Major Karnage by Gord Zajac

you got dog tags or body bags. And right now I got
nothing. They are MIA. Missing In Action! You get me, Huang, or do
I gotta draw you a goddamn diagram?!”
    Huang jumped in his chair. “No, ah . . . thank you. I believe I, ah . . .
get you.” Huang took a moment to straighten his collar. He shuffled
his papers. “Ah . . . if I may—er, rather, would you be willing to, ah . . .
entertain an alternate theory?”
    “Like what?”
    Huang cleared his throat. “Well! Ah . . . perhaps . . . if you could
just, ah . . . picture for one moment, ah . . .”
    “SPIT IT OUT, HUANG!”
    Huang jumped. “Ah! Well, ah . . . what if these ‘aliens’ as you call
them weren’t really, ah . . . aliens at all?”
    “Well, what the hell else could they be?!”
    “Ah! Ha-ha! Well, perhaps they are, ah . . . part of some sort of,
ah . . . hallucination?”
    Karnage leaned back. “So that’s how it is, huh? Keep the old
mushbrain talkin’ and maybe we can eventually get him to come
around to seeing things our way.”
    “Ah, does that mean that, ah . . . you won’t, ah . . . consider—”
    “You can take your goddamn theory and shove it up your ass!”
    “Ah! I see.” Huang shut the binder. “Captain Riggs will be very, ah
. . . upset to hear about this.”
    Riggs! Karnage’s mind reeled. His ears rang. That single word
echoed in his head.
    Riggs!
    Karnage’s hands balled into tight fists. “What do you know about
Riggs?”
    Huang nodded eagerly. “He, ah . . . served you with you during
the—ah, during the hostilities. And he was most disappointed to—”
    Karnage laughed. Huang cringed at the sound. Karnage glowered
at Huang. “Nice try, Huang, but you boys gotta do better research.
Sergeant Riggs bought it back in Kandahar. I don’t know who this
captain you’re talkin’ about is, but it ain’t him.”
    Huang blinked. “But . . . but I assure you that—”
    “You got wax in your ears? Riggs is dead! Don’t think I don’t
see what’s goin’ on here. You’re just pushin’ my buttons, hopin’ I’ll
crack!”
    “But I assure you it’s the same Riggs!” Huang said. “The very
same sergeant who served with you during The War—AH!” Huang
slapped his hand over his mouth.
    The War!
    Karnage’s blood boiled. Bullets and flames and death rained
down on his psyche.
    The War!
    Huang staggered up from his chair as the two Dabneycops pulled
their stun sticks and charged forward.
    The War!
    Karnage pulled at his restraints. There was the heavy creak of
metal fatigue. A wrist restraint snapped, and his right arm was free.
    A stun stick came plunging down into Karnage’s vision. Karnage’s
free hand whipped up and grabbed the wrist that was holding it.
A quick twist snapped it. Somewhere outside of his vision a man
screamed. A second stun stick came thrusting in after the first.
Karnage adjusted his grip so he held both the broken wrist and the
accompanying stun stick and swung it around to meet the second
one barrelling towards him. The metal tines of both sticks struck
naked flesh. Hot sizzling and the stench of ozone filled Karnage’s
nostrils. Two sets of screams filled his ears. Somewhere deep in
his vocal chords, a guttural primal laugh flowed up and out and
reverberated throughout the room.
    The two Dabneycops fell to the floor. Huang was pressed against
the two-way mirror, clutching the binder to his chest. Karnage
grabbed his remaining restraints and ripped them open with his
free hand.
    “Don’t talk to me about The War!”
    Karnage tossed the table out of his way and charged Huang.
Huang pressed himself against the two-way mirror, screaming.
Karnage’s fingers wrapped around Huang’s throat. He slammed
Huang’s head against the mirror. The mirror sprouted a spiral of
jagged spiderweb cracks starting from the back of Huang’s head.
    “You want to talk to me about The War?” Karnage hissed. “I’ll
tell you about—”
    The door behind Karnage burst