Free The Midnight Stand (The Elysia Saga Book 1) by Louis A. Affortunato Page B

didn’t need to, and he usually decided to disregard
protocol and go rogue, especially when it came to entering a house and dealing
with occupants.
    On the first wreck that they worked on, Maxon
had ordered Bruce to act as point man and clear the dwelling of any occupants
that might still be there. Protocol said that the point man should give a
warning when entering a house and when sweeping each room. He was to be firm
but also sympathetic to anyone still in the house and, most importantly, not
fan the flames of violence that could arise. Bruce, on the other hand, not only
fanned the flames, but also seemed to enjoy it.
    It was the house of a couple who had a young
child and one senior male. They were slow in evacuating, too slow for Bruce’s
taste. He refused to wait the required ten minutes allotted for the family to
get out and he decided upon himself to get them moving. Everything seemed to
happen before Maxon could get a hold of the situation.
    Bruce busted through the door with the battering
ram, splintering the wood in jagged pieces. A high pitched scream could be
heard from somewhere within. A women’s scream. The crew stood stunned for a
moment, not knowing what to do, looking to Maxon for direction.
    Max had a crew of first year recruits that day
and they all looked terrified at the site of Bruce as he dragged the young
woman from the house and threw her on the lawn. She was screaming about her
child. Max had to have her restrained, he had no choice, so he ordered one of
the new recruits to hold her down. Bruce had already gone back in the house
before Max could tell him to stand down, not that it would have done anything.
    Maxon told the rest of the crew to stay outside
as he went in after Bruce. More cries were coming from inside, this time a
young boy. The boy was crying for his mother while Bruce berated him about
where his father and grandfather were. He held the boy with both hands, almost
shaking him to talk. The boy sobbed that they were upstairs.
    Maxon yelled at Bruce to stand down, ready to
grab his side arm if need be. The father then ran down from upstairs. Maxon
remembered he was wearing a dirty tee-shirt and flip flops that looked too big
for his feet. He almost tripped as he came down the stairs. Bruce pointed his
weapon at him and told him to evacuate the house right now. The father begged
for his son to be left alone. He looked frightened and stressed, his eyes huge
in their sockets. The boy’s mother was still screaming from the front yard. The
situation was getting out of Maxon’s control and it was being hijacked by
Bruce’s hotheadedness. By the time Maxon saw the old man coming up behind Bruce,
it was too late.  
    The old man, the grandfather of the boy and
father of the mother Maxon later learned, came running out of the kitchen. He screamed,
like a face painted Scottish warrior, and held a wooden spoon over his head. His
too large pants were falling down his legs, revealing a pair of dirty
underwear. A line of drool fell from one corner of his mouth and his hair was
sticking out at all ends like a porcupine. The scene would have been comical if
the ending wasn’t so tragic.
    Bruce wheeled around with the boy still in his
grasp and put a boot into the old man’s chest. The old man dropped with a sickening
thud as he hit the floor. He didn’t move at all after that. After that all
Maxon heard was a high pitched wailing, probably from the man’s daughter, but
he didn’t know for sure. It could have been the boy for all he knew.
    He ordered that the family be restrained and
brought to City Centre for their safety. The medical team arrived and put the
old man into the transport and brought him to the incinerator. There was
nothing they could do, he was declared dead as soon as they arrived. The kick
to the chest likely stopped his heart immediately they said.
    Maxon found out later on that the old man
suffered from dementia and it was because he didn’t want to leave that the
family