1 Strength of the wolf is the pack
Where I'm from doesn't really matter. What kind of family I came from, whether rich or poor, orphaned or not. It doesn't matter now…a raider wouldn't care who you are.
Ten years ago, I was a regular kid. Trying to make a living after coming out from middle school. I hadn't even gone to high school yet, and I was already getting my hands on things I knew I shouldn't have stolen.
And here I am now, a lone mercenary trying be a leader, trying to make a living off of doing mercenary work and suicide missions that no one else has the guts to do.
A shrieking blast of explosions startles me out of my reverie. Looking away from the window, I turn to look around at the three mercenaries. They aren't my friends, they barely know me, and neither do I know them. But they're here for the same purpose as me, to do the same job.
"My first big mission," I think to myself. "It shouldn't be hard like the last mission I did."
My employer picked the perfect night, when there are explosions and guns blazing all together like a nuke. As other raiders and insurgents battle for the outpost, me and the other three are looking at the large, battle-hardened outpost in the middle of a battle right in front of the humvee we are in. It's just waiting to be taken.
All I know is that when I was hired for the job, I thought it was gonna be a quick and simple elimination. That a regular mercenary had pissed off the wrong guy. Though, this one was unique. The pay was way bigger than most of my other jobs, and this job plan included assassinating warlords as a sign. To elicit fear.
There are three leaders that need to be taken out, and all three are known to be ruthless. But from my experience, I've learned that leaders are just dominant, not skilled. So they shouldn't be a problem, it's the sirens we have to worry about. So we should finish this job stealthy, without anybody noticing.
There's a big red skull emblem on the flag next to the building entrance that's about a hundred meters from the humvee. Eager to get in there, the pack of mercenaries start to make small talk, while my employer goes through the plan once more while we wait.
The plan is simple, needing only four people. A Kappa and three lambdas.
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Kappa (Mid-rank) They are the lead hunters in the pack. They make sure that the other hunters (lambdas) are well paid and organized for the hunt.
Lambda (Mid-Rank) They are the hunters of the pack. Those who hold this position are loyal and quick to follow orders. They have stealth and agility on their side and together are able to take down larger targets.
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How did I get this job? Well, I was at a competition to test my shooting skills about three weeks ago when my best friend, Thanan, brought along someone who was looking for me. He went by the name Zane.
When he saw my skills at the competition, he told me that he was putting together a crew for an assassination of three warlords of a raider gang. That he'd been looking for someone who could use a weapon with stealth, and that could be in places without getting noticed. And just like that, I was in.
The plan is simple. The Kappa will drive the team from the hiding spot and straight to the back of the outpost. From there, the lambda will enter the outpost, without being seen.
Lambda (that's us), will enter the outpost building with MP5s; suppressed, aimed, and ready to take down the targets and anyone else who tries to compromise our position. Along with making sure nobody triggers the alarm and that we're not spotted as we search the building for the targets.
Once the targets are eliminated, we will meet with Kappa in the back of the outpost and drive to the rendezvous point, where the medallions (Money) will be distributed.
It sounds like a lot of work for a large outpost to me, of course besides going through raiders and eliminating their so-called "ruthless" leaders.
At first, the others were about to reject the offer, but when they heard about the bounties on each leader's head....man, you should've seen their faces when the Kappa told them that the total take was about 5,000 medallions each.
So about 3 weeks before the assassination, it was after I met with Zane, Thanan called and told me the location to meet the pack mates in a ruined building.
Once I arrived, there were three masked mercenaries waiting. And they, like me, were all equipped with MP5 guns, just with different attachments and load outs. I didn't know who they were, and they didn't know who I was, except for Zane, who probably suggested keeping everyone's identity a secret.
At the meeting, Zane, a mid-rank "Kappa" introduced me to the pack as "Lambda". The hunt was explained and preparations were made; Kappa did most of the work, examining the building from the outside, accessing every checkpoints, and looking through their defenses.
On the night of the hunt, I was picked up by Kappa in the humvee at the ruined building, and I wore my custom, black ballistic mask. Everyone else also wore masks, each with different designs and colors. As planned, he drove the pack to the back of the outpost and parked the humvee in a shack looking into the outpost.
As of now, we're waiting for the right time, for the guards to leave their post to answer the distress call from the battle that's been going on in front of the outpost.
"All right, I'll go through the plan one more time and then you're on your own," my employer says from the driver's seat.
He turns to me. "Alright kid, you're the first one to go in. Once you're in, scan the hallways for guards, and once it's all clear, signal the others to come in. Lambdas, each of you will split up and search for the targets. Eliminate them, and then get out of there."
Everyone nods in agreement. For a few good minutes, the humvee is in total silence waiting for the coast to be clear, until: "Aye, did anybody bring snacks, because I'm starving," says the lambda sitting behind me.
"I thought you ate already. When we were at the building, I gave you my last kit kat," another Lambda replied.
"Well it wasn't enough. I'm still starving. Once we get home I'm raiding the fridge," the lambda fired back.
