The elevator doors opened up, and the three stepped out, all looking satisfied from the delicious dinner they had.
"Damn, Mr. Chan knows how to make good ass food!" Leo said, rubbing his belly in delight.
"I'd say did you like the food Jethro?" asked Aeris.
"Yeah, I bogged into that buffet, and the food tastes like it was fresh off the barbie." Jethro said, with a smile. Aeris smiled back.
"Yeah, it's good shit." They walked down the hall, until they reached their apartments.
"Hey, Jethro you wanna do a little rematch on TF2? Now that I'm filled up and everything, I'll whip your ass on a duel." Leo said.
"Wait, how can you guys play against each other in Team Fortress 2 if we only have two computers…and what do you mean by "rematch"?" Aeris asked in angry tone.
"Oh, well… I mean, um you see…" Leo was fumbling for words to explain to Aeris. She looked like she was going to hit Leo, hard.
"I think you made her mad as a cut snake, mate." Jethro said to Leo.
"Leo, did you go on my computer?" she said in a threating tone.
"What, no! It wasn't me, it was Jethro!" Leo turned around to point at Jethro, but he was gone, "Jethro?" Aeris looked at Leo, she was cracking her knuckles.
"It's not nice to blame other people, Leo. Looks like I'm going to have to teach you a lesson…" she began to walk towards Leo.
"What? No! It wasn't me it was Jethro! Jethro! Come out here and save me!" he began to bang on Jethro's door. Jethro was behind the door, he was listening to the conversation until he heard what sounded like Leo's head on the wall next door and shouting, he decided to walk away.
Sorry Leo, I'll pray for ya survival…
He walked into the living room, and he did not realize how empty his apartment was. Ah piss, I need a mattress. He found his bag and made it his pillow once again, he lay on the floor. He was drowsy from the amount of food he ate, he quickly went to sleep.
Jethro couldn't see anything but pitch black, for about five minutes, he felt extremely light headed.
Jethro….Jethro…
He moaned, then suddenly he felt a sharp pain on his left cheek, he opened his eyes to see a dark smoky room. He's vision was slightly hazy, but he could see an orange cat in front of him.
"Jethro! 'bout bloody time, ya woke up." The orange cat said.
"W-what?" Jethro looked around, the world was black and white again, not only that but he felt numb, and giddy. The orange cat stuck his hand out; Jethro reached out, barely missing it. The other cat pulled him up.
"Bloody hell, ya can't even balance didcha spike that purple drank with some amber fluid or somethin'?"
"What?" Jethro felt like he was light as feather, the orange cat slapped him again.
"Ya awake now?"
"Y-yeah, I'm feelin' bonza…" Jethro said, a little dazed from being slapped but somehow better. He took a closer look at the orange cat, and saw it was his best friend.
"Marshal?"
"Oh hey mate! Nice of ya to be back on earth!" Marshal said sarcastically, he whipped out a flyer into Jethro's face.
"What's this?" he asked
"It's one of my bounties, mate."
"Why, are you showing it to me?"
"Cause ya gunna help me kill two birds with one stone, ya heard of that little phrase before, right?"
"Yeah, I have. But, whadda mean by that?"
"Mate, I thought ya said ya knew what it meant."
"Would ya mind, stop being a drongo and tellin' me what ya up too?"
"Aight, aight, well ya see, I got two bounties to take care of, but it just so happens that these two are very common to anotha. Now, they both have the same exact schedules ya see, they both leave for work at the same time, and eat lunch at the same time, AND place."
"Aight so?"
"So? SO? Mate these two are high priced because of some scandal group they were in a while ago and people are payin'heaps of money for vengeance. So if I can get the job done, I'll be rich even with the bounty split!"
"Oh, really? So why do ya need my help for anyways?"
"Well like I said, killing two birds with one stone." He took out a large bullet from his pocket and showed it to Jethro.
"That's one hellava bullet."
"Ya damn, straight it is, it's a fifty cal bullet, it can pierce amour, so I'm pretty sure it can pierce through their heads."
"So, what do ya want me to do, exactly?"
"It's real easy mate, like countin' from A to Zed, just need ya to lure one of those dipsticks to the otha. That way from my vantage point, I'll be able to knock em both."
"Well, couldn't I just shoot one and you shoot the otha?"
"I was thinkin' that, but since ya buzzed, I don't think havin' you takin' shots would be a good idea."
"Good point, mate. So where are they now?"
"They're at the square, they should be eatin' lunch about now, at the café, I'll take a back route to my campin' spot, I need ya to have them be both outside of the café and standing beside each otha aight?"
"Yeah, sure thing." Marshal gave Jethro a nod and started heading towards the back door. Jethro had just taken notice of his surroundings, a round courthouse. He could see other people, sitting on the benches looking dazed, and giddy, this was the headquarters for AWP, at its lowest moments. He found the double doors and opened them, the sun blinded him for a couple minutes, he's eyes adjusted and he walked out into the streets. The streets didn't look as good as the courthouse, there was litter, the sidewalk was cracking apart, the shops and buildings were in bad shape. Despite the fact that Jethro went through these streets every day in his teenage years, it feels like he hasn't been here at all. He looked around trying to remember how to get to the square.
