Apex Division Read online

  Apex division:

  A Drug

  Called Freedom

  This book is fiction; this means that every person was created in the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to a person dead or alive is merely coincidence. This book is bases on a future world. Nothing written in this book is a factual representation of what is going to happen in the future or happened in the past. Nor is it an illustration of actual steps humans would take to stamp out terrorism, drug distribution, world poverty or crime. None of the political figures in this book are real and neither are their actions.

  Waring: this book contains themes that are hard to deal with. Keep safe and find the right help if you need it.

  “A potato kept in the dark and unpromising conditions will nevertheless put out pale shoots towards the light,”

  Carl Rogers

  Introduction:

  Slowly. Deliberately. Suddenly. That’s how the world fell apart. Jet sat in a room, surrounded by his most trusted advisors, they didn’t speak, they watch Jet think about what was going to happen. He knew everything he had worked for was about to come to an end and it infuriated him, but he was clever and calculated. When it did end, it ended uncertain and unfinished.

  Jet managed to place everyone he needed in the right places, to preserve their lives so that they could go on and fight again. So that they could go on to haunt my life. And it didn’t take them long to pool their resources and return to the surface to fight. The Anti-Western Pledge had the knowledge to destroy everything that humans knew. They could have destroyed democracy, but they enjoyed the game. To end the game quickly would have taken away the purpose. I ended up being caught in the middle of the game, like a pawn on a chessboard, like an animal in a circus, I was used. Most of us were used.

  In World War LS, the Anti-Western Pledge fought to take over the world, to end the west and what made it so powerful, to prove that the east and all that it stood for could be equally as powerful. At first, they were weak, beginning in the Middle East, brainwashing vulnerable local people who had nothing to believe; that they could fight for more and this slowly spread around the world.

  The Anti-Western Pledge played a clever game. Recruiting in Brazil, Peru and Mexico to push soldiers into the USA. They recruited in India, who fought their way over to China and who aided their soldiers in Europe to fight Russia. Europe was a massive battlefield, Turkey was destroyed, Greece and Bulgaria were completely uninhabitable, and Ukraine was unrecognisable but it all ended with one big bomb. It was planted in Iraq by a special forces team. It was a bomb that was believed to have taken out many of the Anti-Western’s leaders and people, it was a bomb that shattered Iraq and disbanded the Anti-Western Pledge.

  But it also proved everything they stood for, everything that Jet was trying to prove. It was the biggest messaged they could ever have been able to produce, the poster for their campaign. All the Anti-Western Pledge supporters stood united to watch the west use their power to destroy something that was not theirs.

  Jet was not from the Middle East and neither were most of his Anti-Western followers. His father was an America billionaire and his mother was an Italian model in her prime, he was a good looking and overly funded terrorist, something that had not been seen before.

  Before the war, he was open and honest but there was no evidence to tie him down as an Anti-Western Pledge leader or patron. Little whispers told stories of his intelligence and want to help the people of the Middle East. He was a well-respected man and ran in the right circles. However, everyone had questions about him. He never aged and the people in his close group didn’t either, he was also recorded in the room when the bomb went off. All these things seemed impossible to any human.

  The rest of the world retreated and went home to lick their own wounds. Everything may have been calm for a moment, but they only proved one thing, this wasn’t the last stand. It was only the first stand and it was check mate. The West felt they had nothing to celebrate because nothing was certain, the Anti-Western Pledge had made a large effort and had affected over a billion lives.

  The UN fight a quiet battle against the Anti-Western Pledge every day. Trying to fight them continuously to allow average people to continue with their average lives. Average people however didn’t realise this wasn’t a fight for the humans of this world. The UN knew that they weren’t fighting average people, they knew to defeat the Anti-Western Pledge they needed to be on an equal footing, they needed people with power like Jet. This wasn’t about money or connections. It was about biological weapons.

