John's Lawn

“This access card has been denied due to the recipient being deceased. Exit the elevator now.” We had only gotten to the 16th floor before the panel made the announcement and the elevator stopped. The elevator door then opened to an empty hallway.

“Well I think we’d be borderline horror movie protagonist levels of stupid if we actually leave the elevator right now.” I said, staring into what was almost certainly our imminent doom.

Dexter spoke up, “I should be able to break into the system and have it finish taking us all the way down. Give me ten minutes and I’ll give us a way down to the bottom floor.”

“Alright then, everybody out. The boy needs his space and if we all get out we will have plenty of room to defend him.” Abraham instructed. Everyone exited the elevator, starting with The Doctor and ending with Abraham. Leaving Dexter inside to do his work. I stole a glance before focusing on the room we had just entered. He had pulled out a futuristic looking laptop and was typing inhumanly fast.

Tucker noticed my wide eyed expression, “We’ve got enhancements to boost our reaction time, combine that with his skill and well… let’s just say he’ll be able to get us down there no problem.” I tried to say something, but by now, it was one of the least impressive things I’d seen all night; so I simply pulled out the gun Tucker had given me and tried to prepare myself for anything that might show up.

After a minute or so of everyone waiting in silent anticipation, I decided to say what was on my mind, “Doesn’t it seem a little quiet for a break in?”

The Doctor responded shortly after, “It may be quiet, but look at the walls. Something is definitely coming.”

The CO joined in, “I highly doubt he’s gonna notice the vibrations. He’s just a human, hell even I can barely notice em.” I strained my eyes, staring at the wall closest to me, but I felt the vibrations before I even began to see them. They were consistent and unrelenting. But I couldn’t feel any footsteps. As if a literal ton of bricks were being pulled by an ant. While the feeling was unnerving, the lack of sound was even more so. However, the trio of super soldiers all began to get irritable before voicing a command. “Deafen” then they went back to what they were doing. Aside from them, everyone else seemed to be doing fine for the most part.

“What’s going on exactly?” I asked, entirely ignorant to the sound they were hearing.

Terry responded a little louder than his normal speaking voice, “It’s most likely another floor 20 asshole just trying to scare us.”

“Why are you talking so loud?”

Abraham answered for him with his usual cocky demeanor, “Well it seems they are hearing a sound you and I cannot, I still merely have the ears of a human, as do you.”

“And what about them? They’re humans too aren’t they?” I asked, gesturing to the soldiers.

“What don’t you get about cybernetically enhanced superhumans?” Abraham said matter of factly.

By this point I would assume this is how a deaf person would feel going into a concert. The vibrations flowed throughout my body, making my toes numb, but my ear drums still weren’t picking up any sound. Then, rather suddenly, it all stopped, no more vibrations. Like an orchestra finishing their final performance… nothing.

I tried to say something, but I didn’t feel anything in my throat. So instead, I mouthed, “what the fuck?” to Terry, he looked like he was trying to say something, but I couldn’t hear anything.

I was somehow able to feel the thing’s voice in my head. It was like information that was being forcibly shoved and translated into my brain. Imagine if you could feel the process of your eardrums taking in the vibrations from the air when someone is talking. Then your brain translating those sound waves into words we understand. It’s something seemingly simple that our brains do on their own, and we can’t feel it. But imagine if you could, that’s what this felt like. Like some kind of off brand telepathy. “Don’t bother screaming, no one will hear you. You are in my vacuum, where the laws of physics are mine.”0

Megami smirked, “Oh, you must think you’re pretty slick being able to control sound waves huh? You must think you’re pretty strong.” I finally saw the woman when I turned my head, she was flawless, not like Megami, more like a porcelain doll. Her hair looked almost fake and her face had no sign of pores. She was even wearing a gothic lolita outfit to go with it. The only part wrong with her face was the pissed off look plastered across it, “Oh you thought you were the only  one who could do such things? Oh that’s just precious.” Her voice turned maniacal and her eyes had a look of insanity in them, “I don’t think you realize that you will be the dead one at the end of all of this.” She began singing, but I couldn’t hear it. At first it seemed as though the flawless woman was stopping her from using her vocal cords. But when I looked down at her feet, I could see two blades being carved out of the metal floor. After only a few seconds, she had fashioned a couple rough but sharp looking daggers.

