"Rigor Mortis"-The life after death RP(Started/PM for participation)-Arc 4: Closing Loose Ends

[Generic_Username]

"What would happen if we didn't collect the debt? I assume we'd die, that much is kind of clear, but what about them? And what about these?"

Spencer tried to answer the question.

"We don't know that we're the only ones. For all we know, there could be an entire army of people like us, just waiting for their new orders. The people we need to collect from, they're doomed, one way or another. And the candy, I can only assume it keeps us alive. It's probably some sort of reward for doing what we're told."

He was clutching his envelope tightly in his hand. Brendan already got the second one, probably still considering who to pair up with. Marcus offered his help to Mira, meaning one of them will probably pick up the last one off the table.

The only remaining partners were Adrian and the girl. He already knew who Adrian was, so he turned to the girl, trying to find out more about her.

"By the way, what's your name? What happened to you?"

 

[SeanTheBlueSheep]

"Obviously it keeps us alive, that's why he said it." Evey said, a touch of derision in her tone. "I'm Evey though" she said, holding out a hand to shake with a smile.

"As for how... It happened? I stabbed myself. Accidentally." she said, shaking some hair in front of her face, focusing on that as she talked. "I was clearing up, and I tripped and just sort of fell onto a kitchen knife."

 

[Link_to_Future]

The professor watched intently as the others began pairing off. He found that he was able to make several assumptions about his new "co-workers" by the way were interacting.

The envelopes had been taken by the younger men, as was to be expected. Adrian was not surprised at all that they had tried adopting an assertive position within the group. Brendan was just standing and observing the others. Marcus had walked boldly up to Mira to recruit her aid. Spencer was chatting (a little eagerly, he noted) to Evey, the girl who had been so thoroughly in the shadows since everyone's arrival. She had been posing the questions that were already on the front of his mind. Adrian didn't feel the need to reiterate them.

Brendan seemed strong and intelligent, but his brashness and lack of tact was certainly an issue. But the detail that struck him as the most odd was that the others seemed to be shying away from the student, as though they were vaguely afraid of him.

Adrian could not figure out how that came about. Although Brendan had been quietly thoughtful and judging of the others, he didn't feel as though that was any reason to discount him.

The geologist quietly moved in beside the chemist.

"Looks like we're in this one together."

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

"It would be stupid of me to say no." Mira said to Marcus. He looked certainly younger than her but not by much. "By the looks of it we have to team up now that our "employer" has made us. I hate being bossed around too, something about having no say things or always having someone watching over your shoulder gets to me."

Mira grabbed the piece of candy from Marcus and put it in her pocket for now. Mira got up from the couch and fetched the envelope for Marcus but most importantly for her. She was about to open it until a thought crossed her mind. She held it out for Marcus.

"Care to do the honors?" Mira asked him.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"Care to do the honors?"

Marcus' instinctive thought was that he didn't even want to touch the envelope, let alone open it and put the responsibility of what was going to be asked from the pair of them on him. However, a voice inside his head squashed that thought with a very decisive "man up!"

The envelope contained an address, the last part of which Marcus recognized as being from a leafy suburb not to dissimilar to the one where his adoptive parents lived. Good. A residential area meant that they probably wouldn't have to break into a high security facility or face down a bunch of thugs, as he had feared. Second place was the address of an office block downtown. He just hoped there wouldn't be much security to speak of. Marcus didn't want to take any chances. The man had said they were free to kill and he didn't want to go unprepared for such an eventuality. He needed something, anything that he could use to defend himself, yet they didn't seem to have been given anything. The flat was empty. He crouched own and took off his shoelaces (the shoes were a little small for him anyway, so they were still going to fit). It was crude, but it would have to do. There was also a photo of his target and a name. The photo showed a man who looked to be in his early thirties, who's facial features looked a little disconcertingly similar to his own. Marcus had a talent for estimating other people physical abilities, and this was a man who could probably count on one hand the amount of fights he had been in in his life, and had probably won even less. If things got ugly, there would be no contest.

He turned to Mira. "Well, we have our orders" he joked, but the hint of bitterness in his voice was real. "Let's go."

As they left the room Marcus wondered about something Mira had said to him.

"I hate being bossed around too"

Strange, he'd never mentioned how much he disliked authority being forced on him. She must have figured that out from the way he'd been looking at their new boss. It seemed the carefully constructed wall he'd built to hide his feeling from others was cracking in places...

 

[Berenzen]

It looked like he had caught the others off guard with his sarcastic statement- even maybe stunned the odd man too for a second. Ben had grabbed the envelope and started to twiddle with the seal. He looked at the candies in the bottle on the table. He picked up the bottle and poured one into his hand.

He had no issue with the killing- he had already guessed that that was what they were going to be doing, who else brings people back from the dead just to do something small-time like a bank robbery. Now, he was a debt collector with full license to kill, though he thought death was probably part of the deal.

Brendan decided on the name for the odd man, Charon. He seemed to be just like the boat keeper of myth, with full power over who crosses, and who doesn't.

"Looks like we're in this one together"

Ben snapped out of his thoughts, looked at Adrian and nodded.

