Chapter 14: 15 days after arriving in Little Garden

Krieg was feeling pretty damn pleased with himself. He knew from his initial visit that Little Garden had a relatively small population, and he also knew that three of its members were currently handcuffed back at his camp. If he was lucky, then one more would still be down from a gunshot wound. He also knew the only major form of protection they had was a wall with a single gate that could easily be bypassed with enough physical might. That is why he was sitting in the passenger seat of a military jeep with an RV containing six of his men following close behind. It was a clear day, with only a few biters futily grabbing at the speeding cars as they drove down the highway, en route to Little Garden.

Krieg had his feet on the dashboard, leaning back in his seat and basking in assured victory. "Now, I hope you two realize the importance of today! Because tonight, we are all going to sleep nice and cozy in our own beds, with an actual roof over our heads! Now I know we have had a hell of a time, but we are finally going to get our due." He elbowed the driver of the jeep. "Vergo, Vergo,what are you most lookin' forward to?"

"Looking forward to?" Vergo asked, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Yeah! Y'know, about havin' a place all to yourself!" Krieg nudged him again.

Vergo was silent for a good long while. "... Wait, what?"

"Aw forget it! Monet! What about you!" he called up to her. She was standing at the minigun, wind blowing her hair in her face.

"I'm looking forward to a real bathroom," she said.

Krieg burst into laughter. "It's the simple things, ain't it!?" His tone changed when they turned onto the subdivision Little Garden was located in. "Alright, it's showtime. Let's make this good…"

Meanwhile, back home, Law and Perona were on guard duty. They watched from the balcony as a military jeep and an RV turned onto the street leading straight to the outpost and they both immediately ducked down. They peeked their heads up just enough to see as the woman riding the minigun took aim in their general direction.

"Oh that's not good," Perona squeaked. Law grabbed her by the back of her shirt and threw her to the side, pulling both of them down flat on the balcony floor. It wouldn't have done them any good if Monet were actually aiming for them. They were lucky she hadn't actually seen them. Instead she opened fire on the gate itself, pumping round after round into the thick steel, eventually starting to tear through it.

Obviously, the other seven in the outpost heard the sound of bullets colliding with metal and they gathered around their respective houses' windows to see what the hell was going on. Franky and Robin were in Franky's house, looking through the window in his bedroom. Nami was with Vivi and Coby at their place, and they had gathered around the front window, backs to the wall, peering as much as possible through the glass. Finally, Zoro and Bonney were watching through the window of an office on the second floor of their house.

They were there just in time to see an RV ram its way through the damaged gate like a battering ram, screeching to a stop as the metal slab that once kept the zombies out clattered to the ground. When it came to a complete stop, the six men inside piled out, all of them armed with assault rifles. The jeep followed after it, pulling up to the RV's left, and Krieg stood up. Monet handed him a megaphone, which he held up to his face. Pressing the button sent a wave of feedback that made everyone cringe. When that died down, he spoke into it. "I am so sorry for the abrupt entrance, but I wanted to illustrate how serious of a matter this is! Now if y'all could just step outside of your homes and surrender nice and cleanlike, that'd be great!"

There was no immediate response. It was dead silent. Perona and Law were still laying on the balcony above them, sincerely hoping beyond all hope that no one in the group decided to look behind them. The duo were practically clinging to each other, afraid of any sound they could make.

Krieg brought the megaphone back to his face. "Now come on, let's not make this here situation any more difficult than it needs t'be! If y'all could just come out with your hands up! Do I need to explain it? We got your friends, y'know! Reckon it'd be real smart a' you to cooperate, if'n you ever want a chance to see them again!"

There was still no reaction, prompting Krieg to lean back to Monet and whisper to her. "Alright, well, I am stumped here. What do you reckon is goin' on?"

Monet shrugged. "Maybe they packed up and left? Or they all died or something. These guys seem like the type to get all pissed off if their friends get threatened."

Inside Coby and Vivi's house, Nami muttered "Boy am I glad Luffy's not here to get pissed off because his friends were threatened…"

"Well, now I don't think… That… Hm…" His eyes widened in consideration. "I s'pose it's possible. Hey! Higuma!"

A tall, lanky guy covered in bandages looked over to Krieg. "Yeah, Boss!"

"Go take a look at that there house!" Krieg said, pointing to Zoro and Bonney's place.

Now at this point, a lot of things started happening pretty much all around the same time. I'm going to do my best to cover it all, so bear with me as we jump back and forth through time. If you get lost, just reread it again until you understand it.

