By Kevin W. Lee.
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I walked slowly down towards the small cluster of buildings. It turned out that the smoke I saw in the distance belonged to a small town of sorts. As I got nearer to the structures, I discovered it really wasn't a town, but more like a small waypoint for travelers.
Stepping on to the muddy roadway that ran through the center of the waypoint, I examined the conditions of the buildings. They seemed to be in fair shape, although nothing like sturdy buildings of Fort Mazier where I was trained, or the homey buildings of my small town, they did have their own worn look.
The buildings loomed up on either side of me. Maybe ten or twelve of them at the most. There was an inn, a couple stores, some sort of mechanic type place, and various other houses probably used as living quarters for those who worked here. I walked through the empty street towards the inn where I could hear the the sounds of laughter and the general ruckus of people having a good time. Moving up to the double swinging door, I pushed my way in.
As I walked through the door, the hinges creaked slightly. I could barely hear it over the loud roar of voices in the room, but apparently to the patrons it was as effective as a bullhorn. A split second after I stepped through, the entire commons room hushed and looked my direction. Slowly I walked over towards the bar.
The room was quite crowded and the bar seemed to be packed with scruffy backwater delinquents. But as I approached, these men frantically got out of my way giving me lots of elbow room. Upon reaching the bar, I unstrapped my helmet and took it off.
After speaking to the innkeeper for a few minutes, I was able to secure a room for the night. It was all quite easy in fact. My armor identified me as someone part of the Coalition, so people were in general very generous to me.
The room they had given me was large and spacious. It was much better than rocks and twigs that I had been sleeping on the last few weeks. I groaned as I removed my armor. This was the first time I completely removed it since I left the squad. The uniform I wore underneath was a good deal more comfortable than the armor. I walked back to the main commons room to question the innkeeper where I might be able to get a bath.
The bath house across the street was closed when I walked up to it. Fortunately, the owner lived there and was gracious enough to allow me to get a bath at that moment. Of course, I think it had something to do with my uniform, but that really didn't matter to me at the time. After getting cleaner than I had ever felt, I headed back to the inn feeling hungry.
That day, they were serving stew. After eating trail rations for two weeks, the plain stew was the most delightful thing that my tongue had ever tasted. This I told to the Innkeeper and the serving lass who hovered about my table as I ate, wringing their hands.
The atmosphere in the room by this time had livened up a tiny bit since I had come to the Inn. There was light murmur that buzzed throughout the room and the patrons seemed to be more at ease at my presence.
I was sitting there enjoying my meal, when suddenly the front door of the commons room swung open and three burly men swaggered in. Actually, let me rephrase that. Three ugly D-Bee scum walked in. I glared at them out of the corner of my eye. The patrons seemed to dislike their presence also. Anyone that was in these brute's paths quickly got out of the way.
These three were mutants of some kind. The leader was a huge brutish man that stood 6'7" and was bulging with muscles. His skin had a green tint to it and a pair of tiny horns grew out of his forehead. The second was quite a bit shorter, standing more about my height. He had these strange looking fangs jutting out of his mouth that reminded me of the tusks of a wild pig. The last was a little bit taller than me probably standing about 6'3". He was the most normal looking of all except for his eyes which were a bright red. All three of them were dressed in dark leathers and chains. Upon their arms, they wore arm bands which flaunted the symbol of a skull impaled on a knife.
Upon reaching the center of the room, they turned around and gazed out into the crowd. After a few moments of looking, the leader shouted out, "Okay youzz peoplez! Wez aheard that there be a Sissy-boy Coalition Shitheel here! Where is he?"
Of course nobody answered. Instead, they all looked my direction. With a slight grimace, I unclipped the button that held my laser pistol into my belt holster.
The one with the tusks looked over at me and grinned a uncharacteristic feral grin. Nudging the leader with his elbow he said, "Hey boss... there he is. Sitting in the corner all pretty like."
The other two turned my direction. I felt sweat bead on my forehead as I saw them arm themselves with knives and began to make their way towards me. It was so quiet, I could here the Innkeeper sitting in the corner behind me whimpering, "Oh my god... no... not in here..."
As they slowly advanced on me I heard the big one say, "So Sissy-boy Coalition man. Youzz think you'zz be so hot? Well, we'll teachez you otherwise."
Carefully I drew my pistol underneath the table. Through my gritted teeth I retorted, "Yeah? You and what army you freak!?"
At that, they paused a moment. Then like lightning, they rushed me. Firing from the hip under the table, I gunned down the giant leader from my seat. Unfortunately, the other two were moving fast enough to plow straight into me before I could shoot them.
The gun left my hand as I was slammed back into the wall. At that moment, the one with the tusks made a stab at my chest with his knife. Luckily, I was able to twist to the side away from the knife. I then smashed my fist straight into the side of his head. The tusked one reeled away from the blow.
Suddenly, a searing pain lanced in my arm as the red-eyed one's knife sliced brutally into my other arm. I lashed out with my good arm in retaliation, but it didn't connect.
Cursing, I leapt over a chair away from the red-eyed mutant and rolled to my feet. The mutant's knife flew over barely missing me and impaling itself in one of the patron's head. Guests in the inn were running about screaming, all trying to get out and away from the fight.
