasn’t around, she always was. She just felt it best to let the kids have some time alone while she took care of the house.
While the two children were debating over who got to swing from the huge rope attached to a giant Oak tree, Michelle was inside. Normally she would be cleaning the house, or preparing a meal, but now was different. The children had gone outside after they realized that William had left again. Michelle was alone. She knew she was. It wasn’t just a physical condition, but an emotional one as well. Inside her heart, the only thing she longed for was her husband.
Lying on the bear rug in front of the fireplace, she cried. Looking around the house, she saw the beautiful furniture they had. First, in front of her, she saw the grandfather clock that William had imported from Germany. The tone sounded. It was now 3 pm. There was the banquet table in the main dining room. That had cost more than she even remembered. Oh, and the living room was beautiful. The kid’s rooms were all decked out in their favorite colors and items. Lydia’s room was done in all purple. She had the prettiest lace curtains. You could always see the sun through Lydia’s room best at night. It set through her gorgeous bay window. Her room was always tidy, not because Michelle cleaned it, but because Lydia would never leave her room until it was just the way she entered it. Certainly she had toys, but they were always neatly tucked away in her huge walk-in closet. Now David’s room was another story. He was just like his father, picking up one thing and dropping it to go get something else to play with. His room was not purple. He hates “girly” things. He had play guns and swords all over the wall. On one wall, there was a mural of the world, marked with all the places that wars had occurred and the names of those wars. His favorite battles were always old ones. He enjoyed playing with his toy guns, but he always thought the coolest heroes were the ones that fought with swords and axes. In the far corner of his room, to the left of his bed, was a suit of armor. This wasn’t a toy. His dad had gotten it for him for his last birthday, even though he didn’t see his dad at the party, he still got his gift. On the shield there was a dirty shirt that he neglected to put in the laundry the night before.
Surrounded by the best that money can buy, Michelle could not be happy. With tears in her eyes she went to the bedroom. Their master bedroom was William’s favorite room in the house. He had designed it himself. She smiled as she walked over the door frame. She looked up at the corners and saw the lion’s faces etched into the cherry wood outlining the double doors at the entrance of the room. She was not just walking to roam the house though, she walked with purpose. Reaching into her nightstand she pulled out a few photo albums. One of them was all white with little pearls and ribbon on it. This was the first one that she would look at. This was their wedding album. As she opened it, she could still smell that day. She remembered the long day at the hairstylist and how that spray made her sneeze. She remembered the smell of her mother as she hugged her daughter one last time before giving her away, but most of all she remembered William. She remembered how he looked when she began down the aisle. The pictures, as they had both said many times, could not capture that moment properly. In an all white suit, he stood there as if an angel waiting for her. She smiled seeing them standing by the preacher in that picture at the beginning. “The church days,” she said aloud. The first few months of their marriage, they attended a small church near the college they were attending, but after being recruited for Unitek, William stopped going. Gradually she too ceased in her once faithful attendance.
As she continued to peruse the photos, her tears became more of a stream than small drops. “How,” she thought to herself “could this be the same couple that we are today. I love you so much William, but you are never here. It’s like I am a single parent now.” With that thought, she shut the book. She didn’t even open the other albums that she had put together over the years; they would bring too many tears.
“WOO-HOO,” the shout could be heard all through the yard as well as the beautiful house (no longer could it be called a home). A smile swept across the beautiful face of Michelle. She knew that noise. It was her little boy taking danger by the horns. She ran to do huge window at the back of their home and watched as her young son splashed into the pond in the back yard from a rope swing attached to an enormous oak tree just aside the pond.
It was a safe home. She had always loved that. No longer did she worry about her safety as she did when they lived in the dreary side of town. She had two guards stationed at the main gate. These were no mere watchdogs either. They were hand picked by her husband. Every day as she went to run errands she would wave to them, and they to her.
“Yes,” she thought, “life here is so much better in a physical sense, but oh for those days just sitting doing nothing but being held by the man I love.” She started to feel better as she remembered those times. As usual, those memories made her hopeful that she would see the glorious days of a simple hug again.
“Oh goodness I need to start on supper. The time has completely slipped by me. I didn’t realize what time it was. It has been 7 hours since William left. He should be home any minute now” As she was making her way to the kitchen, there was a knock at the door.
