Okay, here is chapter two. In this chapter you will learn about C.J.'s other friends, a.k.a. the guns for hire, some of them are also OC's. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Prologue part two

The sun was beginning to hang low in the sky when Carmina and C.J. finally arrived at Roughnecks Crag, and as the two friends exited Carmina's hatchback, C.J. couldn't help but smile seeing the whole gang was here and having fun. Well, everyone except Hurk.

Currently, Hurk was being held in a head-lock by his girlfriend and mother of his child, Gina Guerra. Odds are the couple had gotten into another argument about who was the dominant one in their relationship, thus resulting in Hurk's current predicament.

You see, Hurk is your standard human man and a pretty macho guy. He loved beer, guns, fast cars, America, and is a huge fan of the daredevil Clutch Nixon. But most importantly, he loved Gina and their half mute infant son, Blade.

Why is Hurk and Gina's son half mute, you ask? Well, Gina happened to be an anthropomorphic brown hyena mute. Even stranger, Gina wasn't born a mute. From what C.J. learned while fighting along side and talking with Gina, when she was a teenager in post nuclear Chicago she was exposed to some kind of one time mutagen rainstorm that occurred in parts of the mid-west, resulting in her and many other humans and animals that were exposed to become mutes over a period of two weeks. And from what Gina told C.J., the transformation was a painful one, but I digress.

The main reason Hurk and Gina would get into these fights was because of the instincts that Gina gained after becoming a hyena mute. By nature, hyena packs are matriarchal, meaning that the females are in charge. And to top it off, female hyenas are bigger than the males, which stood true for Gina as she was one foot taller than Hurk. Given those factors, it was natural for Gina to see herself as the dominant spouse in her relationship with Hurk.

But Hurk saw things differently. Being that he was such a 'macho and bodacious dude' and that he was the man in the relationship, so to speak, he believed himself to be the dominant spouse. In the end it was no surprise that these clashing mindsets caused the couple to butt heads from time to time. However, despite their differences, at the end of the day they truly loved each other and their son even more.

C.J. still thought it was funny as hell that every time Hurk tried to assert his dominance with Gina, it usually ended with him either backing down to Gina or getting his ass kicked by her, followed by Gina tending to Hurk's injuries as the two made up and apologized to each other. Speaking of which...

"Come on Hurk. Just admit that I'm the dominant one and we can be done with this, okay?" Said Gina with a slight giggle as she gently tightened her lock on her boyfriends neck.

Hurk could only struggle against his girlfriends grip as he choked out a response. "Not until you recognize me as the-"

Hurk was then cut-off mid sentence as Blade began to cry in his baby carrier, causing Gina to release Hurk from her head-lock as both parents dropped their argument to check on their infant son.

As Hurk and Gina were checking on Blade, C.J. and Carmina walked up and greeted them.

"Hey Hurk, Gina. Having trouble in paradise again?" Teased Carmina.

"What?! No! We were just having a little lovers spat is all." Hurk quickly said in a poor attempt to save face while Gina cradled Blade in her arms.

C.J. then put in his two cents in. "Yeah, well last time I checked, lovers spats usually don't end with the man getting put in a full nelson by the woman while he's begging for mercy." He said while Gina and Carmina began laughing at Hurk's expense.

"What the hell, Cap! You're my bro! You're suppose to back me up, not bring me down!" Hurk yelled.

"Says the guy who can't seem to stop ripping on me for how much of a lightweight I supposedly am because I passed out after having a single shot of your special reserve 'party liquor'. Seriously Hurk, fucking car ethanol?! That shit could've killed me! So before you get pissed at me highlighting how pussy whipped you are, you should remember to not throw rocks if you live in a glass house!" Retorted C.J.

Before Hurk could say another word, Gina spoke up.

"Don't worry, Hurk. When the barbecue is over and we go home, I'll make it up to you, okay?"

Hurk smiled at this. "You mean like the night when I confessed my love to you after you and your old Highwaymen buddies came and took me and Sharky's still?" He said with a gleam in his eye.

Gina's cheeks took on a red hue as Carmina and C.J. began to snicker at her embarrassment.

"Okay guys, before we start slinging fist instead of words, lets go join the others and make sure Sharky isn't burning the meat." Said C.J. after he stopped laughing.

As the five of them rounded the cornier of the main building, they saw that everyone had gathered around the fire pit to watch Sharky work on the slowly roasting bison that C.J. hunted just specially for the barbecue.

There was pastor Jerome Jeffries who was currently sitting at a picnic table, reading passages from his bible. Most likely he was practicing for tomorrows sermon at his church in the newly rebuilt town of Falls End.

Next to him was the New Eden fighter simply know as the Judge. C.J. didn't know much about him other than that he never talked, and that he was the best warrior in all of New Eden and that he was the right hand man of the Father, or Joseph Seed as C.J. knew him, along with being a deadly shot with a bow.

Over by another fire, Hurk's mother, Adelaide Drubman, was tending to a big iron kettle full her prized Drubman chili while talking to Nana and Grace Armstrong as her boyfriend Xander Flynn was doing yoga behind her while they were talking about the old days of the resistance and all the things that happened after the bombs dropped.

There was Nana, who claimed to be one of the last old folks in all of Hope County, and the best damn shot to boot, despite her age. C.J. remembered the day he managed to convince her to join the fight against the Highwaymen after showing her his prowess in marksmanship with his suppressed MS16 rifle. Of course that was after Nana pulled a dick move and gave C.J. a 'final test' by shooting a flare gun into the air out of the top of her silo, bringing a large group of Highwaymen into the area that he then had to fight off.

