Clearing Force

woman to get in, when he turned to resume berating me. I began moving the bus forward when Jose’s shotgun roared! One of the little creatures had jumped onto the cover of the garbage container next to the one the people had been hiding in, so Jose had shot it. I punched the gas pedal, hard, causing the vehicle to lurch forward, knocking the man down to the floor while the woman fell out of the way of the door. I slammed the door shut behind her as several more of the little creatures appeared.

  I heard Jose’s shotgun roar again along with the quick blasts from several of the guy’s pistols as our van quickly picked up speed. For every one of the little monsters they shot down it looked like two more appeared. At the corner I turned going the wrong way down a one way street, without even slowing down. The little monsters were quickly closing on us and, since all the windows were now missing, I had no doubt they knew that they could get inside our vehicle.

  I swerved around a couple of abandoned cars and the little monsters seemed to lose interest in us as we picked up speed and left them behind. The road was clear for several blocks, only the occasional abandoned car was in the way, and it seemed that every time I had to swerve to miss one of those cars, the irate suit was slammed around inside the van. What a shame!

  FiFi had been quiet, probably because of the noise the huge monster had made, but as we approached the partially blocked intersection where we had to turn right, she resumed her growling. I slowed down to move through the scattered vehicles and turn, when I saw why, not too far down the street from the intersection one of the huge monsters had just rammed into a building. I forgot about turning, instead I, once again, jumped the curb and drove on the sidewalk, only hitting a few small things, mainly bones.

  The woman we had picked up had managed to get into a seat and was softly crying. The suit had made the mistake of attempting to berate JJ and was currently bleeding profusely from his broken noise while screaming something about a lawsuit. I smiled grimly while I wondered just why I had picked him up but I knew that my impulse to throw him out the door wasn’t something I could do since he would probably give whatever monster ate him an upset stomach!

  Two blocks further on, I slowed down and finally turned right, ignoring the still working traffic light. As I passed through the intersection I saw the flash of light from the traffic cameras in their remorseless attempt to generate revenue, oh yeah, I forgot, in their remorseless attempt to protect the public. Frankly, it would be nice to be alive to pay the ticket but I wasn’t worried about it, our luck was bound to run out.

  After several more turns I could see across the Hudson River the world’s biggest traffic jam! The word had obviously gotten out so anyone with a car had gotten into it and was now attempting to flee the area. I wondered how far the creature’s had spread and if anyone had flooded the tunnels to try and stop them. Somehow I just knew that the tunnels were still open and a chill went down my back at the thought of being stuck inside a car, in a traffic jam inside one of those tunnels, just waiting for the ugly death that was approaching.

  We hadn’t seen any creatures for the past few minutes and people were everywhere! The streets were clogged with vehicles and were totally impassible. When I stopped my blood splattered van so we could exit people didn’t even glance towards us in their almost panicky flight.

  Jose was off the van first because his wife was standing almost directly across the street from where we had stopped so he ran over to her, ignoring the people around him. I was the last to exit, directly behind the jerk in the suit. I told him that he was welcome to come with us but his answer was “Fuck you, you assholes will hear from my attorney!” Then he briskly walked away, still holding a handkerchief to his broken nose. Somehow, his attorney didn’t worry me, with luck he had already been eaten, although maybe the monsters believed in professional courtesy.

  As Jose and his wife crossed the street to join us the hooker asked “Can I stay with you people?”

  I asked “What’s your name and where are you from?” She had a mid-western accent not a New York accent.

  “I’m Doris and I came from Topeka, Kansas. I thought I’d be on the stage by now, instead I’m turning tricks. I’m clean, so don’t ask. I don’t do drugs, I don’t even smoke, but if I don’t go with you people I’m dead and I know it!” She answered.

  Underneath the filth covering her she looked like she might be sixteen or seventeen, probably a run-away that discovered the only way she could support herself was by selling herself. I had seen a lifetime’s worth of that crap when I had been in vice which was why I had applied for SWAT.