That vibrating started again, and I saw that the porcelain woman wasn’t moving her mouth, “Such barbaric tools. What are you going to do with those?”

“Who knows? Maybe I’ll take a page from the skinwalkers book, peel your skin off inch by inch. Or maybe…” Suddenly, Megami was right in front of the woman, “I can slit your throat right here and now.” The lady made a tiny movement with her finger, just as she did so, Megami jumped back in an attempt to dodge what was to come. Opening her mouth as she did so. But she wasn’t fast enough,  whatever the woman had done cut Megami’s right shoulder. The battle was on a level that I couldn’t see or hear so I was just left to watch an invisible clash. Megami flung both of the blades like throwing knives at the immaculate woman. As she sang a deafened song the blades sped up before one of them collided with the woman’s right eye. The second was thrown off course with a wave of a finger.

That was when I heard a whisper in my ear, “Let’s head out, we’re ready.” It was Tucker, and I could actually hear him. He was pointing at the elevator which already had everyone in it.

“Wait, Dexter said it would take longer didn’t he?”

“Plans change.” He gestured to a tag that was held up by the dagger that I thought had missed. It was lodged in a wall and Jacob was sneaking his way over to it.

“ENOUGH!” I felt the woman’s voice in my head again. With yet another flick of her finger, one of the lights went haywire shooting light in directions it shouldn’t be able to, causing Jacob to have to come up from the ground. “FOUND YOU!” She swung her entire arm, but nothing happened. Turning her head, she glared at Megami.

Megami chuckled cynically, “What’s the matter, do you have performance anxiety or something?” The woman’s look turned cold, “Oh, well that’s a look I didn’t think you could make. You’re starting to get me all excited.” By now, Jacob had finally managed to snag the card and make his way back over.

“We’re leaving.” Said, before Terry pulled me the rest of the way into the elevator.

Megami waved as she approached the woman, “So long little ones, I’ll meet you down there. Save a couple of them for me if you don’t mind.” Then, the elevator door shut, leaving only Megami behind, along with her screams of excitement.

Dexter’s voice cut through the air, “Oh come on guys, I almost had it cracked too. Their programming is just so unique.”

The CO’s voice cut in, “Had we left you to it you would’ve stopped with a few lines left to go, just to admire their work. I know y-”

I cut him off, “Why are we leaving Megami? Sure she’s a bit of a bitch. But wouldn’t she be useful for the boss?”

“She was reaching her limit, both of them were actually. Controlling that many vibrations at that power and for that long is severely mentally straining. If that doll woman has more stamina than Megami, we all would’ve been fucked. This was the best course of action.” Terry stated nonchalantly.

“Yeah, but why was Megami screaming like a lunatic then if she was almost out of commission?” Just before Terry could answer my question, the elevator doors opened.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in, and by dragged in I mean coughed up like a hairball.” I could feel the color drain from my face. It looked just like him, but his voice was different. The familiar blur was more intoxicating than I remembered.

Abraham stepped in front of the rest of us, “Run, it is your only chance for survival.” Then, faster than I could register, Abraham punched the thing in the face, smashing it into what appeared to be a cafeteria. The last place I expected our final stop to be. I booked it the moment after, taking any opportunity I had to get away.

“Where do you think you’re going?” It was right in my ear. That was when I saw a Terry Tentacle whizz right over my head. I kept running until I made it… right back… to the cafeteria?

“What the fuck is going on here?” I questioned to no response. I know it was the same place we had entered. The same tables were knocked over, and it was the exact same elevator. But no one was there. “Hello?” I asked the terrifyingly still air.

This time though, there was a response, it was him, echoing in my head. “So, you’re trying to play hero now?” It sounded like it was behind me, I pulled out and swung my dagger behind me. “Has it been fun trying to be stoic?” I swung my dagger around again. He tackled me to the ground. “How many more must suffer for your vengeance to mean something?” I was trying to fight him but I couldn’t move a muscle. 

“I don’t want anyone to suffer okay.” Tears welled up in my eyes as I remembered that day. “I just don’t want anyone else to go through what I did!”