“Well, William is home,” she thought as she went for the door, but as she answered it she was greeted by the two guards, rifles in hand.
Hands shaking tensely, he read the document that he had just decrypted. It was now 3 pm. Not knowing the extent or depth of wickedness now before his eyes, he simply read with a peaked interest. Slowly his stomach began to tighten as he read about the scheme. The pages went on and on. The Four were definitely people that were not to be contended with. He had no idea who he was working for. There were at least 100 pages of detailed accounts of vile torture to Presidents of the companies they had taken over. There were accounts of black mail to public officials and members of the each super power on the face of the planet. The black mail was well planned out.
As he read, he came across one account where the President of a well known government was beginning the question the involvement of Unitek in their software systems. Soon there after, according to these records, he had a new secretary. This secretary, unknown to the President, worked for Unitek. She seduced the President and took pictures of him in very compromising situations with her causing him to stay silent regarding the infiltration of Unitek into the nation’s security networks.
“What are these men planning? Why would they need such elaborate detailing in a file of this size?” These questions and more stabbed at William as he read. “Wait, I have to get out of here now,” he thought to himself as he saw the information. “First I will save this file!” Keying some data into his laptop, he downloaded the folder that contained this document and two others which he had not been able to read as of yet.
On his way from his desk to his personal elevator he noticed security was super tight. “Has someone noticed my little detour in security and if so, who? No one has authority to override me!” these thoughts and more swirled through his mind like a whirlwind. Attempting to access the elevator, he was denied security. “This is going to get ugly,” he said, while running to the vault at the back of his huge office.
Though he was chief of security and most of his time was spent in information security, he still was very capable of military security as well. He had trained each member of the force that worked for Unitek. Not only had he trained them, but he hand picked them for service. They were the best recruits from military across the world. What he was about to face was quite possible the most elite task force known to man, but he had a plan. “I need supplies,” he mumbled to himself while opening the vault, which was stocked by him personally. This was from his private collection of hunting and military weapons. Donning body armor he grabbed two small pistols from a collection of weapons. Compared to the other shotguns and automatic hand guns these two seemed relatively basic. The odd thing was they had no clip. There were no bullets in these guns. They fired high voltage electricity. This was something that he had designed based on the stun guns of the very early 21st Century. They made no noise. They were untraceable, and, best of all, they were one of a kind.
Almost as soon as he hand them safely in his hands, the doors to his office burst open and 5 men piled in with rifles in hand. They quickly scanned the room. He saw them, but they did not see him. Though they had 20/20 vision, the body armor he grabbed was an advanced type of camouflage that, if he remained perfectly still, allowed him to not blend, but perfectly mimic what was behind him. He became part of the wall. With a few hand motions, the alpha force moved out. Assuming that he had taken the elevator down, they moved to his car.
“I have to do something,” he thought while mad thoughts of murder flowed through his adrenaline filled body. The suit he was wearing naturally enhanced the chemical balance in the owner’s body allowing for a 20% boost in all stats, thus not only was his physical body stimulated, but the emotions that he felt were peaked as well. They had left the door on the ground and he worked his way over to it making no noise and quietly began a long descent of the fire escape.
Looking below he could see security flowing like clock work. It took his breath away. They had been drilled, but they had never seen this kind of action. He was almost proud to see how well they were handling the enemy, but it hit him, he was the enemy.
“How will I make it out of here without taking out someone? I don’t want to kill my own men.” His mind was torn with loyalty, but he reminded himself of what he saw. “I know that was rough stuff, but it was not enough reason for them to hunt me down, maybe something else is going on.” As he rationalized he thought, “I am sure they thought someone had broken into my office. They are just trying to protect me.” He climbed his way down the ladder making his way to the ground. Once on level ground again he looked for someone he knew, someone he could talk to. “Where is Richard?” he thought to himself. “He is working this shift. I will ask him. He is always willing to talk to me.” After wandering the busy corporate grounds dodging moving people while in camo, he saw Richard. “This way,” he whispered by Richard. “Come 10 meters back.”
