"Let's rock and roll, Bros" Hurk said, looking at his friend and cousin.
"Sweet let's roll!" Sharky cried as he jumped of the boat and onto the ground on uneasy legs for a few seconds before finding his land legs.
"Hurk, you ok to move?" Rook asked, looking at his friend before flicking back to the river to see the approaching gunships, if they had not beached the boat so far into land and into the treeline then they would be fired upon.
"Yeah dude, let's get outta here" he said before also disembarking the boat, stumbling slightly when he hit the ground, the shovel launcher throwing off his balance.
Rook swiftly followed Hurk off the boat and the three men jogged in land, deeper into the treeline.
"Yo, amigos follow me I know where to go" Sharky called out.
"Hey what's the plan, where are we going?" Rook asked.
"We head up there" Sharky replied. pointing forward, ahead of them thirty or so feet was the base of a hill that gradually stretched up to ground level.
"My trailer park is up there in that direction" Sharky said.
You sure, Shark?" Hurk wheezed running out of stamina.
"Isn't it lik' ov'r there" he wheezed pointing up to the left.
"What no dude, it's up there" Sharky responded pointing up to the right.
The two bickered for a few seconds on the location of the trailer park then as the three men reached the bottom of the hill suddenly a chunk of tree near the Junior Deputy exploded, causing the three men to duck down instinctively, heavy machine gun fire filled the air, bullets slamming into the surrounding trees, the heavy guns cutting down the skinnier trees and blowing chunks out of the bigger ones. The peggies had finally caught up to them and open fired on the forest.
"Aw shit they found us!" Hurk yelled, as he moved as fast as he could in a crouched position with the heavy-duty weapon on his person.
"Guys come on, almost there!" Rook cried, gesturing towards up the hill, trying to shepherd them up the hill.
Hurk made some grunt of affirmation then sucked in some air before doing his best to move forward up the hill
"Time to make like a tree and leaf boys" Sharky cried nervously as he also trudged up the hill.
The machine guns rattled on, firing into the woods, angry shouting from the peggies could barely be heard as it was masked under the gunfire. The sounds of trees splintering, and cracking got further and further away as the men got further and further up the hill, Rook could hear his friends mutter curses and other phrases as they trudged up the hill, after what felt like forever they made it to the top.
"Oh, thank god" Sharky huffed as the three men made it to the top of the hill.
"Oh man, I think we made it!" Hurk huffed as he looked over his free shoulder to look down the hill, the machine gun fire ceased but the angry yelling didn't, they could hear the peggies yelling from down below, and by the sounds of things they might be working their way up the hill.
"Let's make sure they don't follow us and keep going" Rook suggested, while wiping the sweat from his brow.
"Shit Bro, can't we take a lil break first?" Hurk breathed, taking the launcher off his shoulder and buried its head into the ground and leaned against it to catch his breath.
"Nu'uh amigo, we gotta keep going, if they catch up I got no gun and you got one shot, we can't let Dep do all the work" Sharky retorted.
"But he's a badass, he can get 'em no probs" Hurk said.
"You know Hurk, if you keep soldiering on, you'll earn some badass points" Rook said, trying to motivate his friend into moving forward.
"Aw sheit, you got me alright let's go" he said, picking up the launcher again before moving forward.
"Onward and upward and all that" Sharky said as he followed his cousin, satisfied with his work Rook also moved forward to catch up with his friends and worked their way deeper into the woods.
The three men ventured for a time, moving forward trying to find a road or any signs to get their bearings, to kill time until then Hurk and Sharky bantered with one another, telling jokes and dumb stories, Rook would have joined in but was to anxious from the gunships and was nervous that they would run into something unfriendly.
"You know I keep finding myself in this exact scenario more and more in the past few days, and I'm getting sick of it" Rook muttered to himself, to take his mind off the walk he tuned back into the conversation his two friends were having.
"So anyways, I tells her I may not be rich like my auntie or world renown like my cousin but I got th' biggest piss bottle collection you could imagine, takes up a whole closet, I'm like contributing to the community, Y'know, helping drug addicts pass drug tests" Sharky explaining the finale of his story.
"But for some reason she didn't really think that was cool or something because she just walked away at that point, and I was like come on lady" he pouted.
"Yeah that's how woman are dude, they are a bizarre yet tantalizing creatures" Hurk replied.
"Do I dare ask what your talking about?" Rook asked, jumping into the conversation.
"Na'ah, you ain't missin' much" Hurk said.
"So how much further do you think we are to like, anything?" Sharky asked.
"I don't know, a lot of this county is forest, so who knows" Rook surmised, he brought his hand up to his brow to block the sunlight from his eyes to get a better look of their surroundings, unsurprisingly it was just more of the same, grass, trees, and shrubs and an occasional hill.
"Man, I shoulda brought some water or something" Hurk moaned.
"Hey, tell you want, let's get up there and see what we can see?" Rook offered pointing to the small ten-foot hill thirty feet in front of them.
"Yeah sure dude" Hurk said before the three men moved towards the hill and climbed up it.
From the top of the hill they could see what one would usually see in a forest, but what really stood out to the three men was a single piece of land one hundred feet away, two white panel houses, the first building was quite large and had a very simple pointed roof, on one side of the building had two white pergolas attached to it just like the Jessop Conservatory, the pergolas was around fifteen feet and on the other end connected to another building, like the building before, this building was white paneled and had a pointed roof but the first building was large and box like, the second building was more squat and rectangular, a concrete pathway tracked through the pergola and stretched across into the other side of the estate ground. Many waist high cobblestone walls were intermittently spread along the estate, sectioning off pathways. Several small patches of bliss grew potted plants of and small trees were scattered along the estate grounds to make the feel more welcoming, but what was so not so welcoming was that peggies meandered around the estate, many peggies with AR patrolled the area while others made various repairs to the place, re-shingling the roof, washing the buildings windows, trimming bushes and tending to the potted plants, the place was void of any graffiti or anything thing to signify that the peggies had taken the place.
