The Shadow Bounty

BAR FIGHT ROYALE!!!

Ever been drunk before? I have, I am right now. It’s like I can hear everything that’s going on around me. But then again that might just be some strange side effect of this new stuff brought in from out off-world. All I keep doing is staring into the bottom of this glass and hoping someone will be kind enough to give me a ride home. I took the last sip of what felt never ending and just continued to stare into the conventional glass beaker. That’s when he came along and ruined my perfect mirage. I felt someone grab my shoulder and try pulling me off my bar stool, he was saying something definitely English but whatever it was just bounced around my head echoing and actually began to hurt. After a few seconds and him managing to pull me back again it came clear.

“The bars closing get out”

I slowly turned my head around to see if it was in fact the landlord with a shotgun in my face or a group of cocky punks trying to get a kick out of beating up a hopeless drunk.

“I said the bars closed so move your ass”

“Gimme a minute this shits kicked my head back to preschool”

As I focused in on his face i got an immediate match, it defiantly wasn’t the landlord and he’d spit on anyone who called him a punk.

“Rise and shine Tolkien, we’ve been looking for you” he said, his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. I laughed as he spoke.

“No shit, what you guna do this time. Stick my head down a toilet? tickle me silly?”

His happy face turned into that of a bull, id not impressed him. That and the fact that the rest of his crones behind him were laughing behind there masks. I could see slowly out the corner of my blurry vision that he was trying to pull something out of a holster on his belt. This was obviously time to make a decision, either wait comfortably on this bar stool and most defiantly end up locked up in one of his hidey holes as a pet or I could give him hell and get rid of his other eye. The latter  sounded the most fun. He put his head close to mine and whispered in my ear

“You’re crossing the line now Jake, I’ve spent to long looking for you and what started out to be fun is now turning into a waste of my fucking time, so go along with it and save us both the hassle”

“How about, no”

At that point I elbowed his head into the bar counter which knocked him out cold onto the floor. The others looked at me for a second thinking what to do, as always they did the obvious. One guy who had what looked like a sheep on his mask came at me and tried to hit me round the head with a spiked club. I moved out of the way of the swing, twisted it out of his hand and pushed the spikey end back into his face. Then i finally get up off of the stool and winded another one of the guys with the blunt end and then forced the other end into his mask of a tiger. As I went to confront the last thug I could see through his masks eye holes that he was terrified. I stepped forward to get him and he ran out of the bar shouting for help.

“Yeah you better keep running” I shouted out at him as he ran across the sands away from me.

I broke the club in two and dropped it on the floor as I walked back to my stool to see the lead guy, his thugs laid out on the floor in blood. I pulled him up by his neck from his slouched position against the counter. I slapped his face to bring him back into animation. As he opened his eye he looked around distressed at his dead comrades around the room.

“So come on then Dick tell me the truth why after all these years have you suddenly started chasing me down again?”

He started to laugh and spat to the side.

“What is it? Snap out of it and tell me who you’re working for because i know and you know that you only go to the highest bidder so what sad fucker wants me dead?”

“Oh he doesn’t want you dead, just, contained?”

I pulled out a knife from my coat and placed it near his chest, he started to move back towards the counter.

“You see that’s the thing with you, unlike most bounty hunter you fear one thing they don’t, death. Now tell me who this guy is before I send you straight to hell”

“Ok ok, this is just for old time’s sack, we dont even know who he is, he used some informant to give us the contract. Some guy by the name of Brocke wears those fancied tailored suits”

I moved the knife away and put it back into my coat.

“See was that so hard, maybe next time you’ll give me the full story first before I have to kill another one of your thugs”

I got up and went to walk out of the bar to find me a descent ride.

“Wait you can’t just leave me here for dead, all that we’ve been through together?”

I smiled and put a toothpick in my mouth.

“You know how it is, someone always.....”

At that point a bright light blinded me and the sound of a hovership’s blades deafened me.

“Put your hands behind your head and walk calmly out of the building, leave any weapons on the floor” a voice boomed out of a microphone.

“Hey Dick looks like one of yours actually gives a shit about society, pack your trincket were going to the big house”.

I put on my best smile before walking out into the light with my hands furmly behind my head.