Dog Eats Dog World

After checking his shotgun and making sure that it was loaded properly, not jamming when he needed the most, Jonathan drawled in a deep breath and then fired into the woods before counting mentally.

1… 2…

Jonathan then fired one more time before tossing the emptied double barrel shotgun into the middle of the trap, letting it sit right next to the humanoid shape and backpack.

Swiftly, he punctured the bottle of water held under his cloak with a single bullet from his pistol. After the deed was done, he rushed out of the woods and into the clearing as "blood" dripped downwards onto the snow and trailed behind him.

He slowed his breathing and panted exhaustedly before he reached the first building to the side of the road. There, he collapsed and soaked the snow next to him in complete red.

Lying there, Johnathan waited patiently for anyone to appear.

A minute passed by with only descending snows came to his aid. By another minute, doubt manifested in his mind, and he wondered if he was too cautious. Even so, he had to make sure, so he stayed there, completely still.

About a few more minutes passed by before someone finally appeared from the building.

It was a bearded man in his mid-thirty. He held his semi-automatic assault rifle high, aiming at the dark woods before giving Jonathan a few hard kicks in the ribs. It was to check whether he was alive or not, and Johnathan obviously did not appreciate that, considering the boot had spikes.

Most people would be more considerate to an obvious injured person, but most people did not have to live through the hellish landscape that the world had become.

Since pretending to be dead was harder than said, and given the state of things, being dead might also earn him a bullet to the head to make sure he was actually dead, Jonathan groaned weakly in response to the kicking.

He also raised his bloodied hand but failing for effect. He then stopped moving all together even when the man kicked him again. The kick was much harder this time around.

It was really painful, but Jonathan endured.

This wasn't the first time he had played dead. Or more correctly to say, play injured.

"This one is still alive. Barely," the man shouted into one of the buildings. He still kept his gun high and aimed at the woods for a few more minutes before lowering and tapping Jonathan's back and checking his pocket.

The man found nothing because there was nothing to be found.

"Tsk… I'm going to check on the other one. Give me cover," the man said afterwards and began moving towards the woods. He then disappeared from view as he saw what appeared to be a corpse.

Seconds later, agitated gunfire was heard, accompanying by a loud zipping sound. Curses came as well as shouting.

"Anna! Kill the fucker! Kill the fucker!"

Someone was already running outside from the building when the gunfire erupted from the woods.

Anna, as she was called, was unable to give the man proper cover fire when he had entered the woods and out of view. That was an incredible rookie mistake.

One that Jonathan had learned the hard way.

"Don't die! Shit! Please don't die!" shouted the young woman with quite messy red hair and discolored green eyes. She was holding a sniper rifle with some experience, thus not a novice by any mean. Sadly, she should have waited in the building like she was ordered to.

And before she could understand what her partner was telling her, her ankle was pierced by a bullet, forcing her to trip over and crashed against the snow.

"Bastard!" Anna cried out and swung her sniper rifle around to take aim, but it was kicked to the side and out of her hands.

"Shit! Anna! Anna!" the man shouted from the wood when he heard her scream. He emptied his rifle at the tree branch above him, hopping to snap it and letting him down.

It remained unbroken, and he was still being strung up by his ankles.

Jonathan wasted no time and stepped onto Anna's wrist before she could take out a knife or any sort of handpiece. She tried to grab his leg with her other hand, but he kicked her body flatly to the ground and stepped onto her other wrist as well.

When she was about to kick him, Johnathan dropped his weight onto her around the chest, cushioning himself against her fairly ample chest. She looked up at him and at the receiving end of a pistol, which was pointing directly at her head.

"Wait! Don't –!"

Her word was abruptly cut off with a single gunshot. Another one soon followed for good measure.

"Anna!!!!" the man shouted when he heard the gunshots. He swung his body back and forth violently just break free from the trap. His action only ended up causing the rope to tighten and constrict more.

"I'll fucking kill you! I'll fucking kill you!"

He screamed in rage, and the tree branch miraculously snapped, dropping him headfirst onto the snow below.

Knowing what had happened, Jonathan took no time and got off the dead woman. He then picked up the sniper rifle that he had knocked away. While he did not like using other people's weapon, as they might be boobytrapped, he had no choice at the moment.

He quickly took aim at the woods and inhaled deeply to steady his hands. Killing another human being was going to affect him psychologically regardless how many times he had done it.

The moment that the man charged out of the wood, Jonathan fired, aiming at center of body mass.

Even so, Jonathan missed. The second shot did not, however, and it sent the raging man tumbling into the snow.

"You fucker!" the man shouted and tried to push himself up from the ground. His eyes were now full of hatred as he looked directly at Jonathan, who remained expressionless behind the scarf that hidden away his hideous appearance from the world.

"I will –!

The man shouted before blood erupted from the back of his head as a sniper bullet penetrated right through his skull from one end to another.

His head collapsed forwards and painted the snow with blood.

Jonathan exhaled and lowered the sniper rifle before rubbing his ribs and feeling the bruises forming.

He holstered the weapon around his back as it was his now and approached the young woman. In his eyes, she was honestly pretty despite lying there with her eyes widened at the sky with a clean bullet hole right through her forehead. Or as clean as it could be.

Jonathan poked her breasts and squeezed them just to know the feeling. He admitted that it was nice to fondle breasts for real even if the clothes and bar was in the way.

All Jonathan had to go on since puberty was magazines – lot and lots of magazines – since no girl would look at him twice. All the nice ones were probably dead, taken advantage of and thrown in a ditch somewhere. Even if they still existed, he doubted they would kiss a face like his.

"Stop wasting time," Jonathan advised and removed his hands from her chest.

He then checked her tight vest and pockets for anything of use. He did the same with the man (without the groping part) and took the assault rifle as a trophy.

He then went to the bush to check what was really hidden there.

It was a motorcycle. And it was in a good condition. But the real prize was their backpacks, containing much needed supplies.

Jonathan picked out a can and checked the expiration date. Most foods had already expired, but they could still be editable if he was careful enough. He couldn't read the expiration date since dried blood was covering it. He dropped the can back into the backpack afterwards, joining the other bloodstained foodstuffs.

Before he could carry both backpacks back to the bunker to check and called it a day, a shot gun being reloaded was heard behind him.

"Shit…" Jonathan cursed inaudibly and raised both of his hands.