"Told you we were going the wrong way" Hurk pouted.
"Shit dude, you got me there, scratch one off ol' sharky's scorecard" Sharky replied.
"Well let's get out of here dudes, today was a bust" he said before got up to walk away with Hurk slowly rising to leave as well.
"now hold on a minute guys" Rook said quickly, trying to keep the two men from leaving.
"What' up?" Sharky asked, looking back down at the Junior Deputy.
"Look at the peggies" Rook said, pointing back at the estate.
"Yeah I see 'em" Sharky said looking at the buildings.
"Look what their doing, they're taking care of the place, they're doing maintenance on the place, why would they do that, they usually don't care about the places they take over" Rook explained.
"I don't know maybe they just really like the place?" Hurk shrugged.
"But what if there doing it for a specific reason, what if something is in there?" Rook deducted.
"Well yeah maybe something great is in there, but it could be just a waste of time, y'know what isn't a waste, finding out how many cold ones we can knock" Hurk grinned.
"What no, I can't just abandon this, I need to find out, listen, you guys don't have to stick around for this, you two can totally go home if you want, but I wanna get to the bottom of this, but if you do wanna stick around then I would greatly appreciate the help" Rook said.
"Now just hold on a minute there, Dep" Sharky interjected.
"You think we're just gonna bail on a bro, then you thought wrong" Sharky grinned as we walked back over to Rook and crouched back down next to the man.
"Hell, yeah man, let's do this!" Hurk smirked, as he placed down the launcher to crouched down to the two men.
"So, what's the plan Bros?" he asked.
"OK so everyone got the plan?" Rook asked his friends.
"Yes sir" Sharky said, giving Rook a mock salute.
"You know it Bro" Hurk smirked.
"Alright let's move out then" Rook nodded, before he turned towards the estate with the two men in tow.
The three worked their way down the hill and towards the estate, crouched to avoid detection, as they approached the picket fence on the edge of the property, they could hear peggies giving orders to each other, but nothing stood out to the Junior Deputy as the orders where just generic construction orders. With their voice in close proximity, Rook withdrew his silenced pistol just in case they were spotted, in front of them was a small white picket fence stretched across the edge of the land beyond that was the long squat house and a small shed, past that, fifteen feet away was the first cobblestone wall. A concrete pathway cut through all the barriers and straight into the heart of the property.
The three men got right up to the picket fence and pressed themselves up against it, keeping low and out of site, they sat there motionless for a few seconds and listened for anything that would denote a peggie suspected something was up, once Rook decided it was safe, he poked his head up and looked around to take in his surroundings.
From what he could see no one was looking in their general directions the working peggies were too focused on their tasks to notice and the patrolling peggies patrol routes were stretched to thin, allowing the three men to sneak in.
"Alright gents, it's go time" Rook whispered once he decided it was safe to move.
Then the three men quickly hopped over the fence and quickly scurried towards the cobblestone wall.
"Oh shit, I'm getting my shuffle on" Sharky whispered excitedly.
"Shh" Rook shushed the pyromaniac as they made it safely to the cobblestone wall.
The three men dropped down lower to be completely hidden behind the wall, again, they waited a few seconds to listen for any hostile yelling and once they decided it was safe, Rook slowly lifted himself up to take a look at his surrounding, he could see a small set of concrete stares that led up to the pathway to the pergolas, a few peggies wandered about, applying a coat of white paint to the side of the large main building, pulling weeds from the ground and patrolling the area.
A single peggie with a shotgun stood by an open top well that sat in a far corner of the property, from what Rook could see, the peggie had they're back to them, female, and alone and looking down into the well.
"Hurk, up here" Rook whispered.
With that, Hurk slowly poked his head over the wall.
"See the lady by that well at eleven O'clock?" Rook asked.
"Yeah, I see her" Hurk responded.
He turned to Hurk who sat on his left and gave him a silent nod, causing Hurk to in turn give him a silent nod before placing the shovel launcher down then the two men scampered off down the length of the wall and went as far left as they could, with the, in place, Rook could follow through with the next step of his plan. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a rock he had collected just before they moved in a threw it in between the wall they hid behind and where the peggie with the shotgun stood.
The impact the rock made with the concrete walkway with a dull clack, it was more then enough to get the woman's attention, she turned to investigate, taking a few steps forward then stopped and stared, trying to figure out what had happened, after a few moments the woman deduced the sound was just her imagination and began to return to her post but stopped as she heard some sort of whistling sound, it wasn't a bird or animal, whatever it was, it wasn't normal. She turned back again to try to focus in on the sound, after a few seconds of listening, she deduced it was coming from the other side of the cobblestone wall.
Hurk, who sat crouched behind the wall, with Rook behind him, was making some sort of whistling noise, drawing the woman closer, once the woman's footsteps could be heard, Hurk stopped whistling and scampered back down the wall towards his cousin, but stopped after moving a few meters and Rook took his place at the end of the wall.
Just as the woman was about too reached the end of the cobblestone wall, Sharky, in one quick motion, stood up and threw a rock at the woman's general direction, the rock flew right by her and hit the ground behind her. The sound of the rock hitting the ground startled the woman, causing her to quickly spin around to see what had happened behind her, with that Rook jumped up and wrapped his arm around the peggies neck and pulled her down behind the wall, the movement caused the woman to drop her shotgun and bring her hands up to try to pry whatever strangled her off her throat, she scratched and clawed at the Junior Deputy's arm, all the while silently wheezing and choking before succumbing to the oxygen deprivation and blacked out, going limp in Rook's arms.
"Holy shit dude, you're like a super splinter cell agent" Hurk whispered excitedly.
