Warrior: The Purge

March 21st: the date of the "Annual Purge." I didn't know what to think of it. As I walked around town during the day, preparing for the night, I saw what appeared to be normal, good-natured human beings readying themselves for something unholy; they were sharpening knives, wearing perversely-decorated masks, and some even rode around carrying assault weapons upon bikes or in other vehicles. I had no idea what to think of it, and Emerald was scared shitless by the fact that this seemed to be the adult's equivalent to Halloween. The "New Founding Fathers," a group that had taken office as another branch of the US Government similarly to the consuls of ancient Rome, had made this an unholy day of the year, especially for people like me: the mutants, the poor, and those who couldn't defend themselves. In anticipation for this year's "Purge," I asked the First National Bank in Windsor if I could take one of my vacation days today. My supervisor, Donald, allowed me, so long as I did one final check of the money in the bank. I worked not only as the manager of a comics shop known as "Halos and Horrors" in town, but as a personal banker for Windsor's First National Bank. I decided that tonight, instead of hiding in the hidden panic room in my home, I would instead be blockading myself inside my house; I had called for insured blockades and cameras to place around my home to "hopefully" keep both me and Emerald safe tonight.
"Alright Mr. Jackson and…Mr. Jackson," the foreman of the job at my home stated to me and Emerald, pointing to various areas around the home, "That's blockades for all of the windows, two for the doors, and a large garage-based blockade. Hidden cameras have been set up on all the corners of the house, and have been linked to your television. Along with that, we've reinforced any outdoor power equipment from break-in. That comes down to a total of one-thousand fifteen dollars and eighty-one cents." I then handed my credit card to the man and waited to receive it, looking around to my neighbors' homes.
"Thank you!" Emerald stated, earning a small chuckle from the worker.
"Well, you're welcome sir. This is what we do at this time of year." The man then handed me back my card and left with his little helpers. As soon as he left, I left out a hissing sigh of relief as Emerald chuckled.
"Well, that's one hurdle over and done with," I said, letting Emerald slither upon my wrist as I looked to see my neighbors either preparing to "release the beast" or stay indoors.
"What about the shop?"
"I already had Doug close up shop. Plus, we got Purge Insurance." Emerald merely nodded in response and flew back inside the house. I took a seat in a rocking chair on my front porch that had belonged to my mother. I then pulled out my phone, making sure that it wasn't time yet as I rocked back and forth. Seeing the time as 3:39 made me somewhat happy that I still had a bit of time left before it began. It would give me enough time to invite a few friends of mine to sit out the Purge with me and Emerald. I had one in particular I wanted to invite because, like me, he is considered an outcast on Purge Night. I walked down the block and knocked on the door to his home, which had lax protection or anything truly noticeable in terms of defense. The door opened a small crack and I could see the piercing blue eyes of one of my newer, closer friends. He then opened the door and shook my hand with his own clawed one.
"Arthur, good to see you!" he ecstatically shook my hand before I pulled my hand back, somewhat startled by the sudden intrusion of my personal space.
"Oh, sorry buddy, forgot that—"
"No, no. It's all good," I stated as I rubbed my hand a bit. Ed had, like me, also found one of the many obsidian stones, of which I now possessed a collection of. However, what made his unique was that it had made him into a reasonable "anthro" Eastern dragon. Grey scales were flanked by a mane of black hair, and his eyes were a piercing sky blue. He possessed a lengthy body, and while he was taller than me. His whiskers, of which were jet black, flanked the sides of his snout, stretching down at least two feet from his maw, which was filled with sharp teeth. He wore nothing but a plain polo shirt and a pair of jean shorts, which stood out against his draconic exterior, especially with the maned tail that poked from the back of them.
"Where's Emerald?" he asked after looking around. I merely pointed back towards my house in response.
"Aaaaaahhh…he's readying for the night?"
"He doesn't like Purge Night. He'd prefer to stay indoors for as long as possible."
"I guess that makes three of us. But I'm facing a bit of a problem. I bought some Purge protection two weeks ago, and the guys are only setting up. They'll probably be sometime after the Purge commences."
"Well, that's all fine and dandy," I said, giving a healthy smile to my friend, "If you want to stay at my place tonight, that's fine. I've got some movies, some grub, and protection from the freaks that'll be out here—"
"Well, that's absolutely perfect! I'll come by with you!" Ed was a good kid, but he had a problem with interjecting and interrupting, leading to irritation among those he talked to.
"Okay, first off, please let me finish before you speak—"
"Sorry." I paused as soon as he said this, waiting to see if he had anything else to say.
"Secondly, we have a few more places to stop by before we even consider going home for the night."
