Tuesday, January 31, 2023

No Innocent Men and Wednesdays: Chapter 2 – Cut and Dry

Chapter 2 – Cut and Dry

My home sits in the middle of America. Here is where most go to escape Old America and set up their own countries and ideas of what America should be. It’s essentially the wild west again since everyone does what is right in their own eyes with no government oversight besides whatever God allows to happen and those He employs to see justice through. Currently, I’m scouting out a town where the worst of the worst from Old America and the new wild west are set up to fulfill their evil desires. From the trade of drugs, guns, and other illegal goods, dealings with other countries, human trafficking, and prostitution. Here, people are so shameless that some have their preferred kind of sick sex in public while not caring about those who see it since this is supposed to be a ‘judgment’ free zone where powerful people can do what they want. I’m here to show them that they can’t.

In fact, I’m done scouting and going there to clean the earth of this scum now. What’s the point of it when I’m just going in like I usually do and taking no prisoner? Most of these towns have the same layouts and there’s no building bigger than two stories in it. The only difference is that there are more guards than usual. Speaking of which, I take care of the guards on the towers and sniper spots with my rifle silenced before using a hook and rope to climb over the steel walls. Going over to the building with a radio tower on it, I take care of everyone in it with the knife attached to my rifle before transmitting this particular radio signal and more listed black network signals back home with my transmission device. Most black network signals are memorized by those who use them, but they will write some of them down. These signals also change every now and then though it’s still good to know the existing ones now so we have a chance to find all the sources of the signals and additional ones.

Going outside, I see that the guards are on alert. The strange thing is that some of the people here are still going about their business as if nothing is happening. The guards are coming this way, so there’s no reason to keep up this halfhearted attempt at stealth. I come out shooting starting with the couple having sex with beasts in public before leaping to cover and shooting everyone else. Leaning up against the wall of a building, I consider my plan until I realize that I’m walking in front of a blackened window. Instantly, I drop to the ground before a shot hits me and return fire before busting in through the window and shooting everyone else in there. I almost forgot that the blackened windows in towns like these don't allow you to look in, but the people inside can see out of them.

My strategy is to go in and out of the buildings to clear them out, however, the guards are one step ahead of me and shoot at me from all of the surrounding buildings while the others advance into mine. It doesn’t help that the scummy citizens, slaves, and visitors of this town have all taken up arms against me so I essentially have everyone against me. Now things are getting hairy. After shooting those entering the building I’m in, I quickly check it for hidden exits in the floor, and surely, I find one. The intel I collected informed me of the secret exits that all these buildings have that lead to tunnels that go all throughout the town and offer an alternate exit to the town. In the tunnel, I find more people, however, they don’t notice me, so I’m able to get the jump on them and since I’m in a tight space, I switch to my revolvers loaded with shotgun shells and clear a path forward.

Because there’s no cover in these tunnels, I have to use the bodies around me as a substitute. Advancing forward, I find that the tunnels aren’t marked. This forces me to guess where to go. Right now, I need to get behind the crowd and deeper into the town where I’ll find more of my targets. Thankfully, I get to a building that’s a fair distance away from where I was with no one inside it. It’s also not too far from the surveillance station, which is another bonus. Gong to it, I find it heavily guarded with men in suits of armor in it. Sheets of metal come out from the ground that are as hard as the metal the building’s walls are made of to give them cover and make things more difficult…for them.

Switching over to my armor piercing rounds and charging up my rifle, I’m able to shoot through the sheets of metal and into my enemies. They begin to scatter because of this allowing me to conserve some of the fuses that I use to charge my rifle and just shoot some of them with my regular armor piercing rounds. After the shootout, I quickly check how many more fuses I have, which is only a few. If I run out, I could use fuses from fuse boxes or the fancy electric cars outsides, however, those don’t give as good a charge for my rifle. Doesn’t seem like I’ll need it though as there doesn’t seem to be anyone left-woah! A bullet just passed through my cloak. It’s a good thing I wasn’t hit.

Taking cover, I try to see the shooter in the surveillance room I’m currently in. The monitors and tables in this surprisingly expansive and dark room have been made into makeshift cover. I can’t help but look up at the monitors to see that they had cameras in every building and tunnel in this town as well as the outside walls and where the tunnels lead outside of the town. From the monitors I see, everyone who is after me is headed towards this building and it doesn’t look like I can use the tunnels to escape this time.

