Captain Edward College. A man after everyone's heart, you could say that he was one without any enemies. I should know, he had saved my life many times and saved me from getting fired. The man cared for everyone he came across, and now he was dead. Lemon and I could not believe our ears.
"Is that some kind of joke?" Lemon growled, grabbing Laos' shirt and pulling him over. "You should not make dangerous joke Laos."
"I wish I was joking," he replied. His eyes about to turn to the Niagara falls.
I fell back to down to the chair I once sat. It was not something you could easily believe, it was not something you would want to believe. The Chief knew his limits, he knew he was not that good in a one to one battle because of the limitations of his abilities, and he was starting to get rusty in his gun shots. He once joked about it, saying his lack of hitting the bullseye these days would get him killed one day. The point, there was no way that he would go against the enemy alone. Or was this not that kind of death?
"How did he die?" I asked with a cold tone.
Laos let himself free from Lemon's grip. The air became stiff and it was as though the silence left was screaming the obvious answer to that question. He tightened his hands into a fist, a clench accompanied by a demeanor of hatred and disgust.
"It was them, wasn't it?" asked Lemon.
He did not have to say anything in reply, the quiet tense air had already answered the question for him. We stayed still in our individual stationary positions, thinking about how we hated them, how we could return all the damage these people have caused. The Null Standing were beginning to get on my nerves.
"When's the funeral?" I asked.
"Friday," he replied.
"Hmm, tsk!" Lemon said, smashing the table. "And he was just a year close to retirement!"
"Pack your bags," I said, standing up.
"What, why?" Laos asked.
"Why do you think?!" I barked in reply.
"We can't leave this place Ezra, can't you see that's what they want?!" He replied.
"I do not CARE about what they want!" I barked in reply, my eyes now glowing blue as I glared at him. "I am not missing a chance to say my last goodbye and stay at his side as they bury…"
Lemon held my shoulder, helping me calm down a little.
"It's not up for discussion," she said with a glare at Laos that sent chills down his spin. "We are going. I'll pack the bags."
Laos exhaled, shaking his head.
"I'll get my bags too," he replied.
It did not take long before we got to the airport, and it took an even shorter amount before we got to Yolo-Central. We got there a day before the funeral, heading for our apartment building, where Laos became my overnight roommate. The city was quiet, it was unusual and I found it unorthodox, but perhaps that was because of the time I had spent away from the city. Or maybe the urban gods mourn the loss of a pure Yolo-Central soul. The report on the way he had died was reported on the news—killed by impaling, and hung out in the busiest side of Yolo-Central, to be seen and to be humiliated. There was a large black rod piercing through his guts. This was Silas doing, and I had sworn that I would return the favour.
The day for the funeral arrived. The day was a gloomy one, dark shadows casted over the entire city and rainfall coming down harshly and abruptly. On a corner close to the old M.Park avenue were multiple black umbrellas over the top of a coffin being lowered down into a six foot deep hole. Women sobbing into handkerchiefs and the sound of the gunshots used to honour the man almost ear deafening. Looking around I noticed that some of the Colonels had attended this funeral, even the ones who had a grudge against him because he always defended me. I wanted to go kick him out or tell him off, blaming the chief's misfortune on his bad blood, but Lemon stopped me.
We watched as the sand poured on the coffin. Heap after heap. Then, halfway through, it happened.
It started with one of the Colonels, Danny, the not so insufferable one…his head got blasted into pieces right before the grave after he had thrown a flower into the grave. This disrupted the crowd present. The women screamed, everyone dispersed and the troopers present brought out their blasters, looking for the enemy.
"Over here imbeciles!" A voice shouted from an eastward direction. I could recognise that voice anywhere, it was Silas'.
Turning around to the direction of the sound, we saw them. There they stood, close to a gravestone that was under a large tree. Silas and the rest of The Null Standing, grinning as though they had not commited an outrageous crime and at the funeral of someone else!
At that moment, I had come to a conclusion; I was going to do whatever it took to bring these monsters down. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of the end.