Lightning cracked as Jack approached the house he had been spying on. Jack held onto his pack trying to keep it from being ripped from his back.
“It’s getting too close,” he said to himself.
He knew he had to hurry if he wanted to avoid getting fried by the mythological thunderbird. Usually Jack would be afraid of other creatures hunting him down, but no creature is stupid enough to mess with a thunderbird storm. Jack hurried his pace to try and seek cover in the house. He could hear the thunder get louder as the bird approached.
“Come on, don’t fuck me over now”
He started into a sprint and he neared the door. It was right on his tail, no doubt saw him, he turned his head for a split second and saw the black bird diving straight at him.
“Shit!”
He booked it as fast as he could. He was just about to reach the front door when The bird screeched at him. It was closer at this point. He reached out for the handle of the door and dove through the frame and smash into the hardwood floor of the house. He was able to turn around and see that the bird was gone. Just vanished, like it had disintegrated into thin air.
“Never seen that before, huh”
As he pulled himself up to shut the door he noticed why he had seen people going in and out of the house. It was a stash house. As he closed the door blocking the violent wind's path into the house he could hear the hum of generators throughout the house. He unholstered his pistol and proceeded to search the living room, only occasionally stopping to grab canned goods from shelf’s. He thought to himself just how funny it was to imagine this room with only a couch, maybe a couple chairs, and a tv stand. But now it was cluttered with cots, shelf’s, and the remnants of a tv stand.
“ life just ain’t how it used to be I guess.” He said to himself
He squared down to pick up a canteen to be surprised by the sound of crashing shelf’s coming from behind him. Jack turned around dropping the canteen on the ground to prioritize his sidearm.
“ Who did that?” He asked out loud.
He half expected a response but was disappointed to hear anything but rustling coming from another room.
“I don’t want trouble, just come out and we can talk about this”
No response, clearly this person was as smart as he is to not trust anyone.
“ Last chance man, It doesn’t have to be this way! Just come out and we can talk this through like humans.”
There was a dormant part of him that wished he would be able to compromise about this but clearly there would be none of that. He proceeded to walk down the hall which he came from passing the front door and turning the corner to see a hallway. There were 4 doors, 2 on the left, one on the right and one in the middle at the end of the hall. He kicked in the first door to find nothing but a bathroom with a plastic tarp on the floor and a bathtub filled with water. He moved to the door on the right and pushed the door open as he watched from the hallway, again he found nothing but cots and shelves.
“Last chance man, I don’t want no trouble” he shouted as he opened the third door. Good thing he didn’t dash into the room, there was a giant hole in the floor that went down to a garage with a jeep wrangler taken apart and a dirt bike slumped against a wall.
*BANG*
A shotgun blast BBC and from the last room barely missing jack and hitting the hallways walls tearing into the drywall and filling the hallway with white dust.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“YA MISSED ASSHOLE!” He moved as far into the third room he could without falling into the garage.
*BANG*
A second shot ripped through the hallway right where he had been standing, the hallway became engulfed in white smoke, as more drywall was ripped apart. Jack stuck his hands out the door and began firing his sidearm, he didn’t stop firing until the 15 round magazine of his P320 had been fully emptied, as he pushed the mag release to load another mag he ducked behind the door anticipating his opponent to return fire, but nothing followed
“Bingo bitch” he mumbled to himself
Jack must have hit him, this left him an opening to push the doorway. Jack rushed back into the hallway and banged into the door, taking what little was left off the hinges with his shoulder
Jack jumped up from his cot
“Hey there jumpy”
Jack looked over to see his partner Caleb
“ you waking me up for somethin?” Jack replied
“Yeah, the mad scientist wants to see you”
“Old man barnes?”
“That’s the only one I know”
“Why would that be”
Caleb smirked
“ i don’t know, he just said and I quote, tell that punk ass dipshit kid I got a little gizmo for him” he finish with a old grouchy uncle voice
“Yep that sounds like him”
Caleb puts out his hand and helps jack to his feet, they both both walk out of the broken down room into a sort of living room with a large hole in the corner of the room, as they walk through the destroyed rooms to get to where old man Barnes had set up a table, around which laid all his crazy gadgets and gizmos. The old man always made things that would seem out of place for an apocalypse into usable tools. Like the new tool I could already tell would kill me.
“ what you need me for again? Test dummy?”
“ not today” the old man responded
“ I got a finished product”
I looked around his workbench and saw what seemed like a gauntlet of some sort, it had a harpoon on the top of it white a giant spool of wire attached, 3 small co2 canisters. All attached to a metal gauntlet with a copper pipe in the front attached by small pieces of metal.
“What the fuck did you make?” Jack asked old man Barnes with a puzzled face.
Old man Barnes patted Jack on the back.
“That my friend is my makeshift grapple hook, always wanted to make one of these just never had enough pieces”
“Jeez, is it even safe? I mean with g forces and stuff?”
“Well if you don't do anything too stupid you should be fine.”
Jack being smart enough to remember the last time Barnes gave him something asked
“ So what's the catch?”
Barnes' slight grin turned to a frown as he realized jack was on to him.
“You have to do it”
“No” jack replied
“ It's one mission, you’ve done it a thousand times. In and out, just get them then escort them to the settlement.”
“ Yeah I’m not that stupid Barnes, those cave dwellers need to realize that they are not welcome up here”
“ It's not more rich idiots, The Settlement she lived in used a bunker as shelter from the Thunderbirds storms, Bandits broke in and looted it attracting the impalers, we just need to get her to a settlement where she can learn how to survive.”
“She? You think that’s supposed to make me change my mind cause I was raised old fashioned? I’m not taking the kid”
“Not a kid, around your age in fact”
“And the news gets better and better! Not helping your cause pal”
Jack set down the device and began to walk towards the door. Barnes blasted out as he touched the bent door frame
“What about full immunity”
Jack stopped in his tracks and turned to face Barnes
“Are you sure you know what you're offering? All favors would be void, Everything.”
“ It has to get done, do this and all is forgiven.” Barnes replied. Jack could tell he was determined, usually that meant he would do just about anything to get him to do the job for him, which meant it was gonna be by reward or by force.
“Fuck, you’ve got a deal”
Barnes slimy grin returned after jack agreed
“ But I’m in charge of the raid, I don’t want any fuck ups this time”
Barnes seemed to contemplate it for a second before speaking.
“Deal, I’ll ready the others”