The Ruthless Calculus of War
The ringing of phones and busy chatter behind the desks and counter top became louder as the sliding door behind Drake slid shut.
He hated when the Eidolons forced him to do bad things to good people.
The West Precinct Police Station seemed busier than it should have been for a Wednesday night. He wondered how Ash was coming along on the East side of town.
He glanced at the wall clock.
21:22
Just a few more minutes until the 9:30 mark he and Ash agreed upon.
Half smiling, Drake raised his hand to wave and signal the front desk officer.
“Yes, sir?”
Her radio got staticky, “10-36”
“10-4, 10-25 with Officer Ramirez”
She lowered her hand from her mic and looked back at me
“Hey, yeah, I’m kinda embarrassed to say this, but I want to fill out a police report on a car break in”
The officer reached under the counter top, not even needing to look and grabbed a form, then in one fell swoop, placed it on the clipboard and handed it to Drake.
“Dont forget your pen,” she pointed to the coffee mug with the Precinct Logo emblazoned across the front.
“Oh, right,” I gave a gruff half chuckle and went to sit down.
I stared at the form, glanced at the wall clock again
21:24
“three 10-56’s near the corner of 82nd and Lowery Ave. Requesting backup”
“10-4… Officer requesting backup…” she trailed off as Drake kept trying to focus
“Right. 6 more minutes until showtime.” Drake thought
“Fuck.” he said under his breath.
“Excuse me?” the attending officer looked up.
“‘Just my luck,’ I said,” said Drake.
She turned back typing on her computer busily.
“Code Blue, Code blue", I could hear her radio crackle.
“What is your location for dispatch?” She replied into her shoulder
Drake’s eyes darted across the page, looking at everything and nothing simultaneously.
Drake uncapped the blue pen and started scribbling random words into the answer boxes and info blanks.
It didn’t matter. 9:30 was coming up and he and Ash were about to do something no one wanted to happen.
Except the Eidolons
“….Sir?”
I looked up, she was used to people like me, still flustered from some minor incident like a car robbery.
“Once you finish that, I’ll hand it over to an officer who will take your recorded statement ok?”
“Thanks.” I nodded and looked back at the clipboard.
——————-
“Alright everybody,” Drake said, standing up and pulling out a pressure trigger, “listen up.”
Holding it up just above his head.
With most hands on holsters, Drake quickly followed with, “If I drop this or let off any pressure….”
An officer softened his posture, lowering his hand from his gun, Drake pointed with his other hand at him, “exactly".”
“10-38 on Willoughby St possible 10-78” officers radios kept crackling
He heard a shuffle behind him, quickly Drake spun around stepping back, having already unholstered his knife and slashed the officers arm who had lunged at him from behind.
“Someone help him quickly.” Drake barked.
“NOW!”
“10-38 on Willoughby, copy?” the same radio crackled
Glancing up at the clock, 21:29
“Oh God Ash, please live.” said Drake, shaking his head slightly
“Right, so Lungy-lunge-at-me didnt believe me, I guess I’ll have to show you that who sent me here means business”
God Drake hated lying, but given the situation he wanted to try and save as many innocents as he could. He didnt HAVE to do this, but that was the fucked up thing with Eidolons and the Laminae and the other nasty ghoulish things that haunt it and move in and out of it like a primordial ooze, because once games get twisted and dimensional, spreading across timelines.
Everyone thinks the end of the world will be a blaze of glory, the sun engulfing the solar system, ice caps melting and flooding the inlands, mutually assured destruction from nuclear war.
No.
Drake had seen too many timelines prematurely ended… Most of the time, worlds end with a whimper.
The Ruthless Calculus of War.
“Now I’ve only got a bout 30 seconds until…”
Multiple radios crackled, the screech of some feedback pierced the air briefly, “Code Black, we’ve got a code black at the eastern precinct, Female, Red hair…”
That’s all I needed to hear, before my Scaur started burning
tsszzzt
“T’ungh” I grabbed my neck. Here they come.
“411. SHIT. we got a 411 here in East Precinct” the radios crackled. The officers looked at each other.
Then I could FEEL them all look at me.
“I’m so sorry,” I said as I could see them start to unholster their guns, “please forgive me.”
My scaur opened up, “ARUUNNGGHH”
I collapsed, holding my neck, dropping the trigger.
————————-
“Drake!” Ash ran over to me, sobbing.
“Why… WHY would they make us do that, Drake, WHY!?”
I sat up, propped up on one arm, rubbing my neck with the other, “Because Ash..”
…” I just dont fucking know.”
“I never do.”
“We’ve got to stop them Drake, we just have to.”
“What do you think Ive been doing my whole life?”
The way Ash looked at me…. it reminded me of something. Something from Mom, something from Dad… something from Morgan…
Was it the look of pained understanding? Attempted understanding? A sort of “kind of” understanding?
That look of “I get it now, but you… you get it. You’ve always understood it”
So maybe it’s a look of a childhood lost, regret on my behalf? A sadness? my mom, dad, brother, now Ash (ok Maybe Morgz not so much), but they all had fairly regular childhoods: no warlocks, no shadows, no laminae layers, no demons, vampires, witches, or otherworldly horrors. No, all that was contained into a box, a movie screen, a tv screen, a gaming system. Neat. Tidy. Complete packages of horror, paid for by the consumer for entertainment. Perfectly timed Jump scares and just enough CGI or special affects to know its fake. Hell if it was a game like Nukem or Doom you could just shut off the console.
But me? Im like that silly wizard from that book Morgan told me about, Eidolons have been after my mom and dad since before I was born, I was just the next one in the bloodline to kill off,
I’ve never had a night off in my life
