Battle Born Vagabond Prequel

Chapter 2: City Citizen: Pariah: Dorian: Feb 14, 4995

Today was an average day, for a while, then around sunrise, I woke up to feeling this humming on the ground. It didn't feel like an insect or any other animal, so I woke up, at arms, really quickly and went to investigate it. I could see other father figures peeking out from hiding places, to see the same thing I saw, this head-sized ball floating about 5 centimeters off the ground, going about as fast as we can run, putting out visible green light which spreads over everything for 60 meters diameter around it. We spoke to each other, in sign language, really quickly, to see if we could figure out what it was, but no one had the foggiest of ideas, we had never seen it.

I get ready for my day, after that, but today I also bring extra weaponry during my hunt for supplies, food, and water. I wake up my daughter and my parents and tell them about what happened, they insist on staying as a family unit today.

A few hours later, I feel heavy unknown footsteps approaching. We all hide in a viaduct of the ancient highway. And he walks right in like he knows what he's doing like he owns the place real smug expression can be seen past his flashlight. And I feel my daughter's thoughts in my head. "He has a lot of water on him, can we take it from him".

Then my mom says thinking directly into my head "he's a soldier but it would be worth it, give a paralytic grenade to your daughter and let her throw it. Then we beat him up, take his stuff and run, before he overcomes the paralysis."

I handed everybody a gas mask first, then hand her two grenades thinking, I need to cover this area and he's a soldier, he will survive no problem and he might even be able to resist them. I feel both of the grenades hit and bounce and feel the shockwave of the explosion. He is coughing and wheezing, at first, and I can tell he's not moving that much anymore. He stumbles a bit, then collapses. We are beating him, as we are removing things of value including weapons, and his supplies. Then some red light on his shoulder shoots a large ray out of the viaduct, I thought it was a weapon so I push my daughter on the ground away from the soldier, but we have no idea what that is, we just keep getting his stuff quickly.

I had just taken off his clothes to possibly trade for some meat or wear them around like a trophy. My family scatters and hides as I feel another grenade bounce. And all the ancient lights, that aren't broken, turn back on, my family unit had disappeared, they heard the footsteps, while I was too focused on removing his clothes. The soldier is naked, I'm naked except for the mask and they say to me.

One looks like he is going to puke, "Dude, that's so gross."

The other one says, "Yeah man, we can understand raping the women you find, but this is a different deal entirely Dude. We are going to have to go above your head sergeant to get you placed in the GOC (gay or caring) unit.

The one that looks like he is going to puke says, "We will be about 2 blocks down that way, when you're done with what you are doing, come get us via radio, or walk down the road."

I wait until they are out of sight, they walked back into the darkness, I thought they were gone and I give a sign of come out its safe. They hid under the rubble. My daughter, Marie, stays hidden she fears the men will come back any second.

She was right, they come back a few seconds later "we got your back dude, we saw people try and ambush you from the rubble as they pull me behind some rubble as cover" and they tackle my mother, "since you have that guy, can I take this one?"

He picks her up and she is kicking and screaming and he is fighting back with her as he rips off what little covering she had. I think very quickly that I must do something, I must pretend to be who they think I am, I must be arrogant. As he takes off his pants and gets close I shoot her with the soldier's pistol. Her head explodes and I say "I didn't get to have my fun; you don't get to have yours!"

The other soldier is just kind of stunned as he looks down, "why did that guy get all ridged so quickly?"

"I used a paralytic grenade on him, his lungs must have seized up because he isn't moved in a while and he's starting to become pale"

"Whatever I'm not worried that was just a citizen no one special." They looked over at the original soldier and took a real hard look at him. "He looks just like you dude, what's up with that?"

"I don't know dude"

"I'm not dude yet, you know that sergeant."

"Delete the other male here, we're here on extermination, or did you forget that?"

My dad's telepathy gives me what he is saying "end this war we are in, take the place of that soldier and overthrow the regime. Mom will forgive you, and as will I, just make it quick I won't move."

Without a 2nd thought, I pull the trigger and watch his head disappear and his body go limp. I hear some gurgling from the soldier like he is trying to talk, so I quickly shoot him too. The lights go off after that final shot and one of the soldiers say "get your nude ass dressed best you can in this pitch black and we'll fix your uniform when you're done."

I hear another voice in my head, it's my daughter "Daddy, I heard what pop-pop told you, I will wait for your return. I love you daddy."

I think back to her "Be safe honey, I love you. Stay around, where I found you five years ago, and have Tara take care of you. Give her the mental picture of what just happened and she will be willing to split her food with you, I know her very well. I will send a message down with a baby, that they send down." I then pick up the flashlight, because I bumped my foot into it looking for it. I put on all of the soldier's clothes best I can and walk out of the viaduct not used to all the extra weight.

I take a few steps stumbling and then I get used to it. "So how far are we from the pickup zone?"

"What pick up zone? We have to walk to the Willis Tower and walk up 100 floors to the nearest working elevator and take that up to the 3rd level to the nearest working teleporter, then we get to go to the 5th level for debriefing, before going back to our bunks on the 4th level."

"So how many kilometers is that?"

"No idea we keep walking until we hit downtown then we figure it out. We will just follow the rubble between the dead grasses."

"What time is it?"

"Almost 1200, we have to be back before 1800, this one is going to be close, let's move"

They leap around 60 meters in a single bound, I try to do that and I get about 1 meter. They keep leaping forward and I'm just there struggling to move, I don't have the gene of super strength like all of the soldiers.

They came back to me "Are you okay? Did you get affected by the grenade; you barely look able to move. You have a very light ruck sack its only around 90 kilograms, come on dude, get it together."

"I think I did get affected by it, can we please get picked up?"

"I'll call for the drop off of a rescue pod to get us back up, and we will drop you off in your bunk."

From the exhaustion of carrying that rucksack, I just collapse after trying to walk another 6.5 kilometers to where they put the escape pod because that was the limit of where they could teleport it with their current technology. I wake up in an infirmary with a nurse taking my vitals; he winks at me "I heard you were getting transferred to my unit soon to be Dude. You're conscious so now you get a debriefing as well. And we get to hear your side of the story as well. Oh, and your ID number had come off of your neck so I used a tattoo gun and temp ink to put it back as is required."

"I don't feel good."

He hands me a bucket and I throw up black. "Yeah, that's what happens with this ink every time; I'm going to go get the sergeant major, stay in the bed."