"It set?" Jordan's voice came over the walkie-talkie.
"Yeah." I said shutting the hood of the car that concealed the nuke. "Just finishing up."
"Good. Meet you at the rendezvous." He replied.
Jordan was my best-bud since kindergarten. We met after he pulled me up after I got the crap kicked out of me by some other kids. Yeah I was that kid. Stereotypical nerd. Weak physically but had an IQ higher than the teachers that would shovel their information into the kids in their class. Jordan, was the opposite. He could run a mile in seven minutes in fourth grade and could bench-press more than he weighed even earlier. Though he was dumber than a box of nails.
Together we made the perfect team; me supplying the brain and he the brawn. When we weren't pulling pranks I was helping Jordan with his homework. Before me he struggled with school, but with tutoring he made up to B Honor-Roll. Similarly, before him I would get the snot kicked out of me, coming home with bloody noses everyday, and after we became friends. No one would touch me.
After high school, we didn't know what to do with our lives. He didn't want to farm like his family had for generations, and I didn't want to get shipped off to China for some prestigious school. So, what is a kid-genius and a rock-hard wall of flesh supposed to do?
We had no frickin' clue.
Pretty soon we were going broke fast and we needed income. Til' he and I were drinking our the last of our sense (and cents) away in a local bar. A man approached Jordan looking for a bodyguard. He said some bad men were wanting to kill him and he needed a little muscle to protect him and he would pay. In cash. So Jordan pulled me over just as said "bad men" walked through the door to the bar and started to rough the man up. One pulled a knife out and waved it around, threatening the man. Then things got messy. And messy meaning Jordan broke his arm and I made it out with a dislocated shoulder.
We got paid good for that one. Even though it wasn't a job it felt like it was one. We eventually took on more jobs like that, usually involving escorting some girl through a party or "securing" something stolen or forgotten from an ex's house. There were some outliers that required some force, but nothing extreme.
And now, we are the only remaining bounty duo in New York. Ya' see, Blackwatch didn't want any more personnel dying in the Red Zone. So, why not send in two nineteen year olds that had minor combat experience? Perfect. They paid well, very well. But that wasn't the reason that I went in to the most dangerous place on the planet. I went because my parents had gone to New York for their annual anniversary trip. And guess who decided to show up just as I got off the phone with them. Some super infected called "Mercer." Supposedly he started the outbreak... and I was going to finish it.
So here I am. Waltzing through an apacolytic Manhattan with my best friend, dodging Evolved, and playing with radioactive isotopes. Yeah, this is what Mom planned for me. I have to admit, it was a little hard to accept the situation but I got over it as soon as I learned I would send this whole city to Hell.
"Ah, Fuck!" Jordan's voice came through the radio. "Sensors just tripped. Got a tail."
This stopped me dead. My life-long friend had the probability of dying by the hands of some Evolved. How you ask did he know this? Well, I'm a genius and I had access to some government software. So naturally I experimented with it. I was able to make three prototypes of a kind of sensor to detect their viral strain that they put into the air when they change form. They had an effective range of about forty meters and successfully detected and Evolved eighty-seven percent of the time instead of some other infected type. Not shit but has saved my butt several times.
"I'll try to lose 'em. But you. Get. To. The. Detonation point. If I'm not there, don't wait. You have to blow it." He said.
"... "
"Sam?"
"... "
"SAM! YOU HAVE TO DO IT DAMNIT!" He screamed over the radio. "You have to. Regardless if I'm out"
"... Yeah." I answered dumbly.
"I'll meet you there. Don't dwell on it."
I didn't answer because if I did I knew I would just make the situation even more difficult.
So, I started the few hundred meter trek to the rendezvous site. I was going along at a nice jog until I tripped over a conveniently placed piece of rubble. Now, with me on the ground, clutching my face like an idiot, my viral sensor went off. A short little buzz got me off my ass and under the nearest car just as I see a pair of legs land on the street, a small crater forming with cracks spider-webbing on the pavement.
I didn't dare look, but I could hear what sounded like heels clicking on the pavement.
Click
Clack
Click
Clack
And with each click I could feel my heart beating faster. Until I saw the heels stop right in front of me. And those heels were connected to some long legs.
"Come on out little mouse." She called out in a slavic accent.
'Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck.' I screamed in my mind. This wasn't good. And I was so close too. Only about eighty meters away form the playground. 'Well, didn't want to use this just yet, but it is kinda necessary.' I thought pulling a different detonator form my jacket. This one was wired to some C4 I snagged form the Blackwatch base that I had placed in some cars about seven blocks form here. This would only make a lot of noise and draw attention to that area. And it seemed to work. The satisfying boom sounded through the air caught the attention of the Evolved. She whipped her head around to the direction of the sound and she took off with a smirk.
"Well," I said, making sure she was gone, "that could've ended badly."
So I got out from underneath the car and set out again. Only sprinting sprinting this time. I reached the playground shortly, arriving panting for air and sweat on my forehead. Hey, I was a nerd and the situation was very stressful. Jordan was nowhere to be seen, but I knew he would make it.
Fifteen minutes later, Jordan arrived out of breath. "Good God," I said to him, "I thought you wer--" And my little moment of rejoice was cut off by a little sensor on my jacket to start blinking red. "What the fuck did you do?" I asked.
"Well little mouse," I heard a familiar voice behind me say, "Looks like he sold you out."
Seeing no other option I reached for my bloodtox grenades (I'm genius with a slight case of kleptomania), but I was knocked on my ass by Jordan's fist connecting with my jaw.
"Why you fucker?" I asked spitting some dirt out my mouth.
"Well, poor old Jordan finally thinking for himself." he said. "I have always been in your shadow." he said picking me up. "'Poor Jordan,' dumber than a box hair. Only good for when you need something moved." He began going on a rant, each time he said 'Poor Jordan' he punctuated me in the gut.
"Well, I'm done!" he said dropping me. "I'm done! I'm DONE! I'M D-" he couldn't finish his tantrum his head exploded. Yeah.
The Evolved quickly retracted some whip thing from Jordan's head back into her arm. "That's better." she said clicking her tongue. "He was getting a little annoying." She morphed her arm into a huge claws. Getting on her knees, she straddled me and pressed her claws to my face. "Now, we don't want to hurt that pretty face."
"Fuck you." I spat in her face.
Wiping her face, she picked me up and threw me at a jungle gym, bending the steel and breaking my ribs. Although, her sadistic smirk was wiped off her face as I began to laugh my face off. This was both a thing I used to freak people out when I was being beat up and at something very funny.
"What is so funny?" she asked, striding over and morphing her arm into a giant blade. She pressed it to my neck threateningly.
I just smiled and dropped a little black stick. She looked down at it and saw a red light blinking rapidly. She looked up at me with a surprised look.
"Boom-shaka-laka." I said with a smirk. And although I felt fear of my approaching death, I wondered where I would go. If I would go to heaven, reincarnated, or thrown into some hell. All I knew was...
I didn't deserve any of the above.
**
In Canterlot, Celestia awoke from her slumber. She felt odd... for some reason. Some thing had to have happened and she would have to investigate, but her bed felt soooooooo nice and Luna held responsibility over the night.
"I'll deal with it in the morning." she mumbled, returning to sleep.
In the morning, after Celestia had raised the sun, she left her chambers to get breakfast in the dining room. There she met her sister, Luna. "Sister?" she asked her sibling, "Did you feel any magical disturbances last night?"
"Not besides the usual nightmares sister. What is the matter?" She asked, now curious.
"Oh... Nothing." Celestia said, convincing herself that it was just nothing.
She couldn't have been more wrong.