No peace for the weary

Messiah was roused from his unconscious state with the ever pleasant sensation of a boot to the gut.

“Get up.” Said an unrecognizable voice.

Weak and still groggy, Messiah did not heed to the man's commands. This ensued another swift kick to his abdomen. Needless to say Messiah promptly sat t up after that.

Messiah's vision was still blurry and he could not distinguish much other than the fact that there were five men and they were white.

Probably South African mercenaries.

One of the men knelt down beside Messiah and started to gloat. “ Well, well well. Look's like The Order ain't so tough now eh? Fuckin' self righteous bastards. You punks think you can save the world, you think you're invincible. But when you're alone, you ain't got nothin' on blokes like me.”

Alone? Dash must have run away. That's a good thing...right?

“What do you want.”

“What do we want? What do we want! We want yer fuckin' head son! The Tutsi rebels put a price on your head. Five hundred grand. Seems those boys don't like loose ends, and you just happen to be one of 'em.

Betrayed by the people I tried to help. Figures. The human race is a lost cause...

“The fuck is that?” Said one of the men pointing to Messiah's lap.

On his lap were a few strands of multi-coloured hair.

“I don't know.” He deadpanned.

Apparently this answer was not quite up to par for for these men. They chose to make that clear to Messiah by punching him in the face.

“You know,” Messiah paused to spit some blood. “ You are going to regret crossing me like this. I recommend you leave me now.”

“Look at his fuckin' guy!” The man closest to Messiah stated with a huge smirk on. “ You are going to die here, and you think we're scared of you! Ha ha ha!”

As the mercenaries started laughing, Messiah took a look around the camp. He saw his weapons were in a pile maybe five metres away. If they were smart, they would have hidden them. Good thing for me.

“So, General Mubutu sent you boys to get me eh?” Messiah said referring to the Tutsi Rebel leader.

“Yes, he did. Now shut the fuck up.”

All of the men then started beating Messiah.

Messiah just closed his eyes and let the men beat him. Fighting back would be futile, they have their weapons, I do not.

As Messiah was receiving a beating, he had no idea that a certain rainbow maned pony was watching the whole scenario from a nearby cloud.

Rainbow knew she had to do something to help Messiah. These men would kill him and he was in no condition to defend himself from five large men.

There was only one thing she could do, and that was cause a distraction. There was only one thing that could cause a distraction big enough for Messiah to get away, and that was a sonic rainboom.

Rainbow lightly tested her wing and she felt a stab of pain. While it had hurt on her flight up to this cloud, the pain was not unbearable. But a sonic rainboom? I'll be lucky if the damage isn't permanent. Well, its my wing or his life....

With that last thought, Rainbow clenched her teeth and started an extremely painful climb. She was pushing as hard as she could and the pain was almost unbearably. The stitched had opened up and Rainbow was bleeding again.

She almost stopped, but remembering that Messiah's life hung in the balance she pushed on.

Rainbow could feel the cone forming around her body. As she gave the final push and she passed the sound barrier the noise was deafening.

On the ground Messiah noticed the giant rainbow explosion in the sky and could only assume that it was Rainbow giving him a distraction. And a great one at that.

All of the mercenaries had their heads turned up the the sky and Messiah took action. He dove for his equipment and grabbed his rifle. He racked the slide, chambered a round and he unleashed a torrent of bullets on the five mercenaries.

The Jungle was alive with the crackle of gunfire. The green, earthy scent was replaced with cordite. Messiah just kept his rifle firmly pressed against his shoulder. The recoil constantly attacking his shoulder as the rounds left the rifle.

All but one of them men fell to Messiah's surprise attack. The 'lucky' mercenary just took a round in the shoulder, causing him to pirouette and fall on the ground. He clutched his seeping wound and began regretting his life choice. During his brief moment of regret, he did not notice Messiah slowly walk over to his prone form.

Messiah loomed over this now wounded man and lazily pointed his handgun at the man's head. “ You have lived a sinners life. I hope the afterlife is pleasant for you. Although I doubt it will be.” He finished his point by pulling back the hammer on his USP40. The ominous sound struck fear into every fibre of the wounded mercenaries body.

As Messiah slowly depressed the trigger, he closed his eyes and waited for the bark of the gun and the ensuing recoil.

The gun was milliseconds away from firing when Rainbow arrived to stop the execution.

“Stop! Don't kill him!"

Messiah opened his eyes to see the mare standing between the man and Messiah's gun.

“I saved you, so you owe me!” She cried.

Messiah looked at Dash's swing and saw that blood was slowly dripping out of the re-opened wound.

