Supers Read online

  Supers

  Patrick Stewart

  Copyright © 2020

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the rights holder, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Disclaimer

  This book is intended for a mature audience.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  She was wearing a short black skirt that barely covered her ass and a white cropped top, the top three buttons undone to reveal her cleavage. Five years ago, dressing like that would not have been a problem. But the world had changed a lot in the last five years.

  In this new world, dressed like that, the girl was asking for trouble.

  Lucas sat in the café drinking coffee and reading the three-week-old paper. Newspapers were still a thing in this town, but they came out once a month. Most of it was full of propaganda about the Supers.

  Lucas used it to keep a track of who was in charge of the town. Supers rose and fell pretty darn quickly.

  Aside from Mayor Carcass.

  Lucas had a special interest in that Super. He had taken charge of the town three years ago. It was the longest any Super had managed to stay in charge.

  Those below Mayor Carcass fell pretty quickly.

  Only last week, the Vice-Mayor post was taken away from Shark and given to Blader. Rumours spread that Shark tried to overthrow the Mayor, Super Carcass. No one knew what had happened to Shark, but it was safe to assume his head was separated from his body.

  That was the only way to kill a super.

  To separate the head from the body.

  You could stab a Super in the head, shoot it in the heart, fill its body with lead, but if you don’t cut the head off, the Super will recover. Some Supers fucking recovered while you shot them.

  “Hi Lucas,” Lucy, the blond-haired waitress stood with a pot of coffee in her hand, smiling down at him. “Can I fill you up?”

  “Nah. Think I’ve had enough,” Lucas said.

  “Are you sure?” Lucy asked. “What about some cake? Can I get you cake?”

  Lucas declined with the shake of his head. But still, Lucy remained hovering, smiling down at him. Lucy was cute, and Lucas knew she liked him. She wore a cute short black dress and a small white apron over it. Her blond hair was tied in a bun. She was dictionary definition of cute. But Lucas had rules.

  Don’t shit where you eat.

  He wondered if that was accurate.

  The café had a toilet. Lucas could go and shit there if nature decided it was time.

  He was sure the saying meant something else.

  It was hard to know these sorts of things for certain, what with the internet no longer a thing. You couldn’t just Google something now. You couldn’t ask an adult either. Most of those died back in 2015.

  Lucas still remembered when the world was normal, when adults were in charge. He spent most of his life living in a world of law and order. He spent the vast majority of his life going to school. His parents both worked. He had a girlfriend.

  Things were normal.

  And then, the meteorites struck.

  Hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of rocks ranging in size from a football to a car struck the earth. They destroyed schools, factories, powerplants, communications networks, and of course, they killed billions of people.

  But what followed the meteorites caught everyone by surprise.

  At least, those still alive to be surprised.

  Turned out the rocks weren’t just rocks. There was a blue substance in the rocks, a type of crystal that glowed. They infected humanity. It killed almost everyone above the age of eighteen. Those below the age of eighteen weren’t affected much. The lucky one percent ended up with superpowers.

  Yup, that’s what happened to the world in 2015. The adult population was pretty much wiped out. And one percent of the teenage population were given superpowers.

  A new world order was born.

  A fucked-up world order.

  Supers were at the top.

  Then, there were the gangs.

  Finally, there was the rest of humanity, or what remained of humanity. Those that kept their heads down, tried to avoid the Supers, and the gangs, and just get on with life without being robbed, murdered, or raped.

  And that was why the girl wearing the incredibly short skirt was going to attract attention to herself. If that was what she wanted, fair enough.

  Lucy was still standing over him. She pointed at the newspaper. “What do you think about that?”

  There was an image of a guy on the front page. A Super. He was wanted by the authorities in London.

  Lucas shrugged. “Just another Super on the run.”

  “I heard he’s in every paper in the country. What do you think he did?” Lucy asked.

  Lucas didn’t care. Supers were only punished if they offended their superiors. No Super had his image plastered over all the papers for killing a Normie. That’s what people without superpowers were called. Normies. It wasn’t very creative. But what with all the grown-ups gone, creativity had taken a plunge too.

  It was why you had Supers with names like Blader, Shark, Treason. The Mayor of their town was named Carcass. It said a lot about the asshole in charge that he thought Carcass was an appropriate title.

  “Yo, bimbo,” a guy three tables away raised his hand and waved at the waitress.

  Lucy looked back over her shoulder and gave the man a smile. Lucas could tell it was a forced smile.

  “I’ll see you later, Lucas,” Lucy said.

  He gave her a wave and watched her go. Lucy was attractive, but Lucas had his rules. There weren’t many cafes left that functioned well. Lucas came down to this coffee shop often. It was frequented by Supers too. In fact, there was one sitting four tables away from him right now.

