The Enhanced

Chapter 8

The car ride was quiet.

Eli thought about turning on the radio the way she always did, but she knew Klaus would turn it back off. He didn't like it. He never mentioned why.

Some people just preferred silence. It was as simple as that.

Klaus didn't know where Eli was driving. He didn't he was going to assist two murders. It was easier when he didn't. Usually, he wouldn't take is as hard as if he did, so Eli kept him in the dark.

Rationalizing what needed to be done came easier to Eli than it did the others. This is for the greater good, she would tell herself the second the slightest bit of doubt began to creep in. In the long run, this will save lives. This needs to be done. She'd say it over and over until the words had stomped out any apprehension.

The gun tucked away in her holster got heavier by the minute. By the time Eli parked across the street from the first target's house, it was anchor.

"If you know where they are, why am I here?" Klaus asked.

"In case he isn't. I'm on a clock."

Klaus' gaze fell onto Eli's holster. "Dirty work for you."

"Yeah."

Klaus didn't say anything more. When Eli got out the car, he followed her lead, quiet.

The target was residing in one of the few suburban areas in the city. His place was on a cul de sac - a little pink house with a well-kept lawn and grass the same shade as green as everyone else's. Houses like this - neighborhoods like this - they couldn't possibly be part of the real world. Everything was too saturated, too nice, too alive. It was like stepping into an alternate reality.

Wind chimes jingled as Klaus and Eli neared the door. She grabbed a package that had been left on the doormat and pushed it into Klaus' hands. Eli stepped aside, out of sight from the door's peephole.

"You knock," Eli said. "He'll know my face."

Klaus rang the bell.

Eli exhaled, slow through her nose, and drew her gun.

The door pulled open. "Oh. Did you need me to sign or something?"

Klaus didn't answer him.

"Dude, you alright?"

Klaus turned away and went back to the car.

Eli stepped into the man's line of sight with her gun raised. "Inside."

The man's eyes widened to a point where it was comical. He stepped back into the house, dropping his package at the threshold as he turned on his heels to flee.

The bullet was in the man's head before he could realize Eli pulled the trigger. His body fell forward with a resounding thump.

Eli stepped inside to lock the door behind them as she left.

Klaus was quiet during their ride to the next town over.

Things went much like they had earlier. Klaus got the second target to open the door and got out of the way, Eli shot him and they got in the car to go back home like nothing had happened. Klaus was trapped in some sort of silent chaos, staring at the blood that had splash onto his clothes, and Eli's mind was buzzing something awful, but this wasn't bad.

That was two problems dealt with without any unnecessary dramatics. Things had gone smoothly this time around.

"You know this is messed up, right?" Klaus whispered some time later.

"It's necessary, Klaus."

"That doesn't make it any less fucked up. They turned you into a robot, you know that right? You torture people and you kill them and you neveer have anything to say about it."

"You want to throw a fit like you every time I have to do my job?"

"You can quit a job, Eli."

Eli kept her eyes fixed on the road. She didn't want to abandon the Elites. What they were doing was too important. Without them, the little that the Enhanced had would crumble to pieces. They would have no defense. No protection. Nothing would stop them from being slaughtered in the streets like before. If things were bad now, they were hell before.

"I don't want to quit."

"What if you did? They won't leave me alone. You think they'd let you go?"

"I'm second-in-command."

"But you're still not the one calling the shots. If you tried leaving, you'd be as disposable as me and you know it."

"We're not doing this right now."

The quiet resumed.