Running into the wasteland with my army following made it feel like a proper war. Wyatt, Thomas, Gavriel, and Cayler all looked at each other and nodded, then split. The Psychos were marching toward us, stopping a suitable distance from us. New Haven had around one hundred soldiers. Some men fell silent, others screaming, but I remained focused on the mansion ahead. Cayler had told me he was working with Dawson, Aaliyah, and Émilie to get inside. "Incoming!" Sarah yelled as a pipe bomb flew overhead. I ran faster, hoping to avoid getting caught in the blast. Why was Sarah using the bombs now?
My heart was pounding out of my chest as I yelled, "don't use them now, Sarah! Wait until we get closer!"
"Sorry, sir!" she yelled, switching over to an M1911. Little by little, we were getting closer. More of our men fell, but we continued pressing on.
Wyatt whistled, making me look at him as he was pedaling one of Dawson's vehicles. "Get in, Jensen," he said, stopping and letting me into the canoe.
"What's going on?" I asked, looking around. Other bikes were stopping and letting in some of our people.
Wyatt said with a smile. "This will be a faster and safer way to Jonah's. Yes, it's not the best, but it's better than nothing."
"Go slowly. I'll shoot from here."
"Jensen, that's not—"
"Do it."
Wyatt peddled slower than before, and I stuck my left arm out with an M9 in hand. "Gavriel and Flight 0116 have a plan once we get inside Jonah's place."
"It may kill some of our people, but it's worth a shot."
"Tell me what it is, and I'll see if they should execute the plan or not."
"Aaliyah somehow got her hands on some tear gas, including gas masks. She'll hand us one as we enter. I think there is enough for most of us."
"What about the Psychos who ran out? If we shoot them, then we might shoot our men, too. What about Jonah?"
"The Psychos are going to crawl out, and we should still be inside, heading to Jonah."
I nodded, "go ahead with the plan."
Wyatt told Gavriel the plan was a go as we arrived at the mansion. The doors were open as New Haven filled in, receiving gas masks. About an hour later, we were ready to continue with the plan. Tear gas began filling the mansion. A woman yelled something in German. I caught something sounding like Bösch. Piper said in my ear, "his name is Werner Bösch, and that lady just warned him about the gas, so we might have to go to the top."
"That's fine," I said, looking around at my surroundings. Tons of Psychos ran outside just to get sprayed with bullets. They were honestly stuck like cattle in a pin. My army marched upstairs, shooting the Psychos who ran down to escape.
Then Aaliyah yelled down to us, "We're out!"
I cursed under my breath, but yelled, "That's alright! We have an army on our side. We can do this!"
We all continued marching upstairs and reached the top shortly after. A man with platinum blonde hair and sky-blue eyes stood in the doorway of a suite. "Welcome to my humble home. Would you like a drink?" He asked, despite having rifles in his face.
"No, thank you," I said bitterly. "You've slaughtered one-hundred and fifty-six innocent people over the past two years."
Werner laughed, "No, I didn't. Sweet little Peter did."
From behind, Piper growled and started screaming, "You became the leader after Peter left to murder all of you psychos!"
"Oh, did he now? Where is he, huh?" Werner smiled, enjoying it. "Come inside, it's getting a little cramped out here in the hallway."
"Fine," I said, walking inside. Then someone fired a gun.
"Ow, that hurt," Werner droned, then backhanded the guy who fired. The guy went flying over the many flights of stairs and landed on the ground, dead. "Really? I'm trying to be nice, and this is how you return the favor? Shooting me?"
"Well, you've slaughtered one-hundred and fifty-seven people over the last two years without lifting even a finger. All those words that had left your mouth in the last several years are the reason for this war. If you had kept your mouth shut, you wouldn't have gotten shot, so it actually wasn't my fault."
"You're Jensen. Aren't you?"
"Uh, yeah. How did—"
"Peter used to talk about you and Piper all the time."
"If he used to talk about us, then why did you have Piper and Amy kidnapped?"