"Mr. Mundy, you look distraught!" Jethro turned around to see a big dark grey cat.
Ah great…The guy that's build like a brick shit house…. Jethro thought to himself, "Yeah, I can't seem to remember how to get to the square from here, ya mind helpin' me out Mick?"
Mick began to chuckle, "Heheh, you really should lay off the lean a bit ya know, it ain't good for ya to take too much."
Jethro growled a bit, he hated Mick, he was Cabele's right hand man, and substituting for him since he became extremely ill. He was the one who agreed to have the contractors pay the member in drugs rather in money without even telling Cabele, said it would help ease the pain for the majority of the members, in these dark times. Even though Jethro wanted to get rid of Mick, he couldn't, cause he was hooked on that drug, cough syrup, and he knew well that it was Mick, who was the one to decide who got what drug, and how much of it. Jethro knew that he was a sitting duck, and couldn't do anything about it; he started to feel the kind of hurt he felt back then, not able to do anything, high on drugs, didn't work and didn't care. But he bottled up those emotions.
"Just tell me how to get there Mick, and we can both be on our way." Jethro sneered.
"Sure thing, anythin' for a trusted member of the Australian Worker's Party", he had smirk on his face, "it's about 4 clicks to ya right."
"Thanks…." Jethro said, he turned around and walked away, he can feel Mick staring at him from behind, with that same smirk on his face. After walking for seven minutes he arrived at the square, it was very large tiled open area, there were shops along the perimeter of the square, and had several fountains, and benches, there was a large monument in the center of the square, a monument that notifies the splitting line between the city. He currently was on the so called "bad" side of the city, looking for the café; he wandered around until he was at the dividing line on the monument. He's vision was still hazy, but looked around until he heard his name called once again.
"Jethro!" He looked where he heard his name, and saw a young girl, tan fur, grey flat cap, and blue eyes.
"Shannon?" Jethro looked surprised, "What are you doing here?" he asked he started to walk towards her; she began to fidget and shout.
"Don't come any closer, Jethro!" she put her hand in her bag, Jethro stopped walking towards her.
"What's in the bag, Shannon? What do you want from me?" Jethro shouted to her.
"I want my brother back, I want my family back!" she shouted tears started to fall from her eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"You know damn straight what I mean, you're not my brother anymore, you're a monster! You killed him, you killed my brother!" she began bawl, "I have no one left, mum's dead, dads dead, I'm just alone, in this crazy world!" The people at the square started to circle around them.
"Shannon, I know how you feel, I don't feel like myself anymore! I want mum back too, and dad!" Jethro said choking up, those bottled emotions are going to pop open that cap. Shannon hung her head down, her hat fell off, she was shaking her head side to side.
"No,no,no,no,no you don't know, you don't how I feel, you don't have heart, its frozen, and it doesn't beat anymore." Jethro didn't know what to say, instead he started to walk slowly towards Shannon. She noticed him coming, and panic. She then took out her hand from her bag, and held a revolver.
"Stay back! O-or I'll kill you, I'll kill you, and kill myself!" her eyes poured with tears, her entire body was shaking. The people around started to run away, sounds of sirens can be heard from a distance.
"P-put down the gun Shannon, nobody is goin' to die today, neither me or you, okay? Just put the gun down, and let's forget about this, and let's try to make it through."
"FORGET ABOUT IT? HOW CAN I FORGET?" she screamed.
"I-I-I-I don't know, but we need to stick togetha Shannon, please." Jethro continued to walk towards her, until he was right in front of her. He bends down and picked up her hat, and sticks his hand out, as a peaceful gesture, "please…"
"Y-y-you remember what dad said, when the A-AWP told him, bout this job of theirs?" she asked. Jethro took some time to think, but he couldn't remember he shook his head, "They said that i-i-in the end the gun is their only friend, the only family t-they'll ever have…"
"Well, that's not true Shannon, we got each otha, we're still family, and we don't need a lousy gun, so hand it ova, and let's go home." Jethro said passionately, Shannon slowly handed the gun to Jethro, "That's it, come here now…" Jethro stopped and noticed the world began to go into slow motion, he looked around he was going in normal speed, then he heard a gunshot, he slowly saw a bullet travel behind Shannon's head, he reached out with his left hand to try to take the hit, but it went through his palm, making a large hole in it, he grunted in pain. He watched as the bullet went through Shannon's head and out through her forehead, his face covered in her blood, Jethro moved his head before the bullet could kill him; Shannon's body collapsed in his arms, and time began to go back to normal. He fell to his knees, screams can heard everywhere, he turned her over on the ground, and looked at her, her blue eyes had lost their hue.
"SHANNON!" Jethro cried, he shook the body, "SHANNON! SHANNON! SHANNON!" he dropped his head on her chest, and held both his hands in hers. He was bawling, he lifted his head up and took one last look at her, he closed her eyes, picked up the gun, her hat and ran off.
That bullet….that bullet…it was huge, fifty caliber…we were the targets…
Jethro ran as fast as he could, the world became to fade away, he felt slower, and slower, until he was back into pitch darkness, probably sipping that syrup once again.
This is what I have faced…I can't look away from it….cause it will always be there ,staring me straight in the eye….