As everyone gets ready and goes back to waiting, watching as the battlefield lights up, silence fills the humvee. That was, once again, until the lambda behind me speaks up, finally breaking the peaceful silence. "So how's everyone's day?"
"It was good," Kappa says with a thumbs up, still observing the scene in front of him.
Then, Kappa shouted orders loud enough for just us to hear over the explosions, "All right lambdas, go hunt!"
We all nod, as me and the lambdas climb out of the car and silently advance to the outpost. I readied my suppressed mp5 and as one lambda opens the door, I go in and scan each hallway for guards. Once I see it's clear, I signal for the other lambdas to come in.
We all split up, and I go upstairs and start searching each room until I come across a bloody room filled with dead bodies of traders and travelers, including kids. I can't believe they actually killed those kids for their enjoyment. After I witnessed a massacre, it became personal for me, even though I never knew who they were, they didn't deserve to die like this.
As I walk cautiously through the hallways, I spot two guards standing next to a door, which I figure is where the warlords are hiding. So, without hesitation, I shoot, PEW PEW, (suppressed sounds). Bullets to their heads as they both drop down dead.
Then, I slowly open the door. I hear voices, and when I take a peak I see them, the three warlords sitting at a table discussing their war plans.
"With a plan like this, we will rule the Badlands together and nobody will be strong enough to stop us," one exclaims.
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Quick Information About the capitals of the wasteland:
Badlands (Red Zone) The Badlands is the capital of the red zone and is filled with rogues and raiders. It is controlled by the most notorious groups: The Jade Dragons, The Crimson Ravagers, and The Forsaken Brotherhood.
New Eden (Gold Zone) New Eden is the capital of the gold zone and a sanctuary for those who are in need of help or trying to find a better place to live. New Eden is controlled by The White lotus and The Valkyries Of Valhalla.
Lost Empire (Dark Zone) Lost Empire is a forgotten city and the Capital of the Dark zone, it is a neutral area to traders and travelers, and also a den of sanctuary for Mercenaries, Assassins, Bounty Hunters, Thieves, GunSlingers, Rangers, and all other people. It is controlled by The ShadowFall Wolves, The Scarlet Vipers, and The Jackals of Anubis.
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It was when I heard their plan was to take over Badlands when I knew why we were hired to assassinate them. Once they focused their attention to the plan placed on the table, I sneaked into the room and crouched behind a bookshelf. As they talked, I readied my mp5 and steadied my aim. I thought to myself, "This is for the families you murdered," and without a sound, PEW PEW PEW, they all fall down.
After I shot all three of them in the head, I went to the table to see what they were planning. I found out they were planning on using machines called Tortoise.
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Tortoise (A Heavy War Machine) Is an unmanned vehicle-like weapon with mechanical legs that was supposed to be used in the future for wars, but the program wasn't active after society fell to its knees.
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It shows the coordinates of where the Tortoises are being stored at, a factory called "Black Water", a former Military company that built heavy weaponry for the army during the war.
I thought to myself, "Should I give this to kappa, or should I just keep it a secret and not let him and the pack know?" I made the decision to keep it, because I'm not gonna risk it and tell them what the three warlords plans were, because everyone would go nuts for this. So I decided to hide it in my backpack. After I was finished gathering up the plan and stashing it away safely into my backpack, the door burst open revealing the other lambdas.
"Damn kid, you killed all three of them, nice!" lambda #1 says as he gives me a hive five.
"Alright, now that they are dead, we should get going before we have an entire raider gang on our asses" says lambda #2 as he pulls out the walkie talkie, "Kappa, the warlords are eliminated, we are heading out now, over"
"Copy that, now get your ass outta there before the raiders notice their leaders are dead, over" Kappa says from the walkie talkie.
"You heard him lets go," lambda #2 says.
How we got in, is how we are getting out....through the back door. We get out of there and head straight to the humvee parked inside the shack. As we get in, Kappa turns the engine on and drives us out and away from the outpost. As we are moving away from the outpost, Kappa looks at us and asks, "So how did it all go down?" as he's driving.
"When we split we kinda got caught up with a few guards along the way, but we managed, including this kid here," lambda #1 says as he pats my shoulder, and Kappa turns to look at me.
"Oh really? What happened?", Kappa asks as he faces front again since he's driving.
"Well he basically took out three of the warlords by himself, plus these two raiders who were guarding the door to where they were" lambda #3 tells Kappa, who makes a right turn leading to the main road.
"You did good, kid. You did good. I'm glad Thanan suggested you for the job. All of you did good today. Now let's go to the rendezvous point and get paid," Kappa says as he drives onto the main road.
When we arrive at the rendezvous point, at a broken building, Kappa turns off the engine as we come to a stop in front of the building. Me and the rest of the lambdas got out, while Kappa stayed in the car and took a phone call. We were waiting in the building, when Kappa finally got out of the humvee with a black bag and said, "All right, as promised 5,000 each. Don't spend it all in one place."
"I'm going to the bar after this, and also buy some chocolate," lambda #3 says.