“For you...I will do it.” He raised the weapon and placed the safety on. “ I guess it's your luck day buddy.”

The mans eyes had been closed during the entirety of the conversation so naturally when he opened he was surprised.

“What the hell is that?” He said pointing at Dash.

“That” Messiah said gesturing to Dash “ Is your guardian angel. Now shut up and answer my questions, what is your name?”

“J-jerry. Jerry Muller.”

“Okay Jerry, How did you get here?”

“We drove. Our land rover is back there.” He said pointing to the direction that Dash and Messiah had entered the jungle from.

“Listen and listen well, I will not say this again. You will listen to my ever word and you will never question anything. If Rainbow tells you to do anything, you do it. Her life is infinitely superior to yours in every way, shape and form. You will only speak when spoken to. Do you understand?”

Jerry nodded his head.

“You are scum. If you misbehave, we will hurt you. Keep doing it, and the damage may be more permanent.”

Once again, Jerry nodded.

“Now, say thank you do miss Dash.”

“Thank you miss Dash.” Rainbow gave a smug smile at the forced thanks.

“Good, now lead us to the Land Rover.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the group reached the Land Rover, Rainbow rubbed her bandage. Messiah had wrapped her opened wound rather tightly and it was irritating Rainbow.

Messiah was quite surprised at the vehicle in front of him. The Land Rover was brand new and its black gloss paint was still shiny.

“We're going to stick out like a sore thumb in that.”

Jerry opened his mouth to say something but Dash shot him a glance and he closed his mouth.

“Whatever, It's faster than walking. Jerry you drive, try anything funny, and you die. Dash you're in the back.” He opened the rear door for Rainbow. “ Now lets get a move on.” Messiah then went around the rear of the Rover and opened the passenger door.

The interior was all white leather. “Figures...” Only some merc's would be dumb enough to bring a black land rover with leather seats on a job. Well at least it's comfortable.

“Jerry, You boys have any food in here, Dash and I haven't eaten in quite a while.”

Jerry looked nervous to speak but did so anyway. “ Yeah, there is some Jerky in the glove box and some chips and crackers in the trunk.”

“Seriously? No real food?”

“No sir...We had planned on buying food in-country.”

“Alright whatever.”

Jerry turned the Rover over and idled for a moment.

“Umm, sir?”

“What did I say about when you talk?”

“I know sir, but it's just that I don't know where we're going.”

Messiah suddenly felt quite stupid, Dash had a huge grin on her face.

“Kigali.” Messiah snapped.

Jerry did a lazy salute.

As they started to drive away, Messiah heard some rustling in the back seat. What he saw made him chuckle. Rainbow was shoveling barbeque chips into her mouth.

“Don't eat too many of those, they'll give you a stomach ache.”

“Shut up, they're awesome! They don't have these things back home.”

“Whatever.”

The trio drove for about thirty minutes in complete and utter silence. The only noise was the distant rumble of the Land Rover's engine and the rustling of a chip bag. As they kept driving, Messiah was feeling more and more uncomfortable. The equipment strapped to his thighs and chest was making sitting in the seat quite unpleasant.

“Screw this.”

Messiah unbuckled his thigh holster(with the weapon still in it) and threw it in the back seat, narrowly missing Dash's head.

He then threw his ammo, knife, grenades and med-kit in the back. He also threw his floppy boonie hat in the back. It was the first time it had been off in quite some time. As Messiah ran his fingers through his hair, he could feel the sweat cover his hand.

Gross.

The only thing Messiah still had with him in the seat was his rifle. His Tar-21 was lazily lying on his lap and constantly threatened to fall off with every bump the vehicle encountered. Messiah remedied this by lightly resting his hand on the rifle.

Dash was the first to actually speak up, and it was about Messiah's chosen hairstyle.

“What's up with the hair? I have a friend with hair sort of like that but no where near as short ...or dark.”

Messiah turned to see Dash studying his scalp. He had a slightly grown in Mohawk that was seriously greasy.

“Well, It's not exactly a common haircut. The hair colour is common though.”

“If it's not common why'd you get it then?”

Messiah let out a sigh. “ My friends and I all got them. All those people I came here with, that are now dead, all had the same haircut. It was silly I know, but I liked it, the camaraderie that is.”

“It's not silly, I think it looks pretty cool. One of my friends in Equestria named Zecora has her hair like that...sort of.” She trailed off. “ Sorry about bringing up your friends...”

“Don't worry...Its all good.” The words sounded hollow even to Jerry who had just met this man.

“If you say so...”

As the vehicle motored on, Rainbow started to get bored, and she was not afraid to say so.