Higuma, eager to please, headed up to the house without any hesitation. "Well, they ain't shootin' him now, so maybe they are gone…" Krieg muttered. Higuma made it to the front door and tried the handle. It opened, to his surprise, and he waved to the rest of his party before stepping inside.

He snooped around the ground floor a little, peeking his head around corners, tiptoeing as silently as he could. An assault rifle wouldn't do him much good in close quarters like this, so he let it hang from the shoulder strap and pulled out a large, serrated knife instead. He was almost hoping to run into some poor schmuck. The ground floor seemed clear, so he made his way upstairs.

The first room he looked in on was the office, where he saw Zoro standing there with a big grin plastered on his face. His arms were crossed and Higuma looked at him like he was looking at a ghost. "Hey," Zoro said.

Higuma stared, wide-eyed.

"I remember you. You're the guy who shot me."

Higuma snapped out of it enough to move his body. He charged forward, knife out, ready to finish what he started a few days ago. Zoro was just a little faster, able to draw one of his swords in time to block Higuma's charge. He still wore that manic grin as they struggled against each other. Zoro managed to push Higuma away, sending him stumbling back. He quickly regained his balance and took more panicked swipes with his knife. Zoro was a trained swordsman, but there really was nothing worse than fighting someone who was panicking and not thinking clearly.

Higuma swung wide, arm outstretched enough that he nearly threw himself off balance with every swipe. Zoro nimbly dodged around the office, circling him and more or less mocking him. The room wasn't very big, there wasn't a lot of room to maneuver, but he made the most of it. Higuma came close several times, a long vertical slash downward nearly took off Zoro's ear. "Whoa! Haha! You're gonna have to do better than that!"

Higuma did, eventually. He thrust out and managed to catch Zoro in the eye, leaving a nice, long vertical gash from his cheek to his eyebrow. Fortunately for Zoro, it was the eye that had already been scarred over. "Oh you dumbass. Wrong eye." Zoro raised his arm back as Higuma let out one final squeak of protest.

And then Higuma was no more.

So a few minutes before that, back when Higuma was just starting to walk into the house, Robin was watching it from the window, cursing under her breath. "This is going to end poorly… How armed are we in here?"

Franky scratched his chin. "I got my revolver and a shotgun that I still haven't welded back to the Frankystein. Hey! Think we could climb in that and just run 'em all down? Like a bowling ball!"

"... No. I don't think that will work at all."

"Eh, worth a shot… What about you? Are you armed?"

Robin bit her thumbnail. "I have a hunting rifle. I was supposed to go on patrol in an hour…"

"Alright, well… Situation does sound super dire… But, y'know! Could be worse!"

Robin said, with as flat a tone as possible, "Your optimism is astounding…"

Nami, Coby, and Vivi weren't faring much better. Equally hesitant to reveal themselves and face the wrath of ten- well, nine- assault rifles, they were pinned to the walls next to the main front window. Their backs were magnetized like cover-based-shooter protagonists, tilting their heads just barely enough to see Higuma disappear into Zoro and Bonney's house.

"Okay… Okay well, one of them is about to die," Nami said. "That's a start at least. As long as Zoro and Bonney don't do anything stupid, we should be able to come up with a strategy."

Coby made a choking noise. Nami didn't even look away from the window. "Yeah, realized it as soon as I said it."

All three parties, Franky and Robin, Nami, Vivi, and Coby, and Krieg's group, were able to see perfectly when Higuma's headless body was suddenly flung out the front door, onto the front porch.

Inside the house, Zoro was cackling, dusting his hands off. "Oh man, that is really gonna piss them off!"

"AND GET US ALL KILLED!" Bonney shrieked. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!"

Still bleeding from his eye, he turned around to give her a manic grin. "This is gonna be fun."

And that's when the bullets started tearing through their front door. Zoro and Bonney both hit the ground as fast as possible. "GREAT! GREAT, YOU MOTHERFUCKER! THIS IS ALL YOUR GODDAMN FAULT!"

The gunshots sounded like they were getting closer, like whoever was shooting was moving up. Then, just as abruptly as they started, they came to a halt, and the duo could hear someone screaming in agony. Zoro and Bonney both looked at each other, decided to not even question it, and sprang back up to their feet. Zoro made a move for the door and Bonney grabbed the back of his shirt. "Where the hell are you going?! We need to go out through the back!"

"Why the hell would I want to go out through the back? The bad guys are out front."