“Do you truly think you have fooled anyone? You are selfish by nature. You know as well as I do that that’s not the reason you are here right now. You just want to get revenge by killing me. That’s all this has been, rage induced justification. Did you really cry when Jeff died? Could you actually bring yourself to befriend the one who killed your wife? Or was that all a front? Something you put up to block everything out. Do you actually care about anyone?” It was then that I looked around, they were all dead. Terry, Abraham, Jacob, Rachel, The Marines and… Jane… 

“You asshole! What, did you take smudge’s powers or something?” No response, “ANSWER ME DAMNIT!” In the blink of an eye, it was all gone. 

Terry had four tentacles out, pinning me to the ground. “That was definitely their leader, he didn’t even actually show up. It was a mass illusion, far more powerful than anything Smudge could do. We need to get going and find him.”

Everything I’d seen still permeated my thoughts as his words echoed in my mind, “rage induced justification.”

“Joseph, are you with us?” It was Terry again.

“Yeah… erm. How are we gonna do that exactly?” My mind was in a fog.

“Baby steps Joseph, baby steps.” Terry said, before letting go of me. “Now we need to head out before any more show up. We can’t afford to waste any more time. Not with the entities on this floor.”

We managed to find a path that seemed to lead the right way. Based on Jacob’s scouting, we managed to make it pretty deep into floor 20. It was way too quiet for how big the floor was. It had to be the largest in the entire place. But we hadn’t run into a single entity. “Well this is quite the precarious situation we’ve found ourselves in.” Abraham said while I caught my breath.

“Whaddya mean by that?” Tucker asked.

“Look around, no sign of life whatsoever. No sign anyone has ever even been down here aside from how clean it is. It’s suspicious to say the least.”

“Well, maybe they didn’t expect us to make it this far? You said they were sending higher threat entities to the upper floors right?” Rachel asked.

Dexter answered her, “There’s a problem with your hypothesis. The first card we used, it cut us off at floor 15 and said the person who was supposed to have it was dead. Had they been keeping track of vitals it wouldn’t have let us on the elevator to begin with. Which means someone must’ve found the body and reported it to whoever controls access. In turn, they would’ve known we had the means to kill threat level 20’s before we got down here. Ultimately, there should be things down here but for one reason or another, there aren’t.”

“Hey, Subject 873, you got-”

The CO was cut off, “I will tell you what I tell everyone else, it’s The Doctor. Call me anything else and I will cleanse you.”

“Eh, yeah sorry bout that. Doctor you got any clue what’s goin on here?” He managed to get his question out without too much hesitation.

“Why would I know anything like that? Jeff is… ahem, Jeff was the only one who worked here. So why would I know anything about the layout of this building?” The Doctor asked.

“Well I mean, with how long you’ve been round, figured you’d know a thing or two. Since you’ve probably seen a thing or two.” The CO trailed off, “Do you guys hear that?” Everyone nodded, and after a bit I was able to hear it too. It was akin to how burning propane sounds.

“Get ready everyone, this is definitely gonna be a level 20 threat,” Terry said, preparing as best he could. I pulled out my pistol, holding it up with two hands. Everyone else was readying for what was about to come

“YAY! More things to burn to a crisp. I can’t wait to see how you’re charred flesh tastes.” That was definitely the sound of a preteen. By all accounts, he looked like one. He was even wearing clothing to match it. “Oh wait, you’re the intruders right? I was told to be careful of you.” He looked at me, “I need you to not die, okay? Can you do that for me by any chance?” 

I was confused, “What do you mean? I’m just some guy. Why wouldn’t your boss want one of them alive.” I gestured to everyone else.

He snickered, “It’s not the boss that wants you alive. I just love the sound of a human who’s lost all hope, scream. The meat’s not too shabby either.”

“You’re disgustin, but someone I can handle.” Tucker said, walking over to the child. “Get your ass over here poindexter.” Dexter caught up to him immediately, they each readied a rifle looking to use the same technology as the pistol Tucker had given me. They each fired a few rounds, but the kid waved is hands in a strange way before fire erupted in front of him. As the fire dissipated, we saw he was uninjured.

“Don’t be stupid, we can handle a squirt like this.” The Doctor said.

Terry agreed, “He’s right, just let Abraham handle it or something. I’ve seen your organization fight weaker and lose.”

