"The judgement day has come!"
The high pitched scream jogged Anthony from his stupor. He shook his head, as if to clear it from the insanity of it all, and jumped from the roof of the Land Rover.
A young man was running down the road at full pelt, his eyes wild with fear. Anthony assumed him to be a local farmer, dressed, as he was, in dirty jeans and checked red shirt. The man ran by, repeating his apocalyptic scream, completely disregarding the Land Rover and its occupants.
Anthony looked back at the sky after this brief, surreal interruption, to see the sun had returned, and suddenly, the day appeared as if nothing untoward had happened. Clearly not the case, but hard to believe, looking at the serene countryside surrounding them. Shaking his head again, Anthony jumped back into the Rover and gave Ebbe a cold hard stare.
"Any ideas?" He asked with a subtle nod to the sun, now sitting merrily just above a distant forest.
Ebbe shrugged, "I'll show you what I know, once we've done something about Moon Face back there," she paused briefly, taking in a deep breath and exhaling loudly, "just as we agreed."
Anthony nodded, annoyed that even in the face of obvious craziness Ebbe remained as oblique as ever.
It took nigh on an hour to reach their destination and Anthony opted to continue the journey in silence. Ebbe had effectively laid bare the last fifteen years of his life, in front of his men, and he had let her. He wasn't sure if he was okay with that yet. Little I can do about it, obviously, he chided himself. Cat, bag, well and truly out of it, he thought with an inner chuckle. So the men know about Elaine now, so what? The world was going crazy before their eyes, who gave a shit about his personal life now?
God.
Yes, God would give a shit about his personal life. What if the crazy farmer was right? What if this was the judgement day? What judgement could possibly fall upon me, but that of damnation, Anthony thought. Maybe the missing factor in Ebbe's scientific theories was God. She was the smartest person he'd ever met, but she clearly didn't truly understand what they had just experienced. As a scientist she would reject God outright, but what if? What if the signs she read as science gone mad, was God getting mad? If I am to be sent to Hell, the only question is, to where did the powers that be, send Elaine? Because if she was sent the Heaven and I go to Hell, then, even if I have to defeat Satan himself, I shall break out of the bonds of hell and seek her out.
It was at this thought that Anthony saw the reassuringly familiar swinging sign for Aldhurst Farm to the right. Barely lifting his foot off the accelerator he swung the lurching Land Rover into the gravel driveway, spitting stones backwards as the wheels sought their grip. The vehicle slammed to a halt outside a crumbling farmhouse, part red brick, part Tudor timber and white washed stone.
"Don't move," Anthony barked.
He made a move to step out of the vehicle himself, but a thundering boom and the shattering of the windscreen sent him diving for cover instead. Instinctively he pulled Ebbe with him, knowing his men would have already reacted, but that she would be too slow.
"Don't move," he re-iterated to Ebbe, before silently gesturing to Jake and Cody to get their weapons and make their exit. Anthony realised his safest exit was from the passenger door. At this thought another cacophonous boom signalled another hit upon the Rover, this time smashing into the hood and tearing a hole through the rusting metal. This forced a growing sense of urgency upon Anthony and without giving Ebbe instruction or time to move, he clambered over her. For a second he was aware his scrambling hands had unwittingly pressed hard against a breast as he made his way to the door. Live first, apologise later, he thought as he flicked the door open and slid out, doing his level best not to also kick Ebbe in the head as his legs followed him out.
In a second he and his team were stationed behind the Land Rover, weapons unlocked and ready for deadly force.
"Don't move until I give you the signal," Anthony growled, his eyes squarely on Cody, whose vacant eyes were still giving him cause for concern. Not wanting a repeat situation, Anthony grabbed Cody's face roughly and shook him violently. "Kid, snap out of it, I need you focused, you hear me?" Cody blinked blankly for a second, before a spark seemed to reignite in his eyes. That's more like it! Anthony thought, the little shit looks a little more alive. Another shot echoed out and the Land Rover actually shook from the violence of the impact. "Stay!" Anthony barked, before turning his attention to the farmhouse, where the shots were apparently emanating from. In a split second he had made his assessment. One shooter, firing a close range high powered scatter shot weapon. He couldn't be firing from a window on the first floor, the shots wouldn't be so contained from that distance. It wasn't coming from anywhere too low, discounting a hidden bolt hole, because the angle of the impacts didn't allow for shots coming from below. This left the ground floor, and there were only two windows within a suitable range for such a weapon to do this level of damage. This wasn't a team from the agency who had somehow ascertained where they were going. This was worse, it was Krank, and he thought they were coming for him. I could just yell out to the sonfabitch and tell him who it is, and why we're here. But Krank would suspect it to be a trap, the paranoid bastard. Anthony thought about Ebbe, still crouching inside the Land Rover, and he suddenly began to fear that she would try and take things into her own hands. She was a tough cookie, but Krank was another beast altogether, if she as much as stuck a hand out, he'd blow it off in a heartbeat. Some doctor!