“I’d knew you come, Colton,” I hear a woman’s voice say.

“Does that mean you’re going to come out to let me shoot you then?” I ask not really knowing what to say.

“Aren’t you going to ask how I know your name or who I am?”

“No, not really because you aren’t leaving this town alive.”

“We’ll see about that. I already know your tactics after our first encounter. The only thing I was surprised by is your rifle’s charge function.” Okay, we’re just wasting time. I take a chance and go out of cover to try to find this woman. “We don’t have to fight, Colton. If you chose to work for me, then I’ll get you more help for your little town and state.”

There’s no point talking to her. I hear movement in the dark and shoot in that direction and vaguely see the woman that is revealed by the light of the monitors and gunfire. Unfortunately, I only managed to clip. She shot back at me, but she missed me as well.

“Why pick a fight with people like us?” she asks.

Because you’re scum. Simple as that.

“From what I’ve read and heard from my contacts, you’re a self-righteous man who kills whoever you judge as being evil. What separates you from us who do what we consider right?”

I don’t define good and evil based on my own feelings. I actually do what is right. While she continues to rant on, I sneak around the room until finally find her and put a bullet in her head to make her stop talking. That’s it for this building so I leave the room and find more people waiting for me coming into the entrance. One of these people seems to be a rich man because of his fancy clothes and what looks to be a diamond plated pistol. He brings in people in chains some of which appear to be in their teens and younger.

“I know how much you like defending the innocent, Colton,” the man says. “How about you leave and you’ll be free to take a truck full of the innocent back to your home with you-”

After waiting for the man to align his head with another’s, I take my shot killing three in a row. I’m not going to fall for his trap since I know these slaves are a mixture of willing slaves, people pretending to be slaves, and other people who have lost their minds due to the torture or drugs their tortures put them through. Not only have I learned this trick of theirs through the black network, but there are also many stories of slaves being freed and brought back to towns only for the towns to be taken over and their inhabitants killed or enslaved. Using the advantages I have, I take cover behind the metal sheets that are still up as well as my position on the top floor, and take out everyone who comes in. Eventually, they stop coming and I assume that I’ve killed everyone in this town save for those who managed to escape through the tunnels.

When I go outside, I find the truck of so-called slaves. Taking a grenade from one of the dead guards, I throw it under the truck and blow them up. My job here seems to be done. I’m about to find some gas to burn this place to the ground until a man decked out in cybernetic implants and armor jumps down in front of me from the second story of one of the buildings.

“Sorry I took so long to get my suit on. Now we can fight-” the man says before I blow off part of his head with my rifle. Seeing that he doesn’t fall down startles me a bit especially when he tilts his head. “Surprised? The best cybernetic implants allow me to become a human tank.”

Loading my armor piercing rounds, I shoot the robotic man over and over again as he tries to shoot and crush me with his arms and legs that can break off parts of the buildings and cars around us. It’s a back and forth battle of dodging and countering his attacks until I’m able to get at a certain angle where I’m able to shoot both of his legs with a charged shot to bring him down and despite all the damage I’ve done to him, he still lives, so I keep shooting him. He screams out in pain with every shot and part of his body that I blow away.

“I thought you were a merciful kind of guy?! Where’s your mercy now?!” the man says in a distorted mechanical voice.

“This is mercy. Now, do us both a favor and die,” I say.

It takes almost every bullet I have to kill this man. By the end of it, he’s in scattered pieces. If you looked at him, you wouldn’t think he was human and just a bunch of computer parts with bits of flesh and blood, which I guess is fitting. Whelp. Looks like it’s time to finish up here. I find some gas cans pour them all over town, set fire to it, and watch it all burn from a distance. Even though there was ammo, weapons, money, and more in the town I could’ve taken, it’s all ill-gotten, so as far as I know, it would’ve cursed me and my own if I took it. It’s reward enough for me that I’ve brought justice here and burned it all down. With that done, I go back home and get yelled at by Liah since I have minor scratches and bullet holes in my cloak. I’m fine with it knowing that she, everyone here, and everyone who would’ve been affected by the scum in that town is now safe.

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