"Keep your voice down" Rook advised his friend as he carefully readjusted his grip on the unconscious woman and slowly carried her back and placed her against the base of the wall so none of her friends would notice her from their side, while Rook did this, Hurk retrieved the dropped shotgun and followed the deputy back to Sharky and handed his cousin the firearm.
"Radical" Sharky smirked, taking the gun.
"OK ready for phase two?" Rook whispered.
Both men quietly agreed, Hurk carefully picked up his launcher and the three men slowly moved along the right side of the wall and towards the long squat house. Luckily a door was located right by the cobblestone wall, a very small pergola acted as an awning over the door, Rook signaled his friends to hang back and wait as he investigated, he slowly approached the door and wiggles the door knob, the knob wiggled freely, signalling that it was unlocked. Rook now turned the knob fully and slowly pushed open the door and peered in, the interior was rustic and cozy, the walls were lined with bunkbeds and small dressers, metal struts supported the roof, several rugs were scattered along the hardwood floor on the far side of the building was a door that clearly led to the outside, there was another door on the left most wall in between to bunkbeds.
Rook turned back to his friend, crouched at the wall, clutching their weapons to their torsos, they looked back at him with wide eyes and watching the Junior Deputy, awaiting orders. So, he raised a hand to wave them over, the two men wasted no time a quickly clearing the gap between them and the three entered the building.
With the three men now in the building Rook slowly closed the door behind them, causing Sharky and Hurk to breath sighs of relief.
"Oh, thank god we're in a chill out spot" Hurk breathed, standing up.
"Yeah man that was intense, I don't know how you do it Dep" Sharky said at normal volume, also standing up.
"Let's just keep a lid on things and still keep quiet" Rook said, speaking a little louder, but not at normal volume, also standing up.
"So, know what we do now?" Hurk asked at normal volume, not following the Junior Deputy's instructions.
"Now, we try to work our way over to that big house across the way and use it as a place to start our sneak attack" Rook surmised.
"But it's so big though an' there's only th' three of us" Sharky said.
"But if we get the big place then they'll think there's more of us right?" Hurk asked.
Rook was about to reply but was distracted by a small creaking noise softly emitted from the other side of the room, since no one had moved so it couldn't have been them, so Rook turned to face the source of the of the noise, but what he saw caused him to gasp.
"What's up dude?" Hurk asked looking at Rook then off to what he was looking at, causing him to gasp as well.
At the other end of the cabin, was a single peggie was staring at them, his eyes as wide as saucers, frozen in fear, he was a few feet away from a bunk bed with disheveled bed sheets and ten feet from the door on the far side of the room, the man must been sleeping in the bed and the men's banter had woken him up and once he realized what was happening must have tried to sneak out, but the creaky hardwood floor gave him away.
"Hey there, let's be calm" Rook said, clearly afraid of the whole thing going sideways.
Rook raising his hands up to show the peggie he was unarmed.
"Let's just talk-" began to say but was cut off as the man finally moved again, but to Rook dismay, the man bolted towards the door and slammed into it, causing the door to swing open, allowing the man to get outside and started screaming for help.
"So much for the silent approach!" Sharky cried in fear.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Rook said over Sharky and Hurk who were now starting to freak out.
"Hurk, keep your launcher on the door!" Rook ordered pointing at the open door the peggie had run out of.
"Uhh yeah Bro sure!" Hurk said, getting down on one knee and training it on the open door.
By now several angry yelling of peggies could be heard from outside
Rook ran up to a window and pressed his back against the wall directly left of the window and pulled the AK-47 of his back.
"Sharky, get over here" Rook ordered.
"You got it amigo" Sharky replied as he ran up to the window and pressed his back onto the wall on the immediate right of the window.
"Ok uhh, here's the plan, you smash the window with the shotgun and then I'll shot like crazy" Rook explained nervously.
"Alright dude, here goes nothin" Sharky said as he raised his shotgun up and brought the butt of the gun through the window, shattering it into a thousand tiny pieces, then immediately pulled back to allow the Junior Deputy to seamlessly take his place and begun firing sporadically, the sudden gunfire clearly spooked the peggies as several scared screams could be heard outside, but a little further off commanding yells that carried orders could be heard, the fear of harm or death must have bolstered a few braver peggies.
"OK gents, things might get a little rough!" Rook cried
Before anyone could respond a peggie jumped into the door frame, machete in hand, screaming as loud as he could.
The second a peggie stepped through the door, Hurk squeezed the trigger and fired the shovel, the shovel shot out of the launcher with the speed of a bullet and shot straight into the peggies chest, the man let out some guttural noise as he was knocked back. The act of the peggie getting knocked back by the shovel caused every other peggie who saw it yelp in confusion as to just what the sinners were capable of.
"Holy shit that's still awesome!" Hurk cheered.
Rook was about to tell Hurk to now get away from the door but was cut off as a hail of bullets rained in through the doorframe, causing Hurk to drop the launcher and diving to the left, towards his friends.
"Ho-ly shit they are pi-ssed!" Hurk yelled as he crawled towards his friends before rising to his feet again and threw himself against a wall.
"Sharky can you get the door?" Rook asked pointing at the open door.
"You got it boss" Sharky said as he ran to the side of the door and pressed himself against the doorframe and slowly poked his head out to get a better look at the opposition but had to quickly pull himself back in as another hail of bullets slammed into the to the other side of the frame.
"Ok Hurk we gotta get you a gun!" Rook said, sticking his gun out of the window and fired again.
"Fuck yeah man, load me up!" Hurk responded.
The sounds of a few shot gun blast filled the air as Sharky gave return fire.
"So how are we getting out of this?" Hurk asked nervously.
Then door they had entered the building through suddenly flew open, the door hit the wall with a loud bang, causing the three men to look take a quick look at the door.