"Looks like it."

He heard the pale girl give her name- Evey, and she stabbed herself with a kitchen knife accidentally? Definitely wouldn't be a good use as a knife.

Ben passed the bottle of candies to Adrian, then opened the envelope and started to pull out the contents and popped the candy into his mouth.

"Let's go, we need to do recon of the place, do you need anything before we go? I have everything I need in the trunk of my car."

 

[TheIronRuler]

Frank had always loved hearing the response of dead men speculating what brought them to life. All tried guessing what had happened, some assumed things were made by request from a higher being. It really was, but of the other sort. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Frank answered the girl, "But I can't tell you much. You ought to take it now or you'll drop dead on your way there".

He looked at Marcus opening the envelope as per instructed. "Inside is a home address. A name, a picture. The address of his workplace. The third one should be in his office at this time of day. The Accountant, Mr. Mark" Frank continued talking, but it seemed like it hurt his throat.

The other two envelopes contained the identities of an Edger M. Larkin, a property lawyer who lives near the shopping mall uptown, and Jeremy Higgins, a bank clerk that lies in a crummy apartment downtown, a walk of ten minutes from the apartment he stands in.

Marcus turned around towards the stairway. "Don't die"

 

[Mr.Ivebeenframed]

Mira off-handily watched as Marcus removed his shoelaces and was reminded of something in her pocket as well. She fished around her pockets in her cargo pants until she arrived to the point. They were EMT scissors, made for cutting through cloth or other similar materials. The point of the blades were rounded out except for the drop into the blades. It could function as a stabbing weapon but whoever held had to have the strength to shove into flesh. She took note of that and of Marcus.

"What does it say?" Mira said, curiosity dripping from her speech because after all this was who they were supposed to kill. She tried to act nonchalant to the revealing of who they would kill but Mira couldn't stand herself by doing so. She wanted to see the good in this but so far it wasn't really working.

 

[Generic_Username]

Spencer looked around the room. Everyone else had already left except for him and Evey. He only knew how she died, and he wasn't sure if she was cut out for this kind of work. He wasn't even sure if he was cut out for it, but choices were made and they had work to do.

"Looks like we're the only ones left."

Evey seemed wary of the envelopes since the stranger put them on the table, so he decided to open it himself.

"Seems to be the address of a Jeremy Higgins. It's not far from here. We can walk."

He turned towards the door and ate the candy.

Halfway down the stairs, a thought popped into his head. There were only three things in his backpack, and none of them were even remotely deadly. He turned to Evey.

"You got anything we could use as a weapon... if it comes down to that?"

Anything but a knife, he thought, but he kept that comment to himself.

 

[Link_to_Future]

Adrian studied their superior as he pulled his sweet from the bottle and passed it on to another. He could detect a hint of grim satisfaction on the man's face that heavily contrasted with his painfully scratchy voice. Something told Adrian that this man took a little more pleasure in his work than most.

"Let's go, we need to do recon of the place, do you need anything before we go? I have everything I need in the trunk of my car."

Adrian shook his head as Brendan spoke.

"Well, I doubt we'll need anything too elaborate for some simple extortion."

Simple extortion? Wow, that's a phrase I never thought I would hear myself say.

He followed Brendan out the door, quietly swishing the candy around in his mouth. He knew that this day was only just beginning.

"Which target are we after?"

 

[TheIronRuler]

Frank had left the apartment and began walking towards the house of Jeremy Higgins. He appeared again on the other side of the sidewalk, looking up at the window of his apartment. The man is old and frail... but he still resists. All about values

Frank had to deal with Higgins once, even though it wasn't his responsibility. One veteran to the other. He asked him to cooperate, that he'll be rewarded. The old man, in his late 60s refused. The bald and short Caucasian seemed so fragile at the time, but when Frank pushed, he pushed back. Such unnatural eyes

Frank reached for his right pocket. He grabbed a packet and took out a cigarette and returned the packet to its place. he placed it by his mouth and sighed. As he looked up at the dark, star filled sky, he snapped his fingers and ignited the cigarette. He inhaled it into his lungs, took it out and exhaled the smoke. Beautiful Alice

 

[Berenzen]

Ben looked at the contents of the envelope, the target was a man- Edgar M. Larkin, a property lawyer, with both his work and home addresses. A photo was attached to the dossier, Ben studied the photo as he walked down the hall, the passed the sheets to Adrian.

"We'll hit his house first, hitting him in his private location is better than confronting him in public. We need to know what his house is like and if there is collateral that we have to worry about. I want to make this quick when we do it, an in-and-out job. We'll get the intel we need from his house, try not to make too much noise though. I have various general anesthetics, some sodium pentathol, and about four pounds of Potassium Chloride in the trunk of my car. Let's get to work."

Brendan opened the door to the outside, taking in a breath of fresh air, and waited for Adrian to come out.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Frank threw the cigarette to the ground and left the scene, hoping that the others could handle themselves. He went to the house of one Edger M. Larkin, a large house with a front and back yard, coupled with a dog and two kids. All that was missing was a white fence. Frank appeared again in front of the house. The last light in Edger's office was turned off.

