taken a lot of work to get rid of her body and not be a suspect in her disappearance. He’d buried her deep in swampland, where the corpse was never found. He’d also burned the motel down; there had been too much blood to clean up, and the fire had the added bonus of destroying any documents that might have led the police to him. As an added plus, the motel manager on duty that night went up in flames after Rex had knocked him unconscious. On the bright side, he thought, that’s where I learned to love arson.
Lacking in normal sexual release, he found that his always-increasing inner tension was relieved by killing, at least temporarily. Killing was his sexual activity, and he was well aware of it. In fact, he reveled in it. Before the grid went down, his killings had had to be secretive, adding a layer of difficulty to his acts. Afterwards, when there was no law, he killed in the open and enjoyed it far more. He enjoyed an audience when he killed. The post-grid world couldn’t fit him better if he had custom designed it. He was free to do whatever he was powerful and smart enough to do, and he loved it.
He was averse to getting any bodily fluids on him, except blood. He didn’t mind blood, but would still quickly wash it off. Rex always took extra care with his appearance. He had two women captives that washed and ironed his clothes. He changed two, sometimes three times per day, washing himself thoroughly each time. One of the women trimmed his hair and shaved him every morning. They cooked his meals, performed the house cleaning and laundry, and shined his boots. Any tiny deviation from his infinitely detailed rules and routine, and the offending woman would receive a severe beating. Rex, ever aware of being poisoned by the women, even made them eat first while he watched. At random intervals, he ordered one of his men to eat his meal. He made it clear to the women that should they try to poison him, their fate would be hideous beyond their worst nightmares.
Rex had been discharged from the Army along with thousands of other soldiers at Fort Hood after the grid dropped, and the Army could no longer feed them all. He took his rifle, ammunition, and MREs and walked back to his hometown of Baton Rouge, leaving a trail of blood and bodies in his wake. He was born in Baton Rouge, and had grown up on the rough side of town. His first kill was at the age of eight. A slightly older and much larger bully had accosted him on the way to school. The bully was found stabbed to death a few days later. The police barely investigated, and certainly didn’t think to look at children of Rex’s age. Other bodies—mostly of the homeless—were found with their throats cut over the next ten years in and around his neighborhood. After Rex enlisted in the Army, Baton Rouge’s unsolved homicide rate went down perceptibly. No one made the connection.
Rex joined the Army so that he could kill openly; he hated having to be sneaky about it. Killing for the good of the country, under orders, was still killing to him. It provided a cloak of acceptability that he found useful. He rapidly worked his way into a special operations unit. He was large, heavily muscled, handsome, and fast. Even though he was outwardly an extremely attractive man, most women avoided him instinctively; the few that didn’t, he brushed off as loathsome annoyances. His IQ was nearly off the charts, and he never hesitated to move aggressively. His combat skills and aggressive attitude outshone every soldier he was paired with, except one, and Rex had become overtly obsessed with besting that man. Killing him had become his constant inner drive. When the grid had dropped and the world changed for the better, his obsession had gone into hibernation, deep in the rotten swamps of his twisted mind. But it hadn’t died. It laid in the darkness of his mind with one eye half open, waiting.
Rex looked at the body with contempt, then looked up at his men. He said, “There is only one penalty here. Be sure you’re willing to pay the price before you break a rule.” He stared the men down for thirty seconds. They avoided eye contact, knowing that any little thing could set him off if