There in the doorway stood two peggies, both carried SMG's and charged into the building, unfortunately since Sharky was at the other end of the room, he was in the peggies direct line of sight.
One of the men raised their SMG's to Sharky and pulled the trigger, firing a burst of bullets and slammed into Sharky causing him to fall over, slumping against the wall, coughing and sputtering before falling still.
"Holy shit Sharky!" Hurk and Rook cried over there fallen friend.
Rook needed to remove the peggies from the cabin, he had to get to Sharky and help him even though he was hit with a few bullets in the torso, he raised his AK to one peggie and fired, dropping him instantly, instead of letting go of the trigger and readjust his aim on the second man, he kept holding the trigger and turned the AK towards the second man, putting dozens and dozens of bullet holes into the wall behind the peggie and into the peggie himself as he had no way of protecting himself.
With both men gone, Rook ran to Sharky's side and dropped to his knees to tend to his friend.
"Holy shit, dude, can you hear me?" Rook asked quietly, placing two fingers on Sharky's neck, looking for a pulse.
"err, yeah man, I'm good, thank god for this vest huh?" Sharky groaned, animating again, as he limply raised a hand up to tap on his Kevlar vest.
"Vest.. right we're wearing vests" rook breathed, completely forgetting that they were wearing body armour.
With that Sharky slowly pushed himself to his feet, groaning all the while
"I'm goin'a be sore as hell but I'll live" he groaned as he picket up his shotgun
"Yo guys check me out!" they heard Hurk cry.
The two men looked over at Hurk to see standing over the two dead peggies, both of their SMG's in each of Hurk's hands.
"Let's kick some ass!" he cried confidently.
Now that the three peggies that tried to force their way into the cabin were dead, one via high velocity shovel, the remaining peggies were whipped into a frenzy, sinners had somehow infiltrated their base of operation and had begun taking lives, they needed to be stopped. But fortunately for them, the sinners had trapped themselves in the sleeping cabin, so long as they didn't leave, they were trapped like rats. So, to keep them in, the peggies gathered up all the guns they could and fired at the cabin, some fired in bursts sporadically to scare the sinners, other tried to get shots in through the smashed window and doors hoping to hit those inside.
"OK guys, so I really don't have a plan other just shoot" Rook said nervously over the gunfire.
"That's cool with me dude" Hurk said, joining Rook at the smashed window before leaning in to fire out the window.
But the two men had to retreat from the window within mere seconds of firing as several peggies from the outside fired back at them, shredding the white panel exterior of the house.
"Oh, sweet monkey gods it's a little crazy out there huh?" Hurk joked nervously
"Yeah no kidding, I feel like a fish in a barrel" Rook said, as he poked the barrel of his gun out the window in hopes of blind firing would be effective.
He could still hear some sort of yelling from outside, he wasn't sure if it was because he was effectively dealing with them or just annoying them.
"Hey, you think we're doing anything?" Hurk asked, also blind firing.
"I don't know you wanna take a peek?" Rook said, a part of him hoping Hurk wouldn't actually try.
"Yeah, hold on" Hurk said before looking in Sharky's general direction.
"Hey Shark, how's it looking out there!" he hollered.
"Like a Blink 182 concert!" Sharky hollered back as he reloaded before sticking the gun out the doorframe and firing once.
"What's that even mean?" Hurk asked, losing focus on the task at hand and stopped firing out the window.
Rook wanted to scold the man for forgetting their predicament, but stopped himself as he heard the sound of glass shattering, Rook turned his head to the source of the noise, from where he stood he could see that hundreds of tiny shards of glass littered the floor, he could only assume and adjacent window had been shattered, maybe the peggies planned to climb in, but before Rook could properly investigate, his eyes were drawn to a flickering on the floor. A brick lay on the ground, a long strip of fabric or cloth was wrapped around it, but what really made the brick dangerous was the ends of the strip of fabric was of fire, a peggie must have wrapped the brick and lit the ends of the strip ablaze to be used as a make shift molotov. The flames of the brick-tov licked at the edge of one of the several rugs that littered the floor, slowly setting it on fire.
"Oh shit!" rook exclaimed as he ran over to the growing fire and began repeatedly stomping on the flames.
"Dude, what are you doing?" Hurk asked, taking notice of Rook's actions and begun watching the Junior Deputy stomp of the dying fire.
"What's it look like?!" Rook yelled back as he just about extinguished the flames
"It' looks like your doing that thing that rabbits do" Hurk guessed.
"I'm saving our butts" Rook huffed as he examined the floor for any signs of embers or anything that would reignite a fire before deeming the fire dead and returned to Hurk by the window.
They needed to get out of the building, their molotov brick idea was actually quite smart, smart as it was deadly as molotovs and wooden houses are a scary combination, a few more of those and they place could actually be set ablaze, trapping the three inside, they needed to leave before it's to late.
"Ok dudes, we gotta get out of here now!" Rook cried.
"What about th' big house?!" Hurk cried.
"How would we get over there?" Rook asked, pulling back to reload his gun before firing again.
"There's a thing out there!" Hurk replied.
"You gotta be more descriptive" Rook asked.
Hurk began to make a few err's and umm's as he tried to look at something from the corner of the window, he was trying to formulate something.
"There's a big white thing out there" he finally said.
"It's big and wooden, and white, you could walk on it like a bridge if you got on top, and they're usually in hoity-toity people's gardens, hell if I know what it's called" Hurk try to explain.
Rook knew what he was trying to say, he also didn't know the name of the pergola he was describing.
"Well what about it" Rook asked.
"It's connected to the big place and I'm pretty sure it's connected to this place" Hurk explained as he pointed to the in between to bunkbeds.
"Hey uh, guys!" Sharky yelled from the door he fired from, he leaned away from the doorframe to reload before firing once more.
