Prologue

The ground stops rustling, as the hunching figure crawling upon them halts. The noises from inside the house have stopped. Veritable cries of mercy, disgust, and anguish, all have stopped. That last boom that alarmed our crawling man seems to be a reason behind the silence. It's obvious. Someone got shot, and that too as a statement. Not to kill, but to terrify. Our man has to rush. Do something before the second sound rattles the air. But he cannot. He has nothing to defend himself with. All he has brought to this reasonably obvious daring mission, the stakes of which are almost incomprehensible, is himself.

Why won't he? He thought his elder brother got him all covered up. They'd separately leave the city. The elder before the younger. Then, they'd together bust this kidnapping racket. Violence is not always the answer, but it makes them good money. The cries resume. Another voice interspersed within. Now it is just one cry, one dejected cry that was counting something.

Suddenly, our man hears a whisper, "Balthasar!"

He turns around. The sparsely lit frame was unquestionably his behind-schedule brother's, with a pouch around his neck, possibly filled with guns. Too cautious to show his face, too scared to raise his voice beyond the decibels of a whisper.

"What took you so long? The captors are still alive. We still have the chance of saving them." Says clever Balthasar.

"If you want everything your way, you should start using your guts then." Says his brother.

He is about to go on when Balthasar shushed him. He is going above. He'll seize this moment he had sat 16 useless minutes waiting for. There still might be someone left to save. The cries are intensifying. He still cannot make out what the hell was anyone counting. The brothers take off their shoes. Stand erect by the window sill. And go in. Without any hesitation, they walk like they have nothing to fear. The elder, now calmly, follows the younger's lead. We'll have a massacre tonight. They go through the thinly lit hallways, through the kitchen (which God knows what these sadists have kept there). Balthasar knew they have something in the kitchen, some shelf filled with the definition of gore. He stops. The older looks over his shoulder. His cautious self has bubbled again.

"Why're we stopping?" says he.

No reply from Balthasar. He goes to the opposite corner of the kitchen towards a chest of 5 drawers. Pure instincts, but if they were going someplace further than he could eaves upon, then it has to be the furthest corner. He stoops and pulls on the topmost drawer in the corner. Nothing.

The elder, now shaking, says, "We should keep moving." He goes forward, out of Balthasar's view. The wall next to him seems weird. He squirts his eyes. It's a window painted black, like the house. The entirety of this floor is black.

"Shut up, Claudius!" says Balthasar to proclaim his revelation.

Claudius returns to the kitchen.

"I found a stairway. It goes below. Come now. We have two guns. We'll finish them right away."

"Why would we go down? It's coming from above."

"It's a dead-end ahead. It has to be from that stairway, somehow."

Balthasar kneels and opens the second drawer from the top. He doesn't realize one of the voices from above has come down and it might have been alerted from the sound of the drawer. Claudius freezes like a deer. He takes the guns out of the pouch, and charges towards the hallway. He empties both of them towards the direction familiar. The haunting sounds of the two fatal toys, one of which belongs to Balthasar, engulf the entire floor, and possibly the house. Balthasar realizes he has not had a heartbeat for a minute. He looks at the drawer, it's ahead. A human head with fumes coming out of it. What were they doing coming to see this head repeatedly? There has to be something else. But there's no time for that. He stands up and rushes to the hallway, to the head of the brightly lit stairway, which had somehow escaped his view till now (possibly the doors around it). He stares disgustingly at the newly christened corpse of the man.

The man was wearing a red mask, covering the region around his eyes, as that would hide his true identity. He was wearing a red dress, with a plastic anachronistic gear shaped like an upside-down saucer painted in gold around his neck. His red cloak, holed by Claudius' bullets, did not help cover up the blood that has fallen over it. The sight of his corpse reminded Balthasar of someone familiar. Someone he has seen in the past has been rubbing shoulders with this peacock. The other voice which sounded more sinister was still above them though and deducing from the sounds now. He has hastened up to his ritual. Because this is what it sounds like, a ritual. This is an era of rationality and restraint. These pigs are just indulging their sickest desires, all in the name of pleasing the pagan ghosts of the wilderness. But, the ghosts are not pleased with their rituals. They need something entirely different, and Balthasar is not willing to let them know about it without making them suffer.