“Terry, let them do this. Sure they may be weak when it comes to physical strength. But when they fight something as strong or weaker than Chad, they put up quite the fight.” Abraham verbally retaliated.

“I can’t say I have faith in them. This kid is a pyromancer, he’s not exactly the weakest one in the world either.” Terry had just finished his sentence when Tucker started talking again.

“Y’know, I’ve beat the shit outta a lot of things, a lot of things that look like people too. You ain’t human, and you ain’t gonna make me think otherwise.” Tucker finished loading a new mag into his rifle, as did Dexter, “There’s a lotta different metals in the world, ya know that?”

The kid actually answered him, though it was with a sarcastic tone, “97 is a big number. You think you can count that high?”

“Y’know, outta all those metals, we’ve discovered one that no pyromancer has managed to melt. No matter how much time they put into meltin’ it, they just can never quite burn that fire hot enough. You think you know what that metal is?” 

Tucker was on the verge of monologuing it seemed until the kid answered yet again, “What? Why would I know that? Seems kind of pointless don’t you think?”

“All you pyromancers are the same. Never think with your head cause your fire is so hot.” 

Before Tucker could finish his rambling, the kid made some hand gestures, next thing I knew, Tucker was lit ablaze. “Maaaaaan, humans are so lame. What about you, other robot man? Do you wanna play with me?” Tucker walked out of the fire like it was nothing, “Tungsten,” was all he said. “What?” The kid asked, confused, “What do you mean tungsten?”

Tucker responded, “Tungsten is the only metal that pyromancers like yourself can’t melt. You’d think it’d be Mythril cause of the magical properties n what not. But out of all the pyromancers I’ve seen, tungsten is the one metal none of y’all can melt.”

“What’s your point?” The kid spat, like what Tucker said had left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Well, I’m not melted, neither is my gun, and neither,” He shot three bullets in rapid succession, the kid tried to block, but the fire quickly dissipated, “are my bullets.” He attempted to blow off the barrel of his gun. Either he forgot he still had a helmet on, or it was just to try and look cool. “Sorry Dexty, thought that one would be more like… well, you know.”

Dexter nodded, “Never call me Dexty, ever, please.”

Tucker nodded back, “Sure thing, tasted gross comin out my mouth anyway.” When I looked over, the body had a single bullet in the head, and there were two bullet holes in the wall to his right.

“Dude, we finally caught up to you guys. It was like, a total pain getting down here.” A familiar surfer bro voice cut in through the silence, “Hold up, who are these guys? They look like total douchebags.” Smudge was behind him and from what I could see, Chad was unharmed, I couldn’t tell if smudge was though.

“Oh shit, you’re finally back, I was getting worried about you two.” I said, a bit more excited than I meant to sound.

“Joseph, it’s not them.” Terry said.

“Bro, what’re you talking about, we’re like, totally us. Who else would we be dumbass.”

“Strike two.” Terry said under his… breath? “What’s your relation to Rachel?”

Chad hesitated,”Like, isn’t it obvious?”

Terry quickly replied, “I wouldn’t be asking if it were now would I?”

Chad paused before bursting into laughter, Smudge disappeared shortly after, “Man, I gotta be honest. I tried rooting through this guys memories, but it’s like, I can’t figure out what to respond with. Like, am I supposed to say how he views it or how other people view it? You really got me with that one I must say.” He laughed a bit longer, “But for realsies, I’m impressed you could see through my minor illusion, I thought it was pretty well done. Though I guess you can’t get anything by the man, the myth, the legend, Kenet.” Terry was managing to hold his anger back, “Oh what’s the matter bro, you’re starting to look a little mad. Tell ya what, if you can find me, the real me. I’ll totally fight you for realsies.” With that, the Chadpostor disappeared.

I walked over to Terry and patted him, around the general lower back area, “Don’t worry man, he’ll pay for calling you by that shit.”

It sounded like he somehow had gritted teeth, “Oh I know. I’ll make sure his death is slow and painful. That bastard’s gonna get what’s coming to him.”

We continued traversing the halls for what felt like a half hour before we finally came to what we thought was it. “Is this guy trying to look like a stereotypical villain?” I asked.

