Futures End: Suicide Squad #1

Five years ago, the world as we know it ceased to be. Luckily, the world as we know it from The Road Warrior came into being. Many people were prepared for this turn of events. Too bad those people were geeks and nerds without any real survival skills. Tragically, they were all rape-murdered by corporate CEOs who, it turned out, were the biggest sociopaths on the planet. Some nerds and geeks survived longer than others due to their proficiency at oral sex. But even these desperate, shameless nerds could not last for long. Eee! Tess Ate Chai Tea gave and gave and gave but eventually, as he knew deep down would happen, he used a little too much teeth. He was thrown into Lightning Dome, a more terrifying version of Thunder Dome, where twenty combatants entered and nineteen left. Mostly because the nineteen were working together to fightfuck the lone other. Eee! Tess Ate Chai Tea lasted thirteen minutes, a good showing but not good enough to be remembered for more than the long weekend.

As it turned out, some of the most depraved and richest CEOs were the biggest fans of Eee! Tess Ate Chai Tea. When the updates stopped (for, you see, DC Comics continued to publish during these post-apocalyptic times although their market share was now worse than Dynamite. In their defense, Gail Simone was being forced to write all of the titles deep within Dynamite headquarters, and all of the titles featured naked lesbians as every character), the CEOs grew desperate for the only written entertainment they could stomach. A new Tess was needed. And who better to take over the job than the monster that delivered the death thrust to Tess, Goggles McDeathhurt.

For a few weeks now, HOLY FUCK! Don't Put That There Chai Tea has been down. In its absence, several numbers stations have sprung up all across the city.

Fourteen.

Sixty-five.

Three.

Forty-eight.

Nineteen.

Sixteen.

Thirty-three.

Twelve.

Fifty.

Seventy-th*CRACKLE BZZZZZZZT SCREEEEEEEEEEEE BZZZZZT*--ar me? lissen. lissen. i don't know what's going on in this city but I think it's just the beginning. these fires...they haven't been so bad yet. but, i don't know, i don't know. i don't have a good feeling about it. it's time to leave old york to the richies. let 'em have the whole thing, lot of good it'll do 'em. see? without us...well, they don't exactly need us...but, in time, they'll see. without us, their days are numbered.

who am i? that's what yer thinking, right? who am i? i'm you. one of the lower voices. it's true; it's truth. i'm only different from you in one way. just the one way. i was told things; i was given things. i have those things here. you have to hear them; i have to read them. i have to hurry. i don't think this device can be tracked but...well, you can't be too careful, see? actually, you can't be careful at all anymore, it seems. but i wills; i'll try. here, here. let me find where to start. oh, oh. the pages are all mixed up. oh. i'm sorry, ma'am. i'm trying my best; this is my best. here. here. i'll start here. whispers. whispers in your ears. hear it, okay? okay?

"she gathered her forces to make her kingdom. but it wasn't just her kingdom; it was their kingdom; all of them, everybody. the goal was to build a community of equals; to take an entire city and make it a home for everybody. at first, it took power. lots and lots of power and lots and lots of violence. that was the only way. it wouldn't work any other. but she was just young enough to be full of stupid passion, to believe it could be done. and it was done. it was. and saint lois was a shining city on a hill. and for that, it had to be torn down."

"the shippers, you know that gang, the shippers? they had both parts of it. the wrong parts and the right parts. they saw the importance of the comic books; felt the import. that was the right part. the importance. but they got the wrong part of it in their hands. they didn't like the subtext; didn't want it. they had no use for it. it was the relationships they wanted more of; it made them feel something. the feelings, that was important too. that was the connection. to connect the lower voices to the message; to the secret. the connection was strong and it brought hope that the lower voices would see what needed to be done. but the message writers, the secret bearers, they miscalculated. the characters overshadowed everything. the stories hardly mattered anymore. the shippers just wanted more characters fucking; more characters cheating; more characters intimate, angry, betrayed. they wanted characters of all kinds. the stories didn't matter; they just wanted varied characters now. but they missed the secret and soon, the message, the secret, it was forgotten."

