Bradley was hit in the chest. The bullet pierced through him, and he fell to the ground, barely able to gasp for air. His lung was punctured. “Area Heal! Area Heal! A-” another shot rang out. It scraped across Kathy’s face, barely missing.
“How the hell did you miss that shot Private. Give me that gun!” An old military sergeant snagged the gun out of the private’s hand, “This is how you shoot to kill.” He quickly aimed down sights and began rapidly firing into the woods. Devin and Kathy drug Bradley’s body further back into the woods, while Ben gave covering fire, finally able to see what they were up against.
There was a small military unit of around 10 people, all with what is clear to be Bradley’s new supplies he had created. Ben could take them out with ease, but he didn’t know what repercussions could be caused by antagonizing the military, especially since if they dug into Bradley and his past they could attempt imprisonment as they were technically citizens of Detroit.
Ben took a deep breath, checking below as he saw that Bradley was behind cover now. Ben fired off his crossbow, targeting the weapons of the military squad. His arrows easily shattered the weapons, but that gave away his position. The officer turned to fire towards the tree he was atop, but Ben had already jumped down and disappeared into the treeline.
“What is going on! Area Heal! Area Heal! Area Heal!” Kathy began panicking, attempting to heal Bradley with her barely effective spell, burning herself out. Bradley choked up blood, “Withdraw 5…” and pulled out a mana crystal for Kathy, “Kathy I…,” he spurted out more blood, “need… you” Bradley passed out from the blood loss.
Kathy took a deep breath, absorbed the mana within the crystal, and began casting once again. She emptied her mana again, finally able to close the hole in Bradley’s chest. Ben stood guard, and Devin watched over them, unable to help.
Ben began to panic, “We need to go deeper, they’re coming into the forest. Devin, grab Bradley, we need to run! Kathy, take this low level crystal.” They began to run, deeper into the woods, hearing a faint laugh in the distance.
“Hot damn, these bullets work like a charm. Any Dick and Jane can load up a rifle and kill monsters and even returners. We need to make sure to wipe them out so they can’t go tattling to the higher ups of USDC. We might lose face if anyone knows.” A lower ranking officer spoke up, “Then why did we do this in the first place?” The officer slapped the man across the back of the head hard, “You dumbass, we gotta know if we can maintain control after more returnees come back. It’s worth risking a reprimanding from USDC. They wouldn’t cut our contract, they profit far too much. Besides, this is just a small squad on a last minute mission. Probably some people just trying to make quota.”
The private sighed, “Yes sir. I’ll go ahead to scan the area for monsters or the returnees.” The officer laughed, “Now you’re getting the big picture, go for it boy.” The private ran ahead, leaving his squad behind.
The private kept running forward, until he was out of site, “Fucking psycho. God damn, killing people for a test run of a new ammunition type. That’s insane. And the rest of the squad are no better, firing without hesitation.” The private slowed his pace down some, exhausted from the strange heat of the forest. He continued walking forward, scanning the area for monsters or signs of the returnees. Then suddenly he felt something wrap around his ankle, and then he was hanging upside down and his gun was dropped, “Oh shit, help! Someone help me!” He began to call out, when suddenly a knife was pressed to his throat.
Ben set up a few snares quickly thanks to his trap proficiency skill, ‘A warning system is better than nothing.’ He had just finished tying up one closest to the group when he heard one nearby go off.
“Shut your mouth or I slit your throat.” The private gulped in terror, “I’m sorry, please don’t kill me, I don’t want to be here either!” Ben pressed the steel blade against his throat, enough to draw blood, “You’re not even a returnee, whatever. Tell me why you’re here or I end you.”
“Our squad commander ordered us to come here to test our new bullets against ‘expendable’ returnees to see if they could maintain control when more come back.” Ben grabbed the young man by the throat, “Well you fuckers shot the guy who makes your fancy bullets. Expendable my ass.” Ben sighed, “Did you hit anyone personally?” The private sighed, “I missed on purpose. Even I think this mission is insane.”
Ben stared him down, until he heard several other traps go off, “Seems like your buddies got caught too, stay here, I’ll be back.” Suddenly gunshots rang out, and the sounds of screams began to echo in the dark forest. “I’ll be back, I have more questions for you,” Ben ran off.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Bradley awoke suddenly to the sound of Kathy sobbing. He sat up slowly, avoiding putting too much pressure on his chest, “I’m not dead yet, don’t worry.” Kathy hugged him lightly, “Oh thank god, I thought I wouldn’t be enough.” Bradley smiled, “I know I can trust you.” Bradley grinned, “I might not be dead but they are.” Bradley stood up slowly and began stretching out when suddenly he heard the sound of yelling.
“Stay here, I’ll be back. Withdraw 1! Withdraw 2!” Kathy reached out to stop him, but couldn’t say anything, “I’ll follow your orders sir.” Devin gave a half hearted smile, “Get those fuckers.” Bradley slowly walked into the woods out of site, and Devin slammed his hand against the tree.