“There’s definitely a hint of villainy to it if my years of huntin down paranormal shit is anythin to go by..” Tucker said.

“It’s like he wants us to find him honestly. Sure it took us a while, but seriously?” Rachel added.

“Well I mean, if you’re going to be a bad guy, might as well showcase it.” The Doctor retorted.

The door was a deep crimson painted over mahogany, with a stone black skull in the center spewing out flames.

“I don’t care, let’s just take this guy out so I can go back to normalcy.” He seemed more irritable than usual. I mean, even after fighting Takeo he wasn’t like this.

“Hey, Doc,” I whispered, but all he did was sigh, “What’s up with Terry man?”

“I’m not entirely sure in all honesty. If you couldn’t tell, Terry isn’t exactly the type of person to share his feelings.”

“Fair point.” With that at an end, I readied my pistol.

Tucker handed me an extra mag, “These’re hollow point rounds. When they peel open on impact, they’ll release even more of my chemical than them FMJ rounds.” 

“Whatever is on the other side of this door, don’t hold back. Especially you Terry, we need your strength and range as much as possible.” Jacob said.

Just before Abraham charged the door yelling, “FOR NARNIA!” The rest of us followed in after him, seeing a chair at the end of a long villainy table.

“Oh come on dude, you aren’t even trying at this point! Just turn around!” I blurted out right as I saw the most villainous of chairs. After slight hesitation, it did in fact turn around. What sat there, looked… familiar. That blur that Abraham chased after, the one we saw as we got off the elevator, the blur that looked just like Smudge.

“I suppose it was only a matter of time before you all showed up. What would you like me to say? The jig is up?” The thing asked as though this were all some prank.

“You know damn well why we’re here. Don’t act like this was just some harmless internet scam. We’re here to make you answer for the murders of innocent people.” Terry said, getting taller as static likely filled the room.

He answered rather quickly, “Oh really? You are all going to make ME answer for what I’VE done? Says the one who quite literally murders children if they wander too far from home.” Tucker was about to interject but the thing only spoke louder, gesturing towards the soldiers,

 “They’re with a group that murders innocent entities because they were given orders too.” He projectile vomited the words as he spoke. Then he turned to Abraham, “A zombie who saps the energy from surrounding souls to keep living, just to get one more day of life.” The Doctor was his next target, “A plague doctor who turned to darker arts because he couldn’t keep a single patient from dying.” Then to Jacob, “A skinwalker who murdered his family just to sacrifice them to a being that didn’t exist. Only to later be confronted with the power he so desperately craved.” Then Rachel, “A woman who just wanted to bring her little sister back to life after accidentally killing her. Only to find out that no matter how many people she killed, you can’t bring a soul back from the abyss.” Finally, the inevitable, “The 9-5 office worker who could’ve prevented his wife’s death, had he only listened. Now, he walks through life, hollow and alongside murderers.” He paused, “Guess that was pretty spot on if none of you are coming after me right now. How close to home could I come if I really wanted to. Poor ol’ Tucker, never managed to please his father you know?” He said looking in my general vicinity, “Never could get his dad to believe in him, then one day, he comes home and his dad is dead. But the real twist is that’s what got him into what he told his good ol’ dad he’d never do for him. Tragi-”

I cut him off by firing 4 rounds from my pistol at him, “You bastard, shut the hell up!”

He was gone as soon as they left the barrel.

“Don’t you remember how this works, filthy thinskin? Sorry I meant Joseph.” Right as he said that I felt wind as powerful as a hurricane fly past my face. I saw everything like normal now, apparently Tucker had nearly pulverized my head, his fist millimeters away from my head. The bullets that I’d fired were firmly planted into Dexter’s chestplate, thankfully he wasn’t dead. Great Value Smudge wasn’t anywhere obvious though. That was when it finally hit me, the illusion wore off right as Tucker was about to punch me in the face.

“Hey dickhead, I was an orange belt.” I elbowed right behind me, surprisingly, it actually made contact. When I turned around, I saw a leaned over dollar menu Smudge. He sputtered out a “Fuck you” before everything seemingly went back to reality. “Oh come on, I’m tired of all this inception bullshit, just come out and fight us like a man.” I looked behind me again and he was there… again. “Wait what the hell is going on?”

