The Vacation

By Ryan J. Wagner

Chapter 3 (Soldier 76)

"UGH!" The thug yelled as he violently crashed through the window, sputtering and rolling into the darkened room. I heard him moan through cries of agony and pain as I cumbersomely climbed through the shattered window with my trusty pulse rifle hanging from the strap on my back.

The shattered glass crunched and crackled under the weight of my boots upon entering the darkened house. The small abandoned household had a dank, musty smell to it with numerous dust particles dancing in the air.

The house itself was barren with worn-out furniture and depressing overtones to it. I slowly entered the blood-stained living room where Jose Ramirez was slowly crawling away from the pool of blood that resided at the base of the window.

Jose Ramirez was just some bald middle aged man with one bad eye and a limp leg. He was wearing a tattered white shirt drenched in his blood while wearing a pair of worn jeans.

Jose let out another painful gasp of air as he propped himself against the wall."Maldito seas...idiota.." The man muttered in Spanish as I walked past him and approached the blood-stained mantle.

I raised my head up to the beautifully hand-painted portrait of a human male, an omnic, and a little boy. The little boy was standing in the middle of the two adults. The man that stood slightly behind omnic-partner had both of his arms enclosed around his neck while the omnic had both of his hands placed on top of the boy's shoulders.

I gritted my teeth as soon as I heard Jose gurgle up a chuckle. "They deserved it...each one of them..." Jose said to me as he continued to moan from the pain. Hearing him say that, I turned around and snarled at the man while cracking the knuckles of my left hand. "They can't be trusted...those that are willing to trust those machines deserves the same fate as those..." He stopped and immediately coughed blood into his right hand. "..tin cans."

"Los Muertos is cancer on this city. You're nothing but a plague taking advantage of the city that sheltered you from the threats of the world." I said through the black mask covering my mouth.

Jose rebutted with a spit of blood to my face. "You know nothing of this...UGH!" He screamed out from the pain, gripping his stomach tightly in the process as he coughed up more blood on the floor.

I sighed under my breath, picked the man up and violently pinned him to the wall. "I know you were with the National Defense Force during the Omnic Crisis, but you were dishonorably discharged after the public learned that your platoon was sneaking Omnic tech across the border."
He cried out as I tossed him across the damn room, knocking over a lounge chair in the process. "You served only five years in a minimum security prison after your lawyer abused a loophole in the system that got you off on a technicality...and now you're murdering innocent families after getting out."

Jose once again gasped in pain from the numerous bruises and broken bones that he had sustained during our conflict. Hovering over his bleeding body, I gripped him by the throat with my left hand and pinned his weaken body to the wall again. "They deserved it, each and every last freaking one of them. If they love their precious tin-cans so much they can burn in hell together for all we care."

I gritted my teeth in anger at the gangster and slammed my fist into his face. "THE WEINSTEIN'S!" I screamed and punch. "THE CAROLS!" I screamed and punch once more. "AND THE LAWSONS!" I repeated for the final time. "Each and every single one of them was murdered by you. What gives you the right to play God with the lives of Dorado's citizens?!"

His head swirled and dipped back and forth as blood infused saliva dripped to the floor below our feet. He slowly raised his cocked head to my face and flashed off his blood-stained teeth. "Because I can."

Hearing him say that I immediately drew my handgun, pulled the hammer down, placed the barrel against his stomach and pulled the trigger.

With that, an ear-piercing sound erupted from the weapon and in an instant, the man collapsed to the floor, motionless. His eyes lingered up to me with a look of horror as his brain finally caught up to him with what just happened. "Death is not your destiny, Jose. You will live a long healthy life inside Dorado's Prison Hospital for the Criminally Insane." I said to the paralyzed man with a chuckle before approaching the front door. "But at least you'll have some piece of mind knowing that the staff is omnic-exclusive."

Upon saying that, the man screamed and begged for me to put a bullet through his head. I shook my head, opened the front door and vanished into the nearest alleyway upon hearing police sirens in the distance.

I watched from the rooftops as the emergency response teams patched the man up and loaded him up into the back of the truck. "You think you're safe out there? You think you can hide in a world divided?" I asked to myself as I slowly turned around. "You're wrong because I'm here. Run if you want, but soon enough I will catch up and make you pay for your transactions against the world."

I took a deep breath after saying that and raised my head up to the moon that rested high above Dorado. "I will discover the truth no matter what."