The Lands of the Rising Sun

Like Father, Like Son

I had almost forgotten about the train workers who had remained silent. I approached the same man from before. I stood in front of him and lit a cigarette. The man and the others stared at me; I didn't break eye contact through the silent minute. "So you're probably wondering what the hell all that was huh?"

"It seems to have peeked my interest," I said. "That's a good part of the reason they've been robbing trains, to find the Pensingtons secret weapons."

"A secret weapon huh?" I struggled with my leg to find a comfortable sitting position. "Yeah it's called 28C."

"Oh yeah what's that stand for?"

"Don't know but it doesn't really matter, you get the point of it."

"So what, the Pensington's are trying to inject this into there soldiers to win the war?"

"Well, aren't you a bright one?" the train worker said. "Yeah, it don't seem too practical, I mean sure the man was basically invincible, but he'd a killed everyone in his sight if we didn't take him out, how you gonna have an army like that?"

"I don't know what do you want from me I'm just a goddamn train worker."

"Yeah a train worker that seems to know a lot about some mystery super soldier shit, I mean I ain't usually the one to give a fuck bout' another man's war, but I do give a fuck about livin' in a world full of mother fuckers like that," I said pointing to the dead man. The train worker looked off in the distance, "don't you have some shit you gotta take care of?" I flicked my cigarette in his face, "matter of fact I do, motherfucker." I turned to Snake and Chucky, "C'mon y'all we got a job to finish." It took them a minute to leave Pop-tart's side, neither of them willing to break focus on his body still lying motionless on the ground. The three of us walked back to the car. Snake went for the driver's side but I stopped him and grabbed the keys. I sat down and grabbed the first aid kit from the glove box I could feel the heat from the leather seats burning my thighs through my jeans. I took my jacket and shirt off and emptied a clip into the ground from my pistol. I pressed the barrel to the bullet wound on my side sealing it shut and wrapped cloth around my torso. Snake and Chucky entered the vehicle, both staring back to Pop-tart, "Death," Chucky muttered. I started the engine and drove off toward the old building near the highway.

We drove up to where the fence that lined the area began and parked out of sight from the building. There wasn't much of the fence left but one of the brick dividers that the fence attached to was intact enough for us to crouch behind. "You grab those binoculars?" I asked Snake. "Yeah here," he said handing them over. I put them to my face and saw two separate magnifications. "The fuck is wrong with these?"

"They're broken."

"How the fuck did they break?"

"You took them out when you were wasthed at Gino's one night to sthare at a girl'sth boobsth becausthe you sthaid you could barely sthee them and sthe threw them acrossth the room and they broke."

I laughed, "oh yeah, I think I remember that... but shit it ain't my fault she had small ass titties," I said holding the one working lens to my eye. "Yeah... right stho anyway what do you sthee?"

I looked over the area back and forth. There were two buildings, one towering over the other with a broken extension coming from the smaller building they must have once been connected. The larger building had a crumbled wall on one side. Men patrolled the area in front of the large building with two trucks carrying a heavy mounted machine gun on each of them. The smaller building was relatively unguarded, with only two guards on the roof and a couple of men standing around outside. Most of the men were unarmed carrying bats and pipes. Some others had rifles and two of the guards on the larger building were pacing back and forth with scoped rifles on their backs.