"All right, well, make sure to stay low for a while until everything cools down. Now that the warlords are dead, I have a feeling this won't be over yet," Kappa says.
"That's fine with me, I wasn't planning on going out often anyways. Now that the raiders and insurgents are at each other's throats," lambda #3 responds, as Kappa divides the medallions between three sacks.
Kappa tosses a sack full of medallions to me and says, "See you soon kid. I'll put in a good word for you to the alpha." All three lambdas grab their sacks of medallions and walk away.
As Kappa takes a phone call again, he turns back to me and says, "Go on now. I'll call Thanan if I ever need you," and he waves me away as he continues talking on the phone.
So I left, I walked out of the ruined building, and made my way home. I thought to myself
"I've completed my first big job, and now I'll have something bigger to deal with."
As I walked home, I started to think about my life and why I chose how to live it. I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, but it's how life is, and I was okay with it. I try to not think about the past, how the world really was before all this. For all I know, the world was already going to shit anyways, and I can blame politics for that. I look around me at the scorched earth and ruined buildings littered across the wastelands, all because power outpaced humanity's restraints.
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I wasn't new to this; I've been doing all kinds of jobs for a year. I started small just a year ago by doing assassinations, escorting traders, and things like that.
And I wasn't alone, I brought along somebody on board to help me out with finding a job. He's been with me from the start of all of this, my best friend, Thanan.
He's been my best friend since middle school. He's a very good strategist, except, he has an intellectual disability, like the wheels spinning but the hamster's dead kind of disability.
But I still love em like a brother and its kinda funny whenever he asks or says something stupid, like: "is water wet?" We've been looking out for each other ever since.
About a month ago, he was dating a girl who was apparently the daughter of one of the most powerful groups in new eden, The Valkyries of Valhalla, and got caught kissing her in one of their halls when he went to secretly visit her at night. They threw him in their jails and I had to bail him out. Luckily, they were merciful and made it very clear that he should not see her again, or else his head would be displayed on a pike like all the other prisoners.
When we were heading out, he told me that it wouldn't be the last time he would see her again, like a Romeo and Juliet kind of thing. But from that moment on, he never went back there again.
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I arrived at my home and stopped in front of the front porch to take a look at my house. It wasn't fancy or anything, just kinda old, but anything helps and I kinda like it because of how peaceful and quiet it is, it's very comfortable actually.
I knock on the door twice and from the other side I hear Thanan's voice, "Whose is it?" So I knock on the door, KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, in a sick beat.
"Oh, welcome back bro, hang on," he says.
Right after he opens the door, he says, "Ooh, that looks like a lot," referring to the sack in my hands. Then he runs and jumps on the couch as I walk in, closing the door behind me.
"Did anybody come by earlier?" I ask as I open up the sack showing the medallions, exactly a 5,000 count.
"No, not really." As soon as he hears me opening the sack, he jumps up from the couch and looks into the sack smiling in excitement."Brooooo how much is in there? For us?"
"5,000 medallions"
"Legennndddd, that means my share's 500, right? I'll grab my share, and you take the rest."
"Alright sounds good"
He dives right into the sack counting the medallions, grabbing a few and sorting them out on the table. "Oh, can i take a few extra? I'm going on a date tomorrow."
"....sure, just stay out of trouble ok?"
"Legennddd, thanks bro!" He says as he jumps up and grabs a sack of his own from the couch.
While he put his share of the medallions in his sack, I went to the kitchen to pour myself a drink to relieve the stress of what happened tonight.
I opened the fridge and grabbed a Coca Cola and opened it, but as i'm about to drink, I realized I still had my black ballistic mask on, and Thanan seemed to notice too. "You know, you can drink it without a mask right?" He says with a grin.
I gave him an intense look that made him look away and continue to count his share.
I forgot to mention I am very covert about my identity, almost everyone I meet don't know what I look like or what my name is, except for Thanan, my ex, and a couple of other people I'm close with.
I gulp down the Coca Cola and walk to the couch, sit down, and start counting my share. "Brooo, what a night, I'm gonna cook something to eat because I'm so hungry I could eat a tree," Thanan says as he takes a seat on the couch.
"You mean cow.....eating a tree would make you a vegan and you're not a vegan."
He has a confused look on his face."I'm a vegan?" As he says that I rub my face in disappointment and continue to count my share.
"Well goodnight! I'm going to bed see you tomorrow," he says as he walks to his room.
I finish counting my share, put them all in my sack and walk to my room. I throw the sack on top of my small desk lamp and take off my black ballistic mask before going to bed.
As I take off my mask and change into my sleeping clothes, I look at my reflection in the mirror for a few seconds, touching my face gently and then I look away, walking to my bed and making myself comfortable.
The comfort of my bed is all I feel now as I lay plank, feeling tired and lazy all at the same time, thinking about what happened last night.
I wake up the next day and stretch my muscles, and I groan. My body is telling me to go back to sleep, but my mind says "ice cream." With that, I head straight to the kitchen. As I walk into the kitchen, I see Thanan on the couch playing video games. (Yes, even in a post-apocalypse there's still electronics.)