“I can’t do anything. He was the one who was shot, but here I am doing nothing,” Devin pressed his back to a tree and slid down, “Damn, these trees are a lot harder than I thought they’d be.” Devin glanced down at his bleeding hand, “Withdraw 4.” He pulled out bandages and wrapped his fist. Kathy began apologizing, “I’m sorry, I don’t have enough mana to heal you. I wish I could do more too.”
Bradley slowly walked towards the yelling, where he found several men strung up in trees and several others trying to pull them down. Bradley brandished his side arm and began to fire into the group. The bone bullets tore through them with no issue, penetrating the entire crowd.
“Well, now that I have your attention, mind telling me why an army officer tried to take my life?” Bradley’s grin widened across his face. The commanding officer spoke up, “You think you can get away with this? I’m ~~~~~ army rank ~~~~~” Bradley used his finger to clean out his ear, “Sorry I don’t remember asking, but since we’re doing self introductions, I’m Bradley Terrey, company artificer, leader of Squad 0, and the creator of those fancy bullets loaded in your shitty weapons.”
The commander laughed, “Nice bluff, but it won’t get you out of this. You’ve attacked army officials on official business.” Bradley chuckled, “Well if I feed your corpses to goblins then no one will no right?” Bradley began giggling, “Anyways, just one question, was this your order or someone higher up?”
“You think I’d te-” Bradley shot him in the leg. The commander fell down, “You mother fucker, I’ll kill you.” Bradley began to mock him, “I’ll kill you I’m sergeant dick face, do you know who my dad is?” Bradley shot him in the other leg, “I wouldn’t give a fuck if you were the goddamn President, but you think some third rate army official will scare me,” Bradley pointed his sidearm towards the commanders head. “Ohh, if any of you guys silently pissing your pants have any information, then I’ll let you live.”
The group of privates began to clamor for a lifeline, throwing the man under the bus, saying it was all his idea, and how he had been bragging about it. Suddenly Ben appeared, “You don’t need to leave them alive, I already found someone more trustworthy.” Bradley smiled towards Ben, and Ben got a bit creeped out, “Perfect. I mentioned feeding you to goblins but I think that can come later.”
Bradley fired into the legs of the privates and stole their weapons and armor in the process. He left those hanging after firing into their hands, “Be happy I’m merciful. Maybe if you guys work together you’ll live. But probably not.”
“You won’t get away with this you bastard!” The commander yelled out as Bradley walked away. Bradley turned around and grinned, “Yes I will. See ya geezer.” Bradley turned back and walked with Ben towards the last man left.
The private hung upside-down, wondering how he got into this mess, ‘Mom shipped me off to become a better man, and here I was, forced to kill innocents because bossman says so.’ The young-man sighs, “What a shitshow.” “I know right?” Bradley jumped out in front of the hanging man, “Ben spared you, but I still think I should kill you. How about you give me a reason not to.”
“My name is James Neal, Army Private, Ex-Squadron 7.” Bradley sighed, “Thanks for the introduction, but that shit’s meaningless to me. What are you good at other than having just enough morals to not commit kills personally. You didn’t step in.” Bradley began waving his gun around in exasperation. “Is that a Magnum or a Glock?” Bradley raised his eyebrow, “You into guns or something?” The private nodded and Bradley responded, “It’s made of both. I made this gun out of spare parts when I was transported.”
The private nodded, “The magnum may have a stronger barrel, but the extra chamber size will decrease forward velocity and accuracy if the bullet doesn’t fit in correctly.” Bradley nodded, “Yea I was trying to figure out what I should use for it, but I couldn’t really figure it out.” James smiled, “I figured out how I can help you. My father is a gun manufacturer, and I’m assuming I’m the only survivor. How about this, you guys take me into your company, and I’ll get you the supplies to make a weapon that can handle the force of the new bullets properly.”
Bradley laughed, “I don’t need your supplies, but you seem to have decent insight. Good enough. Ben, tie his wrists up.” Ben shrugged, “You heard the man, put your arms behind your back.” James began to panic, “Wait, I thought we had a deal?” Bradley slapped him on the shoulder, “We do, but I have a friend who might want to kill you if its not clear you are under our control,” Bradley shrugged, “Anyways, I hope you have fun informing the military just how much they fucked up.”
James grew wary, “I thought I’d lie about it to keep it under wraps. Am I just supposed to tell them that four returnees wiped out 10 people?” Bradley laughed, “I could blow up a whole army base with enough prep time, that’s not the point. The point is we are the victims, and I’m the one making sure the military budget doesn’t go to complete waste.” Bradley smiled, “Kathy, Devin, we’re heading out.” Bradley chuckled to himself, ‘Time to play hardball.’