"Well, I'm all ears," he said, giving a small wiggle to his ears in a joking sense. If I had eyes, I would've rolled them at the sheer simplicity of it. As soon as I turned around, I already saw one of Ed's neighbors had his garage open, where he was sharpening some knives.
"Well...there's a few friends of mine and family in Fort Collins I need to see before it all starts. Want to ride—"
"Nah. I'm good, I'll fly there." I hissed at the interruption, lending to attention from several people on the streets who looked towards me.
"Alright…then I'll get there by car," I stated as I started walking down, Ed following close behind. After several minutes of walking and catching up, we came back to my house, where I pulled the keys from my pocket and hissed loudly enough for Emerald to hear, to which he looked out the window of the living room and flew down and out.
"Hey Arthur. Are we ready?"
"Yep. Ed'll be flying there." Emerald then looked to Ed and gave him a friendly "hello," the dragon to my side doing the same. He then flew onto my neck and I immediately got into my car and turned the ignition.
"We'll we be home in time?"
"We should be…only about an hour or two." I then pulled out and began the journey out of Windsor back to Fort Collins, with Ed above me.

The drive to my Grandma Jane's home was nerve-wracking. Already, I had seen several groups of purgers driving by or waiting along the road, looking to me with a dead look in their eyes. Purge night was always a bad time for people like me and Ed: people that couldn't be understood as human beings anymore because of some physical changes. Pulling into my grandmother's neighborhood, I already saw wealthy purgers looking at me with a hunger for my acidic blood unlike any other time of the year. I then stepped out and looked to my late grandmother's house. She had passed away recently, and my family decided that I should keep the house in Windsor and that they would live here. I walked up and knocked on the door, to where Ian, one of my younger siblings, answered. He looked to me and Ed before looking back into the house.
"Mom! It's Arthur!" I then heard my mother as she strained to get up, walking over to the doorway and smiling as she hugged me. While she had lost weight she had while younger, she now looked older from when I was in my teens, with wrinkles covering her face and stark white hair, with liverspots that seemed to pop from everywhere across her skin.
"Arthur! It's so good to see you!" I chuckled as she hugged me and I pointed over to Ed.
"You know Ed."
"How're you today?"
"I'm good Mrs. Albro. Yourself?" My mother looked down before clearing her throat.
"Well…as good as I can be on this bullshit 'holiday,' that's for sure." She then invited us inside and set us down in the living room. Tom was downstairs playing on the WiiU that he got several Christmases ago, and Ian had gone back to join him. Cody, on the other hand, was upstairs and wired to his ICU in his room. Cody's alcoholism and the constant abuse he had put his body through had nearly torn him apart, and now he was essentially on life-support.
"Well, we were here to check on you, see if you're ready to come to Windsor for this year's Purge." My mother then sighed and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Arthur, Emerald…you need to realize that my place is with Cody right now. When he passes, I will come back to Windsor and live back in our home, but right now, it's best if I stay here with him for Purge night." I sighed and looked down, defeated at yet another failed attempt to get my mother to leave Cody here on Purge Night and spend the night with me where it was safer.
"You go get your friends and have a nice Purge Night party. I'll be fine."
"A-alright. I can do that…but you know to call us when—"
"Arthur, please. Go get your friends. You need to just settle down about me and the kids." I was about to interject, but Emerald merely shushed me, leading to a small chuckle from my mom.
"Now go on you knuckleheads." I nodded as we walked out. However, as I was about to get in my car, I was startled by a purger who wanted to get a bit close. His choice of attire for the night looked to be a perverse CSU Ram costume, complete with pigs' blood stained like tears from blackened eyeholes. An American flag was crudely painted on the green shirt where the words CSU used to be. My tail twitched in anxiousness as the purger got uncomfortably close, to the point where I could smell the tobacco on his breath.
"You're mine tonight, freak…" I then opened my car and stepped in and shut it, locking the door as the defaced ram looked on from the outside.
"I'm gonna find you, and I'm going to bleed you like the pig you are!" He then slammed his hands on my window and I promptly put the car into drive and started towards the other side of town to find my next few friends.

As I arrived in Laporte, the situation was that much more nauseating. American flags were defaced with guns upon the stripes and grenades as the stars, which were most likely hand-stitched flags. Abominable and equally horrible people who I presumed would be purging stalked the cul de sac nearby, carrying signs with words like "Purge" written in either fake blood or pigs' blood. Thankfully, they didn't notice me and Ed as we walked up to the door of Zach, another friend of mine, who had chosen to stay with his grandmother until he could afford a place. I knocked on the door and watched Zach open it, his grandmother on the couch sleeping.