"You hungry" I ask plainly.
"Yea, I'm starving right now," he says as he pauses his game.
"Good, because I'm not cooking for you," I say as I get the ice cream out of the freezer.
He looks at me with a grin, "why you gotta be meannnn," he pouts. I look at him for a few seconds as I eat my ice cream.
"Can i ask you something?" He asks.
"...sure"
He pulls out a kevlar vest from the couch and puts it on before saying anything else, I thought to myself, "This should be interesting." He straightened up his posture. "So before this gets outta hand, I wanna tell you something."
"Alright before you say something, I gotta ask.....what's with the vest?" I ask. He stutters at the fact that he's wearing a vest, thinking I'm not gonna like what he's about to say.
"It's uhhh...for protection f-from.....cockroaches?" He says as I look at him with a blank stare.
"....alright cool, now what do you wanna ask me." I say waiting patiently for his question.
"Ok so you remember your ex talia?" He begins.
The last thing I wanna hear right now is that name. She's an old flame of mine and the leader of the Scarlet Vipers, we didn't exactly end on good terms. For some reason, we both loved each other, and the way we broke up was not very good. Her parents didn't want us together because they already arranged a marriage between her and some ugly ass dude from another group.
Her parents wanted her to marry so they can keep their alliance steady again, which was kinda stupid, but not as stupid as me trying to climb to her window through barbed wires and spikes. But you'll know a lot more about her later because right now, Thanan is about to say something that might make me, make him fly across the room.
"What about her?"
"Well she came by the house yesterday and asked if you were here and I said nah, you went to go do a job, so she gave me something and told me not to open or else she'll kill me so HERE YA GO," he said rushed as he hands me a small box. I look at it for a few seconds then open it, revealing a small necklace.
I picked it up from the small box, examining it. I realized it was the same necklace I gave her after we went away together.
"A necklace? Why would she give you a necklace and not get me one!" He says with a pout.
"...Doesn't matter now, if she wanna be like that then that's on her," I say.
I pack my usual things in my backpack and take my secondary as always to start my day. "I'm going to Dawnford, I won't be back until night time."
"Wait, you're not mad at me?" He says with a confused look.
".....No, just surprised she even came here." I head straight to the door, and as I'm about to head out, Thanan jumps up from the couch and runs up to me. "ohhhh I forgot, I have a date tonight so I'm having somebody over if that's ok?" He asks.
I look at him with a blank expression.
".....sure, just don't do it on the bed" I say as I head out.
He jumps out of excitement from the fact that he has my permission to bring a girl home, but honestly I really don't care about who he dates, just as long as somebody's keeping him happy, besides me, then I'm ok with it, because frankly being outgoing is not one of my attributes.
I headed out and walked into the middle of the ruined road. As I was walking I thought about what happened yesterday. "Did she really come here just to give this back to me?" Which was unusual because she made it very clear that she didn't wanna see me ever again after we broke up, but it did look like she was having hormones during the time.
After walking half a mile I made it to Dawn Ford, a town where traders usually trade things for better items and where low ranking mercenaries come to hang out, which is at a bar called "Big Bear." As I walk through the town, I see people trade things and socialize instead of fighting, it is a pretty peaceful town to be honest, there's a reason a lot of traders come here.
I keep walking through the crowd of people and make a stop at Big Bear. As I went in, the first thing I see is mercenaries and bounty hunters drinking and socializing. I walk through the crowd to get to the bar, and as I do I bump into a close friend of mine.
"HEYYY! It's so good to see you here, it's been awhile since we hung out!" It's my friend Izzy, and besides Thanan, she's been a close friend of mine since middle school.
"Hey Izzy, it's nice to see you again,'' I say as we both hug each other.
She looks at me with a bright smile and taps on my shoulders. "How you been! We haven't talked since our group got split up," she says.
I look at her with a half smile and look away for a second then back at her. "Yea, I try not to think about it, but it's hard enough then it was before now that Thanan is staying with me."
She gives me a half smile and looks over to a table and points at it. "Let's go talk over there where there are less people," she says as we head to the table she pointed out and sit down.
We both ordered drinks and food, and after that we started talking about what we've been doing for the past couple months. "So you're the one who killed the three warlords?" She says with a surprised look.
"Yea, it wasn't that hard, just a couple of guards, the rest were fighting outside."
As we talked she mentioned she had been on a hunt for a huge bounty on some insurgents head and that she had a difficult time tracking him, until eventually she caught up to him.
"So there I was, just waiting at the building with my sniper and as I waited the dude came out with his friends," she said, explaining what happened, as I continued eating and drinking like I usually do. "And as they walked close enough for me to take my shot, BAM! I took 'em all out at once, including the insurgent, hehehe," she says as she does an evil laugh.
"....Seems like you're doing well for yourself, despite not having me to take care of you," I remark.
She gives me a half smile and drinks her ginger ale. "Well you did teach us how to survive and how to use weapons," she says with a laugh.
"I promised your parents I was gonna take care of you guys." I say as I drink ginger ale. She looked at me for a few seconds and asked, "Oh really? What else did you promise them?" As she asked me, I looked at her, and it seems she wants to know more about it.