  Young girls also couldn’t work alone, at least not for long, so I asked “Who’s your pimp, and where is he?”

  She didn’t hesitate “Jimmy “O”, and I have no idea. He was probably eaten by those things because he was supposed to pick me up at 6:30 this morning. All I can say is good riddance” and with that she spat towards the ground.

  I had to smile because Jimmy “O” was nothing but a thug, but a very well connected thug. He worked for, or perhaps I should say paid, one of the many made men that New York was riddled with, Tony the Plumber, a Mafiosi suspected of being one of the mobs top hit men. Tony the Plumber was suspected in at least fifty mob style executions, although the key word was suspected. He was one of the most protected gangsters in New York City and even the Mayor was reputed to be a friend of his, or at least on his payroll.

  I glanced at JJ, who had heard everything, and saw him shake his head “Yes” so I said “Okay, but you’d better not be on drugs, understand?”

  She nodded her head “yes”. I had never seen a hooker yet that would say she, or he, was on drugs although they usually were. I had little doubt that if she was my father-in-law would chuck her over the side, he detested the stuff and the people addicted to it.

  Jose introduced Maria to everyone and we began moving west towards Battery Park City and the dock. If we could have I would have vastly preferred to jog, but there were far too many panicky people all moving away from the direction we were heading. They were probably trying for either the Brooklyn Bridge or the Manhattan Bridge because there weren’t any bridges on the Battery Park side of the Island below Central Park, only tunnels.

  There were a few men carrying shotguns or, in a few cases, rifles. After decades of rigorous enforcement of the most draconian anti-gun laws in the country New Yorkers, at least the average citizens, were pretty close to being totally disarmed, while I saw several notorious drug gangs, armed to the teeth with fully automatic weapons, also headed towards the bridges. Somehow it didn’t seem right when Mr. Joe Average Citizen didn’t have a prayer in hell against those monsters, while some of our human monsters would probably survive to fight another day. Well, as my father used to say, “Life sucks and then you die”, may his soul rest in peace!

  Then, from the Hudson River less than a quarter mile ahead of us, came the sound of cannons firing followed closely by explosions further up town. As we finally saw the private yacht club’s entrance, where my father-in-laws boat was moored, we could also see the U.S. Coast Guard ship as it fired shell after shell into the city. Further out, another ship, from the color scheme, probably a US Navy Destroyer, also began firing into the city.

  At first I thought the shots were indiscriminate, but then the steady “Thump, Thump, Thump” of helicopter blades could be heard above the gun fire and a pair of navy helicopters flew over, headed east, but beginning to turn for another pass over the city. They were probably spotting the accuracy of the cannon’s fire for the ships.

  Then, as they headed back into the city from over the Hudson River, a group of huge objects dropped from the low clouds striking the blades of both helicopters virtually simultaneously! The “birds” we had seen leaving that huge ship had struck and even though the blades quickly chopped them into sushi before they disintegrated, the helicopters dropped like stones into the river once their blades were gone. It was all over in seconds, both helicopters, along with their crews, were gone.

/>   The birds quickly diverted their attack towards the two ships, but the destroyer opened up with one of its Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CIWS) a relatively short range gun system designed to destroy incoming objects, like missiles or aircraft. The creatures didn’t stand a chance. Within seconds all three surviving “birds” were destroyed. What could be the only possible problem was that the cannon shells were fired towards the city and somewhere they would land, hopefully on the monsters.

  The river was busy, everything from large container ships to row boats, were out there and all heading in the same direction, out to the perceived safety of the sea. At least half the boats that were docked in the marina were already gone, while the rest were being quickly loaded in preparation for leaving. The heavy ten foot chain link fence topped with razor wire was intended to discourage entry except at the gates while the large gate was chained shut and the tire shredder located fifty feet outside the gate was deployed.

  Normally, before the riots had started, the marina had employed two retired New York City Policemen as security guards on each shift. They had seriously beefed up security two months ago and they now had six security guards per shift equipped