  You could never tell it was a Super just by looking at him or her. They still looked the same. Had two eyes, two ears, a nose, and all that stuff. But Lucas usually guessed it right. Authority Supers were easily identifiable by their uniform. Supers that were not part of the Authority had a give-away. They did not look miserable, or fearful. It could be described as confidence.

  Not wearing coats or jackets was another sign. Gang members tended to wear more clothing. Better to hide their weapons in.

  The Authority.

  That’s what Mayor Carcass named the Supers that joined him. They were supposed to run the town.

 
But they didn’t.

  The town ran itself. Which was probably why it was so fucked up.

  The Authority Supers were more like the gang of bullies in high school that did whatever the fuck they liked and cared little about anything or anyone else.

  Not all Supers joined Mayor Carcass’s Authority. Not all were eligible.

  Supers had different powers. Some were super-fast, others insanely strong. Some could lift heavy objects with their minds, others could breathe fire or shoot out daggers from their palms.

  All Supers had two things in common.

  You could only kill one by separating the head from the body.

  And you needed to do it quickly.

  All Supers strength and power grew the more they battled. It was rumoured Supers powers grew in battle, until it had reached its peak, at which point the Super collapsed. But no Normie had ever made it that far to find out if it was true.

  Lucas finished his coffee and was about to leave when the girl walked past him. The girl with the long legs and a curvy figure, wearing the short skirt and fitting top showing ample cleavage. Lucas’s eyes moved from the guy sitting on the third table, to the guy on the fourth table away from him.

  Both had watched the girl as she sat at her table. Lucas was sure the one at the fourth table was a Super. The one sitting on the third table was a gang member. He was wearing a leather jacket and Lucas could see the butt of a pistol poking out near his chest.

  There were no obvious signs the girl had already been claimed by a Super or was part of a gang.

  Both gang member and Super would want to add her to their collection.

  It was something most Supers and gang members had. A bunch of girls claimed to serve them. A harem. The more powerful the Super, the more women he would have. There were a few female Supers that created harems of men, but that was much rarer.

  As the girl passed the guy wearing the leather jacket, his hair crew cut with red colour sprinkled over the fade, he grabbed her by the hand.

  “Hey babe,” he grinned. “Leaving already? Sit down.”

  The guy pulled out the pistol and pointed at the seat opposite him. The girl glanced at the seat, then at his gun. Her eyes scanned the room, taking in every single person. They rested on Lucas for a moment. He avoided eye contact, picking up the paper, he feigned interest on the headline news.

  The girl’s eyes moved on, and finally stopped at the Super.

  He was a big guy, over six feet tall, a wide chest, big arms, bushy beard. He wore a red bandana across his forehead. The sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up to his elbows. It wasn’t obvious to everyone that he was a Super.

  But he was still a scary-looking motherfucker.

  The girl finally looked at the gang member once more. “I’d rather not, if that’s okay with you?”

  “What? This face not good enough for you?” the guy asked.

  “It’s not that. I’m in a hurry. Another time?”

  “Sit baby,” the guy repeated.

  A silence descended upon the café as the girl continued to stare at the man but remained standing. Some eyes moved from the gang member to the Super, on account of his size. He continued to drink his coffee, slurping it noisily.

  “Please, sir,” the girl said. “I really must go.”

  The Super finally finished drinking his coffee. “Let the girl go,” he said.

  The gang member turned his head around and took in the Super sitting behind him, the gun in his hand, he pointed it loosely at the Super’s chest. “You’re a big fella,” the gang member said with a grin. “You a Super?” he asked, his eyes narrowing. “If you were, what would your power be? The ability to eat a fuck ton of food?”

  Lucas, along with everyone else, now watched the Super. The gang member didn’t seem the brightest. Lucas knew which gang he belonged to, on account of the red colour dyed into the fade of his crew cut. It was a powerful gang, but at the end of the day, gangs came below Supers.

  Sure, he wasn’t one-hundred percent certain the guy was a Super. But in this day and age, it was safer to assume every human was a Super, especially if you were going to get into a fight. Even a Super that wasn’t part of the Authority could be still be very dangerous.

  A shot in the chest might not even hurt the guy. If it did hurt him, if the gang member didn’t decapitate the Super, he would recover. And then, you had to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder in case the Super came back for you. That was, if the Super didn’t recover immediately and tear your head off.

  “You’re going to die,” the Super said.

  Shots were fired as the Super climbed to his feet. Lucas had to give it to the gang member. He hadn’t frozen in fear. He’d acted and acted well. There were four bullets in the Super’s chest.

  Blood poured out from the holes in his chest and covered his white shirt.

