"Shit-Everyone duck!" I yelled, reaching back for my rifle as fast as possible, before I realized it wasn't there.

Turning around, I looked for where I left my rifle, finding it quickly at the left edge of the sofa.

"What's that noise? It's like thunder!" Rainbow Dash yelled over.

"Shhh get down like I said! Somebody's shooting!" I answered, diving for my gun.

"There's no time to get your shit on, that's close Grayson, grab the rifle and let's hit it!" Elliot demanded.

"Armor's for pussies anyways." I whispered to myself, picking up the rifle and checking the magazine. It was half-way full. God damn it, when did I waste my ammunition?

Elliot bolted for the door, me close behind him.

As soon as we exited, we saw complete chaos. Several of the townsfolk lay on the ground, still. Others were screaming and running in a frenzy opposite the direction of the forest.

As I surveyed, I was suddenly surrounded by the screaming of several streams of AK rounds flying right past Elliot and I. We both went left hard, diving behind the tree.

"Who the hell has guns out here?" Elliot asked me.

"Your fucking grandma. I don't know! You're the spotter! Spot shit!" I pushed him towards the edge, to which he pulled out his rangefinder.

"Shit.... Alright, I count...." Elliot went silent.

"What? What is it? Use your words!" I yelled over the screaming and fire, now aimed mostly at us.

"It's the... Taliban. Looks like. They're here, too. I count six at least, maybe more using concealment. Contacts are bearing 075" He spoke more quietly than before.

No time to process, people where dying now, and I needed to handle it.

Bringing my rifle to my shoulder, I took aim just around the crack of the tree, to which several explosions of rounds hitting right over shook my aim, I caught a glimpse of a rifle barrel, an easy picking. Taking aim directly at the barrel, I fired a shot in return.

The barrel fell to the floor, and stopped firing. A sound sign that an enemy was out of action.

The rounds temporarily ceased, then hailed back, less accurate than before. They were spraying now.

Taking aim again, I located another barrel and let another shot rip through the edge of it. Another hit, this time I saw him fall.

This process repeated, until I had fired four other shots, all of which made their mark. The shots ceased, many corpses lay on the roads, and now I knew there were more in the woods.

"Move up, seventy-five meters. Just to the edge." I whispered.

Both crouched, we slowly crept to the edge of the woods, my rifle aimed high, and Elliot hiding behind me.

Townsfolk, including the group we had just met, began to slowly come out of cover, looking at us in curiosity.

As we approached, we started to smell the fury of gunpowder poisoning the air. There were spatters of blood on the nearby tree, at least two shots had to have dusted it with their own share.

Almost on top of the enemy position now, I took a look around, to find about fifty pairs of eyes staring right back at us. I quickly looked back, trying not to think about the consequences this may have later will be.

I hear gasping, and look to my right. A pair of feet was sticking out of a bush. They quickly began to crawl directly away, breaking the concealment.

Raising my rifle, and aiming over the scope, I fired three shots into the retreating enemy, ceasing his movement.

Walking up to him, I flipped him over, pulling the mask over his face. The man, rather boy, staring back at me, didn't look any older than eighteen.

It wasn't anything new, I've shot teenagers before, but something felt different this time, and not in the good way. I felt much worse, I felt like this was the first true human being I've killed. Looking in his direction, I see an AK47 rifle laying several yards in the direction he was crawling, right next to another dropped enemy.

I turn around to walk away, but halt half way as a thought occurred to me. The thought that this race doesn't have guns yet. The thought that they don't understand how war works, due to the seemingly rare occurrence of it.

Spinning back, I begin to pick up the enemy rifles, one by one, taking out the magazines, clearing the chambers, and carrying them under my arms.

"The hell are you doing, dude? That's fucked up!" Elliot yelled at me.

"Would you rather have those people pick them up and try and copy what they've seen? No? Well than, help me carry some of these." I handed him about half of the rifles I was lugging, leaving me with three AK47 Assault Rifles and my own M24. With his free hand, he reached down and looted the magazines, shivering as he put his hands over the corpses.

I turn around again, this time not stopping as I approach the tree. I slow my pace, giving me time to talk to Elliot. I lean closer.

"They're all staring, what do you think they're gonna say?" I ask.

"Off with their head, maybe." He said sarcastically. Neither of us smiled, but the joke was silently understood.

"That Rainbow one is probably going to be the source of my irritation in a few hours. Hey, where's the Yellow one? Flutter-something right?" I ask.

"She...... Oh shit you're right. We lost one." He sweeped his view around.

"Hm, well we're getting suffocated in our sleep." I say, elbowing him in the side as we're almost back to the door.

"Where's the Yellow one?" Elliot asked bluntly.

"Shut up dude, that's not really a threat."

He went cross-eyed and mocked what I said, turning back to the crowd. Which began looking around left and right.

"I didn't see her leave, did any of you?" Applejack asked.

They all shook their heads, Twilight and Rarity peeked inside the door.

"She went home!" The Pink one finally yelled. "She ran out when the tree started exploding!" She seemed much less shaken up than the rest.

I met the gaze of the White Unicorn, who held a furious stare hard to describe. In short, I wouldn't want to be alone in a room with this one. She's dangerous.

"So what now? Was that enough to get arrested? Or executed?" Elliot asked.

They all just stared behind us.

Turning around, Elliot doing the same, we saw the field of wounded or deceased that the Taliban were able to take out before we got outside. Easily thirty were not moving at all, another twenty were limping or bleeding. It was an open season pass for them.

"This is what we're out here to stop. It's my job to follow orders that help to prevent this from ever happening. I should've stayed in the woods. I would've seen them coming before they were even close." I started to feel the guilt of the situation. Realizing how many ways this could be linked to my impatience.

"Grayson, chill. You didn't know. You stopped it before it got worse, that's part of the job." He put his hand on my shoulder.

"Worse? Look at this! This would be a national, maybe even global news moment! This isn't just an accident, this would be labelled a full-fledged act of terrorism upon a population! Look at that shit!" I waved my hand at the less fortunate.

Elliot walked up in front of me, blocking my view.

"Dude, there are still alot of wounded, if you don't feel happy with what you've done, you should start assisting the ones that are still bleeding around here. You can do that, right? I'll even rally the injured for you." He offered his hand.

I stared at him for a moment, I wasn't used to him telling me what to do, at least not without alot of joking and sarcasm.

Grabbing his hand, shaking it, I walked up to the door, Elliot splitting direction for the marketplace.

"I need to grab my bag, my job's not done here. You heard Elliot, right?" I asked, facing Twilight.

She stared at me expressionless for a moment.

"I'll grab it, you wait here..." She walked inside, and shut the door behind her.

'Shit....'

Author's Note

Two in two days! That's like a record for me! Happy 2016 people!