Shattered

We drove for a long time, from Canterlot all the way to the edge of the Wasteland, into a larger city. We just continued going and going, until we turned down to an alleyway, where we were greeted by a few masked men pointing guns at us. At that point I was not sure to wait for their instructions, or listen to my instincts, and was about to act, when I heard the response. “Calm down, they’re with us,” Vince assured me. “Take it slow, nice and easy, put your hands up to where they can see them, and you’ll be fine,” I put my hands up slowly, the twins got out the car, and opened the door for me.

“What’s he doing here?” Asked one of the gunmen.

“We brought him here,” Vance replied.

“Are you out of your mind?! He’s one of them! He’s a soldier!”

“Yes-Yes, I know… Come on, I’ll explain inside, before someone sees us,” She replied. We did just that, but I still held my hands up.

“Come on, come on,” One of them said, dragging me by the sleeve. We went down some stairs, a few coded doors, and in the end, I was sat down in a barely lit room on a plastic chair.

Some random rugrat with blue jeans and a leather jacket sat down in front of me, and closed the door. “So, what do you want?” He asked.

“To get out,” I replied.

“Why did you even come here then?”

“Because I was forced to,”

“Right… How did they get you?”

“Prof.Adrian went insane. He said everything I saw heard and learned in the five years in Stoneden is now in the central database, and will be used to kill them. He was about to flood me with some yellow shit, but Vance shot him, and they got me here,” I explained.

“What’s your name?”

“Joseph Newman,”

“Newman it is… I’m Jason, good to know you,” He replied, holding a hand. As I reached to shake it he held out his other hand with a pistol in it. “Here’s your options…”

“What?”

“You either take the pistol and stay with us, a group of freelancer mercenaries, a promise of safety, or my empty hand and leave. Be warned, that now probably most of your former comrades are looking for you with a bullet with your name on it…” He explained. I took the pistol. “One more for your V.2.0 suit huh? And another one for the team, too… Welcome to the team,” He exclaimed jokingly.

“So, what did I just do?” I wondered.

“Let me give you a walk…”  He said, and showed me around the place. I recognized the layout, it was a standard city bunker for war time, which they managed to crack open. He showed me the rooms, some anyway, turned out a few of us actually lived there, while others came in like they would to a regular workplace. That day was spent with meeting the others, and learning the basics i should know, until we decided to have some burgers at a nearby place. A few of us decided to have fries too, it was nice that they paid for mine too, since I had no cash on me. We had fun, until some dirt rag pulled a pistol in the cashier and took a hostage. There were only 2 of us who chose to come, both of us had our pistols ready under the table, but I put mine away. I didn’t care much about how it ends, I still had the suit on afterall.

“Everyone get on the floor! Now!” He yelled. I slowly stood up with my cup in my left hand, and turned to look at him. “You too!” He yelled.

“I’m just getting some soda, bro,” I replied.

“I won’t say it again!” He yelled.

“Just… A… Soda…” I said, slowly walking behind him, while he turned to keep an eye on me. I put my cup into the machine, other hand in pocket. I slowly flicked the machine on, it began spilling me a good cold beverage. I then slowly turned around and began making my way back to my seat, but stopped in front of the gunman. “Come on, get moving,” He said calmer than before, I guess he started trusting me, or maybe he was just over confident… I quickly threw my drink at him, successfully blinding him for a few seconds, which were enough for me to produce a nightstick, but before I could hit him he was about to point and shoot. I managed to hit him in the shooting elbow, resulting in his pistol flying out of his grip. I swung my arm back, hitting him in the face and knocking him backwards.

Unfortunately he fell and hit his head on the counter. The cashiers seemed relieved, while both them and the customers began to cheer, either for me, or just from happiness, I didn’t care. “Call an ambulance… And the cops,” I told one of the cashiers. She nodded and pulled her phone. I went to talk to another one while she did it. “You should hire a security guy,” I noted to him.

“I know, right? This is like what… The fifth time this month…” He replied. “Hey, good job tho,”

I nodded, and we returned to the base they took from the government. “How did it go?” Asked Jess. The thing is, we, with me joining recently, were a group of about half a dozen. Mainly we were either hackers, drivers, shooters, doctors, or spies. Jess was one of a kind, she was the only person I would call a scientist among us.

“You were right, *Buurp* Their burgers are good,” Jason replied.He doubled as an expert driver and shooter I heard. He and I were the only shooters i knew of in our small group, of which he seemed to be the leader of.

“Told ya,” She replied with a grin. “Anything else happened?”

“Watch the news tonight, you’ll know,” Jason threw back, and left to his room.

“What’s he on about?” She wondered.

“Some dude ran in with a gun, and wanted the cash. Let’s just say I didn’t approve,” I explained.