"those that came for her; those she calls the richies...they didn't need anything she had. they couldn't take for themselves what was most important to her anyway: the love of the people. they could never own that but they could, and would, take it from her. they could destroy her example so that the lower voices in their cities would never know of another way. and so they came to saint lois with their weapons and their money and their influence and their hate; oh, oh such hate. and for all her genius in planning and organizing and creating, she did not plan for her peaceful community to be seen as such a threat. her defense had always been acceptance. everybody welcome; nobody needs to fight. up in her dreamsland. she forgot the ways of the world. she thought greed and power were dead and buried in the formertimes. she forgot and it cost her everything, this forgetting."

"but first, she let them know, the richies. she lured them in. she gave them the key to her skydyhole. and they came. and they died. all of them that came died; this, in particular, she wants you, the richies, to know. she has your weapons, and your vehicles, and she knows where you live, and she ate your hearts, you feels? what are bunkers to her, she who has died in the dusty stretches over and over and over again. yet here she stands, arisen anew, stronger, more capable, more beautiful than any ever dared dream. and she has the blood of your hearts dripping from her chin, and she only craves more."

"with time came the weaving of it all; with time came the dulling of passion but the sharpening of wisdom. oh, she did not lose her passion, goddess no. but she knew better how to focus it; where to direct it. things had to be in place; stories needed to be told. she needed an army on her side without the enemy knowing she was recruiting. she needed a voice for the masses. she needed friends in all the right places. she needed all of this before she could let him know they were ready. enough time had passed and they were ready to strike back. but not just to strike back; she was ready to regain her dreamsland. and she knew just where to dream it, and who best to bring it about. so she sent out the secret grayson message. she let him know in his favorite code that the time had come."

"from that moment on, she declared the sunny stretches dead because now there was only dust, dust, dust forever."

this was her power: getting people to believe in her visions.

"one last thing to say..." hmm, out of order. dumb dumber me, oh, oh. sorry, ma'am, sorry. anyway, lissen, please, lissen, out of order or not. must speak this bit loud; no whispers for this. be braves. no whispers. "a final message to reaper: 'Underneaf, ya almays knowed it best. Please memember how sorry Old Goggs been when ya lef, sees it? Practicum noduster knew youse lef' us alive. Even Shizgiggles beliefed da body we eatem uz yours. Remember how cynical little Shizgiggles were, don't yeah? Kept hers safe, anyway. It weren't fer none goods dough, seein' as how she couldna looks me in da eyes affer. Never blamed her fer leavin, feels it? Didna blame noduster but Old Goggs herself. Even if wes did what needed ta be done, still don't seem noways ta make it feel right. Right ain't enuff, sometimes, I fink. Cost alla Old Goggs friends too much jess fer bein' fuckity right. Anydust, I jess wanna say how sorries I am, and dat youse was right alla the way along. Merde. Please forgive me, Prof.'"

"but not everyone forgot the secret. sometimes, it can still be found. sometimes."

"there was this, them, the suicide squad. can you remember? back in old saint louis, what became saint lois? remember? long ago, it was so many round trips ago. a strong woman shouldered their burden; a tenacious woman gave them orders. she saw things the way they should be. she had the will, and the vision. they would die for her, whether they wanted to or not; it was the only way. it was how things should be."

yes, yes. like this. very much like this.

"it was the loss of her closest allies that broke her the most. they fought a war they knew they couldn't win because she asked them to. she still thought she could cling to her dreamsland; she thought if there was a chance, they must take it. but in the end, in the ashes, wrapped in the smell of burning friends, she knew she had been wrong. some threats you can't face directly. and so she made as if to slink off to lick her wounds but she was deepest in thought on the things she need: plans; plots; secrets; time."

okays, okay. that's all the notes; everything that needed to be said. it worries me much, these notes, these fires, this restlessness been started in the lower voices. mayhap, maybe...yes, yes. it's time to go. someplace. anyplace. just run and hide and find another way, i guess. so scared. so full of fear.

okay, anyway. back to your numbers. hopes my whispers didn't lose your count.

*CRACKLE BZZZZZZZT SCREEEEEEEEEEEE BZZZZZT*-teen.

Four.

Thirty-eight.

Six.

Twenty-two.