"Give me your guns!" Anthony hissed. Cody obliged immediately, almost too eagerly for Anthony's liking. Jake looked a little more dubious but Anthony stared him down, until he finally relented, clicking the safety on and spinning it to hand the butt of the weapon to Anthony. Taking a deep breath Anthony tossed all three guns into the open ground between the Rover and the house.
"What the fuck?" Jake cursed loudly. Anthony simply held up his hand without even turning his head. Jake inhaled loudly but held his tongue.
"Krank?" Anthony yelled, "you listening?" his voice booming across the courtyard with Shakespearean clarity.
Another shot rang out in response, smashing into the gravel by the guns, but just missing them by a hairs breadth.
"Mate, it's Bishop. You hearing me?" Anthony shouted, taking the fact that Krank missed the guns as a sign he was in a listening mood. This time there was no response.
"I got me a man down, fella, bullet to the brain, a good man," Anthony shouted, "give us some air time and you'll see I'm straight up." Anthony held his breath. If he were Krank right now he'd not believe a word of it, and just shoot anybody who moved towards the house.
Silence hung thickly in the air. Only the birds were in a talkative mood, perhaps chattering about the mysterious phenomenon of the morning. That gave Anthony an idea.
"Got me a civi Krank. Says she knows what's happening to the Sun," he left that hanging a second, before continuing, with what he hoped was the closing pitch. "We were sent in to do a V6 on her," he finished, lowering his tone almost reverentially.
"Bullshit," came the gruff reply, "ain't no such thing," the voice added.
"If I was lying wouldn't I come up with a more convincing story?" Anthony replied, feeling proud of his quick wits. Krank surely couldn't argue with that logic.
"Underwear!" Came the blunt reply.
"Don't be an arsehole Krank," Anthony yelled back in frustration.
"Underwear, or I'll burn that scrap heap and toast all you assholes for breakfast."
Anthony sighed and with a nod turned to his men.
"Do it," he sighed, starting to pull his jacket off.
Stripped to his boxer shorts, Anthony was first to step out, arms raised. His body wore the battle scars of days past. His left thigh had been badly burnt and the scarring had healed poorly. He had several slices across his toned belly and three healed bullet wounds, one on his left bicep, one on near his chest and the last just to the left of his jugular. Behind him Jake strode out, also only in his shorts, his face like thunder. His body was less war weary, but equally muscular, further benefiting from his advantage of youth. Last to emerge was Cody, who looked like a boy in his boxers, lacking the bulk and weathered tan of the other two men. His was a more athletic body, yet to suffer the indignities of war.
The three men approached the farmhouse slowly, the small gravel stones sticking to their bare feet as they walked.
"Close enough," Krank growled, "where's the civi?"
"Jesus Krank, she's in the car," Anthony replied impatiently.
"Tell her underwear and outside or one of you's burger meat."
"Jesus Krank, she's not one of us!"
A warning shot ricocheted across the courtyard near Anthony's feet, sending a furious spray of dirt and gravel into his legs and chest, cutting and nipping at his bare skin, causing it to weep blood from several tiny wounds.
"Mother-f...." Anthony cursed, biting his lip.
"I'm here!" Came Ebbe's voice from behind them. Anthony turned to see Ebbe, still fully dressed, standing with her hands in the air.
"Strip!" Anthony hissed at her, fearful he was about to see her skin blasted off bone, as Krank let her feel the full force of his gun for being disobedient.
"I'd rather not, thank you," Ebbe responded, her perverse calmness from her own farmhouse seige returning. "I didn't gain two doctorates, and study my ass off for a decade simply to parade it in front of some cro-magnon thug because he was a thick headed paranoid slug. Any lunk-headed dolt could ascertain from my posture I am not concealing any weapons, nor am I trained in combat. Stripping me for your perverse requirements will render me no more harmless than I already am. If you men wish to spend time naked in each other's company it is of no concern to me. However we have a seriously wounded man in the back of this now deceased Land Rover who needs urgent medical attention. We also have a dying world that needs strong, intelligent people to defend and rescue it. If I am not in the company of such people, either allow me to leave and find such, or shoot me now and end my misery at seeing such pitiful reasons to save humanity."
That's it. We're dead. I'm going to die in my goddamned underwear, Anthony decided. Everything seemed to stop in it's tracks. Even the twittering birds seemed to have paused, perhaps all waiting to see what will happen to these strange creatures yelling, shouting and disturbing the peace.