"They are doing a ritual. And I'll bet to please the ghosts." Says he.

"No, they're not. They're doing the last thing from pleasing the ghosts."

Claudius sighs.

"They're vigilantes."

Perplexing. For Balthasar, not Claudius. He will kill the other guy. It's one for each. That was what they'd agreed upon every time it's a two-man target. The figure above has started shuffling. He has not yet shot at the floor below him, to get at his intruders. Claudius hands Balthasar his gun, reloaded. He has come prepared. The brothers go down the stairway. It is yellow from a bulb's light at the foot of the way.

"Smells like death over here." one says.

"Seems like too." Says the other.

The stairs are treacherous. Sized randomly. One big, one small, one enormous, two tiny. It's like the maker hated walking. But then, who wants them to like anything. Suddenly, a loud groan echoes the way. There's no time for walking. The brothers fumble their way to the bottom. Rush singularly towards another hallway, then other stairs, this one regular, going above and lit with white light, and then stop at the head of the stairs, behind the doors enclosing whatever's inside. It's action time now, and Balthasar needs one last whiff of air before the kill. Strange, loud noises, like the hurtling of blades of a fan, were heard from inside the room.

"58," said a crying voice.

"Is it?" said an anguished one.

Another loud groan is heard. Balthasar kicks the door above and just like his brother before, empties his gun at the stranger terrifying the entire room. The stranger was dressed like his dead friend below, but his color was bright red in place of red. The bullets have taken his will to live, it seems. Yet, before collapsing he shoots at the tied figure below him, killing it. Balthasar now witnesses the horror below him. 5 men, all gagged, chest to the floor and flagellated lying dead of gunshot wounds to their head. Their heads have been all put in a direction toward the crying gagged man in the chair. There's another woman in a bathtub close to the other wall. Her death seems to be particularly painful. Life has left her body before sorrow did. Her hands were tied with ropes to a steel rod over the bathtub. She seems to be nailed. Balthasar cannot bear to look at her. He can look at the sitting man though. He was crying, and he doesn't seem relieved to see his rescuer. Balthasar approaches him and removes the cloth tying the man's mouth closed.

"What happened here, your majesty?" he asks as he goes behind his majesty to untie his hands. Claudius enters the room. He seemed surprised rather than horrified. A weird confidence creeps into his majesty, as he opens his mouth.

"I'm not your majesty, and neither would anyone in my family would want to be referred that way. I'm Gaius. By the way, have you ever tried catching a ghost as a hobby? Mark my words, it'd be easy for you, given how quick you are." Says Gaius. He was definitely not crying anymore.

"I thought we were before schedule." Says Claudius.

"Mr. Rojo, we honestly believed we were early. We're sorry for this mess. At least, we came. Not many bounty hunters have been able to track down this house. All we want in return is some gratitude." Says Balthasar. Gaius Rojo has been untied.

"You aren't doing this for free. You might be getting a reward, or better yet, a position as a Pioneer." Says Gaius Rojo.

"We're sorry, Mr. Rojo." Says Balthasar, completely humbled in the presence of Gaius Rojo.

"Mr. Rojo, can you tell us what exactly happened here?" Says Claudius.

Having gathered his energies, berating his two saviors, Gaius Rojo stands up and charges towards the door, without any glimpse at the six corpses in the room. It seems like he wants to escape this moment of weakness of his.

"All these madness, caused by just two Vigilantes. Can you believe it?" Says Gaius, as he walks down the stairs. Now he is trying to bond with his saviors.