But despite everything, C.J. and many other people saw Nana as 'The grandmother of the valley', much to her annoyance. However, her attitude changed after C.J. modified the rifle he used to impress Nana with a high powered scope and gave it to her as a gift to replace the aging SVD Dragunov she was using. Since then, Nana carried both the modified MS16 rifle and a smile on her face, all while helping C.J. send the Highwaymen to an early grave.

After Nana was the veteran and former sniper turned drill instructor Grace Armstrong. After the people started leaving their bunkers, Grace used her skills as a sniper to help defend the Rye family from attackers, only to develop cataracts after taking too much radiation, rendering her blind.

C.J. hoped that the news he carried with him would help Grace regain her sight so she could go back to helping people the best way she knew how; putting bullets between the eyes of the bad guys.

Then there were the two other mute companions of C.J., aside from Gina.

First was Bannock Fowler, a chainsaw wielding logger with a heart of gold and a big sweet tooth who also happened to be a nine foot tall grizzly bear mute and son of Cheeseburger the bear, who was said to be some kind of local celebrity in Hope County before the bombs fell.

C.J. met Bannock at Sacred Lumber, a logging camp that had been taken over by the Highwaymen before the arrival of the A.S.A. in Hope County. The Twins had their Highwaymen goons lock Bannock in a cage and were planing on sending him to fight to the death for the entertainment of the other leading Highwaymen during their demolition derby.

Luckily, C.J. managed to free Bannock from the cage after taking out his captors with his A.J.M. 9 pistol, Blood Dragon. However, C.J. missed one of the bandits who then set off the alarm that he forgot to disable, causing the Highwaymen to send reinforcements to retake Sacred Lumber.

It was a hard fight, but the tide turned once Bannock got hold of Claymore, his custom chainsaw, and started using it to carve up the Highwaymen, causing many of them to run away in fear. But to be fair, if you saw your buddy get cut in half by a nine foot tall grizzly mute packing a huge chainsaw, you'd run too.

Oddly enough, aside from hating Highwaymen and being surprisingly great with kids, Bannock also had a hatred of regular bears on account that his adoptive grandfather, Wade Fowler, was mauled to death by a bear.

After Bannock was Brandon Ashclaw, a cougar mute and member of the Hope County Cougars, a local baseball team and militia made up of both mutes and humans that was reformed by former star player turned coach George Wilson, who's purpose was to help protect the people of Hope County and keep the sport of baseball alive.

On top of being the team MVP and top hitter, Brandon also carried the title of 'The cat with the meanest swing' after he smashed a Highwaymen enforcers head in with a single swing of his baseball bat during a fit of rage when the Highwaymen came to the teams training camp with the intention of making an example of coach Wilson after he was labeled a 'problem maker' by the Twins when he and the rest of the team saved a family and their homestead from being burned in a raid by the Highwaymen.

C.J. also had a fleeting suspicion that the teenage slugger had a crush on Carmina, on account that he always got a bit nervous and talked with a slight stutter when he was around her.

Finally there were C.J.'s two pets. First was Timber, an Akita dog he saved from getting butchered, and then Horatio, a massive pet boar that C.J. saved from being made into the main course for the demolition derby after his previous owners had been murdered by the Highwaymen.

After taking in his surroundings and seeing the joy in his friends faces, C.J. decided to get their attention.

"Hey guys, hows it going?" He asked with a loud voice.

Everyone then stopped what they were doing and started to walk up to C.J., greeting him.

While C.J. was returning his friends greetings, Carmina remembered what he had told her about the radio call he got.

"Okay Cap. Now that we're here, will you please tell us about what that radio call was about!" Asked Carmina in an excited tone, causing everyone to start asking C.J. questions about what she was talking about. So he answered them.

"Alright dammit! If you guys will shut-up a minute, I'll tell you!" Snapped C.J.

"Well don't keep us in suspense, sonny! We're not getting any younger!" Yelled Nana from the back of the group, as she too was now getting antsy from the excitement.

C.J. then took a deep breath to calm himself before he began. "Okay, an officer from the A.S.A. in charge of communications was able to hack into an old military communications satellite that was still in orbit and managed to contact me in Prosperity after relaying the signal from the radio dishes at the Signal Point outpost, and from what he told me, the A.S.A. deployed a second engineering battalion after they learned the train that Carmina and I was on had been ambushed by the Highwaymen."

C.J. was then interrupted by Sharky.

"This is nice and all, dude. But no disrespect, could you, like, speed this the fuck up. The meat is gonna burn if I don't get back to the roasting pit soon." He said as everyone began agreeing with him.

C.J. rolled his eyes before he continued.

"Fine then! To sum it up in a nut shell, the engineers are currently digging out the road tunnel at the west end of Holland Valley, and they are going to break through next week on the fourth of July!"

(Play song: Flo Rida – My House)

The whole place erupted in a wave of cheers, whistles, and hollering as everyone began to celebrate the news that the help they and all of Hope County was hoping for was finally going to arrive.

Carmina tackled C.J. in a tight hug while thanking him, over and over again. Pastor Jerome dropped to his knees and said a prayer of thanks. Gina fired her M60 in the air while Hurk began to dance. Sharky immediately ran off into the woods, only to come back with a wheelbarrow holding two full kegs of beer, much to everyone's surprise.

But while everyone was celebrating, they failed to see the Judge slip away into the woods as he began to travel to New Eden. He had news to deliver to Joseph Seed, for it seemed that another prophecy of the Father would soon come to pass.

Okay everyone, that's chapter two. Sorry it took so long. I'm a slow at typing, but hopefully I'll get faster as the story progresses. Remember to leave a comment if you want, or tell me if there is an error in my grammar. Have a good day/night.