A few minutes earlier, Krieg and his men were watching Higuma's body being dumped unceremoniously onto a front porch. He stammered in disbelief, which quickly melted away into rage. "ABSALOM! MORGAN! SHOOT THAT FUCKIN' HOUSE UP!"

Two more of Krieg's men broke away from the group, opening full-auto fire onto the door. The bullets pinged off the brick wall surrounding the door, but the weaker wood gave way and it was quickly peppered with holes.

Absalom took the lead, just a few yards away from the driveway, when a bullet penetrated his hip and forced him down to the ground, howling in pain. Morgan stood frozen for a second, then scanned the area for any sign of a shooter. He quickly realized standing out in the open when you don't know where a shooter is, is a bad idea and scrambled back to the relative safety of the RV, joining the rest of his crew in hiding behind the RV's right. The shot even got Krieg, Monet, and Vergo to scramble out of the jeep and take cover as well, leaving Absalom to writhe and scream in the middle of the street.

The shot came from Franky's bedroom window. A few minutes earlier, before Higuma was tossed outside, Robin was looking down the scope of her hunting rifle and agonizing over whether or not to take a shot. "It's a hunting rifle. I only have one shot, so whoever I don't hit is going to open fire on us."

"Sittin' here isn't solving our issues either, though…" Franky countered.

"Yes, well- Wait, what's going...?" she said. She watched Higuma's body flop all over the place. "Oh dear." She and Franky watched Krieg yell something and then two guys opened fire on the house.

"Okay, well, now or never, Robin!"

"I know! I know!" She gritted her teeth, looked through the scope and targeted the one who looked the most vulnerable to gunfire, and pulled the trigger. She downed him in an instant, but didn't quite kill him. The other guy looked around and then ran behind the RV for cover before she could even have a chance to line up another shot. For a while, everything was quiet…

It was time to take advantage of that. Law and Perona scrambled back to their feet, staying crouched down and scurrying across the balcony. Right now, they couldn't see any of Krieg's men, save for the guy bleeding and screaming in the road, which meant they couldn't be seen either. Their goal was to get to the safety of Franky's backyard, which seemed rock solid until they saw Morgan's head peek out from behind the RV, point at the second floor window, and scream "SHOT CAME FROM THERE!"

Law and Perona froze. With the way everyone was positioned, Morgan had to turn his head just sliiiightly to his left and they would be right within eyesight. He didn't, fortunately, and instead he and another one of Krieg's goons only popped out of cover far enough to open fire on the window. Which also wasn't very good, but since it was happening to someone else, Law and Perona found it a better alternative.

Meanwhile, Nami, Vivi, and Coby were taking advantage of that earlier silence to sneak out the back door. "You know what we need? We need that grenade launcher…" Nami said, peeking around the corner of the house and looking out into the street. Right now, they still had the RV between them and Krieg's gang. However, the grenade launcher was in the storage house, which meant if they were going to cross through everyone's backyards to get there, eventually they would be exposed running from one house to the next.

They decided to go for it, crossing the exposed area between houses and hiding behind the corner of Law and Perona's house. Passing over to Zoro and Bonney's place would put them in full view of everyone, but Krieg's men seemed somewhat distracted with the shootout against Robin and Franky.

They almost made it. Coby and Vivi crossed with no problem, but when it was Nami's turn, one of Krieg's men noticed her, turned around, and opened fire. She dodged nearly all of them, but ended up taking one in her right leg, just before managing to get behind cover. She fell to the ground and clutched at the new wound, cursing like a sailor who had just been shot. "FUCK-! GOD- DAMMIT AGH!"

"Oh man, Nami! Are you okay?!" Coby asked, prompting both Nami and Vivi to glare at him. "R-Right, dumb question. Uh, is that guy still…" Coby scurried back to the corner and peered out onto the street. The shooter was still focused on them, and he was about to come after them when a hail of gunfire rained from the front door.

"AHAHAHA! I GOT YOUR OWN GUY'S GUN, FUCKERS!" Zoro screamed. He wasn't entirely stupid, just bloodthirsty and thrill-seeking. He was charging from the doorway, spraying bullets Rambo style into the group of thugs huddled next to the RV. Unfortunately, Zoro was a swordsman first and a gunner second. He managed to keep the thug who shot Nami from pursuing, but most of the others scattered to safety behind the back of the RV. Meaning, when Zoro's gun started clicking, he had barely managed to hit anyone.

