The days before the raid seemed to pass like nothing. Andrew didn’t think much of it—worrying about dying wasn’t a good idea. So, instead, he did whatever he could to just put his mind off it. Played video games for a while, watched a few movies, and just went on walks. Boring but nice stuff.
Sipping on some coffee, he checked on the groupchat.
Gutierrez: Back from the states.
Singh: Get any souvenirs?
Gutierrez: Sorry, they didn’t have any curry. SIKE!
He sent a picture of a family dinner where they gorged on pure Indian cuisine. Rice, naan, curry, and plates of it. You could even see his smiling wife and kid. He was a little on the chubby side, but Andrew wasn’t going to mention–
Smith: Your son looks like a little diabeto.
Andrew almost spat out his coffee.
Singh: He built like a burrito.
Kang: I cannot lie, I agree with the team on this one.
The insults were just flying all over the groupchat. Kang’s addition was like seeing poison ivy being rubbed on gonorrhea. Andrew didn’t even have enough time to like every single comment.
Gutierrez: Wow Singh. I try embracing your culture and this is how you repay me.
Singh: You better pay for his gym membership too.
Smith: I can’t lie, Singh is leaving you in some generational curse.
Gutierrez: White boy, don’t start it with me.
Smith: Why not? Gonna pick a fight?
Gutierrez: Fine. You asked for it.
He sent a screenshot of a woman from a dating app. It took a second for Andrew to recognize who the woman was: Samantha Kim.
Smith: …
Gutierrez: Singh found it, not me.
Singh: It was supposed to be for emergencies! You practically nuked the motherfucker for a joke!
Andrew found himself smiling like a joker. That was, until he saw the Sergeant shooting up a text herself. Those three dots looked like bigfoot.
Sergeant: Glad to see everyone’s still alive, including Smith’s ex-girlfriend. Anyhow, don’t get yourselves hurt in the meantime. The raid is coming soon, and I need each of you in good condition. We’ve made it this far, let’s make it a little further. Good to go?
Gutierrez: Yea.
Singh: Rah.
Kang: Understood.
Smith: Good to go.
It was nice to see that even the Sergeant was enjoying the banter a little bit. Honestly, Andrew was glad to have Sergeant Yang as his team leader. Her character, alone, could motivate him to move mountains.
Andrew: Yes Sergeant.
***
A couple hours before the raid, CDR-4 came together at Little Macho’s—their favorite unorthodox pizzeria. Sitting at the biggest table they could find, they had another collective dinner just as they usually would back in the barracks. “Nice of the Sar’nt to join us!” Gutierrez chuckled. “Usually you’re getting some paperwork when we eat.”
She smiled as she rested her face on her bionic arm. “I just love the way the numbers look at me. Bullets don’t fly without supply.”
Smith ordered a pepperoni with extra cheese. “Are you sarcastic right now? I can never tell.”
The Sergeant got a pie with sausage and onions. “Who said I was?”
Singh got a slice with bacon toppings—beef wasn’t to her liking. After removing her dip, she said, “How about instead of talking about the wonderful world of chits and spreadsheets, we start asking the real question: why did Kang join the CDRs?”
Gutierrez enthusiastically nodded as he pigged out on a Little Macho’s special: a pizza-burrito combo where the pizza was essentially smashed into a tortilla. Not his usual, but it was good for a last meal. “Shit, you’re right! I always assumed you were like chino Cheng. Smart as fuck, but stupid enough to think this CDR shit was a good idea.
Andrew got himself a supreme pizza—something with a little bit of everything. “Sure I’m a dumb ass, but I’m definitely sure Kang had a whole lot more to lose. Smart and holy guy like you, what gives?”
Kang was happy with a vegan slice with tofu. It wasn’t that he was avoiding meat, he just preferred the lack of oil. He took a breath, then replied, “I needed money to pay off a surgery, and the CDRs promised a good amount of money at a time when employment would be difficult.”
The Sergeant sat back, while the rest of the squad leaned in. “A surgery?” Singh asked. “What, are you bionic, like the Sergeant?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Were you donating a kidney?” Gutierrez tried.
“Oh!” Smith hooted. “A surgery doesn’t mean your surgery. Was it your mom’s?”
Kang chuckled. “I don’t speak to my mom. Actually, especially because of the surgery, I don’t speak much to my parents.” He took a bite from his pizza as the rest of the squad silently stared back at him. “What’s the money pool on me being gay? I’ve always been dying to know.”
They looked at each other with confused looks. Only Singh had the courage to answer, “We got two hundred saying you’re gay, and just one hundred saying you’re straight. What, are you gonna give us the answer?”
Kang sighed. “I guess you all lose out. I’m asexual.”
The team looked back at each other, sighed, and realized that nobody was getting any money. “Wait,” Smith continued, “you still haven’t given us an answer. What was the surgery about?”
“Oh, the surgery? It was for gender reassignment.”
Dropped jaws. All except the Sergeant. She was still eating her pizza while she enjoyed the show. Gutierrez was the first to ask, “Do you see yourself as a woman or something? No judgement here, amigo, but I’m confused.”