"Can we make a game plan sooner then later, thing's are getting pretty hot, and not the type I like!" Sharky yelled nervously.
"OK, give me a few seconds!" Rook yelled back to Sharky.
Rook carefully poked his head out the window to get a view of the outside but retreated quickly as peggies tried to shoot his exposed head. From what he saw in those few seconds was a few bodies littered the area, he wasn't sure just how many peggies there were in the first place, but they had to have made a dent in their numbers. Rook looked at the door in between the bunkbeds before looking back at Hurk, the plan he proposed could very well kill them, and that was even if it was possible, but he couldn't think of any other options, with no better ideas coming to minds, Rook reluctantly agreed.
"Alright guys, we're going to try to get to the big house, I think we can get there through that door there, it should give us a straight shot to it" Rook said pointing to the door between the bunkbeds.
"But like, what's the actual plan though?" Sharky asked
"OK, if it isn't a straight shot to the big house just fall back and I'll close the door, but if it is, I'll take lead, you guys follow me and provide cover on the sides ok?" Rook ordered.
"Ok sounds good dude" Sharky replied as he emptied his before moving to the aforementioned floor, reloading all the while.
"Alrighty Hurk you ready to go?" Rook asked.
"Let's do it!" he replied confidently.
"Then get a move on" Rook ordered as he poked his firearm out the window again and fired, trying to draw attention to the window.
He could hear the foot falls over the gunfire as Hurk left his side and went to the door
"Hey, come on Dep, get a move on" Rook heard Sharky yell.
He turned to look at both men where at the door, both cousins pressed up against other side of the door waiting for their friend.
"Coming!" he yelled before taking a quick look out the window again before turning to run for the door, running at it as fast as he could, then came to a stop, almost slamming into the door.
"Ok ready boys?" Rook asked, taking a step back from the door, holding his AK close to his body.
"As I'll ever be" Hurk muttered.
"Let's rock N' roll" Sharky said.
Both men quickly agreed to the plan, they were both clearly nervous and were ready to accept any plan.
Rook nodded then kicked open the door, the second the door swung open, Rook could see a three peggies, all bunched up, approaching the door, they were most likely planning to come through the door as well, and by the looks on their faces, they weren't expecting the sinners to come out this way. Rook raised his AK-47 and pulled the trigger, but before he could fire a shotgun and SMG flanked appeared on either side of him and fired, since the three were bunched up, they were quite easy to dispatch. Despite the path ahead now clear,
A hail of bullets rained down around them, if not for the pergola around them, they surely would have mowed down,
Fighting back would be suicide, their position was less then favorable, and enemies were all around them, with no cover available either, they had to run.
"Forget shooting and just run for the door!" Rook yelled.
Rook wasn't sure if his friend agreed with him or not over all the gunfire, bullets flew past the three men my mere inches, a few bullets slammed into the struts of the pergola, taking chunks out of the wood, Rook repeatedly as they made it closer to the door, the closer they got, the closer the bullets got.
Rook didn't know if the door was locked or not, but he didn't care, he just wanted to get the door open, he looped the AK's strap over his shoulder and as he reached the door, he threw himself at the door as hard as he could, throwing his shoulder into it, he felt the door shake in its frame for a few seconds before falling still, he swore under his breath as the door did not budge, before Rook could reach for the door knob or even pull himself off the door, Hurk also threw himself at the door as well, the larger man slamming into the door, landing right next to the Junior Deputy, causing the door to swing open, Hurk kept the momentum and kept charging forward, as Rook who was stationary and leaning on the door, stumbled forward and fell onto his hands and knees, cursing under his breath again, but this time in slight pain as the interior had a hardwood floor and stung his hands and knees upon impact. With death dealing peggies directly behind him he tried to move forward and stand up at the same time, causing him to falter again, he was about to stumble to the floor again but before he could hit the floor he could feel a hand grab his upper arm and pulled him up, stabilizing him.
"Come on dude, break time is later" Sharky said, standing on Rook's left, pulling the Junior Deputy back up.
"Thanks man" Rook muttered as Sharky released the man
Whatever Sharky said next was lost out as machinegun fire picked up again, bullets collided with the doorframe behind them, some bullets even flew past them and slammed into the environment around them, bullets flying dangerously close to the two men, as Rook stood up, he pushed Sharky away, trying to protect him from the stream of bullets behind him, causing the pyromaniac to stumble backwards and land on his butt.
Rook moved as fast as he could, turning around while reaching for the pistol on his leg to address the advancing peggies behind him, he turned in time to see two peggies were now in front of him, they were practically in the doorframe, one wielded a shotgun while the other had a SMG raised at the deputy, but before Rook could even raise his pistol, the peggie squeezed the trigger and the next thing Rook knew he felt three sharp pains in his chest. He knew exactly what it was, three bullets slam into his Kevlar vest, the bullets sent bolts of pain through his body, causing him to choke on the breath in his throat, a part of him locked up in fear, sure he was wearing a vest and it protected him, but it still terrified him.
He was shot three times.
Somehow the peggies were able to get the jump on him and line up a few shots on him and almost killed him, this was the first time a peggie actually shot him, thankfully they got body shots and didn't aim for a limb or head, but that was besides the point, he could have died right then and there. Then a loud bang rang out from Rook's right and the man with the SMG's chest just about exploded, a large, deep bloody hole appeared in his chest then fell back. Rook could only assume Sharky had shot him. The peggie with the shotgun seemed quite surprised about his friend falling back then his surprisal turned to anger as he raised his shotgun to Sharky but before he could fire, Sharky was quicker on the draw and squeezed the trigger and filled the man's chest full of buckshot knocking him back as well.
"Shit dude you good?" Sharky cried as he quickly stood up.
"What, uh yeah I'm, uh ok" Rook stammered trying to move past the near-death experience and to re-focus on the task at hand.
