Six foot five Lemuel Hoskins is on his hands and knees whimpering.

Jake Povick with a cattle prod is standing over Lemuel, "You do just like I tell ya now, dontcha, big fella? You obey me forever now, dontcha?"

"Yessir" squeals Lemuel.

"Good!" says Jake and starts the chainsaw.

July 2, 2023. Las Vegas City Hall. Police Division

"Captain. Did you hear? They just found a torso in a dumpster on West Charleston?"

"Really? Remember the head in Summerlin yesterday?"

"Forensics are on it. They'll match 'em up".

The head does match. During the next two days the cooler fills up as the other limbs come in from all over town. All are in good condition.

July 5, 2023

Synchronicity? The national news media announces a discovery by Dr. Arnold Gentries of Des Moines Iowa: a secret formula they say his family has been sitting on for a hunded and fifty years. It stimulates the holographic healing process in the subject body. All the data shows that a severed limb sprayed with this formula will automatically match up veins, muscles, and tendons if simply lined up and reattached with stitches. The bones knit solid practically overnight.

July 6, 2023 6:00 AM. UMC Hospital Las Vegas

The head, torso, and limb stubs are thinly re-cut and Lemuel's body is successfully reconnected using "Gentries' Solution." When Lemuel awakens he has no memory of anything. He says nothing, but quickly learns of his dismemberment and reassembly from doting nurses.

By early afternoon "Humpty-Dumpty Hoskins" as the media are now calling him, is conversing with the police. They ask him what happened. He says without inflection "Me know nothing. Nothing to say to you. You go now. Now I sleep!" He does sleep and for fifteen hours straight. The police try again, but after a few days the hospital discharges the big man who leaves briskly with only a slight limp.

The news media are interviewing the surgeon who put Lemuel back together. "It's like a miracle" he says. "The formula stimulates new cell growth, even of nerve cells. I'm worried about his mind though. I'm not saying this is necessarily true with Mr. Hoskins, but often when a person suffers extreme mental or physical trauma, it's like moral conceptualization shuts down or becomes functionally diminished. Like a normal brain fifty thousand years age. No concept of liberty or moral reciprocity. In these cases a "collective other" view of humanity predominates and the individual blames everybody. He may then try to get even with everybody. For example: by burp-gunning a crowded restaurant full of kids. We put Hoskins on full intravenous with the new solution and there's no cortical necrosis, even though he showed it initially. I'm worried because he seems devoid of emotion. He talks like a robot. Moral memory would probably be lost along with the necrotic area. I really hope Mr. Hoskins will be all right".

Lemuel goes downtown and has a huge meal, then down to the Strip. He walks around looking at everything. The next day he heads for LA, buys two huge double bladed axes and a guitar case to carry them in. That night in his room he practices with the axes to coordinate his movements like a Samurai with two swords.

The next morning Lemuel goes to a subway station at rush hour. Just before the next train arrives he takes the two axes out and stands up firmly with his legs slightly apart and the raises the axes high. He bellows "Me not Torso now. Now Torso I make all of you. Now you go live in dumpster. Now in dumpster you all obey me forever!"

A crowd of people are standing transfixed. Having said his piece, Lemuel rushes them swinging the huge axes. He resembles the old animation of John Henry with giant sledge hammers working to connect the East and West railroads. Lemuel comes right into the crowd butchering, maiming, and slaying. The dead fall before him like chaff before the wind.

A crack-head jive-talker on the opposite subway platform yells across to Lemuel "Hey, Paul Bunyan, where's yo Blue Ox? Take a chill pill, Motherfucker!"

The train pulls in. The doors open. Lemuel enters, kills the driver, and throws the switch so all the car doors shut. Then he begins his long march of death through the train.

First with one slice he decapitates three little boys sitting in a row. The little heads roll down to the floor like small cabbages. The father begins to rise but Lemuel splits his skull in two. The horrified screaming mother looks up. Lemuel smiles down warmly with his big buck teeth and says "Much fun ahead now. You find new dick. Start over."

The mighty ax master works his way down the line cleaving, hewing, and slicing. He kills nearly everybody in twelve subway cars. The floors are drenched with blood. So is Lemuel. This time he has really gone to town.

When the police finally arrive and pump Lemuel full of lead he has killed three hundred and seventy four people. There are another eighty seven hospitalized with everything from a lost hand to two severed legs.

July 14, 2023

Lemuel Hoskin's face is all over the newspapers. Garrett Valdison, visiting Las Vegas, has just finished a fine breakfast of Pacific Red Snapper, Monterrey Jack, and sliced Bosc Pear. The news lady eating with him asks what he thinks.

"Ain't none such like unto it. I know that Hoskins has big buck teeth, but I think it's the epitome of bad taste to have so many of the media people calling him "The Beaver Cleaver".

July 22, 2023 Summerlin Nevada

Jake Povick describes Lemuel Hoskins as "a no good pig who raped and murdered my kid sister and then got equited because of illegally obtained evidence." Clifton Farris, John's energetic lookalike younger brother, sits behind his desk interviewing Povick as a possible member of his expanding organization. He decides in favor adding,

"Please remember, Jake, just bring us the defendants all in one piece from now on. I admire enthusiasm , but no chain saw massacres or dumpsters this time. Agreed?"

"Sure, Boss. No problem. I'm happy for the chance to help with plans like this. I promise I'll do only what you're paying me to do."