The walk below is quiet, and so is the climbing after that. The three have now, finally reached the dark hallway. Balthasar returns to the drawer in the kitchen, before leaving the house. He pulls out the third drawer. This one has guns and bullets. So, they were just coming to get more bullets to shoot. Gaius Rojo pulls out the second drawer, to the shock of Claudius. He takes one gun from the third and abruptly shoves it in the head.

"This is not a human head. Have you ever seen fumes from a freshly cut human head?" Says he. The marks around the neck are new.

"So….. A ghost?" Says Claudius.

Gaius Rojo nodded. The three leave the head and the guns behind. They rush to remove all scraps of memory of this place. Gaius Rojo slows down as he realizes he doesn't know how they are going to get to the city.

Balthasar gets outside first. The pitch darkness of the night sky weighs heavily on his frantic heart. He goes back to the house, the other two wait for him not knowing what to do. He goes back to the kitchen, back to the drawer. Guns should never be left behind like that. He kneels and begins to take them out one-by-one. The guns did not bear resemblance to any other kind of guns he'd seen before, especially one of them. He is not thinking about that though. The truck he came here, in will hold all of these comfortably. He carries as much as he can. There must be more guns on the below shelves. He gives a push and lifts them to the entrance. And slowly but carefully, walks to the entrance.

"Look into the other shelves, and if there are any, take them to the truck."

Claudius goes back to the drawer, without any complaints. Gaius Rojo on Balthasar's lead slowly treads to the truck kept at the bushes opposite the house.

"That's a really good place to hide a truck." Says he.

"We weren't expecting it to be a long affair. Our plan was meetup here and burst in." Says Balthasar.

"I wasn't being sarcastic. Anyways, why do you need so many guns for?" Asks Gaius Rojo. His demeanor changes as he realizes he has been going on too harsh on the two who have just liberated him.

"We'd always need guns right." Says Balthasar. He unloads the whole load from his hand onto the bed behind the cabin. Gaius Rojo goes to the front and sits next to the driver's seat.

"Yes, but once you are Pioneers, you could just take guns from whoever you want as long as they're not themselves Pioneers."

"I didn't know that….. There are too many Pioneers nowadays. It is not easy to just take one from someone, without paying or expecting a fight." Justifies Balthasar.

Claudius has now come out of the house with an enormous pile of guns and bullets. His hulking body stills as he clumsily looks around until he detects the two near the bushes in the dark. He approaches the vehicle and unloads his entire load on the cargo bed. It is completely full now.

"I'll sit here. You drive." Says he to his brother.

A few minutes later, the trio is out on the dusty road guided by the broken headlights of the vehicles and the approaching sunlight of dawn. Balthasar still has some energy left in him, unlike Gaius Rojo, who is already dozing.

"So sir, what led to you that awful situation?" Asks Balthasar, waking Gaius Rojo up.

"Stop bothering him. Let him sleep" Comes the reply from Claudius behind. He has started looking for pieces of cloth or any fabric on the back. The sand pieces are strewn everywhere, and the shaking of the automobile from the uneven road, not making it easy for him.

"No, it's alright. I'm not that tired. This whole thing was a result of my stupidity, and my incompetence. I was trying to get out of the daily chores of my life, get out of my brother's face for sometimes or you know, out of my family's attention. I was also trying to get myself a family somehow. I made plans for something with a friend of mine. Those two people were supposed to help me with that. I guess my friend is a Vigilante too. I'll have to take care of him now." Narrates Gaius Rojo. Claudius has finally found his long piece of fabric. He starts compiling the massive pile of guns.

Balthasar alternates his gaze with the faintly forming road ahead and his companion, finally asks, "What were these plans for?"

"I was trying to elope with someone." Says Gaius Rojo surprising the brothers to uncomfortable silence. Claudius drops the pile, comes close to the seated, to listen more closely. Balthasar gets more uncomfortable as Gaius Rojo opens his mouth to complete the story. He hopes to the Tarkonian Gods, but he doesn't hear something he is not supposed to. This tale is getting more weird and disjointed for him to get anything useful out of. In the town, the more coherent a rumor gets, the easier it gets to sell to someone.