"Hey Arthur. How's it going?"
"It's going well. You?"
"Well, to be fair, I'm just keeping my eyes on those sick bastards down near David's place."
"Hi Zach," Emerald blurted, earning a small wave as we continued to discuss.
"Is there any chance you won't be holding the fort here and would prefer to stay at my place? A neighborhood like this could end up being really active tonight."
"I think we'll be good here Arthur. My dad's coming tonight and we'll be holding the fort here."
"Well, just stay safe."
"It's not us you should be worried about Arthur. People like you and Emerald are especially hated around this time of year."
"I know…you have a good night Zach."
"I won't," he replied as we walked towards David's house, dead center in the cul de sac, where the many perverse and demented people watched as me and Ed walked past. I then knocked on the door, leading to several loud barks from his family's dogs: Percy and Scout. He then opened the door and smiled that almost perverted smile of his. His face was very narrow in appearance, and his skin, while tanned, wasn't too tanned. His head of black hair looked pristine, and he, as usual, wore his shirt tucked into a pair of long black pants.
"Hey Arthur."
"Hey David. It's Purge Night…do you wanna stay with us at my place?"
"We got food, games, and security."
"Well…umm...if it's alright with my mom, I should be able to."
"Take your time," I stated, looking back to the purgers, whose demented, sometimes handcrafted masks stared back with vicious intent.
"Arthur…I don't like it here. We need to hurry and get home so we can forget all about this demented excuse for a holiday!" Emerald yelled at me using our psychic link.
"Just calm down Emerald. It's going to be fine. They can't do anything to us until the Purge actually begins. And it's…4:40." This seemed to calm Emerald a bit as we waited for David to return. Eventually, he did, and with a smile on his face.
"I can come, George can't. He's grounded for not being able to purge." I hissed a sigh and shook my head. How his brother could contently think about purging was beyond me. As we walked past the large group of purgers, they waved us goodbye as David jumped in.
"So. Who's up for Little Caesars'?"

After driving back to Windsor, with traffic being a nightmare, and getting pizza, we were about ready to defend ourselves as best as we could. People ready to purge — neighbors, teachers, bankers, people of many different backgrounds — were already out and about like it was Halloween, stopping by houses to check and see if they were guarded or secure. Perverse masks and costumes were seen, many even surpassing my expectations. This year, given it was already election year once more, saw Donald Trump running again for his second term in office, facing off against Bernie Sanders once more, and the purgers had taken to dressing in the attire and created masks that looked like the original Founding Fathers and many other famous presidents. When we had returned to my home, it was already 6:25. We spent the last hour doing final checks and watching TV as we prepared to lock down for the night. Emerald seemed especially nervous and had gone into the safe room beneath the stairs already. Ed had contented himself with looking at my collection of the mystical obsidian stones that I had collected, and David and I were playing some chess with the glass chess set I received from an old friend of mine from high school, and I would check DeviantART periodically to see who was deciding to Purge and who was going to stay in. As we were finishing our dinner of "crazy bread" and pizza, the news channels were already preparing their final messages before the Purge would start at 7.
"In further news, Donald Trump has decided to purge as well, claiming that to do so would be, as he says, 'f #king stupid.' We can only hope that he remains safe and sound tonight, as this year, for the first time, no one has special immunity from the Purge. For those of you staying inside tonight, please stay safe, and remember to keep protection, just in case. Remember that even your neighbors could turn on you; and for those who plan to release the beast tonight, remember to stay safe." It was then that a 20 second countdown began as the end of the National Anthem began to play, giving me the signal to start shutting down the barricades on doors and windows. We were all now in front of the TV as we prepared for the emergency broadcast. As the timer reached zero, the familiar beeping tone of the emergency broadcast system was put into play, but instead of the all-too-familiar male voice and normal white noise of a typical emergency broadcast, this one presented itself on the American seal in blue.
"This is not a test. This is your emergency broadcast system announcing the commencement of the Annual Purge, Sanctioned by the U.S. Government. Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for 12 continuous hours. Weapons of class 4 or lower have been authorized for use during the Purge. All other weapons are restricted. Police, fire, and emergency medical services will be unavailable until tomorrow morning at 7 A.M. And, for the first time since its inception, no one has been granted special immunity from the Purge. No citizen or group will be exempt. Blessed be our new Founding Fathers, and America, a nation reborn. May God be with you all." As soon as the description of this year's Purge ended, the long, droning siren began. It was a siren that would give you chills up your spine and through your head. It was chilling, unnerving, almost apocalyptic sounding, as the siren droned on for one long continuous minute. It had begun: 7 P.M.: the start of the Purge.