“This. Is. So. Boring! Its been like five hours!”

“Four, but I get your point.” Messiah turned around and looked around the back seat for something to distract Dash. He saw his pack and tossed it to her.

“Here find something to entertain you in there. Just don't touch anything sharp or that looks like a gun.”

“Alright.”

Well then, that crises is averted.

That was when Messiah heard the distinct sound of a pin being pulled on a grenade.

Messiah turned around and saw Rainbow with a flash grenade in one hoof, and the pin in another.

How is that even possible!?

“Uh oh.” Were the last words Dash said before the grenade went off.

The interior was as bright as a thousand suns. Okay so maybe not that bright, but you get the idea. The white leather helped reflect the light. The trio were thoroughly disoriented.

And that was just the light.

The noise of the explosion caused Jerry to veer off the dirt road they had been travelling on and drive the rover into a ditch.

Messiah, who had not fastened his seat belt lurched forward and felt his face collide with the dash board.

Shortly after the collision, he slipped into unconsciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Messiah awoke to a rather worried looking Rainbow Dash standing over him.

“Finally! You've been out for like three hours!”

Shit, this cannot be good for my head, I'll need to see a doctor when I get back.

“Well, I’ve been through worse than a little car crash.” He gave a slight chuckle.

Messiah looked around and noticed a distinct lack of a large, black SUV.

“Where are we?”

“I dragged you into the jungle and set up camp here. Were only about fifteen minutes from the tree line.” Jerry said.

“Good thinking, staying by a destroyed luxury SUV in a third world nation would not exactly be...smart.” He cracked a grin.

Messiah sat up and saw that there was a small fire pit in the middle of the camp.

“Good job getting a fire, I don’t want any creatures sneaking up on us tonight, and there’s no worry about more mercs since they probably think you boys are coming back.” Messiah's gaze settled on the seated mercenary sitting infront of him.

“So Jerry, how old are you?”

“21 Sir.”

“That's pretty young to be playing mercenary isn't it?”

Jerry shrugged. “ It was my only option.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I couldn't get into college, my family was broke. I had a criminal record so no one was hiring me.”

“A record?”

“Yeah, I used to scrap all the time. No reason, I just went out lookin' to fight some one. One day some one called the cops.”

“Alright, back to the story.” Messiah commanded.

“Well, a couple of my mates were talking about this company that was looking for young, aggressive guys with nothing to lose. Seems i fit the bill pretty nicely. I joined when I was 18. Some of my mates joined, but they all ditched it once they learned what we would really be doing.” Messiah narrowed his eyes in anger. “They asked me if i would be okay with killing people. I said yes. They said that some of them may be innocent...I said yes again.” Messiah was seething with rage.

How could some one agree to this?

“I had to do it. I had no money and they paid well. I would be able to help my parents and make a decent life for myself. They were also some of the only guys looking to hire a guy with a record...” Messiah calmed a bit realizing that this kid didn’t have much choice in choosing this career.

It was either kill others or starve yourself. Still hate this kid...

“So that's about it. I joined and did a few jobs, nothing big. Then a contract for you came up. After the mortar attack, we had expected you to be wounded. Killing you would have let me leave this life...”

Messiah looked into Jerry's eyes. “ Sorry It didn't work out that way, but I don't intend to die for some time.”

Dash had listened to the whole story without saying a word. She was not quite sure as to how she felt about Jerry anymore. First I hate him, but now I kind of feel bad for him. He didn't really want this, it was his only option.

“Well enough of that.” Messiah looked at his watch it was past midnight. “ We should get to sleep.”

Jerry walked over to a tree and sat up on it. “ Uh Jerry?” Jerry perked up to see Messiah slowly walking towards him.

Messiah then shoved Jerry face down on the dirt. “What the hell?”

Messiah ignored him and took the rope out of his left pocket and tied Jerry's hands behind his back.

“No hard feelings, but I don't trust you yet.”

Jerry gave Messiah an evil stare. Dash just giggled at the sudden assault Jerry had just endured.

Messiah turned around and sat up against a tree closing his eyes. As he felt sleep slowly coming on, he felt Dash slowly and timidly rest her head on his lap.

“Nighty night.” Messiah said to no one in particular.

Dash just let out a happy sigh.

“Fuck off.” Jerry spat.

Messiah smiled at his audacity and Dash broke out into a fit of giggles.

Messiah let all thoughts leave his mind as he slowly fell asleep. One last thought ran through Messiah's mind before he fell asleep.

I didn't eat anything today. Crap.

He was really going to feel terrible when he woke up.