To say Marcus was stunned would be an understatement. The logical part of his brain was screaming at him, to run away, to grab her gun, to scream at the world, to do SOMETHING!
But he was frozen in terror and denial. All he could do is look at the scene in front of him.
What caught his Gaze first was the kickball sized hole in Alice's chest, a macabre scene of torn flesh and bone, a large pool of blood flowing out of her. Then his eyes fluttered to the gun that skidded out of her hands and down the street, tantalizingly out of reach. He then met Alice's blank stare that bore into him, eyes that just a moment ago, were brimming with life were now dull, and filled with nothing. Finally he looked down the road and saw him, or at least Marcus thinks it's a man, but if he's right it's the largest man Marcus has ever seen.
Towering above the five other raiders around him, the man seemed to be about eight feet tall, so wide and fat Marcus was surprised he could move. Yet this behemoth moved with surprising grace, hinting that there was plenty of muscle hidden underneath. This man, like the other raiders was bear chested, sporting a mohawk atop his head, with leather pants and large boots covered in spikes. He was also wearing a metal mask over his mouth, though if it's for a practical reason, or for intimidation Marcus didn't know. In his hands could only be called a cannon in the literal sense. The barrel was as thick as a bowl, with the bore the size of a tennis ball. As he reloads the cannon the raiders approach Marcus.
"It's a shame you had to shoot this one boss, it was quite the looker, heh."
"Well we still have the kid there so..."
"Which way did that shoota fly off to, looked nice and expensive!"
"QUIET." The large man says, the voice deep, gravely, and slightly muffled through the mask.
"Stackz, try out that saw technique I taught you yesterday on that kid, if you don't make it an exciting show you know what will happen."
"Sure boss, one chopped up kid coming right up!"
The other raiders started to hoot, and holler as the skinny one pulls out a bone saw while walking towards Marcus, snickering to himself.
Marcus stood there, staring certain death in the face. In moments like these people would do one of three things. Fight, Flight, or Freeze. In this moment of do or die, Marcus's body finally moved, reacting before his mind did. With adrenaline pumping through his veins, and ringing in his ears, Marcus sprints forward, knife in hand. Surprised, the raider swings wildly at Marcus's neck aiming to take his head off, but Marcus see's the swing coming and ducks down almost into a squatting position. Marcus then lunges at the raider, and using both hands, thrusts his knife forward and up, catching the raider on the side of his neck. The momentum of the lunge sends Marcus tumbling into the raider, both of them falling to the ground with Marcus on top.
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"w-wait" the raider faintly murmurs through the blood filling his throat.
But Marcus doesn't wait. Pulling the knife out, and in a fury Marcus didn't know he possessed, plunged the knife down into the raiders chest, again and again. A warm wetness splashed onto his body, coating himself in flecks of the raiders blood, but Marcus didn't notice. Eventually Marcus grew tired, lifting himself off the body. With bloody knife in hand, he faced the other raiders, staring them down with burning eyes.
The four normal sized raiders cheering started to peter off 30 seconds ago when the kid in rags stabbed Stackz in the neck for the first time. Now they were silent as the grave, having turned to look at the Boss for the verdict.
"Hmm... BORING. No screams, or begging. No dismemberment, and barely any blood. Let's move on boyz."
The Raider Boss lifted his scrap cannon, ready to finish Marcus off, and move on to search for more prey. With the adrenaline slowly wearing off in his body, Marcus's legs were like jelly. Unable to move he glared daggers at the monstrosity before him with hate in his eyes, waiting for the end.
A flash of light covered his vision, and Marcus thought he was dead, until the flash faded and he realized the four raiders beside the boss were missing either their heads, or there chest, replaced by a sizzling, glowing hole.
The raider boss without looking, flung himself to the right, narrowly dodging a slash from a very large shimmering blade. With one hand a man with a red scarf lifts the large blade like it weighed nothing and rests it against his shoulder. The man looked to be in his late 30's. He was tall and muscular, with slicked back hair, a five o'clock shadow, and a eyepatch covering his right eye.
The man wore black leather boots, and black pants that Marcus couldn't recognize the material of. He had a brown leather jacket on with some kind of armor underneath with pouches of various sizes around his waist. A long red scarf wrapped around his neck and flowed behind his back strangely glimmering in the sunlight. Other than the large shimmering blade in his left hand, he also had a strange gun in his right. The gun was shaped like a pistol, but was about a foot and a half long with glowing blue coils wrapped around the barrel.
The raider boss rolls on the ground stopping on his feet before firing his scrap cannon. The stranger smirks before he moves faster than Marcus could see, and appeared right in front of the raider boss. With one slash of his blade, he cuts down the raider from shoulder to waist. As he falls to the ground the raider boss is surprisingly alive, and horrifyingly Marcus watches as the two pieces of the raider tries to reattach itself together, his flesh moving like small wet hands trying to grasp one another.
"Huh haven't seen that one in a while." The stranger say's in a matter of fact way.
The stranger then lifts up his strange pistol then fires seven times. Each time he fires the coils on the gun glow brighter and brighter, with each shot a flash of blue light hits the body, and a chunk of the raider boss melts away until only his legs remain. Eventually the stranger turns to look at Marcus, and the body at his feet.
"Not bad, you've got talent kid, surviving a fight to the death with a raider. With nothing but an old knife too."
The stranger then turns to Alice's body, and his smirk turns into a frown.
"God damnit, I was to late."
Walking over to her body, he kneels down and closes her eyes. Sighing, he eventually stands up before looking at Marcus again.
"Your Marcus right?"
"Ye-yes sir? How'd you know my name?"
"Mick told me about you, said you were a good kid he was looking after. Mick was part of my crew you see, before he got married to Alice and retired. Bout an hour ago I got a call from him saying he was getting attacked by raiders. My crew just happened to be nearby having completed a mission when we got the call. It's a shame we got here too late."
The stranger then looked down at Alice, then back at Marcus.
"Names Wolf kid, and I got an offer for ya, if your interested."