"Those two were trying to get some information out of me. Information I do not have. The town has squads of Pioneers in each outposts, right? They wanted to know how many are there in the Northern outposts and the Govorenno. Probably planning a coup, or a rebellion, or even better a hostage situation. They were making those men count and flogging them for each. If I do not blink my eyes twice they would shoot one. I was blinking to 100 with the first man. He was shot. I was blinking to 100 for the second man, just to show that I was not lying, he was shot too. I was blinking to 50 for the third man. 60 for the fourth man. Both of them shot at that. The fifth man was killed out of spite. I wonder what would have happened if I did not blink."

"They'd have shot at 150. There are 1200 men in the Northern outposts. Where had they taken those five men from?" Asks Claudius. The yellow road is completely visible now. The flowers by its side, blue and white are getting trampled one by one by Balthasar's driving. He is not able to keep it to his control.

"I don't know. Probably abducted in the last couple of months. You can't expect them to be accounted for the deaths and kidnappings they do in the pursuit of their perverted goals."

"Or Pioneers to do their job properly. Who was the women in the bathtub?" Asks Claudius. The road has finally started to get an even course, signaling that the town is close now.

"She was the one I was eloping with. I was about to marry her." Says Gaius Rojo.

"What was her name?" Claudius is not going to let this one just go away like that.

"Lucia Ardea." Came the reply.

Balthasar, finally breaking his silence, asks turning to Gaius Rojo, "Ardea, as in the Ardea family?"

Gaius Rojo nods. Claudius asks, "Wouldn't this intensify the already existing tension among your families?"

Gaius Rojo nods again. Claudius presses, "What would you do now?"

"I have no idea. I didn't have the moment to catch your names. What is your name?" The man asks turning to Claudius.

"Claudius." "And yours." Turning to Balthasar.

"Balthasar"

"Just like the town." He exclaims.

"Yes, I was named after it."

The vehicle gains pace as it wheezes past the massive gates welcoming guests to the City of Balthasar.

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The palace registrars' office has just opened for the day, as the truck stops by it. Its uncouth steps still reeling from the rains for the last five days. The doors, unwelcome and unbecoming for the dignitaries it shelled within, are in dire need of some careful repairs. The graffiti on the walls, a sign of the emerging rebellions and protests in the city are also unhelpful in embellishing its growing irrelevance within the bigger context of the administration. The man giving the doors and the exterior walls a good clean is also uninterested in it. The truck will not be an eyesore for passer-by, despite this being one of the most important part of the city. Gaius Rojo burst out of the doors and dashes for the top of the stairs. The cleaner gives him a nice, humbled bow. The man overlooks it, he does acknowledge the bow from the old bespectacled man who has just come out of the office.

"Uncle Averroes. Happy to see me?" Asks Gaius Rojo.

"Happier than usual, I won't deny." Comes from his uncle.

Averroes Rojo ushers his nephew inside the office. Claudius and Balthasar has just managed to make their truck stop. Either they take a new truck or suffer on this derelict machine. Taking a new car will require money, and it won't be enough from selling this one. This one will sell for a carton of milk.

"Do I take the guns inside? I'm selling this thing after we're done with all of this." Says Claudius referring to the truck.

"Bring them in. We're taking what's rightfully ours, we can take it any way we want."

They ascend into the office, the raised position of the office makes it even harder to keep the already fragile pretense of equality that the administration swears to uphold. Balthasar reaches the insides first. It's very first glance seems quite a surprise for him. It is shaped like a cubicle with yellow walls. A narrow door to the left of those entering. Our two Rojos have disappeared here. A desk with two chairs on the visitor's end and one chair placed on a rotating swivel on the other. The rotating chair is kept close to the window. Two cabinets, filled with files and stationeries on each side of the window and two sofas on the left side of the wall add no aesthetic value to the room. Claudius barges in with his bundle of guns and takes a seat in one of the chair kept for the visitors. The bundle is dropped on the ground Balthasar comfortably reclines on the sofa. He tries to sleep to shrug off the journey, but the chirping of the birds and the rambling noises from the outside won't let him sleep.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. You've to understand, my nephew is a dear member of our family and the separation has worn heavily on every one of us." Averroes says as he comes out of the door.

