Unrighteous Dominion: Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The complaint call had come from the small sandwich deli across the street from the abandoned warehouse where the explosive sounds were coming from. The squad car that was sitting charred in front of the warehouse was barely discernable as a car never mind a police car. Sgt Wilson was sitting in his communication van letting his team set up the proper perimeter that would be necessary. The witnesses from when the first squad car had pulled up were just finishing their statements and the sheets of paper were passed into the sergeant’s hands.

The police car pulled up in front of the warehouse and the officers were walking to the door when the delivery bay doors opened, a fireball the size of a mini-van flew at a massive velocity hitting the two police officers. It hit them thrusting them into the police car with the largest explosion that most people would see in a cheap action flick. The witnesses never even saw the person that was responsible for the fireball. It was what one could guess by looking at the charred mass of metal sitting in front of the now silent warehouse.

The Sergeant and his swat team were brought in to get into the building and neutralize the unknown threat. Mr. Nigel was the team’s intelligence guy and he was coming at the van at a quick jog. He arrived out of breath and more than slightly disheveled in appearance. 

“Sir I can’t really explain it but I can’t get anything from inside. All I can get from inside is a bunch of weird temperature readings. It is only like ten degrees Celsius. Every piece of electric equipment I attach to the building is shorted before I can get readings. The temperature measurements I get from inside are from old fashioned thermometers.” Nigel said with the flamboyant hand movements that go with his words and descriptions.

“What do you mean? Explain this to me. How could this happen.” Came the sergeant’s reply.

“Well you see every time I get a device on the building it shorts out. It just stops working. The only way for this to be possible is for there to be a powerful Electromagnetic field around the entire Building, this seems impossible for the amount of energy to maintain the field would be astronomical and there is no proof of anything.” Nigel emphasized with shrugs of his shoulders and then pointing. “See, look none of your monitors in the truck are working either.”

“Then how come our radios work?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense.” His face all twisted “I don’t understand and it makes my head hurt.”

The sergeant quirked his head sideways at the strange man that was his surveillance and tech guy. “So you’re telling me we have no Intelligence on what is in the building?” A nod from Nigel, his hands still in his hair, the pained look still in his eyes. “Ok, Then we are going to have to do this the old fashioned way.” As he grabbed the radio and brought it to his mouth, “I need Red and blue team leaders to appoint two three man teams each to approach building and gain Intel on what is inside. Come on people this is basic espionage don’t let me down.”

As he brought his radio down from his mouth, the team leaders' orders were ringing out from the speaker. “Do we at least know if the building has a land line I can get through on?”

No one moved. “Let’s go people you all know your jobs. What is wrong? You are all slacking today. Move faster. MOVE” And with that, he clapped his hands together and a bustle of movement commenced in the tiny swat trailer they were using as head quarters.

Just as everyone was getting things together and Nigel had just walked up the phone in his hand started to ring. “It is the land line, sir. I don’t know why it is ringing though.”

“Give it to me.” Nigel handed the phone to the sergeant. “Hello?”

“You need to leave now sergeant.”

“How did you get this number? Whom am I speaking to?

“How I came across this number is unimportant. I am that I am. Don’t question me and we won’t have a problem.”

“All right, I’m listening.”

“You need to leave; you have 3 minutes to get you and your men away from my warehouse and away from my windows. If you fail to comply, you will have some severe consequences to pay. Do not toy with me for I am a vengeful god.” That was followed by the click of the receiver on the other end of the line.

“Madeline, come here.” Madeline was a little plump woman who was the closest thing to a psych specialist the city was willing to pay for. In reality, she was just a social worker. “What is your take on ‘I am that I am’?”

“Well I feel that he is deeply disturbed and feel he has a sense of divine power. He is highly dangerous and will probably do his best to hold to his threats.

“And since we don’t know what his munitions are we are stuck blind. We don’t know what kind of machinery or anything. We are truly blind.” just as he finished the phone started to ring.

“Hello?” said the sergeant into the receiver.

“You haven’t left yet, now I will give you a reason to leave.” As soon as he finished saying this, the radio on the table started to garble.

“Sir, the front doors are opening and a figure is stepping out.”

“Hold your fire” the sergeant fired off the response into the radio while still holding the phone to his ear.

“Now feel my wrath through one of my disciples.” With that, there was a huge explosion that ripped through the air as if thunder was right outside the surveillance van.

“Report?” yelled the sergeant into the phone and the radio at the same time.  The voice on the phone was the first to reply.

“I have just killed two of your men. If you do not leave in three minutes I will have to kill the rest of your men and you with them.” The phone clicked off before the stunned sergeant could reply.

The radio clicked as the reports came in. “Sir, Robertson is down. His body looks like it has been on the barbeque for too long. There is nothing left of his gear nor uniform. Robertson is burnt solid. It happened right in front of me. It was like he was one of those…”

 “Bring him and yourself to the van now.” interrupted the sergeant and then he followed that with “Who else is down?”

“Sir it’s Agent twain, the one from the FBI. It looks like he was boiled alive… from the inside out.” crackled the radio.

 “Bring him and yourself in for a debriefing.”

