THE DEAD ZONE ~ Marhinki

.04

That night was interesting to say the least. Mari went to area of fencing that she had originally met the man, Sohinki and Lasercorn standing behind her, both men glaring at the man who appeared on the other side.

"Nice to see you, Matthew," The man said as his eyes locked onto the smaller man.

"The pleasure is mine, Anthony," Sohinki growled, if looks could kill, Anthony would be dead.

"You owe me," Mari spat, breaking the stare off. Anthony scoffed.

"I owe you nothing. The man isn't dead." Mari shook her head.

"That is where you are wrong." Mari smiled at him. "He lives in the Dead Zone now. Every single soul living behind this fence, is dead. Now I repeat, you owe me. And if not for his death, you owe me for sending me to the hands of the government, you owe me for the two days I spent under their 'care'."

"I owe you nothing, Atomic," He spit out her name, mocking her title. "You aren't even human."

"You're right," Mari said. "I'm not." In one fluid motion she pulled her gun from her belt and shot him in the head. The bullet smashed through the middle of his forehead, continuing on into the night. Anthony crumbled to the ground, blood pouring from the hole in his head. Mari turned around to the two men standing behind her.

"I'm assuming that it is my turn now," Sohinki said. Both Mari and Lasercorn gave a nod, and together lifted him to the fence. Sohinki clambered over and dropped down next to the body, hissing as the poison was entered into his wrist. Lasercorn then boosted Mari over the fence and she dropped down in the other side of the body, cursing quietly as the blood coated the soles of her shoes.

Together the two of them searched the body, coming up with a wallet from the breast pocket of his shirt. Sohinki tossed it to Lasercorn, who caught it and dropped it into his pocket. Sohinki unclasped a golden watch from the man's wrist, passing it through the fence to Lasercorn, while Mari removed the belt. She inspected it for a second, before making a noise of disgust.

"Apparently, he was not the type of man to wear of belt of any worth," Mari said, stepping quietly through the pool of blood to his shoulders.

"Wait, what are you doing now? We got what we needed," Sohinki asked.

"We didn't get everything." She smiled before turning to Lasercorn. "We'll be back." Lasercorn nodded and retreated into the shadows, vanishing from view. "Come on, grab his feet." Sohinki did as he was told, and together they awkwardly lifted the body.

They maneuvered the body to the into the city, stringing him to the construction nearby, using his own belt. The finishing touch was done by Mari, and she dipped her fingers into the blood from his wound. She knelt down to the ground and drew swirling symbols with the hanging man's blood.

BEWARE YOUR DEALINGS WITH THE DEVIL

Then, the two left, leaving the bloodied message for whoever to find, and following their bloodied footprints back into the darkness of the Dead Zone.

~*~

"How much did we get off him?" Mari asked as soon as she and Sohinki entered their rotting home.

"Enough," FLitz answered quietly. "Not as much as we would have hoped, but enough."

"So not the 7 grand we were promise," Mair sighed. Fritz shook his head.

"Not even close."

"There was seven hundred in his wallet, and we're guessing the watch may give us a possible five hundred more," Wes put in. "But-"

"We won't know for sure," Mari interrupted. "Let's pray to whoever's listening that we get another job, it might be our only hope."

"A raid is always an option," Lasercorn pointed out.

"Yes, but I hope that it doesn't come to that point." Mari groaned, collapsing onto one of the chairs, ignoring the wood as it whined beneath her.

"Who would we raid?" Sohinki asked. "The people here don't exactly have an abundance of food at their fingertips."

"As surprising as it sounds, we're not the only people who run this place," Mari said, motioning to the others that they are no longer needed. They slunk out of the room, leaving Mari and Sohinki alone. "Long story short, they hate us and we hate them."

"So, basically another us," Sohinki concluded.

"A less dignified, less certified, less clean and very cheap, version of us," Mari corrected. "But yes, a version of us. They believe that if they kill us off, they will become the so called leaders of the Dead Zone, and force everyone to come to them." She sighed, just thinking about them was giving her a headache. "We've been at war for a very long time, and any attack, any raid will be launched back at us."

"Are you at some sort of stand still now?" Sohinki asked, glancing at Mari with some sort of concern.

"No. We are in a waiting period, any day now they will fling everything they've got at us, and we have no choice but to be prepared."