Boston squeezed the trigger and Zed was already moving.
The lady he had been oppressing and had almost crawled her way through the gate let out a terrified scream.
Zed ducked to the side. The gun aimed at him had not been fired, but he didn’t need to wait for it. Toby took a moment to realize what was happening and fired his own rifle but Zed was already out of the way.
The possibility that any random person behind him could suffer the bullet meant for him didn’t cross his mind. He reacted quickly and that was all it was to him.
He moved forward, weaved forth like a boxer and came up on Toby’s side. He wasn’t sure exactly how fast he was, but Toby’s eyes never followed him.
One minute the man was shooting at him, and the next moment Zed was burying his fist in the side of the man’s face. His fist cracked the man’s jaw and Toby fell like a wet rag.
Zed turned almost immediately, ready to bring Boston down as well. He was met with the sight of Daniel holding the man up by the neck. Squeezing.
Daniel had a frustrated look on his face and was ignoring Boston even as he held him high enough for his legs to dangle in the air.
“We were supposed to be in and out in peace,” he grumbled loud enough for all of them to hear. “It’s why we left Festus behind.”
“Actually.” Jennifer scratched her jaw sheepishly. “We left the old man behind because we didn’t want to be perceived as threats.”
Daniel scowled at her and she shrugged., then added: “I’m just saying.”
In Daniel’s hand Boston was beginning to gasp for air. His hands clawed at Daniel’s forearm and he was beginning to turn purple.
Zed looked down at Toby, checking on the man, and winced. “Uhmm… that’s a broken jaw, right?”
Oliver looked down at Toby and grimaced.
“Broken isn’t the word you’re looking for, Bloodbath.” Chris was looking at the man as well. She looked impressed with what she was seeing. “That right there is shattered. You pack a mean punch.”
Zed looked at her and opened his mouth to say something. In the end he settled for silence. Something worrying was going on, but he wasn’t entirely sure what it was.
Instead, he turned to Daniel and nodded at the purpling Boston still in his hand. “You going to stop playing with your food, big guy?”
Daniel scowled at him. “You played a part in this. You don’t get to joke your way out of it.”
“No jokes.” Zed raised his hands in surrender. “I just don’t think the big guy should suffer too much.”
Daniel gave him a skeptical look. “Even though he just shot at your friend?”
Shanine snorted. “Friend’s a very strong word. Probably the wrong word, too.”
“Yea,” Chris agreed. “He’s more of an acquaintance.”
Zed paused. An acquaintance? What the hell is going on here?
Oliver was nodding along to Chris’ words like a proud mother whose child had just successfully recited the alphabets for the first time.
What the hell did he do to her?
In Daniel’s hold, Boston’s arms finally fell him.
Daniel looked at him. Shook him once, then twice. When Boston showed no signs of activity, he lowered the man to the ground gently.
“Alright.” Chris rubbed her hands together. “I call dibs on the rifle they shot me with.”
Another scream pierced the air and they turned back. Not too far from them a child was crying, bent over the body of a man that was bleeding out. The man was gasping for air, blood trickling from his mouth.
From where he was Zed couldn’t see where the man was hit, but he knew the bullet that had been meant for him had struck the man somewhere.
I hope it’s nothing fatal.
He took a step in the man’s direction and Ronda grabbed him by the arm. He looked back at her, confused.
“There’s nothing you can do for him,” she said softly. “We’ve already stared up a ruckus. What will happen if reinforcement comes.”
We’ll beat the shit out of them, too.
They’d already said it before. The powers of this town weren’t powerful, they could bring them down easily, if they chose to.
There are methods to toppling a government, he reminded himself. If you just bring it down, those under its rule will suffer.
There was something systematic about the thought. Something apathetic as well.
Zed looked back at the man and above his head he watched lines and curved fade in and out of reality. Each one looked reddish with a purple tinge. They looked like they were trying to form something but just couldn’t.
“He’s in pain,” he muttered.
“And you want to what? Heal him? Put him out of his misery?”
Zed gave Ash a sharp look.
“She’s right, Red,” Ash added, behind her Chris was picking up Toby’s rifle. “We can’t help them, none of us know any healing spells.”
“And healing runes are almost impossible to master.” Jennifer came up to them. “We can’t do anything for him.”
The passersby had changed somehow. They were wary now but some were pretending not to be. But Zed could see it, clear as day. They were walking faster. And while some of them slowed down, it was only to view the scene of a child crying over a gasping man.
Zed did not like it. Not one bit.
Was this what had happened to the world. He remembered a world were a crying child dragged the attention of almost everybody. A world where people would’ve rushed over to the man and the dying child. If not to help, then to render some form of comfort to the child.
“What have we become?” he muttered to himself.
There was no answer, and Shanine came to place a gentle hand on the side of his arm.
