Dan continued to follow closely behind Judith as they navigated through the chaotic streets. He stopped keeping track of how many destroyed vehicles he passed or how many more were left as burning infernos. The bodycount had only risen as Dan stepped over more corpses from both Kodak and the Church. Some Church agents had were dead with bullet holes through them or dismembered by blades. The dead Kodak agents laid sprawled on the ground or pinned against walls. The green smoke that lingered in the air indicated death by radioactive rods and the agents pinned to surfaces were punctured by nailguns or whatever powers Dan hadn’t seen yet.

  Throughout all of this, Dan didn’t say a word. Not because anything traumatized him, but because Judith Blight was a crazy bitch and he had his reservations about speaking after the threat he issues to him.

  The top Bloodknight walked up to a sedan and its blackened frame that still burned. She let out a kick and launched the entire burning wreck into the air. Dan stared wide-eyed at the sight of a burning car flying halfway across the block before it smashed into the ground. The distant sounds and echo of colliding metal and concrete hit his ears.

  Judith looked back at him and asked, “The hell is your problem?”

  “My apologies,” he said halfheartedly. “It’s not everyday you see a chick kick a burning car down a block. You’re definitely not like other girls.”

  The creepy predatory smile slowly dominated her face. “There’s the Dan I know.”

  “Seriously though, that was fucking weird back there, grabbing my crotch and everything.”

  Judith maintained her smile and lifted her hand. She extended her index and middle finger. “Two things. One, I didn’t know a woman showing some interest is a crime. And two, when you reach my level of power and influence, you can get away with anything. The entire world becomes your playground and no rules apply to you.”

  The Bloodknight explained all of that as if Dan was the crazy one for asking. In his mind, it was hard to believe that Judith was in anyway related to his squad leader Jane.

  “I honestly don’t buy that your Jane’s older sister,” he said. “Jane has never ever shown herself to be as vile as you.”

  Judith’s facial expression didn’t change. But Dan was unsettled when he caught a twitch around her eye. The Bloodknight gave a low chuckle at his remark.

  “Hmm. I never do talk about my sister, do I? Well, since you’re one of her pets, I guess I could let you in on our history together.” She walked toward him, but then made a detour and walked past him. Walking up to a locked doors of a corporate office building, she slammed her fist though the door and ripped then entire thing off its hinges. She tossed the door aside and turned to him.

  “Come inside for a mandatory history lesson,” she said. “And if you don’t come, I’ll come grab you and carry you inside. I’m sure you’re familiar with how handsy I can be.”

  Dan promptly made his way toward the opened front of the building and followed the Bloodknight inside. He was not about to be choked and have his private parts fondled with like that again. He caught up to her in eerily quiet the lobby.

  “Good boy,” she said smugly.

  Dan walked past an older man slumped over the front desk, leaking blood from a bullet wound to the head.

  The two made it throught the lobby and Judith led him to a wall just behind the front receptionist desk. “This seems like a decent spot. Make yourself comfortable.”

  Dan looked around and saw most of the furniture missing. The few bits of decor left were a single couch that had been flipped over and a smashed glass table that laid on the floor in bits and pieces.

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  “I think I’ll stand,” Dan said.

  “As you wish,” she said. Judith bent down and grabbed a vase of flowers that somehow hadn’t been smashed. The Bloodknight removed the flowers and threw them onto the ground and peeked into the vase. She then brought the edge of the vase to her lips and sipped down plant water.

  It was an awkward sight and Dan resisted not making a comment on it. Judith could have her way with him any time she wished, even with his recent power boost. She continued gulping down the plant water and ever licked the edges of the vase before tossing on the floor, shattering it.

  “Alright then, I feel refreshed,” Judith said. “Well, my childhood is a distant memory. I’m practically a walking goddess. No comparison to my life before I became a Kodak agent. When we grew up, I was the dependable older sister. Our parents weren’t around often. I’d be lucky if a saw them more than five times a year. They were always out doing missions for the shard.”

  “Both parents were Kodak agents?” he asked.

  Judith blinked at him then ran her fingers through her hair. “I think my words speak for themselves. Since they weren’t around and I was the oldest, I was assigned to be little Jane’s primary caregiver by default. Jane was a useless bitch.”

  The sudden insult toward his squad leader hit Dan like whiplash.

  “I really do mean that,” Judith said. “Somehow in this day and age, cerebral palsy is still a thing.”

  “The hell? Is that some disease?”

  “Oh you sweet summer child,” she said with a long sigh. “It’s a movement disorder. She was a cripple and couldn’t do basic shit on her own. Walking is a struggle because all of her limbs are either weak or completely paralyzed.”

  Dan wondered how that could be possible. The Jane he knew was the no nonsense squad leader and one of the most powerful agents he had ever met. He would never forget the times she had kicked his ass during their training sessions.

  Judith began chuckling. “It’s amazing how surprised you are. Anyways, so our loving parents get killed in the line of duty. Since they happened to be important agents to the shard, Kodak thought maybe one of their offspring was due for recruitment. And guess what I did?”

  Dan answered right away. “You decided to join so that you can keep financially supporting the family now that your parents weren’t around anymore. But if you did that, who would be at home to take care of Jane?”

  The Bloodknight just stared at him and then bursted out laughing. Her arm accidentally hit the wall behind her and she punched a hole in it.

  “Are you fucking serious?” she said during breaths. “How are you an agent and this much of an idealist? Fuck no, that wasn’t the reason. I left her sorry ass behind and did something with my life. Once I became an agent, life was great. Going on thrilling missions, killing bitches left and right, and traveling the world? This was the life. At some point, the shard caught wind of Jane’s actual condition. Turns out, Kodak doesn’t like cripples and finds it easier to just cull them from our population. My parents did a great job hiding that little detail from the shard. So Kodak gave me a simple order to carry out. Find Jane and euthanize her.”

  Dan, who had his arms crossed, dropped them both at his sides. His mouth hung open at the Bloodknight. The shock was quickly displaced with anger. Anger towards Kodak-Cresh and towards Judith.

  “I mean, if you think about it, it’s a mercy killing. Jane has been so miserable in life and she can’t even walk properly. I’d be doing her a favor putting that little brat out of her misery,” Judith said as if she was putting down a rabid animal.

  “What the fuck Judith?” Dan shouted. “Seriously, what the fuck?! And you actually went through with that? Why couldn’t Jane be cured of her condition? Isn’t Kodak supposed to be a giant shard with state of the art medical care for its people?”

  “I mean, what place doesn’t have medical facilities?” she responded. “The Alpha Corp might allow its people the privilege of treating health care like a basic right. But over here, we got something called “might makes right.” Survival of the fittest basically. Kodak doesn’t want to waste resources on people with physical and mental disabilites. People that are this useless are just pruned from our populations. It’s just how it is.”

  Dan had seen a lot of shit in his time. He had seen atrocities committed by common gangsters and enemy agents alike. Not once had he ever heard of an older sister willingly choosing to put their own younger sibling to death. “So you just… gave up on Jane? You didn’t even try to fight for her right to live in this world? How could you?”

  The Bloodknight tilted her head at him. She then crossed her arms and tapped her fingers incessantly on her arms. For some reason, it just pissed off Dan even more watching this. Judith actually had to think of a justification to kill her own damned sister.

  “How can I put this in a way that would make sense, hmm.” She began pacing in circles before she stopped and looked at him. Her cold eyes and expression that stared back at him like a statue. Then she gave her answer. “I agreed to do it because it was the right thing to do.”

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