He watched Sharky run towards the open door and slammed the door shut as hard as he could, but since Hurk had broken open the door, it was impossible to properly shut it, so with the door closed, he looked left and right of the door for something to help him before settling on a large bookshelf a few feet to his right, he ran to it and pushed on the side of it, pushing it to the left, he really put his back into it until the bookshelf slowly began to upturn and fall to its side, several books and other nick-knacks flew out as the shelf fell sideways, then began pushing it as hard as he could from the bottom of shelf in an a attempt to use it to barricade the door, but struggled as it was to heavy.
"Dude a lil help!" Sharky cried, looking up at Rook.
"Uhhh, yeah you got it" Rook stammered before helping Sharky push the bookshelf in front of the door, loud scraping noise filled the room as the bookshelf scraped along the hardwood floor.
As the bookshelf completely blocked the door, loud banging and angry yelling could be heard from the other side, the door wiggled in the frame as the bookshelf blocked it from opening.
"I think that'll do it" Sharky said, backing away from the door, watching it.
"Shit dudes is it Sunday because its lookin' like we're in church" the two men heard Hurk say from deeper within the building.
Both men turned to see Hurk just standing there, looking around the room.
"Hey man, don't just stand there, you should make sure there's no one else is in here" Rook said nervously.
"Yeah you got it Broski" Hurk said as he walked father into the large room in front of them.
The Junior Deputy and the pyromaniac followed Hurk into the large room and looked around the building, from the side door they entered from, the room opened up into one big main room, from how it looked, the building was predominantly just one big room with a few small rooms off on the sides, to their immediate right was a few rows of pews and folding chairs, they all faced the same direction, they all pointed to a stage with a single podium in the middle and on the far side of the room, all the lights were off but the room was not dark as the far wall with the stage had a large window installed in it and sunlight soaked through, illuminating the room, to their right a small doorless doorframe that led into a small lobby and what looked like the front doors, the building looked like it was once used as a church.
"Rook's mental compartmentalization of the building was interrupted as the sounds of door being kicked open could be heard, he turned his head back to the front lobby to his right, there he could see three peggies coming in through the front double doors and charging forward. Rook wasted no time and raised his AK-47 and fired, dropping two of the men before the third man juked to the left, taking cover in the lobby room.
"Y'know this is actually kinda cool, I always wanted to have a sick shootout in a church" Sharky commented.
"What you crazy, we can't just kill dudes in the house of sweet winged baby Jesus, that's mad disrespectful!" Hurk exclaimed.
"Your thinking of Cupid dude" Sharky retorted.
"Guys focus!" Rook interrupted the cousins bickering as more peggies began filing into the lobby entrance, a few dropped dead as Sharky and the Junior Deputy how had begun firing at them, those who weren't hit, jumped to the sides of the lobby room just as the first peggie had.
With no peggies visible to shoot, Rook and his two friends stopped firing, Rook used this time to run to the church pews behind him and used it for cover, placing the barrel of his AK on the pew's backboard, Hurk and Sharky saw what he was doing and did the same, taking their places besides the Junior Deputy. Eventually a few braver peggies began to poke of the doorframe and fired a few rounds at the three men. The three men ducked down instinctively and a few loud thwacks were heard as the rounds slammed into the back of the pew.
"So, I guess this is the part where we fight or die, huh?" Hurk said over the gunfire.
"Don't miss" Rook ordered as he rose slightly to fire back.
The firefight seemed to go on forever, occasionally one of the men would clip a peggie in the arm, causing them to stumble and leaned away in pain, some of them leaned the wrong way and leaned into the doorframe, allowing the Junior Deputy to pick them off, but of course this fight was a two way street, the peggies were also getting a few hits every now and again, a few bullets buried themselves into Sharky's and Hurk's Kevlar vest's, lodging into just below the collar, each hit caused a scared yelp to come out of the men, before they ducked down in fright for a few moments before returning to the fight. Rook didn't know just how many peggies had been dropped, whenever a peggie died and fell over in the doorframe, another peggie out of sight would pull them out of the frame so their friends would have more room to work, and work they did, the amount of ammunition they shot into the pew the sinners hid behind slowly cracked and splintered the wood, whittling it away inch by inch.
"Hey, man things are looking a lil hairy for everyone" Sharky said, voicing his concern.
"So, let's just finish it before they do" Rook said as his AK-47 clicked empty and seamlessly dropping the longarm and pulled out his pistol and kept firing, the three men keeping on the heat.
A few more peggies began shouting at each other, something about "the welcoming" but whatever that was about was lost to the gunfire that echoed around them.
Then four peggies jumped out from the doorframe and charged the three men behind the pew, the four men all carrying shotguns. The sudden charge took Rook and his friends by surprise, Rook knew they were willing to give their life for the cause, but this was ridiculous. But their attempt was in vain as the three men watched the four men emerge, the shock they gave last no more then two seconds before they calmed and lined up their shots, Hurk shot down two no problem, Sharky got the one closest to the pew and Rook emptied what remained in his pistol's clip in the final man.
"Holy shit what was that?!" Sharky said in awe.
"A last-ditch effort" Rook replied as he stared into the empty doorframe.
During the shotgun charge, what little peggies that still hid in the lobby remained silent and hidden for a few moments before the three men could hear murmurs and whispers come from the lobby room, the were planning to do something, bur what the peggies did next actually surprised the Junior Deputy, they began throwing things at the pews, every few seconds an arm would come out from the sides of the doorframe to throw shoes, empty ammo clips, books and other objects they found in the lobby room most likely in hopes of one or two of the items would hit the sinners and throw off their aim just long enough to be shot.
"What the hell are they doi- ow!" Hurk yelp as he shook his hand in pain as a shoe had hit him.