As I stooped down low to draw my boot knife, I was tackled again. This time by the tusked man who I had punched. Our bodies went slamming into a table, toppling it over and spilling the mugs that were placed there all over the place.
There, the tusked one sat on my legs pinning me to the ground. Sitting up, he raised his fist to punch me in my unprotected face. Fortunately, my right arm was free and I was able to knife my hand straight into his adam's apple. He fell off of my clutching his throat and gurgling pathetically.
I rolled up onto my feet as the red-eyed man rounded the table with his retrieved knife in his hand. With a ferocious snarl, he launched himself at me. Reaching down, I grasped one of the tin mugs which was knocked off the table that I ran into. Swinging the mug up, I connected it to his face. A sickening crunch sounded forth and blood splattered away from my blow. He dropped towards the ground holding his nose. Before, he hit the ground, his face met my steel reinforced boot lashing back up at him. When he finally landed, I could see that blood oozed from his smashed up head. Standing up straight, I looked to make sure no one else was attacking me. Almost all of the patrons had cleared the room by then. Those that stayed were onlookers.
Suddenly, something collided with the back of my head and I went hurling straight into another table. This table disintegrated due to the force of my impact. Holding my head, I looked up to see who hit me.
My eyes made contact with the giant who I had shot down earlier in the fight. Although he was bleeding pretty badly from the laser blast in the chest, he wasn't dead. He laughed at me evilly as the tusked man began to stand up behind him as back up. The giant flexed his muscles. It was at that point, I noticed the drug harness that was located underneath his torn jacket. Shit. He was a Juicer.
The leader laughed at me and said, "Now letz seez if the Wimpy Coalition-boy can fight Big Brandz without hiz sissy-man's pistol." The tusked one chuckled as he watched from behind Big Brandz.
I pulled my boot knife as I calculated my chances if I could get out of this situation alive. Not likely. Hunching down in a fighting stance, I pointed my blade at the giant. He wasn't going to leave this room without any scars.
I saw his muscles ripple underneath his coat before he hit me. My body went flying straight into the wall. The stars were just beginning to fade when I saw a fist speeding towards my face. My reflexes kicked in just in time to move out of the way and send his fist crashing through the wall. Using the time he gave me, I took the opportunity to knife the giant in the gut with the knife that I amazingly had not dropped.
Big Brandz bellowed in rage and pain. Tearing his arm out of the wall, he smashed his hand into the side of my head that sent me reeling. My head was still ringing as I felt myself being picked up off the ground. I was then thrown back face first into the wall.
I fell to my knees. My head was ringing, and I could feel blood dribbling out of a nasty cut on my lip. The wind whistled and flew through some furniture and shattered a chair.
My body felt numb as I saw the giant stalk towards me as I lay there. Feebly, my subconscious argued with me to get up and fight. But my body was in control, and it refused to take action.
When Big Brandz reached me, he knelt down and placed his gigantic knee on my chest, pinning me down if I had any fight left in me. He then began to pummel me with his fists. I took a blow to the face, to the neck, to the side of the head. It wasn't long until I got to the point where I couldn't see or feel anything anymore. The blows on my body felt like rain drops on a light summer storm. Suddenly, the attacks stopped. In my distorted condition, I could hear some muffled speaking off in the distance.
Then, there seemed to be some sort of scuffle and a few loud cries. By this time, I was conscious enough to open one of my swollen eyes to see the giant being hurled across the room covered in blood. My mind, though, numbed by the abuse that my body had taken decided not to take any heed to that strange sight and promptly had me black out.
I don't know how long I was unconscious, but I awoke lying on the ground covered up by a blanket. I was in some sort of camp outside lying next to a warm fire. There was a bandage upon my head and something smelling wonderful in the air. It was night time, so I had a hard time seeing if there was anybody about.
Off to the corner of my eye, I saw something move on the other side of the fire. I tensed in apprehension. Frantically, I looked for a weapon of some sort. There were none. In fact, even if I found one, my arms were so weak that I probably couldn't even raise them to defend myself.
As the silhouette shape walked around the fire towards me, it cast long menacing shadows. I looked on in fear, wanting to run away, but for some reason unable to.
As the shape walked within the light, I saw that it was only a man. His thick hair was greying slightly and he was sporting a full beard. As for clothes, the only thing I could see him wearing was a huge poncho that covered his body and a pair of jeans of some sort. He walked over to me and knelt down.
He looked at me to make sure that my bandage was on okay. Then, in a deep gravely voice he said, "Don't worry, I've taken care of your wounds. Lie still and the meal will be ready soon." He had a strange accent that I could not place.
Looking up at him, I spoke in a quiet voice, "Who are you? Where am I?"
Standing up, he cracked a feral grin; his teeth glistening in the firelight. Ignoring my questions he asked, "Do you believe in destiny?"
I shook my head. "No," I said weakly.
He chuckled under his breath and his eyes seemed to glow in delight. "Well," he said, "You shall soon." At that he turned away and walked to the other side of the fire.
And that's how I met Darren.
End of Part 2.
By Kevin W. Lee.
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