Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 25: Cleaning Up

Laz felt all the energy leave his body as he fell backwards, his butt hitting the floor. He just sat there taking deep breaths.

Tony was still firing like a madman and without the help of Little Joey, the bullets pierced Big Joey's arms, entering his head and killing him. He finally fell over dead.

Tony fell to his knees at this point, also grasping for breath. He was unable to make sense of what just happened, but he felt like his mind was ready to collapse. He had seen a lot in his twenty something years, but this exceeded what he was capable of handling.

Laz looked up and saw Tony's head which was just barely visible over the counter. Tony looked up as well and they made eye contact and for a brief moment while silence lingered like an uncomfortable fog over the apartment.

In the next moment, both men just started laughing like a pair of maniacs. The three henchmen at the door couldn't even say a word. They just stood there with dumb looks on their faces as though they were a badly carved set of statues.

Tony looked over at them and started laughing even harder. He was already on his knees, laughing his head off in the small kitchen area, so this additional intensity caused him to fall forward as though a man kowtowing. His head hit the floor with an audible bang but he just kept laughing like a man possessed.

Laz wasn't much better. After following Tony's previous line of sight, he then noticed the three dumb looking statues and fell backwards while his laughing doubled. It was all he could do to keep his sanity in check at this moment. They say laughter is the best medicine and it seemed to be the only cure they had right now.

Only after about 10 minutes did both men settle down, gasping and wheezing for breath, while the trio hadn't moved once. If you looked close enough, you might have even seen a small accumulation of dust of them. The apartment was very, very dirty after all.

"Boss?" The first statue finally moved forward, walking over towards Tony, his face full of questions.

"Did you bring the truck?"

"Yeah Boss," Lenny responded, looking at his boss with a mix of concern and horror. He felt like he might have finally snapped. The life expectancy in this business wasn't a long one and mental issues were prominent.

"Get this apartment torn apart and cleaned up. Make sure the body, both parts, are destroyed. His van is outside and the keys should be on him somewhere. There is a girl in the back who is messed up bad and tripping. Hit her with another small dose before you move her. Call one of our contacts in the police and do a drop off. It will probably be a benefit for them so make sure it's one we trust."

Lenny's crew was a literal cleaning crew. They cleaned up the mess others made in the course of their work when there was a need. Not everyone who made a mess knew how to clean it up correctly. This line of work wasn't exactly glorious, but no one would doubt how useful it was. It was because of this that Lenny and his boys were treated pretty well. Their work was the deciding factor on how well evidence disappeared.

If they were 'sloppy' for some reason, the person who made the mess might end up getting caught. They also couldn't blame or snitch on the crew since they knew so much. If anyone said anything, there was enough people involved that they wouldn't live to see the next morning.

It might not be glorious work, but they were well paid and protected. They just had to shut up and do as they were told.

"Boss, how do you want us to get rid of that thing? And what the hell is that thing?" Lenny asked, pointing at the giant snake like thing with a huge mouth and razor sharp teeth that was laying on the floor. Bits of black blood were still dripping out of it's 'neck' area.

Tony looked over at Laz for some reason as if he wanted his opinion. Although Tony didn't know it, he had already formed a bit of trust for this unassuming young man and the way he was able to rapidly adjust to seeing a man's member grow three meters and try to eat him.

This wasn't something you could prepare for in advance yet this kid seemed to take it in stride. Tony had seen his eyes at that time as well, so he started to wonder if Laz had experience with this. How else could he stay even remotely calm?

The one thing Tony didn't think was that Laz had set him up, but that was only after he placed some thought into it. Laz was the first to react and attack. Tony also saw how surprised Laz was when Little Joey appeared and saw him freeze up as if in shock.

These types of reactions, not matter how good an actor, couldn't be faked. This lead Tony to figure out that Laz didn't know that Joey was like this, but that he had come across others that were.

He was going to rough Laz up for dragging him into this all the same, but even that feeling faded. Sometimes you bond with people after a life or death experience. He wasn't about to call him brother and offer his little sister to him, but he didn't feel anything negative about him either..

For the made man that never bowed to anyone, Tony found it somewhat easy to respect this runt.

"Burn it. Incinerate it. Just make sure nothing remains," Laz responded with traces of disgust.

"Oh, and you might want to wear some gloves," Laz added, after having a bad feeling.

Although the 'head' had been bleeding out for a while, it was just a small, barely noticeable trickle for the most part. Suddenly, the head and mouth section began to swell and bloat and before anyone had a chance to react, it erupted like a fire hose.

One of Lenny's guys that was standing in front of it while they had been looking at it as was covered with a mix of white goo, black blood and some other unidentified substances.

Everyone froze as though posing for a picture. The only noise that could be heard was the final bits of Little Joey dripping down from where ever they ended up. The poor henchman was only lucky in the sense that he had his mouth closed when this happened, but that didn't stop him from turning around and throwing up.

The other guys were only saved by the fact that they had pretty solid stomachs and had seen a lot of stuff before. Laz was fighting back the urge however and wasn't sure how long he could hold it in.

Tony, looking at Laz becoming somewhat pale, got up and told him to follow him before walking outside.

As Laz exited, he took a deep breath of fresh air and felt his entire body finally relax. He didn't realize he had been so tense until this moment.

"What the hell was that?" Tony asked, while pulling out a cigarette. He pulled out an ace of spades lighter and lit up while waiting for a response. He didn't even know if he was going to get one, but he didn't want to not ask either.

"You remember the news story before we came down here?" Laz asked while looking into the night sky.

"Kinda," Tony replied. Although he heard bits and pieces, he was a bit more focused on Desi than on the TV at that point.

"These types of things are going to keep popping up more and more often."

"Guys with huge mutant dicks are going to be walking the streets now?"

Laz looked over as though not sure what Tony meant and saw a smile on his face. Although he understood what Laz had meant, he just found it really hard to believe. He would much rather think this was a one time thing as opposed to being a new norm. He wasn't sure he could handle that.

"Just make sure to wear boots," Laz joked, looking back up.

"Here kid, try this," Tony laughed and offered Laz a cigarette.

Laz knew what the dangers of smoking are, but seeing Tony relax made him decide to try it just this once.

Tony flicked his lighter again and brought it over to light Laz's cigarette for him, before leaning back against the building and looking up. Laz didn't know this, but for guys like Tony, this was the highest form of thanks he could give another guy. It showed mutual respect.

Laz breathed in deeply and immediately started choking. It was like fire and acid hit his throat and his lungs at the same time and he couldn't help gasping for breath. It was a fight to even get any air while trying to stop himself from coughing repeatedly as he bent over from the strain.

Tony just took another drag and stood in place, admiring the stars that he felt like he was seeing for the first time. Letting the smoke roll out of his mouth slowly, he couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, feels good, doesn't it?"