Richard, slightly scared by the thought of hearing something that wasn’t there, thought it best to obey the voice he thought to be in his head, but he did not take his finger off the trigger. As soon as he was in the clear, he de-cloaked his body armor. “What is going…” before he could get “…on” out of his mouth Richard fired shots at his former boss. Grabbing his gun, William fired back dropping Richard to the ground. Though not dead, the jolt from this gun would leave anyone it hit as either a vegetable or paralyzed. He did not like to use these, but now he had no choice. Once again he re-cloaked and made a mad dash for the main gate.
“I can make it out, but how do I get home?” These and other thoughts filled his mind. Once at the gate he managed to jump it with help from the suit to give him extra boost in strength and speed. Now that he was on the main highway, the security was gone. He was free to de-cloak. “Yesterday I was on this road in my Mercedes, now I am going to have to hitch a ride. What happened?” Emotions were racing in circles through his mind. The only thing he knew to do was go home. It was safe there. With a thumb out and making a nice stride in the right direction, he made his way down the road. As he looked back down the road, every car zoomed by him. He was about to give up and sit down when none other than that same Ford truck came putting down the road. Jumping up and down he began to shout, “Joshua, Joshua.” The Ford truck passed, but it slowed down. Finally, after what seemed like a mile, it screeched to a halt. It slowly backed up with it’s hazards on. It was an old 1980 F-1 something or another. As soon as he saw the truck backing up, he realized he was in combat gear. He could hear Joshua shouting, “Hey man looks like you need a ride.” In his voice you could even hear a smile. He was a short chubby man. He had a scruffy beard and no hair on his head. He was wearing a pair of overalls and some snake-skin cowboy boots. He jumped out of his truck and ran around to see his old friend, but something stopped him in his tracks. Suddenly Joshua froze as if seeing a ghost. His face became pale white. Wondering what was going on, William said, “Hey, what is up with you pal?” William noticed Joshua’s eyes were glued to his guns. “Oh, um, these, well you won’t believe me anyway, but I need to get home now please!” With tears in his eyes, William speaks with more urgency than ever before.
“I don’t know what is going on, but I have never seen you cry, lets go!” As they sped down the road (sped being a relative term since the old truck could only get to 80 mph), William recounted his story to his old friend.
“That is amazing and horrible and… good gravy!” exclaimed Joshua as he, with fear and pain in his eyes listened in. “We are almost to your house now, it will be ok,” he said trying to comfort his friend who was now shaking violently.
Upon arriving at the gate to his neighborhood, William realized life was about to get worse. As the gates were opened, he realized the hell that he had entered. Even though they were a mile away from his home, he could see the flames blazing high. It had been four hours since the security guards burst through his door. It did not take them long to get to his house. That was the most logical place for him to go. They knew that. He knew that, but with all the chaos he did not even think to call home. His wife, his kids, what has happened? “They have been kidnapped,” he said in fear as they drew closer to his home, but his worst fears were not vivid enough.
Drawing closer to the house he could see that it was engulfed in flames. Life has changed. It seemed for a moment as if time stopped. He remembered getting his job. He was so excited to tell his wife about his six figure income. He remembered how they moved had from their apartment in married housing at the college to the most elaborate home he had ever seen. He remembered when they went to pick out their bedroom suite, how he insisted on cherry wood with the canopy top and lions’ heads for legs. It was like he lived a charmed life. Everything that he had touched turned to gold. He and his wife had two beautiful children. He remembered when they were born. His wife was more beautiful then than at any other time in his memory. In just a moment these thoughts filled his mind.
Then it happened. He saw. He saw everything. Blood dripped from his fists as he clenched them tightly. The only two things standing on his once beautiful property were the two lions at the main gate. Right in front of the gate, almost like a bad voodoo movie, were the bodies. Not bodies of friends, but bodies of his children. They were shot once through the back of the head execution style. Their hands tied behind their backs. His heart stopped for what felt like a lifetime. He was dead; his life had no more meaning. Then, it hit him again. His wife; where was she. He ran to the main entrance to the home. He found her there, lying there nearly dead. She had been stabbed over and over again. Blood was pooled around her. She, with all the strength she had left, looked up at him and murmured, ever so slightly whispered, “I…. love….you.” Her eyes rolled in the back of her head. Dropping to his knees he began to weep.