The sergeant’s head was reeling. So many questions, who has that kind of power to strip the clothing never mind the body armor off a human being; then to be able to do it to a man behind cover and only to him not to his teammates. This is the problem not the solution. Quit thinking of the problem and start thing about the solution.

 “Who is our weapons specialist tonight?”

 “Umm I think it is Anders, He is bringing in one of the officers that are down.” said someone behind the sergeant.

 “Good I’ll meet him outside. I’ll take a radio if you need me.” He turned to leave and then looked back. “And if that phone rings do not answer it.” The door slammed shut behind him.

The air was filled with smoke but was still surprisingly cool for a summer night. The sergeant thought that he could see his breath for a second, he checked again and he couldn’t. “Must be losing my mind,” he said aloud.

 “What was that sir?” It was Anders; he had arrived with the rest of his four-man squad or what was left of it. They were carrying the burnt corpse of the dead officer. The skin looked to be peeling away in their hands. One man dropped the body, turned, and puked.

 “Officer, show some respect,” The sergeant yelled at the man, then the smell hit him and he vomited right there, no time to turn. “Never mind that Anders.” The sergeant said totally ignoring the fact that he vomited.

“Sir, with all due respect I think we should pull back.” Anders said as he set the corpse down on the ground. “I have no idea what that was.”

“What do you mean you have no idea what that was?”

“That is just it sir. I have never seen anything in the world like that.”

“That is what I was afraid of.” The sergeant said as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to cover his mouth as he knelt down the take a closer look at the charred remains of the fallen officer.

“Sir?” Anders face was a look of consternation.

“Do you remember about five years ago there was that terrorist attack in Greece and then there was that lecture hall fire?”

“Yes sir. The attack on Meteora was the largest attack since Nine Eleven.”

“Well do you remember what the conclusion was as to the way those attacks happened?”

“They said that there was no conclusion to be made. There was no weapon used. Spontaneous combustion is what they called it.”

“Technically that is just what they told the public. The truth of the matter is that they believe that the terrorists have figured out how to manipulate energy and cause spontaneous combustion.”

“Yea ok I follow you but how would it work?”

“You see that is just it. They never figured it out at least not on my level of clearance. But I think that this may be one of those things from what I’ve been told.”

“Well that may be possible but there was nothing spontaneous about what happened to him,” he said as he pointed at the corpse on the ground. “That was done on purpose.”

“Well I’m plum out of ideas,” said the sergeant. “Do you have any idea what it could be?” Just as he finished talking, the back door of the van opened and someone shouted out over the ringing of a phone.

“Phones ringing.” It came in over the radio as well as the sergeant hearing him from the van.

“Thanks tips,” he said as he was running towards the van. He grabbed the phone from the cradle just as it finished ringing the fifth time. “Hello, I don’t know how you did it but I will be pulling back give me another 5 minutes please.”

“You have five minutes and that is final if you are not gone in five minutes I will kill you and your entire team. I want every one of your vehicles gone and every one of your men. If you fail to comply, I will have to use force to show you my true power,” and with that the phone hung up.

The sergeant grabbed the radio and screamed into it, “I need all the group commanders to the COM’s van yesterday.”

It took a matter of seconds for the commanders to get to the van. They formed an informal horseshoe around the back of the van. The sergeant was standing on the rear bumper. “Alright everyone, I need you to listen very carefully we are dealing with a very volatile situation. I need you to feign a retreat. You will pull all your positions back about 50 meters and hold.” His hands were talking almost as much as his mouth. He was signaling that he wanted them to pull back but tactfully. He wanted them to fire when fired upon; kill all potential enemies, while avoiding direct confrontation.

They all left at a quick jog making sure that they were yelling the retreat order louder than was necessary.  When they arrived at their respective squads, they told them the same thing that they were told, feign retreat then wait in hiding to see what follows, be on full alert and fire when fired upon. Shoot to kill.

The phone rang, as the group commanders got back to their respective groups and started to retreat at a quick pace, declaring it on the radio.

“Hello,” came the calm voice over the phone, “I see that my demonstration of power has made you realize I’m not to be trifled with…wait what is this, Sergeant why have your men stopped? You wouldn’t want me to think that you aren’t going to hold up your part and leave?”

“My men haven’t stopped!”

“Don’t lie to me. I can see them. I am all knowing.”

“There should be no way you can tell my men haven’t stopped.”

“Don’t try and use trickery of words to get by this. I have given you enough chances to leave. You and your men will die.” The phone clicked off before the Sergeant could respond.

The sergeant grabbed the radio. “Be on gua…” he didn’t even get the word out before the roaring thunder and noise came with the shaking of the ground enough to rock the COM’s van and knock everything off the edges of the small desks and tables the van had. The sergeant ran for the door. He tripped and fell out of the back of the van. He was falling and was about half way to the ground when the massive fireball smashed into the tractor-trailer that once was the COM’s Van. The Sergeant’s body caught in the flames but he fell out of it and smothered the fire when he hit the ground.

His blackened body heaved a couple times and his ears heard the horrific screams over the radio of his men dieing while he dragged his body into a side alley where he collapsed into unconsciousness.