"That I wouldn't let our group split apart no matter what it was, and that we would always take care of each other...looks like I broke that promise." I look down at my drink, thinking about what happened to our group and why we aren't together anymore.
She looked at me with an understanding look and put her hand on my shoulder. "Listen, it isn't your fault that the group separated, you did what you had to do in order for us to be safe," she says as she taps my shoulder. "Like remember back in middle school, me, you, and Thanan were walking through the hallways when a couple of 7th graders were picking on us, or were trying to?" She says as she drinks ginger ale.
I gave her a half smile thinking back about what happened in middle school, which was really shitty compared to the teachers and annoying students. "Yea, I remember very much," I say with a smirk.
"Well remember when they were making fun of how Thanan looked and you took on four of them on your own!" She says with a bright smile, formed from the fact that she knows I always had her and Thanan's back. "MAANNNN, they all had brokens noses and everything, which kinda got you suspended from the school, but HEY at least you didn't have to go to school for 5 weeks!" She says with a laugh.
I smile a little at the fact that she still remembers our middle school past and that it was funny that I beat the shit out of the 7th graders for bullying Thanan, which was why I had 5 weeks instead of 4 because I was laughing while the principal explained to me why it was wrong and irresponsible.
We both laughed at the memories we made since we were little, and I gotta tell you it was great that we caught up and everything. All we are missing is a few people from our old group, which gave Izzy an idea. "I have an idea! We should get the gang back together and take over the Lost Empire, so we can protect it from the crime syndicates and all other enemy factions."
I thought about it for a second, is it really a good idea to bring us all together? Last I heard some of them are in different kinds of factions.
As I was about to say something, I was surprised by Izzy's loyal dog companion Max. He's a german shepherd and has been with Izzy ever since he was a pup. I'm glad Izzy had someone to give her company and watch her back. I look at him with a half smile and tap my knee for him to come, instead, he jumps on me and licks my face. Well it looks like he still remembers me, "Nice to see you too max," I say as I pet him.
"I'm surprised you're not wearing that mask you always wear."
I look at her with a blank expression. "Well I only wear it whenever I'm doing a mission and I never take it off," I say as I pet Max.
She gives me a curious look, and after a few seconds something pops up in her head. "HEY I forgot to mention! You know I've been hearing a lot of people talking about a merc in a black mask hunting down enemy leaders and disappearing without a trace." She raises her eyebrows and smiles, "you know anything about that?" she asks.
I shrug my shoulders and just sit there, "interesting."
She smirks from the fact that I'm the merc with the black mask. "Nobody knows, that's why I always wear a mask so I don't expose myself."
She gives me an understanding look and assures she'll keep my secret safe. "So what do you say, you wanna get the crew back together?"
I thought about it for a moment, and after a few minutes of discussing it, we decided to bring back our group, our familia, our pack. So when we got done with our food and drinks, I invited Izzy to my place where we can discuss our plans with Thanan and catch up with each other, since they haven't hung out in a long time.
We headed out of town during the night and walked through the ruined road. "So, how have you guys been holding up?" She asks as we walk.
"Well we've been doing alright lately, and yesterday Talia came to our house while I wasn't home."
Izzy looks at me with a confused look. "Did she really? I thought she didn't wanna see you after the whole break up thing."
I shrugged my shoulders and pulled out the necklace Talia left for me and showed it to Izzy. "She left this for me while I was on a mission."
Izzy takes the necklace and examines it from each angle and then looks at me. "This is the necklace you gave her right?" She asks. I nodded my head and told her about the necklace. "Seems to me that she misses you."
I gave Izzy a confused look as I took the necklace and put it in my backpack. "...what makes you say that?" I ask plainly as we are almost to our house.
"Well if she didn't miss you, she would've had somebody else do it. I mean, she's the leader of the Scarlet Vipers, but instead, she did it herself because she wanted to see you again."
I thought about what Izzy said and it seemed I was right, she was having HORMONES at that time so whatever she said before, she probably didn't mean it.
We made it home and walked to the door, but as I'm about to open it, I stop. Izzy is about to say something, so I quickly cover her mouth and tell her to shush as I put my ear on the door. Izzy does too as we try to hear what's going on in there. I quietly whispered to her, "Ok, so Thanan said he was gonna have a date tonight, so he invited his girl to our house for dinner, so let's just sneak look through the window to see what they're doing."
As I point at the window, Izzy gives me a confused look from the fact that we are spying on Thanan and his date. "Why are we doing this? Shouldn't we just sneak in without them knowing?" She whispers.
I put my ear on the door to hear what's going on inside. "No, they're probably in the living room breaking my couch and it's where the door is facing," I whisper. So we both look through the window to see the whole living room, and there they were.....in the living room, breaking my couch.
Izzy's eyes go wide from what she is witnessing, so I cover her eyes and ducked down from the window. As I take my hand off her face, Izzy's eyes are still wide.