  That’s when they turned to Dr Jones and Axis, disgraced members of the Anti-Western Pledge, who could with right powerful assistance, destroy the Anti-Western Pledge. They needed the right team. And everything pointed to me.

  Present

  Buzzing filled my ears as I woke dizzy from dreaming. I quickly got dressed, noticing that the team had let me sleep while they had gotten briefed by the Captain. I ran down the plain corridor and towards the meeting room, I was about to reach the door when someone dragged me to the side.

  “You can’t go in there this late little Brit,” Andor said, I sighed with relief, and Andor pointed to the rest of the team who were heading to the food court. “Breakfast, then wheels up,” he told me, covering for me with the others.

  “Don’t let me sleep in Andor,” I told him, but he laughed my comment off. Dragging me towards the food court and ignoring my recent exhaustion. I pushed my food around the plate, listening to the team talk about where we were going and the reason why we were going.

  “Eat up Emma,” Jake commanded, slamming his tray down next to mine.

  “Yes, Captain.” I replied, shoving a mouthful of scrambled eggs into my less then hungry body, swallowing hard. Hard enough for everyone to turn and look. I didn’t know what to do, looking at all their faces and shrugging my shoulders. Suddenly Rose dropped her tray on the floor at the other side of the table, making an overdramatic noise as it happened. Everyone carried on talking, Rose winked at me and then her and Andor giggled to each other.

  “Yemen is our destination today,” I was told by the cool New York accent that came from Andor’s mouth as we funnelled into the helicopter. I took my last breath of clean city air before we entered the unsure air that was any part of the Middle East now. The eleven of us watched as we left our captain Vicky behind. She had given us our mission and it was now our job to execute it properly.

  Squished in-between Jake and Andor, I could feel every move they both made, every time the helicopter moved I would get an elbow in my side or a shoulder to the head. Andor was probably thinking about all the women he will be able to go out and pull at the weekend when he goes out and Jake. Jake was somebody who’s mind I couldn’t predict but he seemed aggressive this morning and for Jake that meant something was on his mind. His beautiful mind.

  Jake was usually a shy guy, he kept himself to himself and didn’t usually air his dirty washing to the team. He and I had a huge connection, it was like gravity. Andor was different, from the minute Andor found me and I became a new member of the team he had looked after me, Jake and I had a few nights we couldn’t forget but it made it hard between us and the passion quickly turned into something else, he needed to protect me, it made him jealous and aggressive. I couldn’t let him be that man. Emotions ran painfully through us all, Jake was scared by his past and he couldn’t tare himself away from that, and move on to a future that didn’t involve the pain.

  Andor then looked at me, as I watched them both, he laughed. “Who is better looking?” he joked as it seemed I was looking them both up and down. He flicked his chestnut brown fringe into a pompadour on the top of his head and pouted, laughing to himself.

  “That would be me,” Jake suddenly said
leaning forward with the smile that was missing from this morning, he rubbed his hands through his blond hair and then shook it out. I blushed and Andor stroked my long deep black hair.

  “I don’t think it’s either of us that are the good-looking ones,” Andor smiled at me, going crossed eyed and pulling a funny face but Jake joked back. “Speak for yourself And,” before winking at me. I laughed along with them, but Jake then became serious again. He tapped Andor’s hand away from my hair and said, “It isn’t her hair, it’s those beautiful, deep, painfilled, ocean blue eyes.” Before he whimpered and looked away. Andor began to stroke my hair again and said, “Don’t mind the Captain this morning, he needs a good seeing to,” I didn’t laugh though, the last person who helped him out in that area was me. And that was years ago.

  This morning Vicky sat the team down and told them our mission; intercept a terrorist cell, to get information on an attack planned for New York. As parts of the world became more populated it seemed humans had more to argue about. Terrorism had grown into a billion-dollar business. People were paying for terrorism and in turn terrorism began to grow, people sacrificing their lives in the name of freedom and honour for what they believe is right, while the people sending them to be blown up are rolling in the money and not willing to give up their lives for anything.

