Part 2

Chapter 7: Tyler Schoditsch

"Keep! Another one." I yelled at the bartender. The man was old and deformed by what appeared to be a knife to the eye. He was old as the dust in the beer he was serving me and about as friendly as it too. Neither him, nor anyone else in this bar was going to get in my way of having it, though.

"Here ya go," The prune said with his raspy voice. After setting the beer down, he just waited there, looking at me. I wasn't looking at him though; I was looking at the beer. Before long however, the prick cleared his voice, as to get my attention. No matter, I threw the caps on the floor.

"That enough?" I spat.

"Yeah," The old man snarled, rolling up his sleeves. "Just enough for an ass-whooping."

I looked him dead in the eye and said, "Sorry."

Without hesitation or getting out of my seat, I punched him in the dick. With the momentum of his body coming down, I slammed his head into the table and knocked him unconscious.

The room looked over for a second only to break eye contact and resume their doings. No one wanted unneeded trouble, especially for some old shit. I didn't want much trouble either, but sometimes people just get in my way.

Despite being in my favorite place, a bar, and sipping on my favorite drink, a beer, I still couldn't help but think about what transpired earlier.

19 hours earlier

"Because, I told them to."

Guardian just stared at me, completely and without a doubt, caught off guard.

He tilted his head and said, "What do you mean you told them to?"

"You see, at some point between you killing the mercs and me waking up in your… house, I died," I said, Guardian's face twisting into bewilderment.

"You see," I reached up into my mouth, while still holding my gun steady and firm, and pulled out the chip, "this little bitch right here goes off in the event I die. Something must have went wrong when you tried to fix me so this is how they found, us."

Guardian tried to sneak a little closer and I yelled, "Get the fuck back!"

"Ok, ok." Guardian said, holding up his hands. "If you didn't mean to call them, then why are you still pointing the gun at me?"

My mind locked as I tried to come up with an answer. "Why, I am doing this, is because, just because they don't want me anymore don't mean someone else doesn't."

"I don't understand."

"Holy shit, you're stupid. If I kill you, I can sell it to someone else who wants you dead and then become a mercenary again."

Guardian stood there for a moment, unable to answer, most likely contemplating what to say. Then, without reason, a smile came upon his face.

"I didn't know you were that dumb."

"Shut the fuck up!" I yelled back at him, forcefully pushing my gun against his temple. "Who's the one with the gun here? I should kill you right now, calling me dumb. End you and your fucking crusade."

"I'm sorry. If I had known you were a menstrual, I wouldn't have saved you in the first place."

"Shut, the, fuck, up, now!" I yelled at him, almost losing my temper. "If you don't stop talking right now-"

"What, you'll kill me?" He laughed.

I paused, the gun's barrel now making a mark in the skin of Guardian's temple.

"Go ahead, do it. If you were going to you would have done it by now."

He looks me straight in the eye, his pupils only barely visible behind his shaded goggles. Almost to call my bluff entirely, if it was in fact a bluff. Regardless, it was now just me and him, him and me, while I pointed my gun at his face. Neither of us willing to do anything.

Two minutes passed by before I dropped my arm and took a step back.

"You have some major balls saying that." I finally said. "I like that."

"So, you like balls?" He makes in a funny tone. I point my gun back at him. He holds his hands back up. "Sorry, just joking. That's what I do."

I put my gun back down as he continued. "What I meant, to say was, we both have a reason to take down the slavers. I want them gone from the Wastes, and you want revenge. If we team up… it will work. We will kill the Prince. So…"

He extended a hand. "Team-up?"

I stared at it, and within seconds raise mine to shake.

"Truce, until the Prince is dead." I pull him close. "But once he's dead… Fuck off."

"Awesome!" He said before he walked around me and grabbed his stuff off the ground. "If you don't mind it, could you please put away that pistol?"

With my gun in hand, I looked and stared at him. Was this what I was going to do now? Join a Free-man and launch a suicide mission against my former boss? I sighed, pointed my gun at him, and fired.

"What was that!" Guardian yelled hysterically.

"I'm in. And don't worry, I always fire danger close, but I never hit the decoy." I could see he didn't like me almost hitting him in the shoulder. But I don't care, tit-for-a-tat.

"Alright then? Were good? I don't have to worry about you shooting me in the back anymore?" Guardian asked.

I looked down and shook my head; I'm teaming up with the guy I was supposed to kill only a few days ago. The guy that is everything I hate and otherwise despise.

"Yep, I'm yours." I said sarcastically.

"Good, then we need to go; the slavers probably heard that gunshot." After that was said, he put his pack on and said to follow. Before the marching was to commence I had to ask two things.

"Where are we going?"

"Ruf. It's a small trading village just a few miles from here. It has what we will need: supplies, weapons, and people."

"People?"

"Yes, people. We will need more than just the two of us if we even hope to get through the slaver front door."

"Yeah, I know," I said in rebuttal, "but I figured we would go somewhere… bigger."

"Don't need to, Ruf has everything." Guardian said definitively. By now we were marching and I had only one more question.

"What's your name?"

Present

By the time I was finished with my beer, the bartender had gotten up from his nap and to my surprise just walked away. Smart. He knew not to fuck with me anymore. Also by around that same time, Guardian had finally walked in. I waved him over and he sat down.

"So?" I asked.

"He'll be in here any moment now."

Any moment, more like a half-an-hour. Never-the-less, when he walked in I knew why we wanted him. Six-foot four-inch power armor wielding paladin. The stuff of legend from the old stories of the Brother of Armor or Iron or something and their high-tech weapons capable of disintegrating whole people. That was our prize and we were going to get it.

Maybe Guardian wasn't so useless after all. Maybe.