The Peacekeepers

Part Three; Chapter Fourty-Two

Chapter Fourty-Two

The End; The Beginning

How did this all happen? How did this all start? I can't very well recall how it started but I know where I am now. Nearly fifty men outside either unconscious, crippled or trying desperately to breath through cracked ribs and punctured lungs. Blood on my busted knuckles and dented steel toed boots.

I slowly start to apply more and more pressure to this man's skull. His groans and screams of pain and anguish are like a sweel melody to my ears. I see the tears roll down his cheeks and I hear him blubbering. I can't help but to smile a bit.

He thought he was "The Shit". I proved him wrong. I apply a little more pressure just to torture him. Just like he tortured so many others. This bringer of hatred and fear, this "Hardcore gangsta"... this brutal murderer and rapist. He would kill anyone who so much as breathed in his direction. He never even spared the lives of innocent children.

He's sick, twisted, insane and needs to die. I was always raised to believe that there was nothing more valuable than life. Anyone willing to take this precious gift away for no apparent reason deserves to die. He doesn't just deserve death... he's earned to. A applied a little more pressure and his screams filled the dimly lit room, coupled with the subtle sound of his cranium cracking. Like crushing a bag of potato chips; except easier. Much easier. I could kill him in a full second if I willed so. Just one... little... push. I could finally end this nightmare.

I hear someone else walk into the room.

"Ya don't wanna do that Drake."

I don't even have to look to tell who it is. The thick Irish accent gave it away pretty quick.

"Sheamas" I say. "He's a murderer and a rapist. You've talked about killing him yourself before! Now you have the chance to watch it happen. We get to see him suffer and die!"

I turn up to look at him and he's about ten feet away with his nine millimeter trained right on me.

Ya know, it's true what they say. Your life does flash before your eyes in the seconds before your death.

Now everything becomes all too clear. Everything in my life has led up to this point. My training, my fighting, meeting Sheamas, joining the Peacekeepers... and my fight with Crimson.

My life is one I wouldn't wish on anyone...

But it's mine and I have to own up to it all right now.

"Why do you suddenly care, Sheamas? Just out of the blue you have hypocritical sympathies for this... thing! And now you're pointing a gun at me? Pick a fucking side already! Unless you have plans on aiming that little popgun at him then by all means pull the trigger and don't keep us waiting!"

I'm unsure what bothered me more. The menacing glare or his unresponsiveness. I've never seen him like this before. Then the next thing he says changes my life.

"Don't test me Drake. I will not let you kill him."

My jaw drops. I take my foot off his head and face Sheamas completely. I'm completely dumbfounded at his statement.

"What? Are you fucking kidding me? Why the Hell not Sheamas? I think after all I've done and seen to get here, I think I deserve a fucking explanation!" He just keeps that blank expression on me. It's starting to piss me off.

"Because Drake," His voice falls silent and emotional. "You are the best of us. Your hands are barely stained with blood. You have killed one man in your entire life. I can't even begin to count how many I've killed. You swore to your sister that you would never kill again. Now, I see I have two choices. The first is to shoot you dead right here and tell the rest of The Peacekeepers that you died in battle or let you kill this man and let you become a damn murderer."

"I don't see why you even care! It's not your problem!"

"It is actually! If you kill him out of anger, if you allow yourself to go into that place of constant bloodlust and hatred... You'll never come back. I can't allow my people to lose their only hero, Drake. I won't. Don't soil Alice's memory like this!"

We find ourselves at a stalemate. Maybe he's right. Or maybe I just feel like I'm done fighting. Either way, I break.

"Fine... Have it your way Sheamas." I lean down to the final Fallen King's ear and whisper one last message to him.

"Remember this day. I've done worse than kill you. I destroyed your house of cards. It took you years to build this and I dismantled it in mere hours. I've done the one thing worse than kill you. I've shattered your pride. Live with it for the rest of your days. Alone. Forgotten. Abandoned."

With no hesitation I walk out of the panic room. Right past Sheamas giving him no attention except my final words to him as a farewell. "Oh, and by the way; if you ever point that gun at me again, I'm breaking the arm. Understand?"

I leave the building. I'm only a few steps out when I hear a loud gunshot ring out, echoing through all the Fallen King territory. I stop for a few seconds. I don't look back. I'll never look back. I block it out as I walk past the broken bodies of The Fallen Kings.

I leave it all behind. The conflict. The Fallen Kings and their barbarism. The Peacekeepers and their bullshit and the ghosts of my own past. I am a man with no home. A "hero" to a desperate people and drug slaves. A nightmare to those who would have done them harm. I am a wandering warrior.

I get to the old highway that once connected thousands of cities together. I pick a direction with the sun to my back as I pass the corpses of cars and big rigs and the old world that we'll never have again.

I pick a direction and start walking. I don't stop. And I never look back...