"It's all right. We understand." Came the reply from Claudius.

"How kind of you! So, you must be eager for your memberships as Pioneer?" He says as he stands up to open one cabinet. Balthasar shuffles himself to the chair next to Claudius.

"Yeah. For that, I had a question. Can I ask?" Inquires Claudius.

"Go ahead." Came the reply as the man lifts and carries a thick book from the bottom of the cabinet to the desk.

"This prize was achieved by both of us, equally. Now, on the posters, it read one member as a pioneer. Does this mean that we are half Pioneers each or are we both complete Pioneers?" Inquires Claudius.

"You'll want that, won't you?" Indicating sarcasm with a smile on his face Averroes Rojo, still standing, continues.

"You're both half a Pioneers each and both of you will decide among yourself, what part of the responsibility you are taking and you will inform me or any one of our registrars about it. It'll be better if you are quick about it. Your responsibilities will be mentioned in the documents and identity forms I'll be handing out to you in a minute. Your guns and further instructions will be informed to you from your post superintendent. That'll be done from a lottery, in a minute. Am I clear?" Asks Averroes.

"Completely." Says Claudius.

Averroes walks around the room one round, picks up a document from one cabinet, puts it in another cabinet, picks up a card from another cabinet. Does something similar for a couple of times. Then, he sits down tired from his morning walk. The cleaner, having grabbed Balthasar's attention, from outside has completed his job now. He throws his cleaning brush inside, without caring to respond or give one last glance, and goes away for the day.

"That thing doesn't respect you. Does he?" Asks Balthasar pointing to his withdrawing back.

"Welcome to my world. All right, now keep quiet for the next four minutes. This is an important step and will end up deciding your entire career as a Pioneer." Says Averroes lifting his eyes from the paperwork below.

"Who will do the selecting?" He asks.

Claudius, without a doubt, lifts his hands in reply. He is given a piece of paper with 4 numbers- 9,1,6,3 - inscribed in bold atop, the header, while the rest of it is completely blank.

"What is this?" He asks.

"There are 24 positions open for you- one in each outpost. There is an arrangement for each outpost on the page I am holding." He points below. Out of view from the brothers. "Only 24 arrangements are possible for 4 numbers, so the arrangement that matches the outpost, you'll get that outpost. Your companion will not help in your arranging. I will see to that." Clears Averroes.

"Write any way you want." Encourages Balthasar.

Claudius writes the numbers in ascending order. 1369. He hands it to Averroes. He glances into his record for some time and then opens his mouth.

"Fantastic! You are assigned to the Govorenno. You'll be responsible for the life and security of the most important individuals of the city and the nation. I hope you're ready for it because this is not a task for the faint of heart. Are you ready?" He says.

"With every breath of our lives." Says Claudius. Balthasar starts laughing. Something about this job sounds too uncanny and too available. If it were that prized, it won't be that easy to get, at least not by one act.

"Thank God this is funny for you because there's nothing much left for you to draw joy from. You're done, son. You hear me! You'll die bungling with your guns in a Vigilante raid. Your dead body will be thrown outside the walls so that the stench doesn't disturb daily business. Allow that to sink in!" Says Averroes to the laughing Balthasar. The sharpness of the statement ends his laugh. He doesn't try to counter. The jibes are embarrassing enough and his views will fly right through the man's withered head.

The pair is given their identity forms and other relevant papers all sealed and packed carefully. Balthasar picks up the bundle of guns and Claudius takes the papers. He scans them again and again to detect any error. As they descend the stairs of the office, they stop to watch the day finally kick in. All around them, there are people, from all areas of life. And now they depend on them, especially for their security and their opportunities.