Cognitive Deviance

39. Loyalty

May 26, 2045 - 7:10 PM

Drones swarmed the skies around Independence National Historic Park like a plague of locusts. Endless lines of bright yellow holographic letters reading CRIME SCENE DO NOT ENTER stretched across the park, nothing getting in or out except for law enforcement. The stench of death permeated the area like fog, and Margo winced at the assault on her senses as she approached the site of the attack.

Red. Everywhere she looked was drenched in red.

Dried blood tarnished the streetlights, dimming the streets in a brownish glow as Crawl Patrol bots studied the visceral messes like vultures around a carcass. Margo watched as a man deprived of every limb except for his left arm was hauled out of the park on a stretcher, shrieking at the top of his lungs in agony. She clenched her eyes shut as the hellish noise filled her ears as she passed him by, and she reopened them seconds later to study the rest of her surroundings, as much as she didn't want to.

A shiver went down her spine as a series of crackling noises resonated from beneath her feet. Margo looked down to see bits of glass sprinkled across the pavement, ranging from fragments as small as salt particles to shards long enough to work as daggers. The further she walked across the rubble, the more crimson stains appeared within view. Dozens of crime scene cleaners passed her by, their faces hidden behind gas masks, as they hauled cadaver bags out of the park. She hated to imagine what horrible messes awaited the coroners inside those bags.

It wasn't until she reached the center of Independence Square that she'd gotten a full glimpse of the Devil's work.

Piles of corpses mutilated beyond recognition surrounded Margo like an oncoming tidal wave. Bodies missing limbs, missing heads, faces, torsos, everything below the waist. She could see the bright red messes shine in the lights of the drones scouting the premises from the sky above her. While many of the bodies were loaded into cadaver bags to be sent to the morgue, others remained stationary on the grass or the pavement, rendered nothing more than accessories to an enormous crime scene. Markers were positioned around some of the most horrific remains, with the body of one Omniluv member shredded down to the bone with glass shards.

She would've used a nearby drone to learn more, but her ThoughtControl piece was back at home, and the specialized glasses were broken, awaiting disposal in a trash can back at the gym. She cursed herself under her breath for her careless decision.

"Sandoval!" she heard Andrade shout. "What the hell are you doing here?"

With a groan, Margo rotated in place, finding Andrade standing before the entrance of Independence Hall. Six holographic screens floated around her, and another rested in her hands. Margo marched over to her without saying a word, fighting back the urge to scream.

"Go home and get some rest," Andrade continued, nudging a holographic screen aside. "Your stitches could pop open if you keep moving around like—"

"Is it true you placed Carl under house arrest?" Margo growled.

She didn't expect her anger to make itself as obvious as it did. Several officers and other personnel glanced at her with uncomfortable expressions. Or at least she thought that's what was going on behind their masks. She'd never be able to measure their sympathy for her.

Andrade didn't wear a mask, which meant Margo was able to get a full display of the potential rage behind the lecture that awaited her. So she tried slowing down time by taking quick glances at the world around her. Scorch marks on the buildings. Shattered glass on the ground. Drones confirming no further explosives detected. The realization that the butchered remains of that Omniluv member belonged to Layla Raniere, the girl Holden fancied. But in the end, she'd have to look back and accept the consequences of standing up to her superior.