A Story of Cinders: From the Ashes

Chapter 15: Sound and Fury

 The bandits scrape their machetes together, and scream and bellow, trying to intimidate the group. Brawler yells back. A couple bandits jump back in fear. "You rats think you can scare me? You ever heard of the Vultures? You know what happened to them?"

"Alright fuckheads, which one of you's in charge? I am so not in the mood for this shit!" Gray Wolf yells, miles beyond agitated. The bandit leader approaches Gray Wolf. A familiar face, with a familiar bullet wound in his right hand. "I feel like I know you from somewhere..."

"Oh you don't remember me, Gray Wolf?"

"You're familiar. I feel like I killed someone you knew." Then he pieces it together, slowly putting his hand on his pistol. It has one bullet left. "Oh, now I remember you... You're Gearbox's buddy. I shot you in the hand! And I believe I told you that if I ever saw you again in this business, I was gonna have to kill you."

"Yeah, you did. Now you're gonna pay, you son of a bitch!"

"Oh what are you gonna do, kill me? No, no, you're gonna threaten to take me, torture me, kill these guys in front of me, then maybe grant me the mercy of death," Gray Wolf says tauntingly. "I've heard all this shit before kiddo." He cocks back the hammer on his revolver. "But have you ever heard that before? That's the sound of the hammer being pulled back on a .44 Magnum revolver. It's the last thing a lot of people hear. And if you're not careful, you could be one of them. Now let me make my point: you reach for that gun, and you'll be dead before you can clear leather. You got me?"

The bandit leader pauses, sizing up Gray Wolf, considering him... "Get him!" He grabs his pistol.

"Oh for fucks sake..." Gray Wolf mutters, rolling his eyes and whipping out his gun. Before the bandit leader can pull out his gun, he catches a .44 bullet with his head. Gray Wolf spins the revolver around his finger before holstering it again. The rest of the bandits attack. Two go after Red, and are met with throwing knives in their throats, on the ground choking on their own blood before they can even begin their swing with their machetes. Brawler carefully sets the prisoner down, punches a bandit so hard in the head his skull shattered, then grabs another by the throat and choke slams him into the sand, breaking every one of his vertebras. He steps on his sternum, and yanks upwards, letting out a ferocious battle cry, dismembered head in hand. One attacks Sarge with a machete. He grabs them by the wrist and throws him over his shoulder before drawing his pistol and shooting them in the head. He turns around and shoots another in the back of the head with his last bullet. Gray Wolf draws his kukri, spins to his left, swinging at a bandit's neck. The bandit's head flies off his shoulders. Gray Wolf flips the knife in the air, grabbing it with a rear grip, bladed end facing back and up, and lunges backwards into another bandit's gut. The bandit stops mid swing, and Gray Wolf yanks up on the knife, gutting the bandit. He pulls the kukri out and steps to the side as the bandit falls forward. That was all of them. All told, it was over in about 15 seconds. Gray Wolf wiped the blood off his knife using the bandit leader's shirt. He grabbed the cigarette, still clenched between his teeth, and rips the filter off the back, spitting it out onto the ground, then lit it. "Should've stayed gone..." he muttered under his breath.

"Now, as we were," Sarge said aloud.

They still had about a mile to go to the rally point. The sun was just starting to set, casting its pink and orange light across the barren desert landscape. The popping, vibrant colors made the sky looked like it was on fire. Gray Wolf and Red were up ahead a bit—about a hundred meters or so-- with Sarge, Brawler, and the lieutenant behind. Gray Wolf was chain smoking, trying to take the edge off. He was out of whiskey and had long since began to sober up. The withdrawls were getting to him. Combined with all the shit that had just went down, he was beyond done with this business.