One Half Radiant

Chapter 5:

On the road again, the road to these specific deserters are back roads, a few highways and a bit of what's left of the interstate. Not in that order. I don't know much of the deserters like how many or what the group demographic is. Actually now that I think of it, they didn't ask for anything in return for giving us information. That's actually odd. "Hmmm", I say out loud questionably. Well this is a long trip and I'm quite far from base. Guess it's all up to good ole Peyton Blade to do the work.

There's not much I could give them material wise. All I have is my gear and a pack of essentials. There's not much I can do until I get there and they tell me what they want. That's if they want something in return. Knowing deserters, they always want something, which concerns me.

I'm driving down some unnamed road since all the signs are unreadable after years. There is absolutely no cars. In zombie movies there would be abandoned cars everywhere. Well that's not the case in this situation. Everyone was offered a place for all their shit, cars, and kids from the Visionaries. So we just have empty barren houses and towns. If I was to see a car of any sorts that would be a sign that you're in deep shit. It's probably the Envisioned's army of sorts coming after you.

It's been hours of this driving, many deer sightings, many unreadable billboards, and many random thoughts going through my head. What else is gonna entertain me. I don't think we stocked our cars with random CD's to keep people entertained, so I'm out of luck. I might have to dig around on my way back so I don't fall asleep driving at night.

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Pulling into the town the deserters said they were, I find myself admiring the town and how it might have looked a long while ago. It's been almost a decade of this... Hell. This neglectance of the rest of this country. I ran away from that epicenter of those Visionaries a while ago. And so have these deserters, but I ran to the rebel base and they chose to live without conflict. Not a bad life but I also like the pleasantries of the rebel base that these people probably don't get. It's okay, just go back to the 1800s and they seem just fine in that aspect. Don't quote me on this, I may have had regular education up until I was 16 but I never said it was good education.

After a few more minutes and many turns I reach where they are located, according to the letter. I park the car and gather what I need to go in. I holster the weapons and throw on my leather jacket. I close the car door and look at the house I'm at. The driveway is big cause my big car is parked and there's still room for their cars to leave without me moving. I mean if you're gonna be a deserter might as well pick the best house to occupy. The house obviously abandoned looking but better than other houses I rode past. The whole neighborhood I think was built well because this is the rich neighborhood and they all look good. This is unless the deserters are occupying all of them. I'm not sure, I just pulled up to the house with cars. The rest looked deserted.

I walk up to the grand entrance of the house and knocked on the door. I waited for about a minute. Big house, must take a while to get to the front door, I assume. Soon a man answers the door, "Ah, you must be the rebellion messenger," he says with a welcoming wave of his arm into the house. I step in and admire the grungy but beautiful foyer. "The guys are all in the back, follow me" He steps through a side door and a few other doors to get to a nice but secluded room. Painted green with nice-ish furniture being here for so long with no care.

"Guys, the rebel is here," He introduces me to a room of two other men. All dressed in black. Not just random clothes, they seem to have maybe robbed a store and got all matching clothes. Not unlikely but not normal from what I've seen from other deserters and our own crew members. "Hello," I say with a normal voice not seeming nervous or overly confident.

"So you're here for the information, right?" another guy says snarky like.

"Obviously," I remark at them. They all laugh together. Glad this is going well for me. "Let me just get the papers," a guy with black hair says and walks to a corner. Whilst this happens, another one of the three guys walks behind me as I'm situated in the middle of the room.

I try to keep calm. He seems off but I brush it off as he's just checking me to make sure I'm not a threat. Which may not go well as I'm armed in a few ways. I see the guy behind me nods to a brunet on the couch. "How bout you give me your weapons dear," He says with his hands stretched out ready to take my weapons. First off, not a fan of the pet name, second these guys are not getting my weapons. "I'm gonna turn down that offer. I would like to stay armed for my safety," I put a hand on my gun that's underneath my jacket in discreet way. Brunet gets up from his seat and walks closer to me, too close for comfort. "I said, hand me your weapons." his hand outstretched again. "I'm aware, but I'm not sure who you people are."

"You will find out, but for now give me the weapons." He commands at me.

"No" I say as sternly as possible from my small frame.

The guy behind me reacts and wraps his arms around my arms. And brunet proceeds to grab my gun and throw it to the couch. I grab the arms on me and lift and twist around so his arms are twisted in an uncomfortable way. With a hold on him, I knee his gut and push him away, he trips on a chair and falls to the ground.

As I turn to assess Mr. Brunet behind me, he's already ready for me. I turn around and he swings with his left hand at my face.

I was hit square in the face and took it like a rock. It still hurt but I knew he'd throw another right after it. His right hand comes at my face again but I grab it with my right, pull it away and make contact with my left and his face. Then with Peyton fashion, kneed him in the gut and pushed him down.

In a split second I have to decide to go after the other guy or go for my gun. Wait I have a fucking knife, screw the gun. I dart for the guy in the corner. Black haired boy as I say since I don't know their names at all. Grabbing the knife from my hip I raise it so I can stab him in the shoulder and make an escape.

Running as I raised knife and start my downward motion with the knife, his hand comes up and stops me in the act. He takes my hand and twists it. I cry in pain and drop the weapon. The knife hits the floor at the same time as black haired boy punches me in the gut. I cough and throw my free hand to my stomach, but then another blow hits my back leg and I fall to my knees. Another pained scream fills my ears. Someone grabs my other hand and holds it firm against my back. Then joined my other hand with it. "When I said give me your weapons, I meant it," Brunet says as he picks up my knife. I'm then stood up and dragged to the right side of the room.

"Fine, you have them now, now let me go," I struggle against the hold on me.

"Yea, that's not happening," I give a look of confusion. "I figured I'd get that look from you. We're not giving you information about anything. We're here for you," The fuck? These lying ass, matching outfit bastards. I knew there was something off. "What do you need me for?" I spit at Brunet.

"Not for you to know," He says as he raises his fist. As the fist comes to me I shrink toward the floor and lean forward to avoid the blow. Brunet grabs me with anger and straightens me up and the guy holding me gets a better grip on me so I can't do that again. "You can't avoid what's coming Peyton." They're trying to knock me out and I'd like to avoid that but the grip on my arms are not giving, in any way.

Brunet throws a punch to my face and I taste blood immediately. Turning my head back toward him I spit the blood back at him, "let me the 'f' go."

He laughs, "Can't even cuss at me?"

"Fuck you, I was being nice," I say hanging my head low. It's starting to pound in my skull. A hand comes up to my chin and holds my head up and in place. Brunet looks pleased with my unease and hits me in the head again. My whole conscience goes dark and I feel my body go limp.