07 – Take revenge

Julian tapped his foot nervously on the floor. The metal of his boot made a screeching noise every time it scratched against the polished tiles of the hallway, making Cal’s eyes twitch.

“A brothel. For real?” Julian asked.

“I mean… what was I supposed to do? I thought you were dead!” Cal said.

Julian sighed. “I guess you are right.” He paused. “But a brothel of all things?”

Cal shrugged. “I had some money. You know, I needed to get the tension out of my body. Which didn’t happen, by the way, thank you very much.”

Julian smirked. “Sorry. You can go back in if you want. I have a revenge to exact on these fucknuts.”

“No,” Cal said dejectedly. “I’m not in the mood anymore. But you owe me 200 runes.”

Julian stopped walking. “I owe you what?” his voice rose.

“Nothing, nothing.” Cal laughed. “Just a joke man.”

“Good, then let’s go.”

As they walked, Julian noticed that his tharlaxian companion was so tall his head almost touched the ceiling. Whoever designed the place didn’t do it with his anatomy in mind. Strange, considering the system made this place and it knew tharlaxians would be here. He shook the thought out of his mind, for now. By the time he was back on the main road, a wide grin was plastered on his face, hidden by the darkness.

“I have an idea.” He said, then motioned for Cal to lean in to explain his plan.

Cal’s eyes lit up. “I like this.”

***

Maureen looked at the other men and sighed. They were all drunk. Sid was already passed out, and her boss kept making sexual advances to her every time he remembered she existed. Shaking her head, she tried to rationalize the situation she was in. She had elected to follow this group of people after she saw them on the first floor. They seemed strong, organized. They acted like they knew each other and knew what they were doing.

Now, she wasn’t really sure anymore. Her gaze went to the fire, and followed the dancing strips of orange as they rose up towards the starry night. Next to her, Sid snored loudly enough that she could hear him even with the other men laughing and singing while they danced in a circle.

She was the only one sober in the whole fucking camp. Not even the guys on patrol were sober, sure as they were that with such a big lead on everyone else nobody would come knocking at the gate. And yet she had seen what happened to the other two guards. She was friends with Thex’R. Even though she was an alien, she had bonded with her. They were the only two girls in the group, after all, and Thex’R had helped keep some grubby hands away from her more than once.

Now she laid dead somewhere in a ditch.

A noise shook Maureen out of her thoughts. There was a light in the distance she was sure wasn’t there before, when she had scouted the place, on the other side of camp. Squinting, she saw that it was one of the buildings, its neon sign coming to life with its dancing letters. She couldn’t see what they spelled. Another noise, the buzzing of electricity that preceded another building coming alight. This time she saw something move, a shadow.

“What’s going on there?” the drunken slur of words made her yelp.

“I don’t know,” she told her boss.

“Well,” he said, leaning onto her shoulder. “Go check.”

She gulped, and pushed the swaying man off of her. Grabbing her sword, she walked towards the far end of the outpost. The dancing lights of the buildings, and the faint glow that came from inside them plunged the road in a dizzying plethora of shadows and colors. She looked around, startled when another dark building came to life with blinding light. Her eyes, adjusted to the dark, struggled to focus and the shadow slipped away.

Maureen felt her damp clothes stick to her back. Her hands were shaking, and she grit her teeth to force her aching arms to grip the sword tighter.

She could almost see again. She blinked the tears out of her eyes but then, suddenly, all the street lamps lit up and a loud music erupted all around her. It hit her from everywhere, making her head spin and the world lost focus for just a moment. She leaned against a street light, panting.

A noise. She turned around. Pain. Something hit her in the head. She was on the ground. She brought her hand to the back of her head, the movement almost happening without her realizing what she was doing, and when she looked at it she saw it was red with blood.

The adrenaline kicked in. She struggled to get up, stumbling towards the fireplace where the rest of her team…

She screamed in horror.

“Sid!” she tried to shake the body. “Boss? Boss!” she ran from one unmoving body to the other, crying and calling out their names. They didn’t respond. She looked up in terror, towards the main gate. It was wide open, and two bodies hung from makeshift ropes made of barbed wire, bleeding out in in the orange dirt of the desert.

They were all dead.

She collapsed to the ground, holding the back of her head. She felt cold. She felt tired. Oh so tired. She could sleep, she thought. Then it would all be okay in the morning.

***

“I just got 488 Runes.” Cal said. They were walking on the soft desert sand, using the starlight to see and the tall mesa formations in the distance to orient themselves. The outpost was just a tiny flickering point of light far behind.

“What? Delayed kill? That’s weird.” Julian said. He thought for a while. “Oh, must be the chick you smacked in the head.”

“Right! Must be her. I must have hit her a bit too hard.” He said, frowning.

Julian saw that his friend was staring in the distance and flashed him his teeth. “It’s fine. She was with them, she deserved it.”

He was once again wearing his full armor, although he didn’t know if the bloody chestpiece he was wearing was his original one or not. I mean, considering it was stolen in the first place, it makes no difference.

“Can you please stop grinning like a maniac?”

Cal’s worried voice made him giggle. “Why?” he licked his lips, but as soon as his tongue touched the caked blood mixed with sweat he gagged. “Bleh, what the fuck. I need a shower.”

Cal looked at him weird. “You’re strange.”

“No, I’m just me.” Julian replied.

Cal made a noise. “Most people are not like you.”

“Nobody is like me. Otherwise they would be me.”

“I meant that most people don’t go around murdering everyone, laughing like maniacs while tasting the blood of their enemies!” Cal said, moving his arms around frantically.

“First off,” Julian said, holding a finger up, “that blood tasted awful, never doing that again. Secondly: most people don’t get to get their revenge against someone who killed them. Can’t compare me to the normals.”

Cal had to admit defeat. “I guess. The other humans were rather unhinged too.”

Julian shook his head while smiling. “You’re used to civilization. Here is the far west. You know why most of us are like this? Because we love ourselves a good system apocalypse. Humanity spent ages wishing such a thing would happen. Sever all ties, start fresh. Have a system that rewards hard work with actual, tangible incremental progress. This feels like justice, despite how much more unjust it actually is.”

“Hard work? How is it even fair? You killed a few people almost effortlessly and gained 10000 runes. To earn the same amount killing monsters you would need to risk life and limb for days. This isn’t fair.”

“Again, two things I feel like you need to be corrected about, before you get strange ideas. First off: it’s 4200 runes. For killing eight people. The 488 runes you got didn’t get duplicated, must be because of distance. Also, I never said it’s fair. In fact I said it’s unjust. But think about it! If anything, I think it’s more fair than you think. I killed them, and took the runes they had on their person. I didn’t even get the runes they spent on the level ups, only the ones they had. They could have defended themselves, you know? All classes are combat oriented, after all. Defend your fucking self if you want to live.”