  It is easy for people to grow a terrorist cell in the new world because most of it is broken. A technology filled planet where people have no idea how talk to each other, how to communicate their issues and use debate instead of harsh words. The world of technology means people can access websites and videos of manipulative people speaking half-truths to recruit the socially isolated and politically curious.

  But there was one man that help the terrorism industry become huge and he was not human. Neither were the people he worked with and that is why we had to go on these mission, it’s too dangerous for humans to face the Anti-Western Pledge because nobody knows who they will be facing.

  When we reached the drop zone, Layla winked at me and I smiled back at her. She was sat in-between Tom and Kade, something Layla wouldn’t mind at all, she smiled the whole journey, giggling at times and conversing with the two attractive gentlemen that she had grown up with over the last six years. She had a gentle nature and didn’t ever get angry, she was calm and a slight bit ditsy but overall a well-rounded woman. Tall and stunning with beautiful curves, dark blue eyes and light blond hair, she was popular with the men on base.

  I took a deep breath and prepared to be hit by the warm and suffocating air as we dropped off the helicopter. When I jumped out the air was quite cool and for a moment I was lost in thoughts about the summer, but then Andor grabbed my shoulder. His grip was somehow gentle and reassuring but quite assertive, guiding me to where I needed to be, not just physically but mentally also.

  “Come on little Brit, we have terrorist to stop,” he said as he smiled and stuck out his chest, I smiled back at him as we walked down the road together. Andor was a typical tall, dark and handsome man, he was well sculpted, and ladies found him utterly irresistible. He however had a very dark past, one he hid behind his good looks and fake smile. Meeting him for the first time was something that I carried with me every day, it was special to me, saving his life was something I did willingly and the memories I had of him kept me alive during the darkest of times.

  We landed in Yemen and the residents started to chatter between themselves, looking nervous and watching us. Usually the people of this part of the world would only see army vehicles, maybe vehicles used for terrorism, jets and small planes, most certainly not armed soldiers on foot in the town. From the surprised look on the faces of the people starting to gather, I presumed that nobody had ever dropped into their town before carrying guns and wearing very thick black armour. Our armour was customised, each member had a different pattern to their black suit that told the world their deadly secrete, but nobody knew to look close enough to see exactly what we were all hiding.

  I looked over at Layla and she bounded over to talk to me, “Find the workshop, that is all you have to do,” Layla said, quoting Vicky our Captain. “Does she not realise we have to stand here with all these people watching?”

  “She never comes with us on our missions, you know that Layla,” Andor said as he overheard our conversation. He walked across the road from us over to Jake who was watching Axis.

  Axis, who was the most solider-like out of all off us was being harassed by a little boy. “Axis,” Jake shouted over to him, trying to draw his attention away from the boy.

  “Yes Boss,” Axis growled back but he never took his almost black eyes off the boy.

  “Have you ever heard of humouring people?” Jake said to him, but Axis was not in the mood to humouring anyone, he never was, a sharp temper grouped with years of experience in war zones made Axis the most dangerous of us all. I feared him; he was unpredictable, negative and very strong. We’d had a few disagreements in the past and I didn’t trust him very much. Jake made sure we didn’t cross paths too often, Andor avoided being in the room with Axis and Rose usually changed the conversation when anything got heated. The four of us didn’t like his agenda, the way he branded us as shifters and used it as a political stance, rather than a stance for good.

  “Yes, sir but I have always felt it was a load of bullshit,” Axis said, and Jake sighed, he knew Axis was not going to back down. The little boy laughed and touched Axis’s shotgun, Axis pulled up his sun glasses and before Jake could stop him, shot a round into the air that made us all jump. Horrified the little boy’s mother rushed over and collected her son, speaking quickly in her language and pointing to the other people, presumably urging them to go into their houses as some of them disappeared. Jake shook his head “Stand down Axis,” he ordered.

