Chapter 6 Trouble in terrorist town

John and Luna started walking out of the house heading for the center of town. In the corner off his eye John spotted, his famished neighbor, looking at them through his window. Although John wasn’t afraid of a normal human, much less a famished on, he was still uncertain whether this person would steal his toilet paper once he left. Of course, there was barely any toilet paper left in this town, the scavengers that had taken residence in his house probably had some though. Also the sight of his neighbor still alive, diminished some of his concerns, since it meant that people were still alive and “well”

Continuing onwards down the street, the duo eventually made it to a certain store. “Mart-ha’s” John almost whispered sadly as he looked at the old beat up mart. Walking inside, John could see some old tin cans of unknown origin, laying on the ground.  John was feeling quite melancholic, he had known the sweet old lady called Martha his whole life. Every now and then he would come here with his parents, after getting older he would often come here to buy snacks, and once living by himself he would come here for food. He would see her at least 3 times a week. All the shelves in the store were empty, save for a few bits and bobs here and there. Looking behind the counter where Martha usually stood, donning a sweet smile, he saw a dry dark red puddle of something. As well as spent shell casings laying around collecting dust. The sight of this caused a burning fury to blossom in Johns heart, she was like an aunt to him, yet she was probably executed like a dying dog getting shot in a backyard.

John and Luna promptly left the mart, as there was nothing more to gain there. Heading right for the ones who were supposed to keep this from happening, the sheriffs’ office. Arriving in front of the quite large two story building, it looked nothing like how John remembered it. Every window was sealed with large steel plates on the inside, the whole building was riddled with bullet holes. Luckily due to it being a concrete, bullets had mostly no effect, besides removing the top layer of concrete. The front door, which used to be a sliding door had also been reinforced with two large steel plates on each side with only a small door in the middle. John could guess what had happened here, after he left town.

John and Luna walked up to the door, at about the height where his eyes are, there is a portion of the door that looks to be able to slide sideways, just enough for someone to see through. John looked at Luna, gesturing here goes nothing and knocked on the door. At first, he heard some whispering inside and then the face slide slid sideways revealing a person looking at him. “Oh, it’s you, I though you died” the man said, obviously familiar with John. Although you could see his eyes, John was not able to tell who this was, but he guessed from the lack of bullets raining at him, that they were people from the sheriffs’ office.

“Yeah, its me, can I come inn?” John asked. The man behind the door, looked at John, or more specifically the rifle on his back, and then at Luna. “leave the dog and the rifle out there” the man answered. John felt a bit helpless, however he wanted answers, so he could only comply. “Luna stay here and watch the gun while I go inside, there should be no danger, besides I will be more careful this time” John told her, Luna gave him a This feels familiar glance, letting him know of her dissatisfaction with this ongoing plan of splitting the pack. 

The door promptly opened and John walked inside, to see the familiar face of Sergeant Anderson, who quickly closed the door behind him, followed up by meticulously scouting the outside through the door slit. John was then held at gun point by three people who popped up from behind some overturned desks. Two of the men looked at him sternly, as if he had just tried to rob them, however the third looked at him with eyes wide open in shock, “JOHN!” he screamed out in surprise. At which point he ran over and hugged John. “haha John, I though you were dead, my boy, how you been?” he asked happily. The other two men took the hint and lowered their guns, but remained vigilant, despite the third mans reaction. “I’ve been good, uncle Oliver. Once I heard gods’ announcement I quickly headed for the woods, since I though things might get rough” John responded happily. “Haha, smart boy, smart boy, that probably saved your life, there has been gun fights going on all over the place last few weeks” Oliver lamented.

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 “Yeah, I just came from mart-ha's, what happened?” john asked. “Oh, yeah, that, that happened a few weeks ago, when supplies started drying up, we didn’t know why at the time, but some goons had taken over the highway and were stealing all the supplies and then selling them back other places. Because of that, our little town didn’t get any food, or supplies that we needed. Martha tried to ration what she had so that not one person got everything, however that quickly went wrong as someone shot her and everyone started taking everything she had. Those greedy motherfuckers didn’t give a shit about poor old Martha” Oliver responded with fury in his eyes. John had to take some time to digest it all. “What happened to those goons?” John asked. “Those highway men? They are still out there, we don’t know exactly where they are, since every time we try to send some to find them, they don’t come back. However, we have found the most likely place they set up shop, we just don’t have the man power to deal with them at the moment. There are several looters and scavengers spread out in town, killing and taking everything they find, which we have to deal with first” Oliver answered dispirited.

 “I see, but can’t you just call for federal backup or something? This place should be teeming with swat teams” John asked. “Don’t you think we tried, we called them four weeks ago, asking for backup when the highway men first appeared. The operator told us they would send a team ASAP, however after five days there was nothing, so we called again, this time they said the last team had been diverted to something more critical, and that this next team would definitely make it there. Yet after four more days, there was nothing. So, we called a third time, and they simply said they didn’t have the capability anymore.  The fourth time we called which was just last week, the operated answered but he simply said, he was leaving for Washington, every single federal agent capable of holding a weapon got called into Washington. Furthermore, there was no point in calling this number anymore since soon there were not going to be any here to answer it” Oliver answered, which at this point looked like a deflated balloon.

“Fuck, I didn’t think things were going to go to hell so fast. Oh, and do you know what happened to the man who shoot Martha?” John asked with anger in his heart. “Actually, we do, well not specifically, but we think he joined the highway men. I think they are running out of trucks to loot, since they have been doing raids on our town regularly, and I have seen that man among them sometimes. What are you thinking of getting revenge for Martha?” Oliver responded. “So, that’s were the bullet holes came from, and yeah, I’m gonna kill those fuckers, not just for Martha, but for this town” John responded full of vigor. “I see, well how are you going to do that?” Oliver asked unconvinced. “Well I have my dads old R700, that should do some damage” John answered, he didn’t really want to give away his biggest trump card just like that, so he kept quiet about his lycanthrope. “Taking them out from a distance huh… that could work if you manage to sneak up on them, however I would think you would need something with a little more oomph than a r700. Hang on a minute, I think I have something”. Oliver promptly left for another room, where he was making a racket looking for something.

 Eventually he came back out again with an old dusty, rifle. “This my dear nephew is a L115A3 .338 Lapua, even at 1500 yards this will blow a mans brains right out. As well as 30 rounds for it” Oliver smugly proclaimed. “Wow, thanks uncle, this will definitely come in handy, but don’t you guys need this?” John asked unsure whether he should have said it. “Mm, we could probably use it however, we haven’t so far, it has just been collecting dust for years, only reason its not filled with rust is because Sarge goes through our armory once a year and oils it all” Oliver answered, looking at the gigantic Sergeant Anderson by the steel front door, who simply nods approvingly in their general direction.  “Well thanks a lot uncle, I will make sure to kill all those fuckers, I’ll leave my r700 here for safekeep. Oh, do you guys have any gasoline?” “Yeah, we got some stashed away, you can have a jerry, since you are doing this for us and the town” Oliver responded. “Thanks uncle” John said.

After a little more catching up, John left with his new rifle and his jerry can of gasoline. Heading back home to get his pickup. Which of course was siphoned for fuel, hence the jerry can was necessary. John had planned to go to the highway men’s hideout and slice them to pieces, however with his new-found mortality, his wounds that were still not healed and the new rifle he just got. John saw no reason to expose himself in that way. With his experience as a marksman in the army as well as the practice he got while hunting in the forest, he felt he could pick them off from a distance. John started up his truck and with the gigantic Luna riding shotgun, they drove off into the distance towards a bloodbath