"....at least they're not doing it on my bed," I say with a smirk. Izzy gives me a "are you serious" look and slaps my arm from the fact that I'm being an idiot while they are going at it.
"Let's just go out the back," Izzy suggests.
I looked at her for a moment and scoffed. "Or we could just crash through the door and act like we were being chased?" Izzy slaps my arm again, so instead we just sneaked around the back without them noticing.
Once we made it to the back, I had second thoughts as Izzy looked at me with a confused look trying to figure out what I was gonna do. So I said enough is enough, this is my house, I'll just walk in there. Izzy figured out what I was gonna do, but by the time she did, I was already opening the door.
"I'm home, Thanan you awake?!" I shout as I barge in from the backdoor of the kitchen. Izzy just runs in and slaps my arm for doing something so childish. I smirked at her and went into the living room. Izzy tried to hold me back, but couldn't, so as I went in, all I saw was Thanan looking at me with a surprised look while covering his girl with blankets.
To be honest, I didn't get a clear look at her through the window and was kinda curious who she was. "Looks like you guys were having fun, who's your date?" I say as Izzy slides into the room to see what's going on.
"HEYYYY Thanan! It's been a longggg time, I would hug you but you're kinda naked and sweating alot so HEYYYY," Izzy says with a nervous laugh as she smacks my arm again.
"IZZYYYYYYYY it's been so longgggg toooooo, how've you been?" He asked with a smile.
"Before you answer," I motion to Izzy to stop talking, "I wanna know.....who is that?" I ask plainly.
Thanan looks at his girl and right back at me and laughs nervously. "Just uhhhhhh...a girl I met at the market," he says with a nervous smile. I give a plain look, and all I can smell right now is wet and shame.
"Ok...so what's her name?" I ask with a little bit of curiosity, and it seems like Izzy wants to know too, as she crosses her arms waiting for an answer.
Thanan looks at both of us and then at his girl. He noticeably gulps from the fact that he doesn't want us to know who it is because he's afraid something will happen if he does tell us. "Her name is...uhhhhhh...s-sandy," he says with a stutter. Izzy and I stare at him for a few seconds, then we both look at each other, thinking about pulling the blanket off from him to reveal his girl, but that would be a horrible sight, so we just left that plan alone, and did something else.
"Thanan, we just wanna know who she is, that's all, we won't judge," I say. Thanan thinks about my words, then he sighs and puts on his clothes, while his girl is still covering herself with the blanket.
Max also comes into the living room wondering what's going, tilting his head and just sitting there observing. We all just stand there waiting, while I pull out and open a can of orange soda just waiting.
"Alright fine, just please don't get mad at me because i know you told me not too but i just can't!" He says with total desperation. As we all wait, he finally makes a move. "It's alright babe, you can stop covering yourself," he says as the girl uncovers herself from the blanket, revealing a petite girl.
"...whose this?" I ask plainly, but even Izzy is curious, and Max is just sitting there, observing as always.
"This is Jada everyone," Thanan says with a smile. Izzy and I looked at both of them, and something about her seemed familiar, it's like we'd seen her before, but we didn't know where, that is until Izzy looked at her closely and realized who she was.
"H-hi everyone," the girl says with a nervous smile. Izzy and I continue to look at her while Thanan rubs the back of his head.
Silence fills the room until Izzy finally says something to break the silence. "Thanan...do you know who she is?" Izzy asks as she crosses her arms. Thanan looks back at Jada, then at Izzy, trying to figure out what the problem was.
"Yes? She's my girlfriend, Jada," he says with a confused look. Izzy facepalms from the fact that he doesn't know anything about her, or he probably knows but just doesn't care.
Izzy takes a step closer and looks at jada again. "Do you know who her dad is?" She asks.
Thanan looks at Izzy with a confused look and chuckles at the fact that Izzy asked him a question he doesn't know, "Yeah I know who her dad is, its me-" he says until Izzy interrupts him. "DUDE!!....," Izzy shouts before he can finish.
I was just standing there looking at him, pondering the fact that he's setting a risk to himself to date a girl whose dad is the crime lord of the Jade Dragons. To be honest, I don't know if its a fetish to date girls whose dads are crime lords, or if he's just stupid. Either way, it looks like I gotta keep this one on a low.
".....her dad is a crime lord, did you know that?" I finally say after waiting for someone to say it. Thanan frowns and looks at Jada.
"I don't care, I still love her!" He pouts and stomps like a little child. Izzy and I just look at him.
"You know what...if you love her, then that's fine by me just don't get killed," I say as I walk to the table and set up a big map, drawing routes and shortcuts.
Izzy comes over to the table to examine the map and places. "So since we're getting the crew back together, who are we gonna find first?" She says as she writes and draws on the map for details.
"We're getting Liz, and after we get her we'll find the rest, they're scattered like roaches," I say as I look for directions and places on where our friend Liz is. And while we were doing that, Thanan was just talking and cuddling with Jada, and before you ask, No, we were not mad, because like I said before, I'm glad someone's making him happy.