To this, she stopped whatever she was doing at the computer and turned to face me with her chair. “How did he look?”

“Green pants, red beanie, dust protector mask, black jacket, white shirt,” I replied as good as I could remember.

She sighed and slowly buried her face into her hands. “Hi hou hi hi?” That was all I could make of what she muttered through her hands.

“What?”

“Did you kill him?”

“I was trying not to, why?” I pondered.

“Damn it… It was my brother… I told him not to do it…” She replied. “Well, his mistake, his problem,” She continued.

“I didn’t know,” I assured her.

“No, not your fault… We barely kept in touch anyway. I could care less of him to be honest,” She replied.

“That means no hard feelings, right?”

“Yep,”

“Cool,” I said with a grin, which she returned, then dove back into what she was doing on the comp.

I was glad that went so smooth, having not angered her unwillingly. I was wondering where the others were, so I decided to see how they were. The base was large, since it was designed to house over a hundred people, with countless facilities of all kinds, so unless you had a phone, it was hard to find the other in that maze. “Hey, Vance?” I asked through said device, well, the counterpart in my suit anyway.

He wondered.

“What are you up to?”

He said.

“My bad, go on,” I assured him, and hung up. Since Jason and Jess were busy, Vance was going to sleep, and the others were away doing their thing, I chose to go for a walk. I just made sure to let at least Jess know where I went. I closed the door behind with my keycard, Jess gave it to me the other day. I had no exact goal in mind. I just wanted to help time pass. At first I wanted to see a pub, but chose to return to the burger place instead. As I approached the corner, I began hearing the sound of police sirens. Great, at least they came at the end. I thought to myself, then turned the corner, only to see the entrance blocked by the police, as an officer was talking to the cashier I talked to with a notepad and pen in hand.

I could not hear a thing they said yet, but I saw the cashier mouthing something like. ˝It was him˝ Then pointed at me. The officer put his notepad away and turned to face me. I just continued walking toward them, hands on pocket as usual. Needless to say, at this point I wore clothes similar to Jason’s, just differing color.

“Excuse me sir, I’d like to have a few words with you,” He exclaimed.

“Sure, go ahead,” I replied, taking my hands out of the pockets.

“Witnesses confirmed that there was an attempted robber here earlier, were you present at the time?”

“Yes, I was,”

“Few say that the suspect was armed with a 9mm handgun, can you confirm this?”

“I’m not sure what caliber, but yes,”

“Employees stated that you decided to fight the robber, is this true?”

“Yes, I did,”

“That’s enough for now. I must ask you to enter the vehicle and come with me,” He said.

“My only choices are to go by myself, or be forced to, aren’t they?” I asked.

“Looks like you’re a smart guy huh?” He replied. I sighed and sat down on one of the back seats. I remained silent until we arrived, when he and a few others took me to a typical interrogation room.

“Take a seat,” Said one of the cops, pointing at a steel chair in front of a table of the same material. I did as requested. It seemed to not have been enough, as another one came up to me with handcuffs. She didn’t have to ask, I did what I would’ve had to anyway. Then the previous officer sat down in front of me.

“What am I charged with again?” I wondered.

“Oh, don’t worry… You have nothing to do with the law…” He replied with a grin.

“Come again?”

“Not the usual way anyway… You have a large bounty on your head, Captain, it will pay me well,” He exclaimed, and just seconds after the crook from the burger place came into the room, bandages around his head and the arm I hit in a cast.

“What’s this?!” I wondered, having had enough of shady people recently.

“A surprise,” He said.

“Wh-” I was cut short by a good 20k volts, and knocked out. The next thing I remembered was me being tied up tighter than anything I could compare it to. There were at least 5 armed guys around me, in a van, being taken somewhere. Needless to mention, none of actual law enforcement. Fuck My Life…

“Awake so soon? It’s a pity you have to go back…” Said one of them, before I was hit in the face with the butt of a gun. The next time I woke up I was strapped to a makeshift bed with nobody around. I lied on that bed for hours without anyone coming in. It’s been 4 hours there, when I began hearing rumbling and such. I was not sure if it was the sensory depravation kicking in, or finally something was actually happening. Soon after I began hearing a familiar sound… Gunfire… I only grinned as I did most the time I heard it. Soon after the door was kicked in, a masked woman standing there.

