The Shocking Truth Book 1
Copyright© 2025 by somethin fishy
Chapter 15
26 September
Silently, Alex slipped out the back door and into the night. He had several miles and no wheels to make his life easier. After the last mission, Alex dumped the wheels to reduce the evidence pointing at him. Thankfully, Alex had powers that allowed him to run much faster and farther than a normal human.
As if running down the street while staying in the shadows wasn’t difficult enough, there were the standard drug dealers out peddling their products. Alex couldn’t afford to stop to kill every drug dealer and pimp. One, it would take too long; two, it would create an arrow pointing directly at his home.
The only criminals that Alex killed were the ones he couldn’t avoid. Even then, Alex made the kills with brutal efficiency, never losing his momentum. Despite how fast Alex was making his kills, he still copied his victims’ memories. The last thing Alex wanted to do was kill a druggie or pimp and accidentally kill others; the criminal had locked up somewhere.
One result of copying the criminals’ memories was that Alex got a broad overview of what was happening in the criminal world. As a result, Alex discovered that eliminating the Black Hand gang sent shock waves through the city. Several other groups were already eyeing the Black Hand’s former territory for them to move into.
‘So much for stopping,’ thought Alex when he learned what was happening. As unlucky as he was, Alex figured there would be a good chance he would be forced to become involved at some point.
Finally, Alex reached the judge’s compound and, to his delight, found he could sense the people inside. Before going further, Alex stopped and took cover while carefully examining the entire compound. It didn’t take him long to find his mother’s signature. Alex knew that although she deserved to die, he couldn’t kill her because he wasn’t old enough to take over yet. There was also the possibility that he could turn her around.
As Alex studied the compound, he became confused because off to one side was a dense mass of fuzzy signatures. It was like looking through a foggy lens. No matter what Alex did, he couldn’t get a clear picture of what he was seeing. All he could determine was that a large group of people was underground off to one side.
Deciding he had all the information he could get, Alex began moving in. His first challenge was to disable the cameras to blind security. Using brush and trees, Alex slowly worked himself into a position close enough to enter the security system.
The problem was, he couldn’t get it. It felt like something inside the cameras blocked his ability to infiltrate the system. Alex sat for a moment, thinking. He tried again, but this time, he swept the entire electromagnetic range available to him.
Nothing, he couldn’t get in. Alex didn’t know if there was something in the cameras or if he didn’t have the necessary power, but he would have to come up with something else quickly. Looking around, Alex saw a car enter the compound. That gave him an idea.
Alex moved next to the entry road and waited. It didn’t take long for another car to approach. As the vehicle passed, Alex was forced to dismiss it because the frame was too low to the ground for him to slip under. He needed an SUV or something similar.
Thankfully, with all the killings, many wealthy people had begun traveling in armored cars and SUVs. It didn’t take long for such a vehicle to pass. This time, Alex jumped out and slipped under the vehicle without anyone noticing.
Thanks to his shields, Alex was able to hang on easily despite the heat from the exhaust. He was actually thankful for the exhaust because it masked his IR signature. Alex didn’t take long to turn his attention to who was in the vehicle. He found it was a corrupt businessman who saw no problem with paying politicians and judges off to get what he wanted.
The sad thing was that corruption was one of his lesser sins. He also flaunted basic environmental and safety regulations because he didn’t want to pay for basic equipment. Any inspector or employee who made an issue of it was eliminated, their assets seized, and any immediate family member sold into the bustling slave trade.
The North American slave trade was busier now than before the Civil War. This time, though, the slaves were not selected on racial grounds; they came from every racial group and were sold to every racial group. Instead of working the fields, the male slaves worked in sweatshops while the females still kept the master or mistress’s home during the day and warmed their beds at night. The slaves were also used in a massive breeding program to produce even more slaves.
There were times Alex was utterly disgusted with society, and this was one of them. He was sorely tempted to show the real Alex and take over for himself. He was sure he could do no worse than the current politicians.
Despite how angry he was on the inside, Alex remained icy calm on the outside as his ride went through the gate. The car pulled up to the front of the main house, and the fat bastard inside climbed out with a young woman on his arm. Alex could sense from her mental signature that she didn’t want to be there. Unfortunately, it was either that she accompany the man this evening with all the after-party festivities, or her family would be sold into slavery.
Alex waited until the car went around into the car park and shut off. The driver got out and headed to a side building, where Alex could hear a “party” was already in progress. Once the driver went through the door, Alex dropped from the car and rolled out from under it.
Quickly, Alex scanned the immediate area and saw no one nearby. Moving close to the ground, Alex scurried to a nearby door. The door had a keypad lock, but that didn’t stop Alex. He laid his hand on the lock and sent some power into it, tricking it to open. Carefully, Alex opened the door and closed it after him.
Unlike the main house, the building Alex was in had concrete walls. As Alex advanced, he felt the floor was slanted downward. Constantly scanning to avoid surprises, Alex was surprised that he hadn’t set off any alarms yet.
Finally, the floor leveled out, and Alex could feel people in the rooms to the side. Once again, every door had a keypad lock, but unlike the exterior door, they didn’t seem tied to the alarm system. This enabled Alex to simply short the lock and open the door. It didn’t take him long to learn why his earlier scans were so confusing.