“I’m a man,” Kang replied. “Born as a woman.”
Singh dropped her slice. “No… no fucking way…” she muttered. “But… you’re so like… strong and your voice… it’s deep…” For Singh, it was like trying to understand the existence of computers as a caveman.
“Still not convinced?” Kang asked. He chuckled as he got out a picture from his phone. “Here’s a picture from high school, when my parents wanted me to look and dress more traditional.”
Gutierrez snatched it from his hand. “Gladly! I’ll see what kind of fuckshit you…”
He took a real good look. He blinked. Andrew could almost see the photo’s reflection in Gutierrez’s blank eyes. “Dios mio… you were… fine as fuck…” he muttered. “Like Smith’s type, fine as fuck, minus the cheating.”
“The fuck?” Smith scoffed. He grabbed the phone for his own look. His look of suspicion slowly melted into a similar blankness. “Shit…” he muttered. “I mean you’re handsome right now, Kang, but if you’re down…”
By the time Andrew got a look, he came to find a definitely enchanting young woman with glasses and a quiet grin. A sort of quiet strength that Kang always carried, with its still powerful connotations. “Wow. Blessed in birth,” Andrew muttered. “Sergeant, I’m guessing you were the only one who knew about this?”
She nodded as she finished another slice. “Of course I knew. I personally chose Kang after comparing the reports. While some stateside dipshits didn’t want some trans-masc on their team, I decided we could do with a fresh badass. I wasn’t proven wrong, was I?”
Everyone chuckled together as they all patted Kang on the shoulders. “Assistant Team Leader Kang: the slayer of demons and the taker of hearts!” Smith laughed. “Shit, man, I’m glad you got surgery! Without it, you’d probably be some CEO, instead of a CDR bastard!”
Kang gave a real smile. A rare thing from a rare man. “The money wouldn’t be enough to buy the time we’ve had together. It’s been an honor being the Assistant Team Leader, and a bigger honor of being in CDR-4. Sorry, Gutierrez, since I probably still sound like Confucius.”
Everyone was silent. Even though they were his usual, Kang’s words put everyone to deep reflection. Wise words from a wise–
“Kang, you probably have the biggest dick out of the squad,” Singh yawned.
“Yo! What the fuck?!” Smith yelped.
“My bad,” she giggled, “intrusive thought, you know?”
The squad kept eating and laughing away. For a while, it seemed like the demons were just a thing of the past, or maybe not a thing at all. Part of Andrew hoped that this raid would never come; like it would be canceled like a parade on a rainy day.
But the irony of the whole thing is that, without the demons or the transformations, CDR-4 wouldn’t even exist. Their lives wouldn’t have ever converged. Yang would probably be some mercenary, Singh would be stuck in Gujarat, Smith at a chopshop, Gutierrez in some out-of-the-way army base, and Kang—well—god knows how high or low that talented man could go.
Long story short, Andrew both owed and hated the demons he had to fight. He felt almost selfish, considering how much destruction those monsters have done to people, but he loved his team. To say that they were his family wouldn’t be enough. Having fought alongside them, he’d know them better than any son, brother, or father could know their own kin.
“Oh! Guess what I found!” Singh giggled. She pulled out her phone to reveal a photo of Andrew and Hannah at the mall together. “Look! Cheng got himself some play pulling a lab girl!”
Gutierrez was howling. “Shit, chica! Motherfucker decided to pull a reverse Smith! Huntin’ for snowbunnies, unlike our favorite white boy!”
Even though Smith was at the butt of that joke, he was still laughing to the point of hitting his fist against the table. “Damn, Cheng! I didn’t know you had play like that!”
But Andrew couldn’t find himself laughing along. Not because he didn’t find it funny—the whole thing was their usual flavor of hilarious—but because he remembered Hannah’s paranoia. The mental institution. The doctor from his dreams. The man who just disappeared. He had buried that information as soon as he left her apartment, only for it to resurface now, of all times.
“Yo, Cheng?” Singh asked. “You alright?”
It took a second for Andrew to snap back to reality. “Huh? What?”
The Sergeant stood up, almost causing everyone to instinctively stand up as well. “Everyone must muster back at the shop at 0100. I want everyone to get a good night of rest until then. No partying, no drinking, and definitely no exercise. I want everyone in tip-top shape to kill, kill, and kill. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Sergeant!”
Sergeant Yang looked at the rest of the team with a smile. It was similar to the smile she had when that injured boy visited her in the hospital. “This might be the last time I can say this, but you’ve all been the best people I could’ve had the chance of leading. We’ve been through hell, and sent more motherfuckers back there than any of those other teams combined. Long story short, I’m damn proud.”
Gutierrez smiled back with his gapped teeth. “Sar’nt, can we break it down! You know, that ‘Go Team!’ shit they do in basketball movies?”
She chuckled. “Sure. Lead us into it, will you?”
The team put their hands in the middle as Gutierrez gathered them around. “Alright! I’m gonna count to three, and then you pendejos are gonna say CDR-4. Ready?”
Everyone nodded.
“One, two, three!”
“CDR-4!”