“Hic est cooperiunt me, et vade,” She said. I recognized her choice of words. She was speaking Latin… She said “Here he is, cover me and get out,” Or something like that, it’s been years since I practiced that tongue. She cut me free and pushed a pistol into my hands. “Age, si vos es questus,” (Come on, we’re getting you out,) I nodded and followed her. We stopped in the doorway, taking cover on the sides, while the firefight continued on the other side.  She simply moved her hand enough to make me look at it, she was counting down on it. 3...2...1...0. She leapt forward opening fire to the right, I followed just moments after, only to be shot in the chest, the bullet went through me, between the ribs, avoiding any organs. It was at this moment I realized I no longer had the suit. I felt much more vulnerable. “Ut non te occidit, ire!” (Don’t get yourself killed, go!) I was still on the floor, and began crawling my way back, where the others got me out of the building. They were waiting in 3 vans, turns out I was held in a village in Arabia, thankfully, not Stoneden… None the less, you can imagine what they needed 15 gunmen for. Two of them picked me up and literally threw me into one of the vans, where only one person was. A white streak over the sleeve.

“Come on, let me patch you up…” He said, reaching for his bag of medicine.

“Get off, I’ll be fine,” I threw back.

“Fine,” He said, a little offended. Soon enough all the vans were full, and we departed from the town, only to see the building explode minutes later. Our trip was seemingly short, when we arrived they opened the door for me. I stepped off, only to see the same woman.

“Come on, we’re going to have a talk, and you’ll know what will happen,” She exclaimed, holding a hand out to me.

“I can walk, thanks,” I replied, declining it. I followed her to a wherever she was taking me, trusting her, since they got me out of there.

“A glass of water maybe?” She wondered, taking a seat in front of me.

“I’m fine,” I replied, doing the same.

“You’re at one of our safe places. You can rest here, you need to heal up,”

“What happened back there?”

“They took off your suit. They were modern mercenaries, nowadays known as Fixers. They wanted to turn you over to Omnis, but we had an informant among them. Sadly, he’s gone by now, but we managed to pull you out,” She explained.

“And what’s next?” I wondered.

“Right now we’re trying to make contact with your friends, and let them know you’re fine. Once we reach them, we will take you back to them. Until then, let the docs help fix that hole. We don’t want them thinking we did it to you,” She continued. I agreed. Hopping in uninvited with a hole through me surely wouldn’t have been a good idea.

“Tell me a name to remember for this favor,” I replied.

“Oh, you’ll know when we need it returned,” She assured me.

“Sounds ominous… And, what’s the name to the face I’m staring at?”

“Wouldn’t YOU like to know?” She asked with a grin. “Go, rest, tomorrow I can offer you a few more answers,” She continued. I was tired, so I took the advice and went to sleep.

The next morning seemed to come earlier than usual. Other than that, I found a bulletproof vest, and the exact same equipment the C.E.O used. Catastrophe Evasion Office. You see, Catastrophe Evasion was responsible for dispatching Firefighters and Law Enforcement, unaffected by Omnis’s words. I put the equipment on, then found a badge in one of the pockets as well. I hid my pistol by tucking it under my pants under by waist, the butt hanging out, covered by my shirt. At last, I also managed to find that woman.

“Seems it fits you well. Consider it a gift,” She greeted me.

“You did this? How did you get it? It’s impossible to smuggle these!” I replied.

“Who said we smuggled them?” She asked, producing a pistol from one of the drawers of her chair, placing it on her table. “Don’t judge, we have our methods... “

“I haven’t said a word,” I noted.

“Anyway… Good news is… We managed to make contact with some guy named Jason…”

“You did?”

“The problem is… Uh…  I’m joking, there’s none… Come on, we have to go,” She replied with a grin.

“Playing still?” I wondered, arms crossed.

“Don’t make me drag you all the way…” She replied. I followed her to one of the vans, and we left their base. We drove, drove, drove and drove… “Sorry for the broken radio, I sent word for it to be fixed but nope, apparently I haven’t…” She noted, barely keeping both of us sane from the hours. “We’re close now,” She said as the view changed to that of a cliff side.

“Great… Great…” I muttered, having no clue what to say.

“Don’t talk much?” She wondered.

“Nope,” I replied, things began getting awkward.

“No useless talking, only when must… I’m starting to like you…” She said with a grin, while I just rolled my eyes. “Come on, say something! I’m no enemy here!” She tried encouraging me.

*Sigh* “What do you want to talk about?” I wondered.

“I don’t know… Anything? Tell me about yourself,”

“Like you don’t already know me... “ I muttered, then continued. “You expect me to tell my childhood and the usual stuff? The same I was asked many times before?”

“Yup…” She replied, only looking at me out the corner of her eye. “Before you begin, could you open the glove compartment and give me what’s in it?” I reached to open it, but it wouldn’t do so.

“It might be stuck…” I noted, and continued trying for a few more pulls, but it didn’t give.

“Nonsense, it can’t be… “She said, reaching over with a hand, trying to still look at the road.

“Watch the road! I’ll get this open!” I warned her, but she didn’t listen. Just seconds later she managed to break the thing open.

