Chapter 14

“Form a line around the Mall with our vehicles. We’ll use this as our very own perimeter for now. Hopefully, we’ll get some reinforcements and soon. Lavelle, I hope that God understands, but I believe that we must kick some Nazi ass before we move further eastward. They’re an obvious threat, including to the Hagerstown community. Who knows what will happen if they’re allowed to win here in Frederick,” I asserted.

“I agree, and to that purpose, I’ll do my best to create an opening in their defenses. A breach and a diversion at once. By directly confronting and killing more than a few of those Nazi mofos,” Lavelle declared as he waded right into the Nazi platoon right in front of Frederick Towne Mall.

“Strong language for an angel,” Stacy commented with some continued shock at the use of profanity.

“That’s because I’m a badass and so is the new God,” Lavelle beamed as he slaughtered more than a few of the goose stepping bastards.

“Count on us. We’re with you now, even if not before,” Obadiah grinned while about forty or so Black Panthers gathered around us.

“Let’s give ‘em Hell!” the Black Panther leader shouted as they began rushing at the surprised and disoriented fascists.

“Fuck ‘em all!” another voice shouted as members of the Black Queer Liberation Front joined in the combat.

The leader of that group was a very obvious drag queen, not that anyone cared. Her XO was either a bull or butch dyke, I couldn’t be sure which, who was just as fierce as her commanding officer. Just as obviously, there were fewer conflicts between those two and the Black Panthers than there were between both and the Black Muslim detachment that quickly formed up next to us. Well, we’d all just have to put our differences behind us for now, right? We had all a very real enemy in common.

“Here, catch!” I chuckled as a squad of stormtroopers hurled themselves at one of my bosses and I tossed them a live hand grenade that one of the Panthers gave me.

In just half an hour or so, battle lines formed up and sandbags were placed, along with squad machine guns, behind which we took aim at the Nazi pricks leading their next attack. I found myself watching in fascination as Lavelle continued to wreak havoc all by himself along one part of the front. I also found myself capable of cold-blooded butchery and mayhem as I callously shot up roughly six or seven of those assholes myself in less than an hour.

I also noticed just who else was able to shut down their brains and who wasn’t. Becca, Tara, and Sardha were all killing machines, and so were Till and Ryan. Jake, despite being a former prison guard, froze up for a moment, before he, too, summoned his courage and began mowing down the adversary. It was an ugly battle, especially once the Nazi leaders realized that all-out, full-scale bloodshed broke out. The local Cold War had waxed hot now.

“Let me at ‘em,” Autumn grinned as Xia, Hannah, and she pinned down another squad of Nazi goons coming right at them.

It probably helped that we had Lavelle with us, of course, but it also aided our cause that Autumn was a natural sniper once she got her confidence, for one thing. She developed that raw talent in no small part due to Ryan’s influence, of course, as well as mine. Well, she was a hillbilly, of course. She definitely made this West Virginia boy proud. I did my fair share of murderin’ those Nazi SOBs myself, but Autumn was absolutely, chilingly effective at killing them. Never piss off a ginger, right?

I then saw Reichsführer Sylvia Crest and Brigadeführer Herman Hall personally take command of what looked to me to be reserves brought up to confront us. It was almost funny, picturing how Magda Goebbels in particular would have reacted to the notion of a female SS leader. The Nazis weren’t known for their overall embrace of feminism or female careerism, for that matter. Hitler’s own attitudes were strongly patriarchal, in fact. Cognitive dissonance and racial dogma could be powerful drugs, I suppose.

“I’m gonna get that prick,” Gabby hissed like a coiled cobra as she put Hall in her sights.