  This Super’s power wasn’t being bullet-proof. It seemed the gang member had made a wise call on this one. The girl would be his. But only if he pulled out a knife and sliced the Super’s head off.

  The Super staggered back onto the chair he had risen from. His head tilted back onto the backrest. His mouth hung open; a gurgling sound escaped his lips. His eyes closed.

  “Thought he might have been a Super,” the gang member said. “He was just a fat ugly fucker,” he chuckled.

  Every other person in the room returned to focus on the things at their tables. Whether it was their drink, the person sitting with them, or their food. For Lucas, it was his paper. He picked it up and stared at the image of the man on the run, the man from London, who was so important, his face was on every paper in the country.

  Though he stared at the paper, he was aware of the girl watching him, a look of desperation in her eyes.

  “You wanna take that seat, missy?” the gang member asked. “Or do I need to make you sit down?” his voice hardened. “And don’t fucking look at him, bitch. He’s a fucking nobody,” the gang member said, now staring at Lucas. “Hey buddy,” he called.

  Lucas ignored him, his eyes still on the newspaper.

  “Buddy,” the guy repeated. “I’m talking to you.”

  Lucas sighed before he put the newspaper aside. He knew the gang the guy belonged to. It was a powerful gang with a lot of members. Killing him in a café he visited regularly, that wouldn’t go down so well.

  “The girl keeps looking at you cuz you got that hero look about you. Handsome, nice hair, nice blue eyes. You’re a tall fella too aren’t you. Stand up. Let’s have a look,” the guy said.

  Lucas remained seated in his chair. He could feel every eye on him, the blond girl’s, Lucy the waitress, and the other customers. Behind the gang member, the Super remained slumped on his chair, but unknown to most, he was healing.

  Each Super healed differently.

  The vast majority recovered from bullets by spitting the bullet out. But that wasn’t always the case. Those that were careless and thought they would hear the bullets fall out of the body and hit the ground with a thud, they usually paid with their lives. It was worse luck for the gang member. He didn’t even know the guy he’d shot was a Super.

  A Super that was healing fast.

  Soon, he would be up.

  Lucas kicked the chair back and climbed to his feet.

  “I knew it. Tall fucker. I called it, didn’t I?” the gang member said with a laugh. “Man, you really do look like a hero. But you’re not, are you? You’re not a Super, are you?” he held the gun warily, pointed at Lucas.

  “No,” Lucas said. “I’m not a Super.”

  Ignoring the desperate gaze of the blond woman the gang member held, Lucas sat back down and picked up his paper.

  “Did I say you could sit?” the gang member said, his voice hardening.

  “No,” Lucas said. “I thought the conversation was over because-” he stopped.

  “Because what?” the gang member frowned.

  “Because, behind you,” Lucas said.

  The
gang member turned to look back. As he did, the Super, now fully recovered, was back on his feet. He towered over the gang member, his arms stretched out, he grabbed the gang member by the neck and lifted him off the ground, dangling him by his throat.

  Despite being lifted off the ground by the neck, the gang member still held his pistol in hand. Pointed at the chest of the Super, he fired until the chamber as empty, until the pull of the trigger only made the sound of metal hitting metal, and not that of gunpowder exploding.

  There were four more bullets now buried into the Super’s chest.

  But this time, he did not go down.

  His hands tightened around the gang member’s neck. The gang member’s body thrashed. He kicked wildly with his legs, he threw the gun at the Super, then used his hands to try and break free. When that didn’t work, he tried to gouge out the eyes of the Super with his fingers.

  But the Super held firm, and the gang member’s body began to weaken visibly. His kicks came to a stop as did his arms. His shoulders slumped. For good measure, the Super kept his arms wrapped around the gang member’s neck. And then, satisfied he was dead, the Super threw the body aside like it was a rag doll.

  Lucas kept his eyes on the newspaper. Every other customer in the café did the same. They returned their focus on the things at their table, be that food, drink, or company. The silence was suddenly filled with conversation.

  Killings were common these days, and if a killing was committed by a Super, most people ignored it.

  It was the gang member’s mistake that cost him his life. He let his guard down. He should have checked to see if the guy he’d just shot was still breathing. Either he had little experience with Supers, or he was distracted by the hot girl he figured he was on his way to fucking.

  But he was dead now.

  And there was no coming back from being truly dead. Not even Supers.

  It was why Lucas was still alive.

  He had plenty experience with Supers, and that experience had taught him to run if he wasn’t certain he could slice the Super’s head clean off.

  Chapter 2

  The bloodied Super threw aside the body of the gang member and sat down on the chair the man had formerly occupied. He waved at the waitress, and Lucy rushed over, knowing better than to get on the wrong side of a Super that had just strangled a man to death.