After 2 hours of looking through the map and for every detail of a rogue marksman, we finally found her. She was most likely in a town called Moonlight, a town where rogues kill each other like a battle royal to see who's more dominant, but they usually fight it out in the combat zone, so the town is neutral. There aren't many traders in the town though, because they're afraid that the rogues will leave the combat zone and destroy the town, but it's never happened since the town is like a den to the rogues, and they never shoot at each other in the town, just fist fighting whenever something goes wrong. So it's gonna be difficult to find Liz, since she's usually in the combat zone picking off other rogues like ants with her Barrett M82 (a very powerful sniper rifle) and is very adept with it, especially when she's a survivalist. She's also an artist that spray paints her insignia or something random on the city walls in the combat zone, so if you see any graffiti on the walls, it means she's there and that you're dead because she already shot you in the head for looking at it.
We pack our stuff into our backpacks and make sure our ammos and supplies are stocked,"You coming or staying Thanan?" Izzy asks as she packs. He's sitting next to Jada on the couch and thinks about it for a second and looks at Jada, "What do you say babe? You wanna join us on an adventure?" Thanan asks with a smile.
Jada looks at him and holds his hands. "I would, but I can't, my dad will freak out if he found out I'm with you, and if gone for 2 weeks, he would send a whole war party to find me, and I don't want you to get hurt," she says as she kisses Thanan on the cheek. Thanan looks at her for a few seconds and starts out like a kid again. "Babe please don't pout," Jada says as she hugs him, while me and Izzy just look at them while we are packing, and Izzy laughs silently at the fact that Thanan is like a baby and Jada's the mother.
After a few minutes, we got done packing, and were about to head out, of course until Thanan is done saying goodbye to Jada. "I'll see you soon!" he says dramatically as they both hug and kiss each other goodbye,"I love you," jada says to Thanan as he laughs and speed walks away from her to avoid saying it back. Then we three hit the road, our journey has just begun.
--------------
After 2 hours of walking, we finally made it to Moonlight. "We're finally here, next time we're taking a car," Izzy says with exhaustion as we enter the town. Looking around, all we see are rogues and traders around the area.
"I have a friend who lives here, we can ask her if she's seen Liz," Izzy says as she leads us to a hotel. As we entered the hotel, we saw a young woman at the front desk writing down the resident list, until she saw Izzy and jumped over the desk to hug her.
"IZZZYYYY it's so good to see you!" The woman says as she hugs Izzy, they both laugh and look at each other from the fact that they haven't seen each other in a while.
"I know! I'm sorry for not visiting!" Izzy says as they both do that scream girls do everytime they see each other after a long time. "You guys, this is my friend Delilah, say hi everyone!" Izzy says as Thanan jumps up in excitement from meeting a new person.
"HI! It's nice to meet you!" He says with joy. As for me, I was just standing there doing nothing except waving at her as a sign of hello, which I'm kinda bad at, because frankly I don't usually say hi to anybody except when they greet me. I usually try to greet them back though, which isn't bad, but I'm still working on it.
"Yea he doesn't talk that much," Izzy says as she taps my shoulder as Delilah nods her head slowly, with the fact that I'm not a social person. "okkk.....well what brings you here?" Delilah says.
"Well we're looking for a friend, a rogue marksman who sprays graffiti everywhere" Izzy says. Delilah gives us a surprised look from the fact that we are, "looking for the skilled marksman who is not only feared by every rogue in just this town," Delilah explained to us, that Liz would always be in the combat zone whenever she's mad or happy, and if she's bored she would've gone to an arcade called "Killshot Arcade," so we went there to find her.
As we enter the arcade, we can see it's filled with kids and rogues enjoying the arcade games. It looks pretty fun here, I can see why Liz likes coming here. "Alright everybody let's split up and look for Liz, and Thanan, don't even think about playing the arcade games," Izzy says as Thanan frowns.
We all split up to look, and after 30 mins of searching, we couldn't find her, she wasn't here. "Seems like she's in the combat zone then," I say plainly. Izzy and Thanan both look at each other, thinking about whether they'd go into the combat zone or not, so I decided to go and let them stay at the arcade until I get back, because the last thing I want is for them to get hurt.
"You guys stay here, I'll go find Liz," I said assuredly.
Thanan and Izzy look at me with a worried look from the fact that I'm going in alone without any backup, "Are you sure? We don't want you to get hurt, and the combat zone is really dangerous," Izzy says as Thanan frowns and continues to give me a worried look.
"She's right, the combat zone is dangerous, and I don't know if you should go out there by yourself," Thanan says. I think about their words and how much they care about me, but I'm not gonna risk them getting hurt.
"Yes I'm sure...I've been through way worse, wait here until I get back, it won't take long," I say as I walk through the door and make my way to the combat zone. As I was walking to the gate, I thought about our group and how we broke up, but we'll get to that after I get Liz, which will kinda be difficult with all the shooting and explosions around.
