Copyright (c) 2022 Revised Edition by Unus Vocate.
BEYOND CIRCUMSTANCE
The first time Mars saw him was on T.V.
He was a Lawyer with high political ambitions and his fortunes were beginning to shine, brightly, like a rising Sun. As a likely Candidate for the upcoming Primaries he was being interviewed for the Evening News and he was speaking in the grandiloquent style favored by most Politicians.
"We must go beyond the circumstances of mere Existence. We must go beyond the circumstances of our everyday lives. We must go beyond the circumstances that constrain and restrict us all. And we must rise up to a higher level of harmony and understanding.
We must rise up..." And so on and so forth --
His Words were eloquent and presented with great flair. His Deeds, however, were not so pretty. He had stepped on many toes in his climb up the ladder of success and some of those toes were sensitive indeed, for they were attached to the feet of Mister X.
The first time the Lawyer saw Mars was also the last day of his life.
No one knew where he came from.
He was just there, all of a sudden.
A Killer let loose in their midst.
Dressed in black combat fatigues, wearing jump boots and a black Beret. A black scarf covering his face and carrying a Uzi sub-machine gun casually strapped from his shoulder, he was a strange sight to see walking down the sidewalk of Chicagos' Magnificent Mile. 117
He looked as tho he had just been transported from the middle of a Combat Zone and dropped, by mistake perhaps, into the busy lunch time Crowds. His attire was so threatening, his stride so determined, and his manner so intense, that everyone moved aside as soon as they saw him.
Afraid of his latent malice.
Fearful of provoking his wrath.
You can imagine the surprise of the Patrolman when he first saw Mars coming towards him. As he came near, the Policeman challenged him with an uncertain,
"Uh...Sir."
Mars ignored him.
He called out again. "Uh Sir ... Wait a minute!"
Again nothing happened.
Then, as Mars walked past him, he ordered, "Halt! Damn It! Halt!"
Still nothing.
The Policeman drew his Service Revolver and using a steady two handed hold, aimed at him while he cocked the hammer.
Mars was indifferent to the soft, placid Sounds of Normalcy that were occurring all around him but the Sounds of Combat were an entirely different matter.
As soon as he heard the sharp, metallic "Click" of the hammer being cocked, he squatted down, and spun around to point his weapon in the direction of the sound. And, after seeing an Armed Opponent facing him, he neutralized the Enemy by firing a short burst towards his chest. 118
The Policeman accepted the lethal surge without demur, with only the stunned expression on his face giving notice of its receipt, and after firing one truly misplaced shot up towards the Sky, he fell forward to crash against the sidewalk.
Mars activated a Voice Synthesizer that was attached to his belt and offered two words of advice to the dying man.
He told him to "Go Beyond."
Done.
Onward, ever onward, Mars walks.
Towards the restaurant and the Lawyer and ... his final resolution.
At the restaurant there is a Body Guard standing behind a plate glass window. He can see Mars coming towards him; sans frivolity, sans distraction; armed with a machine pistol. There is alarm showing on his face as he reaches for his gun.
In response -- Mars fires, the window breaks, glass shatters and falls like fractured rain upon the sidewalk. The Guard falls and is forced back -- back into the waiting Arms of Death.
The whole incident lasts for only a moment and thru it all, Mars continues on, without breaking stride, towards the restaurant.
Within the restaurant, all is panic.
There is shouting and screaming. Confusion rules as people stumble over the furniture and fight with each other as they try to escape from the danger that is steadily approaching. The Lawyer jumps up and forcing his way thru the Crowd, runs up some stairs to find shelter in an Office on the second floor.
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While the Lawyer proves to be a Coward and most of the restaurants other Patrons are caught in a mindless panic, there is at least one man of courage among them and he rises and prepares to meet the danger.
He is a Texan, armed with a 45 Automatic. He draws and fires once -- striking Mars in the chest and knocking him to the sidewalk.
Spun around by the impact of the heavy bullet, Mars lands on top of his weapon and facing away from the restaurant. Looking backwards and upside down at the restaurant - he can not identify his assailant! Not being sure of his attacker, but needing to neutralize the man immediately, he rolls over and shoots everyone standing there. Hitting the Texan but also striking down several innocent persons.
"Circumstance."
States the Voice as Mars gets up and continues on.
At the restaurant, he steps thru the broken window and then ... out of curiosity ... he pauses to assess the Scale of Destruction.
As he stops to review the situation, the Texan makes one last effort to stop him. Calling on his last reserves of strength and determination, blood drenched and gasping for air, he rises up on one elbow, lifts his weary arm and takes aim. Mars noticed the movement from out of the corner of his eye and, after turning to find someone pointing a gun at him -- fires a brace of bullets at the mans' head.
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The bullets spatter fragments of bone and bits of hair matted flesh in the air as the Texan falls dead against the floor.
Walking thru the chaos of blood and confusion he has created, Mars begins firing -- spraying the restaurants interior with a wild fusillade of lead.
While the Uzi shouts out its message of terror and condemnation, and the cries of the wounded fill the air, Mars activates the synthesizer on his belt and lets the Electronic Voice repeat its own, impersonal, message of purpose and orientation.
"Go Beyond ... Circumstance"
"Go Beyond ... Circumstance"
"Go Beyond ... Circumstance"
He continues firing, reloading, firing; as he makes his way up the stairs and enters the Office where the Lawyer is hiding under a desk, his entire body trembling with Fear.
In one Fluid Moment -- a Moment without barriers of Time or Motion; where the seconds stretch out endlessly till it seems as if Time has stopped and each detail stands out graphically complete as an Entity of Itself;
each little movement of his hands
each back and froth motion of the slide
the spent shell cases ejecting-- ejecting--
the projectiles launching, spinning madly in their short lived flight
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the explosions billowing out in delicate blossoms of smoke and fire
the bullets striking home, tearing thru the clothing, scornful of flesh and bone, leaving gruesome bullet holes erupting on the body
the blood leaping up in spurts of heavy liquid red, with small round droplets hanging suspended in mid air
the living target moving back and forth, oscillating in violent harmony with the Waves of Force being spent against it, swaying to the Rhythm of the Attack;
-- he empties two full magazines into his Prey.
Changing the smooth talking Lawyer into a bullet ridden Corpse.
Then, while the gun smoke still hangs heavy in the air and the sounds of shooting still roar like thunder in the ears -- he is gone. Out a broken window, climbing down a Fire Escape and making his Exit thru the cluttered Alley Way below, to disappear to places unknown.
He is gone.
Leaving behind him a trail of spilled blood and shattered glass, and many people who were liberated from the burdens of their everyday lives.
People who had found their way to freedom -- thru Deaths Agony.
People who were now and forever more,
Beyond the Circumstances of Mere Existence.
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