"If they want to throw things then fine, I can throw things too" rook muttered as he reached for a grenade on his belt.
"OK, guys keep your heads down, things are going to get loud" he said.
Both men then immediately retreated down behind the pew and covered their ears with their hands.
With his friends ready and prepared, Rook pulled the pin then threw it as hard as he could, it sailed through the air and landed a few feet away from the lobby entrance, with the momentum with the momentum it gained in he air, it rolled right on in to the lobby, a few peggies must of saw it because Rook could hear a few scared yelps before the grenade exploded with a boom, causing the building to shake ever so slightly.
Once the explosion subsided, the three men stayed silent, listening for anything they could hear, but there was nothing, just dead silence.
"Y-ya think we got 'em all?" Rook asked quietly, slowly poking his head up over the pew.
Yeah, I think that did it" Rook replied just as quiet.
Rook was familiar with this kind of sudden silence, he had done this dance many times since he joined this war a learned what things meant, he knew what the silence of victory sounded like, it was the silence of one group of people succeeding in killing another group. He slowly stood back up and moved towards the lobby room, he knew he had won but he had to make sure or else he wouldn't truly feel safe. He pressed himself against the lobby room doorframe and poke his head in, there he saw a half dozen corpses littered the room, a few bodies appeared fine, but it was clear they were dead, a few bodies were a little banged up and blood leaking out of them from several newly formed orifices, but some bodies who were clearly the closest to the explosion, got the worst of it a few bodies were burned of parts of their bodies among the holes caused by the shrapnel, certain parts of their bodies were streaked black from burns but were hidden under the dark red of the blood that poured from their open wounds. For some reason it didn't sit right with Rook, he did this to them, sure they were going to kill him and his two friends and killing them was the only way to survive, but still. He snuffed out almost a dozen lives in a matter of seconds with an explosion of heat and shrapnel, when he first joined the police force, he joined to protect and serve his fellow man, not blow up people in what looked to be a church, the whole thing made his stomach burn.
Rook wanted to look away but for some reason he just couldn't look away from what he done, something about the bodies kept him trapped in the doorframe, trapped staring at the people he murdered. Then he felt a hand clasp around his shoulder, the hand was enough to pull him out of the place he felt trapped in.
"Hey there Samurai Cop, you ok?" he heard Sharky's voice came from behind him.
"Rook slowly turned around to see his friend the pyromaniac standing there, curious as to how his friend was, Hurk existed a few meters behind him, still with in the few rows of pews, also watching the Junior Deputy.
"What uh, yeah… I'm uh, fine, what about you?" he stammered.
"Yeah me and Hurk are good" Sharky replied.
"But damn dude we got so many peggies, like we're a wrecking crew or something" Hurk cheered.
"Uh, yeah, real wrecking crew" Rook muttered as his head slowly turned back to the lobby room.
"So, do you think they have some primo goodies in here or what?" Hurk asked.
"They were keeping this place together for a reason, let's see if we can find out why" Rook said, his head snapping back to his friends.
"Hurk, you and me, search the balcony thing for anything useful" Rook said, pointing up above him, directly above the lobby doorframe hung a balcony, it was easily seen from their position behind the pews, if a peggie had gotten up there, it would have been game over for them.
"Sharky can you do a quick sweep down here?" he asked.
"You got it amigo" Sharky nodded before breaking off and began poking around the front lobby of the building.
"Alright Hurk I'm pretty sure the staircase is over here" Rook said as he walked off toward the door they had barricaded, near it, tucked against a wall was a small staircase that led up to an elevated platform.
They ascended the stairs to end up on the balcony, on it was various objects, a bookshelf with a plethora of books, and a basic table with a few things scattered across it, some papers, a few pistols and a corded phone with an answering machine connected to it, other then that, there was nothing of interest.
"So, looks like nothings up here then?" Hurk asked, walking over to the table and examining the pistols on the table, as much as he thought they were cool, he had plenty at home.
"Yeah, looks like it, just garb anything you want I guess" Rook stated.
His eyes eventually wandered off the guns and to the corded phone, it was a basic black rotary phone, nothing that special or worth taking, the answering machine connected to it was just as interesting, just a bland piece of plastic and wires, he was about to pull away from the table but stopped as he saw a single blinking light on the machine, it blinked to signify a missed call.
"Peggies left a message huh, be a shame if I got rid of it" he smirked as he brought a hand up to the answering machine to press the delete button.
"Wait!" Rook cried, outstretching his hand in an attempt to stop Hurk.
"What?!" Hurk chirped, taking a step away from the machine, caught off guard by the Junior Deputy's shout.
"That voicemail could be important, maybe a peggie left it there on purpose, something serious could be on there" Rook explained.
"Then what do you want me to do?" Hurk asked.
"Press play" Rook replied.
Hurk nodded silently before reaching out to press the play button, the machine made a loud click then played the message.
"Rachel's so sad and alone. Once was lost; never found. She led a faithless life and it brought her low. Faith rose up in her, but Rachel stayed low down. Faith flies divine—and Rachel... Rachel gropes around in the darkness. I left her there a long time ago." a young woman's voice came out of the machine.
"I don't get it" Hurk said as soon as the recording ended, looking at Rook.
Rook returned the stare for a few moments before responding.
"Me neither" he shrugged.
That was of course a lie, he did get it, to a degree. The woman speaking was Faith Seed, her voice was easy to recognize, how soft it was, but in the recording it wasn't as soft, it sounded deflated, tired, it was like she didn't even want to make the message. But what else stood out to him was she had said the name Rachel repeatedly and how she left her in darkness a long time ago. If this was the Rachel that Tracey referred to this morning, then he had a lot to talk about the next time Faith comes calling.
"Hey, I don't see anything down here, I don't know if they have anything" Sharky's voice rang out from below.
"Uh, what did you say?" Rook asked, being pulled from his thoughts.