“See? I told you it will o- GET DOWN!” She yelled all of the sudden. I did just as she told me to, as a single gunshot rang out, then we went off-road. “Damn snipers… Hang on!” She muttered, trying to drive safely down the hillside. She managed to stay in control all right, until we crashed into a tree, well hidden by the forest ahead. The next thing I remember from the impact was the airbag breaking my nose and blocking most of my view. I managed to deflate it, since my kidnappers forgot the Sleeve Tricks, then went on to deflate hers. She seemed to be knocked out, or even dead. I was not sure at the time. I managed to drag her out of the van, several meters from the van. I set her down leaning against one of the trees, as I sat down next to her to rest.

“Fuck my life… Why can’t I have just one ordinary day…” I muttered, sick of having no rest in the recent 10 years.

“I know… Right?” Asked a familiar voice.

“Well, at least you’re fine,” I muttered with some relief.

“With an almost broken arm, surely,” She replied.

“Now what?” I wondered.

“We take a deep breath and get our shit sorted out?”

“Sounds fine,” I said, agreeing.

“Just five minutes more, right?” She asked.

I just replied with a brief “Mhmm..” As said, we stood up.

“Now, let’s find the van…”

“Why?” I wondered. “It probably burned down by now,”

“We need the cargo from the back, I knew something like this may happen,” She explained.

“What is it?”

“You’ll see…” She replied and tried making her way back to the van far in sight, when I heard a noise that wasn’t fitting. A long whistle.

“RPG!” I yelled, tackling her to the ground, only to hear the rpg hit the van, followed by someone loudly yelling.

“FUUUUUUUUCCCKKKK” In the distance.

“You okay?” I asked. She only gave me a thumbs up, as her face was buried in an ants nest, quickly brushing those off who clung on to her as she stood up.

“Good call… We need to continue on to the North,” She said, shortly after looking at her compass, which she produced from who knows where. “We have a lot of time until night, until then, we need to move on through the forest, since it covers us,”

“Good idea, lead the way,” I replied, and we began making our way through the woods, until we came to a ravine.  “Now what?”

“Give me a sec to think…” She said, pondering. “Aaaaha!” She said all the sudden, and stood next to a moderately large tree.

“What’s in your head?” I wondered.

She pulled a combat hatchet from the sheath I haven’t noticed until then, and with a few hits, the tree fell, creating a bridge. “Wanna go first?” She wondered.

“Nice one… “ I said, and stepped onto the fallen trunk, but when I was halfway there, the sniper shot the trunk, blowing it apart. I ran for it and jumped, barely landing one hand on the other edge.  “Fuck…” I muttered from the surprise.

“Well… Now what?” She wondered from the other side.

“Chop down another one?” I suggested. She got to another tree, and reached back for a good swing, but the blade of her tool never made it to the trunk, and the sniper fired again, shooting off the shaft. “Fuckin hell!” She yelled, throwing the handle away. “We need to make a distraction…” She said. “Go, find dry stuff, branches, poop, grass…. Then bring them here. I’ll find some flint, so we can set that on fire,”

“Smokin em out?” I wondered. “Okay,” I replied, and set out to my task. Hours later I managed to get back with a ton of shit… And branches, and grass...

“Good, now catch!” She said, throwing a small black rock my way.

I managed to catch it, but then I asked. “Where’s the steel to it?” I asked.

“I thought you have some Tricks up the sleeve,” She said, hinting.

“Riiight…” I replied, and managed to set the flame. It took a few minutes for smoke to rise. “What now?” I wondered again.

She produced a knife from her ankle, and took a few steps back. “Why the fuck not... “ She muttered, and took a running jump. She jumped off the edge and pulled her legs up as close as she could, jumping 5 meters of the 6, then edging the knife into a crack. “C’mon!” She said.

I reached down and pulled her up. “Nice jump… Gotta teach me that one,” I said, patting her on the back as she regained her breath.

“Maybe next time… “ She replied, patting my knee in return before we continued on our way. We walked and walked, while we were eventually shot at by our lovely friend from above, until it got dark. “Got the flint still?” She wondered.

“I’m just gonna get shit to burn…” I replied confirming.

“That’s not the only thing that burns…” She replied with a grin. I only flipped her off as I walked off, sighing at her jokes. After gathering enough things to start a fire I returned to her, and to my surprise, she already had some makeshift hammocks made, another hatchet in hand, already chopping firewood.

“How long was I away?” I wondered.

“Didn’t YOU keep track?” She asked.

“Nope,” I replied, and started the fire.

“This will come good later on… Now, off to sleep…” She exclaimed as we sat near the fire.

“You sure it’s safe?”

“He knows we know he’s after us, it would be a mistake to come any closer… Plus I know the type of sniper our friend is… They take no pride in shooting still targets…” She explained, and got in her hammock.

“If you say so…” I muttered, and did the same.

[End of Chapter 2]