Ch. 14 I should have known…

At Machiavelli's site, he had wrapped up most of the mechanical work and was applying a coating to the entirety of the helicopter's exterior with a paint roller. Everyone else sits around trying to occupy themselves while waiting on Mac to finish working, of course he didn't want help. Elizabeth holds the baby who is only silent because he's asleep right now.

Bored of the novel she was reading Alicia went over to Mac. "What is it you're doing now Mac?"

"Once I finish this, we'll be all set." Mac answers without breaking pace.

"And what is this?" She asks, looking at the big jar of gel next to him.

A slight but smug grin crossed

Machiavelli's face, "I'm glad you asked."

"Oh man, here we go…" Nick groans, he's ready for a long-winded exposition about the product. He gives his sister a look that says, 'you had to ask.'

Excited to unveil one of his inventions, Machiavelli ignored that comment. "This is my state of the art, military grade, shock absorbing, anti-ballistic vehicle coating! Once it hardens it becomes impenetrable, easily deflecting all manner of firearms and even heavy artillery. It's also heat-proof! After one layer of this, a missile couldn't put a dent on your vehicle and the following explosion would be felt no more than a bump in the road. Also, it smells like a cherry air freshener."

"Oh, that's actually kind of cool." Alicia says.

"Really…" Nick agrees. "You must have made a killing selling this stuff."

"Oh no. Not a penny," Mac denies. "I haven't sold any of this, and had the world stayed sane I never would have. You think I would let someone get ahold of this and devise a way to render it non effect? Then I'd have to create a whole new formula because-"

"You wouldn't be safe." Liza who was listening in finishes the thought.

"Precisely," Mac nods before picking up the roller and going back to work.

"That's seriously impressive. You need a hand with that?" Travis asks, looking for another roller.

"Don't worry about it. This stuff will leave an excruciating rash if it gets on your skin while wet. I forgot to mention it's highly toxic. This has to be done very carefully for maximum effect."

"I'll be fine, it'll make it go by faster if there's more of us working." Travis said undeterred by Mac's warning.

"Just leave it alone Travis." Liza and Madison say in unison as an awkward silence descends on the group.

"I'll umm, I'll just be over there." Travis excuses himself while his wife and ex-wife both glare at him, then each other, then look away giving off incredibly tense vibes.

"Hey! There's a lot of food in the minifridge, and we brought cookware from that safehouse, we could make a meal big enough for everyone here." Ophelia announces changing the subject. Everyone brightened up hearing that. A nice meal sounded great considering all they had been through.

"Are you all stupid? I packed rations so we didn't have to waste time on something like cooking. This won't take but another thirty minutes or so and then we're off."

"No offense Mac, but the astronaut food isn't all that great." Alicia says. "Honestly this won't take much longer than what you're doing. We'd still be on schedule…mostly."

"You've only had to eat it for one day, don't be a brat. Besides, there are maniacs with heavy artillery out there!"

"We haven't seen anyone since we've arrived, and you have those big turrets watching over us, what could go wrong?" Chris retorts.

"It never goes well when someone asks that question." Mac grumbles trying to speed up. "Even my technology is fallible."

"We don't know this place, or the people in it. We should be ready to leave as soon as possible." Daniel officially kills the idea without even looking at them. Not a big believer in machines doing what he ought to do(protecting his family), he stood guard with a high-powered assault rifle Mac had given him.

"Thank you! Someone is talking with some sense." Mac says happily. Just then he notices the turret stop sweeping. "Of course, they have an emp. Fuck. Everyone hit the dirt!" As the group drops a spray of bullets passes over their heads. Mac is pissed he was right, but he could only blame himself for being too slow.

"Don't make any sudden moves! Those were warning shots, you'd better believe my boys won't miss next time." A man in camo print clothes steps out of the brush brandishing an assault rifle. A group of seven or eight more men step out from behind him, all in the same uniform, they take any weapons they saw and make sure no one is moving.

"No funny business. Just give up your supplies nice and easy. No one gets hurt."

Lying in the dirt Machiavelli has no issue giving up anything there. He has much more in storage so why take any risks? This was an easily manageable situation.

"All you want is our stuff and then we can go? Help yourself, we won't do anything to stop you."

There's a lot of disagreement with his statement in the group but as the one who got everyone involved with Machiavelli in the first place, Elizabeth is the first to voice it.

"Mac! Are you really going to just give everything away? What are you thinking?!"

"Keeping everyone alive is priority. Now shut up," Machiavelli answers bluntly.

"The nerd has got a head on his shoulders."

The man says walking passed everyone and looking inside the helicopter. "Speaking of smart, didn't you say you made that bulletproof gel yourself? You might be pretty useful, come work for me."

He motions for Mac to get off of the ground.

Mac looks at everyone and thinks how easy it'd be to just abandon them and use this group of ex-military men. Much more efficient. "Sure, I'm willing to bet it will be a lot safer with you." He accepts with a casual shrug.

