The Runners

A display of power

I help carry the crates of scrap metal Into Sovetsky's workshop and after some time I store the last crate. "Hey thanks for helping out with the scrap run, and for listening to me." I smile and reply

"No problem, thank you for listening to me as well. Even though I rambled on for a while." I look over at the crates of jagged and bent sheet metal and ask "how are you going to use this for the project?" 

He looks back at it and answers, "Simple, I'm gonna smelt it down. I know how to make a forge that's decently small." 

With my question answered I head to bed. I rest my head on the pillow and hope not to dream. It feels like hours I move around trying to sleep but eventually, my eyes close and I fall asleep. "Get the fuck up Mist we're leaving!" Ries yells shaking me awake.

 My eyes adjust to the light that's peeking through the blinds and ask tiredly, "what's happening? Why did you wake me up?" 

His face goes from panicked to even more panicked, " The military is coming! We have to pack up and leave right now." I go from tired to alert in a flash and ask "How long do we have to pack up?"

 He thinks for a moment and answers with certainty in his voice " twenty to thirty minutes, not much at all." I thank him and get up to go help pack. I rush outside and start packing stuff inside with the help of Sovetsky and Ries while Ren is placing things around what was our camp, " Ren are you going to help us or what!" Sovetsky yells.

 "Trust me on this, I have a plan to keep them off us." After minutes of packing, we hear cars coming closer, and eventually, we see them coming down the road. 

Everyone rushes to the car and as they get in I trip on something and fall on my face. I look back and see that the enemy is too close "Just go, I have a plan. Trust me!" I yell, The RV starts and starts to drive away. 

I get up and run towards it, catching up with it. Ren leans out the door with his hand out, I leap for it as the RV starts to pick up speed. My hand narrowly misses his and makes contact with the ladder leading to the top of the car.

I pull myself onto it and yell out "Give me a rifle!" to Ren. He grabs one and hands it to me. I climb the ladder to the roof and post up with the rifle, "hey everyone, eyes on the old camp." Ren shouts to me and everyone.

I see that some of the cars stayed behind to look at what we had left behind and in a sudden flash the camp exploded in a fireball, destroying whatever and whoever was there. "Boom baby! That's how you do it!" Ren cheers.

We have cars driving towards us still, and  lot of them too. I climb towards the front of the car and knock on the driver's window and Ries rolls it down and I tell him "Go as fast as you can reliably drive and try to keep it steady, I can knock off a few good shots if you do. Also blare some heavy metal while you do." 

He nods and I climb to the back of the car and get ready to take as many shots as I can. The blare of heavy metal starts to pour from the speakers inside and with the windows down I can hear it clearly, "this is gonna be fun." I say under my breath. I chamber a round and take aim, when the sights are in the right spot I fire.

 My shot hits its target and the car crashes. I keep taking shots at the approaching cars but I barely hit any. I pull the trigger once again but the click of the gun stops me, I climb back to the door and ask Ren " here take this and grab me some pistol ammo."

I say as I give him the rifle. I pull out my P226 and load a mag into it. "Got them for ya!" Ren yells. I grab them and put them in my suit jacket pocket and I thank him. I get down and wait for them to get closer, taking a sip out of my flask as I wait. After a moment they get close enough.

 The first soldier jumps onto the roof and I shoot him off, Moments after others jump onto the car as well. They aim their guns at me and I jump forward and turn, Shooting them quickly. The last one on the car takes aim and fires, I roll to the right and shoot him in the knee, making him fall onto it.

I take the moment of drawn attention and rush him, I grab him by the collar and kick him off into a car causing it to crash. I take a second to catch my breath and someone I didn't notice wraps their arm around my throat and starts to choke me.

 The air is almost cut off, I notice that he's dragging me to the back of the car to throw me off. After trying to elbow him in the ribs and it not working, I Reach up and grab his shoulder and twist my body, I hear the sound of his shoulder dislocating and his arm retracts. I turn around and grab him by the collar.

I scan around and notice a grenade on his chest. I pull the pin and shove him off and he lands onto a car and the grenade explodes causing the engine to explode as the music crescendos. "That was fucking awesome," I say out loud to myself.

 I look around for more cars but there are none left. I make my way to the front and knock on the window again, as he rolls it down and turns down the music I start talking, "We're good now. Get us as far away as you can." He nods and asks " music, down or up?" I laugh and answer "definitely up, change the genre to something more celebratory while you do it."

He nods and the music goes up and changes. I walk back to the door, taking a celebratory drink from my flask, and climb in and close the door behind me. 

"Jesus Christ dude what the hell did you just do?" Ren asks. I put my hand on his shoulder and answer sincerely "I have no fucking clue." I walk to the couch and sit down, I rest my head and pass out as the adrenaline fades from my body.

"Hey wake up Mist, We're celebrating." My eyes open to the dark and I see Ren, "celebrating what?" I ask tiredly. "Davey Crockett," He says sarcastically, He continues on sincerely "we're celebrating survival. You should get up, we set up camp and we think you should come out and get some air." 

"Sure. Lord knows I need it." I put my hand forward for him to pull me up and he does. I walk to the door and step out and Ries and Sovetsky are sitting around a campfire with two empty seats next to them.

"Hey, buddy! Good to see you awake!" Ries shouts, noticeably piss drunk. I sit down on one of the empty seats and I grab my flask out of my pocket and take a sip of it. A round of drinks is poured and Sovetsky starts to speak. 

"What the hell was that on the roof? What crazy shit did you get up too up there?" I take another sip out of my flask and answer. "I have no idea, I'm glad that music was playing though." Ries starts talking but between sips of bourbon and laughing, it takes him a minute. "I knew the song I chose was a good choice. I swear I kept hearing explosions and was wondering what was happening back there."

 Sovetsky takes a sip of gin and refills his glass, " but on to the point, I wanted to say without what you did up there we would all be dead. So thank you, you saved our asses." Sovetsky says raising his glass, and everyone does the same. Smiling I start talking "thanks, but we would be wrong without mentioning Rens' part in this. I mean he rigged the old camp to blow, that explosion destroyed a fair bit of the cars. Without that explosion, I would've definitely been overwhelmed." 

We all agreed and drank for a while until we all got tired and went inside and ended the day.

(authors note: Hey it's me the author, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Since I was indisposed for a while and couldn't write I had a lot of ideas and inspiration I needed to let out. I'm glad I could put out another chapter so soon. Remember to like and comment on the story, any bit of interaction helps, until next time. -HunterOfTheMist)