When I make it to the gates, a guard inspects me for a few seconds and then signals the gatekeeper to open the gate. After it opens, I walk into the combat zone, and all I see are bullet holes in every area, and fires blazing in every building and inside cars, but no sign of graffiti anywhere. They closed the gate and I continued walking through the streets to look for Liz or maybe spot some graffiti. And as I look around, BANG BANG BANG, a few shots fly right past me to my left as I duck behind a nearby car and peek to see who it was. It was a group of rogues trying to kill me, but they happen to have shitty ass aims.
"GIVE US YOUR STUFF AND WE WON'T KILL YOU....YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS!" one of the rogues shouts, which was clearly the leader since he was the one who gave me the "5 seconds" to give them their stuff. What I've learned was to always take out the leader first, then the whole flock will break out.
As I'm about to shoot the leader, BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG, I hear loud shouts and as I take a peek from behind the car, I see that all of the rogues were on the ground dead, which means somebody else took them out, and it wasn't just a regular amature rogue.
I glanced around, looking for graffiti, but none were anywhere around me, so I looked up at the buildings, and as I looked upon a ruined building and squinted at it due to its far distance from me, I saw a glint at the top floor, which means....its Liz. So I got up from behind the car, and raised my right hand in the air for her to see that it's me. As for how I know it's her, it's also notoriously known that nobody can shoot that far away from on top of a building like her.
I made my way to the ruined building, and after a 3 mile walk, I made it to the building. I hear a rustle, and look up above, to see a duffle bag fall and a rope coming down. Both hit the floor in front of me, and then a person slides down the rope, holding their sniper rifle from the building. As they landed, I saw it was a woman in a mask, I backed up as she tried to take a closer look at me, then she took off her mask, revealing her face, it's Liz.
She runs up to me for a quick hug, a happy embrace."I can't believe it's really you! I thought you were dead," Liz says as she looks at me with a happy expression.
I give her a smile to assure her I'm fine and very much alive."I'm still here aren't I?" I say. She laughs and hugs me again, then jokingly punches my shoulder lightly.
We started to walk back to the gate, and as we were, I told her what had been going on and what me and Thanan were doing after the group split up. "So you guys were doing alright?" She says as I nod my head.
"We also found Izzy as well, it seems she was doing alright as well," I say as we approach the gate.
"Wait, Izzy is here too?" She says with a surprised look. I nod my head again as she jumps up in excitement while clapping her hands at the same time. We get past the gate and out of the combat zone, and we head toward the arcade where Izzy and Thanan were hanging out. We both headed into the arcade and saw Izzy and Thanan playing super smash Bros.
As we approached them, Izzy saw me and Liz, and ran up to us with excitement and hugged us both. "You guys scared me, I thought you weren't gonna come back!" she says as Thanan runs up and hugs us, making it a group hug. "I didn't, I knew you guys were gonna make it" he says with a big smile.
We all hung out at the social area in the arcade and talked about how we were planning to get the group back together. "I'm totally in! I missed you guys so much, like I hate being alone!" Liz says with relief and excitement as Max comes up to Liz and licks her in the face as she pets him, and everyone starts to laugh.
We all looked at the map I had placed on the table to see where we plan on going next. "Now that we found Liz, it's time to find out where the rest of the crew is at," I say as I look at the map.
Liz raises her hand for someone to answer her, "I know where we can find the rest of them," she says as we all look at her for an answer.
"You know where they are?" Izzy says as Liz nods her head and points at a location on the map.
It's New Eden.
We all looked at each other from the fact that half of our family is in one of the most secure places on Earth. Silence fills the group until I say something, "If they're in New Eden, then that's where we're heading."
Everyone's eyes go wide from the fact that I would go in there, where there's a big wall around the city with heavily armed guards and turrets with rockets shooting anything that tries to get over the wall without going through the gate, and they don't allow guns inside except for the guards. But other refugees and combatants aren't allowed to be armed, which means if we went in there, we would be defenseless. Because there's a lot going on in New Eden, which involves assassinations and kidnaps.
"Listen, the only thing i care about in this world is my family. That's you guys, alright? And I'm not gonna let anything get in my way from seeing them," I say as I fold the map and secure it in my bag, get up, and pick up my backpack and weapon. All three of them looked at me for a second, and then hugged me from the fact that I care about them more than anything.
"Well if you're going then we're coming with you," Izzy says as she puts her hand on my shoulder. Thanan nods his head with agreement, "We in this together bro bro!" He says as he claps his hands, and Liz nods in agreement as well. "Well you can't do anything epic with regular people, THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE US!!" Liz shouts as she jumps up from her seat with encouragement.
We all pack our things and head out of the arcade. As we headed out of town, we had to stop in the middle of a ruined road, because Thanan was having a potty break. "Wow i shouldn't have had that large drink at the arcade it was-" as Thanan was about to finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a truck that came out of nowhere, and then four more came. Armed mercenaries wearing Bloodshot Camouflage fatigues, ballistic vests, balaclavas with sunglasses, and radio pieces, as well as military-grade ballistic helmets came out of the trucks, pointing their MTAR-X at us. "DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" one of the mercenary captains shouts at us as we drop our weapons and put our hands in the air.
I knew exactly who they were...."The Scarlet Vipers."