Inside the first room he entered, he found cells packed with young men and women. Everyone in the cells was nude, but none seemed to notice. Alex also noticed that no one had reacted to him. Backing out of the room, Alex closed the door and went to the next one.
When Alex opened the next door, he lost all the food in his stomach. Inside weren’t men and women in cages but children, many younger than him. When Alex finally finished vomiting, he swore he would make the judge suffer the worst death ever imagined by humans.
As Alex opened more doors, he found more slaves. After investigating the first ten rooms, he estimated he had discovered almost 1,000 slaves. All of them were nude, and all showed signs of torture. Alex didn’t know where the slaves came from, as they were of different ethnicities with no strong preference for one over another.
After the ten rooms, the hallway made a ninety-degree turn. As soon as Alex made the turn, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He felt he was being watched and knew he had to move fast.
Following the data cable from the cameras, Alex headed straight to the central security office. This time, guards stood at the door, which resembled a heavy-duty blast door. Scanning the room, Alex could only get a foggy idea of what lay on the other side. With that in mind, he pulled his sword from its scabbard; it was time for his blade to taste blood for the first time.
Since the lock on the door wasn’t electrical but mechanical, Alex couldn’t short it out like he had been doing. And since there was no keyhole on his side, he knew he would have to do this the hard way. Still, he didn’t want to blow the door down since he didn’t know what was on the other side. Instead, Alex focused his power on the door opposite, where he believed the hinges were located.
Instead of opening the lock, Alex melted it. Gently pulling on the door, it swung open slowly. Seeing the thickness of the steel, Alex knew he had the right room. Once the door was open enough, he slipped through and stepped into the room.
Inside, there were four guards; however, thankfully for Alex, they were busy with four slave girls and hadn’t noticed him enter the building. It had been years since anyone had dared an attack on the judge’s compound, and the private security force had become lax.
Alex swung his sword, and the nearest guard’s head fell off his shoulders before he knew what was happening. Not wasting any momentum, Alex used the sword to spin him toward his next target. Alex’s next target could only stare at the guard Alex had just killed. He, too, died without knowing what was happening. Unfortunately for Alex, that was the last of the easy kills.
The third guard, having time to react, drew his handgun and attempted to level it at Alex. Unfortunately for the guard, Alex’s sword found his neck after slicing his gun hand off. It was one-to-one, but the last guard was fully alert and, by some cosmic accident, the most experienced. He drew his handgun and fired just as Alex’s sword cleared the neck of the third man.
When Alex was hit by the slug, he discovered that even with the shields and armored clothing, it still hurt getting shot at point-blank range. Still, he didn’t slow down and quickly closed the distance with the last guard. While the guard attempted to block Alex’s sword with his handgun, Alex cut the guard’s hand off at the wrist. The guard barely had the time to stare at his stump and realize his hand was gone before Alex’s sword split his head in two.
Once the last guard had been killed, the four women looked at Alex with terror in their eyes. They knew how to deal with the guards, but no one knew how to deal with Alex. After all, they had just witnessed him being shot, but not slowing down. Alex looked at the bed in the corner and pointed to it. The women moved and sat on the bed without hesitation. Despite sitting on a bed, all four somehow knew they would not be taken on it.
With the women out of the way, Alex sat at the security control module. Learning how the system worked and how to defeat it only took moments. Alex reprogrammed all the locks so they would only open for him. They would not open in either direction unless he was at the door. This would keep the number of opponents he would face to a minimum.
What surprised Alex was how lax security was despite their top-of-the-line equipment. Also surprising was that nobody came to investigate the shot. That was when Alex looked around the room and saw the bullet holes in the walls. It looked like they regularly held target practice in the room, but all the holes were at head- or chest-height.
Seeing the stained concrete finally told Alex why nobody had come to investigate the shot. It appeared they were consistently executing people here. Once Alex was sure he was safe, he looked around the rest of the room and discovered the guard’s bathroom. Alex directed the women into the bathroom and told them to keep the door closed until he came back for them. Silently, they nodded and closed the bathroom door behind them.
With the women safe for the time being, Alex exited the security room and closed the door behind him. Although it wouldn’t lock anymore, it was still a heavy door that took some effort to move. Knowing what was in the rest of the building, Alex went from room to room. At every door, Alex silently opened it and entered.
Before Alex did anything after entering, he spread his power around the room, causing everyone to lie down. Alex walked past every person and looked into their memory. If they were guards, he killed them by opening up their throats with the tip of his sword. The innocent were spared, and once he was done with the guilty, Alex told them to stack the dead and wait for him to return.
It took almost an hour, but the judge’s once-large private army was reduced to only those currently on guard duty. Now, Alex had to be extremely careful because any wrong move could get large numbers of innocent people killed. His first target was the driver’s party. Alex figured the drivers would have the keys for the vehicles they drove, and without those, the owners wouldn’t be going anywhere.
Alex exited the security structure he had been working in and headed toward the building where he had watched several drivers enter. The problem was that the area was well-lit, and if Alex cut the power, he worried his trick with the locks would be disabled. When Alex was within fifty feet, his luck ran out when an alert guard spotted him and opened up.