The Doctor answered me, “Well I did give you at least two different steroids to speed up how fast your muscle tissue repaired, but even that shouldn’t have been enough.” As I continued to look down at the man, the smudgey texture began to dissipate, revealing a frail old man.

“Just take me then, you’re with the USPM right?” The old man said now with a voice that matched his appearance to a T. He was looking at the soldiers as he said it, and I’d never heard the acronym before. I looked it up but I doubt they’re from the one that shows up. Special ops is my guess.

“Hey, hold on. We came to talk to you before anyone else. Why was there a contract placed on my wife?” I couldn’t manage a tear this time, my emotions were probably shot from everything that had gone down in a matter of hours. “Why would anyone have placed a contract on her?”

“I can tell you one thing, but I swore an oath not to disclose information on clients. I will leave you with this and that’s all. You’ve already met them, it was between two odds.” After a short pause, he finished, “Alright boys, take me away.”

“With pleasure,” Was all the CO said, before injecting a clear liquid into one of the old man’s fading veins.

We left the same way we came in, though it seemed one thing the old man did before being sedated, was put everyone but us to sleep. Thankfully, he had a mastercard we were able to use, because that porcelain woman’s card wasn’t working. We stopped at floor 16 with the elevator to pick up Megami who was out cold but still breathing. 

Next stop was floor ten since it wouldn’t go any higher. I was amazed by the sheer number of entities this thing was able to force into unconsciousness. Smudge had a hard enough time blocking us from other entity’s vision. That was when I realized, that old man likely could’ve had us kill ourselves if he really wanted to. But for whatever reason, he didn’t. Hell he even put everyone to sleep for us, when he had absolutely nothing to gain from it. It’s possible he wasn’t the bad guy in all of this, but if that’s the case, there must be a whole shadow government or something.

Eventually, we came across the floor I was terrified to step foot on again. He was lying there, no more alive than when we left him there. Terry picked him up with his tentacles to carry Jeff, the not so bad killer out of this wreck of a bunker. One final stop came before us, I had no idea if they would be alive. But when we got to where we left them, they were both there, Smudge was surprisingly still conscious, Chad on the other hand was out like a light. Nods were exchanged and we exited the bunker at long last.

“Hey Johnny, we need an extraction, lost an arm but we captured our target. I also need you to relay what I’m about to tell you to Sergeant Major Witney, We have the required subject and are currently waiting on extraction. We need to keep an eye on J.” Jacob  finished his report over his radio, shortly after there was a pitch black helicopter overhead that had a few ropes dangling from it. “Well boys, you gave me an entirely new outlook on things. It was nice workin with you.” I could’ve sworn I heard him say something else under his breath, but it was inaudible. And just like that, they were gone.

“Well, what are we gonna do now then? The person who put the contract on Jane is still out there. We don’t even know where they are for fucks sake.”

“Joseph, leave that to tomorrow’s you. It may have only been 5 hours, but I guarantee that was the most physical, mental, emotional and spiritual strain you’ve ever put on yourself. I’m surprised you aren’t out cold right now in all honesty.” Terry had a knack for speaking things into existence. But there were any number of things that could’ve knocked me out at the time. Rachel using supernatural chloroform, Terry strangling me, Abraham smacking me over the head, hell it could’ve been Smudge making me fall asleep. 

Whatever it was, I remember looking out at the ocean as the sun rose and thinking, “What a strange place to put a lighthouse.” Before my world went black.

——————————————————————————————-

The next day, or maybe the day after next? Who the hell knows? Anyway, when I woke up after however long had passed, I immediately stood up. However, the simultaneous headrush and numbness in my body knocked me back down to my bed. I let out a groan before calling out, “Terrrrryyyyyyyy… TEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYY!”

He burst into my room after the second “Terry” yelling, “What is it?” He seemed rather annoyed.

I felt way better than I had in so long and I couldn’t figure out why, “Hey man, how ya doin?” Oh shit. Was I high?

“I know doc gave you some pills and he said there’d be side effects but this is ridiculous.”

I began whispering for some reason, acting as though what I had to say was a secret, “Pssst, T-man… Psssssssst whaddya got on dem posters huh?”

He let out a sigh, before turning around, and shutting the door behind him.