He grabbed his packet of cigarettes again and placed one in between his lips. If only I could have you, Alice. If only . Frank tried to remember how Edger looked like. He hadn't dealt with him himself and Alice didn't give too many details. A man in his early 40s, tall and overweight. A balding man with little brown hair and a terribly feminine voice. At least that'show he sounded when Alice mocked him.

Shouldn't be that hard , Frank thought to himself. He snapped his fingers one more time and lite his cigarette. After he had finished he threw it to the ground and left, heading towards the workplace of Jeremy Higgins.

 

[SeanTheBlueSheep]

"You got anything we could use as a weapon. If it comes down to that?"

Evey thought for a moment, going over the items in her backpack as she sucked on her sweet resentfully, wishing she'd had time to return . Two changes of clothes, a hairbrush, shampoo, antiperspirant and perfume. "Not unless our guy has really bad hair" she said. "I think the best thing is to plan ahead so it doesn't come down to that. I could probably kill him if we need to, but I don't know if I'd quite be able."

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"What does it say?"

"We've got a name, a photo, and two addresses" Marcus replied, handing her the envelope and putting the candy in his mouth. "Boss just said he should be at his work address, so we'll head there first. The guy doesn't look like much of a challenge, the hard part will be getting in and out without drawing attention to ourselves."

Marcus studied her EMT uniform, it was covered in blood. "You're going to need to change." He informed her. "and I reckon I probably need to clean myself up too. I have a car, so just tell me where you need me to go."

As they went down the stairs Marcus' thoughts turned to Boss (for that was what Marcus was content to call him. Giving him a name made their interaction personal, which was the last thing Marcus wanted). There was something off about him, besides his ability to apparently raise the dead. He looked young, not that much older than Marcus himself in fact, yet he sounded like a man creeping towards his deathbed. What was that insignia he had seen on Boss blazer when he woke up by the roadside? Is he acting alone, and if he isn't, just how high does this thing go?

 

[Link_to_Future]

"I have various general anesthetics, some sodium pentathol, and about four pounds of Potassium Chloride in the trunk of my car."

Adrian eyed Brendan suspiciously. It seemed as though his partner had quite a pharmacy sitting in the back of his vehicle. He briefly considered inquiring as to where Brendan had acquired all of these chemicals before deciding it would just be better to let it go for now.

"So we'll be able to dull the pain, stick him in a coma, or just kill him outright, eh? Seems like you've got the bases covered."

He hadn't even realized that he was speaking until the words had flown from his mouth. It was just too suspicious to let go without any comment at all. Still, he was glad that he had phrased it as a complement.

One thing was certain: he had picked a good partner for this kind of work. He just wasn't sure yet if he should be pleased by that fact or not.

The air outside was stale with the emissions from the nearby factories. Adrian briefly longed for the fresh air of the country before focusing back on the task at hand as he moved with Brendan to the car. As they walked, he read over the information about their target.

A lawyer, huh? Well, I have a hard time feeling too guilty about working over a scumbag like that. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

He looked up from the dossier at Brendan.

"I can't imagine he will need too much persuasion. This shouldn't be too hard."

 

[Generic_Username]

"I could probably kill him if we need to, but I don't know if I'd quite be able."

Spencer knew exactly what she meant.

They arrived at the address with in less than 10 minutes. It was an old building in the same neighborhood as the one they were in just some time ago. The light in the apartment was on. Jeremy Higgins was obviously not one to go to sleep early. He looked around. There seemed to be no fire escape or anything of the sort.

"Maybe we can wait until the lights go out? Who knows how this guy is going to react once we mention the debt. I can pick the lock or break in if necessary."

I could have phrased that a little better.

"What I meant was... I'm not a thief. Though I suppose it doesn't matter now. It's just something I had to learn after breaking an important key."

He turned to Evey, waiting to hear out her suggestions. A job like this required careful planning and teamwork.

 

[Berenzen]

"To answer the unspoken question, I lifted them from a chem lab that I worked at. But I don't have everything, most of the acids and chemicals that require refridgeration or freezing temperatures were left back at my old apartment."

Ben stopped at his car, it was a 2001 grey saturn SL2, not exactly new, but in fairly good condition.

Ben motioned for Adrian to get in the car as he pushed the clutch down and started the car, Metric's Monster Hospital playing over the radio.

"The neighborhood he lives is pretty white collar, the address looks like the house as well, we might have to deal with family."

Brendan shifted the car into first and pulled out onto the street, in the direction of the target's house.

 

[SeanTheBlueSheep]

Evey frowned at Spencer. "And you couldn't ask for a new key? she asked. She paced a little down the road, trying to get a better angle through the window. Without a fire escape it would be hard to get away, but it would also be hard to get anywhere as a surprise.

"My best guess is go up and talk to him, say we're from the bank or something -That was what the address was, right?- and say we're doing work experience or something, and we're following up on some kind of filing error that has to be sorted right away, ask for a cup of tea before we head back, then lock the doors and windows and confront him." she said, making the plan up as she went. "Does that sound OK to you?"