"HAH! PATHETIC!" one of Krieg's men shouted. In response, Zoro threw the empty assault rifle at him, with enough power behind it to knock him down. Then he had to quickly backpedal toward his house, to avoid getting shot to death out in the open. He scrambled through the door and slammed it shut just in time, and then felt the whole world shift.

"Whoo. Haha, maybe I should sit down," he said as the bloodloss made his vision blur.

No longer being shot at, the goon who shot Nami was free to finish the job. He sprinted around the corner, where Coby and Vivi were trying to carry Nami up the back porch. When they heard the gun cock, they all whirled around and immediately toppled backwards. He brought the rifle up to blow them away, to which Vivi threw up her hand and yelled "STOP!"

To everyone's surprise, the thug's included, he didn't immediately turn them into corpses. He just stared down at Vivi, not sure what to do. Vivi, not expecting to get this far, fumbled to come up with something to say. "Y-you don't have to do this, you know! You don't have to kill us, you can-"

"Vivi, what are you doing…?" Coby whispered.

"Sssshhh, honey…" she turned back to the man with a gun pointed at her. "You can totally just… walk away! I know the world is… kind of messed up, with survival of the fittest and all, but… But you don't have to be this way! It's not too late! I know you've… You've probably done some bad things, but right now. Today! You can make a change!"

He paused and the gun lowered. He seemed genuinely shocked, and for a moment, Vivi felt relief. Then he shook his head. "Nah, this is easier."

The three of them flinched, eyes screwing shut and there was a gunshot. Their eyes opened slowly and they could see the thug, sans part of his skull, crumple to the ground and bleed out onto the grass. They turned their heads to see Bonney standing in the doorway on the porch, pistol aimed at where the guy used to be.

"Hey, I literally just fuckin' got out here. That was the right thing to do, right?" She asked.

Nami tried to sit up more, groaning in pain. "Yeah- Yeah, that's fine, look, can we just get me inside!? Where the FUCK is Law?!" Coby and Bonney helped her up, and she looked over to Vivi. "Hey, nice save. If you didn't stall him, we'd probably all be dead."

Vivi blinked, shivering a little. She didn't turn to face Nami. "N-... No problem. Hey, I'm gonna go throw up okay?" She stumbled inside in a daze and walked past Zoro on the way to the bathroom.

So how were Law and Perona doing anyway? Well, they were pounding on the doorwall to Franky and Sanji's house since it was locked and they weren't going to try and walk in through the front door. Especially with all that gunfire going on out front.

However, when the gunfire started dying down, that just made them even more nervous. Robin and Franky were fast running out of bullets, whereas Krieg's men had brought an entire RV filled with ammo. Eventually the shots stopped coming from the bedroom window and Krieg knew why immediately. "Well! They ain't shootin' no more! I reckon their last stand is at an end!" He pointed to Vergo and Monet. "C'mon, let's get in there and take what's ours!"

Vergo nodded. "Right. But we should be careful. I think there's a sniper up there in that window…"

Krieg stood there for a good ten seconds before putting his hand on Vergo's shoulder. "Good eye, son. Good eye."

The three of them rounded the corner of the RV, exposing themselves. Granted, Monet and Vergo went first, just in case, but nothing came at them. Krieg clapped and shouted as loud as he could. "GOOD EFFORT! GOOD EFFORT, Y'ALL! YOU GOT A FEW OF MY MEN THERE, BUT, WELL, TO THE VICTOR GOES THE SPOILS! I AM GOING TO ENJOY KILLIN' ALL Y'ALL!"

They approached the front door and knocked on it. "NOW, Y'ALL WANNA COME OUT AND DIE LIKE GENTLEMEN? NO?"

So they walked around the back instead, and looked upon Law and Perona trying desperately to get inside. Both groups made eye contact and there was a horrible, awkward silence between them. Law eventually broke it, both hands still trying to pull the door open, with a "Hey. What's good?"

Three rifles went up at them and Krieg chuckled. "Looks like you two are first… All I gotta do is-"

That's when his walkie-talkie suddenly chirped to life. "Uh… Hey, Boss? You got a sec?"

Rolling his eyes dramatically, Krieg reached into his back pocket and pulled it out. "Gin! Now I am in the middle of some business here, so you had better have a DAMN good reason for interruptin' me! Now what can I do for you?"

"Hey, shitdick!" That wasn't Gin's voice. That was Sanji's. And boy did he sound chipper. "How's it going? Remember me?"