Brotherhood of Thieves.

A day in the Hinterlands.

Brotherhood of Thieves: Chapter One

Zach Ocean ran for his life, this being a regular situation he often found himself in. What brought him was an old relic, a relic that was purchased by an old billionaire located in the hinterlands of the Gold Coast in Queensland Australia. The man was a collector, one of those men who fill their homes with ancient world objects to impress their friends who have no idea what their looking at, but smile and nod and act like they're impressed with such an acquisition. The home lacked taste, what it did not lack was a state of the art security system, which Zach of course tripped and now the billionaire's armed security was chasing him. Hence why he was running for his life.

He had at least managed to grab the relic, an old glass cylinder with a bronze rod found inside it. Zach wasn't one to argue on what he was stealing, he only did it for the money, had to pay off his student debts somehow. The Cylinder was placed in his trusty rucksack. Bullets whizzed past Zach's head, causing him to dive behind a gum tree. He poked his head out from behind cover and saw several well-armed goons chasing after him wielding assault rifles, he didn't really like his chances.

Withdrawing his pistol he fired off several rounds, he wasn't aiming for anyone in particular. He didn't want to kill anyone, more just hinder their process of catching up to him. Firing the gun caused several goons to dive behind cover. That was all the time Zach needed to bolt down the hill. Dodging and weaving between the dense Australian scrub. Zach wasn't a natural athlete, but he loved running, feeling the fresh air in his lungs and the thrill of danger in his system. The thrill of the chase.

He however did not see the noose on the ground, he did however have the wind knocked out of him as his right foot was caught by the noose, forcing him to fall to the ground with great force. He didn't have time to recover his senses before the rope started pulling him up off the ground. His world turned upside down as he hung from the tree. Blood started rushing to his head.

"This is not what I expected to happen" he said to himself. He started to reach for the pocket knife in his pocket. He stopped however when he saw two men approaching him. He noted that they did that funny walk people do when you view the world from upside down, it's like a little spring in their step he thought to himself. Zach was brought out of this train of thought when one of the men roughly pushed him. Causing him to swing violently like a pendulum.

"Could you not." Zach said in annoyance.

Reaching down and picking up Zach's rucksack and kicking his pistol aside, one of the men started going through the bag.

"Look what we have here Brad" said the nameless man, to his friend, obviously now called Brad.

"It looks like we caught ourselves a treasure hunter Eli." Said Brad.

"Dude, no one calls themselves treasure hunters, I think you've been watching too much Indiana Jones" said the upside down Zach.

The man called Eli retrieved the relic from the bag, he hands it to Brad who doesn't say anything but gives a sinister smile.

"What shall we call you then?" Asked Brad, the sinister smile still on his face. Zach could see that Brad was in a real need of a dental check-up, his teeth were as yellow as a full moon.

"Umm I don't know, I guess a privateer, an antique collector, a....."

"A dead man." interrupted Brad.

"Well I hope that it doesn't come to that." Zach replied snarky.

"Wanna kill him?" Eli asked Brad.