When the guard spotted Alex, he didn’t yell or order Alex to freeze; he just started shooting, which was the best course for the guard. Alex was hit by a hail of full-size rifle rounds as the guard in question was equipped with an M-14 rifle. Despite its age, the weapon remained as deadly as when it was first developed, and from the guard’s post, its long-range and hard-hitting power was second to none.
Alex was spun around when the rounds hit him. Unlike the handgun rounds from earlier, these rounds were much heavier and faster. The first couple of rounds cracked Alex’s armor, weakening it enough for follow-up rounds to punch through. If it hadn’t been for Alex’s Kevlar coat, he would have been killed, but as it was, he was wounded.
When Alex tried to launch a counterattack, he discovered the bullet wound had reduced the amount of power he had available, making it impossible to use his powers beyond mind reading. Thankfully, Alex still had his AR.
It only took a moment to find the guard in the scope and line up the shot. Although the guard was mostly behind a block wall, it didn’t matter to Alex. Using his mental abilities, Alex put a round through the guard’s right eyeball when he tried to lean out for a shot.
With the alert guard dead, Alex sat against a wall and opened his coat. The bullet wound was still bleeding, and Alex could feel his strength failing. In his control center, klaxons blared as The Three worked together to stop the blood loss. Across Alex’s city, hospital sirens blared as they worked double time to stem the flow of blood. Alex reached into an internal pocket and pulled out his first-aid kit.
Opening it, Alex pulled out a packet of clotting agent and poured it into his wound since he didn’t know how long the next step would take. With that done, he pulled a prob out and wiped it down with an alcohol wipe. Carefully, Alex inserted it into the wound track so he could find the bullet. The bullet had penetrated three inches into his shoulder.
Having found the bullet, Alex pulled out a small bottle of alcohol before getting the forceps. He carefully poured some alcohol over the forceps before sliding the nose into his wound. When Alex felt the forceps bump into the bullet, he carefully opened the jaws and advanced them again. Feeling the bullet again, Alex tried to close the jaws around the bullet.
It would have been much easier if he were doing this to someone else, as he couldn’t see what was happening. Grabbing the bullet ended up taking seven tries, as each time, the bullet would slip from the jaws.
Finally, Alex got hold of the bullet and began slowly pulling it out. The bullet kept snagging on pieces of flesh, telling him that he had probably been hit by a hunting round. It took Alex almost ten minutes to get the round out of his shoulder after latching on. Looking at it, Alex could see it was a hunting round as it had mushroomed. With the bullet out, Alex slipped the forceps back into the wound to clean any debris out. It didn’t surprise him when he pulled out bits of cloth. Once the wound was clean, Alex poured the rest of the alcohol into the wound before pouring more clotting powder onto the wound and applying a pressure bandage.
Finally, after the wound was cleaned, Alex could feel his power slowly closing it. To speed things up, Alex moved to a nearby light and used his rifle butt to break it. Now Alex had access to even more power. Grabbing the wires, Alex felt the power flowing into him and could see the other lights flicker as he pulled massive amounts of juice to heal his shoulder and repair his shields.
Alex knew he had to hurry because he could hear people beginning to escape the buildings. Finally, Alex was healed as his power bars were back to full. His shields were repaired, and he was ready to go.
Getting up, Alex dusted himself off and stepped out of cover. He left the AR because it was too big to take and could be picked up later. Alex was tired of hiding his abilities, so he walked up to the door where the drivers were and kicked it open.
When Alex kicked the door open, he heard many females screaming. Looking around, he was in the middle of approximately 100 naked females, some younger than he was, but no drivers. Turning to the nearest woman who didn’t look to be in shock, Alex growled.
“Where did they go?” There was no need to say who he was referring to. The woman pointed to a door in the back while trying to hide the urine running down her legs. They had heard of the Seventh Seal and what he looked like. The rescued slaves had given a good description of his clothing. “Everyone, stay here until I return for you. If you run, they will probably kill you.”
Alex didn’t bother to see if they obeyed him as he ducked through the door. He found a ladder that went down. ‘Going back underground?’ Alex thought. Using his scanning powers, Alex could tell there was a massive pile of people approximately fifty feet away.
Shrugging, Alex climbed down the ladder and turned the corner to find all the drivers pushing against a door that Alex had locked. Seeing the mess, Alex let out a deafening roar. He was impressed with himself, and it was a move he would have to remember. The drivers were not only temporarily deafened but scared to the point where many pissed themselves, and some released their bowels.
Having a moment, Alex copied the drivers’ minds. While many were not directly guilty of crimes, they often had intimate knowledge of what their bosses were doing. Not having time to punish everyone individually, Alex had to do something. He couldn’t allow them to live because many had bosses powerful enough to get them out of police custody. Instead, Alex formed a ball of flame, and despite the drivers’ pleas, he pushed the flame forward, instantly incinerating everyone.
All that was left of the former drivers were piles of ashes and occasional bits of jewelry. Shifting through their memories, Alex knew he would be having nightmares, as many drivers had families and were only trying to earn a living.
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