Chapter 35 – Morning has broken

The whole world seemed to slow down around him. Everything except him. Boone felt slightly euphoric as he took a knee in front of the closest window and adjusted the unfamiliar helmet on his head. He checked his supply of .308 ammo and loaded MacCreadys rifle. He lay the barrel onto the window sill and looked through the scope and counted the angry villagers that had assembled out in the courtyard… some were carrying torches, all that was missing were the pitchforks… no wait, there was one.

He did a quick check towards the gate. The miniguns were fixed and facing outwards. It would take a few men to move them and use them against him. If they came into play he could kiss his arse goodbye.

There were forty two people out there… and there were still three on guard duty at the gates. All were armed. He sighed. This was really gonna hurt. The Courier owed him big time.

He lined up six stimpaks on the floor next to him and another canister of Jet. He vaguely wondered whose pack it was. He didn't think it was Cades that he had opened. It was probably Zacs… he seemed the Jet type. He adjusted the pile of ammo at his side and looked at each of the weapons he had laying next to him in turn. Couriers lever action, Maxsons automatic rifle and Cades laser pistol. He glanced at the shotgun and hoped he didn't have to use it… that would mean they had gotten too close. He also had his 10mm sidearm.

Right, he thought, his brain oddly calm and focused, let's get this show on the road. He braced the rifle stock against his shoulder and took aim at the first target, the guy out in front of the pack, when he had a chilling thought.

Where was Max?

Zac Hobson never had a problem waking up in the morning… it was the best part of the day after all. Mornings meant his dad would gently wake him by touching his shoulder and telling him he needed to eat breakfast and get dressed because he was going to be late to school. Mornings meant walking to class with Amata, her arm looped through his as she told him all of the other girls gossip and chuckled as he rolled his eyes. Mornings meant blazing sun rises over the wasteland and pork 'n beans heated over a campfire, while Three Dog read what he thought was news and played what he thought was music. Mornings meant snuggling close to Moiras warmth and soft curves while Wadsworth crashed about in the kitchen below, making something that might or might not resemble food in the end.

Zac was having a real problem waking up this morning. His eyeballs seemed sticky and they were holding his eyelids fast to them. He groaned and tried to roll over. His limbs felt heavy and his head started to pound with a dull ache. He managed to open one of his eyes a slit and it grated like sand when he did. Sticky sand? He guessed that was a thing.

He groaned again, louder this time and he hoped it sounded as disgruntled as he felt.

He was bought to full wakefulness all of a sudden, when a book stuck him forcefully in the side of the head. His eyes flew open in protest to the assault and he looked around for the source of the throbbing head trauma.

"Get up!" Someone growled, the voice was gritty and tinged with frustration and pain.

He snapped his head around in preparation to glare at the guilty assailant and blinked in surprise, seeing Boone crouched by the window, bleeding from everywhere it seemed, he certainly hoped all of that blood wasn't his. It looked like he had tried to stem some of the blood flow by wrapping whole rolls of duct tape over and around his wounds. The wall was peppered with bullet holes, little rays of bright morning sunlight blazed through them, giving the air a hazy dappled gleam.

They were under attack he realised suddenly. He stumbled out of bed, finding his limbs were not as responsive as they should be. He hit the floor with his knees and grunted painfully and scrambled to find his rifle. His hand landed on the body of a young man clad in crimson, a bullet hole in his forehead and clear blue eye gazing into the emptiness. Zac shook his head to clear it and looked around, taking in the disarray around him.

There were more bodies, all dressed in red roman legion style uniforms and over by the door right near Boone, was the body of Colin, two red stains colouring the chest of his shirt and quite obviously dead. The rest of the guys were still sleeping peacefully on their cots, how was a mystery, considering the noise of gunfire from outside.

What the fuck was going on?

He grabbed onto his automatic rifle and checked the magazine. He crawled across the floor to Boones side.

"What's happening?" He asked, his head was still fuzzy, but he understood from the scattered empty weapons, magazines and spent cases that whatever it was, it had been going on for some time.

"They're Legion slavers." Boone ground out through gritted teeth, before raising his head and firing off a few 10mm rounds. "You guys were drugged."

Zac nodded. " 'Kay, how many outside?"

"Dozen left." Boone grunted. "don't let them get to the Minigun."

"Minigun?" Zac asked, firing a burst of 5.56 over the window pane and in the general direction of the courtyard.

"Right side of the big house, they pulled it off the mounting and tried to position it there."

Zac crawled over to the doorway of the barracks and popped his head out for a quick look, gauging the positions of the very hostile settlers. And they seemed so nice last night, Zac lamented.

"Hobson." Boone looked a little stricken. "I haven't seen Max."

Zac bit his lip. "Right. I'm going to slip out the back window and see if I can get to the minigun. You just keep 'em focused on you."

Boone nodded. He looked exhausted and pale. Zac realised that he'd been holding off the townsfolk all night. He hoped he could hold out for just a little longer. He gripped Boone shoulder in silent thanks for a moment and then turned away to crawl across the floor. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and secured his laser pistol in its holster before hoisting himself out of the window.

The window was a little higher up from the ground than he had anticipated. He fell with a crash to the hard ground below and cursed quietly. He still wasn't as coordinated as he normally would be and he wondered what they had used to drug them. He didn't remember his food tasting funny.