"Said I got nothin' down here!" Sharky called out again.
Rook walked over the balcony's edge and leaned over the railing to see Sharky looking up at him from the lower level.
"Alrighty, up here is clear too, I'll come down and radio some guys about this place and see what they can do" Rook replied.
"Sounds good Amigo, I'm headed out front" Sharky said before walking off out of Rook's field of view, most likely to leave the building.
"Meet you down there" Rook called out, before he and Hurk descended the stairs and made their way outside.
As the two men left the building they could hear Sharky call for Hurk excitedly from the other side of the large building, Hurk of course did not hesitate and practically ran around the building to find his cousin. With Hurk and Sharky gone Rook felt a little awkward for some reason, just being left alone in what was a warzone a few minutes ago, so in an attempt to calm down off the adrenaline that had been building in him all morning and tried to take in as much of the estate as he could to try to fill in his mental map, he could see the squat house they hid in, with all it's smashed windows and walls riddled with bullets, the dead peggies that lay around the building, a few cobblestone walls and bliss plants, this place might actually have been a nice place at one point but now, now it was just another open air coffin, Rook turned around to face the front of the building he had exited, despite of what happened inside the building it still looked nice, well maybe it would have looked better if Eden's Covenant wasn't printing in big letters above the doorframe. Rook stood there for a few moments contemplating his morning and everything that happened, all the what if's and could have been's, eventually he decided it was a good a time as any to call Dutch and let him know what's up, he unclipped the walkie from his hip and brought it to his mouth.
"Hey Dutch, you there?" Rook asked.
A few seconds ticked by before he answered.
"Hey kid what's up" Dutch responded.
"I'm at this place called Eden's Covenant, I'm pretty sure that's not the place's real name but me and a few friends just kicked a bunch of peggies out of it" Rook answered.
"Eden's Covenant? I'm don't know what tha- wait a minute do you mean the Eden's Gate Rehabilitation Center? A little place off by the old Moonflower Trailer Park?" Dutch asked
"Yeah I think that's it, we just cleared it out and it's ready to be taken back" Rook said.
Rook could hear Dutch chuckle lightly.
"That's actually great to hear, Joseph had that place built a long time ago, I think he used it for new converts or something, and well if we clear out more of that area then maybe we could reopen it to treat bliss victims" Dutch surmised.
"Huh, that's actually a pretty good idea, I'll run that by the Sheriff when I get back to the prison" Rook said, scratching his chin.
"Don't worry about it kid, I'll do it when I let people know about what you've done" Dutch replied before the walkie clicked off.
Rook placed it back on his hip, with the conversation over, silence came back, Rook noticed that the area was now completely silent except for a repeated bang, every five seconds there was a bang, not a gunshot but the sound of one object hitting another, curious, Rook followed the noise back to the back of the estate to see Hurk and Sharky trying to kick open the door of a shed.
"Hey guys, so what you up to" Rook asked approaching Hurk and Sharky, watching them try to kick open the shed's door.
"Sharky turned to face the Junior Deputy with a smile.
"Oh, hey amigo, we're doing nothing much, just trying to get into this shed here" Sharky said, sticking a thumb at the door Hurk was trying to break down.
"So uh, why you trying to get in there?" Rook asked.
"Well you see Dep, this used ta be a rehab center right, I would know I got sent here for my love of fire before ol' Broseph bought up the place, anyways so that means that the addicts might have tried to sneak some good stuff in if you know what I'm saying, so we're thinking if it was confiscated, it'd be in here" Sharky surmised.
"Alrighty, you guys have fun with that, listen I'm headed out, you guys are clearly to interested in this to leave so in a while some resistance members are going to come down here and clean the place up and re-enforce the place, so be careful and have fun ok?" Rook explained.
"sure, you got it Dep, but hey, what you think about this morning, wild huh?" Sharky asked with a grin.
"Today was pretty nuts, but I will admit I was a little ticked at the beginning, and then kinda terrified during the whole boat thing, but underneath all that, it was pretty cool" Rook said, smiling slightly.
"Yeah I knew it dude, things got wild and we handled it well… so how many badass points did I get?" Sharky smiled.
"Well, you both did great out there today, so for the moment I'm going to have to say that you guys are pretty even" Rook said.
"Rockin" Sharky grinned.
"But we're a pretty great team Officer Badass, so anyways have a good one dude, keep kickin' ass Bro, see ya around" Sharky said, giving Rook a salute before turning back to Hurk to help him kick open the shed's door.
Rook gave his friends a silent nod before walking around to the front of the building to look for a vehicle to carry him back home, but to his dismay, there was no vehicles on the property, causing him to uttered a curse under his breath in annoyance, with nothing better to do he just walked over to the nearest cobblestone wall and sat down on it, as much as he didn't want to, he had to wait for resistance members to shown up and then ask to take one of their trucks to get back to the prison. He sat there in silence for ten minutes, thinking over what had transpired once again, deep down he still felt uncomfortable about what he saw in the lobby room, a part of him felt like they deserved better, they were just doing what they were told just like how the Sheriff and so many other ask of him. Rook was then pulled out of his thoughts as a few trucks rolled up onto the property and resistance members climbed out, a few approached the Junior Deputy and greeted him, Rook returned the greeting then explained what had happened here before asking to take a truck back to the prison, the resistance members had no problem agreeing and handed him the keys, Rook graciously took the keys and wished them the best before climbing into the truck. He placed the key into the ignition and started the truck, as soon as he did the air conditioner turned on blowing cool air into the cabin as the radio clicked on, playing a song Rook easily identified, the song made him feel a little better as the prospect of music back in his life made him feel like life was going to get a little better, he reached up a turned the volume up a little more before he put the truck in reverse and backed the truck down the driveway and onto the main road, then took off for the prison.