“We have to go, Zed,” she said. “Daniel’s already moving forward.”
Zed had nothing to say. Things had escalated too quickly and he felt it had been his fault. He’d goaded the idiots lying unconscious on the ground right now. Yes, they’d been idiots, throwing around weights they didn’t have.
But he could’ve allowed them their posturing, right? They would’ve said a few things, blustered around, maybe even smacked them around. Then they would’ve allowed them through after feeling like important people.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
He could’ve endured.
No.
The thought was all his. He could’ve endured but he wouldn’t have. That was what he would’ve done before he’d known who he was. That was what he would’ve done when he’d had no one to go to and nowhere to go to. Those would’ve been the action of the man who’d known no one but the people in front of him.
Melchizedek Nyborn was a bit on the timid side, but his parents hadn’t raised him this way. Melchizedek Nyborn would not have endured.
He turned away from the scene of the dying man, the memory of fading lines and curves steady in his mind, and walked.
When he passed Oliver, Oliver said nothing, simply walked with him.
They caught up to Daniel and Kid who’d been waiting for them and went through the gate.
“I don’t know if its too soon to say this,” Eitri said as they hurried up the elevating dirt road and approached a new part of the place, “but I don’t think they were really that bad.”
Ronda shot him a scathing look. “Maybe when we get back we should have Festus kick you around on the floor while Daniel eyes you like tasty meat.”
They were moving at a jog now, as if hesitant to run. Everyone they passed gave them a wide enough gap to move through.
Daniel led them to an intersection and stopped. They were at a T junction and he looked uncertain.
He glanced left, then right. Frowned. “I wouldn’t look at you like a piece of meat, Eitri.”
“Yeah,” Ronda said. “You’re more like a slice of tuna. Small bites.”
Eitri sighed. “And that’s why they weren’t so bad. At least they didn’t see us and go ‘you know what, let’s pick on the little guy.’ I was just standing there, waiting for the first dwarf joke.”
Zed nodded sagely. “Ronda is sorry she made you wait too long.”
“I’d break your knee caps if something wasn’t holding me back.”
Jennifer gathered herself up to Daniel. “Which way?”
“Not sure.” Daniel was still frowning.
“Festus isn’t around, though,” Shanine told Eitri. “What’s holding you back?”
Zed looked at her, surprised. Now this wasn’t confidence, this was slowly becoming arrogance. Was being a mage making her different, or was it an effect of being a blood mage?
Maybe it was time for him to ask questions about blood magic. Because this wasn’t normal.
Or maybe it was. He might’ve spent time with Shanine, gotten to feel some form of responsibility towards her, but could he really say he knew her. All he’d seen was how the girl was when she had no power, magical or not. When she had no control over her life.
He’d only seen her when she was a victim. Was it possible that this wasn’t a magic thing, but a case of seeing what people were when they had some level of power?
“Left,” Daniel said suddenly.
Zed looked to the left and saw a tight knit amalgamation of caravans and small shacks. It looked like a large group of nomads had decided to settle down for the week and exchange information and goods from their separate journeys.
To the right was less jampacked, but not much better. Above them the sun was coming down, evening was descending.
Zed looked at Shanine. “How about we do less of goading people on, huh?”
“I wasn’t goading anybody.” Shanine pouted. “I’m sorry about the thing at the gate, but I just wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if we hadn’t done anything for the woman.”
“What’s holding me back is that he’d just heal his kneecaps,” Eitri said, suddenly. “I’m still mesmerized by how a mage can walk into a barrage of bullets axe swinging like a mad man without even trying to dodge.”
Everybody except Oliver, Ash and Chris winced at his words. It was almost as if Eitri brought it back to their minds.
Zed found it funny since he was still covered in his blood which was now dried to a cake, and still had on his tattered clothes. It wasn’t like it was something they should be able to easily forget.
Then he remembered something else. The anti-mages had retreated, but not fled. What were the chances that they were somehow still hot on their tail?
“I don’t know how exactly this apocalypse thing works,” he said to no one in particular. “But in the more civilized areas, is it hard to come by cars and fuel? I know it’s a stupid question since you guys even have a spaceship.” He paused. “Well, I guess had is the right word here. But is it rare?”
Oliver shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Yea,” Ash agreed. “Before we found Heimdall we saw a few functioning cars on the road, like the one we took. I think the issue would just be powering them.”
Jennifer looked between them like she was a kind noble looking at people from the country side. “There’s more than enough fuel back at headquarters.”
“Any where with VHF level civilization is completely normal,” Kid added. “Cars, gas stations. You know most of the world didn’t suffer this bad. It’s just—”
“We’re going left,” Daniel repeated, his tone hard. “We can talk about advancements and regressions when we’re out of this mess. Those men aren’t dead, and when they wake up, the whole town will know about us. That’s if they already don’t.”