He dragged himself off the ground and limped along the wall to the edge of the barracks and peeped around the corner at the courtyard. Boone had kept them well away from their sanctuary, no one had even come close to getting anywhere near them. Zac dashed between the barracks and the line of privys, keeping up against the wall and skirting the settlement. He found himself outside the womens barracks and risked a look through the window. There was a scattered food tray on the floor but no sign of Max. He sighed and continued on. On the corner of the women barracks, he risked another quick look around. The minigun lay on its side on the cobbled ground and was surrounded by half a dozen corpses.

Boone always seemed like a quiet, unassuming kind of guy, Zac thought, but remind me not to piss him off if he has a gun in his hand. The level of carnage out here was impressive.

There was a settler crouched down against the wall of the big central building, close to the heavy gun and another two were creeping along the back of the building. Looks like they're making another play for the big guns, Zac thought, they'd know that the rest of the guys were due to wake up any minute.

Zac sent a tight burst of 5.56 rounds at the sneaky trio, foiling their nefarious plans and leaving two dead and one groaning on the ground. He dashed towards the gun, leaping over bodies as he went and almost crashed into the wall with his momentum. He ducked down and righted the gun, turning its multiple barrels away from the barracks and towards the big house, it made a teeth clenching, grinding sound as it scraped along the cobbled ground. There was no way he could lift it alone and aim it where it needed to be, but he could give them a heck of a fright.

He locked and loaded and the gun began to whirl to life, firing off a burst of maybe a hundred rounds of 5mm ammo into the wall of the big house. It was a complete surprise when he heard a strangled cry from the other side of the wall. Huh. He must have got one. Lucky.

The courtyard was then filled with the loud booming voice of the Courier.

"Any of you all that are left… we suggest you lay down your guns and surrender now. We don't want to have to take the time to kill the rest of you, we got business elsewhere." He shouted.

There was silence around the whole settlement.

"Cummon, y'all." He shouted again. "Just one of us took out thirty or so of your people and a Legion patrol. You really want to see what the rest of us can do?"

The whole settlement seemed to still and after a few moments of unsullied quiet, one woman emerged from the big house with her hands in the air. Then a man came out from the other side of the house and then another. One by one, the remaining citizens of Sulphur Springs surrendered. There were only eight of them left.

The east coast men came out of the barracks one at a time their weapons raised and trained on their prisoners, except Cade and Boone who were probably treating and being treated, respectively, for the mass of bullet wounds and blood loss sustained over the course of the night. Zac stalked out from beside the building, his automatic rifle lifted and he joined his group.

"Morning fellas," He chirped cheerily, "Sleep well?"

Courier gave him a meaningful glare and turned on the Sulphur Springs people, who flinched back collectively from the intimidating scowl that he had adopted.

"Seeing as Colin is slumped in the corner of our room with two bullets in him… who would be in charge now?" He asked the assemblage.

A guy of medium height and build stepped forward hesitantly but didn't meet his eyes. Courier eyeballed the top of the guys head.

"Alright, Sunshine. Let's get to the guts of this. We're a person down, where would we be finding her?" Courier queried, his voice hard.

The guys mumbled something incoherent and then jumped as the door of the mens barracks slammed open and Boone stomped out. He tossed an old helmet forcefully away from himself and fitted his first recon beret to his head and slid his aviators into place. He strode across the yard to the womens barracks, Cade following behind him protesting loudly for him to slow down. Courier frowned as he watched his best friend thump up the steps and disappear inside. Boone emerged moments later with Nevasee slung over his shoulder and he was tucking full magazines of ammo into his pockets.

He strode up to the group of survivors and grabbed the new 'leader' by the scruff of the neck and hauled him away towards the western gate. Courier reached out a hand to stop him and then dropped it. He knew it was no use now, Boone was out for blood.

Boone dragged his quarry across the western courtyard, not caring when the guy lost his footing and was literally being dragged along by the back of his shirt, his skin and his hair. Boone came up to the gate and once there, slammed the guy face first into the solid wooden and corrugated iron structure. The man turned around quickly and looked in dread at the blood soaked and cold eyed sniper in front of him. He leaned back against the gates as the barrel of the rifle was levelled at his head.

"Open the gate." Boone grated harshly, his voice icy and oddly dead.

The man hesitated and Boone fired, the bullet grazing through the terrified mans ear, dashing spray of bright blood against the thick gate and causing the guy to wail in pain.

"Open the fucking gate!" Boone raged, no longer capable of rational thought. The only thing that mattered was finding Max and killing Legion. Because this was not happening again. Not Again!

The man fumbled in his pockets for the gate keys, dropping them from trembling hands to the unyielding ground and having to scramble after them on his hands and knees as Boones calculating stare followed him. He finally regained his feet with the keys in hand and unlocked the heavy gates with unsteady hands. He pulled the heavy chain free and swung them ponderously open.

Boone fired a .308 round into the guys brain pan in lieu of a thank you. He checked his ammo supply one last time and went through the gate and into the untamed wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. He didn't have just one bullet this time. He would murder every last one of those Legion motherfuckers and bring back his girl.

AN: Don't forget to review, I don't reply much (or at all) but I do appreciate them.