  Jake was the next in command and commanded all our mission because Vicky was not very hands on. She was only human after all.

  Rose, who was our hacker and large weapons co-ordinator started to beep. Jake looked at her for answers and Rose said, “They know we are here.” She pulled a small device out of her bag that had a screen on it. “Two coming from the right, six from the left and two in front, ETA around 2 minutes,”

  “TAKE POSITIONS,” Jake shouted and there was a hurry of activity.

  Saphire pulled a staff out of her bag, attaching an axe head to one end and a spear head to the other, Rose pulled out her side arm as she carried a sniper rifle on her back, Axis had a shot gun and the rest of us used assault rifles. We all took cover and I hid behind a small wall. Jake said, “Shoot to kill,” as the men appeared.

  They were slow at first, unsure of who we were and why we would be doing something hugely dangerous. But as soon as Andor pop out and shot the first one, bullets started to fly everywhere. Farah dodged a close bullet and I sighed with relief, luckily, we moved very quickly and had excellent reflexes.

  The men were all dead before I even got a glance at them, as the newbie, I had a lot to learn still. Everyone looked at the bodies and then Jake said, “Everyone collect their thoughts while Rose and Katie inspect the bodies.” Rose got her kit out and so did Katie. Katie is a doctor and Tom was a physician, both where on the team to help our fight against the terrorists, it also helped that Tom is an excellent shifter, whereas Katie didn’t enjoy her animal form as much.

  “Kade, track where they came from, take Axis for cover,” Jake ordered Kade. Kade is a tracking specialist, he tracks people from prints in the land and patterns, he is from Mexico and grew up in a very hostile, poverty-stricken area. Knowing where people are and what they are doing in that kind of environment was a way to stay alive, and it worked for Kade. He barely used his Komodo dragon in his youth.

  I walked over to Rose and asked her “Can I help?” she nodded.

  “You can take this scanner and scan that body,” she said handing me a little device. I walked over and swept it over the body, it started to beep, and Rose ran over. “Katie, come cut it out!” Rose shouted as she took the device
from me. Katie ran over and cut out a tiny chip from the man’s arm. “A tracker,” Rose told me. “Jake they will know we are here, we found a tracker.”

  The others spread out looking for clues on the bodies and creating a perimeter, I was frozen however, I could feel something, it was slightly painful, and it was coming from one of the bodies. I walked over to him and searched him frantically, he suddenly woke up, pinning me to the floor.

  “Wow, I can definitely feel that,” he sniggered as I gritted my teeth, trying not to transform and destroy him. The others surrounded us, pointing their guns at him but he wasn’t hurting me, he was pinning me down, but he knew I could escape it. “Get off her,” Jake demand in a calm tone, unlike me, on the edge of transforming.

  “I want you to destroy me for her,” the man laughed, pressing onto me harder, I let out a small whimper and Jake growled.

  “Don’t,” I said, putting my hand out to Jake. The man then stroked my lips. He said, “If you were mine, I would never let anyone near you, I wouldn’t let anyone pin you to the floor,”

  “I don’t need protection,” I growled, it vibrated through him and he looked into my eyes.

  “You can feel me,” the man said, tell the others rather than me, he knew I hadn’t told them how I had been feeling lately.

  “I can feel you don’t have the power to hurt me,” I snapped, staring into the man’s dark, blood shot eyes. Looking deeper and he began to choke, jumping off me and grabbing his neck, but as I looked away he stopped choking.

  “Fuck,” Axis said looking at me. The man walked towards me again but as he did bullets tore into him. He was dead this time. Jake shook his head and walked away. Collecting himself for a moment before calling us all over.

  “We need to talk to the locals and find out where the traffic is coming from, if there is any set amount of patrols in this area, if they are working in this area or if Jet does have one of his big terrorist labs here,” He stated.