He was right. Zed nodded and walked up to him.
“Let’s go then, big guy. We couldn’t pull the Houdini last time, so let’s see what we get this time.”
……………..
“How many of them?”
“Nine, sir.”
“So they saw nine people, with one large man, all of them mages. And were still stupid enough to wave their guns around?”
The man on the other end of the phone hesitated. “Yes, sir.”
Babajide sighed in frustration. “When I gave you guys guns, it was so you could feel a little more confident, not wallow in the confusing dichotomy of your own hubris. Guns do not suddenly make you capable of defeating nine mages. Is your insanity hypothetical or do you all just decide to be sacred detritus to the society of intelligence?”
Again, he was met with silence. He hated silence. It was often times the shield of the stupid, and a poor one in the presence of those who recognized the stupid.
“So you’re telling me that I have nine mages with my guns, running around my city? Is that it?”
Another silence.
“By the dead gods, if you do not answer me Tom, I’ll take you phalanges and scrape the insides of your esophagus so gently you’ll feel like the love of your life is tickling you through your ass. Answer me GOD DAMMIT!”
“Yes, boss. But they only have two of our guns, sir.”
“Our guns.” Babajide chuckled darkly. “When did they become our guns, Tom?”
“Sorry, Boss. I meant your guns.”
Babajide took in a deep breath, then let it out in a slow exhale. He was tired of holding the phone up to his ear so he put it down and put it on speaker.
“Get your men, get my guns. Then bring me those idiots who didn’t even have the decency of killing the stupid men they met.”
“Yes, Bo—”
Babajide hung up on Tom before he could finish his statement.
He was saddled with imbeciles. Not all of them, though. There were a few men who had sense. Tom was one of those few, but he hadn’t been blessed with any shred of managerial skills. He couldn’t keep the men beneath him in line.
Babajide leaned his head back against the backrest of the chair he sat on and drummed his fingers on the arm rest.
“A red haired mage, huh,” he mused.
The VHF was still giving rewards for read heads, weren’t they?
He couldn’t remember what exactly the rewards were, but someone had said the prices were good. Personally, he hadn’t cared about them since he hadn’t seen anyone with red hair, fake or otherwise, since the second awakening.
Now, however, there was a red head in his town. And the mage had gone the extra mile of crossing him. How unfortunate.
And if they had felt the need to carry guns with them, then they weren’t much of a real threat as mages.
A real mage didn’t need a gun. That was why he’d given his men guns. It kept them from being real mages. The ones that went out to hunt meat for the town and sometimes keep the monsters away were a step closer to being real mages.
But as long as they used guns, they would never be real mages.
A real mage did not rely on weapons because they knew they were living weapons. They were all the power they needed.
What use were guns when a person could create thunder and make the ground shake like a tsunami was having a tussle with an earthquake.
So he gave his men guns because humans were accustomed to guns. It made them feel safe. And powerful. It helped them remain complacent.
With it, they would have no need to train their skills in magic. Why? Because everyone wanted to be as far away from the danger as they could be when they put it out.
Babajide stared at the ceiling of his room and the dangling chandelier distributing a kaleidoscope of colors. The bulbs within it had gone through some adjustments so that they released different colors. It made them look like club lights, but he didn’t mind it.
Right now, he had only two things on his mind.
How he was going to punish the intruders, and how much the VHF paid for a live red haired mage.
After all, in the last two years they’d only been getting more desperate about getting their hands on as many redheads as they could.
………………..
Zed stood, staring.
They were in the the cacophony of tightly packed caravans and tents. Like the gathering they’d been introduced to in the beginning, people sold their wares and screamed their prices. And while the products weren’t supermarket value, they were a cut above the old products in the previous place.
“So this is uptown,” Ash mused.
Zed ignored her, still staring.
----------------------------------------
New Quest: Purchase Order 001
You have ruffled a few feathers. Purchase what you require and make your exit before the time runs out.
* Objective: Acquire map: 0/2
* Objective: Acquire battery: 0/1
* Reward: mana stone x1.
Time remaining: 00:43:39.
----------------------------------------
Zed had an idea of what was going on with the quest, but that was as far as he could understand. Everything else confused him.
Why did it think he needed two maps? Why did it use the word ‘acquire’ and not ‘purchase’ like it used in the quest name? And why the number one? Was there ging to be another purchase order? He was beginning to realize that he really hated it when the quest didn’t just give him Exp as rewards.
And how the hell was he going to get a mana stone for a reward?
The answer came to him almost immediately. Oh.
“Uhm, guys.” He moved his hand and tugged on Kid’s shirt. “We really need to hurry. We don’t have to go back to the car, but we really have to get what we want and get out of this town.”
He really wasn’t in the mood to fight a mana beast in this madness.
And he really needed to learn how exactly this quest system worked.