"I never kidnapped them, you've—"
"Save it," Émilie said.
"You've got no proof if it was me," Werner said.
Cayler stepped up. "Right. We don't, but no one else here can send a guy flying with one hit, and you fit Émilie's description one hundred percent."
Werner shrugged, "Fine. I'm the leader, but I doubt you can kill me."
Every single one of my people raised their weapons, but I told them to lower them. Cayler started opening his mouth, but I stopped him. "By the way, Werner, you're not allowed to use your super strength, since you can just throw us off."
"So what exactly are we fighting with?" Werner asked as Jace pulled me to the side.
"Bro, you're on a suicide mission. What's going through your head right now?"
"Both you and Werner are being cocky," Cayler added. "We're basically up against the Hulk."
I held up a finger, thinking. A couple of seconds later, I said, "even though he may be much stronger than us, it doesn't mean we can't just shoot him."
"We can use the weapons we have. He's basically defenseless against all these guns. Then we can use a grenade to finish the job." B.J. suggested.
"It seems like it should work. There isn't too much we can do. This will make sure he's dead," I said, then gave Jace a small nod to go relay the plan to the others.
I turned back to Werner. "You're aware this isn't really fair, since if you simply touch us, we'll go flying."
Werner shrugged again. "fine, use whatever. Even your army."
"Should we do this outside or in close quarters?"
"Why does it matter? You'll be—" B.J. started, but someone fired their weapon and interrupted him. A split second later, everyone else followed suit. I quickly dashed toward the stairs to avoid getting hit, hearing Werner screaming and a loud crash a few seconds later. I crept upstairs slowly, making sure Werner was dead, but I rushed over to another body crumpled on the floor.
"Wait before throwing the grenade! Kenneth, get this person to New Haven now," I said, then everything went in slow motion. The other person was breathing but covered in blood. Aaliyah stood on Werner's face, and eight others held down his arms and legs.
"If any of us sees that ugly mark on your necks, we'll carve it out of you, and maybe we'll snap your necks while we're at it!" Aaliyah shrieked at all the remaining Psychos. The long, never-ending war came to a halt as most of the Psychos ran, and I granted a couple who asked for mercy. As they ran off, I thought I would probably regret it as I had with most of the decisions I had made over the last five years. The second we got home, I felt like celebrating. But August shook her head.
"What is it?" I asked, rushing over to her.
August sighed, "the last person brought in is probably going to die. I'm not sure who it is. You might have to ask around."
"Are you sure this guy is John Doe?"
The doctor nodded. "I'm pretty sure neither Shiloh, Kenneth, Sarah-April nor Ellie can identify him."
"Let me see him."
"Sure, but I doubt you can." August rolled over to a mattress that had a man laying on it, face down.
I knelt over and turned the man onto his back. The impact had smashed his body. Dried blood caked his brown hair. "Do you know what happened?"
"Kenneth said he got hit by Werner as the bullets came in."
"Kenneth didn't see him before then?"
August shook her head. "Didn't say he did."
I ran my hand through my hair, sucking in the air. "I'll go ask around." Grabbing my walkie-talkie from the dresser in my room, I asked if they knew who John Doe was. Hopefully, I'd find out soon. About an hour later, Aaliyah said she hadn't seen her older brother recently.
I walked over to Aaliyah and Gavriel, and Aaliyah's face went pale. "Oh, God. Please tell me that person isn't him."
Weakly, I said, "I think so... but it would be helpful if you looked, so we can make sure."
Aaliyah looked at her uncle, and then they both stood up and together, we walked to where the man lay. When we arrived, my best friends, cousin's wife, and Gavriel's daughter were all hovering over him. Ellie took his pulse, and the others tried mending his wounds. Only thirty minutes later, he died, and we identified him as B.J. Ulrich.
"Why didn't they wait for the order?" I said to myself as I crouched beside B.J. and closed his eyes.
Even though we still couldn't see him, we knew it could only be him because B.J. was nowhere to be found.