Off With Their Heads | FOUR | 6 Underground

CHAPTER 11: Haunted House

Zero accompanied Seven into his first time into the haunted house. She leaded the soldier into the abandoned bunker, reaching a ragged cloth that covered an entry way. Her hand shot out pushing it aside, urging Seven to go in. Boards were mounted on the walls, pictures plastered on them, tactics pinned on it as well. 

 The pair reached the table where the rest of the ghost gathered. Their eyes were fixed on the newcomer with Zero. Her face hardened slightly placing herself next to One on the top of the table. She pressed on the laptop in front of her. Seven still felt overwhelmed from the sight of the room. It was dark, the more he looked around the more he saw. He looked at the ghost one by one. He looked at the only two he really knew. One was an older gentleman, middle age, a graying stubble on his face. Zero who was beside him looked innocent, no older than twenty, her green eyes were illuminated from laptop in front of her. 

His eyes scanned the rest of them, Two blondes sat next to one another, both sporting green eyes, each one looked deadly to him. The Latin man had a lighter aura to himself, but it didn't fool him. He might as well be just as deadly as anyone else. Lastly he looked at the Latina who just had an annoyed expression on her face.His observation was cut short when the leader began speaking. 

" It's like the batcave, but it's nothing like the batcave. Seven you're dead. You're gonna be restricted to cities that you've never visited before, people that you've never met. All except for your fellow ghosts. None of whom you know by name, only numbers, for safety. And so no one gets too close." 

Zero and Four met each other's gaze at One's last statement. Seven was guided into the back room, Zero following him. He first noticed the array of guns, bombs and other weapons inside. The girl beside him chuckled. 

" Pretty aren't they? Designed by yours truly."

The soldier was flabbergasted at the young girl's statement. They were pretty. Pretty lethal too. And this girl, looked like she couldn't hurt a fly. One coughed catching his attention. "This is our target hit board. These nine men had been putting way to much shit in the box, so now they answer to us."  One then ripped the paper off of one of the pictures, sneering in disgust as he met the face of the first target. "Target number one, this prick. First mission, the dictator of Turgistan, Rovach Alimov." 

~~~

The ghosts found themselves in the diner they frequented at. They sat respectively closely from one another, just enough for them to be acknowledged as a group. Zero ate her food meekly, picking at the fries on her plate. Four looked at her from where he sat pushing the cup of coffee to her. She gave him a smile and picked the coffee sipping slowly. 

Three on the other hand ate his food quickly starting a conversation within the ghosts. " When you're dead, you get to stop all the bullshit. No more DMV lines, no more Christmas shopping." 

"...or backstabbing girlfriends."  Four continued, earning a look from Zero, while he took a swig from his beer. Five then retorted, " They should make an 'out of office' reply for dead people. 'Sorry I'm away from the planet right now. I'm fucking dead." 

" No more tax, no more criminal records. No more getting arrested by the pigs just for being naked or just usual stuff. You know, being naked, getting drunk. Casual stuff." Zero scrunched her face confused at her secret lover's statement, looking at him weirdly once more. Only shrugging at the girl beside him.

" You know the best part about being dead?" Five looked around at her comrades, the question in the air. " No more immigration lines."  Seven looked at her. " Don't look at me like that, I'm fucking American." 

"I'm illegal."  the hit man piped up from across them. One looked at the Latin man and cocked his head. " You sure are cynical." Zero continued picking at her food, her eyes trailing to her leader who was playing with a device that sat on his lap. He toyed with Three who got frustrated easily, cursing at the other man. One and his magnets, she thought shaking her head slightly. He stopped the magnet and started speaking. 

" You guys, got it all wrong. You know, best thing about being dead... is the freedom. I mean we're all gonna die..." 

" Why not do it while we're still alive." Their heads whipping towards the youngest girl whose gaze was on the table instead of on One. 

"The point is we should probably pull Seven behind the curtain. Zero?" 

 The girl went on to huff and grab some cups from beside her. She placed four of them upside down formed into a square. " This is how to stage a coup in three not so easy steps. We have a country, Turgistan. These are the people, going about their lives."  She then stacked another four on top of the base. "Then you have the four generals. These cunts are very bad guys. But there's one worse guy. That's the piece of shit dictator." She slammed the sugar on top of the cup tower as Two handed her the salt shaker. " Don't forget his brother, democracy-loving brother." She took the salt shaker playing with it for emphasis. " He's the key. We're gonna hit the four generals, They're gonna lead us to the brother. Then we're gonna free the brother, and then lastly we're gonna say goodbye to the piece of shit dictator and hello to democracy-loving brother." 

" And it all goes down four months from now, on the day of the dead."

Seven looked away from Zero's demonstration and stared into One's eyes, drinking in his words. He sat up straight and drank from the bottle in his hands. " Oh, that's it? Oh well that's pretty simple. It's cups, you know? So... we're all gonna die?" 

" Not me and Zero."  The french woman said, smiling at the younger woman.

" They aren't, we all are. Painfully."