"Mac?!"

"You're abandoning us?"

"How could you!"

"What the fuck!"

Everyone was in outrage that he was abandoning them and taking everything with them until a few rounds in the air silences them all. "Don't you all forget your situation. YOU are at MY mercy, so take what you get." Their leader says grabbing a duffle bag full of various supplies. "Clean em' out," he motions for his team to follow suit.

Mac put on his backpack and grabbed a bag of supplies, unbothered by everyone's expressions of shock and disbelief.

"She looks like she'd be fun," one of them says eyeing Heather.

"Bring her," The leader answers. "It gets boring out here, I could definitely use a good f-"

"Fuck! You've gone and ruined everything! Now you all have to die," Machiavelli says with an exasperated sigh as another of his plans went up in smoke.

"What did you say?" The leader says.

Crack! Everyone's attention immediately goes to the man who grabbed Heather to find that his neck was broken, his head was almost turned around. Heather is nowhere to be seen, nor is his gun.

"Where'd she go?"

"Fuck if I know! Hurry up and find her!" They search around looking for her.

"Clean up backpack," Machiavelli said as they make the mistake of taking their attention away him. The metal backpack's straps split in half giving the bag four legs as it dropped off his back on it's own. Using a scope on a stalk as an eye it targeted the nearest soldier dispatching him with single muffled shot to the head, a second falls, then a third.

Realizing they were being picked off, another lackey targeted the backpack only to have his brains blown out from a bullet beyond the tree line. Seizing the opening Daniel made a dash for his rifle and killed another. In a matter of seconds, Machiavelli was standing face to face with the leader, the only person from the offending party still breathing.

"You…what did you…" The trembling man says ready to kill Mac. He knew he couldn't give his full attention because the backpack and Daniel were watching him and there is an unseen sniper likely trained on him too.

"You got greedy, had you kept your word this wouldn't have had to happen." Mac says as if reprimanding a child. "I would have let you all live. Here I thought you were useful too….What a shame."

"Go to hell!" He says pulling the trigger.

"You first," a deathly calm Machiavelli says with a deep exhale he seemed to fade from everyone's perception. with swift and silent steps he appeared behind the leader as the gun fell to pieces and his throat was slit. Opening his hand, several bullets drop to the ground.

"Look what you made me do…I should have asked if he had more allies." After piercing his skull with one finger sharpened to a claw, Mac checks him to find that the only thing of use he carried was a walkie talkie.

"He must have been communicating with someone…" he clears his throat and clicks the button. When he speaks again his voice changes to match the leader's. "Hey, we got a good haul this time around. It's too much for us to carry back though, we're gonna need some help. Over."

"Copy that Cap, I'll send a team out to your location where are you? Over." A voice answers on the other end of the line.

"A team? So it looks like there's quite a few of you," Mac says quietly to himself.

"Cap, everything alright? Over."

"Oh yeah, just give me a minute to get my bearings. Over." Mac answers. "Did you get the signal backpack?" The backpack nods affirmation with its scope. "Good," Mac smiles. "Heather! We're going hunting!"

At his call she emerges from the trees and rejoins him.

"Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't have said it if I wasn't" Mac says. "They threatened my life, therefore they must be eliminated."

"Understood," Heather confirms as her demeanor becomes icy cold, like that of Machiavelli's. Together they ooze murderous intent so extreme it can be felt by everyone.

"Mac?" He turns around to see Liza putting a hand on his shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Peachy," he mutters. "You all get back in the chopper and wait for me. I'm going to clean up the area. I should be back before sundown."

"Clean up?"

"Kill everyone in a ten-mile radius, what else?" Machiavelli glares as if she asked a stupid question. "We almost lost everything believing that people would just let us be. If trouble is going to seek us out even when we try to avoid it, we might as well strike first."

As he finishes, the backpack returns to his back and sends the navigation data to his watch. He collected the guns and started to hand them out.

"Hang on. Isn't that a bit extreme, I get what happened here but that doesn't justify going on a killing spree!" After seeing him catch bullets and slice someone's throat in one move, no one had any problem believing he could and would do it.

However, to mercilessly kill anyone he came across in this area was going to far. "You'd be no worse than them."

"Liza is right, if you do something like that you won't be able to live with yourself." Travis comes adds his opinion. "Wasn't this enough?"

"If it's us or them, I'd prefer them," Mac says to Liza completely disregarding the pacifist.

"He really slept through all of that?… I'm trusting you with him." He says as his attention shifts to the infant who remained sound asleep.

"Daniel's the smartest one here, he's in charge. Use the guns if you need them, there's enough for everyone." With that he and Heather disappeared into the forest.

"We all get one? Cool," Chris says picking up a rifle.

"Don't touch that!" Travis yells visibly frustrated.